Water Works!

But without tears!

The Hubs, Grandma (my Mom), and I took Tegan to a local kiddie pool last weekend. I was a little nervous since usually at bath time as soon as she hits the water the rest of the time is spent screaming until the house shakes and the sky opens up, and the dogs head spins (you get the picture). But thankfully everything went great. It was the perfect day for a swim, about 90 degrees out and nice and sunny. So after our usual family dinner at Grandma's, we pulled out Tegan's lil swimsuit and trekked the few blocks to the pool. By the time we got there Tegan was asleep in her stroller. Ha! Amazingly there weren't a lot of people there on a hot muggy weekend day so at least if Tegan had decided the pool was not for here we wouldn't have a thousand pairs of eyes watching our failed expedition.

So I tentatively dipped her toes in the water and waited for a reaction...Nothing. So I dipped her a little farther into the water and waited for a reaction...Nothing. So I put her in a little flotation thing that Grandma had and waited for a reaction...AND...the little twerp fell asleep! I'm not kidding! At least it wasn't screaming! HA!!

We wrapped up the night with a bath to wash away the pool and sunscreen, and even the bath went off without a hitch. Maybe just maybe we've gotten past the ungodly hatred towards water. Here's hoping anyway.

It Starts...

Tegan learned a very fascinating lesson the other day. One that Auntie S. would be so proud of...

"Ohhh, Diet Coke!"

"It's so shiny! I want"

Yup, that's right Auntie S! As I was sitting next to her she suddenly got completely focused on the Diet Coke can I was holding. She was even reaching out for it. If I had let her I'm sure she would have tried to drink some of it too. At just over 5 months old, Tegan has already learned that Diet Coke is awesome.

As a wise Auntie S once said "Diet Coke makes everything better".

The 4th!

We didn't do much around here for the 4th of July. We had a barbecue the day before with my parents, but for the actually 4th we pretty much chilled at home. That didn't stop me from getting Tegan all dolled up though! A dress made entirely out of ruffles- Brilliant! Although every time I turned around Tegan had pulled her dress up to chew on said ruffles. The things we do to be cute. Ha!

We did manage to catch a few fireworks though. After Tegan was down for the night, the Hubs and I were able to glimpse the fireworks show from the park that's two blocks away by watching out our second floor windows. No bugs, no crowds, no fuss, and no messing with bed time. I'll take it!

5 Months!

It happened again, another month has passed. My little girl is now 5 months old! It seems this last month she has kept growing at breakneck speeds too. Here are her stats:

Weight: Since we don't have a check up this month I don't know your exact weight, but I have a feeling you're around 17-18lbs. You're certainly getting your baby rolls on! I can't get enough of your rolly-polly legs!

Clothes: You're still fitting into 3-6 months clothes, all though I suspect you're about to outgrow them. Which means that your Dad and I really need to do some clothes shopping again. Ha. We're also thinking you will finally start being above the curve in clothes sizes, no more being older than the size predicts.

Diapers: You're still in size 2. Although that's really only because we still have size 2 left, and hopefully you'll let me finish off the last box before we move to size 3! Holy bean sprout Squirt! I thought babies were suppose to stay in size 2 for a long time, you're moving onto bigger-and-better already!

Feeding: We're still breastfeeding, and sometime this month you'll be starting solid food. I don't expect solid foods will be more then just a game this month, but we'll give it a crack. Hooray for bland cereal type stuff! You're eating around 6-8 oz right now depending on the time of day. We started making an effort to give you a bottle once a week because you nearly had a melt down two weeks ago when I tried to slip out for a while. 40 minutes after I had left I got a call from the Hubs who was a little frantic after being unable to calm you down and get you to eat, even though we all knew you were hungry. Props to the Hubs though, he pulled out all the moves from the play book before he gave in and called.

Sleeping: You're nap/bedtime routine is now well established. You're definitely sleeping through the night now, HA! You usually sleep from 9pm to 10 or 11am!!! I think your record is 16hrs in one stretch, but I've honestly lost track. You no longer need to be swaddled at night (you basically stopped needing to be swaddled right after I wrote your last update). Your Dad and I have joked about strapping you down to your crib though. I'll put you to sleep in one position, and I'll find you at the other end of the crib completely flipped around, sideways, and with in the last week on your stomach. I need to set up a camera to catch all your night time wiggles sometime, it would be HYSTERICAL!

Baths: We had a break through last month! We've experienced one bath free of cries. I'm hoping that might continue for your upcoming baths, but I'm not going to hold my breath. Ha! This weekend I'm going to take you to the pool for the first time. Hopefully that will be a fun experience.

Teeth: You currently don't have any teeth showing, but I suspect you've just started teething. So far you haven't been to crabby, with any luck we can hold out longer with the good moods.

Milestones: You've been busy refining your motor skills, you're starting to get more accurate with your movements but you're not totally there yet. And we've definitely hit that stage where everything has to go in the mouth. I'll admit watching you try to get things in your mouth is a riot. Especially when the focus of your exploration is attached to something and therefore can't be picked up. You've discovered if you can't bring it to your mouth, you'll bring your mouth to it. This gives me endless laughs during tummy time. You are now rolling over like a pro. You started rolling first from back to stomach, and have just recently learned that it works the other way too. As mentioned above, this has been causing some slight problems with sleeping. Oh the crazy positions you get into. In the last few days you have also been attempting to figure out how to make 'raspberry' noises with your mouth. This is hands down my favorite thing from this month.

So to wrap it up, without further ado- your 5 month picture:

Fathers Day

Last weekend was Fathers Day, the Hubs first! We kept it pretty low key around here, the Hubs didn't really have anything that he wanted to do (I'm pretty sure I was more excited about Fathers Day then he was. Ha!) And the only thing he asked for was some more books that he could read to Tegan. I was more than happy to add to the book collection since I get such a kick out of the voices the Hubs comes up with for the characters he's reading about. Lately we've been hearing about the adventures of Frog and Toad... ahh yay, good times!

