Ian is 4 months old!

Happy 4 months old, little I-man! Ian is four months old today. He has come a long way in the four months since he arrived almost 8 weeks premature!

A Growing Boy!
Ian is doing well and growing so big, so fast!  His 4-month well checkup isn't until June 2nd, but last Thursday, he had a follow-up visit at the pediatrician's office for his 2nd ear infection. He had his first ear infections (both ears) in late April, and another one in his right ear just two weeks later.  So he has been to the pediatrician's office three times since his 2-month well checkup.  His weight was at each visit was as follows:

Fri. 4/23 (3 mos. old): 12 lbs. 11 oz.
Thu. 5/6 (3-1/2 mos. old): 13 lbs. 10 oz.
Thu. 5/20 (almost 4 mos. old): 14 lbs. 6 oz.

To put this in perspective, Keira weighed 14 lbs. at her 4-month well checkup, so he weighs more at 4 months old than she did and he was born weighing almost 1-1/2 lbs. less than her. How awesome!

Milestones
Here is a list of some of the things he has been up to over the past two months:

• Mon. 3/29: First Boston Market lunch with my friend Ellen (he became a Laddie who lunches with the "Ladies who Lunch") - Keira and I have been meeting Ellen for lunch at BoMa almost every week since K was born. Ian has joined in on the fun!
• Mon. 4/5: Batting at objects in gym
• Sat 4/10: First real smile (to Mommy)
• Sun. 4/11: Cooing
• Thu. 4/15: Slept in crib for first time
• Fri. 4/23: Sick, ped office: double ear infections, weighed 12 lbs. 11 oz.
• Fri. 4/23 to Mon. 4/26: Trip to NJ to visit Papa and Nana Janet, and meet Aunt Kelly, Uncle Adrian, and Cousin Andy
• Sun. 4/25: 3 mos. old!
• Sat. 5/1: Slept through the night 9:00 pm to 6:30 am
• Sat. 5/1: Began wearing clothing size "3-6 months"
• Sun. 5/2: Slept 10 hours 9:45 pm to 7:45 am
• Thu. 5/6: Sick, ped office: right ear fully infected, weighed 13 lbs. 10 oz.
• Sat. 5/8: Socially smiling often
• Sat. 5/15: Nana Pam arrives for week-long visit! We enjoyed her visit immensely!!
• Sat. 5/15: Moves into size 2 diapers
• Wed. 5/19: Discovered his hands, bringing them up to his mouth when hungry
• Thu. 5/20: Follow up visit for ear infection, fluid still there but pus gone, weighed 14 lbs. 6 oz.
• Fri. 5/21: Kicking up a storm when laying down on back
• Tue. 5/25: 4 mos. old! Sat in Bumbo and holds his head up pretty well, starting to "talk" while playing on gym mat

Another easy baby!
Ian is still just a really good and easy-going baby! He sleeps and eats well and has really become more active in the past month. He makes such wonderfully curious expressions when he looks at you - moving his mouth and scrunching his eyebrows down as if he's really trying to figure you out. I call him my little cuddler as he loves to be held and fall asleep in my arms. He still is not a big cry baby. He has a cute little cry that he saves for when he is hungry or when he is tired. Generally if he is crying and I know he shouldn't be hungry, he will likely fall asleep within a few minutes of soothing or holding him tightly. He does great going to sleep at night. Often times, I will feed him and change his diaper and clothing, then rock him in my arms for a little bit until he looks sleepy. I can then lay him in his crib and he will fall asleep within a few minutes. He is consistently sleeping a stretch of 8-9 hours each night. Once we moved him to his own crib at 11 weeks old, it only took about a week for him to sleep through the night.

While awake during the day, Ian enjoys laying on my legs to look up at me and smile and coo. He loves to grab my fingers and will actually tug at my fingers to pull himself with my assistance to a sitting position then sit and look around. He also likes me to hold him upright on my lap as he "stands" and will bounce a little bit. He really enjoys playing on his baby gym mat. He kicks his feet, moves his arms, looks at the toys and coos at them. Sometimes I catch him looking at himself in the mirror and making funny expressions. Other times he will play on the mat until he wears himself out and falls asleep. He's not such a big fan of tummy time but we are working on that little by little. He likes his big sister Keira and will smile and coo at her. Sometimes he does cry when she is around but it's generally because she is trying to give him too many hugs and kisses or smothers him a little too much. Today I sat him in his Bumbo seat for the first time and he did really well sitting upright and holding his head up. He was still shaky holding it up, but he could do it and didn't slump over like Keira did the first time I put her in it!

