Neglectful mama

So Miss Sierra is 16 months old and I have been neglecting her blog.  We've dealt with ear infections and teething during the past 4 months.  Finally, right at her 16 month mark, she turned the corner and decided to walk.  I thought that she would never walk.  She's been able to walk short distances for quite some time, but would not use it as her primary means of locomotion, but as of the last several days, she is.  Talking is another area she has decided is not that important. It's blatantly obvious she understands a lot.  You tell her something and she either does it or she bursts into tears in opposition.  She loves the word look.  "Look", "Look" she points at things that catch her interest.  She says mama and night night and can say bye if she's in the mood.  Mostly she nods. If you ask her a question and she agrees, she'll readily nod yes.  She's all about the temper tantrum, arching her back, throwing herself over backwards.  She and Peyton are so cute together.  I hope it continues, they are constantly kissing each other.  That's her other new thing, she puckers up and gives kisses.  SO CUTE!  They play cars together, color and play with play dough.  Peyton is a great big brother, teaching her how to do all kinds of things.  For the longest time she would only walk holding his hands.

She's turned into quite the strong personality, but continues to be a lovey little girl and is so funny.  She love to dance.  She's studious, loves puzzles, loves art, loves playing with cars, loves building things, and is cautiously outgoing.  Love that little girl!

Our Baby's a Year Old!

I have done the cardinal sin of mothering, I have not done the same thing for my second child as I have for my first.  I have not printed a single picture to put together her photo album, I have not even finished  putting pictures in and filling out her pregnancy book, and I skipped her 11 month blog.  Well, she's a year old and I've got a lot of work to do.  But enough about my shortcomings, I apologize to Miss Sierra, Mommy loves you more than life itself, but I'm tired and overextended.  I hope someday you'll understand.

So the last 2 months have shown so much change.  She's the master cruiser now and can crawl at the speed of light.  That being said, she is not even interested in walking.  Peyton couldn't wait to walk, she knows she can get where she wants to go crawling or cruising so why walk?  Plus, she's so chunky and her feet are so small that I can't imagine she'll be able to balance very well.  She stands not holding on sometimes and will walk a couple of feet with the push toys but no walking.

She's also such a talker, but not words.  She imitates inflection, posturing, faces, and says a few words. She says hi and Mama quite consistently and she waves like crazy.  She LOVES to dance.  Turn on music and that girl can't hold still.  It's so adorable.  Poor darling is getting all her top teeth at the same time and is miserable, but still happy during the day.

At her one year well baby check she was 29 1/4 inches long and 20 lbs 13 oz.  She's moved into the 54th percentile in both height and weight.  She's making my arms nice and shapely carrying her around.

She's sleeping well and sleeps though the night most of the time (except now because of the teeth).  We love watching her explore.  She plays so well alone, investigating everything, and plays well with her brother, who sometimes is a little overzealous.  Speaking of which, on her 1st birthday, her grandma, me and Peyton and Sierra were shopping at the Outlets at Castle Rock when Peyton tried to yank a hanger out of her mouth in the Columbia Outlet.  We had to call 911 because she was acting like she couldn't breathe and the hanger had seemed like it had really hurt her.  The paramedics came and checked her out and she was fine, but she had no interest in her cake or any food that whole day, so we saved cake for the next day.  She was able to open her presents on her birthday, though.

Sierra is the most amazing little girl.  We love her so much and are so entertained by her bubbly personality.  She's still has some stranger danger, but she's opened up to anyone that we trust.  She loves her brother and she's just a total sweetie.  Happy birthday, Sierra, we love you SO much!

10 months old!

Wow, time flies.  We are only 2 months away from Sierra turning a year old.  Amazing.  This month she's really blossomed personality wise.  She's so giggly and smiley all the time.  She cracks herself up, which is even funnier.  She is a super crawler now, and quick!  Her favorite thing to do?  Take off as soon as her diaper is off and hide around the corner in her brother's room, then laugh hysterically as you come around the corner to get her.  (Yes, we change her on the floor, not a changing table).  Another of her favorite ways to crack herself up?  Drop food on the floor, one...piece...at...a...time.

She's also developed some pretty severe "stranger danger" becoming very clingy to Mommy.  She used to not care who comforted her as long as someone did, now it has to be Mama.  Speaking of Mama, that's pretty much the only word she using right now.  She'll wave hello and goodbye, but isn't saying either yet.  Even though she's not speaking much, she's a great mimic and her and Peyton will often get going echoing each other.  She's still just got the two teeth on the bottom, but they are all the way in now, giving her grin a new dimension.  She loves to be on her feet, standing as much as she can and starting to cruise the furniture.  We've had a lot of bangs and bruises because of it.  She's testing the waters of letting go, but isn't quite ready yet.

