A Visit from an Illini

Our friend Megan flew in last Thursday for a visit.  We had some cold weather most days, but still a great time.  Annabel enjoyed having a play partner and more action around the house, especially with someone who shares a birthday! 

She carried this yellow cup around for a couple hours.  It was her go-to toy that weekend.

We were able to meet Eric at work for lunch, took a short walk along the river near the weir and a drive around the city, walked and shopped along Broadway Ave, played Blokus and Beezer Wizzer, and ate a lot!  When the weather is cold, might as well enjoy some flat bread pizzas with lots of fun toppings....Hawaiian, meat-lovers and the best dessert pizza of pears, goat cheese, and honey!  When I bought some Canadian bacon for the Hawaiian pizza, Megan was amused that the package just said 'ham'.  We also made a waffle egg bake and some adult mac and cheese from our findings at the Bulk Cheese store on our shopping outing.  We enjoyed a few Original 16 beers, red shiraz, Chapman's chocolate ice cream, Easter M & M's, and Cadbury mini eggs.  I think we are still trying to detox.

It was fun to watch the basketball tourney on tv, where unfortunately Wisconsin lost, Illinois won, and then later Illinois lost their second game.  Megan brought Annabel an adorable outfit to cheer on the Illini.

The best part of our time living in Illinois was the great friends we made.  We are so lucky to have a wonderful friend like Megan.  Thanks for visiting us in the frozen tundra!

Enough is Enough!

I'm usually not one to complain about weather.  I enjoy the change of seasons and the different activities, colors, holidays, foods, and feelings each one brings.  We live in Saskatchewan, where the weather is obviously cold a lot of the time, but today was just awful!!  The wind was unbearable.  And the forecast is offering no promising news.  We went out for one errand today, gave up and came back home. 

Happy first day of spring!!

Shoveling has turned into an extreme sport because not only do we have to shovel, but then we have to chuck it 5 feet in the air!!

Backyard

On the upside, we have a friend coming to visit tomorrow!!  We thought March would be a great time for her visit, as it was quite nice weather here last year at this time.  I told her she should have demanded a flight discount for being the only person in the world traveling to Saskatoon for spring break!!  She must really like us.  :)

9 Months!

This 9 month age is just fun, fun, fun!  We are very, very blessed to have such a happy and healthy girl.  She's piecing together a lot of sounds, communicating her needs more with sounds and reaching, handing us toys, giving kisses on demand, dancing with her torso, laughing at everything, clapping, banging toys together, drumming, and waving goodbye.  Now that she has learned to clap, she is extra interested in her hands.  She claps, then opens and shuts her hands, checking them out intently. 

She gets so, SO excited when Eric comes home from work.  She sees him, punches both arms out in front, turns her head in multiple directions, gives a little shake, kicks her legs.....he has never received such a greeting in all his life!

She loves books.  She will sit and listen to many, many books (granted they only take a minute to read each one) and grabs the ones she would like to hear.  She is enjoying Where's Baby's Belly Button, Blue Hat, Green Hat (the oops! gets her every time), and loves Panda Bear, Panda Bear.  I think she likes the last book because it is big and interactive.  She always touches the big blue sea lion and this week she started sliding over the parts of the book to show which animal will be on the next page.  It is pretty cool to watch her start to do something after she has just been watching us for a few weeks.  Just soaking everything up. 

Leaving her legs in frog position, she is pulling her body across the room with her arms.  She can get up on all fours on our bed, but has not shown the crawling patterning yet.  She can get from sitting to her stomach and vise versa very fluently, even in the bathtub!  She also enjoys rolling to her stomach during her bath.  I have figured out that post-bath, she prefers to sit between my legs on the bed to get dried off and dressed vs. laying down on the bed.  We are seeing much less tears this way.  It was trial and error, but I guess she must feel more secure or warm this way.  Who knows! 

Sleeping is about the same this month, with a bit more consistent nine o'clock bedtime.  She often wakes at exactly three hours during the night, although we have had some 4.5-5 hour stretches.  I know the three hour waking must be a cycle and then she is unable to soothe herself back to sleep.  Often, she is quickly nursed back to sleep within 15 min.  I know it's a habit and not the most recommended thing to do, but we live on a main floor of a house with a woman downstairs who wakes every time Annabel wakes (I know this because I hear her....and because she told me).  There is no option of soothing her by rocking and laying her back in her crib if there is any crying involved.  Occasionally Eric or I can just rock her a bit and lay her back down, but often in the night she will arch her back and hint her interest in nursing and it's all over.  And, I'm tired in the middle of the night and standing and rocking her is exhausting.  Again, this is something I try not to get too worked up about because sleep seems to change often and I remind myself that she is only this young once.  But, I do hope it doesn't lead to longer term sleep problems or bad habits!  Just this week she has had a few more 2 hour naps, so it will be excellent if that continues.

