Madeline-6 Weeks

Weight: You weigh just over 10 pounds this week and are 20.5 inches long.  You are in the 50% for weight and head circumference and 25% for height.

Health: You are still healthy!  I was actually pretty surprised as your sister got sick last week.  I thought for sure you'd get something as she just can't keep her hands off of your.  Thankfully those amazing breast milk antibodies did the trick!  No germs for you!


Social: Your smiles are still rare but you are consistently engaged with your surroundings.  You like to be in a propped up position so you can see around you.  You make eye contact with those holding you and follow voices.

Big Grins

Diet: Breast milk!  Daddy gave you a bottle the other day.  I didn't think we'd try this early but I left you with your daddy for a few hours and he wanted some milk just in case.  He didn't use it and we didn't want it to go to waste so we gave it to you that night.  You took it like a champ.  I got a comotomo bottle which looks so much like a boob. 

Clothes: At the beginning of this week I officially packed up all your newborn things.  It wasn't too heart breaking and you were really starting to out grow them.  All of your onesies were too short and your sleepers too snug for you to stretch out your legs.  I'm excited to have a whole new set of clothes to put on you!

First Valentine's Day/Holiday

Mama's Favorites: Oh my I love your chunkiness!  You've filled out so much these two weeks.  It's unreal.  I'm not sure where your neck went but I love all the baby rolls you're starting to develop.

It's also fun for me to see your daddy interact with you.  He looks at you with such a sweetness.  I think we both realize this stage goes fast (as here we are with number 2) that we are trying to soak it all in.

Crying: Again you really don't cry.  Gosh it seems so silly to be writing that.  You have had your moments of fussiness when you are over tired or really hungry.

Sister snuggles

Sleep: You are still a rock start in this department.  You go to bed for the night around 11:30 and sleep till 6 am.  I then give you a quick nurse (you're barely awake at this point) and then you're down again till 10 am.  I'm not convinced that you would actually wake up for that 6 am feed if I didn't wake you.  You sort of stir but I think it's more me waking up (I have a crazy internal alarm clock) that makes me nurse you.  I figure while I'm awake might as well.

Naps are a little more inconsistent.  I'm still trying to sort out a schedule.  I really want to get you on one for the most part because I think this will help with better sleep in the future.  You typically take a nap around 11:30 and sleep till 1.  Then it's up for a bit while your sister sleeps.  You take another afternoon nap starting at 3.

We started putting you in your crib for your big naps this week.  I swaddle you up at the first sign of drowsiness and put your sleep sheep on.  Then I just leave.  Gosh I would have never done that with Mara.  Second babies!  You fall asleep almost instantly.  The first day I did this you woke at that 45 minute mark and had a hard time settling yourself.  The second day you were good.  You did still wake but settle back down after about five minutes.

This Week: This week you went to the doctors for the first time. You did great except for the heel stick.  We had to redo your metabolic testing because they didn't get a good enough sample the first time.  Fingers crossed its better now.

Baby Likes: You like to be sitting up and prefer to lay this way.  You really dislike being on your back when you are awake.  I think this is because you like to take in the world.

You like to make eye contact with those around you and are happiest when you are sitting "talking" to someone.

You do great in your bouncer still and love your sleep!

When Mara wants someone's hand to hold she goes for Maddy!

Milestones: You took your first bottle from your daddy.  You have also continued to give us smiles, more and more each day.  No laughs yet though.

You also celebrated your first holiday, Valentine's Day.  Nothing special but you did get to go out on Mommy and Daddy's date.

Best of Times: We are starting to hear the makings of a good laugh.  Can't wait till you grace us with that.

Daddy always gets the first bottle feeding

Worst of Times: Again I can't really seem to think of anything!  I hated hearing you scream when they needed your blood but I think overall it could have been much worse.  Minutes later you were unfazed and fast asleep.

Sister Diaries: Mara has been super cranky these past few weeks as she was battling illness.  Despite this she has been really sweet to you still.  She always tells you hello and loves to be next to you.  She seems to recognize the concept of being gentle and brings you toys to play with.

Mara at 1 month!

