Adelie and Staley's World
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Shots + Carrots = Bad Day
Yesterday was Staley's 6 month check-up. She checked out just perfect, weighing 15 lbs, 15 oz (48th percentile) and measuring 26.5" long (76th percentile). And because Zach tells Dr. Cross at EVERY check-up that we are raising Staley to be exceptional, Dr. Cross concurred and wrote "Staley is exceptional" on her visit paperwork. I knew we picked a great doctor. : ) Unfortunately for our exceptional baby girl, her vaccinations were a bit more traumatic for her today. She started screaming when the nurse gave her the oral vaccine (which never bothered her before-I wonder if she remembered what comes next) and then she screamed through her 3 shots. We were less than enthused about our nurse, who didn't attempt to interact with Staley and who was much less efficient about shot giving. And after her appointment, Staley had a rough day. She was fussy and lethargic and subdued. She acted as though her legs hurt, crying when we tried to sit her up or change her diaper or move her into a different position. She also vomited a few times. Poor thing!! (Luckily today is better. Not 100%, but better.)
And to top of the rotten day, I tried to introduce a new food. Apparently carrots did not make the day any brighter. She gagged and made faces and spit out most of the carrots--and eventually vomited the small amount that she had taken in.
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And to top of the rotten day, I tried to introduce a new food. Apparently carrots did not make the day any brighter. She gagged and made faces and spit out most of the carrots--and eventually vomited the small amount that she had taken in.
Most days I would argue that it's great to be Staley--my happy, lively, social, adorable baby girl. Yesterday, Staley might disagree.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Family Pictures
We had our family pictures taken at the end of May, and I FINALLY decided on the pictures I wanted to order. I was so pleased with the results...especially because we had a tired Staley, a rainy day, and a shortened photo session. However, even my tired little girl is photogenic, so I wanted to share our pictures...
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Taken right before the rain started
I love, love, love this picture!
Can you tell we are under a bridge to escape the pouring rain?
Because that's where these were taken.
And this was my absolute favorite!!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Six Months
Wow! Six months!! How time flies!!! My Staley is growing and changing, but her easy-going personality and happy temperment never seem to change. We haven't weighed her in awhile, but she gets heavier and heavier to carry. She still wears her size 2 diapers and her 3-6 month clothes, although she is starting to wear some of her 6-9 month clothes as well. As of the past few days, she sleeps in her crib at night and started taking solid foods. She eats every 3-5 hours, takes 2-3 naps each day, and has started sleeping for about 9-11 hours at night. We have spent the entire 6th month of Staley's life with her grandparents, and Staley took her first road trip (Chicago), her first vacation (Las Vegas), and celebrated her first 4th of July. She also cut her first tooth--on her 6 month birthday. It's been a busy, busy month!!!
Likes: Staley likes almost everything. She is a smiley, giggly, happy baby. She loves playing, but her favorite toys aren't even toys--cell phones, computers, water bottles, her feet, her burp cloths, and tags all hold her attention. She isn't too picky about her toys, but still really enjoys stacking cups and rattles. She also became quite intrigued with Zsu Zsu Pets at Uma and Papa's house. She loves music, dancing, reading books, playing peek-a-boo, going for walks, taking baths, and splashing in her swimming pool. She is very interested in watching us eat, studying her hands, and playing with her carseat strap. Staley loves her Daddy and always giggles when he makes animal sounds, gets her ready for bath time, and holds her up in the air.
Dislikes: Staley is generally good-natured and tolerant. She fusses when she is really hungry or really tired. She is still unsure about sitting in grass, but that's improving. And based on her first "meal" of rice cereal, we'll place that in the dislikes column for now.
