Weight: 14 pounds, 14.5 ounces (76th percentile)
Length: 26.14 inches (97th percentile)
Head circumference: 42.3 cm/16.65 inches (82nd percentile)

The pediatrician said she has great head and trunk strength and was impressed with her ability and willingness to bear weight with her legs. At four months, our sweet girl is just a delight to be around. You merely have to make eye contact and smile at her and she’ll do a whole-body smile in return, wiggling around with delight. She can sometimes roll from her tummy onto her back, though it may be more luck than skill at this point. She remains a champion nighttime sleeper, usually doing a solid eight hours (Mama thanks you, Anna!). Still not much luck with naps; if I wear her in the carrier I can sometimes get an hour, otherwise it’s 20 minutes or so. I’m happy to report we have had some forward progress in the bottle department and she’s taken an ounce or so three times in the past two weeks! Next up will be working on replacing a full feeding with the bottle.

The four month pictures!

I’ve mentioned my friend Leanne and her Tiny Toppers hat shop. She made this bear hat as a gift for Anna and I’m so excited that it fits now! I put it on her this weekend and just had to take some pictures.

We had a wonderful family weekend. There was time with Daddy, to read:

And to watch videos of oneself:

We took pictures of the kids in their Halloween costumes. You have to wait to see those until closer to the holiday, but it did involve some bribery with a cupcake on Max’s part. Here he is enjoying his reward. I don’t know why he’s not wearing pants, it’s a two-year-old thing.

We got a car seat to have in Jeff’s car, Max tested it out:

Looking cool:

So I saw this cute idea online where you cut two holes in a pumpkin, put your baby in, and the baby’s legs stick out the holes. So we got a giant pumpkin when we went to the farm, and Jeff dutifully carved out holes of the appropriate size and location. Then we went to put Anna in and realized we’d failed to plan adequately for the process of getting her legs in said holes…and unless we could bend them forward from the knee, it wasn’t going to happen. Oh well, the best laid plans and all that. So I figured we might as well just set her in it and take some pictures anyway, can’t pass up the opportunity for a baby in a pumpkin photo! This first photo is cracking me up, she is clearly not so sure about Mom’s harebrained scheme:

Okay, maybe it’s not so bad after all:

Big brother and Chester join the fun:

Max wanted Chester to touch Anna.

Telling Anna “Chester touched your head!”

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it on here, but I’ve had to cut out dairy for Anna’s sake. I’ll try it again in a couple months and see if it goes over any better, but for now I am dairy-free. I’ve found decent substitutes for milk and ice cream, but I have yet to find a good fake cheese. Ah well, it’s worth it for her sake.

Max continues to crack us up. The other day he was watching a “Blue’s Clues” show on the computer while my mom was taking care of him. She went into the kitchen to put something away and after a minute Max said, “My Blue’s Clues show is all funny!” Mom came over to look and sure enough, there were odd symbols on the screen. She remarked, “Well, that’s weird, how did that happen?” to herself more than anything. Max said, “I just sort of pushed that button right there” and pointed to the keyboard.

Sleep is calling me, so I’ll share pictures and be off to bed!

Trying Daddy’s shoes on Chester bear:

Big boy!

Anna tried out the Bumbo seat at Angel and Eric’s house Sunday. We’ll have to dig ours out, she seemed to like it:

Love Emmeline checking me out from the corner of this shot:

Of course big brother had to get in on the Bumbo action also:

I saved some of Max’s clothes for Anna, including the jammies below.  Here she is:

And Max in the same outfit:

That baby boy now:

Mama snuggles!

We have a mini session scheduled with Justine at our other favorite farm next weekend, I’m really hoping the weather cooperates for that as well. Speaking of the fabulous Justine, here is our sneak peek from last weekend’s family photo session. I love them and can’t wait for the rest!

Farm fun:

Investigating the rocks:

Just chillin’ in the pumpkins, looking cute:

Showing his tickets for the train. He handed them to the farmer who drove the tractor and then said, “I gave the tickets to that guy. I’m a big help.”

