May 2012

I guess May isn't technically over yet, but there hasn't been a whole lot of time for blogging around here!

Here's some fun pictures from this month:

The girls at swim (with friend Jasmine)

Rhys with Daddy (still in her diaper from the car ride...it's the easiest way to get everyone dressed and to the pool without wetting the car seat!)

Cousin Ryan came for a visit (with Papa, Grammy and all the aunties and uncles.  Mama & Daddy enjoyed a quiet night in San Diego - and should have stayed at least another day!)  Don't worry, I was close by for the picture - my hand is in all of the other pictures!

Natalie loves, loves, loves playing with her water table.  Even when it isn't super warm.  I know she picked out the boots this day.  The jacket was probably an afterthought.

Rhys was playing with another bucket.  She was sitting there playing, put the bucket on her head, and the next thing I knew she was on her back.

She loves pushing this stroller around.  It didn't take her long to figure out how to pull herself up to it.

We headed to the valley for my birthday weekend.  We took the kids to the parade on Saturday morning.  There weren't too many people, and best of all No Street Vendors!  The kids had fun!

David pointed out this next one was an accidental 4 generation picture!

A good shot of me and the girls!

And Oh My Goodness, look how big this girl looks!! Ahh! Too fast!

Natalie was waving at some dancers as they went by, practicing her beauty queen wave.

The whole group, minus me.

I keep joking with Patty that she is "Rhys' other mama".  This girl is soooo clingy with me and hardly goes to anyone else.  Patty was here the weekend we were gone, and Rhys took right to her.  We think she might be a little confused and think it's me?? Or at least Patty reminds her of me?? Whatever it is, she'll snuggle right up with her Auntie Patty!

Today was a really nice day.  We hung out back, pulled some weeds while Rhys was napping. After she got up, she joined us outside. The girls were climbing all over me...this is a self-portrait.

 Natalie ran around...

 Found an airplane..

While Rhys played on the blanket..

They were being so cute and cuddling until I went to get the camera and then they wanted nothing to do with each other.  One of these days we'll get a good sister-pose!

Rhys @ 10 months

This weekend was the Strawberry Festival in town, so she's dressed up in her berries, even though we didn't make it downtown. Natalie isn't feeling well, so we decided we better not go.

Rhys is a busy little girl at 10 months!

She loves to stand behind the doll stroller, will hold our fingers to "walk" (oh my poor back! She is just starting and it already kills my back), she is pulling herself up, and she's cruising along the couch! Getting to be quite mobile!

She is a messy, messy eater! I moved her booster off of the carpet rug...so now when she just tosses things off her tray and onto the floor it is easier to clean up! We try to time messy meals (ie banana!) for bath nights.

She is kind of over the purée foods. She gets annoyed if I try to spoon feed her. So, even though she has no teeth, she has been eating: peas, carrots, corn, banana, bread, crackers, eggs, and anything else small or mushy enough to get her fingers on. Not a huge fan of avocado still, and I'd say her favorite right now is yogurt - the one thing she will let me feed her!

She is still sleeping well, now that we are past the initial baby stage. Rhys goes to bed about 7/7:30pm and is up around 6/6:30am. She's taking two decent naps - about 1.5 - 2 hrs each.

This past week she has been really "talking"...she repeats "ma-ma" all day!

She waves bye-bye! I saw her do it one day and thought it was a fluke, but daycare got it on video last week, and now she tries when we ask!

She thinks it is funny when I sign "all done", "milk", or "more".

10 month stats:
Height: 26+ in
Weight: 18.5 lb
Diapers: Size 3
Clothes: Size 9 mo and 12 mo
Shoes: Size 2

Not a whole lot of change in size the past few months.  I looked back at Natalie's paperwork from her 9 mo Dr. appt and Natalie was 16lb 13oz and 26.5 inches, so she was a little longer and a little lighter, but not by a whole lot!

Chatter box

Not sure if this counts as Rhys saying "Mama"?? She's been doing this all day!

9 mo Dr. visit

Rhys had her 9 month checkup this morning!  Couple of funny things.  The Dr. said we should expect her to start crawling any day now...ummm...yeah, she's been doing that about 2 months now!  And, he said we should watch for her molars that usually come in.  Well..I'm pretty sure molars are still a little off since we still don't have any front teeth!

Overall, he said she looked perfectly healthy (other than the newest cold that she's gotten the last week).  Gave me some more food ideas and she goes back in another month for another vaccine.  She got her 1st Hep B shot today.

Stats:
Height: 26 in (10%)
Weight: 18 lb 4 oz (40%)

Her height remains low and her weight has now dropped below the average line. Her activity level is definitely burning some extra calories!

Before I forget, she finally starting going from a crawling to a sitting stance last week.  I don't remember the exact day that she did it regularly, but I think it was May 2nd.  She practiced a bunch that weekend and has been doing it ever since.  She almost always pushes up with her left arm / on her left side.

She's also been getting up on her knees.  It's kind of funny; either Natalie never did this, or both David and I already forgot!  The neighbor baby girl was doing it and I commented that Natalie hadn't ever done that. And then like 2 days later, Rhys did it and David said the same thing! 

She's making great physical strides the past few days.  She went from sitting to wanting to stand up constantly!  We stand her up at the couch or on the stroller walking toy and she just LOVES it.  She gets really frustrated because she can't quite pull herself up yet.  She tries really hard but I haven't seen her do it by herself. 

And TODAY, not only has she been standing up at the couch, but she has been cruising along!  She moved from the corner ("comfy spot") to the arm of the couch a few times.  She'll stand up there and try to grab stuff off the couch or just takes her hands completely off and stands for a few seconds.

