Nineteen Months old

Mae this month has really expanded her vocabulary.  Including her first phrase of "Hep me!" (Help me!)  It started out as one word but I think she now recognizes that it is two words.   I have since lost track of every new word she has but some of my favorites whether new or old are:  Luv you,  tick-all (tickle), Pix-uhl (Pixel), and Mommy! 

New things for Mae in her 19th month:  her first ice cream - which now she asks for regularly "creeeam... bowl... taebull(table)"  It's cute and watching her eat the sticky mess was a lot of fun too!

She sings in church, loves to dance when there is music on, folds her hands to pray - and constantly say 'more' when any of it ends because she always wants more singing, dancing, and praying.   I  love it! 

She LOVES her brother and wants to do everything he does.  He makes her laugh and she is pretty good to not bother him TOO much.   Mae loves to do school just as much as her brother and we sit at the dining room table with her in her high chair and do school all together.  :)

Mae is still itty bitty in size but she's feeling heavier and I'm  happy for that that she's growing!  She LOOKS bigger and as of today (even though I'm woefully late on posting her 19 month blog!)  She was 18lbs and 1oz!  Hooray!   She also has had seven weeks of totally healthy and I'm so thankful that we've avoided any summer colds!!

This past month has also been an experience with tantrums.  Mae also has received a few more time outs this month.  A time out for Mae is in the Pack-N-Play.  Since she sleeps in her bed or our bed, the PnP is really only for TOs.   She's nearly 2 now so the time out is 2 minutes.   On one venture to the pnp she decided to strip all her clothes off in protest.   Silly girl... a few days later she upped the atte and stripped off the diaper too and then fell asleep.  lol.   She was out cold and so I was able to put a new diaper on her before any accidents occurred but oh my!    Never a dull moment!!!

I cannot believe that we're rapidly approaching her second birthday.   With the holidays looming that milestone will arrive even more quickly!    She's a joy and SO happy! She wakes up with her BIG EYES and just smiles as bright as the sun.   She still loves her mama milk and to snuggle next to me all night.    Can't wait to see what is next for her!

Mae recently has been able to recognize TWO of something and can hold up two finger - she often wants TWOOOOOO crackers.   She can count two things.. although not ... 1, 2... just look at it and say TWO!  Very happy with a giant smile.  :) 

Mae's teeth count of fully in teeth is 5, but she's got 3 more broken through and descending rapidly, one of those being a molar.  The other molars are just about to break through and we're looking forward to that so that she can enjoy eating more variety in foods with better ease!    Eating wise she does ok - still eats like a bird many meals but then at other times we're wondering where on earth she's putting it!  Quite the adventure!!

Eighteen Months Old

My little girl is a year and a half old! She's growing up so much and it's so adorable to see her expand her world, vocabulary, humor, and joy on a seemingly daily basis!  

In just a month not much has changed, but when you look back at the last six months SO much has changed!

New firsts for Month 18: first chipped tooth, first full day away from mommy, a new puppy, another tooth finally breaking through, her first Popsicle and more words!

Yes, Mae has had an explosion of words including: shows, Pix (Pixel), coak (coat), hep (help), cap (clap), shoe (often said 'SHOOOOES!' very excited), cheese (the food this time, not just to take a picture), eat, poop, sheesh (fish), car, Pop Pop, Brrrr (bird, which has evolved from 'Bah'), wah (water), boo/book (she alters), cook, hiiiiii (she has become far more enthused saying hello), mar/more, uh oh,  ball, rock, owww (owl), cheek, ear, eye, mouw (mouth), aff (off), cam (come), wak (walk), liiin (lion), chair, two, teat (treat), bed, nigh-nigh, doll, piggy, wee-wees (this little went wee wee wee all the way home!), hawt/hot (everything is hot even things that are cold) ... and I know there is more but that's all I've got for the moment.  :)

In the teeth department we've had quite the excitement as well.  She already was born with her front tooth fused with another one - causing a super giant front tooth that was misshapen.  One evening when both her and her brother were sick and out of sorts - Ace was already in bed trying to sleep and Mae climbed up on him - he rejected this by pushing her off the bed and thus her overly sized malformed tooth became chipped - it now has a canine tooth look to it but isn't overly sharp.  Here's hoping her adult tooth is normal up there!   Mae also this past week FINALLY had a fifth tooth break through on the bottom.  Hooray!  Her brother by 18 months already had 12 teeth including his first set of molars.   This has drastically limited Mae's ability to chew foods...