Trying to push the wheelbarrow. He actually did get it to move a bit, which was pretty impressive considering how heavy it was.

Max said he wanted “A really little pumpkin” so this is what he picked:

Giving Anna a kiss:

Not a completely accurate measurement, since his feet are a ways from the wall

Poor Max took a tumble Saturday and ended up with a fat lip. It has to hurt, the tooth went into the lip and cut it and it’s all swollen and bruised. He cried for a few minutes and then rallied and hasn’t complained about it at all. If it were me, I’d be demanding to eat only ice cream, but he’s had cereal and an apple without protest, so hopefully it’s not bothering him too much. He started gymnastics again this weekend and had a good time. The way he talks now is just so cute! The other day I asked him if he wanted salmon sticks or a waffle for lunch. He replied: “Well, I think salmon sticks are a good idea.” Earlier this week he wasn’t feeling well and my mom took him to the pediatrician (thankfully just a run of the mill virus). As they were walking out he turned to her and asked, “So, what did she say?”

Anna may be headed for a growth spurt, her awesome nighttime sleeping is still good but definitely not the really long stretches we were getting. I told her she should stretch it out again since it’s a fair trade for only taking 25 minute naps much of the time. She was a champion model yesterday for Justine and I am chomping at the bit to see the pictures!

Speaking of pictures, here are some from our week.

Rest assured that Anna still has feet. I just chopped them them off visually in this shot, but it’s too cute not to share:

I love this outfit! Grandma Helen got it for her before she was born.

My sister-in-law Leah is a very talented knitter. She made this adorable dress and bloomers for Anna and I am so excited that it fits now!

I had a vision of a cute pic of the kids together, but Anna wasn’t interested in looking at me. Oh well, they’re still cute:

Playing in the brown boxes with Chester bear:

If you look at his left side you can see the swollen lip:

Max got a hand stamp at gymnastics yesterday, and then took a rare nap that afternoon. He must have been resting his cheek on his hand, because there was a perfect copy of the stamp there when he woke up. Of course we had to get a picture:

Seriously, can you believe this cuteness?!

Jeff and my mom and I were laughing the other day that the kids probably think “Okay, this family is really nice and I love them a lot, but I’m not sure how smart they are.” Poor Anna keeps telling us she hates the bottle and we are not picking up on her not-so-subtle cues. Max also must think we are not the brightest bulbs on the Christmas tree…Monday my mom was getting ready to take him to her house and explained that she was going to change his diaper (we use cloth at home but usually use disposables when we go out and about). Max said “It’s still dry” (he’s pretty accurate about that these days). She replied, “Okay, but I want to put a different kind of diaper on you before we leave.” Max looked at her for a minute and then explained, “We call that a disposable diaper, Grandma.” And his parents aren’t any better, recently Jeff picked Anna up and said, “Hi Punkin!” and Maxwell quickly corrected him–“Daddy, that’s Anna.”  Nor do I escape, yesterday Max said that something “falled down.” I replied, “Oh it fell?” and Max said “No Mama, it falled.”

Last Sunday our friends Angel and Eric and their girls came over. The big kids had fun with the toys and the babies slept and ate and observed. We are so lucky to have good friends like them close by!

Sharing Chester bear:

This picture makes me laugh. Anna is assessing Penelope.

Okay, she’s cool. I’ll hold her hand.

Here are some other pictures from our week. Tummy time success!

Max coaching Anna on the finer points of tummy time. Note that Chester is doing it as well:

Daddy-daughter snuggle!

Maxwell wanted to help give Anna a bottle the other night when she was having a hard time. I’m sorry to say she still wasn’t interested, but it was awfully cute:

We had spaghetti one night this week. Max ate it with both his fork and his hands, and I had to get a picture of the results:

Tummy time again!

Yesterday we went to a park on the lake near our house. Jeff and Max threw rocks in the water:

Enjoying the view of the water and the mountains:

I don’t know what Max is doing here, but it’s pretty cute:

Wheee!

