Fun Stages

My dear husband is downstairs entertaining both girls so I am able to post on the blog today. Julia hasn’t been waking up in the middle of the night anymore, making it very hard for me to get the chance to type an entry for the day. We’ve started a list on the fridge of things I can write about whenever I get the chance. We’ll see how that goes.

Vacation is only two days away. Usually we wait until the day before to straighten the house, do laundry, pack, etc. It is always a very busy day. We finally got smart this time and starting our laundry and straightening yesterday. All of the laundry was done yesterday. The house is just about ready for us to leave (I hate coming home to a messy house). I may get the chance to write tomorrow, but I’m not sure. I’ll try very hard to write pretty quickly after we return home to tell you of our fun adventures.

Here are a few fun stages the girls are in:

Chloe -- Loves coloring! It is so neat to see her different coloring styles. She is also very attached to her baby. The baby has to do everything that Chloe is doing. She has recently discovered that her baby has a diaper on under her pants. Kevin was goofing around with her one day and put the diaper on over the baby’s pants, and now Chloe insists that’s where the diaper has to be.

Julia -- Loves stuffed animals! The bigger the better. She loves it when I rest a stuffed animal on her tummy. She immediately grabs it with both hands and rubs it all over her face while she goos and gaas. She is also enjoying her thumb very much. She started off by just chewing on it, but she has started to suck it a little. She makes a very loud smacking sound while she sucks it, making for some interesting experiences at church.

There’s a bit of an update for now. Julia isn’t seeming to settle down at all, so I should probably go see if I can help out.

Naptime

I must admit, I’m not writing because I have a story I must share. I am writing more for a distraction right now. It is time for Julia to start napping in her crib during the day. The transition begins today. Our strategy: Let her sleep in somebody’s arms for the morning nap. Keep her awake for three hours after the morning nap (she normally only stays awake 2- 2 ½ hours before napping again). Try to force another feeding before the afternoon nap. Put her in the crib (as long as she looks tired), close the door and wait for sleep to come. So here I sit trying hard not to listen to the faint crying in the background. We have a monitor turned on in the bedroom, but I haven’t turned on the parents’ portion yet. There’s no reason to sit and listen to the screaming. I hate this. Don’t great me wrong -- I absolutely want her to nap in the crib. I just hate the “screaming because I’m not being held” phase. I go in to check on her and comfort her for a couple minutes every 15 minutes or so, but it’s still heartbreaking. Okay, moving on to my distraction.

This past weekend we took a very, very quick trip to Illinois. Steve Manz, one of Kevin’s friends from seminary was ordained on Sunday. Kevin really wanted to be there, and I was interested in going too. His congregation is where my dad was pastor for 7 years. I really wanted to see how the town had changed and see some people from my old church. We left Sunday around 2:00 by the time we ate lunch and finished packing. It was a 3 ½ hour drive. The girls did very well. Julia slept the whole way. Chloe napped and entertained herself the whole way. When we got there we drove around town a little bit, and I pointed out where I went to school and worked. We grabbed a bite to eat and headed to the church. I sat with another pastor’s wife (friend from seminary) so I would have help with the girls. I hear that Chloe did very well during the service. I don’t know that firsthand, however. I guess Julia decided she hadn’t had enough talking to and interaction for the day yet. I was not able to sit in the church with her. I tried interacting with her in the pew, but it wasn’t good enough for her. I was very disappointed not to see the ordination.

After the service there was a reception with lots of visiting, of course. Since the ordination didn’t start until 7:00, it was 10:30 by the time we were leaving the fellowship hall. The original plan was to drive to my parents’ house (which was an hour away) and spend the night so that it wouldn’t be a miserable night of driving to get all the way home. We didn’t take into account how late we might be at the church. Plus we had only gotten about 5 hours sleep the night before. We ended up getting a hotel room in town for the night. I feared the hotel experience with a toddler and a baby was going to be miserable, but I was pleasantly surprised. Chloe went to sleep minutes after the light was turned off. Kevin had to walk Julia around in the dark for about 20 minutes before she went to sleep, but at least she didn’t cry. The next morning we met up with Steve and a few others for breakfast. After some visiting we headed home, later than we had intended. The girls had a bit of a rougher trip home. Julia sleep a little less than three hours of the drive home and was hungry, but we made her wait since we were so close to home. Chloe napped about 20 minutes until we stopped for gas. Then she was slightly crabby after that, but not horrible. It was an odd trip for me because when we got home it seemed like we had been gone much longer than 24 hours, but by the evening it seemed like we had never left. It was a slightly crazy trip, but we both thought it was worth the effort.