I'm not getting too excited, because it took Natalie forever to go from this stage to walking.  I'm not in a hurry for her to walk because: 1) She's my baby! and 2) I think she will be into anything and everything!

Pictures coming soon.  Too tired to take too many, and too exhausted to actually find the camera and upload them.  Might have something to do with a certain someone waking the entire house up at 5:30am for the past few days.

Rhys @ 9 months

9 months, already!

(back dating this post - it was written but not published because our laptop was out of commission...but it's fixed now! Still need to take some 9 mo pictures, but it was a gorgeous Sunday morning so we played outside and had a "picnit" as Natalie likes to remind us).

Rhys is trying to pull up on things.  When I sit on the floor, she'll crawl over and try to climb up into my lap.  This morning, she tried pulling up on a plant and dumped dirt all over the floor!

Last night, I put Rhys down in her crib and then turned to get her clothes out for today.  When I turned back around she was sitting up!  I knew she was close, but this is the first time I've seen her do it.  I guess it is time we pull the crib side up so she can't fall out.

(first time eating pancakes - huge hit!)

Rhys is still army crawling her way around the house.  She goes all over - living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms.  Sometimes she gets her knees up and pushes off with them, but most of the time she is just pulling her whole body around.  It's not slowing her down one bit!

I think she is getting bored of the pureed foods.  Some days she clamps her mouth shut and refuses to even try.  It's kind of hard to tell, because she's been sick for almost a week, so maybe she is just not hungry.  She's been refusing the baby crackers too, but she seems to like Ritz crackers and she ate one of Natalie's cheez-its last weekend.  Silly girl doesn't have any teeth though, so solids are still a little tough.

We've been giving her an antibiotic to clear up her cold, and she hates to take the medicine.  So weird because Natalie always loved the sweetness, but we have to force it down Rhys.

We are going through a clingy phase.  Rhys doesn't want me to put her down - ever.  It all started with her cold, and now she's have a really rough time being independent.   Nice that she is a cuddler, but at the same time: my gosh! It's hard to get anything done!  I'm trying to remember to just soak up all the hugs and snuggles, but it's making every day stuff more time consuming.  I remember reading about other babies doing this when Natalie was this age, but she never went through this.  Funny how they are so different from each other right from the start!

Rhys (and Natalie too!) loves the bath.  We've been putting them in at the same time for about a month now and they just love it in there.  She sits and plays with the toys, splashes water all over, and she's keeping her balance really well.  Actually, last night, she was trying to reach over for a toy and was about to start crawling in the tub!  Not so safe because as I wrote, she likes to crawl on her tummy...

We started swim on Friday night!  Natalie started lessons about the same age, but Rhys was super clingy and didn't like the idea of leaving mama's arms. She kept crying when I passed her off to the instructor. Hopefully that will get better soon! I have pictures, but they are on my other camera...which is in the car, I think. Will have to post them later.

Sleep has been ok.  The past week or so was rough with the cold, but other than that, she's a great sleeper.  She usually goes down around 7 or 7:30 and sleeps until about 6:30.  I don't remember exactly when, but I cut out the "dream feed" this past month.  Seemed risky at first, but when she started sleeping longer stretches, I wondered if my feeding her around 10pm was disturbing her.  So, I cut it out one night, and she slept all the way through!  Much better - now I don't have to wait up to go to bed.

For about 2 weeks now she is blabbering a lot.  She says "blah, blah, blah, blah" and "ma-ma-ma-ma".  She's such a mama's girl, I wouldn't be surprised if she says "mama" first.

9 month stats:
Height: 26+ inches
Weight: 18.5 lbs
Diapers: Size 3
Shoes: haven't worn them much, but I'd guess she is still a size 2
Clothes: Moving into size 12mo and 9-12 mo

Rhys goes in for her 9 mo check up on the 14th

April weekend

We went to a wedding this weekend for David's cousin.  The original plan was to go sans-kids, but we had to make a last minute change when Rhys woke up not feeling well.  She was content to be held the whole time and Natalie went to play with Tali, Trisha & Travis.  Ciara & Nate had a beautiful wedding in Arroyo Grande and lucked out on some sunny weather!

Sunday morning we joined most of the family at the park.  It started out with sun, but quickly turned to overcast / foggy and was kind of chilly!

Natalie & Anna on the tire swing

And then joined by Mason..(Olivier was there too, but we didn't get any pictures of him!)

Being pushed by Aunt Tania

We tried to take pictures of the girls together after we got home, but they weren't so excited about it.  My Gramma gave the girls these dresses for Easter, so I was trying to get them together so I could send her a picture, but they weren't cooperating very well.

Rhys liked to stand, but she is still super wobbly..

She reached over and grabbed one of Natalie's Cheez-its! yumm.

And she spent the rest of the day like this...

Sleeping on my lap.  She was still miserable Monday morning, so I took her to the Dr.  He said her symptoms are consistent with Roseola (high fever followed by a rash).  She had 100.4 fever on Saturday morning and we noticed the rash late Saturday.  She didn't sleep much at all on Friday. We didn't think to take her temp because we thought she was just fussy from being congested, so I have no idea if she really had a high fever or not.  Anyway, the Dr. gave her an antibiotic for her congestion (we were going on day 10), and said to keep her home until the rash is gone.  She has been one cranky baby...only wants to sleep if she is being held, doesn't want to eat, hasn't wanted to play or anything.  She is just starting to crawl around and be interested in stuff again.  Hoping we are on the mend and she will be back to her smiley self again soon!