A Busy Week

Once Stretchy and I were both feeling better, we ended up having a pretty busy week.  I think it was really good for us because we'd been stuck in the house like we were quarantined for almost two weeks and cabin fever was starting to drive me a little nuts (and I certainly cannot afford to be more crazy than I already am).

Wednesday my sister arrived to spend part of her vacation with us.  Its always nice to see her and we haven't been home in a while, so it had been too long since we'd seen her last.  Unfortunately, it took Stretchy a while to warm up to her, but soon she had a new favorite play-mate (and I got to take some breaks to finish recovering!)  My mom came too since she's always looking for excuses to come see her favorite person... and her daughter...

We did some shopping and ran some errands.

Are we getting in the car already?

We headed up to Lake George (which was kind of a bust since most things were still closed for the season) and strolled around downtown Saratoga.  And we played with the baby...

It was really nice to see my sister and have company for a while.

They left Friday after Stretchy's first swimming lesson and we had a quiet evening.

Saturday we went up to Lake George again- this time to the Recreation Center where we took a hike in the woods, had a picnic with some friends we met in Germany and their kids.  Bob and the other dad took their bikes out on the trails there while the other mom and I watched the kids on the playground.  Unfortunately, a six-month old can't really play on the playground, but she seemed to have a good time sitting on the picnic table and watching.

Family photo... no, it's not a skirt, the baby's legs were cold- it's a blanket!

Sunday we went to a baby shower and had a BBQ with one of our friends who just moved back from Belgium and will be starting work with Bob soon.

Hanging out with the big kids...

I have to say, after more than a week of doing nothing, we definitely made up for it with everything we did last week!  Today we'll take it easy and enjoy the nice weather!

Here's some cute pictures of Stretchy hanging out on the couch this morning:

Standing and reaching

After falling over

Almost in the crawling position!

An Explosion of New Things

After Stretchy recovered from being sick, it seemed like she was feeling so much better that she was bored with all the things she could already do and decided to learn a bunch of new things.

She can flop onto her stomach from sitting and roll to her back.  Now she does it all the time... if only she could figure out the sit-up, she'd be good to go!

She can mimic a really cute smacking sound and now that's how we chat. 

And she can turn the pages when we read... All by herself!

The latest new thing?  She can wave.  She's been waving for a while, but I think it's been unintentional- more like a flapping when she gets excited.  But now when someone waves at her she can intentionally wave back.  SO CUTE!  I have yet to get it on video... hopefully soon!

The End of the Plague

For the first time over a week we all woke up feeling pretty good.

I still have a lingering sniffle and Stretchy still sounds a bit like Darth Vader when she breathes sometimes, but overall, we're happy to be feeling mostly better.

Stretchy still has her moments when I'm not sure if she's 100%:

But she has seemed a lot happier lately.

Other signs of happy baby: she is eating and no longer wants to take naps.


I have to say, being sick really, for lack of a better word, sucked.  Not only could I not just lie around in bed and drink ginger ale and watch TV until I felt better, but I couldn't even take anything for it (oh, DayQuil, how I missed you...) since I'm still breastfeeding.  Arg.  Enough complaining... off to enjoy some nice weather and get out of the germ-infested house!

Not So Sick, Getting Sick and Vaccines

Finally yesterday Stretchy seemed to be on the mend.  Aside from sounding like Darth Vader and occasionally appearing to be attempting to cough up a lung, her mood was much improved and I even elicited a few smiles and giggles.  Awesome.  Five days of sick baby is five too many.

So we were hanging out, playing and doing our thing when I start thinking to myself, "Gee, why am I so tired??"  About an hour later as we're singing Wheels on the Bus for the eleventieth time, I start feeling overwhelmed.  Thoughts like "How am I going to play with this baby for the next x hours?" and "What? She's done napping for the day?" start crossing my mind.  Soon after the dreaded headache makes an appearance and before you know it, I feel like I got hit by a school bus (probably that one we've been singing about all day) and I just want to curl up in bed.

Dang it.  Now I'M sick.  Just as Stretchy is feeling better and wants Mommy to be her normal, happy, energetic, Wheels-On-The-Bus-singing Mom.  Figures...



On another related note, Stretchy had her 6 month appointment on Monday and aside from the incessant river of goop flowing out of her nose, she's doing great.  15lbs, 4oz.  26.5" tall.

Now, Monday morning I debated calling (not that I really would have had time to call before our 8:30 appointment- what was I thinking) and letting them know Stretchy wasn't feeling well and we'd need to reschedule the vaccinations because I didn't want to hit her while she was down.  Rethinking my idea, I decided with a cold going on 5 days she should probably be seen anyway.

