Our first Christmas for three

Christmas is always one of my favorite times of year. The decorations, music, lights, food, warmth, and family; I love it all. It's a dose of bright and shinny in an otherwise dark (and here, often rainy) time of the year. I eagerly look forward to breaking out the decorations and setting up the tree. I appreciate a well lit house more than most. So it goes without saying that I was particularly looking forward to this Christmas, as it was our first Christmas that we got to share with Tara.

Tara is just shy of 7 months old, so she doesn't really have any idea of Christmas right now. Even so, I loved sharing it all with her this year. She "helped" pick the Christmas tree. She watched as I decorated the house. I pointed out pretty houses and took her to see beautiful light displays. We told her all about Santa and got her her very own stocking. Of course, we took her to meet Santa as well.

Jeff had some vacation time that needed to be used for the new year, so we had some extra days to enjoy together in addition to the normal holidays. The extra family time made this Christmas that much nicer. We spent Christmas Eve with friends who graciously invited us to share in their family dinner. Tara got her very own meal consisting of mashed potatoes, stuffing, chopped green beans and cranberry sauce. She thoroughly enjoyed it. Some of it even made it into her mouth!

Christmas day was spent quietly as a family of three and I wouldn't have had it any other way. We slept in as late as Tara would allow, got going slowly, and enjoyed a fantastic breakfast of eggnog french toast and homemade whipped cream, courtesy of Jeff. Tara had a more healthy breakfast of homemade applesauce. I was finishing up a Santa hat for her, so we didn't open presents until after her first nap of the day. Instead, we started the morning off right by watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. It's just not Christmas without that movie. We also made a fire and watched the rain turn to snow. It didn't last long but snowed just enough to coat the ground and trees, giving us a beautiful white Christmas!

Once the Santa hat was ready for pictures, we proceeded to open gifts. While we of course did the majority of the opening, we did let Tara "help". This could best be called "Tara eats Christmas", since most of her skills involve putting the wrappings up to her mouth. We'd like to send a collective thanks to everyone who sent something to Tara this year. She made out like a bandit with new pajamas and clothes and toys. Some of her favorites are some rubber ducks, and peek-a-boo playing teddy from her Grandma, a sleepy time puppy from her Maga, and an toy remote control from her Great Grandma S.

After presents we Skyped with both sides of the family. It's wonderful to be able to see and chat with everyone, even when we can't be there for Christmas in person each year.

Dinner was a yummy ham, scalloped cheesy potatoes, crescent roll and, of course, pumpkin pie. Tara enjoyed a bit of the potatoes.

So Tara's first Christmas was warm and simple, with lots of fun, love and good food. I really couldn't have asked for a better day.

6 months

Tara,

You turned 6 months old on Saturday, December 1st. I simply can not believe that you've been with us for a half of a year already. It's been a whirl wind 6 months, to say the least.

You now weigh 17lbs 9oz and are 26.5 inches long. It's no surprise that you are a little taller than average. You've got parents that happen to be on the tall side. 

You still do not roll over from your back to you belly, but you do flip in the other direction from time to time. Instead, your big new trick is sitting up all on your own. You almost never fall over any more, but I admit I do put pillows around you just in case. It's so much fun to sit you with toys on the living room floor or in your room and watch you play with them.You also like to sit next to the toy basket in your room and take all of the toys out, which gives me time to get a few things done!

I adore watching you bounce around in your jumperroo. You move your little feet like a ballerina jumping into the air.

We've begun offering you solid food. Your first food was sweet potatoes, which you tried on Thanksgiving day. Since then you've tried green beans, bananas, avocado, carrots, blueberries, and a piece of whole wheat pancake. Of all of those options, you only liked the pancake. Everything else gets a decidedly yucky face and gets smeared around. You do enjoy feeding yourself and easily move your tiny spoon into your mouth. You're so independent already!

Christmas is coming. Christmas is always my favorite time of year, but this year is so much better because you're here. I love sharing all of my favorite parts of the season with you, like classic Christmas music, lights and decorations and of course, the tree. We went to get the tree today. You didn't pay it much attention, other than to touch it a lot. But tomorrow it will be lit and decorated and since you can't get at it yet, I'll get one more year of decorating it normally before little hands start reaching.

We took you to visit with Santa Claus, although you have no idea who that is. You were wonderful, as you nearly always are in public. Everyone there said you were the best mannered baby that had visited. Truthfully, we hear that a lot. You love people and are often nothing but smiles and giggles when we're out and about. Only daddy and I know that you are learning to yell when you're mad. Those moments are few, though, and you are generally the sweetest baby girl anyone could ask for.

I can't wait to see you on Christmas morning!

Love always,

Mom

Baby dance party

5.5

5 and a half months. That's how old you are. You hit the 5 month mark while we were visiting all of the Connecticut side of the family and I missed the chance to write your update then, so five and a half months it is.

