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Saturday, August 28, 2004

Memories

I've been going through all our 8mm video tapes to figure out what's on them all so we can transfer them to DVD. I realize that I am a spastic video camera user. Of the 9 or so tapes that we have, only about 1-2 of them go from beginning to end in line with real time. Meaning, that the content goes from one month to another, with the calendar. On the other 6 or so, there will be some from December 2000 & then it will jump to March of 2002, and then go back to September of 2001 or something. I've probably taped over some memorable moments in our family history with this haphazard way of taping but hopefully we'll be able to keep this from happening again now that we're able to record everything over to DVD.
I know this probably sounds biased, but Emma was the cutest little toddler. I'm watching all of these tapes & seeing her that young again is making me so nostalgic. It was so funny back when she couldn't talk & she had lots of blonde hair with little curls! And I feel much better about myself because I see now that I DID get a lot of Emma's firsts on tape. Most of the time I think I missed everything & was feeling like a bad mother (like I do now with Sarah, cause I haven't been taping anything of her yet). But that was the whole point of me getting all these tapes out & trying to get all the content off the 8mm & onto DVD. It's going to take awhile though, because I have to go through all the tapes & record everything in order. So maybe by Christmas I'll have everything finished.
On top of the video tapes to record, I also have to start painting Sarah's crib & put that together. She's getting almost too big for her bassinette. Emma slept in it until she was 5 1/2 months old, but we didn't have a crib for her until then. But with Sarah still waking up sometimes 2 times a night (yay) I don't relish the idea of having to go upstairs to feed her at 4am. I'm hoping she's just going through a growth spurt & it will end soon. I'm also going to feed her some rice cereal once a day, mostly before bedtime so maybe that will help.

Technology sucks

Ok, I'm writing this on Jeff's laptop that is hooked up to our big monitor. Our wonderful computer broke this week. Well only the hard drive, but it still means we have no computer. We're waiting on a new hard drive that's supposed to be delivered on Monday. Grrr. This is the second time this has happened this year. We, again, lost all of our digital pictures that we've taken. So the only ones we have left are the ones that we've posted on the website. But there are a lot of them on there, so I'm only minorly upset. It was nobody's fault, for some reason the hard drive just broke. It's a pain in the behind, but it's not the end of the world.
Emma starts preschool on Monday. She's so excited! We went to an open house on Thursday & she didn't want to leave. She was having too much fun playing with all the toys & meeting new friends. She has her own little cubby to put her stuff in & it has her picture on it. This was the first time that Jeff had seen the school & he was quite impressed. They have microphones hanging from the ceiling to record what's going on for the students who are being student teachers. They also have one way mirrors on one side of the room, where other students (and parents are welcome, too) can sit & observe the kids. It seemed kinda "big brotherish" to me at first, but I figure it's easier to observe the kids behaving naturally when they don't know they're being watched. And for a certain class you need to take to get your teaching credential, you have to observe so many hours so this was probably the easiest way to get it all on tape. Plus, parents are allowed to come in & sit back there to view what's going on, as well. I think I'm going to take advantage of that maybe once a month, just to see how Emma's doing. I know with her last preschool, they didn't really let me know if Emma was struggling with anything, either socially or anything. But with this school, they have parent-teacher conferences at the end of each semester, and they also encourage parents to come & observe their children. Because we all know how kids act differently when they're away from their parents. And I want to make sure that Emma knows that I know what's going on, even if she doesn't know HOW I know.