Ryan and I both agree that Ian is as easy-going a baby as Keira was, but is different in many ways:

• He likes his swing and bouncy seat more than Keira did.
• He wants to stand on our laps (even though he's not old enough to be holding his own weight yet) while Keira didn't want to do that even at 10 or 11 months old!
• He is very active with his legs and we stopped swaddling him when we put him in his own room whereas Keira loved to be swaddled until she was six months old and started turning over onto her tummy at night.
• He is very easy to put to sleep at night but isn't as easy to get to sleep for a nap in the afternoon unless he is in your arms, whereas Keira would sleep well both in her crib and in the Pack 'n Play.

Given the circumstances of my pregnancy, his birth, and the first three weeks of his life, we couldn't have asked for things to have turned out any better! And Ryan and I both would never have guessed that our second baby would be as good and easy a baby as the first. We thought for sure we were in for a whole lot of trouble. So far, so good!

Ian is definitely a keeper :)

Keira sings her ABC's

Click HERE for a video of Keira singing her ABC's. She can sing it by herself but this video was much cuter than the one by herself (you will see why...just watch). [Note: You must log in to Facebook to watch]

Ian is 2 months old!

Two months ago today, Ian was born! He was due just 8 days ago. For being born 7-1/2 weeks ago, he is doing really, really well.

Ian had a visit to the pediatrician today for his 2-month well visit. He had several vaccines administered (including Synagis to help prevent RSV) via two shots in the thigh and one orally. Tonight, he is a bit fussy when awake, but is sleeping a lot. A couple of weeks ago, he started having tears when he cries really hard so he teared up today when he got his shots and cried as hard as I have seen him cry yet. Poor baby!

Growth Statistics
Today at 2 months old:
- Weight: 10 lb. 8 oz. (23rd percentile)
- Length: 22 in. (18th percentile)
- Head circumference: 39 cm. (28th percentile)

Last checkup at 1 month old (2/25):
- Weight: 7 lb. 10 oz. (7th percentile)
- Length: 20-1/2 in. (15th percentile)
- Head circumference: ? (25th percentile)

At NICU discharge (2/17):
- Weight: 6 lb. 15 oz.

At birth (1/25):
- Weight: 5 lb. 11 oz.
- Length: 19 in.
- Head circumference: 33 cm.

Feeding
Ian gained almost 3 lbs in 1 month! At his 1-month well visit, he had only just started breastfeeding one or two full feedings per day and was on bottles of breastmilk or preemie formula for the rest of his feedings. A few weeks ago, we had progressed to him taking all of his daytime feedings via nursing and doing two preemie formula bottles and an expressed milk bottle through the night. Last week (7 weeks old), we stopped the two formula bottles and I began nursing him for those feedings so we were down to one bottle of expressed milk at 3 am. Until that time, Ryan and I were sharing the nighttime duties with me taking the 9 pm and 12 midnight feedings and pumping at 3 am, and Ryan taking the 3 am and 6 am feedings. As of Monday (8 weeks old), he is now taking all of his feedings via nursing. No more bottles and no more breast pumping for me! I made a trip to the hospital with the kids yesterday to return the breast pump that I had been renting. That means I get more time back in my day: 20 min. x 4-6 pumpings per day, 30 min. x 2 washing and drying bottles and breast pump flanges.

Ian loves nursing! When he gets hungry, he is known to try to nurse on my chin or neck when I have him upright against my shoulder or try to nurse Daddy's shirt. Because my milk production has been so good, I only have Ian nurse from one side each feeding and just alternate sides throughout the day (I did this with Keira too). Even so, he will often overeat at a feeding and then experiences what Ryan termed "Exorcist spitup" if we have a difficult time burping him. An "Exorcist spitup" episode is spitup which is expelled from the body with such force as to fly through the air more than a foot or two and with a volume that coats the surrounding area (or person). I experienced one such episode the other night and it startled me so much that I screamed loud enough for Ryan to hear me upstairs from our bedroom. Due to this episode, my shirt and jeans required changing, Ian's outfit, blanket, and burp cloth required changing, and cleaning of the carpet and couch was required. A good burping is definitely required with him!

