Vivian at Four Months

Vivian had her four month check-up yesterday. Because our pediatrician moved offices across town, I am too lazy to make the trek twice in two weeks, and Vivian's appointment got scheduled with Theo's two year check-up. (More on that later.)

She did well, despite having another cold which started with a clear runny nose on Friday.She weighed in at 13 lbs 13 oz, which put her in the 41 percentile CDC (31st percentile on the WHO scale), and measured 26 inches (92nd percentile CDC, 89th WHO) with a head circumference of 16.54 inches (69th CDC and 76th WHO). She is not blowing raspberries of any kind that we've noticed, and despite rolling from her back to her belly consistently for a week while traveling, now that we're home she seems to get stuck on her belly again. That is not generally to her liking.

At four months, she was sleeping like a champ. She went to bed between 8 and 9 something almost every night, and slept 6-8 hours (and once even over 9) on her own in the bassinet with no interruptions for feedings. She finished the night with 4-6 hours in the bed with her mother, nursing on demand without fully waking either of us. Then she would get up for the day between 8:30 and 9. Traveling didn't seem to affect her too much, although she was not a big fan of the car travel as it forced her to go longer between feedings. She generally wears out after about 1 hour and 20 minutes of awake time, but could go 2 hours or so with encouragement, also known as entertainment. She naps in the sling, car seat, or the bassinet, and is fairly consistent about a longer afternoon nap in the bassinet starting just after her brother around 1:30. Most days she slept longer than him, and on one occasion she slept until well past 5 p.m. We had to cancel our afternoon plans as a result. She does sometimes stay awake for three hours before her big night sleep. Woe be anyone who got in the way of her rest.

She loves to eat, although she does not love to burp. Vivian guzzles her food and as a result generally has to burp (typically followed by an urp) after two to three minutes on one side. She will finish off that side, and either be full or repeat the process on the other side, with one side tending to suffice the earlier it is in the day. She prefers to eat every two hours or more often, and starts to cluster feed every hour or so before bedtime. Most of all, she likes to make sure milk is available on demand, regardless of how long it's been since the last feeding, and she likes to nuzzle up and also sleep on the breast using it as a pillow. When crying, she switches to a funny heh heh noise when presented with food before literally diving in with an open mouth. If her mouth weren't full, I swear she'd be sighing with satisfaction.

At four months she is beginning to reach for toys. On the airplane ride home at four months and two days, she started shoving things in her mouth. Usually that results in a few moments of gumming followed by some serious howls. I thought she might be teething since the mellow girl got so upset that whatever reached her mouth didn't satisfy her. But the doctor confirmed that there were no teeth coming in yet, which didn't really surprise me as Theo was six months before his first teeth appeared.

Vivian seems to love polka dots best, and she still adores anything with a face. Her favorites are a stuffed fox which is super soft from Jelly Kitten brand, a flat "Big Fat Chick" not-so-stuffed animal that is super soft and cuddly, and a knit block that has a bunny and polka dots. She still loves the blue hippo from Tiny Love that I clip to her play gym, possibly because its belly has polka dots. She seemed to be very fascinated by my new polka dot shirt as well, which is what clued me in to the dot preference.

She also likes to wear dresses, because she can pull them up and chew on them as well as fiddle them in her hands. We put her in the exersaucer when we returned, and although she hasn't figured out how to spin herself around she definitely enjoys standing and playing with the toys. She's generally happy on her back on the floor or bed, but doesn't get enough tummy or floor time. She also seems fine with the Johnny Jump Up, even if Theo runs by and she's just turning in circles.

She's well into her 6 month (at least in American sizes - the European sizes seem to be a more accurate fit based on age) pajamas, and getting close to outgrowing some of those in length. She also fits just fine into 6 month pants even though I thought they would be big on her. Some of that might be the excess bulk from the cloth diaper, but it seemed to hold true while traveling as well, when we used disposables. In other clothes, she can still fit reasonably well into 3-6 month stuff, but most of the 3 month items have now been retired. I did save a few dresses with wide necks that could be layered over long sleeve items since it doesn't really matter how long they are. Once they get shorter, they magically become a shirt or tunic, hence the versatility of girls' clothes.

Vivian is extremely ticklish on her collarbone and the usual ribs and inside of her thighs. She still likes a good foot rub, has no hair to speak of, and a generous amount of fat rolls in the thigh area. She now laughs just because I laugh at her, without the need for actual tickling, which is super cute. She also loves to be tossed into the air or even just lifted and lowered, a game known by the name elevator around these parts.