In the eating department - when she's not sick - she does pretty darn well.   She loves chicken nuggets, fries, english muffins with peanut butter, cheese sticks (often if I ask if she's hungry she asks for "cheeeeeese" which is super adorable) she loves to suck on goldfish crackers and suck off all the salt (she is her mama's daughter!) and occasionally she'll consume them.   She happily eats cookies of several variations.  Yogurt is often consumed and where we hide her liquid vitamins! :)  She enjoyed her first popsicle the other day at a BBQ and she did pretty good consuming some of it before it melted away.   Mae for the most part will eat a little bit of anything but quantities are really sparse.  So we try to entertain high fat/calorie concentrated foods.

Health wise we continue down a similar course of cold catching and continue to hope for the virus season to leave our home!   She never truly gets out of sorts whenever she is sick and is so happy in spite of it all!   She's such a sweetheart!  We're hoping that the summer months will give us a break in colds. 

Mae and her brother (and the parents) recently got a new puppy and he's tiny.  Which is good because he loves to jump on Mae and although she is tiny, he's smaller and that's good.  Mae has really warmed to him.  Loves to pet him, bring him his toys, and recently wanting to give him his 'teat' (treat) which she does very well to let the dog lick out of her hand.   It's pretty cute.  

In the play department she wants to do everything her brother does. :)  She does pretty good climbing up on things at the playground, at the lake she wants to wade in despite the consequence of going face first when the water gets too deep, and she loves to go on walks.   On her own she loves to play with her dolls, be flipped upside down by her dad, and play 'wee-wees' which she'll ask for by name while wiggling her fingers over her toes.  Yes, the timeless 'game' of 'This Little Piggy Went to Market'   :)  She is adorable and will do it to me too.   She still loves her piglet but she's not as exclusive anymore with him.  At bedtime she often wants multiple friends to hug and fall asleep with.  She loves to read books at bedtime and her favorite still remains Goodnight Gorilla.

Mae this month also finally started to let me do her hair and leave it in longer than three seconds!   If I just put a clip in on the side she'll still yank it pretty fast but pony tails of various heights and location seem to remain all the time with some varied results when she's in her car seat.

Mae is such a joy and we love her.  She loves to jump (bounce up and down) and go for walks, and she knows almost all of her 'pieces' (head, nose, etc..)  Every day she surprises us and always is smiling!   We can't wait to see what the rest of this year brings us!

Seventeen Months Old

As the days speed past us every day is new and more of an adventure with Mae.   She is becoming her own little person.  Gaining speed, vocabulary and attitude!   :)  Her smile is huge, her laugh is adorable, and her scowl is just plain funny and so pronounced!

New things in her 17th month:  Attended her first baby shower and was an adorable little lady, and lots more words!

Mae has had an explosion of words in this last month.  She's really gotten the parroting thing down and tries all sorts of new words.  Her favorite is "NO!"  She says it with a cute sing-song melody often and it's adorable, but for the connotation attached to it. :)   She also really likes the word 'lello' (yellow) and GO!   Other words she squeaked out this past month include:  puppy, booo (blue), kieee (kitty), eat, skoo (school), sheee (sheep), loouv (love... she curls her little tongue up and it's so adorable to see her try), blow, two (which is her amount for anything and everything when you ask her how many?)  you, boo, choo choo...

Yes, if you're familiar with children's literature those last few words will be a bit more obvious in theme.  They are all words from the book Peek A Who?  Mae loves to read this book over and over and over during the day and she can say all the words except when I prompt her to say 'moo!'  she says 'MEEEE!'   It's adorable and silly and I love it.  Her other favorite book is Good Night, Gorilla.   She is adorable when we read it because when we get to the part opening her eyes in the dark after all the animals say good night back to her,  Mae every time will mimic the gasp sound that I typically make on that page - although for Mae it's more of a grunt and it's adorable.

Mae loves to say her prayers.  She folds her hands and closes her eyes and often will repeat the beginning of the prayer 'De-Ja' (Dear Jesus) and then at the end she will say 'Mon' (Amen)   it's adorably sweet and this past few weeks when we're done praying she will sign for more and fold her hands awaiting my starting of more prayers.  It's seriously the most adorable thing and I love that her faith, while likely not growing in understanding just yet, is growing in eagerness and anticipation!

In trending toward two, Mae has started to enjoy and invoke the rite of passage with some tantrums.   She is extremely dramatic and a slight grievance is often met with massive yelling, screaming, water works - her physical self seems to remain mostly still - although she has gotten down and laid on the floor a time or two for dramatic affect.   To date though she's avoiding the head banging that Ace did during this phase of his life.

Growth wise she is still itty bity - 17lbs and 8oz.   She just had a weight check at the doctor and to check for an ear infection which she was cleared of, apparently she just likes to tug on her ears.  :)   Her coughing continues and we're working through yet another cold.   She still just has the 4 teeth although I can start to see the bulges where the molars are going to come in.   She still loves her mama milk on demand and I'm happy to oblige - although I'd really love for her to sleep through the night! 