Ryan and I both think we each possibly experienced a "spell" while feeding him during his first week at home, but since then nothing has happened to concern us in that regard.

Sleeping
Up until now, we have been waking Ian up every 3 hours for feedings. Because Ian is growing so well, we can now let him sleep and awake on his own for feedings. Ryan was getting pretty cranky with having to wake during the night to feed him, so he has been doing much better this week now that I am exclusively breastfeeding Ian, but that now means that I am getting up more often during the night now that I am taking the 6 am feeding too. So being able to let Ian sleep as long as he wants will be very nice for me! Even a stretch of 4-5 hours would be helpful. He is still sleeping in his mini-crib in our room, but we will be moving him into his room probably in the next month or so. We moved Keira into her room right before she turned two months old, but since Ian is still "younger" than she was, gestationally speaking, we are going to delay that move a little longer for him.

Wakefulness
Ian is still sleeping quite a bit, but he usually has a couple hour stretch of alert time during the day and then again in the evening. Now that he is no longer taking any bottles, he is sleeping better during the night since he doesn't have as much gas in his tummy to keep him awake (which means we get to sleep better too!).

Milestones
Because Ian is a preemie, many of his milestones will come later than the average child. He is holding up his head quite well when up on my shoulder or laying on his stomach, he will follow a close object with his eyes, and he startles in response to loud noises. He is not socially smiling or cooing yet. The doctor said that by nine months old Ian will likely have caught up and will no longer have much of a delay, if any, in when he meets his developmental milestones. At the end of July, we have an appointment at the hospital to have him evaluated to see where he stands developmental and see if any additional evaluations or "help" would benefit him.

Concerns
Because Ian sleeps on his back and LOVES to turn his head to the right when he sleeps, his head is getting a little flat on that one side. This is only of concern cosmetically because as a boy with short hair, a flat spot on his head would be much more noticeable than if he was a girl. His neck muscles are fine at this point, his turning his head is just a preference that he has.  If his head does not round out, he would get a helmet to help reshape his head which obviously we would like to prevent. Soooo...we need to work on getting him to turn his head to the left when he is sleeping and give him as much time on his tummy (and therefore his head off the mattress) as possible. When he is sleeping, I have been trying to get him to turn to the left by propping a blanket under his back to get him to go to the left and I also turn his head to the left whenever I can. Also I have him sleep on my chest a couple times during the day. His "flat head" was the only concern the doctor had with his growth so far!

Disposition
Overall, Ian is a really good baby. He does have some times when he cries, but it's usually due to hunger or a gassy tummy. He is very expressive and makes such cute faces while he sleeps and smiles a lot when sleeping (he must be having some good dreams about nursing!). When falling asleep, he grunts and groans A LOT and sometimes for quite a long time. He just makes all sorts of grunting noises while sleeping or stretching. The doctor even laughed about it today. Ian really seems to calm down quickly when he is in my arms and loves to sleep on my chest or next to me on the bed while I watch TV. When he is awake, he will spend a lot of time looking at me and gets his little mouth moving like he is ready to eat (one track mind!). He took a pacifier more often during the first week or so after coming home from the NICU, but doesn't really take it much now. I really only use it for emergency situations (like post-vaccinations today when leaving the doctor's office or a middle of the night crying jag when nothing else is working).

I'm excited to see him becoming more alert and interactive over the next month! And hopefully sleeping longer and longer stretches during the night time hours.  Now that I'm getting some more time to relax, I will get some pictures of him up, just not tonight!

3 weeks 2 days - Ian is home!

We brought Ian home from the hospital this evening!  Today he reached 36 weeks gestation and it is one month from the day he was due. If you remember, 36 weeks and 2/17 was my long-term goal to make it to while on bedrest. It turned out to be a milestone of a different kind: homecoming!

On Monday, he was circumcised and Tuesday he passed his car seat challenge so the only thing holding him back was continuing to succeed at bottle feeding and going spell-free for 5-7 days or so. Since Thursday, he has been taking all of his feedings by bottle and doing better each day with them. His last spell was around 10 pm last Friday. I got a call from the neonatalogist yesterday afternoon at about 4 o'clock and he said that we could take Ian home today assuming that he tolerated his feedings through this morning and did not have any more spells. He would get his Synagis shot (to help fight against RSV) yesterday afternoon or this morning. I called this morning and Ian was still doing well so we could take him home!

