Books and cold air

Silvia, like many before her in our family, is now a tremendous fan of "Rain Makes Applesauce". I read it to her before bed and, just for fun, during the day. The nonsense verse always makes her giggle. Of course, it helps that she's the super-smiliest baby ever, but still, I think she has special affection for this story.

Today I got her a Bumbo seat from a friend who's kids had outgrown it. It's amazing! She can't quite sit up by herself, she's always falling over, but with this she can sit up, look around and be highly entertained by Anna's antics while still working on her balance in a safe place. She's comfortable sitting for up to 10 minutes or so before she gets bored, but I tell you what, 10 minutes of happy-baby-who-doesn't-need-to-be-held, that's a really GREAT 10 minutes for me! Silvia's really going through a mommy thing right now, and I end up wearing her or holding her on my hip most of the day, so having a happy place to put her is a real treat for me.

She'll probably hate it tomorrow, but for today... we all love it!

In other big Schwartz-er news... We now have Air Conditioning! Woohoo!! It's supposed to get up to 97 degrees today. At that temp last summer, (pregnant and sick and with a whiny 1 year old), I was in tears, hiding in the basement for a breath of cooler air or trooping over to mom's to soak up her A/C. Today, instead, we've been playing and dancing and both girls took long comfortable naps and everyone is HAPPY!

Thanks especially to my sweetie, he orchestrated the whole process.

Silvia and Mommy, just chillin'

Anna at Rampart Reservoir

Oh, the times they are a-changin'

Anna is growing up so quickly into a full-force-maelstrom of a little girl. This weekend she got her very first skinned-knee, and shook it off almost as quickly as it happened. Every now and then she comes up to Kurt and me and asks us to kiss her "boo-boos", but other than that she seems completely undisturbed by them. As I got her up this morning, this was the inventory: one skinned knee (red and scabbed), one skinned wrist (also scabby), and a newly acquired cut on the TOP of her foot, near the toes, no idea how that happened.

Silvia's moving right along, too. She now can roll forward and back, and is trying as hard as she can to sit up. If you lay her flat, she starts doing crunches, just struggling to sit herself up.

Kurt had a great Father's Day weekend. He spend Saturday waxing the Boxster for SEVEN HOURS. Hey, it was his choice, and he's thrilled to bits that it's all shiny and slick looking, so that's what counts. Sunday we all drove up to Rampart Reservoir and had a picnic and hung out by the water for awhile. After we got back, Anna napped for about an hour and then we headed out again to our favorite pizza place, which happens to be right around the corner from our favorite ice cream shop. So convenient!

All in all, it was a lovely weekend, very happy and relaxing for all involved. That in itself is odd, usually we've got at least one unhappy camper for at least a part of the time, but this weekend was special, indeed, with smiles and cheers all around.

What could possibly be in-store next?

The Reading Room

Tinkles and Hoots

Potty training has begun in earnest in the Schwartz household. So far, Anna just LOVES to sit on her little potty and read, read, read. And then read some more. And maybe read a little bit after that.

As for actually pottying, that's a different story. But, this morning, I'm happy to announce that Anna produced the smallest and tiniest little tinkle for the potty and was quite proud of herself. Actually, she didn't really seem to care, but since Mommy made such a big deal, she did a happy dance for my benefit. Let's hope she keeps it up!

Silvia, too, is growing up in leaps and bounds. She is starting to sleep really well again, which is a relief. After I posted that she had slept through the night all those weeks ago, she laughed in my face and started waking up every two to three hours. I will not make the mistake to brag about her sleeping habits again, but instead only say that last night was very nice and restful.

She's also exploring her vocal range. Instead of just little coos and gurgles, she now hoots, hiccups and calls out. It's cute!

I finally got myself organized this weekend and scheduled her christening at our church. We were lucky with Anna's christening to be able to have both her godparents, Val and Lisa, there for the ceremony. Our luck seems to be holding strong, because it looks like both Silvia's godparents will be able to attend next month, too! My brother John and Kurt's sister Monica will be standing up for her.

