raspberry stage

my favorite baby stage. somewhere between five and eight months. we'll be talking and then june has the final say on the subject: pbbbbbppbbbb!

better yet, the raspberries she gifts us with when we're holding her--she leans over, puts her mouth on a bare arm and raspberries us good.

it is hard to be too serious when a little dumpling baby girl is on the floor blowing raspberries at you.

June at 3 Months

 my sweet three-month-old is now laughing, rolling over, and holding her head up well! she has started taking naps during the day Without-Being-Held (glory!) in her pack-n-play (zu still isn't out of her crib), on her belly (don't tell the pediatrician!).

sleep at night is still not so great. she typically sleeps from about 9pm to midnight, then wakes up every two hours after that. but having little stretches of time during the day where i'm just watching one child has made things somewhat easier. zu and i have had more one on one playtime because of it, and i'm not hopelessly behind on grading anymore. 

she likes to be out and about, but she doesn't like too many people in her face (or too many holding her)--we learned that the hard way after she cried for four hours after zu's birthday party! who can blame her--i'd cry too.

i tried weaning her for about half a day. that proved harder than i thought, so i gave up on it. so she still loves nursing and having a bottle or two to supplement. her tummy is still not doing 100% awesome though--hopefully this will all work itself out soon.

baths  are still her number-one-favorite-thing. she really loves taking baths with zu--she smiles and laughs and splashes the whole time. she also really loves baths with me--but she mostly gets so blissed-out that she falls asleep during them.

she is always watching zuzu and sometimes it seems like she just wants to get down on the floor and play too. it won't be too long and she will be!

happy double, zuzu!

newborn

 my sweet girl turned two years old on monday! we took her to the aquarium in chattanooga to celebrate. it was the perfect weather so we got there a little early and played in the water outside the aquarium until they opened. zu especially loved seeing the butterflies, penguins and turtles. we took her out for a burger and icecream for lunch, then went to the aquarium for another hour, then went back home. zu had such a good day she sang to us the entire drive back. then we had to go to bed a little early on account of having sung through naptime! zu is loving this birthday week--her party is on saturday, so she's been singing happy-double everyday.

it really is hard to believe that my baby is two now--these two years have gone so quickly! life with kids is life in warpspeed. i'm so happy to be zu's mommy--i couldn't ask for a sweeter toddler.

1 year old

:: zu's birthday survey ::

 favorite food: toast, ketchup, baked beans, crackers, pickles, "double"

 favorite sport: jumping! running!

 favorite show: too cute, mickey mouse, thomas the train

 favorite color: purple

 favorite song: "around and around" by daddy

 favorite game: around-and-around, corresponding with the song

favorite places to go: the park, the library, the mall

favorite book: go dog go, the jesus storybook bible, onefishtwofish

2 years old!

favorite things to do: sing, play with "babies," take baths with sister, color with crayons and chalk, play in the "bubbles" outside

favorite way to relax: drinking a "cold nonny" (milk) while watching meowies (too cute, kittens edition)

friends: izzy, makayla

favorite people: gaggi, kakki

favorite toys: mommy baa baa, baby zuzu, little baby girl, baby meow-meow and mommy meow-meow 

3 words that describe you: sweet, smart, energetic

june at 2 months

our sweet littlest one turned two months old a couple of days ago.

at two months she loves cuddling with mama, taking baths, smiling at daddy and sissy, and nursing.

she is not such a big fan of sleeping (or sitting for very long) in her bassinet or bouncy and we've not even tried the crib.

last week she decided that daddy isn't so bad, and that has made the couple hours that i'm at work on tuesdays/thursdays a lot easier for bryan.

zu loves watching her sissy and playing with her--tummy time is pretty much their only game, but sometimes zu thinks june is trying to play with her when june accidentally swings her arm her way.









her eyes are dark blue, just like zu's at this age, she's got her daddy's dimples, and, oh yes, did i mention, this girl has got some hair?