She showed no real preference when we met relatives and friends overseas, but over the past week has shown a distinct preference for mama. She's okay as long as I can be found, but did not do stellar when left with other caregivers. Part of that probably stems from the fact that we haven't even tried to give her a bottle for weeks due to traveling combined with laziness. Part of it is also that she is under the weather with a cough and another cold.

But overall she got an excellent report from the doctor. She refused to sit up when he tugged on her arms, instead locking her knees until he stood her up instead. She does love to stand, and she likes to be jiggled by tugging her arms. Theo loves to move her hands for her to dance or make the Wheels on the Bus motions, and she seems to like the kisses he demands of her.

Five months is just around the corner, and the time seems to be flying by faster than I can account for it. I hope to have some pictures posted soon. We took giraffe photos in Europe using a smaller substitute giraffe as well as with the actual animal once we returned.

We're Back!

Just a quick note to inform everyone that all of our recent travels are now safely completed. Large updates forthcoming later this week.

Oct 11 Update: Okay, perhaps a week was a little aggressive for processing 2,718 photos and videos, totaling about 23GB. Soon, however. Soon!

Travel

We made it. The kids did super awesome. Turns out the plane ride was the easy part. Theo had a lot of trouble before getting on the plane because he was tired and extra excited by all the airplanes.

Once we got in the plane there was lots of confusion. They put us in seats together in bulkhead with another infant in the third seat next to us (so there were six of us in the three middle section seats of the planes). They told us this at check in and we said fine so we could get one of the two bassinets.

But it turns out that not only is there only one bassinet, but you absolutely can't have three lap children in the same row. They found a window seat on the entirely full plane 17 rows back. Michal moved with Theo who really wanted a window and the two babies (the other boy was 5.5 months old and traveling with just his mom) stayed together with an empty seat in between so that we did not exceed the maximum people per row.

The babies loved each other. Vivian tried so hard to get him to talk but apparently he isn't much of a talker. She charmed everyone around us too. She went to sleep at 10 pm and slept the entire rest of the flight, for almost 8 hours of the 10 hour flight. She only woke up when I had to get up to leave the plane. She barely fussed before that, and same for the other baby not fussing much.

We saw Theo only once during the flight but did not hear him which was great. They only slept four hours but considering that, Theo was in decent shape. He had a few more fits waiting for baggage but nothing sleep wouldn't fix.

Thomas found us easily and we breezed through customs. We got everything in the car and didn't even have to carry anything on our laps.

The drive to Kassel is about two hours. We were due to arrive at 5:45 pm, making good time. Then a tractor trailer caught fire and they closed the entire expressway we were on. We learned about via navigation system 2.5 kilometers past the last exit to detour.

And so we sat, all five of us and all our stuff in a car. The first two hours were not so bad. We were parked and Theo went for a walk with Michal and Vivian nursed. I even got out of the car (a major undertaking as I was in the back between the two car seats). Of course we started moving five minutes after that. But it was a false alarm. We spent another two hours or so moving maybe 500 feet every fifteen to thirty minutes - just often enough that we couldn't let anyone out.

Once we got by the accident after they reopened the expressway it took 30 minutes or less to arrive. We got to Kassel at 9:57 pm, 4 hours and 10 minutes later than expected, after about six hours in the car. In other words it took more than half as long to go from drive as it did to fly.

Everyone slept in the car the first hour or so we were moving though and we still had lots of food, some drinks, and entertainment. Both kids were super stellar stars. Theo did not do his high pitch scream even once and Vivian cried only when hungry. She was thrilled with the crinkly plastic bag containing plastic cutlery from the plane and Theo had electronics and stickers and toys.


We have never been so glad to reach our destination before though.

Here are the kids in the car in traffic.

Happy 100 days Vivian!

Vivian is 100 days old today! We celebrates with dinner at The Spaghetti Factory. Vivian got milk.

If I had to pick only three words to describe her personality they would be mellow, inquisitive, and sociable. She is laidback and willing to go with whatever regarding most things. Exceptions are hunger and car trips. She is super interested in people, places, and things going on around her and very attentive as a result. And she hates to be left alone, and adores smiling and talking to anyone she can charm into a conversation.

We love you Vivian!

Vivian's New Chick

Vivian got this super soft little chick today from friends and she is really into it, even transferring it from one hand to the other and tasting the tag. They are super cute together!

Vivian is Three Months Old!

As a follow-on to Sarah's previous and more timely post, I wanted to tack on the photos I took with my fancy camera at the same photo session. Have a look.

Happy Three Months Vivian!