That's all for now. Wish me luck with the potty-training!

Carousel

Curly Brown Hair

Chew Toys

Kurt and Megan

Someone either recently taught Anna our names or she's just suddenly picked up on it. She's been walking around all day, talking to herself and her toys about "Megan" and "Kurt" and how "Daddy is a Kurt and Momma is a Megan". She was telling Silvia earlier about how one toy was a "Megan" and trying to get Silvia to hold it and hug it. Have I mentioned how totally enamored of her baby sister Anna is?

In other cute new, Silvia has started to suck her thumb! It began hesitantly about a week or two ago and she's gotten much better at in the meantime. Now she's putting herself to sleep in the mornings by sucking her thumb and has settled herself occasionally in the car, too, that way. I know it opens a whole host of other problems when she gets older, (some of you may recall that I am a veteran thumb-sucker myself), but for the moment it's just nice that she's learning to self-soothe. She's also started playing with toys in the past few weeks, shaking things and putting everything in the world in her mouth.

Anna has another horrible cold, I think it's the eleventy-twelfth one this year. Silvia's been extra fussy this week, too, and started sneezing this afternoon, so I'm afraid the bug may have already made the sisterly connection. That's one drawback to having Anna so in love with Silvia; she's always touching and hugging her, sharing every germ known to man. The baby's 4 month well-check appointment is this Thursday, so he'll be able to check and see if she's developing another ear infection on top of it all again. Hopefully not, as that could have some worrisome consequences.

Firsts!

Today has been a morning of firsts for Silvia. She rolled over for the first time. This is her first roll ever, and she still can't roll from tummy to back, but she's trying hard. Usually babies go tummy to back instead of back to tummy, but Silvia is just doing it her own way.

She also had her first real laugh this morning! I was tickling her, (see the picture below), and she just all of a sudden started laughing really hard. Too cute!

I can't believe she's having firsts already. She's just growing so quickly!

Happy Baby

Crying

Silvia is a sweet baby, she really is. She loves me and Anna and... well, she thinks Kurt's pretty neat, too. So long as she's not hungry/tired/needy/etc. Silvia is a mommy's girl. It's been a slow gradual development, but we've gotten to the point where pretty much no one else can hold her except me without bringing on The Face. You know the one, right? The one that starts with the lower lip pout and watery eyes, and then disintergrates into full on fury within a few moments.

She wants her momma, it's true. It's been hard on Kurt, who's such a devoted dad. Sometimes I try to sneak away for a few hours and, guaranteed, when I walk in the door I can hear her wailing upstairs as he tries to rock her, completely resigned to her wails. It's not every time I leave, but it seems to happen with an alarming regularity. Guess who feels ever so slightly trapped by baby love? Go on, guess! You'll never figure it out!

My solution was idealistic in the extreme. I had this plan- no, more than a plan, it was a VISION. I decided that we, as a family, would go every morning to the gym, drop the girls in the happy daycare where they would be happy and cheery and also very cute. I would sweat out my stress in an up-beat exercise class while Kurt lifted weights, I'd drop the last of the post-pregnancy weight, and we'd all start the weekend chipper and revived from our fabulous morning at World Gym.

Here's what really happened:

I dropped the girls in the daycare while Silvia was still sleeping and as soon as I tried to leave, Anna started crying and whining. Distracting her momentarily, I slipped out. Kurt headed off to the weights and I started on the cardio machines (not being so delusional as to think I'd make it through a full class on the first try). Precisely 7 minutes later, the daycare worker came to get me. Silvia had woken up hysterical and would not calm down. Anna was freaking out because a stranger was holding "My Silvia" and "My Silvia is crying!!!". The moment I walked in, Anna had a complete melt-down and Silvia was totally inconsolable.

I spent the next 40 minutes driving around, trying to get the baby to stop crying, while Anna sang preschool songs at the top of her lungs. Kurt finished his workout, the first he's been able to do in months. When we got home, I ran on the treadmill for 20 minutes and pretended I could make it to the Escapeland if only I ran faster. Sigh... oh, well. It was a pipe dream anyway. I've still got my treadmill, now I just need to find the time to use it!

