5 Months

Posted on July 24, 2016 by Bethany

I thought for this post I would do kind of a Day In the Life post. Our activities from day to day vary greatly, but we roughly follow the same routine each day.

We’ll start at 6am when you wake up. You quietly hang out in your bed making little grunting, moaning, cooing, and raspberry sounds. I only wake up because you have me programmed to. I wait about 15-20 min before coming to get you. This morning, you started to get fussy, so I fed you and put you back to bed. Most mornings, however, you aren’t interested in eating and just want to get your day started, so I’ll bring you downstairs, change your diaper, and let you play while I make coffee.

You rotate between your activity mat, which is basically you playing with a hanging object for five seconds before rolling onto your belly and grunting/drooling for 5, maybe 10, minutes before you start to get upset. Then we move you to the bouncer if you’re up for it, and you keep yourself thoroughly entertained. The chair is used mostly if I am playing with your sister and trying to include you in whatever we’re doing. You work on grabbing and mouthing objects before throwing them aside.

Your sister wakes up between 6:45 and 7:30. You take a cat nap around 7:30 and 8am, and I use that time to get myself and Ellis ready for the day.

Ellis has ISR lessons every morning, so we have to be out the door early every day. Her lesson is only 10 minutes, so we usually have something planned to do afterward. On Monday we did story time and Chick-Fil-A. Tuesday we drove to Nocatee on an errand. Ellis spotted a playground, so we had to stop and play, before jumping back in the car and heading to Brooks for a practice (that was a looong morning), Wednesday we went to the dollar movies to see Curious George (you had a poop explosion, and I had to change you right there in the theater. So fun.), Thursday we went to Target, and Friday we had to take Alex to the vet. I’m exhausted just thinking about all of that. You usually take a nap somewhere in the middle of all of that.

Dinosaur story time

Once home, it’s lunch time if we’ve not eaten yet (definitely lunch time for you!), and then/or nap time. Depending on the day and time, you might go down before or after Ellis’ nap. You are now napping in your crib consistently because you are too big and roll-y for the couch or bed. I’ve even had to roll up blankets on either side of you in the crib to keep you from rolling over and getting stuck on your tummy – too many sleepless nights getting up and turning you back to your back!

Problem with nap time in your crib is that you consistently wake up at least every 30 minutes, and I have to nurse you back to sleep (I know, bad habit, but only thing that works). In those instances, you wake up really unhappy, so I have to be quick to calm you so you don’t wake up your sister. Your best feeds are in the middle of the night, and during your long nap. I can’t figure out how to switch that around so that you’ll eat well during your wake time and stay asleep during your sleep time.

So, your midday nap is usually from 1-3:30, waking every 30 min. Around 3:30 or 4, you and your sister are both up, so it’s play time again. We hardly ever leave the house at this point, unless I ~~want~~ need to go to the gym. Then, I drop you off at Kidzone, and your daddy picks you up. You take another cat nap around 5:30 and are in bed for the night around 7:30 or 8pm.

Save

Number Hunt

Posted on July 16, 2016 by Bethany

This was another activity we did last fall as we were working with numbers. Ellis could count 1-15, but those numbers didn’t have a value to her, and the only numbers she could consistently identify were 8 and 1. And when she counted, she might count something more than once, or point to one unit and say, “5, 6, 7.” Very typical at her age, but I wanted her to become familiar with the written numerals and at least understand that each number represents a different amount.

The numbers with the dots we already had from another day, where we used dot stampers to show how many of each number there are. I took those number cards and laid them out across the living room floor, then I hid numbers from your puzzles around the living and dining rooms. The game was for you so find the hidden numbers and then match them with the correct number card. Of course we would identify and talk about what number you had as well while playing. The numbers 6 & 9 were confusing because they are the exact same shape in both puzzles I used.

Another activity I tried several times with you was numbering 9 Solo cups and giving you pom balls, to put the coinciding amount in each cup. Ellis liked playing with the cups and poms. She would count with me and repeat the name of the number, but she didn’t like counting the poms into the cups. She wanted to do her own thing and put ALL the poms in one cup, dump them out, pour them into another cup, etc. Anything BUT counting them. I might try this activity again with her now that she’s a little older.

Learning Letters

Posted on July 15, 2016 by Bethany

I started this post last November, and now here we are in July! I’m finally lifting my head out of the sand after 4 months of adjusting to life with a preschooler and a new baby. Towards the end of my pregnancy, I was so exhausted and run down, that I was just in permanent survival mode. It didn’t help that Ellis or I were always sick (Hand Foot Mouth Disease, anyone?). So my parenting to Ellis fell back on relying a little too much on Disney Jr., half-hearted play, and a babysitter for entertainment. Ellis has been out of school for about a month now, and I’m really trying to make our time together count. We do a lot of activities out of the house, but I wanted our time at home to be fun and memorable, too. I started up Tot School with her again when I saw that she was counting (correctly) everything and identifying letters she knew everywhere. For example, she would see the sign for Barnes & Noble, and she would say, “Look, Mommy, there’s an E for me! Two E’s!” Or she’ll count and recount her goldfish after each one she’s eaten. She can do simple math, too, like if I say she can have five of something, and I’ve given her three, she’ll say she needs two more.