zu's words

nonny = a beverage. usually paired with a possessive, for example, bryan's waterbottle becomes "daddy's nonny"

i tump! = i jump, usually accompanied by vigorous jumping

da-du cry, da-du cry = singing along to my "don't cry june" song

a bee-bee! = to be yelled at the sighting of any insect

the whee = anything that you would say "whee" when riding. usually refers to a slide or swing

double = dessert

e e ? = "where is". for example, "e e daddy?" would mean "where is daddy?"

puhple = sometimes this means purple, but it can also mean red

bumbo-potty = she thinks the bumbo looks like a potty, so she calls it the bumbo-potty. fingers crossed that she will not try to use it like a potty when potty training happens...

beep = the car

shoe-shoe-ies = her shoes. this is bryan's fault, because he called them "zu zu's shoe shoes" and she translated that to "shoe shoe ies"

meow-meowies = kittens

mommy meow-meowie = their mommy

mommy ba-ba = a big stuffed lamb she has, her favorite currently

kakki = aunt karen

gaggi = grandma roberson

ta-da = aunt lauren 

~

she also speaks some actual english (turtle, car, bubbles, again, tower, crackers, giggles, crackers, down, up, yes, no, cheese, bath, nap, etc), but most of the time she refers to things by the sounds they make or what they do. a bunny is a "hop", a cow is a "moo". an example of a zu sentence: "E e the puhple bow-bow?". translation: where is the purple bow?

i'm going to miss this zuzu toddler language one day. 

growing pains

i'm not particularly tall now, but i was tall-as-a-boy in elementary (oh the cool-points i earned from that...). in bed at night i'd toss and turn, my legs aching at the bone from growing fast. the past couple days i've been aching at the bone.

the weight of my blessings is about ten pounds + twenty-five, according to their last pediatrician appointments. when june spends the entire night nursing then sleeping with her head rested on my chest, i feel how heavy she was resting there, i feel crushed in. i get up and i can feel the lightness of breathing without her little dumpling body curled ontop of mine.

so much of the first six weeks is the hardest because it is relentless. one night of bad sleep is not so bad until it is compounded with a week straight of dicey sleep. i had it easy with zu--she started sleeping through the night at six weeks, like a switch was flipped, while june stays up with me every night til 1 then wakes up every two hours to nurse, like clockwork. she doesn't know any better--in fact, i'm pretty sure she's loving the quiet, dark house,  propped up on my lap with her plump baby thighs resting on my stomach. she watches me and smiles and makes baby noises until she can't quite keep her eyes open anymore. 

i'm pretty sure i'm doing everything wrong as far as sleep-training this one goes. she's different from zu--if she's fussy, she just wants cuddles and nursing and closeness--zu wanted to move and get walked around and sit up on her own.

i love these reminders though of God's creativity--how we're all individuals from the very start. i know there are books upon books i could check out, "baby manuals," on how to "fix" it, but, like my mom says, no so-called baby expert has as much expertise in the field of June Eloise as her momma.

we'll figure it out.

co-sleeping.

the past couple nights i've had a recurring dream. i'm doing something or other--talking, dishes, laundry, something everyday--when suddenly it becomes hard to breathe.

i slowly transition from dreaming to lucid-dreaming, contemplating if i can or if i should wake up to start breathing again.

i know co-sleeping is dangerous, but sometimes i fall asleep with june on my chest after i feed her and i'm burping her or soothing her to sleep.

each time when i wake up, june has crawled up from my chest to my neck and is pressing her head into my windpipe, keeping me from breathing.

co-sleeping with june is a bad idea.

june's birth story

june eloise joined our family on june 25th at 9:17am! she is 8lbs 3oz, 20in long, and has a gorgeous head of hair. i am so happy to have this sweet babygirl in my life, and i've been soaking up these precious early days.

for me, all those details of childbirth get fuzzy so fast, i want to make sure to get it down before its gone, so here is her story, as detailed as i can remember it--

a couple days after i was due, i was told i'd be induced that following sunday, but i requested that they check me on monday instead and schedule the induction after that. i wanted to avoid being induced, so thursday i tried everything in the book to get labor started on its own (castor oil, twice).

saturday morning i started feeling mild contractions, ten minutes apart. the contractions got progressively stronger and closer together throughout the weekend, but when the doctor checked me on monday morning, i was only at 5cm, so she told me i could go home and wait around or to the hospital and wait around.