We also had a visit from the FIL over Fathers Day. He flew in from NY on Friday afternoon, and stayed until Monday morning. It took Tegan a couple hours to warm up to him, but by Saturday she was only eying him with slight trepidation. Which if you know my FIL, slight trepidation is pretty good, he can be a bit of an odd ball at times, and some of the things he says can just be plane bizarre. I think the Hubs had to tell me a couple of times to just zone out what he was saying. If you think its hard to follow him during adult conversation, you should hear the kind of babel he carries on to a baby! Ha. The FIL is a good guy though, and it was great to watch him interact with Tegan. Before he left he mentioned he was hoping to make another trip out in August or September. I'm sure it has to be hard for him to be living so far away from his first grandchild.

But back to the point of this post, the FIL wanted to see the King Tut exhibit at the Science Museum, so the Hubs, his brother, and the FIL spent the morning in St. Paul while I slipped over to my Dad's with Tegan for a quick visit. After lunch we were all back here where it was pretty much business as usual, with a little extra story time mixed in. All in all it was a great first Fathers Day!

Daddy's Girl

The theme of this weekend was 'Daddy's little Girl'. Tegan was so fixated on the hubs this weekend, it was pretty adorable.

She's also started playing a game with the Hubs whenever he's sitting next to us. She'll squirm towards him and lean as far over as she can, then with a little help from me we lean over far enough to get kisses from Daddy. She gets the biggest smile when we do this, and usually gives us a little laugh. It's just to much :). Now that the Hubs is back at work, she spent all morning staring at the spot he usually sits trying to find Daddy!

4 Months

Happy 4 month Birthday my little girl! You are growing so fast! In just the last few days you have started to be so much more interactive with your Dad and me, and I am so looking forward to this continuing. Your personality is also starting to unfold and we can already tell that you are going to be one stubborn little girl. Ha! I'm not sure if that's your Dad's fault or mine, I'm sure we'll both claim it comes from the other person.

So here's what you've been up to these days-

Weight: 13lbs 9oz, placing you in the 50th percentile on growth charts! A big jump from last month when you were 10lbs and in the 15th percentile.

Height: 24in, placing you in the 42nd percentile on growth charts. Another big jump!

Clothes: We just switched you to size 3-6 clothes, they're still a little big on you though. Some of your new clothes are the same styles you had when you were wearing preemie clothes which makes for a crazy comparison. It's hard to believe you were really that tiny! Maybe I'll try to get a picture of this up soon, it's crazy!!

Diapers: We just started using size 2 diapers. We pushed that transition off a little longer then we should have, but we were trying to use up what we had left of the size 1's. You're in such a hurry to grow that we still weren't able to get through our last box of size 1's.

Feeding: You love to eat! We're still  breastfeeding and besides your fits of wiggles its going great. It's been a while since we gave you a bottle so I'm not sure how much you are eating these days. I suspect it's around 5 ounces. We have successfully managed several outings where I feed you on the go but we're still working out the kinks of that nursing cover. We also learned that you are NOT a delicate eater. Ha!

Sleeping: We're trying to get you used to a bedtime routine and so far it's been a little rough. We're changing how we go about it this week so hopefully you stop fighting us at bedtime. Once you're asleep though you sleep for a good long while. You're technically sleeping through the night and have been for a while, but you take your first 6 hours from 8pm-2-3am, and then after a late night snack go back to bed for another 6-8 hours. Your record so far has been sleeping for 9.5 hours straight! Way to go! You still have to be swaddled to get to sleep or you thwack yourself awake and cause a sad baby (and sad parents) We're hoping you'll be out of the swaddling soon.

Baths: You still absolutely HATE getting a bath! Hate is almost not a strong enough description for your feelings towards baths. You have started to tolerate them a little more and wait a good 10 seconds before screaming like crazy. I think everyone in the house hates bath time as much as you do now. The poor dog has taken to pacing the hall during your bath time waiting for you to stop crying, she's even brought you peace offerings with her favorite toys to try and help! I keep waiting for one of the neighbors to show up on our door making sure everything is okay. Ha! In all seriousness though, I do really hope we can get past this hatred of baths. I really want to take you to the pool during the summer, but I have a feeling we have to get over bathing before we try that.

Milestones: You support your head most of the time and only need a little help when you start to get sleepy. You've  started to reach for things and manage to grab them some of the time. Rattles are your favorite thing to reach for these days. And when we do tummy time you've already gotten your legs underneath you and started to rock (you've been doing this since you were two weeks old though so no surprise there!). We suspect that you'll be cruising around sooner than expected since this immobility stuff seems to really tick you off. Ha! You've also started to discover the new world of jumping. You're favorite time to exercise this new ability is when I'm trying to burp you on my shoulder. So far I've avoided a bloody nose, but I'm sure I have one in my future.

Check Ups: We had your 4 month check up yesterday. Everything went well. As always the Doctors and nurses are in love with you. As we we're leaving I heard the nurses at the nursing station saying that everyone fights over who gets to be your nurse when you come in. Ha! The doctor thinks you might have reflux which is pretty common, so we'll be trying some different tricks to help you out with that. There's also some marks on around your knees that the doctor wants us to watch, but no ones all to worried about it.

I'm sure there are other things I had wanted to mention in here, but I've forgotten what they were. So we'll wrap it up with some pictures. Keep growing strong little girl!

Her new favorite face- did I mention she's starting to show her personality :)

And because I'm a sucker for comparisons- That's the same stuffed animal in the above picture!

2 weeks old!