Eating is going great!  She loves feeding herself and is able to pick up tiny pieces of food now, even if they are slippery.  I fill the spoon for her and set it on her tray and she'll pick up the spoon when she wants it....I like that it gives her independence to choose what she wants to eat.  We are still avoiding oatmeal, so barley cereal (often with cinnamon added) has been her main fortified grain.  It is quite good....and smells like brewers mash!  Eric said he wouldn't mind a bowl.  It is hard to come by, but I have found my source.  I still am not able to hand her anything large, such as a stick of a soft veggie, as she just tries to stuff the entire thing in her mouth, so small pieces for now.  

We met Eric for lunch at work.  The building next door has a dinosaur exhibit, reptiles, fish, and birds.

If Eric and I eat early enough and eat something we would like Annabel to have, we are starting to give her what we eat: lasagna, pastas, chicken (with a little apple sauce so it's not too dry), salmon, sweet potato, butter beans, yogurt, fruit, egg yolk scramble.  She has been enjoying diced nectarines, plums, grapes, blueberries, avocado, banana, green beans, carrots, zucchini, broccoli, and shredded cheese.  Plain rice cakes, broken up, and spread with a thin layer of cream cheese or apples sauce has been great too.  Cheerios, Baby Mum Mums, and Gerber Puffs have been her on -the-go, non-messy snacks. Yogurt has been a challenge to find a plain, full-fat variety.  A lot of the 2% yogurts and Greek yogurts have a ton of sugar in them (20 g/half cup).  And, some of the yogurt that is geared towards babies....by writing the word 'baby' on them.....is the worst!  It's quite sad marketing, really.  I finally found a 9% Greek yogurt with only 2 g. sugar for 3/4 cup.

First time "getting into something."

Now, off to get the house baby-proofed because we are definitely running out of time.

Please feel free to comment with ideas/tips regarding baby-proofing, foods, etc.  Remember, first-timers here!

8 Months!

The coolest new skill is talking!  This last week, Eric said "Heather, come look.. she is moving her jaw up and down."  It is so cool....now saying "hi, dada."  We assume she is putting sounds together, not actually understanding, but still so neat.  Also, to just make us melt even more, she is giving big open mouth kisses to our cheeks.  Amazing.   
But, this weekend her screaming eagle screech has returned.  It arrived one weekend awhile back, went away and is now back! It is not the prettiest sound.

After Christmas we started with consistent sampling of foods.  So far she seems to enjoy all of the different foods.  She made a pretty funny face for broccoli, but has still been eating it.  Blueberries seem to be a favorite as she has been shoveling them in.  Her pincer grasp isn't quite there yet, so she rakes them to the base of her fingers and sticks most of her hand in her mouth to get them.  She tried egg yolk for the first time today.  I found a great "recipe" for roasted pears and bananas....just roast pears and bananas (or just pears)for 25 min. on 400....then puree....delicious!!

About a month ago she started tipping over her toy box and emptying its contents.  All of these toys were once in the box; she's pretty good at flinging them over her shoulder.  This toy basket has since been removed after she had a sharp piece of wood from it fully in her mouth.

No teeth yet.  I thought she was teething about a month ago since she had a rash on her face, but it was really splotchy so we thought maybe a reaction to oatmeal.  I had been keeping track of the foods she was eating and the rash was occurring every time she ate oatmeal.  We have since held off on it and serving barley cereal for now.

I guess she is finished with the pacifier.  We just noticed we hadn't offered it to her in a few days so we decided to just be done with it.  I know the sucking reflex is gone now anyway, so she doesn't need it.  I'm glad I don't have to try to "get her off of it" in the future.  A friend here was saying she took her one-year-old's away and he went and got one of the stuffed animals that had one and put that in his mouth and was crawling around with the toy pacifier and the stuffed animal hanging off of it!  ha ha.    

Bundled up to go for a walk.  

Bundled up to watch Mom shovel.

Carrots!!  I've been letting her feed herself for the most part even though it is very messy.  It's the OT in me, plus she wants to.  We've been having her practice using a regular cup with water at meals.  She is getting better at actually swallowing some and not just lapping the water like a dog.  We've tried a mini-straw, with some sucking action, but not enough to reach her mouth.