Fort Fun

Yesterday I decided to do something new and exciting with Chloe. I thought she might enjoy playing in a fort. Julia had fallen asleep while shopping in the morning and stayed asleep once I got her inside. So I started building the fort right away. I had it all planned out -- We would read some books together in there, and we could have a tea party. I even let Chloe pick out some new crackers at the store to use for the tea party. We were going to have so much fun.

First of all, Chloe had a grand ole time playing with the fort while it was being built. That didn't make for easy setup. Then, as soon as I was done building it, Julia woke up screaming. So much for enjoying the fort with Chloe. It definitely was not the kind of place to entertain a baby.

Chloe walked in and out a few times. She carried her chair into the fort. She dragged a few books in there and came right back out. That was the extent of our fun with the fort... until Daddy came home.

When Daddy came home, he got Chloe up from nap. Chloe immediately started pulling him towards the direction of the fort. (He called it a tent, but my brother and I always called them forts.) Once they reached the opening she told him to go in. They immediately started having fun together. Figures. My idea, my plans on how to enjoy it, my excitement about it all morning... and she only wants to play with Daddy. Oh well. I did manage to sneak in there a little later and lure Chloe in with some crackers. We may not have had our tea party, but we briefly enjoyed a small snack of crackers in our fort together.

Vacation Recovery

Last week Kevin took a continuing education course Monday - Wednesday. I decided it was a good time to take the girls to my parents' house. We left Monday morning and got back around lunch on Saturday. It was supposed to be a vacation for me (or so my parents said). However, Julia spent most of the week wanting nothing to do with Mom. It wasn't really until Friday that she could keep Julia content while she was awake. That plus the fact that Julia decided to start waking up in the middle of the night again made for a much less resting vacation than I had hoped for. But it was still good to spend some time there.

Chloe enjoyed herself immensely. She played with Play-doh, bubbles, ate ice cream and popsicles (not exclusively), colored pictures, and made best friends with Muffy (the dog). I wonder how Muffy is doing now that Chloe is gone. I think Chloe probably accounted for half of Muffy's food during the day. Cute story: Sunday we went out to eat. On the way back to the car Chloe saw a dog about the size of Muffy but different coloring. She said, "Oh! Muffy!" and proceeded to quickly walk towards the dog without even noticing the step she walked off.

Julia had just started sleeping through the night about three days before we went to Illinois. Friday and Saturday of vacation she managed to sleep straight through again, but since we've been home she has had to wake up in the middle of the night every night. Hopefully she won't do the same thing during our next two vacations! We have also retired Julia's bassinet. She had reached the weight limit, and she is trying to roll over already. We don't think it's a good idea to put her in the crib in Chloe's room until she's sleeping through the night consistently. For now she's sleeping in the port-a-crib where her bassinet used to be.

I suppose I didn't write that Chloe is sleeping in a big girl bed now. That has probably been three weeks? I lose track of time. Actually she just has mattresses on the floor, but she loves it. As soon as Kevin got the mattresses out for her, she immediately responded with "Oh, Chloe's!" The possessive stage she's in had a positive effect at that point. The first night was a little rough at the beginning with a few tears, but by day two everything was fine. She's such a good girl about it. She doesn't get off the mattresses until somebody comes into the room to ger her; I am very impressed.

I suppose the only other new thing happening around here is that I think Julia might be teething. She's been drooling a lot lately, chewing on her thumb (not sucking it), and hasn't been nursing well at all. I tried putting some Baby Orajel on her gums before a feeding one time, but she didn't like that at all. I don't know if it was the flavor or the funny feeling in her mouth. Whatever the case, I hope this can resolve itself quickly as our feeding sessions are getting worse by the day.

Hopefully that gets you up to date for now. Sorry it has been a month since I've written; I'll try not to let that happen again!