It seems this is a time of growth and development for you. We've noticed that you will start something new and will keep with it for about a week before something else comes along. It started with a fake cough. You are learning how to make sounds and a fake cough was one of the first. It was a happy sound, it was a sad sound, it was a sound for all occasions! It was also a sound I wasn't sad to see you forget!

After that you spent a lot of time screeching. It was a loud, sometimes ear splitting noise but you were always so happy when you made it! I'm not encouraging that, mind you, especially not in public, but your dad and I had so much fun watching your face light up with each big noise you made. We couldn't help but smile along with you.

Lately the noise has been "thbbbbt" with your lips. Some people call that a raspberry.  You've been trying and trying and trying, but you still haven't quite mastered it. Watching you try has been loads of fun. You also gum your lower lip like an old man with no teeth. It's terribly cute.

You finally rolled over, from your belly to your back. You did it Novemeber 5th at Maga's house, while we were playing on the bed. Both daddy and I were there to see it and were so excited! But you don't really care about rolling and you've only done it once since (and that was a half roll, really). That's ok. Maybe that's a step you just want to skip over.

Rolling doesn't seem to be your thing, but you love to sit up. You can sit up by yourself for good chunks of time now, but you do eventually fall over. Soon enough you'll get your balance. Until then, we let you practice on the bed. You also love to sit in the bumbo chair, since it holds you up nice and straight.

You've discovered your feet and think they're just about the best thing. You giggle when we touch your toes to your nose and you "help" during diaper changes by grabbing your feet. You also reach out for anything and everything. Those little hands are never at rest right now. You reach, you touch, you pat, you even smack your belly like a little drum!

Your favorite toys right now are your Jumperroo (you love to bounce!), your wooden teething rattle, Sophie the giraffe and of course, your butterfly. Yesterday you decided that you love Ice Bat, the monster doll that lives in your crib. Your great grandpa got that for you (with Mommy's help picking it out) and will surely love to hear that you like it.

You're changing so much that it's hard to keep up with you right now! Keep it up, though. Every day brings something new.

Love,

Mom

Bi-coastal baby

Last week we took a family vacation to visit Jeff's family in Connecticut. Although Hurricane Sandy blew in at the same time we were meant to, we were able to reschedule a bit and had no problems with the weather or the travel. Tara was an amazing kid and had almost no problems with all of the flights.

We wanted to take advantage of some of the fall activities available, so Jeff took us to an apple orchard that he used to visit as a kid. We didn't pick any apples, but instead got lost in their corn maze. I'd never walked a corn maze before and had a lot of fun getting lost. Tara slept. She must have been overwhelmed with the excitement of it all.

 

 Most of the week was spent just enjoying family. None of Jeff's family had met Tara before, so she got lots of hugs and snuggles from all the aunts and uncles, cousins, great-grandmas and of course grandparents, Maga and Papa! 

 

If you've been watching the news at all lately, you know that the East coast received more than it's fair share of bad weather. While we were able to avoid Hurricane Sandy (which didn't hit as hard in that area), we were present for a snow storm the day before we left. It was beautiful! Lots of heavy, wet snow that would have been perfect for snowmen, if we'd had time. Tara wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but she sure was cute!

 We can't wait until we can visit again!

Now and then

When Tara was born my mom brought me a number of items that were crocheted for me by my Vovó, my great-grandmother. She also brought a few pictures of me taken shortly after I was born. In one of the pictures I am wearing some of the hand made pieces.  I had intended to take a picture of Tara wearing the same outfit at approximately the same age, but time flies. So here you have a comparison of me, approximately one month old, and Tara at 4 months. Obviously a few months make a huge difference!

I love the idea of handing these items down to Tara, maybe to her own children some day. I love the way that they connect our past with our present, previous generations with the current. While I don't remember my great-grandmother well, I've been told that I look like her and that she was a prolific crocheter. I also crochet, so it's nice knowing I have something in common with my past and perhaps something to pass on as well.

Happy Halloween!

Tara spent a lot of time picking out her costume this year. It's her first Halloween, so she wanted it to be just right.

First, she thought she might go as a sailor... 

 but she decided that the hat was a little too big.

Then she thought she might go as a pumpkin...

but it seems like all the babies are going as pumpkins this year and she wanted something more original.

So after a lot of thought and some discussion with her dad, she finally found the perfect costume. Tara decided that this year she'll be...

Toad! Tara is Toad from the original Mario Brothers. She had lots of fun getting into character (and her mom had a blast making the costume.)

Happy Halloween everyone!!

Casio rockin', cerca 1986

Oh yeah, you read that right. Today we're taking you way back. Back to the days of neon, bike shorts, big hair, and double layered scrunchy socks. We're headed back to the 80's with a little piece of memorabilia from my childhood.