Vivian is three months old today! We took her giraffe photos tonight with the help of her big brother. Vivian is so mellow, the bright flashing lights don't phase her. She turns toward them to try and figure it out instead, which makes for great photos. She doesn't smile as much because she's too busy either talking or trying to stuff her dress into her mouth. She loved this dress almost as much as I loved dressing her in it! We picked out a new outfit for the special day, and she took to it (to her mouth that is) immediately. Thanks to Martha for picking something so spectacular, and we know the color scheme will make her cousin Xoey jealous. Vivian particularly seems to like the double layer to choose from, sometimes tasting only the top pinafore and sometimes picking up the entire dress.

Vivian continues to charm just about everyone she meets. She loves to talk. We don't play with toys that often, although she is beginning to show interest in them. She is ticklish now, and enjoys a good game of Duck Duck Goose for babies, where I move her closer and closer to me with each "duck" until I goose her. A round of the elevator song will also usually distract her from a bout of fussing. She cries, but not often and not loud, so when she has real tears I pay attention. She's generally fussing about food or sleep, which relate back to a very strong preference for boob. Last night she refused to take a bottle for the first time, although admittedly we hadn't tried in several weeks at least. She will suck on just about anything, including the face of her big round stuffed fox and a hard plastic soccer ball on one end of a baby rattle.

She definitely follows both Theo and Tetley with interest now, and she loves to stand. She gets mad when her legs give out and she sits down. She hates being put down, and will fuss for a minute or two until she adjusts then she continues to sit and take everything in. She lights up a thousand watts whenever anyone stops and makes eye contact.

Theo continues to be the sweetest big brother. He is still concerned about getting buzzed by the Blue Angels from the beginning of the month, so he puts his hands over his ears and constantly asks us to do so. On Monday he put his hands over Vivian's ears so she wouldn't be scared. (They never bothered her.) Also on Monday he moved her hands and arms through all the motions of wheels on the bus (his favorite song by far), and got piqued when she couldn't do the motion for "tickets please." It's incredibly cute and sweet to see him sharing his favorite things with her, even for just a minute or two, like his lovey, jez, and his milk cups. He also loves to give her hugs and kisses and receive kisses from her whenever she stands up on the floor. He really wants her to walk around when she stands up but I have a feeling that's several months off. :-)

Her longest sleep spell is a little over eight hours, and we're all quite happy with her sleep habits so far. She eats frequently, still around every 1.5 to 2 hours during her day, which runs from about 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. She is definitely an evening child, with her happiest and most alert period in the early evening or right before bed. Bedtime still ranges anywhere from 7 something to 10:30, although the range is getting narrower as the days go by and those times on either end are more and more infrequent.

She loves to eat, sleep, and hang out on the boob. She likes to check in frequently to make sure it's still there. I have no weight or height data again until her four month appointment, which coincides with Theo's two year appointment, so we will see if all her eating is paying off. But she does have some adorable fat wrinkles on her arms, neck, and thighs, and her belly definitely has a pooch to it. She is comfortably in 3 to 6 month clothes, and six month socks. In fact I need to bring up her box of six month clothes because I'm afraid she might outgrow some of the stuff before I get it cleaned and put away for use.

All in all she's a delightful baby and we're falling more in love each and every day. These are a sample of photos from today's shoot with her giraffe, and they are great representations of her personality.

Theo Eating Ice Cream

Theo enjoying some extremely tasty mint stracciatella at our local pizza place Thursday night. (Very observant viewers will note the two spoons in his hand he confiscated.)

Vivian Photos From June

I had trouble picking just one photo from June so I'm going to narrow it down to just a few in a separate post. Check out the entire gallery for more - lots more. Like 300+ more.

Vivian at Two Months

I'm behind on Vivian's two month update. That's probably not surprising, but there are two contributing factors: 1) August has been incredibly busy here. We had Seafair activities the first weekend shortly after her official two month birthday on July 29th. Then guests visiting, followed by camping on the beach. And that brings us to this past weekend; 2) Vivian's two month doctor's appointment actually didn't happen until August 10th. Her pediatrician was on a three week vacation and that was the very first day he was back. I know because I called to try and get her seen earlier, the week after she turned two months, because she was eligible for the pertussis (aka whooping cough vaccine). And there's an epidemic of pertussis here, which has made me a bit more nervous than usual with a newborn, if such a thing is possible.



In any case, I didn't get to post on the 10th as planned because we were busy packing for camping on the 11th. And I spent all of last week recovering from said camping trip, not to mention three of us came down with a cold.

So here is the two month update, one day shy of twelve weeks old. Sigh.