Sleep wise she's no different - still wakes a few times a night wanting milk or comfort.  She does start out in her own bed every night but often is in our room by midnight.   Rarely do I get to bed before she's coming into ours.   But I don't complain.  This season is fleeting and if she trends like her brother then we have less than a year before she's in her bed full time.  We'll see though :)  

Speaking of her brother - she loves him.  She loves to climb on him, crawl on him, play with him, get in his way, smack his head, and lay in his bed.   She is a typical little sister and Ace is very patient and loving with her.  

She continues to be my climber - she can freely get herself on the couches, beds, and now knows how to use those heights to get other places.    Eating wise she is very opinionated on the subject.   She's not picky - she eats spinach, she LOVES pasta, and has easily eaten 4oz of steak (I'm not exaggerating!)  in one sitting - but there are times where she just doesn't want to eat without a battle.   To say it's frustrating is an understatement, but I'm hopeful that we're on the downward trend of this phase as well and I'll continue to endure her stubborn ways... I don't really have a choice otherwise. ;)

Mae is a great hugger, she's got a good grip around your neck and she likes to say 'blow' when she blows kisses.  Even if she kisses your cheek she will do it as she says 'blow!'   It's adorable.   Her hair is crazy long but sparse and thin and WILD!  She likes when I do her hair and she leaves it for about 3 seconds.  :)  She loves to try and put her own socks on and she can successfully put on her own pants.   She wants to dress herself often and loves purses, hats and her stuffed animals.  Piglet remains the top favored friend, but she loves to rock and cuddle lots of different ones.   She is adorable and we love her!

Mae's First Dentist Visit

Yes, our little girl has had another first:  her first trip to the dentist!   I was planning on waiting until Ace's next appointment in May - but as that second top tooth descended upon us it became more troubling to this mama that something just wasn't quite right.   It was chipped? Cracked? Malformed? Unsure - but I thought it best to get her in before 8 more weeks went by and so after dropping Ace off at preschool mommy and Mae headed to her very first dental appointment.  

Our big girl strutted into the office as if she owned the place - receiving oohs and ahhs from all around.   She was quite happy to be there.  She walked back to the dentist chair and since she's small we did a repeat similar to how we did Ace's first visit.   We brought along M's lovie for comfort and she received a new toothbrush which she happily took and began chewing on all the while sitting in mommy's lap, while cautiously observing the room.  

The dentist came over and checked out her mouth.  Mae fussed as she was leaned back and had her exam but recovered quickly when it was all said and done.   She received a fluoride paint on her teeth and was given a thumbs up for her dental health.  Now about that pesky tooth.   It's not a chip and it's not a crack.  It is possibly two fused and malformed baby teeth.   We really won't know until she can have x-rays to determine.  

+Typically the first x-rays are done when they're around 5.   My kids however receive theirs early since they've already got 'teeth issues' and Ace received his first set at 3.  Mae will have the same done.  So until she's three we won't really know the true issue with her teeth but there isn't any reason to be concerned except to be extra cautious with brushing the area where there is the fuse/fold line.  This is a 'rare' thing that she has (of course) and this could mean she has an extra adult tooth,  fused adult teeth, or even a missing one.  We won't know until the x-rays.  Nothing to be done, so nothing to worry about for now.

She received a bath toy and we scheduled her next appointment for 8 months out (so that her and her brother's would match back up properly.)    After the appointment she was super snuggly and nearly fell asleep on my shoulder.  Although when we got in the car she perked up and played (and chewed) on her new toy. It was a good trip and she did great! 

Thirteen Months Old

Miss Mae is growing up faster than ever!  She's so smart and is really gaining quite the personality! It's hard to believe that we are already starting a season of 'seconds' with her.

New for this thirteenth month: first pinata, first chipped tooth, first time being babysat by her Gran & Pop Pop, first time brushing her teeth with a big girl tooth brush.

Mae is adorable and knows it!   She is such a sweet heart and is growing up so well.  She's still an itty bity thing and wears 9 month clothes well - and while not swimming - certainly has plenty of growing room in 12 month ones.    She is doing much better at eating 3 times a day.  Although it varies from day to day on how much she actually will consume.    Some days she wants 'people' food and other days is totally content to simply eat her jar food.    She's regularly drinking cow's milk in the mornings now and so we've lessened the amount she nursing just a tiny bit.    Things that her favorite right now are puffs, sweet potatoes, and often she'll eat any chicken that we put in front of her.  Surprisingly, she also likes raw broccoli.