Skills: Where to begin... Staley seems to be learning new skills every day. She sits on her own for long periods of time and will even use a controlled fall backward when she is tired of sitting. She can stand holding onto our hands or furniture--and is always so proud when she is standing up. Staley is rolling from tummy to back and back to tummy all by herself, using this as an early form of mobility--although she is still not real adept at rolling to get something she wants. We have to be careful because Staley loves to grab anything and everything--and then taste it. (And her reach is surprisingly long!) She likes to hold and examine her toys and will hold one toy in each hand. She is very good at activating her cause and effect toys. She likes to lift the flaps and touch the textures in her books. She is beginning to learn to knock over towers I build and can sort of roll a ball back and forth. (I'm not really claiming the ball rolling skill yet, but I think she has the idea.) She makes lots of cute noises, although still primarily with vowel sounds. Her new sound is a quiet, high pitched squeak that I think is so cute. I may be biased, but I think Staley is just perfect!
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Likes: Staley likes almost everything. She is a smiley, giggly, happy baby. She loves playing, but her favorite toys aren't even toys--cell phones, computers, water bottles, her feet, her burp cloths, and tags all hold her attention. She isn't too picky about her toys, but still really enjoys stacking cups and rattles. She also became quite intrigued with Zsu Zsu Pets at Uma and Papa's house. She loves music, dancing, reading books, playing peek-a-boo, going for walks, taking baths, and splashing in her swimming pool. She is very interested in watching us eat, studying her hands, and playing with her carseat strap. Staley loves her Daddy and always giggles when he makes animal sounds, gets her ready for bath time, and holds her up in the air.
Dislikes: Staley is generally good-natured and tolerant. She fusses when she is really hungry or really tired. She is still unsure about sitting in grass, but that's improving. And based on her first "meal" of rice cereal, we'll place that in the dislikes column for now.
Skills: Where to begin... Staley seems to be learning new skills every day. She sits on her own for long periods of time and will even use a controlled fall backward when she is tired of sitting. She can stand holding onto our hands or furniture--and is always so proud when she is standing up. Staley is rolling from tummy to back and back to tummy all by herself, using this as an early form of mobility--although she is still not real adept at rolling to get something she wants. We have to be careful because Staley loves to grab anything and everything--and then taste it. (And her reach is surprisingly long!) She likes to hold and examine her toys and will hold one toy in each hand. She is very good at activating her cause and effect toys. She likes to lift the flaps and touch the textures in her books. She is beginning to learn to knock over towers I build and can sort of roll a ball back and forth. (I'm not really claiming the ball rolling skill yet, but I think she has the idea.) She makes lots of cute noises, although still primarily with vowel sounds. Her new sound is a quiet, high pitched squeak that I think is so cute. I may be biased, but I think Staley is just perfect!
Staley is so proud of her standing.
Staley at 6 months
Monday, July 11, 2011
First Tooth
It's a big, big day for Staley--hence the 3 blog posts. Staley turned 6 months old (which I haven't even blogged about yet), tried solid food for the first time, and she cut her first tooth. Welcome to the world, Staley's bottom right front tooth.
Home Sweet Home!
After almost 7 weeks of living out of suitcases, we finally got to move home on Saturday night. Our basement is done, although the project is still far from completion. The plumbing SHOULD be done (except for re-doing a few things that the plumbers screwed up). Zach and his dad (with supervision from Zach's grandfather) are up-dating the electrical work. The carpenters started this morning--they are gutting our current main floor laundry room and storage room, putting the basement stairs in the current laundry room, turning the current storage room into a laundry room, re-doing our side entrance, and converting the current basement stairway into a kitchen pantry. (Follow that?) And the geo-thermal guys have to drill their wells and run the ductwork. After all that, we still have to figure out how to get the deck back on the house and how to turn our yard back into a yard. It's all a bit daunting, but we're getting there. Hopefully our house will be worker-free by the end of this month.
And for my 6 month old, the move home marked some big changes in her life.
1. Staley slept in her crib in her own room for the first night since she's been born. She did great!! Me, not so much. I had a hard time sleeping and frequently woke up to watch the monitor or check on Staley. Obviously moving into her own room was much harder on me than on Staley. I have a feeling this will be a trend as a parent--having a hard time letting my baby grow up.