That little black Casio was mine back in the day. I have fond memories of rockin' out to the Samba and Basa Nova tracks. I love that Tara gets a kick out of it too. The video above was taken the first time we put it in front of her. Since then we've busted it out a few mores times and each time she gets a bigger kick out if it. She smacks all the buttons and manages to turn on the various instrument sounds and rhythm tracks. It's a lot of fun to watch. Now all she needs is a head band, a neon body suit and maybe some lace gloves a la Madonna. Anybody got any requests?

Adventures in baking

When I first decided to blog about today, I had visions of a sweet story to tell you about spending a few hours in the kitchen with my girl, baking yummy food and sharing smiles. Doesn't that sound wonderful?

Now let me tell you what really happened. Two days ago I found myself thinking a lot about my time spent in Argentina and decided to make empanadas, a food that I ate regularly there. If you're not familiar with empanadas, they're the South American version of a meat pie, a pastie, a pirogy, etc. They are made in a variety of styles and they are incredibly tasty. So I picked a nice recipe online (this one: Empanadas Medoncinas), bought the few ingredients I didn't already have, and got set this morning to make them.

The adventure started off so well. I had my ingredients, my bowls and spoons, and my sous chef. We were set.

 

As you can see, we were off to a good start.  After a bit of fun time in her bouncer, she went down for her first nap of the day. When she woke up, it all went down hill. For some reason today she needed my complete and undivided attention. She wasn't happy to sit for long in the kitchen, or do any one thing for very long at all. Then she decided to stop sleeping. She took her first and second naps of the day, but magically stayed up from 3:30 until she went to sleep at 7:30. She never does that. Today must have been special.

Have I mentioned that I don't really cook? Or bake? What I can do is follow a well written recipe. But follow it I must. I have no skills in the kitchen, so I read every step two or three times to make sure I'm doing it correctly, and sometimes look things up on the internet as I go. This makes for a slow process even under the best conditions. Down the line, when I've learned from experience, I'm sure I'll be able to speed things up. But today? Today I started cooking at 10:30 am. The empanadas made it into the oven at 7:30pm. Quick math everyone. Yes, that's right. My adventure in baking took a total of 9 hours! It was mix a little here, chop a little there, change a diaper, change an outfit...

 Of course, I decided to make the dough from scratch. I had all the ingredients and it looked so simple, so why not? I have a 4 month old baby, that's why not!

 

No, that's not what you think. I didn't resort to the bottle to make it through. I reached for the bottle when...

it occured to me that I don't own a rolling pin. I don't bake, remember?

Little by little, the ingredients started to come together. The dough spent far too long hanging out in the fridge and I'm pretty sure my moby wrap is covered in flour hand prints, from the time I was actually wearing Tara while trying to cut out the circles for each empanada, but we got there.

Tara eventually consented to a little more time in her bouncer chair (notice the wardrobe change?) From this point on, I lost track of getting pictures. Jeff came home and was helping entertain Tara, so I started trying to add the filling to the dough circles. It's not as easy as it looked! I was so distracted by babycakes that I forgot to put the egg and olives in half of the empanadas.

Even so, they did eventually go into the oven and we did eventually have them for dinner. They may not have been exactly as I remember, but after 9 hours of cooking, let me tell you, they were delicious! I even made the balsamic chimichurri sauce from the recipe, but I didn't get a picture. By then, we were more than ready to eat.

Yummy success! Note to self: it's probably smart to only try this level of cooking on weekends when Jeff is around. I need all the help I can get!

Autumn enchantments

Vibrant leaves, crisp air, golden light, rosy cheeks. I love fall.

4 months old

Dear Tara,

Yesterday you turned 4 months old. You've been here for one third of a year and I can hardly believe it. I know all parents say this, but it really does go so fast!

Today your doctor measured you at 15lbs 8oz and 25.25 inches long. You now weigh more than double what you weighed at birth. You're also very long in the torso, so sometimes even the 3-6 month clothes are a little snug on you. Your doctor even thinks you are showing early signs of teething. You're getting so big!

You did so well with your vaccines today. Some tears when getting the shots and then a little extra sleepy and sad for the rest of the day. I'm happy to help with as much snuggle time as you need.

You've grown so much in so many ways since you were born. You now smile so much, especially first thing in the morning. The first hour and a half of your day are our favorite time with you, because you smile and laugh and just want to play. You usually wake up happy and quietly babble to yourself until someone comes to get you up. Daddy and I both love getting to be the person who gets you in the morning, because you give us the best smile when you see us come into the room.

Early morning swaddle escape

You're working on all the normal developments right now. You don't care for tummy time much, but will push up a bit with your hands when you're lying on your belly. You've almost managed to roll from your back to your tummy, but can't quite manage to make it all the way over. Your arm still gets in the way! You love to stand up and would stand in our laps all day if you could.

