One Month To Go!

My little one turned 11 months old today. Holy guacamole! That means that exactly one month from today we will be in NY celebrating her first birthday. We will also be celebrating Thanksgiving, as it falls on the same day. Last year we brought roo home from the hospital on Thanksgiving, so whether or not her birthday actually falls on the holiday, it will now always be an extra special day. 

It's been a tough year, all the adjustments, the changes, but a blessed year just as well.

Bear continues to struggle ever day with the fact that she is no longer the only baby in this house. But it's a process and I'm starting to realize that it's not about the perfect moments, it's about the struggles and how we over come them, how we move on from them and how we become better people because of it all. And as I've become more aware of this, the easier it is to ride out the storm, as I know everything will work its way out in due time. 

And just as bear struggles, Roo struggles too. She struggles to keep up with her big sister and she struggles every day to get her attention. Roo frequently doesn't get the response, from bear, that I would like her to get; I hope this coming year will allow me some time to figure out how I can improve their relationship, or at least not make it any worse.

Now on to roo's ever developing skills! 

Yes, I am biased but to me roo is a very little inquisitive genius. And don't get me wrong, I have two beautiful geniuses on my hands, but they are both very different and have/are developing in very different ways. We know now at eleven months that roo is feisty, happy and persistent (aka stubborn) like her big sister. She is sociable and friendly and I am extremely impressed by her very early verbal skills. Since 9 months she's been saying "hi!"We (my husband and I) are also impressed by the way she plays and keeps herself busy throughout the day. She is a serious toy explorer and house object scientist! She wants to know what every thing is and exactly how she's supposed to use it.

With bear, at this age, we worked consistently on sign language but with roo I don't have as much time. Fortunately it's not completely necessary as she is trying as hard as she can to tell me what she wants through her various babbles. And amongst her babbles she continues to build on her words.

Words:

Hi

Mama = "I'm Hungry!"

Dada = Anyone I see who's not Mama & can't feed me

Eddy, set = "Ready, Set..." ("ready, set, go")

Uh = Uh oh

Mobility:

Pulling up and starting to cruse

Fully crawling

Food:

Refuses jarred baby food and prefers real finger foods, especially if someone else is eating the same thing. 

Bottle fed for one more month and already on the decline thanks to her love of real food!

Eating lunch (strawberries, cheese & tomatoes)

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How things have changed:

3.5 months old

4 days old

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Bear this age, 2 years ago

Bear again at roo's age

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This time last year

Sisters Who Laugh Together...

This picture cracks me up. I don't want it to get lost in the random shuffle of photos we have loaded on to our computer so I thought I'd post it.

This sums up roo pretty well: energetic, feisty, silly, giggly and quite the squealer.

Roo is screaming here, if you can't tell...

Bear and roo like to go back and forth with their screams and then they laugh and giggle at each other; some of the loudest and happiest laughs i've ever heard!

Normally the screaming would put me over the edge, but when it ends with sisters giggling together, how can I tell them to stop? My heart immediately expands and I can't help but laugh along with them.

I'm sure I will regret this someday. But for now, scream away my little ones!

xo
bear's mom 

9 Months Old! - Fun Milestone Photo (A Semi-DIY)

The little roo turned 9 months old Wednesday, so it's been a pretty exciting week here! Roo is becoming a little person, and though most of her words are still just babbles, she is really trying to hold a conversation with all of us.

Another fun skill roo mastered, as of her 9th month, is clapping her hands; she will do so any time she hears someone say, "Yay!" She becomes extremely proud of herself and then watches her hands in amazement as they come together and create noise.

But the most exciting part of all is that she is saying her first word: "Hiiiii!"

So seeing as it was her 9 month birthday, with some real exciting milestones, I decided to make this picture. I got the idea from Pinterest a while back but I was having a hard time finding the right app or website to do the job; until I finally discovered PicMonkey.com.

PicMonkey is a great site for editing photos, especially if you like adding text! You can also make collages and banners for your website, or just purely for personal use. I have a lot of photo ideas in the making, stay tuned ~ I'm sure you'll see some more neat photo ideas soon.

Happy Picture Editing!
bear's mom

The Little One

Somebody's photogenic...

