Ryan's 1st Birthday Party

Today we all went to Ryan's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. Ryan is such a big boy and so cute! I can't believe he's one. I remember when he was a newborn and for a few weeks Andrina was actually bigger than him. Now he's got about 10 pounds and at least 2 to 3 inches on her. Oh well, my petite little girl...

Here's some pictures from his birthday party:

Ryan and Andrina being silly

Daddy helping Andrina to finally drinking from a straw. All because Mommy was frazzled looking for her keys when it was time to go and I forgot to bring her sippy cup. But it all worked out since she has refused to drink from a straw before.

Mommy and Baby, can you tell she enjoyed the party?

Riding the little kids' merry go round

And a second time around

Playing in the toddler area

Ok, I don't have any pictures of Tom and I with Andrina or Becca and I with the babies. Shoot, oh well, it's always busy at parties!

Happy Birthday Ryan! Thanks for inviting us to your party!

Bathing Beauties

Here's Andrina and Anne after swimming together today. They are such little cuties!

Bring me the book....

.....and I'll read it to you. That's what I told Andrina this morning while she was going through a bunch of her baby books. Well, I said it and she did it! It was the cutest thing! She was sitting down holding a book, got up on her knees and "walked" on her knees over towards me until she reached the ottoman, then she stood up and cruised the rest of the way over to me, book still in one hand, then reached up her arms (book still in one hand) to me to pick her up! So incredibly cute and it was yet another one of those moments that just melts my heart all over again! My baby has such power over me. Oh, and of course, I read her the book too and I get the added bonus of more cuddling!

No Second Nap

Well, Andrina needed the second nap but refused to take it. At least she didn't cry very long and spent some quiet time by herself getting some rest she needs. Even if she didn't nap.

It's All Part Of Being A Mom

As I've blogged before, Andrina's nap schedule is all out of whack. Some days she only needs one nap but today she needs two. Andrina woke up at 7:45 and by 10:15 she was yawning and rubbing her eyes. So I put her down and she immediately she fell asleep and slept until 12:10. Almost 2 hours. But it was close to 3pm and she was cranky so I decided she needed another nap. To prove my point, she yawned too. So I changed her and cuddled with her to read her a book before putting her down for the nap. Well, as soon as I finished the book and put it down, she started crying really hard. So I cuddled her and sang to her. And then a gross thing happened. She put her fingers in her mouth and then started to run them over my face, baby slobber and all. Then she put them in my mouth! So I'm trying to comfort her and sing to her while not having to move away from her little slobber covered fingers too much.

The bad part is I put her down for nap and she started crying hard again and has been for 10 minutes now. I hope she'll be able to settle herself down soon. Poor baby.

My "Home Making" Continues

So yesterday I made homemade pot roast which I blogged about. Well, that is what Andrina has been eating too with us. And today we had a lot of leftovers. So I decided that Andrina would have pot roast for lunch and dinner today. She still has a cold so she hardly ate any lunch. She was a little more eager for dinner but it was taking her such a long time to chew the meat as she has no molars yet. I remembered that I had a mini electric food chopper that my mom gave me as a Christmas gift several years ago. So I decided to use that to make the meat easier for her to chew. Tom watched her and fed her veggies while I washed it out (it had never been used before) and cut up roast and put it in there. It was funny, the chopper or food processor chopped up the meat into fine little strips. So I added some of the juice from the pot and ran it though again and now it looks like meat baby food. Which, essentially, is what I ended up doing. Making home made beef roast baby food. Andrina ate a few bites of it but just isn't into eating at all today. She didn't even want graham crackers at lunch today. So I blended up more of it and but it into two small plastic containers for lunch and dinner tomorrow. She has no problem chewing up the carrots and potatoes, so I'll just cut those into small pieces for her again.

I ended up making homemade baby food. Wow. That wasn't something I really set out to do. I never really wanted to do it before, but the need arose this time. But hey, anything for my baby and she can't chew the roast yet. And Tom and I both thought the meat was very tender too. I guess not tender enough for someone without molars. Oh well.

I also now know where my food processor is and I'll be using it to grind up broccoli and potatoes for some homemade soup soon. And I decided that when the pot roast leftovers are gone, I'm going to freeze the leftover beef "stock" liquid and try to use that in soups too. Since I'm on this kick of wanting to make homemade soup lately.

At Least I Got This Picture...

...of Andrina standing by herself. Now if she'd only walk when I have the cameras ready...

My Uber Homemaker Morning

I'm not really into cooking. There are some things I like to cook once in awhile and sometimes I try a new recipe (like once or twice a year). But I really don't cook. I am not a cook nor do I have any ambitions to become one. But like I said before, sometimes I want to cook. Usually something very easy and good, like meatballs or pot roast in the crock pot.