Ryan and I dropped Keira off at a friend's house about 3 pm and we got to the hospital around 3:45 pm.  We spent about 30-40 minutes talking with the nurse regarding his discharge instructions, gathering up his things, and putting him in his carseat (a longer process than I remembered since he is so tiny!).  We picked up Keira a little after 5 pm and got home by 5:30 pm.

Keira was very excited to see Ian in the car and kept talking to him and calling out "Baby Ian." When we got home, she immediately wanted him out of the car seat so she could hold him. She has been talking about holding him and helping me change his diaper all week.  "Me hold Ian. Me help Mommy change Ian's diaper." So I got Ian out of his car seat and brought him and Keira into the family room so that she could hold him. She sat down on the sofa and I put him in her arms and Ryan helped her to hold him. She had the biggest smile on her face! All night she was very interested in what "Baby Ian" was doing (mostly laying in the Pack 'n Play).  When I fed him at 6 pm, she was right next to us the entire time and watching him try to nurse then drink milk from the bottle.  While he was drinking his bottle, she kept trying to hug him (read: crush him!) and give him LOTS of love. I don't think things could have gone better, she seemed so excited to have "Baby Ian" home.

Tomorrow I will take Ian to see the pediatrician while Ryan stays home with Keira during her nap.

A new adventure has officially begun...life as parents of two and big sister to baby Ian. We couldn't be happier to have Ian home!

(Okay, time to go to bed as he will be eating again shortly...I'm tired just thinking about it.)

Happy 2nd Birthday, Keira!

Happy birthday, my darling daughter!  You are the light of my life and I have enjoyed every moment of the past two years.  Your Mommy loves you so much!

Pics of her on her actual birthday are coming soon (too much time on the computer makes contractions start with the laptop pressing on my belly)!

Birthday party on Halloween!

On Halloween afternoon, we hosted a small party at our house to celebrate Keira's 2nd birthday.  Grandma Janet, Grandpa Gary, and Great Grandma Jane were down for the weekend, and we also invited some close friends to celebrate with us. Since I had been recovering from surgery the week before, I couldn't have pulled the party off without the help of everyone, especially Grandma Janet!

In the morning, Grandma and Grandpa gave Keira her birthday present from them: her very own kitchen!

At 3:30 pm, the party began! Keira and her friends were all in costume. After Keira showed her friends her new kitchen (and sharing very well for a change), they took a break for some food.

After filling the tummies, it was time to open presents! Keira figured this out really quickly and even had some help from her friends. Then it was time to play with her new toys!

After opening presents, it was time for cake and ice cream!  We sang "Happy Birthday" to her and then Daddy helped her blow out the candles.  See how she is pursing her lips together to blow!

Then it was time to eat!  After her two friends were done with their cake and went off to play, Keira sat at the table and finished off her cake and ice cream.  She didn't let any of it go to waste!  Why does this not surprise me?

Fun was had by all! And the weather was again nice enough to spend some time out on the screened porch!

Happy Birthday, Keira!

Love, Mommy and Daddy

XOXOX

Going potty

This past weekend, Keira started to say "pee pee" and point to her diaper so I tried putting her on the toilet seat to see if she was interested in trying to go. The first time I put her on it, she was pretty surprised by what was happening and quickly slipped back off. So I put her diaper back on and waited for the next opporunity.

So this morning I got her to sit on the potty without taking her diaper off. She got a big kick out of that and sat on it for quite a while.

This evening she said "pee pee" and pointed to her diaper. I asked her if she wanted to go potty and she nodded her head. So we headed into the powder room and I placed her "Blue's Clues" potty seat on top of the toilet seat. I took off her pants and diaper and set her on the seat. No peeing actually occurred, but she was happy as a princess sitting on her throne. I actually had to talk her off the pot by distracting her with getting a cup of water.

After getting off the potty, she flushed the toilet and washed her hands, then I put her diaper and pants back on.

I realize that we are a long way from potty training, but it has to start somewhere!

Toddler bed, here she comes!

Keira turned 18 months old on Friday and she had her check-up yesterday. The doc said we need to move her to a toddler bed soon since she has started trying to put her foot over the front rail.

Sooooo...we decided to convert her crib tonight. She went to sleep pretty well considering this is a pretty big change for her. It only took her about an hour to go to sleep. I was so scared that we were going to have to put the crib front back on! So, yea, for Keira being a big girl.