The weekend before this one was a great “last hurrah” to summer, as we had sunshine and temps in the 80s. On Saturday we had Jeff’s work picnic at the zoo. We packed up the car and headed out for a day of fun. Max loved feeding the giraffes and the birds and riding the carousel. He also loved the fact that at the picnic they had ice cream sandwiches.

Sunday found us heading north to my Grandma’s house. We hadn’t been up there in far too long, and Great-Grandma was itching to see the kids again. It was wonderful to spend the day with family and Max loved the toys Great-Grandma has. When we told him we were going up there that day, he said right away that he was going to play with the mailbox toy. It has been quite a while since we were up there, so we were impressed that he remembered that.

I went back to work on Wednesday last week. I can’t say I was looking forward to going back, I have loved these months at home with Max and Anna. But I’m trying to focus on the positives, like the fact that I can bring Anna with me until she’s six months old (amazing benefit!) and that I am part-time and get one day a week at home. The first few days went well and I think I’m now caught up on my email. Monday did come around awfully quickly though!

I have a few pictures from when Oma and Opa and Greg, Leah and the girls were here that didn’t make it up last time, so I wanted to be sure to post them now. Here are Leah, Elizabeth and Emma making s’mores on the grill:

Reading a story to Anna:

Max is a fan of corn on the cob:

I’ve mentioned that Anna doesn’t love tummy time. Our friends Rain and Wes sent this cute owl toy for her and she loves to stare at it. We’ve had some improvement on tummy time with propping her on the Boppy and letting her look at the owl:

Taking pictures of a toddler and a baby together is hard. I don’t know how my friend Justine gets such great pictures of kids all the time. So when I do get a shot where both kids are looking in the general direction of the camera, I’m thrilled. Here Max was sharing Chester with Anna, which was quite impressive since Chester is his very special friend.

The zoo! For $5 you can feed the giraffes, and it is money well spent. Max holds out the leaves and says, “Here you go, giraffe!”

Climbing around:

Feeding the birds, another hit:

Anna staying cool in the shade at the picnic:

Carousel ride!

Our trip to Great-Grandma’s house:

Four generations:

My aunt Wendy is an amazing baker, and was kind enough to make pie for us. Max was a big fan!

On the porch swing:

Cousin Trinity was so happy to hold the baby!

Max is very much two and a half–he had a meltdown yesterday over the fact that I couldn’t put his banana back into its peel. All part of the age and we roll with it. It is such fun listening to him talk. He’s still working on figuring out when its appropriate to say “I” vs “Me” vs “You.” He used to almost always say “you” or “Max” when referring to himself. Now he does that about half the time, and the other times he usually says “I.” For example, when playing hide and seek yesterday with Jeff he said, “Daddy, more looking for I?” So cute! And let’s face it, the English language is not an easy one to figure out.

We had a great time
for the rest of Oma and Opa’s visit, and we were so happy to have Greg
and Leah and the girls here also. I have some more pictures of our time
together, plus some assorted shots from our week.

I took this self-portrait the other day because I want to be sure to memorialize the Moby wrap. Now here’s a baby product I wish I’d invented: It’s just a big piece of fabric folded in half! I had this with Max and used it a bit, but it has gotten a lot of use with Anna. Moms of two or more, get thee some type of baby carrier! It’s a lifesaver to be able to have two hands free while holding the baby, and Anna will nap in there really well.

Some more pictures from our time with family:

First thing in the morning, please excuse my crazy hair:

Anna sleeps great in her crib at night, but during the day she prefers to nap on me. We can lay her down all swaddled up and snoozing:

But that quickly turns to this:

Fun times with kitchen bowls!

Cousins

We celebrated Greg and Elizabeth’s birthdays while they were here:

Mmmmm, frosting…

We love watching Max’s mind work. Recently he was trying to tell Jeff and me that one of his toys was growing. He kept repeating that it was “Growing” and we couldn’t figure out what he was saying and kept repeating other, incorrect words back to him. Finally he said, “It’s getting bigger!” and we exclaimed, “Oh, it’s growing!” He smiled and said, “Yeah!” He was probably wondering how smart we really were, but I loved seeing him figure out that he needed to say the same thing in a different way.

