A Fresh Start

Well Friends & Family, I'll give it another try. I'm not making any promises though: what with a three year old, a new baby on the way, a new house with a huge garden and small orchard, and trying to get our current house on the market, pack up & move, and all of the other regular "life" stuff.

I'm really excited about getting Amelia even more involved in the gardening this year. The existing bed is approximately 1000 sq. feet, there are probably 8-12 pear and apple trees, an existing raspberry bed that is about 35 feet long and I'm keeping my fingers crossed about what I think are a couple of giant blueberry plants. I have two little baby blueberry plants to add and I'm going to bring along some of my favorite raspberry plants from our WS house. Last year she spent the bulk of the summer wandering between the raspberries and the sugar snaps. So sweet!

I have some seeds germinating and a ton ready to go in the ground this weekend. I'm really excited about a packet I bought from Bountiful Gardens that are all seeds left over from last year in one packet designed as a mystery packet for kids. It should be a blast!

I don't think any major changes will happen to the growing space this year as the season has already started and we'll be busy trying to figure out where to put the fences, gates, etc. to help contain the space a bit.

Amelia has been asking for the last two weeks: "is the dirt ours yet?" She's been dying to get back in to the vegetable garden and start digging!

French Class Today!

Amelia and I are starting a parent/toddler French class this morning. I was debating between Spanish and French and decided to go with French. I miss not speaking it and I don't think it will take too terribly long to get me back up and running (fingers crossed).

Better late than never.

Well, the last year has been eventful to say the least. Amelia is almost two. I finished grad school. My husband almost died from a random brain bleed in the fall. My mom had major surgery on her hip. We were going to move and packed up; then decided not to and unpacked everything. We're upgrading our kitchen and doing a ton of deferred maintenance on the house. It has been crazy and I've gone into hiding a bit. But things are getting back to normal and Amelia's birthday is just around the corner.

We are throwing a low-key party, no presents, champagne & pastries for the adults, cake & balloons for the kids. No gift-bags, projects, or ponies. I might even clean the house before. ;)

After fixing some technical issues, I've got this thing going again and will post a bit more frequently. I read some past posts and it was really sweet to read as the details often get lost in the day to day.

Amelia is a walking, talking machine! She's just about speaking in sentences: "Mommy, come here!...Please." She is long and lean like her Daddy and super opinionated like her Mom. She's working on her numbers: "One, two, three, five!" and her ABC's: "A, B, C, U, F...". She loves books, the playground and, alas, the TV. I broke down when Erik was in the hospital (17 days in the NICU) and now the TV is our constant companion. Oh, well. I guess 20 months of no TV makes up for it. A little. She is also a raging, and I mean raging, extrovert. She's happiest when we are out and about and with friends and family.

Baby Update

Amelia had her second illness to date this week. She came down with a fever and the fussies on Saturday which continued to Tuesday. She didn't have any other symptoms besides a high fever (as high as 104 degrees) at night. Her doc said that a virus was going around that was only displayed as a high fever, followed by a rash. The rash was on her forehead and looked like a spot of rosecea. I would have missed it completely if he hadn't mentioned it.

It wasn't too bad as baby illnesses go. Although, I have to admit a 104 temp is pretty scary in the middle of the night. Her whole body felt positively toasty: as if we had left her by the fire a bit too long.

Amelia loves to look at her reflection these days. She giggles when she sees herself. She also giggles when she sees Booda, Bella, Gracie, Zena or Blanquita. But the dogs really make her giggle. Its pretty funny to see. The dog walks by, and voila! A laughing baby.

Booda has figured out that Amelia is a like a slot machine but instead of money, she dispenses food. He waits patiently at her feet while she is in the high chair; she either drops her food or throws it. It is a win-win situation for the poochie.

Long Overdue: More Pictures

Ok, as with previous picture posts, these are not in order. The top two pictures are from the 6th of October when Dad, Susan & Melz babysat so Erik and I could go out on the town for our anniversary. Melz was in town for her Fall break.

The third picture is from a barbeque we had at the house in August on Amelia's six month birthday. It was all of our friends, their babies & partners that we met through First Weeks. It was a ton of fun. Pictured are Jenn & Chloe, me & Amelia, and Erin & Parker.

The last picture is from late August (I think) on a hike that we went on to a place which will remain nameless because I can't recall the name. Needless to say we did hike, it was very steep, lots of fun and we spent most of the time hanging out eating. That's my kind of hike! Pictured are me & Amelia, Valerie & Kai, Darcy & Clara, and Danielle & Abe. Jenn (and Chloe) took the picture and Rochelle and Gavino were also along.

Lots of Change

Amelia's sleep is improving; ergo, my sleep is improving. This is a good thing!

Most nights she sleeps for an 8-10 hour stretch, wakes to nurse and goes back to sleep for an hour or two. Most mornings I need to wake her at 7:30 am - a quality problem. Her naps have not regulated yet and she cries much longer (~15 minutes) when I put her down to sleep during the day. The crying is still really hard for me. I've been consuming quite a bit of ice cream in the last week or so.

She is eating three meals a day and sometimes has a snack in between. This is great because it helps her sleep and it is just so cool to watch her discover new foods and communicate her opinion about it. Case in point: Amelia will no longer eat anything off of a spoon. She will only eat things that I can give to her on my finger. So, we've moved into the finger food realm a little earlier than expected.

The downside to this eating is that she is nursing much less and this makes me a little sad. I've joked about her self-weaning and the way things are going, I wouldn't be at all surprised if she does.

She continues to be a communicative kid. She adores Erik and shrieks with delight when he comes home and with frustration if he doesn't immediately come and get her for a snuggle. When we have a family walk, Erik carries her facing out in the Bjorn (pictures in previous posts) and she laughs with joy. Amelia is pretty fabulous and I feel really lucky to be her mom.

Flabergasted!

The sleep training is successful so far! We tweaked Amelia's bedtime routine a little, moved the glider into her room and put her down at 8pm. She cried for 45 minutes and then went to sleep. She woke at 2am prompty (just like Ann said she would) for a feeding. I fed her in her room and put her back down in her crib. She protested a bit and quickly went back to sleep (thank god!). She slept until 6:30 am this morning! Woohoo!

She is now down for her morning nap. I put her down and she cried for less than a minute. Her mobile is going so I can't tell if she is actually asleep, but she isn't crying and that is HUGE.

Now that she seems to be getting off on the right foot for sleep, I need to work on my sleep! I was awake for almost 1.5 hours after her 2am feeding last night and then had nightmares the rest of the time. Ah well. It is a start.

I'm off to make a cheesecake while she is asleep.

Sleep Training...

Has begun. We met with Ann Kepler this afternoon who helped create a sleep plan for the family. It is fairly straight forward. We tweaked our nighttime ritual a bit and then put her down in her crib. She's been crying for 15 minutes already. Lots of deep breathing on my part.

With some luck, this won't be overly traumatic for all involved. They say it doesn't harm the babies and, in the long run, is even beneficial in helping them to learn to self soothe. Man, I'm confident Amelia will be fine but I might be the one who needs therapy after this!

I'm going to bed shortly with my sleep aid, my earplugs and the air filter turned up as loud as it will go. Erik is downstairs with the monitor on; he will check on her after a certain period if she is still crying. Whew, this is hard.