She started freaking out about us leaving her in the bed, so we left the lights on and had her lay down while I read a book to her three or four times, then I let her "read" the book. We did this for about 30 minutes. She started looking really sleepy, so it was time to turn off the room light with the hall light on. After a few minutes of that, it was time for Daddy to leave the room and turn off the hall light. I sat next to her bed on the floor and soothed her for a minute or so telling her it was okay and I was there. Then I just stopped touching her and sat there for about 15 minutes until I thought she was out. I army crawled out of the room and shut the door. Success so far, just hope she sleeps through the night. Crossing my fingers!!

Funny quote from the evening: Me to Ryan: "Let's not show her how to get in and out of the bed, and maybe she won't run all over the room." Two seconds after we move the bed back up against the wall, Keira is climbing in the bed to check it out. LOL! Um, yeah, so much for not showing her how to get in and out.

She's just so darn cute!

Keira's a big girl now!

With everything we've been doing, I haven't even had a chance to blog about what Keira is up to now. So I thought I would catch up with all the new things she is doing at 16 1/2 months old!

Walking: Keira has been officially walking full-time now for almost a month. She is really doing well indoors. Last week the weather got nice so we have started walking with her more outdoors. She had a little tumble at the park yesterday, but she's okay and only had a little scrape on her forehead. As Ryan put it "She ate dirt." She is unable to get into a standing position on her own, so she is still crawling over to objects to pull herself up. But she is definitely doing well with her mobility. One of her favorite activities is to have Mommy or Daddy chase her around the kitchen island trying to get her to tickle her. Her giggle is such an infectious sound!

Weight: We went to the doctor's last Tuesday, the 17th as follow-up after an ear infection. She weighed in at 27.8 lbs with her clothes on. Um, that's huge. She is definitely heavy so I think it was good timing for her to begin walking!

Body Parts (update from this post): Hand, foot, cheeks, chin, and fingers.

Sign Language: Food/eat, more, all done, milk, please, bath, baby, monkey, cracker, and bird.

Talking: At her 15 month checkup, I reported that "Keira says three words (Mama, Dada, tickle), maybe a fourth (kitty)." Now she is talking all the time, a lot of which I don't yet understand. Those words that I do understand are:

Mommy ("Ma ma")
Daddy ("Da da")
tickle ("tickle")
baby ("baby")
ball ("bah")
Cheerios ("joos")
kitty ("ki-ee")
meow ("ow")
doggy ("Do-ee")
Grandpa ("Pa pa")
chirp ("Beep")
hi! ("hi!")

Just yesterday, Keira was pinching her fingers together and saying "beep" "beep" "beep" while we were looking at the characters/animals on her Sesame Street placemat. I'm unsure what she is trying to say so I ask her. She points to a pigeon on the placemat. It finally dawns on me that she is signing "bird" and telling me what the bird says. We have a small bird at home and I always say "peep" "peep" "peep" when signing bird as that is what our bird sounds like. So cute!

She loves to talk on her cell phone and will hold it up to her ear and say "Hi" and then jibber jabber as if she is talking to someone.

I'm working a lot with her on the sounds that animals make and she has three down now. I'm also working on teaching her different foods that she likes, either by trying to teach her how to say the word or do the sign (or both if I know how to sign it).

Other cool things: Just this week, Keira can now complete two wooden knob puzzles without assistance! She can do a five-piece shapes puzzle and a four-piece animal puzzle (well, there is a fifth animal, but she refuses to put the bunny piece back).

This weekend we listened to a lot of music. Previously she was starting to make the motions for "Itsy, Bitsy Spider" and would clap during "If You're Happy and You Know It". Now, she will also stomp her feet and wiggle her ears during the latter song! She learned both of those pretty quickly when she saw Mommy and Daddy doing them.

It is absolutely amazing how quickly she learns new things. She learns new words almost every day and understands what the objects or actions are. She loves to copy what other people are doing. My trick to get her to try something new is for me or Daddy to do it first. Then we ask her to do it and generally she will. That is what prompted the "pull toy parade" last night. She and Daddy walked around and around the kitchen island for probably 20 minutes last night, each of them pulling a pull toy behind them. It was adorable.