Tot School-Transportation

This week we are focusing on transportation.  We're taking a day each and talking about airplanes, trains, boats and even a hot air balloon!  Mara has been obsessed with trains lately so I thought she would have fun this week.  Plus we own a bunch of great Usborne books on all these topics which just happen to be her current favorites on the bookshelf!

Monday we didn't get to do any tot school as Josh had off and we went out of town.

Tuesday I tried to make up for our off day by doing three activities.  Unlike weeks before, I decided to combine all the activities into one focused time.  This week we tried to do it in the afternoons after nap time (and during Madeline's nap) and I can honestly say I love this approach better.  Mara seems more engaged and focused.

Our first activity was a Popsicle stick airplane craft.  We read our Usborne book, "Look Inside the Airport" and then created our scene.  We glued the sticks to look like airplanes and pulled apart some cotton balls to make clouds.  Mara did a great job with the glue.  I am just now letting her try to squeeze it on her own and she does a decent job.  She is still much better with a glue stick so we try to stick to that when possible.

Construction was another focus of the week.  Although we did a whole week on this topic I wanted to revisit it in transportation week.  I had a left over do a dot so I pulled it out and let her go for it.  Again she is getting so much better with this to the extent that she gets really frustrated if it's not perfect.  I'm wondering if that's a sign she needs something more challenging or a sign I should keep giving them to her? While she did this activity we read yet another Usborne book, "Construction site".  This book has some great pictures and flaps to explore!

Our last activity of the day was a road I made out of tape on the ground.  I simply took masking tape and put it on the dinning room floor to make a road.  I set out three of her favorite cars on it and let her have some sensory play.  I loved that she didn't get down on the floor with her cars but moved them all aside and drove on the road herself with her radio flyer.  She also loves just "walking" the road and when daddy came home he showed her how to walk heel to toe.

Wednesday we did three more activities again.  Today was supposed to be focused on trains but I threw in a hot air balloon craft for the fun of it.  I did something similar to our bats and asked her to "paint" a coffee filter with her do a dots.  Then we used water to create a watercolor affect.  We let it dry overnight and revisited it the next day.

Then it was onto trains.  We used "Fingerprint Activities" to make a fingerprint train.  Mara was somewhat curious about this but HATED getting her finger dirty.  I had to have a wet paper towel nearby at all times so she could clean her fingers.  We did manage to get a few fingerprints from her before it was too much.   Funny thing was after a few minutes she wanted to do it again so we flipped through the book and found a page where you can use your fingerprints to make people in cars.  We made a few before it was time to wash hands again lol.

Our last activity of the day was a name train.  I printed out a train and then cut cars out to go behind it.  On the cars I spelled out her name.  She's getting pretty good at letter recognition but I really wanted to focus on her name.  I then cut out wheels that had corresponding letters and asked her to put the wheels on the train.  With each wheel we named the letter and then she found the same letter on the train cars.  When we were done we spelled it out and talked about how it was her name.

Thursday we talked all about boats.  Mara LOVES the song "Row, row, row your boat" so I thought she would be really into this sub-theme.  We started with a simple rowing game.  We sat on the ground and sang the nursery rhyme while swinging back and forth.  This was mainly for fun but also helps her with her balance and gross motor skills.  One of my goals in the new year with tot school is to incorporate more physical activities like this!

Then it was on to some sorting.  I found a printable online and had her sort the different transportation vehicles that were in the air versus on the water.  She did this pretty well but got board of it quickly.  I fell behind when preparing this and I think that's why she wasn't as interested.  If I would have gotten it set up earlier while she was napping it probably would have gone over better.

Our tot school ended that night with a sensory bath.  I had planned on doing a sensory bin but couldn't think of a big enough tote that I could put water in so I switched things up and just did it during bath time.  At first she hated my ice boats screaming and throwing them BUT as soon as they melted she wanted more.  Toddlers.....SO I think we'll try this again at bath time tomorrow.

On Friday we were ending with cars.  Our first project was some car drawing.  I simply attached markers to the back of some of her wheeled vehicles and let her "draw".  Well after the massive breakdown she did this for about 30 seconds all while yelling, "Choo choo." Semi-success?