Mae loves to cuddle in her giant pillow while her dada holds her and at the beginning of her 13th month would often start her night time sleep that way.   Half way into the month though we started to work on a bit more of a night time routine for her and she started to get ready for bed at the same time as her brother - so while Ace got his pjs on - I changed her diaper and put her pjs on and then they both head into the bathroom for teeth brushing.  She LOVES to brush her teeth.  She gets very upset when it is time to be all done.     After we finish with the teeth brushing it's into brother's room we go for songs, book reading, and prayers.   We say good night to brother and then  head into our room to put M to sleep.       I am writing this blog about 10 days post her 13th month 'birthday' so at the time of that - she was still nursing to sleep and on occasion taking HOURS to do so.  However, a lot of that seems to have been the illness and as of the 10th of this month she had 3 nights of under 20 minutes to go to sleep!   A post specifically on her sleeping progress is in the works!

Mae has gotten extremely good at listening!  She has been since before she turned one, but considering how young she is - it's amazing at how well she will listen (when she wants to!)   If we are nearby her diapers and I ask her to bring me one she will get me one.   I tell her to lay down for a diaper change she will go into her room and lay where we change her diaper.    If she has something she isn't suppose to, I will ask her to bring it to me and she 90% of the time will.    She's a good little helper.   She doesn't always understand what I am asking of her, but she is listening and we are in awe of her comprehension and execution of requests.    She'll blow kisses at you when you ask, wave goodbye, and play peek a boo with her dad (and well anyone really who will entertain the idea.)   She also has taken to walking over to a certain wall in our living room and posing for pictures.    It's too darn adorable! 

She loves her brother!  Mae will play with him any and every time he is willing to do so.   He loves her without question and wants to be on him and be everywhere he is.    Ace tolerates and (most of the time) loves it.   She without fail will run into the bathroom if it is open and climb up onto the stool (likely because she wants to brush her teeth) - Ace will yell for me to come retrieve her.

Language wise Mae is starting to further form the words already in her vocabulary - milk is a little closer to 'meee'  rather than 'ma ma',  book is 'boo' rather than 'bah',  brother still has 'ba' most of the time but occasionally she'll squeak out 'burda'.   Me as 'mama' hasn't really been heard around these parts in a while, but I'm hoping it makes a comeback.   Her sign language has really improved a lot. She has started to use "more" with more regularity and is very good with "all done" at dinner time.  She also knows (our version) of "I'm sorry" (her brother tends to require signing it to her regularly and we make her do it as well when she has wronged him.)  "Thank you" also is there, but often confused with her blowing kisses, but it's kind of a gratitude statement, so we'll take it.  :)    She loves to help sing songs at bed time and in church and it's just too darn adorable.  

Mae is also very into making various facial expressions.  She has a sly smile, a goofy grin, and a giant cheesy smile too.  They're all adorable.  She's also got a mean frown, an annoyed look to the side, and a host of others that very easily describe what her opinion of the various things happening to and around her.  :)      She is such a joy.   She loves to brush her hair - which is adorable and I am so pleased to see that it's finally starting to thicken up.  She's developing a love of hats, headbands, etc... but none stay on very long.  Hair bows are not long for wear and most of the time not even attempted yet.    She likes to rip them out and then try to set them back on top of her head.  It's cute, but it can go on forever if we let it.  :)

Sickness wise - Mae got herself another doozy of a cold, along with her brother and her mommy.   We were all down for the count for over a week.   The cough  is still lingering even still, but hopefully it's residual and not symptomatic of it worsening.   Otherwise she's a healthy and very happy little girl.   She now has 4 teeth - and sadly her second top tooth got chipped somewhere (which honestly is no surprise since she falls regularly from the great heights she's scaled!)  although it has now come in further and looks like it has a crack in it - so I think a trip to the dentist is on the horizon very soon!

We're already well into our 14th month of Mae's little life and she is such a joy and changing daily.  Can't wait to discover more with her as she grows and changes.  :)

One Year

Happy First Birthday, Mae!

It seems impossible that one year has passed since my little girl was placed in my arms.  She's still pretty tiny, but she's far more mobile, expressive, and if possible more adorable as when she entered this world. 

Mae's 12th month brought more firsts:   first time sleeping in her own room,  first Christmas, first allergic reaction, first 911 call, first bout of bronciolitis, first New Year's Eve.

Let's start with Mae's chomper count:  3 total for her first year.  Her second top tooth has broken through the gums, but since it isn't truly visible we will leave the total count at 3.   She's doing well to use them on appropriate things.  Although she does bite when she gets really mad.  Doesn't bode well for preschool, so hopefully she out grows that tantrum.

Mae is putting those teeth to good use in the food department and has started to eat things like sliced turkey, cheese, and even her first McDonald's nugget! She does drink a little goat's milk daily, but nothing terribly measurable and she does so in a sippy cup.  We've skipped bottles entirely - in spite of the $ that I dropped on several fancy ones. Ah well.   She still eats like a baby bird and relies mostly on mama milk.  I think she's going to trend like her brother on the very little food consumption for a bit, making her mama count calories and be nervous.    She is growing though.  She weighs 16.14lbs (2.02%) and is 26.52" (1.70%)  so while she's nearly off the charts she is gaining weight, in spite of illness.