Vivian had her two month appointment. She skipped the one month appointment because she did so well (ie gained lots of weight) at her two week visit. She weighed in at 11 lbs 5 oz, which put her in the 48th percentile (CDC - 36th for WHO), with a height of 23.50 (a two inch increase over last time) which falls into the 77th CDC percentile (73rd for WHO statistics), and a head circumference of 15.43 inches (48th and 63rd percentiles respectively). She got 6 vaccines. Luckily that was in four doses, and one of those was oral, so she only (only!) got three pokes in the thighs. She did not appreciate it. And unlike Theo, she refused to nurse through such an ordeal so she cried pretty much until we got back to the car.

She also spiked a bit of a fever (100.7) by that evening. She had a runny nose going into the appointment, but we're attributing the fever to the vaccines.

Vivian is still an absolute joy of a child. She's got such a personality shining through now. She cries because she's hungry or tired, which amount to the same thing - she'd like to be on the boob. She would spend all day on it, eating or using it as a pillow, if she had the option. As it is, between the hours of about 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., she eats roughly every hour and half. Two hours is a long time between feedings for her. She snacks for an average of five minutes a side, and nine minutes on one side is a long feeding for her. She almost always has to burp afterwards, and that's accompanied by spitting up. Once she spits up or poops, she's generally hungry again immediately. So we spend a lot of time eating and more time trying to catch the spit up. During the day she is much fussier about eating. I've tried to push her out a bit since her appointment to get her to eat in larger portions less frequently, and although her timing hasn't changed much, she seems a bit calmer during daytime feedings. At night she has zero issues feeding, burping, or spitting up. She still does all three, but with zero fussing.

And speaking of night, she rarely cries during that twelve hour period either. Once she goes to sleep, she's unlikely to make any sound until she gets up for the day. She is sleeping in one long chunk, which is at least four hours straight and generally (at this point at least) six hours long. She's made it almost eight hours once, but that wasn't really comfortable for either of us by the end of it. She wants to go to be between about 7:30 and 10:30 and it's completely obvious when it happens. She sleeps her long spell in her bassinet, swaddled. I started swaddling her against her wishes just for future use and she has adjusted. But in general, she's still so easygoing that she doesn't really care if she's swaddled or not. As long as she gets fed proper she's good to go, and once she's asleep you can pretty much drop her in and she won't wake up.

If she does stir, a pacifier fixes the problem and she shoves her head against the bassinet wall (strangely, against the cloth part against the actual wall, rather than facing out into the room like most infants) and goes back to sleep. She adores her soothie pacifier attached to a little stuffed from (thanks Paul, Jen, and Simon!), so much so that when I forgot to pack it for camping (it was still laying in her bassinet from overnight use) we stopped and bought a two pack of soothies at the store. Best decision ever! If a pacifier does not fix the problem, she has to burp, which almost always requires picking her up. Sometime she will burp, urp, and go right back to sleep with hardly a hiccup. Sometimes the burp is enough to keep her up until her next nap time.

Vivian spends the rest of the night in bed with me, nursing every hour or two. The length of time depends on how lazy I am (generally very lazy) and whether she nursed on one or both sides in the previous feeding. She pulls both arms out of her swaddle during the course of the rest of the night so that by morning she is only swaddled around the waist. She gets up fairly consistently between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m. for the day. She can get up earlier but wants to go back to sleep shortly thereafter. She is definitely more a night owl, and the early evening hours are almost always her happiest. That might have something to do with the fact that two adults are home and she gets more attention then, but I think it's also part of her personality.

During the day she still naps frequently, rarely for more than forty minutes at a time. She manages to stay awake an hour and wants to be back asleep around 10 a.m. on a normal day, although she can go longer if things are interesting, also known as we are out and about. She still naps in the sling when we aren't home, and swaddled in the bassinet when we are. She will stay up two hours, maybe a bit longer, before she goes down for her longest stretch of sleep at night. Of course on Friday she took a 3.5 hour nap, and on Saturday she went to sleep for six hours starting at 3:45, so we definitely don't have a schedule per say. It's more of a general pattern.

Vivian remains very mellow and laid back. She does not like to be denied food but a pacifier can buy time if she's with someone else and say, Theo needs to be fed, or changed or put to sleep. She seems to prefer to be at home more than out and about, but goes along with whatever is happening. She does nurse and sleep best at home, but the sling is a close second.

Vivian loves to be held. She's not particular about who it is, and if she cries while held, she's either hungry or about to spit up. You can tell which based on how long it's been since her last meal. She has discovered her fists and likes to suck on them. She's fascinated with her feet now, especially when she's wearing socks or shoes.