2. Staley picked up some bad sleeping habits in our time away (as documented in a previous post), so we thought it was best to address them immediately. As I read about teaching children to put themselves to sleep, I realized that we had been doing a few things wrong. So...Staley's bedtime routine received a make-over. Staley always slept in a sleep gown, swaddled (with her arms free), on her back in her co-sleeper or pack and play. We would get her ready for bed, read books, do music time, and then I would feed her to sleep. Now Staley is sleeping in her big-girl sleepers, no longer swaddled, on her back (to begin with) in her crib. I feed her BEFORE her books, music, and bedtime prayers so that she is going to bed awake. We have used the Ferber method (aka crying it out) for the past 2 nights and for her naps the past 3 days. The first night she cried for 13 minutes and not a peep last night. Without being swaddled, she now rolls herself onto her stomach to sleep, and she slept 11 hours the first night and 10.5 hours last night. It may be too early to tell, but I think the changes are working!
3. Staley is now intrigued with Jake and Elwood. When we left, she had just started to notice them. Now she giggles when they walk past, and she keeps trying to reach out and grab them. Although our cats are not bright, they've figured out how to stay a little more than an arms length away from the little baby hands.
4. We are going to start Staley on solid foods TODAY. What a fun way to celebrate a 6 month birthday! Although Zach suggested that pizza should be her first food (since EVERYONE likes pizza), I'm planning to whip up some scrumptious rice cereal this evening. And my sister-in-law (Melissa) and I spent several hours together yesterday making baby food. So now I have a freezer full of pureed broccoli, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, zucchini, and squash. I'm not a big veggie person, so hopefully Staley will like them better than I do. If not, I may be offering up some pureed broccoli, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, zucchini, and squash. : )
It's really nice being back home. Although honestly (not just because they read this), we had a very fun time staying with Zach's parents and my parents. I feel very blessed that we had places to stay while this project was being completed--and places where we were welcomed, fed, entertained, and loved. We are so, so lucky to have such amazingly wonderful families!!!!
And for my 6 month old, the move home marked some big changes in her life.
1. Staley slept in her crib in her own room for the first night since she's been born. She did great!! Me, not so much. I had a hard time sleeping and frequently woke up to watch the monitor or check on Staley. Obviously moving into her own room was much harder on me than on Staley. I have a feeling this will be a trend as a parent--having a hard time letting my baby grow up.
2. Staley picked up some bad sleeping habits in our time away (as documented in a previous post), so we thought it was best to address them immediately. As I read about teaching children to put themselves to sleep, I realized that we had been doing a few things wrong. So...Staley's bedtime routine received a make-over. Staley always slept in a sleep gown, swaddled (with her arms free), on her back in her co-sleeper or pack and play. We would get her ready for bed, read books, do music time, and then I would feed her to sleep. Now Staley is sleeping in her big-girl sleepers, no longer swaddled, on her back (to begin with) in her crib. I feed her BEFORE her books, music, and bedtime prayers so that she is going to bed awake. We have used the Ferber method (aka crying it out) for the past 2 nights and for her naps the past 3 days. The first night she cried for 13 minutes and not a peep last night. Without being swaddled, she now rolls herself onto her stomach to sleep, and she slept 11 hours the first night and 10.5 hours last night. It may be too early to tell, but I think the changes are working!
3. Staley is now intrigued with Jake and Elwood. When we left, she had just started to notice them. Now she giggles when they walk past, and she keeps trying to reach out and grab them. Although our cats are not bright, they've figured out how to stay a little more than an arms length away from the little baby hands.
4. We are going to start Staley on solid foods TODAY. What a fun way to celebrate a 6 month birthday! Although Zach suggested that pizza should be her first food (since EVERYONE likes pizza), I'm planning to whip up some scrumptious rice cereal this evening. And my sister-in-law (Melissa) and I spent several hours together yesterday making baby food. So now I have a freezer full of pureed broccoli, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, zucchini, and squash. I'm not a big veggie person, so hopefully Staley will like them better than I do. If not, I may be offering up some pureed broccoli, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, zucchini, and squash. : )
It's really nice being back home. Although honestly (not just because they read this), we had a very fun time staying with Zach's parents and my parents. I feel very blessed that we had places to stay while this project was being completed--and places where we were welcomed, fed, entertained, and loved. We are so, so lucky to have such amazingly wonderful families!!!!
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