Here's what seven months looks like when you're a happy-go-lucky little roo:

"Sometimes I just lay on my tummy and think about how great my mommy & daddy are..." 

7 Months Old

My little one, roo, turned 7 months old today. It's been the quickest 7 months of my life!

Little miss number two, you certainly keep us busy!


New Skills:
"Rocking" (About to crawl!)
Babbling
Repeating some sounds
Starting to point (Not for requests)
Whines, squeals, & laughs to get our attention
Has one baby tooth

Loves To:
Scream
Laugh
Squeal
Smile
Play & giggle with her big sister
Jump
Stand
Role
Eat baby food
Watch her puppy

She is:
Happy-go-lucky
Determined
Stubborn
Sweeter than pie!

Thank you for being the wonderfully amazing, beautifully smart baby girl that you are!


**This post was written through Blogger's App for iPhone

A Day At The Beach

Last Friday we made our first trip of the summer season to the beach. We drove up to Huntington Beach, our favorite spot for playing in the sand and riding the waves.

Unfortunitly it was a bit windy when we got there. We were all chilly, even though the sun was blaring down on us. We still made it a fun family day and bear still managed to cover herself completely in sand.


Her are two of my favorite pictures of the day:

Bear.

Not such a baby anymore, I can't believe this pose! 

My little supermodel... 

Roo. 

The only thing she wants to do is play and explore.

So a beach tent is perfect for her (less sand in the mouth)!

xo

bear's mom

p.s. Congrats to my best friend and her husband! Their third baby girl was born just last night! 

Life With My Bear & Roo

A lot has been going on and a lot is about to go on...

Our little roo turned 5 months old last week. She also started sleeping through the night (Can I get an amen?!...). She is still stubborn about going down at the end of the day but I'm not going to complain. I'm sleeping through the night and she's a happy girl when awake ~ that's all a mommy can really ask for.

Ah, yes, the pretty baby with the big gummy smile is all happiness and joy and it makes those hard first three months all seem worth it now. Colic, thrush, reflux, it has all slowly melted away and my beautiful roo is purely herself these days. She babbles frequently; still very expressive and spends most of her awake time busy playing and experimenting with whatever toy she can get her hands on. She is becoming a little scientist.

But the most wonderful thing of all is that over the past few weeks bear has become really loving towards her little sister - sharing her toys on occasion, offering her one of her favorite blankets, playing with her.

We actually had a small tea party all together earlier this week and roo grabbed the princess cup right up to her mouth; she's been watching us, she knows what to do!

Roo is certainly ready to start baby food! I've been really lax about it, offering rice cereal here and there... This time around I'm just not that crazy about it. We had so many tummy issues before, I'm just not ready to jump into it like I did with bear. And I can't decide for the life of me what food to start with. I'll get it together soon, roo will remind me! She frequently stares at us simultaneously with Acadia: drool slowly dribbling down her chin, eyes glazed over, ready to pounce at any sign of a roll away crumb.

And lets not forget what's going on with my sweet bear, who has been busy with potty training. It's up and down. She is ready, she knows when to go and she is very good at controlling her bladder. But she is having a hard time letting go of the diapers. After a few days of going number two on her own she has slowed down again. I'm not going to push her, it seems like the more I let her take control of the training the more willing she is to work on it. I just hope we can say goodbye to diapers soon.

Here are some favorite moments from the past two weeks:

Bear Says:

Bear finally went number two on her own and the first person she told was her little sister:

"Roo! I did it! I went poopies in the potty!" 

While at the doctors bear told the nurse all about how we went to Disneyland over the weekend:

"We watched the parade, went on Nemo, watched the fireworks, but we didn't want to get stuck in traffic..."

After explaining to bear that we can't give roo coins because she could choke and that choking could mean that we would lose roo forever, bear responded:

"And then we would buy a new baby at the hospital?" 

Silly old bear... roo's are not for replacing!

Events:

-Bear got her first haircut this week. I had been putting it off for a long time. I love her baby curls and was afraid it would all disappear with the cut. But it was time, she had obvious dead ends and the tangling in the morning was getting old. After a few days with the new trim it seems that her curls have stayed, thank goodness!

I took bear to the best place to get a first haircut; a 100% kid's salon with rocket ship seats, movies and toys. Easy peasy, my bear's hair was trimmed in no time. It all ended with a lolly pop so I'm pretty sure she won't fuss the next time I suggest we go.