Our next project was a craft.  I wanted to make cars out of toilet paper tubes.  I prepped this all the night before making "tires" out of cardboard and cutting slots in the tubes for windshields.  Then I gave Mara the markers and let her decorate her cars.  When she was done we put the tires on and played with them on her masking tape track.

The last project of the day just happened as I was straightening up my Usborne bookcase (yes I have a whole bookcase dedicated to it).  Mara saw a train sticker book and just HAD to do it.  I gave in and we  sat down with the book.  The best part of these books is she is super engaged forever.  We did almost the entire book over the course of an hour.

Next week we are focused on Art.  Again we'll be doing a lot of of craft projects and a few activities.  I'm looking forward to breaking out two of our new Usborne books again and seeing how Mara does with them.  

Weekend Wrap Up

This week ended up being a longer one due to the holiday on Monday.  We took advantage of that and had some great family time!

Friday evening Josh and I (and Maddy) went out to dinner.  We love that Mara loves our babysitter and has no problems staying with her.  We headed out to this little place called Pur Pur.  It is well known in the expat group and for good reason.  It was delicious!  We got there a bit early for the evening crowd but it played to our advantage as it wasn't crowded.  Josh got some fresh pasta and I had pork.  We split a bottle of wine.  I love quiet dinners just the two of us now and again as it gives us time to reconnect and recharge our marriage.  Maddy did great and barely made a peep falling asleep in her car seat after she got a little dinner :)

Saturday we had a laid back morning.  Mara was a little under the weather so we took it easy.  After naps Mara and I headed out to get our hair cut.  This was Mara's first hair cut and I was worried how she was going to do.  We had talked it up all week but she wasn't interested.  When we got there she got clingy and shy but there were no tantrums.  (totally thought I'd be holding her head) Her hair is still sort of short so there's not much we could do to it.  I just wanted to trim it and cut off her small rat tail.  Afterwards I got my hair cut and we headed over to the French bakery across the street for a treat!

Sunday we went to church as per usual and then back home for our lazy afternoon.  We did a ton of playing and just enjoying each other.  The perfect way to spend "love" day!

To close out the weekend we headed to Bolonisi on Monday.  Bolonisi is a small town about an hour from Tbilisi.  It has strong German roots and a few tourist attractions.  It is also the first place one of the specific Georgian Orthodox crosses originated.  We came into town around the lunch hour and stopped to eat at a German Inn.  One would think they would have a German menu but alas it was Georgian.  Nevertheless it was pretty good.

Afterwards we headed up to a church on the hill which we thought was the oldest church in Georgia. Nope only about 10 but it was pretty!  We took a few pictures and a small tour then headed to the actual oldest church.  Inside that church we admired old paintings and stone work.  We grabbed two crosses (the type they are known for) and headed back to the car.  Originally we thought we would check out an archaeological site but thought the girls weren't up to it.

The night ended with a movie, Chinese food and a little family cuddling on the couch.  A perfect weekend!

Tot School-Love

With Valentine's Day on Sunday, we decided to focus on Love this week.  I didn't have a lot of activities planned but had a ton of craft ideas.  Mara ended up coming down with something mid-week which really threw our planning out the window.  She wasn't interested in much beyond laying on the couch and Mama snuggles.

On Monday we started with our bible verse, John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." I grabbed a piece of construction paper and taped a heart on it.  I asked Mara to put fingerprints all around the heart so we could remove it and still have the heart design.  She wasn't so interested and did a few prints on the heart.

Our next project for the day was some hand stamping.  Mara loves to have her hand painted to we did two crafts with this.  There wasn't a specific reason for these but I wanted to make some Valentines cards.  The first one we made love bugs for Daddy and the second was a heart for me.  We let both dry and then decorated them the next day.

Mara really needed an activity this day so I quickly printed some counting puzzles.  She wasn't really interested in them overall but I think they were good in getting her to explore her numbers.  She will only say two and I want her to try to make the other number sounds.