Good news- they were out of one of the vaccines!  Which meant I didn't have to sound like the crazy, overprotective, worrying mom and tell them I wanted to wait.

HOWEVER... IF she had been well, I would have been pretty angry, because who wants to drive their kid to the doctor TWICE in one week.  NOT ME.

Which brings me to the fact that now that Stretchy is feeling better and I am sick, the office calls and says they can vaccinate her today.  I figure, "Why not?" maybe she'll sleep it off all day and I can recoup... does that make me a bad mom??


And of course, since I don't want to end on a depressing Not So Sick, Getting Sick and Getting Vaccinated note... here are some cute pictures to tide you over until I feel better :)

Practicing standing!

Too Many Sick Days

Having a sick baby is no fun.  Stretchy has been sick since Thursday.  That makes three days of sick baby.  "Three days?" you say. "That's not so bad..." (Or I'm imagining that's what you might say.  That's probably what I would have said to me a year ago, you know, before I had a kid...)

Anyhow, this is how Stretchy's days have been going:

3:00am: Wake up coughing.
3:02am: Eat.
3:20am: Fall asleep while eating
3:22am: Wake up while being put back in crib.  Start screaming
3:30am: Go sleep in Mommy's bed.  She must be tired.
3:35am: Fall fitfully alseep
3:40am: Wake up coughing.  Start screaming.
3:45am: Repeat falling asleep and waking up until...
6:30am: Wake up for the day.  Appear happy and good natured.
6:40am: Refuse to eat breakfast.
6:45am: Scream your head off like you are hungry, but refuse to eat.  Again.
6:50am: Play normally.
6:51am: Cry for no reason.
7:00am-8:30 am: Repeat bi-polar activities of giggling while playing and crying inconsolably.
8:35am: Nap. But only ON Mommy, not in crib.  Take an abnormally long nap in which Mommy could
be doing so many other things...
10:45am: Wake up crying and refuse to eat.  Again.

10:55am: Scream your head off like you are hungry, but refuse to eat.  Again.
11:00am: Play normally.
11:01am-7:00pm: Repeat all of the above.
7:01pm: Cry inconsolably until bath time.
7:45-8:15pm: Have a blast in the bath.
8:16pm: Finally eat normally and pass out.
8:40pm: Wake up crying every 10 minutes until finally sleeping for a few hours at 10pm.
12:00am: Wake up and eat.
12:30am: Wake up crying every 10 minutes until finally sleeping for a few hours.

... It's been a long few days.  It's rough when your baby is upset and there's nothing you can do to fix it.
I do have to say though, that those abnormally long naps where she only wants to sleep on me are awesome.  Usually she wants to play, play, play and it's nice to get some cuddles once in a while.

I hope she feels better soon.

Here are some cute pictures of Stretchy during one of her "happy moments" the last few days.  At least it's been nice out so we could enjoy the fresh air.

**DIY side-note:  like those super cute leg-warmers? $2.50 knee high socks from Target with the feet cut off.  SO CUTE!

Happy Half Birthday!

Yesterday, my baby turned 1/2 a year old.  I can't believe it.  Neither can she:

Everyone was right when they said time flies... Good news is, 6 months is my favorite age so far!  I'm pretty sure that every age has been my favorite.  First she was super tiny and cute and slept a lot, then she started smiling, then making awesome noises, then grabbing and reaching, and now sitting and eating.  I'm not sure it can get better.

We had a busy weekend, now that she can do so many things...

We played some hide-and-seek:

Not a super great hiding spot, but she's getting better...

We went to a birthday party where Stretchy played in the grass and made some friends:

We hung out downtown and Stretchy drank her first coffee:

And of course, it was her 1/2 year birthday.  Which meant I took lots of pictures:

And might have even bought her a cake:

Which she thoroughly enjoyed!

Frosting is kind of like finger paint... proof she's going to be an artist.

The cake after Stretchy was done

Nap Anyone?

According to Mirriam Webster:

nap: to sleep briefly, especially during the day.

According to one almost six-month old baby that lives in my house:

nap: to engage in vocal and mouth exercises, dorsal activities, occasional spurts of crying and whining and/or experimenting with bodily functions while in the confines of one's crib (see video below).

I, for one, cherish "nap time" as it allows me to get some chores done (or more often check e-mail and write blog posts) and occasionally take a break with coffee and a magazine.

Up until now, naps were short-lived, but soundly taken... now, well... let's just say my house is dirty, if you write me an e-mail, I probably won't respond... and as far as blog posts... they may be few and far between.