That all said, here are some activities I did with her last fall to help her with her letters. I’ve been trying to teach her the name and phoneme (just one) of each letter, but I’m realizing that may be too much right now, so I’m stressing identification now. I pair letters with things that are meaningful to Ellis to help them stick, so of course we started with E for Ellis, then M for Mama, D for Dada, and so on.

Tactile learning. A tub of beans with letters D, E, and M “hiding” within. I took letters from around the house, puzzles, and games. After she found them, we sorted the letters.

More bean fun. This time I just took all the letters out of the mat and put them in the tub. She would grab a letter and find its place on the mat.

Focusing on the letters D, E, and M, I had Ellis identify each picture. I made the beginning sound, and we figured out which letter the picture went with. We had a little fun with glue, too!

A few of Ellis’ favorite D things. D is for Dada… and dog, and duck, and donut.

Be ready to expect a mess when you play with beans. Maybe don’t do this activity with a mobile baby on the loose.

Save

4 Months

Posted on July 5, 2016 by Bethany

I’m hoping now that Ellis is out of school for the summer, we can create a more consistent routine at home. We mostly have a routine, there just isn’t any conscious effort to follow it. It’s organic, I say with much sarcasm.

Stats

Height: 26.5 inches (94th percentile)

You’re wearing 6 month clothes and in between size 2 and 3 diapers. To put that into perspective, Ellis was in size 4 diapers when she was potty trained at 2.5.

Weight: 15 lb. 7 oz (49th percentile)

You have your momma’s figure – tiny arms and big bottom. You don’t push up with your arms yet, and I blame your lack of upper body strength on my genetics. You have pretty squeezable thighs though.

Head: 17″ circumference (89th percentile)

I couldn’t get your onesie back over your head at your doctor’s appointment. Doh.

EAT.

Technically at 4 months we can start introducing you to solids. I held off until Ellis was about 5.5 months, and I will probably do the same with you. Nursing is going well, but you don’t mind taking a bottle either. I still have to be careful about the amount of dairy I consume.

PLAY.

You can grab objects with your hands, but you also pull your socks off your hands and your paci out of your mouth. (The socks were initially on your hands to prevent you from scratching your sweet face, but then I also put them on you at nap time so you would stop pulling your paci out of your mouth.) All floor time is tummy time these days. You can roll from your back to your belly, and you do just about every time I put you on the floor. The problem is you haven’t figured out how to return to your back even though the first day you were rolling over it was from your belly to your back. I can’t leave you on your play mat now because I did that once to take a shower, and not too long into it I heard you screaming. You were stuck on your belly and couldn’t roll over. You’ve rolled over in your bed a couple of times, too, usually when you’re wide awake, so I check on you often at night to make sure you’re asleep on your back. You don’t have the strength to roll over on a soft surface like the couch or our bed, so that’s where I lay you down for your naps. (I hear all the old ladies right now saying, “It won’t be long!”)

You love to chat and be face-to-face. You giggle when I pretend to eat your neck.

You like to play in your jungle bouncer, a favorite of Ellis’s, too. You’re not quite tall enough for the lowest setting, so we stick a pillow under you and you sit and play in it. You also hang out in the Bumbo and the Fisher-Price chair, and play with toys or listen to a story with your sister.

Playing cars with your sister.

SLEEP.

With the exception of growth spurts or developmental leaps, you only wake once to feed at night, usually around 2:30. Then around 6 or 6:30, you’ll eat again and either hang out in your crib or sleep for another 30 minutes to an hour. You still nap after every 1-1.5 hours of wake time. With Ellis, I made an elaborate deal out of putting her down for a nap. With you, I lay you in a soft, cozy, somewhat quiet spot (usually our bed in the morning while I’m getting ready and on the couch in the afternoon during Ellis’s nap), give you a paci, tuck a blanket over you, and let you do your thing. If we’re out, you might sleep in your car seat in the car or in the Tula (baby carrier). You take cat naps in the morning, but I think if we weren’t running around, or if you had a consistently quiet place, you’d sleep longer.

Yesterday, you had woken up and then fell back asleep. I saw Ellis go upstairs, and I asked her what she was doing. She said she was going to put her flashlight in her room. I said, “Okay, but be quiet because your brother is still sleeping.” “Okay, Mommy!” Five minutes later I went to check on her, and she was in our bed playing with you. I kind of love it when she gives you attention, so it was hard to be upset about it, and you didn’t seem bothered at all.

Our lives still revolve around your sister’s naps, so I aim to have us home by 1 pm. I put her in her room and get you set up on the couch. Some days you have trouble dozing off or staying asleep, and I get nothing done. Other days, I can make all the noise in the world, and you sleep right through. You and your sister usually wake from your naps at the same time, whether it be 3:30 or 4:45. You might take one more cat nap before bedtime, which is around 8 pm.

You don’t use a swaddle, and you outgrew the Magic Merlin sleep suit (not so magical but kept you warm and cozy) in less than a month of having it. So at night, you sleep in footie pajamas, socks on your hands (to prevent scratching and keep your hands warm), and your grandma’s blanket.