Yes, this last month has been quite the challenge for Mae Mae.   She had a cold when she cut her tooth that seems to be pretty normal for her teething routine it seems, but after the cold (or during?)  we discovered she had an allergy and had to go through the process of handling that, allergist appointments, and carrying around epi pens.  After the immediate reaction we followed up with her doctor who diagnosed our little girl with bronciolitis because she just sounded so junky in her lungs.  By New Years she was feeling much better and when the allergist listened to her lungs, she was totally clear and over it (a week later.)  

I mentioned earlier that Mae slept in her room for the first time, and to date, the only time.  She developed  her cold right after that and this mama bear likes her baby close when she's got a cold. After that it was the allergy, then the bronciolitis, and well now to be honest, her room needs to be cleaned and reorganized again before we can place her in there again.   :)    In general Mae's sleep is not ideal.   She's doing decent napping - sometimes we'll get 90+ minutes out of her - that seems to be once every 5 days.   She is pretty much down to one nap sometime in the afternoon.   She does car nap pretty consistently though.   Her nighttime sleep though is quite dramatic.  As in it takes forever to get her to sleep.  No routine, lighting, or mood can get her to become unconscious unless she a) wants to or b) screams until she's unconscious in our arms.   The doctor yesterday said that is most likely a separation anxiety issue and should pass with time.   Here's hoping sooner than later!

Vocabulary wise we don't have much more official words.   She really doesn't say 'mama' much anymore unless she's upset and reaching for me (and even then it often is only one 'ma' and that is milk)   Although her 'ma' for milk is morphing into 'meee' so she's getting closer to actually getting the real word out.    Same with 'brother' - it often still is 'ba'  but she is on occasion says 'bru da'  - she still utters 'up' but mostly she just reaches her arms up and fusses.   We try really hard to not automatically give her what she wants so that she does need to exercise the language skills.    I have been working with her to say 'please' in sign language and what's really cute is that she signs 'please' on me when she wants it - which for her is just waving on my chest back and forth.    It's sweet.      She is very good at waving hi and bye and on occasion she will say both of those words.   

Development wise, she sort of knows the color red.  I'd say 70% of the time she can show me something red if there are three choices to choose from.   She does really well at eye contact and seeking my approval or disapproval on her actions (or the actions of others.)    She can also put things in and out of a container.     She loves to follow her brother and play with him.   They are starting to get into a bit of a tussle every now and then over a toy, as Mae seems to find it her right to simply take anything and everything her brother has.   He does ok with the process most of the time.     Mae also has started to shake her head 'no' some times when we ask her to do something.   It's cute (currently.)  Mae most of the time is adorably happy,  big smiles and giggling.  However, she does have quite an explosive 0-100% mad gauge. She has easily moved into tantrums without much issue. Whole body going stiff, beet red, and mad mad mad. She recovers quickly, but my goodness she can express her displeasure like no other.

Mae is fully walking now and has some decent speed with it too.   She climbs everywhere she can get to and even tries to climb some places she can't.  While cute- she certainly is going to make me go gray.    She is now quite proficient at climbing up and down the stairs - which makes me much happier that she's mastered these skills.  She still on occasion likes to stand right at the top of the stairs and dance - which is cause for a mild-heart attack by this mama, but overall she has avoided tumbles and mishaps.  But this little girl's guardian angel does certainly work overtime! 

Toys and play:  Mae still loves her little baby doll, and her Sophie giraffe (which lives in the car), and she loves baby dolls and soft stuffed animals.  She likes to carry them around and play peek a boo with them.   She also really loves to put blankets, pants... anything on her head and walk around that way.   Also LOVES to put anything around her neck that she can fashion into a scarf...  she really is my danger child.   Trust me, she's never out of my sight in light of these 'hobbies' of hers.   She's adorable though when she's behaving safely.     Mae really hasn't taken an interest in any particular show or movie.  She for the most part couldn't care less when the tv is on, other than her interest in climbing up onto the table the tv is on.    She still loves to chew on things, but has moved past putting EVERYTHING into her mouth... but she still puts plenty in.      She loves to play the 'upside down' game with her dad,  playing he her room with her brother, and poking noses with her mama.    She's just so happy.  Mae also likes to sing along when we sing songs with "ahhhhhs" in various notes. Pretty cute!

It's so hard to believe that a whole year has gone by!  I can't believe it.  It feels it went even faster than Ace's first year.    She's so special, and is certainly developing into her own personality in this family and we love to watch her do so.    Happy Birthday,  Owlie!  Mommy, Dad, and Brother all love you so much!!