Anna is of course as cute as ever. She’s a bit of a night owl, I didn’t get her down for the night until after 11 last night. I’m hoping she moves that bedtime a little earlier before I go back to work, but thank goodness she usually does at least a six hour stretch of sleep at nighttime. After our early morning feeding she almost always zonks out and I hold her on my shoulder for a few minutes to try to minimize the likelihood that she’ll spit up. Even though my body is pleading for me to go back to sleep, I usually hold her a bit longer than I need to. I just love those sleepy baby snuggles, and I know all too soon they’ll be over.

I have lots of pictures again this time, so I’ll get to it.

Anna and I hung out with Angel and Penelope again last week, so of course I had to get some pictures of our beautiful girls:

General cuteness from the kids:

Anna’s Great-Aunt Wendy made this blanket for her:

The aftermath of one of Max’s very favorite treats: Cupcakes!

My talented friend Leanne made this dress:

Some pictures with Oma and Opa. Here they are meeting Anna for the first time:

Having a great time together:

Our beautiful Anna is two months old already! The time is sure flying by. Her official two month stats:
11 pounds, 6 ounces: 64th percentile
23.6 inches long: 90th percentile
40cm head circumference: 74th percentile

She got a thumbs up from the pediatrician, who was impressed that she usually does a six hour stretch of sleep at night (Mama is very grateful!). Anna showed off her smiles and how well she can lift her head. At two months old, she still doesn’t love tummy time, but it seems to be getting a little better. She really doesn’t like getting out of the bathtub–she screams the whole time we’re drying her off and getting her dressed, and then calms down as soon as she’s picked up. She still has a really fast “on” switch for hunger–fine one minute, starving the next. She gives us lots of smiles and is starting to coo and sometimes do a little cough/laugh sound that is just too cute. We could not love her more!

Max is doing well, he has been very complimentary lately, saying things like, “Mama, you’re a good driver” and “You’re really strong, Daddy.” A couple days ago I was carrying him down the stairs and he said, “You’re a good walker, Mama.” Why thank you Max, I am a darn good walker if I do say so myself. He still likes the show “Blue’s Clues” and for about three weeks was really into the “Opposites” episode. We watched it pretty much daily and then suddenly one day he said he wanted to watch a different one. We have been talking about opposites since then and he likes to make his books into opposites by inserting “no” in front of each sentence. We are constantly delighted by the things that come out of his mouth. Yesterday I was folding laundry upstairs and he wanted to go in the linen closet. He went in, shut the door, and was quiet for about a minutes. Then I heard him remark, “It’s dark in here.”

We enjoyed a visit from Grandpa and Grandma Helen. Max loved playing hide-and-seek with them and playing games on the ipad. It was wonderful having them here, they cooked, cleaned, and took Max fun places like the Children’s Museum and the zoo. This allowed me to sleep, shower, and feed Anna. Feeding Anna always happens, but sleep and showers are not guaranteed!

I have lots of pictures to share to catch you all up! Here we go:

Aunt Shani sent Max this soccer outfit, a souvenir from her recent trip to Ireland.

Some assorted Anna cuteness:

Official Two Month Photos:

Some other pictures from the past couple of weeks…

Snuggling with Grandma:

Fun at the park with friends:

Anna and Penelope hanging out:

I love these people!

And last but not least, pictures from our fun week with Grandma Helen and Grandpa!

Playing with the ipad:

Helping Grandma Helen clean the windows:

Helen helped me sort and prep clothes for a consignment sale. Here’s Maxwell brushing her hair with one of the hangers:

He loved wearing Grandpa or Grandma Helen’s glasses:

Max loves the local Children’s Museum. This statue is at the entrance:

Fun times at the museum!

A trip to the zoo!

Feeding the giraffes:

First ride on a carousel: