6 months

Pancake is six months old today. She had a terrible half birthday. She whined, cried and screamed through most of it. She's teething and has a cold making her favorite activity, nursing, quite unpleasant. She cried for an hour and a half straight while I tried to get her to fall asleep. I rocked her, swaddled her, nursed her, laid with her, swayed her, nursed her again. Just when she seemed like she would fall asleep she would cry out. I finally gave her Tylenol, which seemed to calm her but didn't help her sleep.

In general though, she's a joy. She smiles at anyone who pays her attention. Today, at the grocery store it was senior citizen discount day so all of the elderly women and men were ogling over her, which she thoroughly enjoyed and let them know by giving them big smiles. This was during a brief period today when she wasn't crying. She continues to absolutely adore her big brother. She exerts big belly laughs when he dances or jumps around her.

She is not a fan of rolling over. She has only done it a handful of times. When I put her on her belly for tummy time she tolerates it for a few minutes and then starts complaining. Instead of rolling herself over she just whines until I flip her onto her back. During the brief period that she is on her belly she does push up with her arms and lift her head quite well.

She can turn the pages of board books and seems to enjoy looking at the pictures on each page, especially if there are babies on them. She puts EVERYTHING she can get her hands on into her mouth. She can sit up for brief periods of time. The longest she has gone is about two minutes. She still enjoys eating -- both breast milk and solid foods (carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, applesauce and pears are her favorites).

I think she'll be a late crawler. She has little interest in moving around. She babbles, but not as much as she did two months ago. She's more quiet now. I hope it's not a result of my silence when I'm around her. I just don't talk to her as much as I did Doodle. I think it's because there is so much noise in my life between the two kids and I really need some quiet sometimes.

I didn't take any pictures of Pancake today because of her general misery, so I'll take some soon and post them then.

A quick note about Doodle:
Though he is three years old, an age I am not super fond of, he was such a sweetheart today. He helped me with Pancake when she was upset. He kissed her gently on her head and told her it was okay. He cheered her up after her hour and a half meltdown by jumping on my bed and shouting "boo" to her. She showed her enthusiasm by squealing with glee and laughing with a wide mouth. In the car on the way back from the grocery store (and Fiendling's house) I told Doodle that we were going to eat lunch and then he could play quietly while I put Pancake to bed. Then I'd put him down for his nap. He seemed fine with the plan. But when we got home Pancake was in no mood to sit around while I prepared lunch. She was super tired having had only a 30 minute nap this morning. I told Doodle that I was going to put Pancake to bed first, then I'd come down and put the groceries away, then we could have lunch and we could both take naps after that. When I came downstairs after putting my sleeping baby down in her crib Doodle had made a neat pile of canvas grocery bags in the dining room. Expecting to see the groceries that were formerly in the bags all over the kitchen floor and table, I was surprised to see that Doodle had put all of the groceries away except the five pound bag of flour. Granted, they weren't exactly where I would have put them, but they were in the pantry cabinet, just not organized well. He is such a sweetheart. I think he knows when I'm having a bad day and he acts accordingly. Today he was my saving grace. Thank you, Doodle, for your precious sweetness.

Okay, that wasn't that quick of a note, but it had to be said.

leaving the house

I don't know why I leave the house at all. After Doodle's third day of school today I picked him up in the car and we went to get ice cream sundaes. That is where the fun ended. We went from there to Ikea to return some curtains and recycle our old batteries and light bulb. It turns out Ikea isn't taking batteries any more and we had a ton of them. Then we waited on a line of four people to return the curtains. It turns out we were behind the three most complicated returns/exchanges in the history of retail. After about twenty minutes Doodle starts acting like he has to go to the bathroom. I ask him, he says no. We were next in line so I believed him that he didn't have to go. Then, he comes over and asks if he has a diaper on. Translation: I have to poop and want to do it in a diaper rather than use the toilet. Of course I didn't have any diapers (that fit him) with me so I held out hope that he would be able to hold it until I could get my two minutes with the clerk. Even if I had brought him to a bathroom he would have refused to go. So, needless to say he pooped in his underwear and I was now at the clerk's desk very annoyed that they made me wait that long. Blaming them for my son's inability to be potty trained -- he does pee in the potty.

Speaking of which, when we got out the parking lot I changed him next to the car. Put clean underwear and shorts on him. Then while he stood there bottomless he says he has to pee. I let him pee onto the pavement between our car and the car next to us. While I was distracted with figuring out where to put his soiled clothing he proceeds to walk in his pee with his socks on. I took those off, wiped his feet with a wipe and put his sneakers back on. By this time Pancake is hungry again (she ate applesauce at the ice cream store). We went back inside Ikea where Doodle watched a mesmorizing video of sea life and I fed Pancake. She spat up on me and the leather couch we were sitting on. I wiped the couch with my skirt which was already wet with half-digested milk. Pancake then pooped. I changed her in the car in the parking lot. We still had one more stop to make, luckily it was in the same location and didn't take that long. Now, we're home and Doodle is in his room "resting" with a diaper on. Pancake is jonesing for some more milk and I'm completely run down. I really should only go out alone after Mr. D returns from work.

tired -- a lot of the time

The title of this post is merely to excuse my lack of posting as of late. Pancake has been a sporadic sleeper and therefore so have I. She has slept through the night twice in her five months and they were both nights last week. Since then she has completely regressed back to waking up four to five times between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. -- excruciatingly frustrating.

I have a lot of updating to do here and because I am . . . yes, that's right. . . tired, I'm not going to do a very thorough job. So, without further ado, my 300th post:

1. Our trip to Vermont was great. We were gone for ten days and it felt like we were gone for a long time. It felt like we had a real break from our normal lives, which was much needed. Mr. D had been on the second half of his paternity leave so I didn't have to prepare for our trip by myself, well I mostly did, but he was home to watch the kids while I did so. And we had a week at home with him after we got back.

We rented a fantastic house on Lake Champlain in Colchester (just north of Burlington). The house itself wasn't huge, but the location couldn't be beat. We had great lake access, a view of the lake, a bike path directly across the street that fed into a large network of bike paths, a fantastic playground and huge park just a five minute walk along the path from the house. Not to mention the proximity to Burlington. We swam in the lake, which was about 70 degrees so even on days that weren't super hot we went in the lake. Doodle did a great job in the water. He went in up to his neck and didn't wear his life jacket at all. He fooled around with Mr. D floating on top of him and jumping around. It was great to see so little fear of the water since he doesn't like going into the ocean (neither do I). The beach at the lake was fantastic -- all sand in and out of the water and no seaweed or milfoil. Doodle had a great time playing in the sand with the toys that were at the house.

I rode my bicycle (with Doodle in the trailer behind me) to Burlington one day. Mr. D and Pancake drove the car with the empty bike rack and met us at the waterfront. The ride was fantastic. The views from the bike path are great and the path is so well maintained and used. It was really great to see. We loaded the bike and trailer on the car and went to play miniuture golf where Doodle made three holes in one! He golfed par for some holes and way way way over par on the rest.

We shared our house with some of my relatives who came to town for my brother's wedding. We attended the rehearsal lunch on the Friday before the wedding which was fun. It was great to see some of my brother's old friends from high school who I remember. They looked so different -- older, married, some with children.

The wedding was on a boat on Lake Champlain. Unfortunately, it was the worst weather day we had the whole ten days we were there. It was cold and rainy. The ceremony was outside under a cover while the boat was docked, after the couple were officially married the boat took us around the lake, into Shelburne's bay and back to Burlington. Dinner was on the boat then drinks and cake and dancing were at the boat house a block away from the dock. A freight train was about to block our only access to the sidewalk to the boat house when my uncle managed to get the engineer to stop the train so we could all cross, including the bride. Because of where the train stopped we had a narrow opening to cross. We had to climb over some wet, tall weeds, step over the uneven rocks between the tracks to get to the other side. My cousin took a great picture of my sister-in-law in her wedding dress climbing over the tracks with my uncle maintaining eye contact with the engineer.

The next day we packed up the car, straightened up the house and left for our nine hour drive to Philly.

2. Doodle had his first day of nursery school on Thursday -- well, technically he started school last fall, but since he/we dropped out after three days, I'm not counting it. He had slept with his backpack the night before and had been talking about going to school for days leading up to Thursday. He had a new backpack (Thomas, of course), new shoes and a new water bottle to commemorate the day. I packed him a healthy lunch of half a pb & j, sliced apples (he eats more of the fruit if it's sliced), a small bag of pretzels, cranberries and a bag of animal crackers (which we call cookies). I put a change of clothes in his backpack along with his lunch bag and we were off. We walked there -- Doodle in the stroller and Pancake in the carrier on my chest.

Doodle did a great job. He didn't cry or even look afraid or lonely when I left him there (at 8:30). I explained to the teacher that he's potty trained, even though we have yet to have consistent success with pooping in the potty. At noon Pancake and I picked him up. He was sitting at a toddler-size table with two other kids eating his lunch. He must have just gotten started because most of his food was still there. The only missing item, the bag of animal crackers, of course. He asked me to pick him up, which I did, which is when I noticed that he was wet. He had had an accident at some point and didn't tell anyone. I alerted both of his teachers and then changed him into his dry clothes that were in his backpack. Then we went to get a donut to celebrate what a big boy Doodle is. He ate his donut, sandwich, cranberries and apples at the same time.

3. Doodle can write all of his letters without assistance, capital letters that is. He made a birthday card for our neighbor and wrote HAPPY BIRTHDAY on the front, her name on the inside and signed his name on the back. He hasn't mastered the concept of writing the letters in succession. Instead, they're scattered all over the page and you have to search for them. Some are on top of others which makes it extremely difficult to read.

He also started reading a few days ago. He's shown interest in how to spell various words for months and has known what sounds each letter makes for even longer. When we were reading Hop on Pop the other night he wanted to read the back page which has lists of rhyming words grouped together, like this: ALL, CALL, BALL, TALL, SMALL. I told him how to pronounce ALL, then he sounded out the remaining words saying SALL for SMALL. He read all of the groupings before he went to sleep. I'm so proud of him. He continues to amaze me, since he was born.

There you have it, my 300th post. I hope to post again before too much time passes.

quote of the day

I'll let you guess who said this today.

"I'm not even going to poop in the potty when I'm eighteen years old."

5 months

Pancake turned five months yesterday, and had her weight check appointment to commemorate the day. After only gaining three pounds in the first four months of her life she gained a whopping pound and 12 ounces in less than a month to bring her to 11 pounds 12 ounces. She loves her solid foods. Thus far she has eaten oatmeal cereal, rice cereal, sweet potatoes, carrots and winter squash. She likes them all except for the rice cereal. Who can blame her that stuff is so bland.

She is such a good baby. She smiles and laughs whenever anyone looks at her or says hello. She knows her name, turning in the direction of whom ever is calling her. She still only rolls from her belly to her back. She has rolled the other way but only a couple of times and not for a while. She talks and coos like crazy. Yesterday I swear she said the first syllable of Doodle's name when she saw him.

She absolutely adores her brother. She lights up when she sees him with a huge smile on her face and giggles bounding out of her mouth like musical notes. She laughs when he makes farting sounds with his lips. Then the two of them laugh together. Seeing them interact makes me so happy that we decided to have a second child. The joy that they bring to each other is palpable. I have a friend whose older son ignored the younger son when he was born and for many months after. Doodle doesn't ignore Pancake nor does he abuse her. He really seems to enjoy having her around. And he thinks of her a lot. When she's not with me he notices right away and asks where she is. When we occasionally look at open houses he will identify which room is hers and it's often the better room (in my opinion).

Pancake doesn't sit up by herself yet. She's making quite a mess of the neck pillow we've been using to prop her up in the booster seat. It is crusted with dried oatmeal and various orange vegetables. Everything she grabs she puts in her mouth. She's getting quite good at that skill. When she wears a dress it usually gets pretty wet from drool quickly.

She still wakes up two to four times a night to eat. I'm going to try to put her in her own room again tonight to see if that makes a difference. She slept right outside our room in Vermont (which we just returned from on Sunday -- more on that trip in another post) and it didn't seem to matter -- she still woke up several times a night.

She's a good baby -- very happy and cheerful, only crying when she absolutely must have something and even then there's a few minutes of whining before she breaks into the full on cry.

Here is a picture from my brother's wedding which was on Saturday (she's with my mom).