Eleven Months Old

 

I am not sure why but my baby girl turning eleven months old is freaking me out.   I had a mini-meltdown and internal struggle with the idea of getting rid of her swing... one that I have not fully completed mind you.  I am in a bit of a power struggle of sorts with myself on that one.   Logically, she doesn't use it anymore.  In fact only twice since we returned to the NW.  But she might, right?  :(   She used it every day, multiple times a day, for months and months.   I have wonderful memories of looking at her peacefully asleep in there... sitting up smiling and playing with her toes... she can't be done with it?? (See that's just a small glimpse at my nuttiness on this subject.)   Perhaps I'm having this freakout now because I know that when she officially turns ONE YEAR OLD! (gasp!) I won't have time for this mourning, sadness, craziness. It will be a time of celebrating and being excited that my little girl has achieved such a milestone!  But that's in another month, so I choose to embrace my sadness over the quickly slipping away baby in my little girl.

New things for Mae this month: walking, shoes, Black Friday shopping with her mama, her first Christmas tree, a top tooth, and a three day fever followed by roseola.

Mae in the mobility department is more interested in ascending heights than traveling on foot.   Yes, our little girl is a climber, part monkey really.   She has scaled the baby gates, climbs up onto chairs, boxes, coffee tables, anywhere she can get to.  She's a pro at the stairs and VERY quick especially if she knows she's not supposed to be climbing up them.    She also would happily climb into the tub if we let her, it's amazing how high she can kick that little leg up!  In the walking department she is still pretty wobbly but can cross a floor without falling down 6 out of 10 times.   Her speed is increasing and if she follows the couch line she really can move fast!  Mostly I think it's confidence, so she just needs more practice.  :)   In light of this mobility Mae received her first pair of shoes - and she does well to keep them on for the most part.

Sleep still is sub par in my opinion.  She wakes regularly and often takes until 10pm or later to go to sleep.    I think it's partially due to teething, but a greater deal with habit that she's formed in spite of our efforts.   I suspect the new year will bring along with it some sleep training.   We'll see.  I really don't want to talk about it...

In the illness department - Mae has now been able to check off another high profile childhood illness: roseola.   Yes on Friday morning she began running a fever of 100.6  and it persisted all day Friday and Saturday, it spiked to 102.5 in the middle of the night on both nights, but I suspect being too cuddly in blankets and next to her mama was mostly the culprit of that.  I refrained from too much tylenol, as we're advocates of fevers being the body's natural remedy to fight illness and over the course of her three day illness I gave her 4 doses of tylenol.  Twice to bring the temp down and twice for her comfort.  Sunday morning around 5am she woke up and threw up everywhere.  Thankfully I had a blanket that caught most of it.  I called the doctor and one came out to the house to check on her.  Prior to that I was almost certain it was roseola.  Which by Monday it was proven to be just that - but the vomit threw me off.   Tuesday she woke with a cough that sounded tight - so to be safe we took her in.  I don't take chances with coughs anymore.  The cough turned out to be nothing and didn't even linger much past that day.   So she had a rash for about 2 days and by the third day it was gone.    I will say that her rash was much milder than her brother's was when Ace had it at 10 months.

Mae now officially has three teeth.  She is slowly starting to eat more solid food each day.  Mostly still baby food jars, but she also enjoys puffs, and LOVES french fries - I know not the best but still cute.  She also enjoys steamed carrot quite a bit and the freeze dried apples and pears that I have as one of Ace's snacks.   She will also eat a lot of food if her dad baby birds feeds her. 

Mae also loves to play.  She tries to play peek-a-boo still by raising things over her head, although she is getting better about putting things in front of her eyes to do it.   She laughs at her brother doing silly things and loves to climb up on his bed and the two of them play together in his room.  She is waving 'bye bye' very well now and smiles the biggest smile when her dad walks in the room.   She wants to play the game with her hand and making noises on her mouth regularly too.   Vocab wise - she still mostly just has: mama, dada, bruder, up.   Sign language - the only one she really ever uses is 'all done'. 

This last month all the holiday decor has come out and Mae has enjoyed exploring a whole new world of exciting colors, lights, and new toys.  She is fascinated by the tree, but is doing a decent job for the most part letting it be.   She loves the fisher price nativity set and is enjoying chewing on them.  ;)   It's such a magical time of year and I'm so excited for her first Christmas and can't wait to see her experience everything for the first time!    Hold on tight we're headed full speed ahead toward ONE!!

Ten Months Old

Double digits!!!   They've arrived!   ::whimper::   I'm so proud of how well she is doing! 

Firsts for the latest month:  first steps! A new state visited: AZ, Disneyland with Dad, waving and clapping

Mae took her first steps at 9 months and 15 days old - she is up to 5 steps in a row, but still very much prefers to crawl all over the place.  She also enjoys climbing up and onto things.   She's taken a few spills this months as a result, but she recovers pretty quickly.

