Stuff

Things have been going well here. Victoria slept really well the last few nights. Five ours, eight hours, ten hours, eight hours! Cross your fingers she keeps it up. It comes on the back of a week of waking every two to three hours and being really fussy. Fiona has been a delight lately, and is getting even more involved with Victoria. She helps dress her sometimes and tries to play with her. Victoria looks at Fiona with such love. It’s heartwarming to see. I really hope they get along when they are older and can be friends.

Here is Fiona trying to hypnotize Victoria:

Not really. I put Victoria on the mat and asked Fiona to keep an eye out while I went to the bathroom. I returned to find Fiona moving the penguin around for Victoria’s amusement.

Some things never change:

We went to the Aquarium of the Pacific and had a fantastic day. First, it was Teacher Appreciation Month, so our tickets were significantly discounted. Second, Fiona had a blast watching a puppet show and petting all the baby sharks. Third, traffic down and back wasn’t bad at all. It was a long and wonderful day. Who could ask for anything more?

The underside of a penguin:

 

  

Here is Victoria, smiling as usual:

She is starting to suck her thumb:

 

 

Seriously?

 

 

In the BoB:

I really want to start running, but the BoB website says not to run with kids until they are at least eight months old. The bike trailer company recommends waiting until a year, when the child can sit upright and wear a helmet. I probably won’t wait to run until eight months, but it will probably pretty close. Victoria has pretty good head control, but not good enough to run with.

John reading to Victoria:

Fiona putting Victoria’s sleeper on her:

She needed a little help with the feet because Victoria kicks and curls her legs a lot, but otherwise got the arms in and buttoned the whole thing up herself. It wasn’t the first time.

Victoria’s milestones for this month have been to reach for things and now playing with the Whosit and the penguin, making them swing back and forth, and spinning things on a toy she has in the carseat. She holds on to stuff and is just starting to try to roll, rocking her body a little. I think she’ll be rolling by 6 months. It’s really hard not to compare Victoria to Fiona. It’s even harder given Fiona was so early and she did some things on time and others according to her adjusted age, so there is not really a one-to-one age correspondence. Anyway, one thing they both have in common is how CUTE they are! How can anyone resist these faces?

 

My friend Eliza took these photos in beautiful Ojai:

  

Happy Spring Everyone!

How is the Middle of March Already?

Not much new to report. More birthday parties, Victoria is growing and spends lots of time on her tummy now, has started to reach of things, grab them, and hold on. She also reaches out to faces and hands (mostly of John and me), and Fiona has been able to get some real chortles out of her. Fiona is a great older sister and is always very concerned with Victoria’s well-being and never lets us leave her out of anything. We started music lessons with Fiona.

Our big excitement in a trip to the emergency room. Fiona fell off the stool in the bathroom and hit her chin on the floor. Despite falling many times with no harm done, this time she split her chin open, gushing blood every where. We applied a towel to sop up the blood, then I put antibiotic ointment on a gauze pad and taped it to her chin for the trip to the emergency room. Our total time was not long (about two hours) because she is a small child and was crying a lot. The triage nurse commended us on our prep work. Luckily, the doctor decided to forgo stitches and used DermaBond, which is basically Krazy Glue, instead. While it hurt, it was nowhere near as painful as stitches would have been, and was much faster. It was disconcerting to have to hold down her legs while the doctor cleaned the wound and applied the glue. Her hands were wrapped in a pillow case. After we finished, they gave her a bandage to keep her from scratching or picking at the glue and also let her pick some books out of a basket. She chose a Little Critter book called “Just Me and My Dad” or something like that, about a camping trip with Dad. Victoria slept through the whole thing (yes, we all went together). We gave Fiona some ibuprofen before bed and kept her home the next day because she didn’t get to bed until after 9:30. She was fine the next day and has not complained since, except once because she was trying to get out of doing something.

But that wasn’t the only instance of bloodshed this month! The week before, Fiona was at Climbing Club and had a fall off a slide. The slide is very fast and I think she went down the wrong way or something because she flew off the bottom and hit a wall that was next to the slide. She started screaming and crying instead of shaking it off and when she looked up, blood was gushing out of her eye! Cue my heart attack/all hair turning gray! I picked her up and told her I was taking her to the emergency room. She responded by wailing even louder and and asking why and saying “But I don’t want to miss anything!” I told her she had blood coming out of her eye so off to the ER we go. I should have known it wasn’t so bad because she was more upset about leaving than anything else. The Climbing Club instructor got some paper towels and I got out the wipes and we started cleaning her eye and realized that she simply had a big scratch! It stopped bleeding very soon after and we applied a cold compress. Then I put some antibiotic ointment that I have in my first aid kit in the diaper bag (thanks for the great idea NICU nurse Mickalea!) and put a band-aid on her eye even though it wasn’t doing anything. Fiona calmed down long enough to eat a snack then ran off and played, and even got back on the slide, running over to me each time she went down to tell me that she went down the slide without falling. She was fine by next day and did not miss any school. Very little if any swelling. This injury was by far scarier because of the blood in the eye even though it required less attention and did not require a trip to the emergency room.

I’m hoping well stay safe for a while.

Victoria is usually such a cheerful and smiley baby, except yesterday when we took family photos. Then she was very serious and cried a lot! So, we just can’t win. We went to the beach and had a lovely day. It was so sunny and warm and clear, I almost forgot that it’s technically still winter and not summer!

Here is Fiona at Climbing Club after falling:

I know it is a funny photo. She insisted I take pictures of her sliding down the pole, but my phone camera is not very good, so they are always fuzzy.

Here are Fiona and Victoria, with the blue band-aid:

Here is what I look like most of the time, because I carry Victoria in the Moby a lot:

Fiona preferred the Ergo. Victoria is still too small for it, so Moby it is.

Victoria usually:

The face she made while taking family photos (this isn’t one of them):

More Fiona and Victoria:

   

This is Fiona’s idea, I swear! I do not encourage or force her to take photos with Victoria on her lap, she just likes to do it. She really wants to pick her up, but I think Victoria is too heavy for Fiona to lift by herself. Also, why can’t I get both of them to look at the camera at the same time?

Fiona making cookies with my mom:

 

Once a week, Fiona goes to my mom’s house after school to bake. I am supposed to be at home relaxing and making dinner. Lately, Fiona wants me to pick her up and take her to my parents’ house. So I do, then while they are baking or watching a movie, I go take a nap with Victoria in another room. It’s kind of a nice arrangement for me.

Fiona earned a trip to the ice cream parlor:

You can see the gauze and tape on her chin. We didn’t have band-aids that were big enough to cover the glue. Her ice cream had sprinkles on it. The result of this trip was that the glue was brown and blue and orange until it peeled off. It looked kind of funny, and I had to explain to people that it was not a scab, it was glue discolored by ice cream and sprinkles (and later strawberries).

John’s glow-in-the-dark glasses at the Purim Carnival:

Three legged race at Climbing Club:

The instructor has them do all sorts of things like this, potato sack racing, wheelbarrow racing, and crab walking, to promote strength and stamina, and to tire the kids out. Fiona usually eats a great dinner after and sleeps really well.

Fiona made a mermaid and bear out of playdough:

Beautiful Ojai:

Fiona posing for photos:

Hey, look who’s sleeping on Daddy?

Just like her older sister!