i opted for home, and i'm glad i did. i was able to eat, be with family, take showers, lay in my own bed, and watch almost the entire first season of downton abbey.  that night though i was staring to get into more intense labor, so we decided to go ahead and go in, so they could monitor the baby and make sure the heartrate was ok.

when we got in, i was really disappointed to find that i was still only 5cm, after being in labor for the entire day! i'm glad that we went in though because things progressed over the night. i had a really wonderful nurse (all my nurses were great at this hospital actually!) who understood natural childbirth, so she did a lot to make me comfortable--brought me a birthing ball (which helped so much!), made a comfy little pillow nest around me when they had to keep me in the bed for monitoring (this happened on and off, just to check on the baby), didn't make me stay in bed any more than i had to.

the contractions began to get harder to deal with around maybe 3am or so. i couldn't remember anything i'd learned from the bradley method books and the lamaze breathing wasn't really working (the deep breathing yes, not that he-he-ho stuff! i couldn't do it right when i was in actual pain), so then i tried moaning, which sounds weird, but was so effective! it helped me control my breathing and kept me from panicking, which was the biggest struggle for me.

around 6 or 7 that morning i think is when i went into the transition time. the doctor came in after i had a bad contraction and found i was at 9cm, so told me i could push whenever i felt ready. those transition contractions were tough--i could usually start out handling them well through breathing/making noise, but these got stronger where the other contractions tapered off, so i did find myself getting a little panicky toward the end of those.

i had truly underestimated the transition/pushing stage; when i got there, i tried to stick with what had been helping me cope with pain, most of the time though i was panicking and screaming like someone was murdering me. luckily this was a short stage! i'm fuzzy on the details of it, since i was deliriously tired at this point, even falling asleep between contractions, as painful as they were. my doctor came in and i remember her saying something about pain and pushing and that i can push whenever i want.

i thought she had said something about how i needed to just get serious and have this baby OR if i lean forward i can get an epidural (she did not at all say either of these things, bryan later told me), so i thought i'd try to lean forward just to see if it would even be possible to lean forward, and that is when i felt it was time to push.

the doctor had left the room just then to go use the restroom but she was going to be back in just a minute so the nurse said it was ok to go ahead. she underestimated however how quickly i was going to push that baby out--the head was out with one push (at which point i remember the nurse calling out for the doctor again and again), and the shoulders were out with another, so the nurse actually ended up catching the baby before the doctor got a chance to run back.

natural childbirth was a completely different experience from last time, and i'm grateful it was possible for me to do it that way; i know i couldn't have made it through without bryan being there by my side, keeping me calm and focused.  all of the waiting and pain was worth it when i held that sweet baby in my arms!

happy

zu's new word is "happy"
she runs around the house saying happy, happy, happy
she grins up at me while i'm changing her diaper saying happy, happy, happy
and it makes me happy too.

little zu at 18 months!

today my baby girl turns a year-and-a-half old! my goodness! 

zu is a delight. she really is. i love her funny and joyful personality, and, honestly, its part of the reason we decided to have another baby so soon--she made us want more! not that being her mommy isn't any work--ha!--it's just a good kind of work.

so here are some things new with zu:

1} talking!

she is slowly but surely expanding that vocabulary. some of her favorite words:

meow, ruff, kitty, cat, puppy (see a trend here?), hi, bye-bye, daddy, mommy, mine, no!, ok, doll, ball, shoe, thank-you, fuzzball (the name of one of her favorite lambs), hat, bitta (which means book--we're counting it), bow. 

there's a few others here and there that are escaping my mind right now. it seems like she's talking more everyday. 

2} strolling!

one of her most favorite games is to push her own stroller. so we bought her a mini-baby-stroller and she loves pushing it all around the house. she most wants us to put her in the ministroller and run like crazy around the house but i'm not so much physically able to do that as the one who taught her that game (thanks aunt karen!)

3} outside!

now that the weather is warming up, we spend a lot of time outside--walking in our yard along the "creek", throwing leaves in the creek, looking at dogs in the park, and playing on the playground. it's been good exercise for me too, all the walking and sometimes running that it takes to keep up with zu.

