Nine Months In the Belly, Nine Months Out

I feel slightly ill at the discovery that I never posted about month eight. Where did the last two months go? Where have I been? What was my baby like a month ago?  Next post will be "month eight"

Well, onward. Autumn is now 9 months! (almost 10 as I write this, but just go with me).  She has started to eat actual food. We started with bananas, moved to sweet potatoes, a little squash, and these awesome organic/gluten free sweet potatoe puffs.

It is starting to come back to me why I haven't been writing. We moved July 1st. Went 1 week with no hot water, one week with no stove,  2 weeks with no washer/dryer, 2 weeks with no shower, and we are just putting in counter tops today (which is actually August 11th, not July 20 th like I want you all to believe).

So back to nine months. Autumn's top left tooth broke through, her top right has recently made its appearance. She sits so easily, crawls like a champ, has started to wave on cue, "hi everybody!" She is smiley and easy going, unless it is bedtime. The neighborhood loves her. Especially next door neighbor John. Rowan's girlfriends want to come over to play with Autumn and it makes Rowan a little nuts.

I am not ready for her to stop being my snuggle bug little babe!

Nine days until10 months. We'll see what new tricks she comes up with!

Ask the Magic Eight Ball

Q: Will Melanie get a post about baby Autumn being eight months old?

A: Outlook not so good.


She crawls!! She sits, she wobbles, she play and she laughs. She almost wakes with dry diapers! Easy potty training in my near future??

She is yummy.

Happy

Wally, while looking at Autumn: I'm so happy. I'm so happy you're my baby.

Lucky 7

Autumn is 7 months. Let me say that again...Autumn is 7 months! I have never had a faster seven months in my life. She is moving around so well on her belly. She's to the point were I feel nervous leaving her alone in a room because she will get into the box of Legos, or eat a magazine, or get stuck under a chair. She rocks on her hands and knees and then pushes forward and falls on her little face. Rolls back to front, and front to back with such ease. Still not much of a sitter. I think because she likes being on her belly so well, there is no motivation to sit. Loves to chew on my hoody string. Kim Noetzel visited today and Autumn just kept chewing on her necklace. Loves her daddy's ears- leaves little scabs from her sharp little claws. We've started letting her cry at bedtime. For the past few days she's cried 10 min and then sleeps until 1. If she wasn't in the pack-n-play in our room, she might sleep longer. I swear she sense my presence and wakes up. Smiles at every one she meets. Such a happy, easy going babe. It's wild to have baby that will just sit with me and be content. She's chubby, smiley, sweet and I cannot get enough of her. Mmmm mmmm good. House: Tim is putting the ceiling in the kitchen with grandma Bob right now...it's 10 pm. We signed an agreement with Alicia tonit for our current house. It's going to be so painful to leave. At least a with Alicia, we can come visit! We'll start painting this week and then someone is doing the floors next week. Funny: Me: Wally, what do you want to be when you grow up? A firefighter? A policeman? A teacher? Wally: A superhero!! Me: wow a superhero huh? What special power will you have? Wally: Jetpacks!! Rowan walked to the park and then to the yellow house and back with her friend Elle...and NO parents! Whoa. Oscar started baseball. With the pitching machine. I'm such a sap and find myself missing t-ball. It is a lot more exciting and Oscar loves it! Oh my babies! I hope I'm not making too many mistakes as your mama.

Half of ONE YEAR!

Autumn is 6 months old!  Yipppeeee! And I need to get on. the. ball.  With R, O, and W I did their naked-baby-photo-shoot at 6 months.  OK, Oscar may have been 7 months old... 

She is screaming in her bed right now.  She is EXHAUSTED,  but will not fall asleep.  She takes awesome naps during the day - I just lay her down and off to dream land she goes.  Not so much with the night.

Grabbing for everything.  Tries to sit up when I'm changing her diaper.  Rolls from front to back but not back to front yet. Scoots backwards when she playing on her belly- which she does a lot with few complaints.  Yesterday at the park she got to swing for the first time and thought it was the best thing ever.  Every time she swung toward me she'd smile and giggle just a bit.  She's a little stingy with the giggles - like she's still not sure what's happening to her and it's startling.

OK - time to go get her...

She seems big - I should see if she can be weighed and measured at my own appointment tomorrow.  She's wearing 9 month sleepers and there is little room to spare. 

I love her heavy cheeks, her sweet sweet breath, her chubby thighs and the rubber bands around her wrists and her knees.  Her eyes are beautiful blue and her hair is starting to come in on the back of her head.  Wally asked "what is that on Auttie's head?"  I said That's her hair!"  In the sun you can see just the softest fuzz on the top of her head.