On Tuesday we did some do a dots.  She hasn't done any in a long time and I was super impressed by how far she has come with these.  Before she might have gotten the dot in the circle but mainly would just "color" the picture.  Now she is filling every dot and gets very upset if she misses the circle.  After finishing her first page she asked for a second and did a great job with her letters!

Wednesday started with a pretty hands on craft.  I mixed some salt dough and we used cookie cutters to make heart shapes.  From there we put our fingerprints and hand prints in the dough.  We set them to dry and will paint them on Friday!

We also tried a little letter recognition exercise.  I wrote all the letters on four hearts and gave her stickers with the letters on them.  Her task was to put the stickers where they needed to go.  She was sort of into this but I learned some valuable lessons from it.  I did too many letters.  Next time I will only do about half and two you have to get sticky stickers.  These kept falling off.

Thursday Mara was still pretty clingy so we did a simple craft with ribbons and paper. I drew a heart on a sheet of paper and she used glue to adhere different red ribbons to it.  Afterwards I laid another sheet over it with a heart cut out.  The final product was a heart valentine!

Friday went out the window as Daddy was home.  Our love week ended on Sunday painting our salt dough Valentine's from earlier in the week.  Mara did great dipping her paint brushes into the paint but was honestly more interested in cleaning her brushes than painting.  I told her that she couldn't dip them into the water unless they had paint on them so she would paint a tiny bit so she could dip in the water :)

Next week we're on to transportation.  Monday will be off as Josh is off of work for the holiday.  My goal is to prep the night before.  With both kids and my Usborne business it's too hard to do it on the fly!

Madeline-1 Month Photos

Madeline-The Newborn-ness

My Maddy,

Oh how I already miss your newborn-ness.  The days and weeks have flown by in a flurry that I don't remember with your sister.  I feel like I haven't had the opportunity to soak in this time; sleep with you on my chest, have long conversations in bed, and just smell your sweet smell.

A tiny part of me morns this lost time but the majority of me realizes that this is just our normal.  Maddy my dear, you are our second baby.  This means you're sister will always be a part of the picture.  That she will demand my attention at times where I would normally be cuddling you.  That she will be impatient in her toddler-ness when you want to feed. That she will forever be pestering you right when you fall asleep.

And Maddy that's the beauty of it.  She gets to be a part of those moments.  To love on you.  To relish this time when you are so small.  To marvel at your perfectness.  Almost every memory from this past month I have includes your sister.  My two girls.  Together.

When I first held your sister, I felt like I didn't know her, didn't know this little girl that I already loved so much.  Now after having you, I know I was wrong.

I remember all the nights we had together.  Just the two of us.  You in my belly and me marveling at every movement.  I watch you move your arms and legs now and remember how that felt against my skin.  I see your perfect little face and recall the images and profile on the ultrasounds.  I know you.  You are my Madeline.

Love you beautiful girl,

Mommy

Tot School-Bedtime

So it's been a long time since we've been serious about tot school.  Josh's parents were visiting, the holidays were on us and I was about to have a baby.  So you can see we were a bit busy.  Now with Madeline here and Josh's parents back in the states, I feel like we can really dive back into our schooling with vigor.

This week our theme was Bedtime.  I chose this theme because lately Mara has been having a lot of issue with Bedtime and sleep.  Her schedule is stressful at night and in the morning.  Although she sleeps through the night, both Josh and I would love to see some progress on the two ends.  I thought that some focus on the subject this week may help a little.

Monday we started with a nighttime play dough invitation to play.  Mara loves play dough so I pulled out the dark blue dough, some star buttons and shiny beads.  I let her go to town "designing" the sky.  She loved it!  Her first try had all the stars in the play dough.  She quickly pulled them all out and then put in the beads.  I love her organization and need to just have one type of thing in the play dough at a time.

After nap we did our craft for the day.  I like to focus on a bible verse each week as well so this week I chose Psalms 3:5 I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.  I wrote this on a black piece of black construction paper.  We talked about the verse and then used star cookie cutters to make the night sky.  She dipped different size cutters into yellow paint and then onto the paper.  We also used some star stampers that we had laying around.