She's still such a great sleeper compared to Peyton, only waking up once a night usually at the most, but getting back to sleep and getting to sleep at night has been more difficult (and by more difficult I mean, still easy compared to 85% of babies), which I think has to do with a couple of back to back illnesses, a cold followed by a stomach flu.  Being in childcare Sierra has had a lot more illnesses at this point than Peyton ever had at this age.

I can't believe babyhood is nearing an end and toddlerhood is just around the corner.  That's why we are getting as much cuddle and squeeze time in now as we can.  Love that baby girl.

9 months old, let's get moving!

So I'm a bit late, but in order to simplify my life I scheduled Peyton's 3 year well child visit and Sierra's 9 month well child at the same time.  She has really made a lot of progress this month in the mobility arena. She's crawling all over the place, pulls up to standing like it's nothing, and is starting to try and cruise.  She's more verbal than ever and is eating like it's going out of style.  All that eating makes for thighs to write home about.  No one who sees Sierra's thighs can go without making a comment.  They are HUGE!    So she weighed in this month at 18 lbs 13 oz.  She's 27 1/2 inches long.  So she's around the 50th percentile for each.

It seems she may finally be growing out of her dairy allergy.  She's had yogurt puffs and I ate a bite of ice cream on Peyton's birthday and she had no reaction.  Tonight I ate some sushi with cream cheese so we'll keep our fingers crossed.  She's started waving spontaneously, clapping, and dancing.  This is such a fun stage.

She is such a happy child, but so snotty!  I don't know if she has allergies, has sinus issues because of GI issues, is teething or what but I feel so bad for her because she is always either stuffed up or her nose is running.  She still HATES anyone touching her nose, so she is one of those kids that constantly has snot or crusties around her nose and there's nothing I can really do about it.  She's also been sleeping a lot so I think we may be in the midst of a growth spurt.

We changed babysitters recently.  She's doing great.  I hate that they have to go twice a week to a sitter when she is still this young, but things are different than they were when her brother was young.  I at least feel comfortable that she's in a safe environment and getting plenty of stimulation.

That's our baby girl.  We love those smiles so much!

8 months old and almost mobile

So Sierra turned 8 months on Feb 26th.  My computer had crashed so I haven't had a chance to blog.  She's just amazing and that's really all I can say.  She's the happiest, smiliest baby we could ask for.  She thinks everything is hilarious, especially her brother.  She's eating solid foods at a much faster pace these days, is still allergic to dairy, and is still a chunky monkey.  We are on the verge of having a really mobile baby, right now she's just somewhat mobile.  She has mastered this butt roll, stretch out onto belly move that really gets her around the room and can crawl a foot or so before she gives up and resumes the roll.  She's also trying to pull up to stand on things, but doesn't realize she has to continue to hold on, which has led to lots of bumped foreheads and tears.

Sierra got to go to her first Mardi Gras this year and got to meet all her aunts and uncles, cousins and Paw Paw.  She was an angel during the travels and was unbelievably good during our trip there when we missed our plane and turned it into a 16 hour travel day.  The change in weather was good for her since she had had a cold for almost a month prior to going.  The humidity helped with her stuffiness that had been leading to a lot of sleepless, restless nights.  The doctor had put her on antibiotics for a sinus infection, but they only seemed to make things worse and give her diarrhea so we took her off.  She's still stuffy, but is better than she was, so hopefully with winter winding down she'll clear up with an increase in humidity.

We are really enjoying her vocalizations this month too.  She's not saying words yet, but is trying harder and harder to imitate.  She's also a good at mimicking a wave, but hasn't initiated one herself and hasn't started clapping yet.  We're working on it though.  She dances when there is music on, bouncing up and down on her bottom.  So cute! It's hard to believe she'll be crawling, talking and walking in the upcoming months.  I can't wait, but hate to see the baby go.  I'll add pics at a later date since I can't put any on my computer right now until I get it repaired.

Addendum: She started crawling on March 6, 2012.  We took her to the doctor on March 8 for her cold getting worse again and she weighed in at 17 lbs 5 oz.

