Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Saturday, August 16, 2008

A girl's Best Friend

Nope, I'm not talking diamonds!

When I take our monthly b-day pics, I always put Ru on this red loveseat that I've had since I was a baby.

It's nice and low, sized for a child, so it works well, and the arms support Ru pretty well.

It's also a very nice height for a dog.



For the record, I put him up there, he knows better than to get up on the furniture. The kiss is all his own doing tho. He actually walked up while I was photographing and put his front paws on the seat in front of her and was licking her. But the back of the dog wasn't nearly as cute a picture, so I broke the rules and set him up on the chair next to her.

But the real point is it demonstrates a bigger picture. Sammy LOVES the baby. when we first brought her home, he woke at every little noise she made. I think he was more sleep deprived than Brian and I. But that wasn't necessarily evidence of affection.

Now that she's bigger, I'll put her on the floor on a blanket, or in her bouncy chair (which is just exactly the right height for Sammy) and then spend the next ten minutes chasing Sammy away from her. sometimes his kisses make her smile, sometimes she ignores them, and sometimes after I shove Sam away I see her sticking her tongue out, too. He comes back again and again. I've trained him to leave her toys alone, bring me the pacifier when he finds it on the floor (he would much rather play with it), and to keep his paws out of the way and be gentle around her. But I can't get him to stop kissing her. Even upon threatening him with the squirt bottle (the ultimate Sammy punishment, even tho it's just water) he sometimes will steal just one more lick before sulking away with his little ears down.

Ru also seems to like Sammy. She may not be very enthusiastic about his choice of display of affection (altho she has even laughed on occasion) she loves to watch him. Maybe it's the contrast of black spots on white, or his funny antics, but she loves to watch when we play fetch. since she has started grabbing, she's reached for him a couple times and felt his fur, altho there isn't much to grab on to. Will be interesting the first time she gets a good grip on his soft, sensitive ears... ;)

I do hope they will stay buddies, I think Sammy will be a great companion for our little Ru as she grows up. He's funny, very eager to please, loyal, and has mellowed out immensely since we brought Ru home. Fred won't likely be around much longer, and who knows, Sammy may break himself beyond fixing next time he does something really stupid. Or maybe he'll be our little girl's best friend for years to come.

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Thursday, August 14, 2008

4 month stats

From the about.com site

At 4 months:

your child is 16 pounds, and that is
at the 85th percentile for weight.

your child is 25.5 inches, and that is
at the 81th percentile for height.

your child has a head circumference of 16.5 inches, and that is
at the 66th percentile for head circumference.

4 months young!

Because saying 4 months old is just kinda silly, she is nowhere near old yet! ;)


Here she is during a snack break, doing her hold-mama's-hand-play-with-my-hair thing.


I always take a pic of her on this red kid's loveseat. This time she was able to sit up with just the support of the arm. (usually I have to prop her up, zip to the camera to take the pic, then zip back as she'll be listing badly to one side by then... ;)


She also sat well on the bed with a couple pillows behind her. She certainly isn't anywhere near sitting up on her own yet, she still toppled over a couple times on the bed. She is getting good at grabbing and holding (notice she has a hold of her dress with her left hand there) and I suspect soon I won't be going a day without a hat or my hair tied back. :)
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Baby soft skin

We have Ru's baby shampoo in a hand soap container, because it's not easy to wrestle with the bottle when you are holdingher over the sink.

This morning I went to wash my face after I got up. I realized as it came out that it was the baby shampoo rather than the handsoap I usually use.

I need more sleep.

I used it anyways.

Now my skin is all soft and I smell like my baby right after her bath. Prolly not something I want to smell like everyday, but right now it's kinda fun. ;)

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

a Funny little habit

Ru has developed a kinda cute little habit recently. While she eats, she puts her right hand (if that's the side the bottle is on) on the bottle, or grasps our hand as we hold it, etc. With her left hand she grabs onto the hair on the back of her head.

She tends to let go, then grab on again, etc. It's kinda fun to watch. I don't THINK she's pulling out too much hair... ;)

Her hair has gotten a bit thinner on top, I'm not sure if it's falling out, or if it's just the same amount of hair and her head has gotten larger so it's more spread out. ;) It is getting longer, and possibly thicker around the sides and the back.