You are starting to do funny things, like how you slam your heals down on your changing mat when we change your diaper. It makes you so happy, and you kick with such force that we can hear the "THUMP, THUMP" in other rooms of the house.

You love your butterfly toy that lives in the car. Your eyes go wide when you get in your car seat and realize that you'll get to play with it. You also seem fond of a soft stuffed sheep, which Daddy has named Admiral Von Sheepington. Of course, you can give him (or her?) a name of your choice if you want to when you get older.

You're trying hard to laugh. Right now it's more of the occasional "HA", but we've manged to get a giggle out of you from time to time. There is no predicting what you will find funny. Sometimes it's a random word I've said and sometimes it's nothing more than a smile from Daddy.

You are, for the most part, a good sleeper. You normally only wake up once a night to eat. Recently you've started waking up more often, which means I'm waking up more often. That creates a more tired mommy who is probably less fun to play with, so let's work on less waking and more sleeping, ok? Also, naps. Let's work on naps. You don't like taking them and typically only sleep for 30 minutes. 30 minutes is not enough and leaves you cranky, so let's work on better naps.

You love being outside. When you're upset and it seems like nothing will make it better, we take you outside and suddenly things are OK again. This isn't a new development. One of the first things I noticed about you is that you love to look at the sky. We hope this continues as you grow, because we'd love to do lots of outdoorsy activities with you.

I'm sure there is so much that I'm forgetting to mention. I just wanted to capture a snapshot of who you are today, because you're changing so fast. While I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings with you, I'm also trying hard to enjoy each little moment with you today.

I love you baby girl.

Mom

P.S. I'm serious about those naps.

Swim baby, take two

Today is my little friend Wolfe's sixth birthday, and to celebrate, he invited everyone to a pool party! Tara was totally ready to get her swim on. Even though her first swim went less than, well, swimmingly, she was ready to try again. As you can see, the warm water of the baby pool made all the difference. She was happy to sit and bounce in the water, listening and watching all of the activity going on in the rest of the busy room, and when held on her stomach she kicked her cute little feet.

Warning: This video is LOUD! The pool room is full of happy kids, so turn the volume down on your computer before watching.

Could we be looking at the 2028 Olympics???

It's probably too soon to tell. Right now I'm just enjoying how incredibly cute she is in polka dots.

3 months!

Tara is 3 months old! Well, she's technically more than that, since the 3 month mark was actually last Saturday. It's hard to believe how much she's changed since we brought her home. She has started to reach and grab for items such as toys and fabric, bringing them straight to her mouth for investigation. She can grasp a thin rattle for a short bit if you wrap her hand around it. She is more interactive by the day, and much more fun to play with! She loves being outside, so I'm hoping our fall weather will be temperate for a while before the rains push us inside. So far she hasn't shown signs of rolling over, but I know that will happen when she's perfectly ready. For now we're completely content with a non-mobile baby!

Morning is the best time of day with Tara. She typically wakes up happy and smiling, ready to talk and giggle with us or to play in her crib. She sometimes squiggles so much that she's worn a small bald spot on the back of her head!

Here are a few pictures of Tara playing in her crib in the mornings, along with a few I took out in the yard to mark her 3 month mark. Enjoy her chubby cheeks and sweet spiky hairdo!

 

 

Interstate traveler

Tara is nearly 3 months old. Wait, what? Time flies, and as it so happens, so does Tara.

Tara and I flew down to California for a bit of a family reunion. My parents flew in from Wisconsin on the same day, so Tara got to see her grandparents again, along with meeting her Vovo (Great Grandfather), Great Aunt and Uncle, and a number of cousins for the first time. I don't think she's ever had so many arms willing to hold her!

I was a bit nervous about flying with Tara by myself, but she did really well! To keep my hands free for our carry on, the baby bag, and the carseat, I wore her in my sling most of the time. That worked really well, even if it did set off the metal detector and prompt a full pat down at security. But that's no big deal. We were lucky on both flights, in that they were full and asked for volunteers to check their carry-on bags. This worked out great for us, since we didn't pay to check a bag either way but also didn't have to deal with getting a suitcase into the overhead while wearing a baby. Finally, I was worried that the pressure changes would hurt Tara's ears, but she slept through most of the first flight and only cried a bit on the way back. So overall, not too bad!

I'll still be glad to have Jeff along next time when we fly to Connecticut this fall.

While I enjoyed the wonderful Northern California heat, Tara enjoyed spending her days being held by everyone and having gifts of clothing lavished on her by her Aunt and Grandma.

Sadly, she did not seem to enjoy her first swim. I think the water was too cold for her. Here's a video of the experience. Warning, crying baby!

She also took her first train ride. She slept through the entire trip, but the rest of us had fun!

We were there for 6 days and had a great time. We love getting to visit with family, but it was definitley nice to get back home. Tara was pooped!