A few days ago, I got the urge to make pot roast. So I bought the roast, carrots, potatoes, and celery. And this morning after Andrina ate her oatmeal (wait a second, I prepare her oatmeal every morning, and I make her scrambled eggs several times a week, does that count as cooking?), I turned on Sesame Street for her to watch while she played and I made the pot roast. It actually takes quite awhile to clean, peel, and cut up all of the veggies while constantly checking on a baby to make sure she's ok. But after an hour of cleaning, peeling, and chopping, and checking on Andrina about two dozen times, I finally had the veggies part of it done. The rest of it, seasoning the roast and adding water to the pot, is very fast and easy. So by 10:30 this morning, I had the pot roast simmering away in the crock pot for dinner tonight.

While I was preparing the veggies for the roast, I collected all the peelings and ends that I would normally just throw away. I'm going to try April's suggestion of using them to make vegetable broth. This also works because I have really been wanting soup lately. And Tom is a soup lover himself so that would be worth the try for our household. After I got all the vegetable trimmings into the freezer, I pulled out a box of recipes for soup, found about 6 recipes I would try, went through them and made sure I had all the ingredients. Ha ha ha, no I don't have all the ingredients, I really don't cook, so I made a shopping list for all the stuff I'd need. I figure that next week I'll make a pot roast again for dinner, and I'll have enough vegetable trimmings to make homemade broth for one of the soups. It's a vegetable, pasta, and bean soup, no meat in it at all, but it calls for 2 cups of chicken broth, which I'm going to substitute with my homemade veggie broth. I think that will work.

I enjoyed making the pot roast and searching recipes for future soups because that is something that I have been wanting to eat lately. But I did not like how much of my attention it demanded. I usually play with and read to Andrina after she has her breakfast but I couldn't do that this morning since I was so busy with food preparation. I actually feel sad that I missed my play and cuddle time while reading with her. So, she's down for her only nap of the day today (long story, that's another blog) and when she wakes up, I'm going to devote 100% of my attention to playing and reading to her.

Oh, I also did Andrina's laundry this morning. The other part of "homemaking".

Big Girl Car Seat Pic!

I blogged before that Andrina is in her new car seat-facing forwards like a big girl! Well, here's a picture that I didn't have before. I don't know, she still looks like a baby to me...

Push Toy Walker Pictures

Baby books recommend push-toys to encourage baby's walking. So, here's Andrina with a push toy. Which can be a ride-on toy too when she's older. She can walk, she just is not doing too much of it, so I've been hoping this will encourage her to walk more. It does for a few minutes at a time, then she crawls away and plays with something else!

Here's an assortment of her with her walker toy today:

Walking on the Sly

I've blogged before that Andrina has taken a step. Well, Tom and I knew she could walk, she just didn't want to. Today I decided, rather impulsively, that I would take Andrina to the children's museum. I didn't take my camera. Which, of course means, that Andrina really walked today. She was by a 10 month old boy playing (he's not walking yet) when she squatted down, then slowly stood up without holding onto anything. She stood there for several seconds, then took TWO steps forward! I knew she could walk! She has been standing more and more on her own lately and walking when we encourage her to. I knew she could walk! Too bad I didn't have my camera or videocamera to get those first real steps. Of course, there's no way to ever know for sure when she'll do it. It's all on her timetable and she decided to do it on her own today without any encouragement.

Walking (she can walk on her own, I just don't have a picture yet)

From yesterday, standing on her own, because she dosen't know anyone is looking!

Big Girl Carseat!

Andrina had a vaccine-only appointment today. Which she handled really well, she didn't cry very long and was easily soothed. However, that's besides the point. She was weighed and measured and she is finally, officially, too big for her infant car seat. She is weighing in at 20 lbs, 8 ounces (under the maximum weight of 22 lbs for the infant car seat) and is 29.5 inches tall (over the maximum height limit of 29 inches for the infant car seat). So that meant when we got home and Tom and I put her down for a nap, we broke out the convertible car seat and installed it in the suv. Which was actually very difficult. Installing the infant seat was a snap, it only goes in one way, rear facing and there were two latch attachments that we connected to the latch bars and tightened the strap (which we did after reading the instructions and following them exactly). Not so easy with the convertible car seat!

With the convertible car seat, it is for newborns through little kids up to 65 pounds, facing either backwards or forwards. Backwards for newborns and infants, forward facing for toddlers and preschoolers. Well, the car seat came in the box ready to be installed rear facing for newborns. The over-the-shoulder straps were at the lowest setting for newborns too. So we had to adjust those to a greater height for Andrina. Then we were trying to figure out how to rotate the latch-attachment straps for forward-facing placement. It was really difficult and the instruction manual said that you can't use the latch system with children over 48 pounds anyways-you have to use the car's seat belt to strap the car seat into the car. So we decided to do that since it will need to be like that eventually anyways. Which makes me wonder-what good is the latch system if it is not strong enough in a crash to keep a 48 pound child safe? I don't know. But I feel better knowing that it's installed with the car's seat belt since that's safer. I think it's safer... it seems logical that it is safer that way with the 48 pound latch weight limit...