Speaking of driving around with Silvia, we're having some serious troubles in the car with her. She hates it. HATES. Mostly she'll cry and fuss and I'll drive around with my shoulder partially out of socket so I can hold her pacifier in until she falls asleep, but sometimes... sometimes it's bad. Sometimes she cries and cries and screams and wails and shakes and hiccups and throws up and then cries some more. It's so weird, I thought babies were supposed to love the car, but she really can't stand it. We're supposed to drive up to Fort Collins next week, a two hour drive each way, and I'm starting to think we just can't go. I'm afraid I'll go insane. It's awful, because you can't really do anything to help her feel better except get her out of the car, and sometimes, let's face it, we just have to drive places.

So that's what we're dealing with lately. There's been some crying. But we'll make it through.

"Yuck!"

The best way to get Anna to smile for a picture? Get her to say, "YUCK!". She thinks it's the funniest word since "Sploosh!".

Play-doh, the journey continues

I was at Target yesterday, (because I am always at Target), just looking around. It's about 3 minutes from my house and I spend way too much time there, but it's just! so! addicting! I always go in to find a shirt for me, or pick up some groceries or whatnot. I always leave with something for the girls.

Yesterday, I found a pack of 50 different Play-doh shape cutters for about $8. Heaven! Anna is still hesitant to mix her colors and still wants me to make her shapes for her, but I'm no Play-doh artist. I can make pancakes and snakes, that's about it.

But now, oh the variety! This morning we sat for over an hour, playing with giraffes, frogs, people, elephants, alligators, triangles, stars and on and on. We played so long and so intently that eventually Anna got tired of Play-doh, something that has never before occured.

Now that is what I call I a great purchase!

An Ah-HA! moment for Anna

This morning Anna was playing happily in the living room with these little alphabet bubble stickers that she "borrowed" from my scrapbooking stuff. She loves them, but they seriously frustrate her,too, sometimes.

So she's sitting there, sticking them on her books and stuff (they're not super sticky anymore) and then gets all uspet about lord only knows what. She starts crying and yelling and throws the stickers all over the place.

I say, "I'm sorry you're upset, but there's no throwing toys. Bye-bye letters." I put them away and she's still shrieking. I say, "Anna, I can't help you when you're this upset. When you feel better come talk to me." Then I walk into the kitchen.

Anna cries for a moment more, then...

She stands up, walks past me saying, "Let's go Time Out, then I'll feel better." Sits herself in the time out chair. I'm grinning ear to ear, listening to her talk to herself about the letters and needing a time out. Then I hear, 'Momma...".

I walk in. She's still sitting. "Momma, I'm in time out."

I say, "Yes, you put yourself in time out because you were very upset. Do you feel better now?"

"Yeah, I feel better. Wanna go sit in the crib?" (That's where she likes to wind down sometimes when the world gets too overwhelming.)

We happily climb the stairs, singing the stairs song, I put her in her crib for a few minutes, she smiles and we're all happy.

I cannot believe it!

Little Baby Ears

Poor Silvia has another ear infection, this time in both ears. She's been super fussy for about a week, crying a lot and not eating or sleeping well. I knew something wasn't right, since usually she's just very cheery and calm.

For Mother's Day we drove up to Boulder to visit with my Aunt Juanita and cousins Liz, Vicki and Cathi. It was wonderful to see everyone, I hadn't seen Liz in ages, but little Silvia cried pretty much the entire visit and the whole trip back; she just couldn't get comfortable. Hopefully next time we get to visit with them it'll be while she's healthy so they can see her super smiley side. She started her antibiotics this afternoon and by this evening already seemed to feel better.

Unfortunately, the fact that she's developing these infections so young sets up a predisposition for the future. We've got to be extra careful to help her avoid catching colds, since that just makes her ripe for another ear infecti0n. Poor little baby ears!