And yes, she does wear clothes other than this smart cookie onesie. I just happen to have taken the last three batches of pics while she's been wearing it! (it gets washed pretty frequently, we change it pretty quick since it does show the spit up quite a bit. There is a reason onsies don't generally come in dark colors...
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Saturday, August 9, 2008

Finally, patterns!


Ru is finally starting to establish a bit of a schedule. I'll start my day at midnight since that's when I take over baby duty. She usually wakes up sometime around midnight or 1, depending on when she fell asleep. She wakes up again around 3ish, then again around 5. I generally prop a bottle in her mouth and change her diaper, then hold the bottle while she's still in her crib and she'll fall back asleep.

If she wakes up in less than an hour after 5, I bring her into the twin bed with me.

Around 8ish (depending on when she wakes up again, sometimes closer to 7) we get up and feed her, then I have breakfast while she sits in her swing and watches. Then we play some on the floor or in my lap until our friend Lory comes over. Lory and I walk while Ru snoozes in her stroller.

When we get home she usually wakes up, if not I'll let her sleep in her carseat for a while while I get some housework done, she never sleeps more than another 10-20 minutes. Then I feed her again. She generally makes two, back to back "super pooper" diapers. back to back because if I don't change during the pause, she'll overflow for sure. ;)

She then plays in her jungle gym for a while (here she's playing with daddy, I just took this pic a few minutes ago). She's getting good at grabbing things! I usually hope for a nap around 12ish so I can pump, if she hasn't fallen asleep by 1 I put her in her crib and let her wiggle in there while I pump.

She gets a bit fussy in the afternoons for a while, I think she gets gassy. So i hold her and bounce her on my leg, etc. We do tummy time, (which she hates) and more jungle gym, practice sitting on my lap, and when it gets hot she hangs out in her bouncy chair as the two of us together tend to overheat and make her fussy. ;)

Daddy gets home around 5 so I pass her off to him then and make us dinner. She usually has at least one more poopy diaper in the evening sometime. I go to bed around 8 or 9, and from what I understand she doesn't generally fall asleep again until 11 or 12.

So that's our day! We insert visits and trips out of the house as needed, I try and have her home by 4 since that's when she really tends to get fussy and hates her carseat. ;)
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Monday, August 4, 2008

The ten best years of my life

This weekend (Friday specifically) marks our tenth anniversary. We don't usually get too carried away with gifts, etc, but we decided to buy each other something special this year. Brian gave me permission to buy myself a Cricut, a totally cool scrapbooking tool that works like a printer, except instead of printing with ink it cuts things out. It even arrived right on our anniversary.
Brian loves wooden puzzles, so I bought 10 different ones and wrapped them individually. Then I wrote little two line poems to lead him on a treasure hunt thru the house (and yard!) to find them all.
I also ordered a Veggie Tales video for him from Ru. (Lyle the kindly viking) We have Jonah altho we haven't watched it in years. Brian loves watching videos, including cartoons, and I want to make sure he and Ru have some good stuff to watch together. (rather than some of the negative value stuff I see out there these days) Of course Ru isn't paying much attention just yet, but Brian and I enjoyed watching it. Maybe I'll make Veggie Tales videos a tradition now, because I think they are pretty dang cute. And since I understand we'll prolly be watching Ru's faves over and over and over... I should at least make sure they are videos I'll be able to handle the 438th time.
Saturday Leslie (Brian's sis), Kelly, and the kids came up to visit. Zac LOVES babies, so he has been asking to come visit. Kelly and the kids also really enjoy our high speed internet. ;) Leslie's main purpose Saturday was to take care of Ru so Brian and I could go out on the town for our anniversary dinner. We went to Red Lobster and then wandered around Washington Town Square Mall. I bought a new bathing suit on clearance and some nursing bras. Funny how a night on the town changes when you've got a baby. ;) Then we wandered up and down every isle at Dick's sporting goods so Brian could have his fair share of fun. We had quite the late night..I don't think we got home until 10:30!
We did enjoy the time together (thanks Les!) and I'm certainly looking forward to our next ten years together and the growth of our relationship and our little family!