We don't spend a lot of quality time playing or with tummy time, and it shows. She hates tummy time. And our idea of play is to lay her on the bed and chat. She loves to chat. She is content to hang out indefinitely but as soon as someone stops to talk to her she lights up and chatters back with pure joy. She has just started crying when she thinks she's been abandoned, which pretty much amounts to anytime you put her down in her swing. In all fairness, I usually only put her down because I need both hands to do something else. On her playmat, she loves her hippo best, possibly because Theo still has ownership of the monkey that lights up and plays music. She is also fascinated with the mirror. Just in the past week or so, although she doesn't grab at toys yet, she seems to have realized that her kicking and flailing makes something happen. She does both repeatedly for the reward of the jingles and crinkles that result.

Vivian can imitate noises very well, and has learned to shriek with joy and even has laughed just a few times when Theo has been laughing. She is extremely talented at imitating Michal when he and Theo are playing chase, and tends to make noise as they run past back and forth.

Vivian has no hair to speak of since it all fell out. It's a bit longer in back and there's just enough so that when you pet her head it's super soft and adorable. Her eyebrows and eyelashes are more noticeable, and her eyes are an indeterminate color that seems to range from gray to hazel depending on what color she is wearing and how much light is available. She's long limbed like Theo and is mostly in her 3-6 month clothes. Her newborn pants are all shorts now, and today for the first time I put her in 6 month leggings. She did not look ridiculous. They were loose but not absurdly long, which probably means she will outgrow her three month footed stuff in the next week or so if not sooner. The weather has been warm enough that she hasn't worn much long sleeved or long pant outfits. Generally it's sleeveless jumpers and dresses with bloomers.

For Vivian's two month update, I finally managed to post two galleries of photos from May (just a few newborn photos along with all Theo's from that month) and June. I'll try to get July up sooner but no promises.

Camping on the Beach X

Last weekend, in conjunction with Kasia and Dave's visit to Seattle, was our ten annual Camping on the Beach trip. Unfortunately, unlike last year when Theo fell asleep in the 2-person tent just fine, this year with the larger four-person tent he used it as a bounce-house and then a house-of-horrors (complete with screaming) and didn't go to sleep until well after sunset.



Check out all of the photos from the trip this year.

Neighborhood Night Out 2012

It's an annual tradition in our neighborhood to hold our block party in conjuction with National Night Out which was August 7th this year. We closed off the street, brought out food to share, and watched the ever-increasing number of kids in the neighborhood play. This is Theo immediately after negotiating a trade: he brought the soccer ball (as it turns out, every kid brought a ball!) but preferred the basketball instead.



Check out all the photos from the evening.

Today's Photos of the kids

Vivian got a long overdue bath today. For the first time she didn't hate it. She normally gets a shower as that seems to be her preference but she was just too grimy.

And we attended story time at the library. You can see Theo reading books afterwards, as well as Vivian both asleep (note the splayed hands) and awake in her car seat.

Also noteworthy today was Theo's art project at the library, in which he not only used stickers to decorate but actually asked for more. Until now he has been horrified by the sticky part of stickers and rejected any and all. But since they weren't applied to him I suppose it was okay.

And finally Theo outside the library petting the animals.

Photos from camping

We took the kids out camping this weekend with Ciacia Kasia and her boyfriend. We all survived and here are a few photos to prove it. Sadly I had my hands full of kids during most the actual camping so I didn't get a lot of photos.

Theo and Vivian

A few select photos from the past couple of days...

Skydiving

If you're like me, flying with a parachute is a lovely idea. And you'd gladly dump out of a plane with nothing but the parachute strapped to your back. Just as long as the plane is on fire, exploding, or otherwise severely incapacitated and incapable of making a safe landing. I'll be the first one out. But at the same time, I feel absolutely no urge to jump out of a perfectly good airplane.

For my birthday this year Sarah got me a gift certificate to an indoor skydiving facility. It's a wind tunnel that's been stood up, so the floor is just blowing a lot of wind at you. The exact speed varies (they set it for you -- you can see mine was set at ~102mph on the screen at the lower left of the video), based on your weight and experience. Some of the best fliers can literally sit in mid-air, in an upright sitting position. They then flatten themselves, shoot up to the ceiling, then freefall back down and just catch themselves. Me? Not quite that good. It was incredibly fun, though surprisingly tiring. Here's a video, and you can see the other video and a bunch of photos in the gallery.

Milk Drunk Baby

Vivian Smiles

I know the day will come when these smiles will not be the highlight of my day. And bigger things will replace them. But for right now I hope those days are still a long way off.

Vivian Cooing

Vivian making faces and sounds while lounging in the afternoon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbvKlISNzoA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Like Father, Like Son

Michal was on the phone with a friend yesterday. Theo followed one step behind him chatting away on his own phone. Michal sat down and Theo immediately had to sit right beside Michal. I managed to get this shot of them.