The last bit of installing the car seat was also breaking out our suv's manual (which is responsibly in the car at all times, in the passenger's side door pocket) to find out if we had tether rings in the back. This is to allow the top part of the car seat to also be tethered in too-making it safer by having another point of attachment to the vehicle. Our vehicle has the tether rings too (it better-we paid enough for it). So we did that part as well. And then there was the fun part of watching Tom trying to move the car seat be shaking it roughly back-and-forth and side-to-side. He's a very strong guy and he could not move it at all! Yay! Nice and safe, and the instruction manual said it should not move more than one inch in any direction. Well, it didn't move at all! Of course, the force of a crash would be the real test and we pray that never happens.

Oh, and the bonus of Andrina now in a forward facing car seat. She can now watch educational DVDs too. I'm sure she'll enjoy seeing Elmo and the Baby Einstein puppets in the tv in the car!

Say "Cheese" Like Anne

My niece Anne, at the ripe old age of 2, has her food preferences down and decided. And unless anything has changed (correct me if I'm wrong April) Anne loves cheese. Cheese is one of those foods that she is always ready for. Seems that her cousin Andrina thinks the say way. Andrina loves eating cheese by itself. I also have added it to scrambled eggs for her several times and she loves it like that. And the piece de resistance` is the way she loves expensive, Wisconsin Mac and Cheese from Noodles and Company! She's had it one time but she really loved it! She loved it so much, that I'm afraid that the really good mac and cheese that they have will ruin her taste for much more affordable, and easier-to-obtain, regular mac and cheese from a box or as the Gerber Graduates entree with chicken and carrots in it. So, I've only given her the really good mac and cheese one time so as not to spoil the other varieties of it for her. But I can't blame her, it is so much better made with fresh cream and cheese, as opposed to its more processed counterparts.

Lots Of Cuddles While Reading

I've been reading to Andrina since she was a newborn but it has been much more enjoyable as she is now an older baby and I can sneak in cuddle time with her while reading! Everyday I love to get her on my lap, cuddle her, and "read" to her. "Reading" to Andrina actually mean having her point to the pictures in the book, then looking at me and saying "diss". Which I believe is her asking me what "this" is, or what the pictures are. So she points and I name. And I get to cuddle her, the best part!

12 Month Touchpoints

Andrina's sleeping and napping schedule is out-of-whack as Dr. Brazeleton warned. This is the time that she, true to Dr. Brazelton's word, is up about every 4 hours at night. Independent walking is impending on us any day now and Andrina is letting us know this by having such a hard time at night, waking up at least twice a night now. But she is very good about getting herself back to sleep on her own without a bottle. Just a diaper change and then within 5 minutes she is asleep again.



As far as walking goes, Andrina did take one, only one, step on her own on Thursday. Then she fell down and has not tried again. I think she may be one of those babies who is startled by her falling and that keeps her from venturing out again. I really believe that she is physically ready to walk independently but is not emotionally ready for it yet. However, yesterday and today there were a few instances where she would be standing holding on to something and then let go, standing on her own for several seconds at a time. So I have not been pressuring her. She will walk when she walks and I'm not going to pressure her or have false fear that she is lagging developmentally because she is not comfortable walking yet.



Andrina's nap schedule is evolving from a twice-a-day to a once-a-day too. For the past two weeks, Andrina will take her morning nap at 10am then be up at noon for several days. Then there will be a day where she refuses to sleep when put down for her morning nap. Today is one of them. I put her down and 10am as usual. She was still awake and talking to herself at 11am so I went in and, thinking there may be a stinky diaper partly responsible for her being napless, I changed her diaper and put her back down in her crib. It was only a pee pee diaper but hey, I changed it anyways. She finally fell asleep at 11:45. It's now 1pm and she is still asleep. So we just have to wait and see how long it will take her to evolve to one nap a day. It may take several months as Dr. Brazelton warned. With some days being a two-nap day, others being a one-nap day yet it's clear that one nap a day is not enough yet. The worst part about her nap schedule being in limbo is that it makes it impossible to make plans to go out with her. Like tomorrow, Tom and I want to take Andrina to an art fest in Batavia. But will we be able to? Will Andrina take her morning nap at 10am and be up at noon, ready to eat lunch then we can all go on the outing? Or will she fight the nap like today, and then possibly be asleep until 2 pm? We can't say for sure...

I Finally Have My Computer Back All To MYSELF!

My blogging and email has really suffered over the past two weeks. Tom's monitor blew out and he was using mine for a few weeks. I chose not to use my computer that much during that time. There were a few times when I literally told him that I had to check my email so give me back my computer hubby! But now Tom has a new computer monitor and we are back to being a two-computer household. So I have more opportunities to blog again!

Happy Birthday Auntie Reenie!

Love,

Andrina, Shellie & Tom