-Tonight bear and daddy are camping with friends. The house is quite, my baby roo is sleeping and best of all I think it's almost clean in here!

Upcoming: 

Wednesday we head back to the northeast; first for a game at Fenway and then to my parents. We'll say goodbye to daddy on Sunday and spend the rest of the month at my parents. I'm looking forward to getting back to my hometown and hanging out with family and friends. But most of all I'm excited for roo's first big trip. Her big sister had already flown three times and camped twice by this age, it's about time she started catching up!

So long!

bear's mom

Last Week In Pictures

Here are some favorite moments from last week:

Bubble Party

Story Time

Pump It Up

Happy Wednesday!

xo

bear's mom 

Bouncing Back To Basics

We took the fisher price jumper down from the attic this weekend so little miss roo could start her bouncing and playing journey in the circular baby saucer. 

And roo, just like her big sister, loves it! It was pulled down on Saturday evening; we cleaned it up and then let roo explore her new gym for the first time. She is just starting to actually jump today, three days later. The new view and toys kept her pretty distracted and it seems that she still doesn't fully realize that it is her that is making the jumper bounce up and down.

So now it is Tuesday and roo happily jumps, plays, gurgles and drools here beside me as I write. It's quite in the house, bear is sleeping and we're both enjoying the afternoon buzz. I have pushed roo's jumper up to the back door so she is essentially outside. She is contently watching the birds fly by, her doggy sunbathe and the leaves flutter in the breeze. You can tell that she is amazed by everything she takes in; her facial expressions show her little brain cranks churning away as she adds this new experience to her brain's 'baby files...' 

I sit and watch and imagine who she's is going to turn into. She looks a lot like bear did at this age with about half the baby chubs. I find it hard to imagine that within a year she'll be talking to us and running right along with her big sister. Life will change again as I will have two toddlers to keep up with. 

This Sunday marks 5 months. How can it be almost 5 months to the day already? 5 months! And, at times, I still find it hard to believe that I'm already with two... even one.

  "You are a miracle..." 

The first two years with bear almost seem like a blur at this point, as we begin to settle in with roo. And even though she's only 5 months along, she belongs to this family as if she's always been here.

And my bear continues to adjust too. You can tell in some way the bouncer is bringing my sweet bear right back to infancy. She can't get enough of the sweet little bouncy tune that goes along with the jumper. And it brings me back too. Back to bear and our first experiences together. 

And today I am happy, bursting at the seams with it!

xo

bear's mom

I jumped the sleep gun...

It's been a while since I've written. We made the silly mistake of putting our computer in the bedroom, where the baby is still sleeping, leaving me no possibility to write. I've been dying to write! So much has been going on! The experience of being a mother of two is both exciting and over whelming at times. And surprisingly, a little isolating... but I'm working through all this. "This too shall pass..."

Little Miss H is now 4 months old, actually she's just a few days shy of her 5th month. We have been working on her sleeping; it took me multiple attempts over a month or two to get her to nap on her own. It still is not easy! She still tends to fight and fuss through one nap and recently started to stay up after her night feedings to play, which is unbearable at times! But I suppose it's best that it's this way the second time around. For some reason I've just accepted that I'm not going to get the sleep I need anymore... Unless I go to sleep at 7pm, which isn't possible. Some nights I'm lucky and I make it there by 9pm and miss H only wakes once briefly ~ those are the really good nights.

By four months bear was sleeping through the night and taking three predictable naps a day. I thought I was the baby-sleep-whisperer. I had conquered the biggest struggle of baby-hood! Getting baby on a schedule! So I figured with H that she would do the same; OH HOW I was wrong! It's as if the second child humbles you, those things you thought you were better at than others, well that's just your own inexperience. I know they are laughing at me now up in the heavens...

It's OK though. H is teaching me a lot. She's teaching me to go with the flow, because that's all I can really do right now. I may steer this ship but I certainly don't run it, two little people do (and sometimes my four legged yellow-haired child too...).

There's something wonderful about having a second though. It's teaching me again to be a better person and to enjoy the simple, beautiful things in life. And for that my beautiful children, I thank you!

xoxo
bear (& roo)'s mom