4} buddies!
she really enjoys spending time with her friends izzy and mckayla, and playing with the big girls at church. she's a very social baby so i'm so glad that God has brought other moms with babies the same age into our lives!

and a few good developmental skills-- she can throw a ball overhand, take things apart and put them together, "read" books to herself, stack blocks, feed herself with a spoon and brush her own teeth (with guidance). i think that she's also been showing some signs of being ready to potty-train--so that will be the next big venture, in a month or two.

so that's all that's new with our little zu!

i think my girls need this

Sense and Sensibility: A Babylit Opposites Primer. 

( i also like .this one. and .this one. )

return to schedule

our spring break ends tomorrow morning. bryan was off too, but we decided not to travel, as he had a series of online auctions that needed quite a bit of tending to. he enjoys doing that kind of thing, and its nice to get the extra money, but they can be time-consuming (and room consuming--our sunroom has been in auction-mode for the past three months!). so zu and i left him to his work and had lots of extra just-mommy-and-zu time. we met up with friends quite a bit--for thrifting, walking in the mall, playdates and enjoying the beautiful weather we had at the end of the week.

bryan and i tackled our master to-do list i made at the beginning of the year--all of the things we need to get done before june. by the end of the week we'd cut down our list from 38 things to 7 things! success! the toughest chore i tackled was steam-cleaning the carpets. our house is nearly entirely carpeted, and hadn't anticipated how very physical a chore that was, and i over-did it a bit and felt like i was maybe having contractions, but they went away once i rested for a while.

i've been having my night-sickness again (officially due to heartburn but it doesn't really matter if i keep to my heartburn diet or not, i still get sick), so bryan built me a pillow-nest like he did last when i was pregnant with zu, and i was finally able to get some sleep! its not as completely comfortable as lying flat, but it is far more comfortable than waking up sick!

i started taking the fairytale poem class and wrote two poems last week, bringing me to the half-way mark on my goal of writing 20 poems in a year. i'm hoping to write a few more this month before starting to go through a devotional/writing book with bryan after lent concludes. 

so back to work tomorrow! there's really only about 6 weeks of class left this semester (a little less if you subtract various days off they have for Easter and other events); and then comes summer, bringing us our sweet little junebug! this week off was much-needed and i feel ready to tackle these last six weeks.

the big news!

it's a girl!!!

June Eloise

ah-ha. ugh.

apparently "18 month old sleep regression" is a thing. zu is only 16 months old, but she's always been a step ahead.

here's what is going on....

so zu has always slept like a champ. from 6 weeks, we have had hardly any trouble getting her to sleep and keeping her sleeping through the night. she self-soothes, cuddles her stuffed animals, and konks right out.

then we went out of town for a couple of weeks in december. over our travels, we stopped in this kid-focused restaurant with animatronics and such ( rainforest cafe) which we thought she would love but freaked her out instead. ever since then, animatronics and movements scare her--from the curtains moving in a breeze to the pedals on her tricycle rotating when she pushes it. it hasn't been a major issue--usually she'll just shake her head No and look at me concerned until I stop the offending motion.

the problem is at night.

she goes to bed at her usual time, no struggles (typically), but around 2 or 3 AM, she wakes up and will NOT go back to sleep in her crib. it does not matter how long i rock her, if i give her a teething ring (molars are coming in), read to her, sing to her, give her teething medicine, let her get up and play (desperate!), nothing nothing nothing helps Unless she gets in bed with mommy or daddy.

of course then she goes right to sleep.

so i don't really know what to do about this. its not every single night, but it is most nights, and it is wearing us out! bryan has been great--he gets up with her a lot of nights since he works til 11 and i work early in the morning, then i take night "shifts" on days that i don't have to teach in the morning. i think if it were just a matter of her wanting to sleep with us everynight, then she wouldn't be so easy to get to sleep in her own crib initially (and she sleeps there perfectly during naps). something is going on--nightmares, teething, sleep regression. i don't know. hopefully this phase will pass soon....advice in the meantime...?

zu at 15 months!