Monday, August 23, 2004

Tasty treats

Sarah had her first taste of solid food last night. Seeing as how she's 4 months old now, I figured it would be a good time to introduce her to rice cereal. Emma hated it when she was Sarah's age. But, in her defence, by the time Emma was 4 months old, she was almost off breast milk & had practically weened herself. And I, being an inexperienced mother, didn't mix the rice cereal with formula. Instead I did it with plain old water & Emma was less than thrilled.
But with Sarah, she's still nursing, so the rice cereal was mixed with breast milk. We gave her a bath to get her calm & then tried out the cereal. Jeff held her while I fed her. The first taste was very tentative. She was feeling it out, licking her lips & then got all excited, wanting more. She was so cute! She was making all these grunty, hungry noises, like she just couldn't get enough. The way you mix it for the first time, it's practically liquid, with the ratio of cereal to milk about 1:4, but Sarah just had a ball. She would open her little mouth when she saw the spoon & followed it with her eyes when she wasn't being fed. She wanted to keep that spoon in her sights to make sure it wasn't leaving.

Saturday, August 14, 2004

New tricks

Hello everyone! I'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but my in-laws have been in town & I haven't had a chance to write anything. Sarah's been doing some new tricks. She can roll over from back to front now & she started laughing. We were putting her feet up against her cheeks last night & making funny noises & she started laughing out loud. It was too cute! She's definitely starting to smile more often & is happy that she can now switch positions if we put her down in a way she doesn't like.
We're going to Michigan Adventure tomorrow. It's an amusement park that's owned by the same people who own Knott's Berry Farm, so everything has a "Peants" theme to it. Emma's very excited. It also has a water park there that we can get into as well, it's all included in the price of one ticket. So we're taking our bathing suits, well Emma's, so she can have some water fun.
The only bad thing is, we're all starting to get sick. I started having a sore throat last night & today I feel icky. But that's not going to stop me from enjoying myself tomorrow.
I posted some new pictures up on the website from this last week. There are a few more with Sarah smiling & some of Emma sliding through the kitchen on her bean bag chair. It's her new sport.

Monday, August 09, 2004

Why some women don't breastfeed

I know now why some women decide that breastfeeding isn't for them, at least for very long. I think I forgot this since I was nursing Emma, but babies BITE. And it hurts, very bad. Even without teeth, those little gums can clamp down with the force of a vice. And Sarah is so good about doing it so very sneakily. She'll be nice & sweet and then all of a sudden she's Dracula looking for her next blood fix. I keep having to remind the 3 1/2 month old that my boobs are not a teething ring. Kids with Down syndrome don't tend to get teeth this early, but they can show the signs this early. I'm not looking forward to another 9 months of Sarah using her gums like a meat grinder while she's nursing. I think an actual tooth would be preferable. At least then I'll be able to see what's causing me so much pain.