On Tuesday we started the day with a nighttime sensory bin.  I used the star shapes from the play dough, cotton balls, colored pom poms and her sleep sheep.  Mara is usually hit or miss with sensory bins.  This one was a definite miss.  She wasn't interested in it at all.  It basically sat around the whole day until the afternoon where she dumped it all out and got in the bin.

The activity she liked the most this day was making our own prayer jar.  We have tried to be more intentional about praying with Mara before she goes to sleep at night.  I saw this idea and instantly thought it would one serve as a reminder for us to do it and two be a fun way to pray with her.  We decorated popcycle sticks with markers and then I asked her what things she wanted to pray for.  I was shocked when her answers were pretty reasonable. lol  We wrote out things like: Mommy, Daddy, Madeline, Nana, Papa, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Mary, Buddy, Friends, etc.  We used it that night and she liked picking a stick from the jar!

Wednesday started with a fun craft.  I grabbed two coffee filters and her do a dot markers.  Then I let her go to town on decorating them.  The final step was to take water and brush it all over the filters.  This gave the whole project a water color look.  While Mara did this I read her A Peek inside Nighttime.  We talked about nighttime animals, especially bats as that is what we are going to create from the filters!  She really loved this activity especially painting with the water.  I was surprised how engaged she was the entire time.

Right before nap we decided to do some pretend play.  We went to our bedroom and tucked each other in for bed.  This activity was great for this sleepy mommy.  I managed to catch some quick cat naps while Mara was content in the bed.  She loved tucking us both in and we played like this for close to an hour!

In the afternoon we finished our bats by coloring clothespins black and adding the filters.  We also trimmed the sides so that they looked more bat like.

Thursday was a slow morning but we managed to fit in a bedtime craft.  Since making the bats yesterday Mara had been requesting an owl.  I hadn't planned on making an owl but was impressed with her concept of bedtime animals so we rolled with it.  I quickly grabbed some toilet paper rolls and construction paper.  I then cut out shapes out of the paper to make the owl.  Mara helped me by gluing the pieces on the roll and then decorating the final project.

On Friday we had a slow start.  Mara had a rougher night and we didn't drag ourselves out of bed till nearly nine.   Despite this I threw together an activity centered around the book, "Goodnight Moon".  I made some simple shapes that fit the story and created a storyboard so to speak.  While we read the book Mara placed the objects into our picture to recreate the story.  Although my storyboard was really homemade, she loved it!  We have tried to include books in all our weekly themes but this activity has thus far been the most successful.  Hopefully in the future I'll be able to continue this!

This week we didn't get done all the activities I had planned but I'm pretty proud of what we did.  It was a great week back and I am looking forward to next week where we will be focusing on LOVE.  I figured since Valentine's Day is upon us it's only fitting.  We'll do a ton of crafts and hopefully fit a few activities in there too!

Madeline's First Bath

Madeline's first bath was somewhat uneventful compared to Mara's.  After her cord fell off we decided to wipe her down one night while we were also bathing Mara.  She had quite the audience as Mara was super concerned about her sissy and what we were doing to her.

We have yet to use soap with Maddie as her skin seems to be a little sensitive. We simply just wiped her down with water making sure we got in all those crevices.  She doesn't really spit up so I feel like routine baths at this point aren't really a priority.

Unlike Mara we didn't get peed on this time and she quickly got used to the water.  She especially loved when Josh gave her the towel to suck on.

Madeline-1 Month

Weight: I weighed you the other day and you are somewhere between 9.5 and 10 pounds.  It's hard to get the weight exactly as we only have our home scale and I am holding you on it.  You'll go in for your first doctor's appointment shortly and we'll get the exact numbers then.

I don't know how she ends up like this

Tummy time always attracts a crowd

Health: You are doing great in this department! You missed the little wave of colds that seemed to be going around the embassy community as of late.  We do have a few birthday parties coming up but I think you'll be fine if I keep you close.

You are still a great nurser.  You have started to be a bit of a slower nurser if you really aren't hungry.  You kind of take the nipple into your mouth and just hang out there till you're ready.  You still have quite a bit of gas but again you know how to get rid of it.  Burping is easy for you and frankly you sound like a man when you do.  When you do get some gas stuck up in there I've found that laying you on your belly on my legs and patting your back helps a lot.  After a bit of this you usually let one rip.