Our 7 month cutie

Sierra is 7 months old today.  I swear I just wrote her 6 month blog.  She's our chunky little giggle box.  She's still such a happy girl, but has had some issues lately.  She's still allergic to dairy, which we found out when I accidentally ate cheese in a sandwich, she cut her first bottom tooth at 6 1/2 months and is on the verge of a second on the bottom which is causing many sleepless, restless nights.  She seems to be always going through a growth spurt, nursing nonstop, but totally uninterested in eating more than a couple of tablespoons of solid foods.  We had to go back to the drawing board where that was concerned because of a really really bad diaper rash, so we're back to only eating rice cereal and applesauce.  She's not really into the avocado and we think it might've been the sweet potato that caused the reaction.  We took her to the ophthalmologist because of her droopy right eyelid, but he said there is nothing wrong and probably as her face grows the skin will stretch and it will be hardly noticeable.

She's sitting quite well these days and has become pretty adept at getting from her butt to her tummy, but hasn't mastered getting back yet.  She's also getting closer to getting on all fours.  All this practice has made for many face plants.  She's pretty good at getting around by rolling and squirming and bouncing on her butt but becomes very frustrated and desperately wants to crawl.  She's making all kinds of vocalizations now, mamamamama, squealing, grunting, blowing raspberries.  She waves to imitate you but hasn't done it spontaneously yet.  She's playing with the shape sorter and the stacking rings now.  Mostly she just chews on them, but she loves to hold a shape or ring in each hand and bang them together.  She also loves to hit the peg board with the hammer.  Trying to get Peyton to let go of these toys and let her play with them has been pretty difficult.  He has no interest until she's playing with them and then he steals them.  For the most part she takes it pretty well, but every once and a while she screams bloody murder.

Speaking of screaming bloody murder, she's gotten better at that.  She used to be so even keeled, now she screams when she can't do what she wants to do or get what she wants.  Boy does she have some lungs on her.

Sleeping has not been going well.  Everything affects her sleep and, in turn, mine.  Teething has been awful and on top of that she has her second cold right now.  Hoping this one doesn't turn into an ear infection too, but if sleeping doesn't improve by next week, another doctor's visit may be in order.

7 months flew by.  Before we know it we'll be celebrating a birthday.  Love that sweet baby.  

1/2 a year old!

Sierra went in for her 6 month well baby visit today.  Wow, how she's chunked up in the last month.  When she went in for her ear infection just a month ago she hadn't even crossed the 15 pound mark.  Now she weighs in at 16 lbs 8 oz!  She's also supposedly 27 inches long (putting her in the 85th percentile for height, which I have a hard time believing).  I guess adding solid foods packed on the pounds.  She's actually not eating a ton of solid food, probably a 1/4 of a cup a day or less, but she definitely was ready.  We started at about 5 1/2 months because she was desperate to eat everything we were eating.  So far she will eat rice cereal, applesauce, avocado, and sweet potatoes or any combo of them.  She likes to sing while she eats, making "nom, nom, nom, mamamamamama" noises.  It's so adorable.

She's sitting well on her own now, can roll from her tummy back to her back so that makes her modestly mobile.  This means I can't just lay her down in the living room anymore and leave since she can roll and wiggle her way to things she wants.  The jumperoo and sitting her on the floor are my saviors now (or a big brother who yells for Mommy any time anything goes slightly wrong with Sierra).  If I sit her down she can't gently let herself down to laying, so she'll just sit there.  It's only a matter of time though.  We're almost ready to come up with a new sleeping arrangement.  The co-sleeper mini is almost too short, but Peyton is still using the crib as a daybed and I'm not ready for them to be roommates just yet since she doesn't sleep through the night and probably won't for a long time.  I'm guessing the Pack-n-Play will become her nighttime home here soon (along with our bed because we do still co-sleep once she's woken up at least once at night).

She's got so much personality now with her constant babbling.  You can see the wheels turning in her head as she tries to figure stuff out.  She's sweet and cuddly at times and extremely squirmy and independent at other times.  I hope that is an indication of her personality down the road.  She had her first Christmas.  Santa brought her her first baby doll and she got a couple of books and a tea and cook set.  Obviously she can't use them yet, but she likes to chew on them.  That's all she wanted to do Christmas morning too, eat the packaging.

We are making an appointment with the ophthalmologist after her well baby visit today, just to check to make sure everything is right with her eyes.  Since birth one eyelid had drooped more than the other and it hasn't resolved.  Hopefully this is just a visit to put our minds at ease that nothing is wrong.  Better to be safe than sorry.  Developmentally and weight wise she is doing so well we hope that is indicative of nothing major being wrong.

Overall we are looking forward to the next 6 months of her growing as a person.  I look at her and her brother and can't believe how quickly time flies and how soon we won't have babies anymore, just kids.  As I think about that I squeeze her a little tighter, kiss her sweet chubby cheeks some more, play with her tiny baby feet and blow raspberries on her tummy.