Not so cool things: So along with the cool things, the not so cool things of toddlerhood are beginning to shown their horns. Keira is definitely getting a mind of her own. For example, when walking, she sometimes wants to walk in the direction she wants to walk in, not the one Mommy wants her to walk in. So with this mind of her own, she has started throwing some tantrums. Sometimes when she doesn't get her way, she will throw herself to the ground and put her head between her legs to the floor and cry. She did it the other day in the middle of Lowe's. So I just left her there and started walking away. I stopped and turned to ask her if she wanted to get up and come with me. She stopped crying, and let me help her up and we walked our way back to the car without incident. Not so adorable, but luckily not happening too often so I'm not going insane yet.

15 Months Old and a checkup to prove it

Keira turned 15 months old yesterday! It seems like just yesterday I was in the hospital on bedrest, trying not to have her early, and then she came almost five weeks early anyway. Lucky for us, she was a healthy little thing with well developed lungs and a great appetite.

This afternoon, Keira had her 15 month checkup with the doctor. Since being born, she has grown so much:

.............Weight........Height
Birth......7 lb 1 oz.....19.50 in
2 mo....12 lb 13 oz...22.75 in
4 mo....14 lb............25.00 in
6 mo....18 lb 3 oz.....26.60 in
9 mo....21 lb 2 oz.....27.75 in
12 mo..23 lb 11 oz....30.00 in
15 mo..25 lb 3 oz......31.50 in

At birth, Keira was in the 25th percentile for weight and the 50th percentile for height. By 2 months, she was in the 90th percentile for weight, and by 4 months, the 75th percentile for height. Her weight and height percentiles have both converged into the low 80th percentile ranges and are now at 83% and 82%, respectively.

Of her close friends, she definitely has the biggest head. And her head circumference shows it! At 6 months, it topped the growth charts in the 93rd percentile. At 15 months, her head is in the 80th percentile. Hopefully it means there is lots of brain matter in there ready to absorb everything that her daddy and I have to teach her!

We were able to tell the doctor the following:

Walking: Keira can walk independently as far as 12 ft, but only walks about 20% of the time. The doctor said it is completely normal that she walks like a duck (Ryan's concern, not mine).

Talking: Keira says three words (Mama, Dada, tickle), maybe a fourth (kitty). However she does understand quite a few more words: she can sign 6 or 7 words, and can point to 7-9 body parts
The doctor said her verbal skills are about average right now, and should hopefully say about 10 words at 18 months. She did say that she would not expect a 15 month old to know as many body parts as she does so her verbal recognition is great. She said to just continue reading lots of books to Keira and that will help with the verbal skills.

Eating: Keira wants to eat all the time, but there are times that we have to cut her off. She really likes to drink her milk and eat fruit. We were concerned that we were feeding her too much!
The doctor said that cutting her off is fine, she should be drinking lots of water throughout the day when she is not drinking milk, and to give her lots of fruits and veggies at snack time rather than fill her up with crackers and goldfish (Keira is not going to be happy to hear that as she loves her goldfish!).

Head tilting: Since Keira was like 6 months old, she has gone through phases were she tilts her head to one side or another for about a week, then it goes back to normal for a month or so before happening again. Previously it was diagnosed by an ER doctor as torticollis. It happened again last week, so we mentioned this to the doctor.
The doctor said that this really doesn't sound like torticollis since it is not persistent and is not always on the same side. She suggested that we see an eye doctor to have Keira's vision checked just to make sure that something isn't wrong there for which she is compensating. If her vision is fine, it may just be a "thing" that she is doing. We'll cross our fingers that there is no vision issue.

With Keira being premature by about 4 1/2 weeks (she was born at 35 weeks 2 days for you other mommies), I always have to remind myself that she may be a little behind learning new things than other children born around the same time as her. It is hard to see your child sitting up later, crawling later, cruising later, and, currently, walking later than other babies who were born less than two weeks earlier than her. Foremost in my mind is that there is something wrong with her! But I try to keep the panic at bay most of the time and remember that being born a month early can be a big deal developmentally when your age is still being counted in months! I always feel better after the doctor's well visits to know that Keira is right on track and that nothing about her development has alarmed the doctor. Phew! I guess we are doing something right!

Head, shoulders, knees and toes...

Update from a previous post, Keira now knows the following body parts:

Hair
Nose
Ears
Teeth
Tongue
Belly
Knees
Toes
Hand (sort of)
Foot (sort of)



We are currently working on learning:

Eyes
Cheeks
Mouth
Fingers

Spontaneous Walking!