Baby Mohawk

Sticker Frenzy

Negotiations

Anna loves her Play-doh. Really, really loves it. Every morning, after Little Einsteins, she says, "Mommy, wanna go in the playroom and play with Play-doh?".

"Sure," I say, sighing inwardly. Because it's not a simple matter of just getting her the stuff and leaving her to it. No, it's more a matter of, how long can I sit there and make shapes FOR her, per her instructions, before I go crazy? But it's creative play, it's harmless and clean and she loves it and it's NOT Little Einsteins, so I go along with it almost every time.

As we walk up the short stairs to the playroom, she then always says, "We're gonna get the Play-doh. Anna gets five Play-dohs."

This is where the negotiations begin. The set that we have is 50 tiny tubs of different colors. Anna knows she's only allowed to have three at a time. Then, one day, Kurt gave her four, because he didn't know the rule. It's been an issue ever since.

"No, Anna, only three Play-dohs. You know you only get three colors at a time."

Holding my hand up the stairs, she says then, "Anna's gonna play with four colors."

Sigh. "No, sweetie, remember? Only three."

"Anna love the four colors of Play-doh."

And on and on. Once we're settled with our THREE colors and she eventually cuts me loose from cookie making and cake making and star making, she usually sits and plays on her own for a long time. Sometimes she stuffs it, tubs and all, into her little pink purse and walks around with it on her arm. And then, of course, she asks me for another four tubs of Play-doh, since hers is now "hidden" in the purse. Notice, she asks for FOUR more, as if I won't catch it. Tenacious little squirt.

This evening, she was playing at her little table as I sat at my computer, with my back to her. I glanced over my shoulder and she was putting all the little shapes and balls of Play-doh in her purse. I smiled and turned back to my screen.

Literally no more than a minute or two later, she came up to my chair, holding an un-opened tub of Play-doh and said, "Mommy, wanna open purple?".

Turning towards her, I saw that she had an extra tub in her hand. She had realized the box was within reach on a table and taken it out to add to the three she already had.

"No, Anna, only three..." I started to say, and then I saw her little play table.

She had piled, in that short minute or two, EVERY single tub of Play-doh from the box. There were 47 little yellow tubs with multi-colored lids all over the table. The rest were in her purse.

I looked at my industrious daughter. She smiled, held the purple tub out to me. "Four?", she asked.

After I was able to control my laughter, I caved, I admit it. It was too cute. "Okay, Anna. Let's put all these other ones away, and then you can have FOUR Play-dohs. Okay?"

"Yeah, Mamma! Four Play-dohs for Anna!"

Negotiations can be tricky, but I think I still won this one, on a certain level. Four is still less that 47, right?

Dreamy McSleepypants

Silvia slept through the night last night, in her crib, without once whimpering or even waking. She's 11 weeks old! THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!

I put her down at 10, with her very simple routine (jammies, story, swaddle, nurse til sleepy, rock, lay her down before she's totally out). She lay in her crib, blinking, staring at the mobile, then closed her eyes. I checked on her at midnight- totally asleep. I woke up at 3:30, freaked out and not knowing where she was, ran to her crib- she was sucking on her hand that she had pulled out, sleeping. I checked on her at 5:45- one arm out, one leg out, sleeping. She stirred a little at 6:45, so I went and got her and brought her to bed, nursed her.

She went back to sleep for another half and hour!

Kurt and I are pinching ourselves. Is this real? With Anna, we'd have to creep out of the room after laying her down (after rocking for HOURS) totally asleep- if the door creaked, the gig was up and we'd have to start all over again. It was 10 months before we could lay her down sleepy but still awake. I mean, heck, when Anna was 12 weeks, she was sleeping so poorly I was about to drive off a cliff! I feel like I must be dreaming. I feel RESTED.

I feel very, very, very...confused. But happy. Very happy, too.

Play time

I think there's a control freak buried just beneath my surface. Anna's "playing" with Play-doh right now, and as I was watching her, this little voice in my head said, "Oh, she's not doing it right! Go over there and make her play the way she's SUPPOSED to." As if there's a wrong way to play with Play-doh. Thankfully, I supressed the little voice and let Anna continue on her merry, and fun-for-her, way.