I need to be more stricter with the dairy but again you seem to be handling it well.  I'm still laying off the milk but have had some cheese lately.  My main vice is chocolate.  Gosh I had a week where I couldn't get enough.  Sorry little one :(
Social: You have continued to be super alert with increasingly longer awake times.  What's funny is you'll have a day where you're super alert and the next it seems like you sleep all day.  It's a good balance.  For the most part you are content to hang out in your bouncer, on the floor or under the play mat while I focus on your sister.  Thank you!

We have the same picture with Mara

Diet: Breast milk!  

Clothes: I think we'll be moving up to 0-3 month clothes really soon.  You still have a bit of space in your newborn clothes but are getting too long for the onesies.  I've been trying to really par down some of your clothes.  We really have way to many (cough cough Grandma) and there's no need to hang on to all of them.

I can't believe how much she looks like Mara here

Mama's Favorites: I am still loving your bounce a roo.  You hang out here when we need to set you down to tend to your sister.  We love that it's so light and portable.  With Mara we used the swing a lot but haven't used it a lot with you.  I think this is because the swing runs on 110V and we'd have to plug it into a transformer.  You love it too most of the time ending in a scrunched up ball at the bottom of it.

You're starting to love the carriers!  You are exactly like your sister in this regard.  You push off my chest to see the world.  She did this too.  It's actually kind of funny as it then negates the whole hands free thing as I have to support your head with my hands.

A little baby acne

Crying:  Still my angel baby.  You don't cry.  Even when hungry you just kind of whimper until you are fed.

Sleep: Sleep is still going great!  You now consistently sleep 5 hours straight at night.  You go down at midnight for the night.  From there you wake around 5 (sometimes 6!) and then sleep for another 2-3 hours.  It's glorious.  Other nights you fall asleep around 10 and sleep till I head upstairs with you sometime after 11.  On these nights I wake you slightly for a quick "dream feed" and then it's off to bed.  You are so funny these nights.  I move you so much taking you upstairs, changing you, dressing you, swaddling you and nursing you.  YOU DON'T wake!  IT's CRAZY! Now if your sister could sleep till 9 we'd be in business.

I'm already trying to instigate a bedtime routine for you as I can see how necessary it is (ehemmm your sister).  We change your diaper, swaddle and nurse.  I already usually lay you down awake but sleepy.  Your sleep sheep goes on and the light goes out.  Nighttime!

Other things to remember: You like to sleep on your side and do best taking naps this way.  You also almost always go to sleep if we do the rapid butt pat.

First run with the wrap

Starting her off right with Usborne!

This Week: This week settled into life without Nana and Papa.  We went to the grocery store multiple times and hung out at home.  Life has been a beautiful balance of slow and fast.

Ready for church

Just hanging in Big Sister's room

Baby Likes: You love to be upright so you can take in the world.  You also love to be swaddled and know that it signals bedtime.  You love seeing your sister and seem to be captivated by her.

Milestones: No major milestones yet but sleeping longer stretches.  Your body control is getting better by the day and you seem to be enjoying tummy time.  You also had your first bath!

Best of Times: I've loved our quiet times after your sister goes to sleep.  Mommy and Daddy then have the opportunity to really focus on you and bond.  For the last few days we've been really trying to get you to smile.  No luck yet!

Worst of Times: There was only one night where I couldn't get you down to sleep quickly.  It's all relative and it really wasn't bad.  You weren't fussing just wanted to stay up and hang out.  Daddy was already snoring next to me and I was exhausted and jealous.  So that's probably where the frustration came in

Sister Diaries:  Your older sister still continues to adore you with little to no jealousy.  She wants to be right there where you are and wants to hold your hand constantly.  This week I caught her trying to pinch your elbows.  lol  We do get a bit of jealousy if I am feeding you and she can't get what she wants immeaditily.  This has happened a few times after Mara's nap.  She is notorious for waking in a bad mood and can get quite angry if someone isn't there to be with her.

Tummy time is exhausting!

Mara at 1 month!