Over the past week Daddy and I have caught Keira leaving one piece of furniture and taking a few steps toward her new object of interest before gracefully falling down and then crawling the rest of the way. On Tuesday I even saw her walk from the bar stool at the kitchen island over to a chair at the kitchen without falling down. At most, we have counted 10 independent steps.

Tonight Keira walked from the coffee table across the room to the foot of the two steps which would take her into the kitchen. That has to be a distance of a good 12 feet (I had Daddy measure). When she got to the steps, she "fell" down against them and crawled up the stairs to go see Daddy who was washing his hands at the kitchen sink.

I think we can officially say that Keira is walking! What do you think?

We have lift off!

It's been forever since I was on, but that is only due to the fact that we were out of town for two weeks and didn't return until January 5th. Then last week we got sucked into watching a bazillion episodes of Jericho on Netflix Instant Watch and I had an entire book ("Freakonomics", I highly recommend it!) to read before last Saturday's mom's group book club! I still have photos from our trip to download to the computer so they will have to wait for another post.

I have news to report!! [drum roll please] Keira has taken her first steps. Woohoo!

Wait, am I crazy? I'm not so sure this is a good thing. Well, yes, I guess it really is.

So it all started Sunday night when I decided to see if she would stand by herself for a few seconds. She did. So Daddy and I had her walk between us. She did, from me to Daddy. Three wonderful steps!

Four days later and she is progressing pretty quickly. She took about six steps several times today. She will stand at the coffee table and walk to me when I put my arms out. And I even saw her walking away from the coffee table on her own. She had the remote control in one hand and her socks in the other hand. She took two steps and promptly fell. But I take it as good sign that she isn't afraid to venture from the safety of the coffee table. Later I even had her walking through the kitchen with my hand at her elbow instead of clutched in her death grip.

So it is possible she will be fully walking before turning 15 months old on February 1st!

The good news is my baby's growing up! The sad news is my baby's growing up! Ah well, at least I'm getting to enjoy every minute of it! (And Daddy got to be there for her first steps too!)

Where's Keira's belly?

Keira has recently gained an interested in reading books: opening the book, turning pages, giving the book to Mommy or Daddy for us to read the book to her. About three weeks ago, Keira discovered a book called "Ears, Nose & Toes". "Here is the baby's nose. Can Keira point to the baby's nose?" By the end of the first evening of reading the book, she twice points to the baby's nose in the book, surprising both of us and receiving much applause. A few days later, she can point to Mommy's nose when asked.

Later that week, Keira and Daddy come back from a diaper change with a new trick to show Mommy. "Keira, where is Daddy's ear?" Daddy asks. She touches one of his ears. I immediately ask her where are Mommy's ears. She happily obliges me and touches one of mine. "How did she learn that during the diaper change?" I ask. "She grabbed at one of my ears and I told her it was Daddy's ear each time she touched it." Yea! And all of a sudden we are learning parts of the body!

Over the past two weeks, we have continued to read "Ears, Nose & Toes" and I make a conscious effort to name different parts of the body throughout the day: "Mommy's going to tickle Keira's belly", "Kick your feet" and "Splash your hands" in the bath, naming body parts as I put her clothes on her, etc. All the while we continue to ask her where are our noses and ears. Yep, still where they were the last time we asked her. She still can't find her own nose or ears, but she will find them soon...I just know it!

Tonight, it was my turn to take Keira up for the diaper change. After changing her diaper, I begin changing her into her pajamas. When I take off her bodysuit, I can't resist giving her bare belly a little tickle, then I ask "Where's Keira's belly?" She responds by enthusiastically slapping her bare belly several times with both hands. Yea! She knows where her belly is! After putting on her pajamas, she begins playing with her feet (she loves to pull them up to her mouth or take one foot in each hand and clap them together). "Where's Keira's toes?" She responds by pulling on the end of her feet. Yea! she knows where her toes are!

It was now my turn to bring Keira back from a diaper change with two new tricks to show Daddy. "Where's Keira's belly?" I ask, as she sits on the floor between us with her legs straight out in front of her. She responds by slapping her knees. Ergh...she just did it upstairs for me, I swear! After a second try, she points to her belly. "Where's Keira's toes?" I ask now, trying to save face. She turns to me and points very carefully to my nose. Ergh!!! This isn't going so well. "Where are Keira's tiny toes?" I amend. She points toward her feet. See! The girl's a genius!