She seems to be against squishing the stuff too much with her own hands. She leaves it in the little "cakes", the way it comes out of the tubs, and pretends to eat them. The dough is not allowed to touch the other colors, and she doesn't like to have it formed into shapes. Just "cakes" and, when she's feeling adventurous, "cookies", i.e. flattened cakes. *grin* Who am I to tell my kid what's fun and what's not, right?

Obviously, she's totally recovered from last week's illness. She lost a few pounds but has been eating like a hungry bear all week, so I'm positive she'll gain it back in no time.

Silvia is doing great, as well. She's growing so fast! This weekend we're going to start the process of moving her to her own bed. Up until now, she's been sleeping with us at night, but it's just getting too uncomfortable for me. She snuggles in SO close and digs at me with her little legs all night long, trying to burrow in as much as she can. Needless to say, Mommy's not getting much rest.

Silvia is actually a very good sleeper, not at all like Anna was, so I'm hoping the move to her own crib goes easily, though I do expect the process to take a week or two before she's really comfortable there. I just hope she doesn't rebel and decide to start waking up every half an hour in protest. Wish us luck!

Cute baby picture, just for fun!

A Day for Recovery... and Disinfection

Well, we are home today. Anna finally decided that maybe starting to drink again would be a good think, thank goodness, so we've spent the day trying to get our lives back into some semblance of order. She is doing SOOOOO much better, still a little weak and not 100%, but definitely not sick anymore, just recovering.

This has been an exhausting week of little sleep, lots of adrenaline and rushing around, tedious hours of waiting and cranky kids. It's a huge relief to be home again, even though there was a lot of work to do to get things back to normal. We had to go through the house and clean, wash and disinfect pretty much everything Anna's touched. Her particular virus is a tenacious bug, so we ended up going over all her toys and washing pretty much all the linens and blankets in the house. But it's all done now, everything's clean and nice, even the girls. We scrubbed them both down before their naps.

The quiet time today while they are sleeping feels a little dizzying after all the worry and frantic activity of the week. But I've got my balance back, my daughters are healthy, my hubby and I are still a great team, and generally I'm just grateful for a happy ending to this snapshot in our lives. I seriously don't know what we would have done without Mom and Terry, too, they were so wonderful, just stepped up immediately to help with Silvia while we dealt with everything going on with Anna. Thank you both SO much, I am a lucky girl to have such an amazing family!

On a down note, we did have to cancel our trip that was planned for this weekend. We were supposed to leave this morning early for Virginia to see family and go to my friend Wayne's wedding. I've known him half my life and I feel terrible to miss this big moment, but there was just no choice. Even though we're out of the hospital today, Anna's still recovering and I just would have felt terrible leaving here her even for a few days. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to see Wayne and his new bride, Rachel, sometime this summer.

And that's pretty much it right now. Kurt and I are learning that parenting is just really the practice of managed helplessness; 99% of the time there's just not a lot you can do but wait and see and be a presence of support for your child. It's a harsh reality, but for now, for this moment, it was enough, we all got through it and now we can move on to the next big thing.

Oh, good lord. What is the next big thing? These kids are enough to make a saint nervous. Here's hoping I can handle it!

The Week of Firsts

This has been a big week for Anna Banana. She had her first serious illness, her first trip to the ER and now her first hospitalization. She's been sick with a bad case of Rotavirus since last Saturday and finally, yesterday, her pediatrician reccomended that we admit her to the hospital for fluids. She was just unable to keep anything down and was refusing to drink anything, so her poor little body had begun to totally dry out. She was even crying without tears by the time we brought her in last night, poor thing.

I'm happy to say, though, that after even just a few hours on IV fluids, she was already perking up as of 9:30 last night. Kurt stayed overnight with her. I had to come home and be with Silvia, who is being so good and sweet and mild right now, a true angel in a difficult time. We're hoping to bring Anna home late today or, more likely, Friday, once they get her re-hydrated and make sure she's able to both drink and keep things down.