Sunday, August 08, 2004

Throwing out the trash

Jeff & I have been going through our file "cabinet" and throwing out all the old, outdated stuff that we have no use for. For example, bill stubs from 4 years ago, user manuals to items we no longer own, and bank statements for accounts that were closed long ago. We're keeping only the current things, and of course, all our tax documents & medical stuff. I have to say, we threw out a lot of paperwork. It feels somewhat liberating to be rid of all that stuff. Now, it might have helped to do all this before we moved, so Jeff didn't have to pack it, but that's a moot point at this juncture. Now all of our paperwork, aside from medical stuff, user manuals & tax documents, can fit into one small accordian type file. And with room to spare.
Liz & Dave are coming in 2 days & Emma is very excited. Even though she just saw all of our family less than a month ago, she always gets happy when people come to visit us. Most of the time because they bring presents. She is one spoiled kid.
My sister-in-law Melissa is getting married on the 21st of this month. We're all very excited & happy for her. She is marrying a very nice guy named Mark. We wish we could be there, but with Jeff's work, school, & the expense of flying out there with 2 kids, we just can't. But we wish her & Mark the best and we'll be there in spirit.
Speaking of school, Emma starts her new preschool/Kindergarden readiness in about 3 weeks. We have a home visit scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. I'm not sure what that's going to involve. Hopefully it isn't just an excuse to have someone come into our house to evaluate whether or not we're abusing our child, which the term "home visit" kinda make you envision. Emma's already excited about school so I don't think we'll have any problems convincing her to go. Every morning she has her little Disney Princess backpack ready to go & is crushed every time we tell her it's not quite time to go. I feel bad that she doesn't really have any sense of time, when it comes to future events. She still thinks everything happens in the now, and that future events will happen any second. Terms like "in a few hours" or "next week" really have no meaning to her other than they aren't happening right this very second & she doesn't like that.
I'm thinking Sarah is going through a growth spurt. She is sleeping all the time & eating constantly & very cranky. The crankiness is normally reserved for the car (she's the only baby I know that hates being in the car) but lately it's been popping up everywhere. She HAD been sleeping through the night, from about 9pm to about 8am, but the past few nights she's been waking up 2-3 times a night. I'm hoping this isn't a trend & that it will end quickly, but I suppose you can't rush the growth process. It'll end when this spurt is over. She's already pretty much grown out of her 0-3 month clothes, with the exception of a few things that are larger than normal. And dresses, since they aren't as binding as onesies & sleepers. She's just growing up so quickly! She's smiling all the time now, and she's almost rolling over from back to front. Jeff was holding her last night on the couch & I wanted to take some pictures. So I grabbed the camera & was standing in front of them, taking pictures. I would move from side to side to get a better angle & Sarah was just staring at me the whole time. She would follow me with her eyes as I was moving. She wouldn't even look at Jeff unless I was out of her field of vision. It was so neat! Not for Jeff, cause she wouldn't look at him, but cool for me. She really knows me! But she still loves to smile the most for Jeff. Every evening when he comes home, she always gets really vocal & smiles for him. And she makes the funniest faces at Emma. She loves it when Emma comes up & kisses her or plays with her. Emma really loves her little sister. Her "jealous" stage is coming to a close, I think. She still wants attention most of the time, but is a little more forgiving now that Sarah is a little older. Sarah can interact a little more with her now, which makes it more enjoyable for Emma. Both Jeff & I are trying to make sure Emma gets one-on-one time with us but it is hard when Sarah is still so needy. But Emma is being very understandable.

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

Privacy at last

We finally got our roller shades from JCPenney yesterday. I ordered them almost 2 weeks ago. None of our windows had shades on them, we've been having to tack blankets up in order to not flash people outside. Talk about ghetto. I got them all put up yesterday even before Jeff came home. I felt pretty proud of myself. It was relatively easy. Emma likes to open them, she likes how they snap up.
Sarah is getting so big! She's almost rolling over from back to front. SHe just has the issue of her arm getting in the way. She ends up tilted sideways with her arm underneath her tummy, trying to move it & gets very frustrated. She's also getting really strong in her front neck muscles. I was looking towards the back of the van this morning & I noticed that she was lifting her head up while she was in her carseat. I think that's the first time she's done that without someone holding onto her hands for support. She's also getting more vocal, & I think she even blew a raspberry at me this morning. For the past 2 nights, she's slept between 10-12 hours straight, with no waking up. It freaked me out yesterday morning because I woke up & realized that she hadn't & rushed over to see if she was still alive! She was fine, but I guess she's sleeping completely through the night now! That's nice, but I'm sure we'll have nights when she doesn't. I think maybe it's coming to the time when she will be sleeping in her own room. I still have to paint the crib. Maybe I can do some of that when Dave & Liz are here next week. Oh, and we have to buy a new crib mattress. I think that first night, when she's upstairs in her crib & not right next to us in her bassinette, I won't sleep very well. I know when Emma slept in her own room for the first time, I didn't sleep very well. Even though I had a monitor on & I could hear everything going on, it was still hard for me. And Emma was older, almost 5 1/2 months. Of course, she was also still sleeping in the bassinette because we didn't have the crib yet. I guess it was a good thing that Emma was kinda small when she was a baby. Otherwise she wouldn't have lasted that long in the bassinette. Sarah's still pretty small, too but I don't want to assume that she'll be small forever.