Mae in the way of communicating is going well - she hasn't added any more vocabulary but she's becoming more deliberate with her words.  'Mama'  has officially morphed into her want for milk.  Which at least she knows what she wants and since I'm the only one that can give it to her, I'll take it to mean she wants me.  ;-)    She also says "up" when she wants up - but often only if we prompt her to.  'Dada' is also in the vocab and 'baba' still is around as well.   She also is waving - which is more sticking her hand straight up in the air at you.  :)   It's pretty cute!

Our little girl did very well on the second road trip.  She enjoyed the trip to Disneyland as well.   She did exercise her screaming a little bit, boy can she get loud, but overall she did great.    Mae has a bit of a fiery personality.  She certainly voices her opinion and lack of satisfaction with a situation.  She's in a state of hating to be seated.  She prefers to spin in circles while someone holds her.   This makes going to restaurants particularly complicated and we are looking forward to when she moves past this phase.

Solid food has been reintroduced and better received lately.   Some days she ravenous for it, and other days she's content to just drink milk.    She is getting better biting and chewing even though she still only has the two bottom teeth.  Mae does have 2 top teeth that are nearly in.  

Mae Mae is certainly a smiley giggly girl who likes to play with everyone in the family.  Her and her dad have a fun game of bopping her hand on her mouth and making fun sounds - which is really cute to watch her try and do on her own.  :)    She loves to climb all over her brother and smiles really big at just about anyone that smiles at her.   However, she isn't fond of going to anyone else right now.  Separation anxiety has fully set in, which is ok.  I'll enjoy the clinging baby while she lasts! 

Can't wait to celebrate the upcoming holidays and more fun firsts for Mae!

She's seconds away from pushing herself up into the standing position.

They've arrived!

Yes that's right our little girl has broken through her first two teeth.   I first felt them on Ace's birthday after her gnawing on a carrot was surprisingly productive in making little lines, put my finger in there and what do you know - little teeth had made their way through.    Since this discovery she has bitten me twice (OUCH!) and they have officially become visible teeth.

This last week has been very sad for the little girl.  She's caught herself a cold with a cough but in addition to that she has been runny nose, drooling, fussy, and feverish all in response to teething.   There were several sleepless nights or fitful at best while these teeth (and I suspect in short order others) made their way in.  She was pretty sad.

Her biggest challenge though was keeping hold of her various teething toys.  And finally on Friday afternoon I gave in and invested in Sophie.   The overpriced miracle giraffe teether.   I had held off several times in purchasing it before.  She had plenty of toys to chew on... but after seeing her sadness and the sub par effect they had - I caved.   Sophie arrived on Saturday and was met with instant excitement.

Her mouth still hurts and she doesn't have Sophie with her all the time... but she is using it and it does seem to help and for $20 that is well worth it.   It also appears that Thursday through Saturday was the worst of the teething (for now) and that she's gotten a bit of a break from that... which is good because her cough has gotten more frequent/productive.  

Today though she's a smiley girl and those little teeth are visible in her smile.   It's a brand new adventure - no more gummy smiles with my little girl.  She's a big girl now with two teeth!   I'd be ok if we froze time right now, deal? 

Seven Months Old

 Mae is growing and thriving and is everywhere!   Yes, our little girl in the last few weeks has learned to crawl and now she's mobile!  She took a couple of weeks to perfect her technique but she is now a quick crawler when she wants to be.   She is starting to pull herself up into her toy basket and onto people, so it's only a matter of time before she aims for the couch.   Walking is a few months away but we expect that she'll be doing it before year's end for sure.

Firsts this month:  crawling, solid food eating, first time being babysat, first trip(s) to Disneyland

Mae still is working on teeth and still just has a gummy smile.  Not sure when those teeth will finally make their appearance, but she hasn't seemed too bothered this last month, so I suspect they're still not on their way in at the moment.  

Sleep for Mae is eh... sometimes she spins like a top.  Meaning while she's totally asleep, her parents she sleeps in between are not because she literally spins around in a circle, so we get feet, hands, her head batting at us from various angles through the night.   Other nights her sleep stints are longer than others, but on average they're nothing to write home about.   Her cosleeper is going to have to be retired soon, as recently as this past weekend she can pull herself out and onto our bed.   She really is ON THE MOVE!

Mobility as previously mentioned is an adventure now.   Since we're currently living in a house with no brick fireplaces, and no multi-level hazards we haven't chosen to put up any gates just yet.  She's not too into the exploring cabinets or anything mostly just cruising and doesn't stray too far from where she can see me, so we're still enjoying a jungle-gate-free zone.   Honestly, we're not too sure with this configuration of the house, how we will put the gates up, but we'll see!