Kurt and I are exhausted, but so relieved that Anna's doing better. It had begun to get a bit scary, just watching her deteriorate. Holding her down, along with three nurses, while she had her IV inserted was truly awful, though, not a moment I'll soon forget.

I'll post more later, after I head back to the hospital this morning.

Cousins

Vicki and Cari came down last weekend for a visit to meet Silvia. They brought so many presents that Anna was convinced it was a birthday party... for her, of course. Because all birthdays are Anna's birthday as far as she is concerned. Vicki brought this great little game with plastic balls that Anna cannot get enough of. "Wanna play balls, mamma?" has almost (but not quite) replaced, "Wanna watch Little Einsteins, mamma?". It's a very simple game designed for small kids and Anna just giggles fit to burst every time we play.

Silvia mostly slept through the visit, but she did have a few moments of coo-ing and blinking her big blue eyes up at Cari. Cari had on a green sweater that went really well with the baby, I wonder if she planned that?
Speaking of birthdays, it's my 30th today... I'm crossing over into new territory! Kurt's got some special dinner planned that he won't tell me about and my friends and I are going out tomorrow to celebrate while mom watches the girls. I told Anna it was my birthday this morning and she said, "Happy birthday, Daddy! Time for birthday hats and birthday cake and birthday balloons. It's Daddy's birthday and Anna's birthday!"

Here's some pictures!

Cari and Silvia

Anna warms up to Vicki after the introduction of the ball game.

Kurt and I making faces at the baby.

The famous CAKE, that my friend Jen made for me for my birthday. I'd share... but I'm just not that nice.

Family Photos

You can more easily view the pictures taken by Trystan Photography at our web album online, here. Here's a few of my favorites.

Big Sister

Anna has been very sweet with her baby sister, especially lately. She's formed quite the attachment to Silvia in the six short weeks since we brought her home.

The first thing she says when she gets up in the morning is, "Where's Silvia? Wanna go say hi to Silvia!". The other day in the car while Silvia was crying (she always cries in the car, she hates driving), Anna told her, "Don't worry, Silvia, it's okay, we're almost home." She then proceeded to sing her "Twinkle Little Star" and the Silvia version of "Mockingbird".

"Hush little Silvia, don't say a word, Anna's gonna buy you a mockingbird."

Singing is pretty much Anna's favorite activity these days, that and collecting rocks wherever she can get her hands on them. She makes up songs about the things around her. For instance, at dinner last night, she was singing, "Anna's got apple juice and a straaaaaw, and peanut butter and Silvia spit up the miiiiiiiilllk, and Daddy's got the remooooote controllllll...".

Silvia's got her first cold, poor baby. She's miserable and stuffy, but the pediatrician says it's just congestion and she'll hopefully be better soon. She was 10 pounds, 13 ounces when the checked her, she's growing so fast!

Charlotte over at Trystan Photography took some wonderful pictures for us again, I'll try to get some posted this week. You can also view them in the galleries on their website, here.

One month check-up

We headed out to the pediatrician for Silvia's well check this morning. I tell you, it's a whole different ball game getting two little girls ready to go and out the door. But we're learning.

Silvia's gained almost two pounds in the first month, putting her at 10 lbs, 1 oz today and in the 75th percentile. She's also 75th percentile for height at 21.75 inches. She's no peanut like her big sister, that's for sure. The doctor declared her fit and healthy. She's got a small hernia on her belly button, like Anna, but that will grow over as she gets older. She's also got a little bit of a clogged tear duct in her left eye, but that, too, will get better with time.

It was so fun watching her check-up though, just because it's so different from how Anna was at that age. Silvia has very strong neck control already, but the most amazing thing for me to see is that she stands up. She actually pushes off on her legs and stands when you hold her up. Because of Anna's developmental delay, she never stood, never even put weight on her legs at all until she was 17 months or so. Just because of that prior experience, it makes me feel like Silvia is a Super Baby just becuase she can do this little, and very normal, thing.

Ain't she cute?