Wii Teething!

No, it's not a new Wii game, but I have two very separate topics to blog about, so what do you do for a title?  Make up something that sounds like a Wii game I think!


Kim got a hand-me-down Wii system from a friend at work.  We've been waiting to break it out, and this weekend (being cold and windy), we decided was a perfect time.  So Kim introduced Alli to Wii bowling.  The girl was an ace!

Here's a cute picture of her bowling.

And yes, she is in her dress-up-Barbie dress.  You name the hour of the day, she is probably in that or her Pajamas!


As for Natalie, well, she always has been a drooly baby.  But this is getting ridiculous.  She just soaks her shirts, all the way down to her belly button.  She goes through 3 shirts a day because of drool.  My guess?  Teething.  I swear I see a little white nub on her bottom gum, but I've been thinking that for a while.  I don't feel anything yet.  I don't mind those teeth staying inside the gums for quite a while longer!  She already looks much older than she is because of her size - she doesn't need teeth too!!

The Dining Room Table Shuffle

Our family is made up of creatures of habit.  We each have our own specific seat at the dining room table.  Once in a great while, we will change where we sit.  This is usually dictated by Alli deciding she wants to re-arrange the table.  Well, over the last week, I think we switched seats around about 3 times. Highly unusual for our family.  We gave Kim the head of the table back (there was a coo against Alli, who doesn't understand the power of the head of the table, but always insisted on sitting there.)  We switched Mommy to the back side of the table (although this isn't going to last long, cause March usually brings out the lizards and I'm *not* going to sit with my back to the window!)  And after a couple of days with this seating arrangement, we decided to add Natalie to the table.  Typically we would include her by having her in her bouncy seat on the floor where we could talk to her while we ate.  But she's been sitting up really well, so it was time to promote her up.

And look who she gets to sit next to!!

I think Alli plays with the toys more than Nat!!

No More Freezer Room

I've been worried about how much milk Natalie might consume, given her above-average size.  So I've been getting up in the middle of the night to pump to make sure I have enough milk stored.  I've also been making sure I eat TONS of calories to make sure my body has energy to produce the milk.  Now I'm scratching my head because it doesn't seem (date-wise) that I'm that far ahead on my milk storage, but looking at the freezer, I'm not really sure I'm going to make my middle-of-the-night pumping sessions through 6 months.  We are really running out of freezer space, unless I start getting rid of the people-food!

The drawer below the peas has 2 rows of milk.  We have milk stored with our ice cream and such the next row up, and milk laid out to freeze the row above that.  The outside freezer has 2 huge rows of milk.  The rest of the outside freezer is full of food.  Maybe we need to make more shelves!  haha

Gymnastic Stretches

Alli has been given homework for gymnastics, and it's lots of stretching to improve flexibility.  If they stretch every day, they get a little prize.  To help Alli stretch, Mommy does the stretches with her.  We start by running around the house for 1 minute to get our muscles warmed up.  This is Alli's favorite part.  :)  Then we do our stretches.  One of the stretches is the bridge.  Mommy had to help Alli with this stretch the first day because she couldn't get her head off the floor.  Alli, then had to help Mommy with her bridge because she also couldn't get her head off the floor.  Daddy found this funny and snapped this picture:

Yes, I got my head off the floor with her help, thank you very much!  :)

After a couple of days though, both of us are able to get our head off the floor by ourselves.  The bridge is now Alli's favorite thing to do (besides the running).

Notice her Barbie dress-up outfit she was wearing when we stretched.  It seems like most of the time we do our stretches, she is in that dress-up outfit!  And yes, that is Natalie is in her bouncy chair watching.  She's always a part of whatever we do!

4 Month Big Sister Checkup

Everyone says that the older sibling regresses a bit when a baby is born.  I've been waiting for Alli to regress, but instead it seems like she has matured.  Alli wants to take care of Natalie, make her laugh, stop her from crying, etc.  She is not regressing to get our attention (although she will do other things like say "leave her alone and play with *me*").

One of Alli's recent milestones has been to wear underwear to bed.  She had been wearing her pull-ups all this time, but for the last month or so they were almost always dry.  Even so, she never wanted to wear underwear at night.  Then she had an allergic breakout Alli-style, and she decided it was caused by her pull-ups.  And that was it.  No more pull-ups at night.  And she hasn't had one accident yet!  We are very proud of her!

Alli is helpful in so many ways, especially when it comes to entertaining her sister.  Here is a fun picture of Alli "helping" Molly (our nanny) give Natalie a bath.  The full alphabet and numbers are in that little tub!

And here is the result of Alli picking out both of their clothes.  We called it "Jeggings Day!"

Natalie's 4 Month Checkup

Well, besides being congested with a cold, Natalie is doing great!  She grew 2-1/2 inches in the last two months!!  Holy cow!!!

She is a very happy baby and developing right on track.  She can grab things now, and often has long conversations with her elephant.  She loves looking in the mirrors, but really the "fun house" mirrors that come with the baby activity mats.  She's not as interested in the real mirrors where everything looks normal!  She also tends to put *everything* in her mouth.  This is going to get interesting once she is mobile, cause Alli tends to leave everything on the floor.