Mae did great at Disneyland the two days in a row that we went.  She spent a good deal of time in the ergo carrier and while warm was content to snuggle against me and relax.  She enjoyed the rides with little curiosity and a lot of patience, which was nice for her older brother to allow him to truly enjoy Disneyland and all its wonder.

On our anniversary this year, Mae experienced a new first: babysitting!  This girl still won't take a bottle, but she does ok to go for a few hours without milk and so we gave ourselves a little under 3 hours of kid free time with the help of our neighbors.   Reports are she did great... didn't take the bottle we left (no shock there) but was happy.   In fact when we arrived I handed her right to Jessica and there was zero fuss and zero fuss as we walked out the door.  She was content and happy.   Yipee! 

Overall, an exciting seventh month in our little girl's life.  She's adorable and thriving.   I can't believe we're on the downward slide toward one!  Slow down baby girl!!

(Things that I find interesting and unplanned include that in both Ace and Mae's 7th month of life they learned to crawl and both went to Disneyland for the first time.   Like I said not planned just an interesting coincidence that I noticed when reviewing Ace's seven month blog.)

Four Months Old

Wow what a month of excitement - first I'd like to say that Mae escaped any major illness in her 4th month of life - which mommy and dad are very thankful for after her severe illness she had in March. No fun for sure. She did have a tiny cold just before our road trip, but overall has been quite healthy. We are very thankful for that.

Mae's firsts this month: her first road trip, her first time in OR, ID, UT, CO, NM, TX, LA, and MS, her first time in a hotel room for that matter, her first (official) Easter, and rolling back to front and her first attempts at crawling too! and finally teething began this month.

Yes, in the mobility department just in the last week Mae has made incredible progress. Since her first few time rolling from tummy to back she only has occasionally repeated this process. Well last week she started doing it much more regularly and just this past Sunday Mae in a very concentrated effort, after several minutes mastered back to front. She's so happy that she can get herself in the position she wants to be in and in fact is quite the roller now. She doesn't quite understand that she can roll to get to things at the moment she's just satisfied with the act of rolling. She also is trying desperately to crawl. She's got the back leg part down, she can get her knees tucked up and under her but her arms still do not have the strength to help her with that - so on occasion she does get enough traction with the carpet to push herself forward - she's been working on that these past couple of days and is actually pretty good at it, but she gets frustrated so she doesn't make any distance of much measure. But she's on the verge and I'd guess by her next "birthmonth" she'll be mobile officially (her brother was crawling at 6 months so we'll see!) She also really enjoys to 'walk' and does really well to lift up her legs and move her feet forward while we hold her hands and give her support. It's pretty adorable.

Mae continues to be a very happy baby. She's almost laughing and she smiles a LOT. She's also quite the talker - she will ramble on and on and just talk to you. It's adorable and I'm glad I have that on video to remember later.

Sleep wise, Mae is doing pretty well - with the road trip and the new place we've kind of gotten off track on her longer stretches simply because it was all new and different, but she still is going for longer stretches on the first stint. Although she unfortunately has decided, like her brother, that 7:30am is WIDE AWAKE time. This is unfortunate for her brother because he doesn't get an hour+ of mommy-alone time first thing in the morning. However, Mae is good to take a morning nap - often in her swing and that is the time that mommy and son can play.

Teething is in full and sad force around here. I can see some tooth buds below the surface and Mae's doing her best to bring them in. She chews on everything and is a faucet a lot of the time with drool. She is definitely a drooler with teething. Ace never had any of that he was dry as a bone. Still think we're a ways off from the teeth breaking through - Ace took about a month to actually 'teeth' before his first tooth broke through.

We don't have a pediatrician yet, so we do not have 4 month stats yet - so I'll be getting those in a separate post. She is still pretty itty bitty and it's funny because everyone thinks she looks SO BIG in her pictures - and we agree her head looks huge in pictures compared to how tiny it really is. After all she was in the 10th percentile for her head size at 2 months. Apparently the camera adds 10lbs to babies as well ;-) We're looking forward to a fun summer with our little girl and sharing more SUN with her!

Teething

It has indeed returned to our house. Yep, my little girl has started her journey into the world of teeth! At 14 weeks Mae has begun to show all the 'classic' and very similar traits that her brother did of teething. Ace began teething right around four months old or at least that is when I finally deemed that was what all his random fussing was about to my normally happy boy. In the last few weeks we have started to see a glimpse of those moments in Mae and in the last couple of days they have increased in intensity. Poor thing is in full fledged teething mode. Thank goodness she waited until after the road trip was over!

Yep, our little happy girl seems to have regular bouts of pain and excessive drooling and finger biting. Ace took about six weeks for his first tooth to pop through, so we'll see how long Mae's will take. Honestly her fussing fits are generally pretty mild compared to other babies I've heard about, so I can't complain. I just hope this process doesn't bother her too much. Since it will be a long road ahead for her.