She is really enjoying books.  It is so wonderful to have her sit on my lap all snuggled in our bed and she will relax to listen to story after story.  The Going to Bed Book and Moo, Baa, La La La, both by Sandra Boynton, seem to be her favorites and she will turn her head to look at me anticipating certain parts....so cute!!  It's also funny when she clearly is not interested in some books as she starts looking around for a new one.  She now initiates touching the touch and feel books.

She loves to play with zippers and strings on our clothes.  I don't know why they don't make toys that look like lotion or diaper cream because that is all she wants to grab.  Taking dad's glasses off or even Grandpa's off on Skype is a favorite activity.  She is laughing at everything lately and raises her arms to be picked up.   

Loves to splash in the bathtub and now holds her hands out to feel the water pour onto her.  Lately she has been crying post bath; I'm not sure if it's just too cold or if she knows bed time is coming or what.  We've tried earlier bedtime and bigger towels, but no luck so far.  She is still a night owl, often going to bed between 9-11.  Thankfully it has been closer to 9 lately.  She then usually gets up around 1:30 and 6:30 (and sometimes 3:30), but stays sleeping until 8:30 (occasionally 9:30).  She hasn't done a nice 8-9 hours sleeping stretch since she consistently did at four months.  Sleeping seems to be something that changes often depending on what skills they are working on, how their day was, maybe what they ate, if they are hungry, thirsty, gassy, hot, cold, etc, etc, etc.  I've decided not to sweat it.  Luckily I easily fall back asleep myself. 

The other night was crazy as she was up 8 times by 3:30am and then I just had to hold her until morning.  Every time I went to get her she was up on all fours rocking away.  I would pick her up and she would fall back asleep right away.  I promised her I would let her work on crawling the entire next day if she would just go to sleep!!  The next day she performed the move from lying on her stomach to sitting up for for the first time, so I think she was "working" on that the night before.   She did the same thing before she mastered rolling...was up every hour.

 Blueberries!

Happy Valentine's Day!

"Did you say I am 8 months old today?  Are you sure?"

Cold Winter Day

We are snuggled indoors today protected from the cold.  Perfect time to wear her new sweater vest made by my long-time friend Laura St. Onge.  Thank you, Laura!  It is so beautiful.   

I've been putting tights under her thin pants for warmth.  Yesterday I heard her getting pretty mad about something.  I went to see what she was up to, and she was just a pulling and pulling and those dang socks weren't coming off!!

Christmas 2012

First flight!

Thankfully, she was a great flyer.  Ate, slept, played. Whew!

She was quite interested in the paper and was able to rip out the tissue paper from gifts.

I didn't think Annabel was going to be able to sit by Christmas as she was quite tippy just before we left.  But, she must have thought she ought to get her act together as she had people to impress.

Baby's 1st Christmas morning!

New blocks from Uncle Nick  "Look, I did this myself!" (not really!)

Christmas Day at Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa's

Playing with my cousin Robyn's Julia and Jack

Christmas Day in the evening at the Micheels' Christmas

Aunt Chelsea

Sisters--Eric's Aunt Karen and mother June

Made sure to maintain a firm grip on Sophie.

We were able to have Annabel baptized on Dec 23, 2012.  It was a wonderful service and she was so good the entire time.  Immediately after the service, however, she had "had enough."

Neil and Jodi (Eric's brother and his wife) are expecting a baby girl in February!  

Our favorite.  I found this outfit in storage at my parents.  It may have been my baptismal outfit, but I couldn't find pictures to prove.  

After the baptism, she was very serene, soaking in the event.  Or, very tired!

This adorable outfit was a gift from our friend, Imke, in Saskatoon.  The booties were made by Annabel's Great-Great Aunt Doodie.

My favorite part of Christmas.

We had a wonderful Christmas; so thankful to have been able to fly home to see family.  We traveled to Minneapolis for Eric's mom's family Christmas and made multiple short trips between Ridgeland and Colfax.  Gratefully, a lot of family and friends came to us for visits.  The Moen family Christmas had 83 in attendance--the brothers and sisters and their children (and now their children).  Three generations of Moens in one building (we had it at the community center, as we obviously cannot comfortable fit in anyone's house anymore).  I think Annabel was held by 75 of them; one of my cousin's 2 year-old even held her!  She was such a trooper and seemed to enjoy being passed around.

Eric was able to get together with some high school friends for dinner out a couple of nights.  I was able to meet some friends for brunch one morning, where they were able to meet Annabel.  Very fun to catch up in real life!

Annabel slept a lot when we got home.  It's funny that even babies can run on adrenaline.  She just kept going and going over Christmas and crashed when she realized the only two people she had to entertain was me and Eric.

Thank you to all who made Christmas very special this year.  

Christmas...what fun it was.