Here are Natalie's current stats:

Height:  26" (85th percentile)
Weight:  15 lbs 8 oz (96th percentile)
Head Cir:  40cm (23rd percentile)

I'm still baffled at these numbers!


My prediction:  Alli will grow to be 5'2", and Natalie will tower over her younger sister at 5'7".  :)

That's Not Funny Nat!

The other day, the girls and I were playing.  Well, it was more like I was holding Natalie so she could watch as Alli and I played together.  The way Alli plays is she tells you what you should say or do.  "Mom, pretend Francesco is going to race Lightening and Lightening is going to win."  (I have the Francesco car, Alli has the Lightening car.)  So what do I do?  Make Francesco win, which makes her mad!  Well, she started yelling at me and going on about how that wasn't right, and Natalie just watched her sister and started laughing.  Alli usually loves when Nat smiles and laughs at her, but in this case, she turned to Nat, got in her face, and yelled "That's not funny Nat!!"  That made me laugh.  Let the fights begin!!

Does the Laundry Ever End?

Yes, I'm griping about laundry.  Probably because Natalie has once again out-grown a size, and that always makes more laundry.  It's washing the new clothes (in this case, the 6 month sized clothes), and washing the old clothes that were worn that week (in this case all her 3 month sized clothes).  Her drawers are packed!  Between hand-me-downs from Alli and all the clothes people gave us as gifts, I'm hoping we get through all of the clothes before she grows into the next size!!  :)

For an update on Natalie and the probiotic, after a week of taking them, everything started moving along just fine.  But what we have noticed is if she skips a day of taking them, she skips a day of a BM.  So, every day, I make sure she takes 1 bottle at least, and I put the probiotic in it.  It's usually her 9am/10am feeding.  Then we have all day to let it do its magic and that typically is working.  She seems much happier, and I know I am much more relieved.

For an update on my hair, well, it's still shedding.  From what I've ready, when you are pregnant, you get huge amounts of Estrogen in your body.  The Estrogen interrupts your hair cycle's normal pattern (grow for 1 month, then fall out).  They way it interrupts it is grow forever, never fall out.  The problem is, after you have a child and your Estrogen levels go back to normal, your hair goes back to it's normal pattern, but there's a lot of hair that didn't fall out over the last year, so it all goes at once.  This is a horrible trick to play on mothers, and I think evolution should change that somehow!  ;)  So, I'm just waiting to see what I'm left with.  I'm not allowed to take Estrogen (not even in a birth control pill) because it has a tendency to reduce milk production.  So, it is what it is.  Maybe next year, when I'm done being Natalie's cow, I will look into some ways to help my hair.  But until then, I'm not going to mess with anything that might affect her via the milk.

For an update on Alli, I can only say she is an amazing big sister.  Natalie just *loves* her.  I can't stress that enough.  Alli will pull and squeeze and lay on Natalie, and all she does is just give a big smile and a laugh.  It's really amazing.  Alli has been doing great in school.  She reads like crazy and is starting to feel comfortable enough to try to read books she hasn't seen before.  (This is big for her - she wants to know she can do something before trying, so it means she is feeling more comfortable with her abilities.)  We are also amazed at how much she talks.  And talks.  And talks.  Kim and I spent last night at dinner looking at each other and just laughing because we couldn't get a word in edge-wise.  Alli just kept going.  "Mama - pretend you think this red stuff on my pizza is hot lava and try to stop me from eating it."  Now imaging hearing that repeated about every 20 seconds, for 20 minutes of dinner.  Holy crap!!!  We are dying!!!  We clearly do NOT know how to play with a 4-1/2 year old!!!

But we love her to pieces!

We feel very fortunate to have our happy, healthy family.

p.s.  I have no updates on Kim.  He is basically the same through all of this, just a little grumpy because I make him get up at 6:30am every day with me and the girls.  :)

NO!!! There Goes My Hair...

I thought I was just imagining it, but no, my beautiful pregnancy hair is falling out.  :(  I had amazing hair for almost a year, and I'm going to really miss it.  Even though I'm losing it, I'm fighting as hard as I can.  I'm still taking my prenatal vitamins, and I've been using coconut oil on my hair before washing it, to try to keep it as strong as possible.  (Yes, Kim is loving seeing me walk around in a bright pink shower cap for 30 minutes before taking my shower!  That's part of the coconut oil hair treatment...)

I find it interesting though that my hair loss coincides with me going back to work.  Stress already??

What Color?!?

I've been watching Natalie's eyes as of late.  They are changing color, but I can't tell what they are changing into.  They are still blue, but they are definitely not the same blue as they have been.  I'm guessing they are going to turn into Kim's hazel eye color, but again, not sure.  We are watching and waiting.  I sorta home she gets some of my green/hazel, but I'm sure she will be beautiful no matter what color her eyes turn!