~ loves to sort & stack things. building with her blocks and sorting her books are her favorites. though left to her own devices, she will stack up anything--even cheese

~ mimics Everything--blows kisses, winks, has several different dances, blows on our hair (something she picked up from us doing it to her). she even mimics the cats when they meow at the door in the morning, which is just about the cutest thing

~ understands and follows simple commands, like "bring mommy your bow" or "go find dada"

~ babbles constantly--bitta-bitta-bitta and minna-minna are her favorite babblings. we're hoping this means talking is right around the corner!

~ loves fashion. everyday she wants to wear her gold sparkly flats all day.

~ shakes her head "no" when she means "no"--like when I ask if she'd like some more cheese or if she'd like her sippy...or if she wants to take a nap, haha

~ loves stuffed animals! whatever store we go to, if she sees a stuffed animal, she points and goes "ooooohhhhhhhhh" and really wants us to get it for her. but we're at stuffed animal capacity right now

it is hard to believe zu is going to be a big sister in just about 6 months! i think she is starting to understand that something is up--she's been even more all-about-mommy the past few weeks and wants me to hold her all the time (which is getting more difficult the more pregnant i get!).

epiplocoele

zuzu had her 1year old (a couple months delayed) check up and shots today. she cried as soon as she saw the doctor (though our doctor is really nice! zu just remembers the shots from last time) and the shots were terrible. she's sleeping them off right now. the doctor said she's in great health, has molars coming in already, is 75th percentile in weight but 93rd in height (yay! i love that she is so tall!).

but what has me completely freaking out is the doctor recommended we meet with some pediatric surgeons soon to talk about her epiplocoele. there's this bump on zu's stomach i was a little concerned about so i asked the doctor and she said she's only seen it one other time; its where the muscles did not entirely meet. she thinks that either we'll have to have surgery for it or it might just be a cosmetic issue (which of course we would not have surgery for, not while she is this little). we don't meet with the surgeons until the first week of december--we're praying that they will say she does not need surgery and that everything is fine

halloween

 we had a lambtastic halloween

(well maybe its been a lambtastic year)

a ballerina lamb

bryan as superboy, zuzu as a ballerina lamb, and me, as college-freshmen-bryan

 nellene had us over for trickortreating and handing out candy; i can't believe how much candy people gave zuzu! i thought they'd put a few pieces in but instead it was more like two handfuls--can't complain about having too much candy in the house though!

i love you all year through little zu

i've been thinking a lot the past few days how much i love this toddler stage.

i love how much zu's personality shows now -- all the little things she does, like dancing at dinner time in her high chair (and we all dance along of course), spinning in circles just to make herself dizzy, climbing up in my lap demanding i read "i love you all year through" the hundredth time.

high fives, her "amazement" sounds (ohh, oh wow), even her ridiculous tantrums when i clip her fingernails--always followed by giggling when i'm done.

i'm amazed at how quickly she learns right now--she sees daddy pat his belly and she pats her belly, i show her how to feed a babydoll and she feeds a babydoll (and her lambys too now). i love how she goes nuts at the sign of any dog anywhere; how we can't walk past a stuffed animal without her wanting to hug it; how she immediately befriends other children at the park

it's hard too--saying "no" a billion times knowing it probably won't stick til the hundred-billionth; the separation anxiety she goes through on days that i work (she knows too--she wakes up early those days and cuddles with me in bed before work). her boundless energy and my not-so boundless energy.

even then, i can't help but feel so incredibly lucky. i don't just have a kid, i have this amazingly awesome kid--a total flirt star-of-the-show, the "busiest baby i've ever seen" (according to my parents), crazy-sweet girl. it amazes me that out of bryan and my marriage came this little vivacious one-of-a-kind soul.

a photo from the end of my day

we play hard.

we all have colds

& little coughs and sniffles

yet...

the 60 papers are graded
its the weekend and my writing hiatus is coming to an end
a stack of favorite poetry books await
my parents are on their way to see little zu
bryan&i have datenight tomorrow night (!!)

and the fall leaves are turning gloriously here. acorns and leaf-rains make zu giggle and lift up her arms in amazement. what a beautiful season.