We're still pretty roly-poly trying to sit. Could be the cloth diapers I've started using again.  Side note: I have fallen in LOVE with Bum Genius diapers!  If those were around in 2004, and they may very well have been, they would have changed my life and saved us a ton of money!  I am still using some of the covers and prefolds.  Back to my roly-poly baby - her big 'ol diaper butt makes it hard for her to sit.  We'll keep practicing!

She fell asleep on Tim's shoulder tonight when I was dropping off Ella and Rowan at dance.  Her squishy little mouth and cheeks squashed into Daddy's neck. 

One morning last week, I heard Autumn waking up from her nap - but it sounded hopeful that she would go back to sleep.  But then I heard a door slam open and realized Wally heard her too and thought it was a great idea that she take a mini-nap!  Walking upstairs I see that our bedroom door is open.   I tip-toe down the hall to the room and see Wally squatting down next to the pack-n-play.  He has his head right next to Autumn's head that she has pressed into the mesh sides.  He whispers to her "Uh-oh, here comes our mom!"

Wally Bean - you have taken on your role as big brother better than I could have ever hoped for. 

Sibling Love

Sibling update:

Rowan has Camille sleeping over tonight. Oscar is so sad and crying in his bed.  He misses her, even with her upstairs in the attic.  Through his quiet sobs he says "Rowan gave me half of her BFF necklace...and I LOST IT!!!!  And if she gets another one...now she'll give it to her girlfriends"  - my heart broke seeing how sad he was and how much he loves her.

My question : why do they fight like a cat and dog right now!!!??

Wally is CHALLENGING!  3 is such a tough age around here.  I look at pictures of when he was two and just wish I could go back in time.  To be reminded of the sweet little boy that is now disguised as a screaming, demanding, and STUBBORN 3 year old.  He refused to open his mouth at the dentist.  He won't paint or do other activities at The teachers at ECFE.  It makes me sad.

But then he'll lean into my lap at lunchtime and say "You're my best friend." -all better.

Oscar is a smarty-pants - does math facts faster than me and is reading.  He has a really good friend named Rory, and is sports crazy.

Rowan has a new-found love for reading!  Walking into dance class, I had to lead the way because she had her head in a Judy Moody book.  She has a boy who has a crush on her and she likes him too.  Andrew Sailstad.  They were in preschool together as 3 year olds.  Andrew only lives a block down the street from the yellow house. It's so fun to hear the girls talk about who likes who, and what they play on the playground and who wants to kiss who.  KISS!? Oh my.  They girls broke into dance while the pizzas cooked.  They started to sing LMFAO's "Sexy an I know it".  Camille says, "do you know what sexy means?"  Rowan, "yeah, one of a kind"  Camille "yeah, and attractive!"  Yikes

5 months!

Autumn is not slowing down and I really wish she would.  Right now she is on my chest, on hands and knees, rocking up and down vigorously.  She grabs for every thing. ie: the phone, a carrot, my plate.  She especially loves this toy>  (she's probably 3 months here)

Autumn has a nickname that is sticking.  Auttie-Girl. When she wakes up and Wally hears her, he runs upstairs saying "I'm coming Auttie-Girl!  I hear you!  Coming Auttie-Girl!"  Then on the monitor I hear him slam open the door, flip on the light and coo "Here I am Auttie-Girl." Today, when I got up the room he was sitting on the bed in front of her, holding a book in his lap like a teacher or librarian would do - "reading" to her.

A few days ago I heard this crazy squeaking coming from the living room.  I assumed it was Wally with Auttie's giraffe, Sophie.  I walked in to find Autumn on her belly with her face down, chewing the giraffe like a chewed crazed puppy.  Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!  Hilarious!

Still an extremely laid-back, happy baby.  Smiles at everyone, hangs out in my lap just looking around and cooing, lays calmly while her diaper is changed, just hangs out when it's story time for the big kids, watches me make dinner for an hour from her "swing".  She only cries a bit at night.  Usually when I just can't get her in bed fast enough because of everything else going on.  Man, life is busy right now with Tim at the yellow house every night and all weekend long.

The kids are still so in love with her.   They get sad when we talk about her getting older and bigger.  Lots of talk of the "next baby".  Ha!

Got Milk?

Oscar is snuggled next to me on the couch while I nurse Autumn.

Oscar: What kind of milk does autumn drink?
Me: um... milk milk.  Momma milk.
Oscar:  The kind that you drink?...almond?

Siblings

Rowan is having a sleepover at Camille's house tonight.  She was so excited to go!


Putting the boys to bed tonight I noticed a pile of clothes and some books on Rowan's bed. I figured that Rowan left those there when she packed up for her overnight.  I put the clothes back in her closet and the books back on the bookshelf.

Oscar brought me a pink heart sticky note that he wrote to Rowan and was working so hard on.  It said something about holding Autumn and she is the best sister and he loves her, "love Oscar".

Wally and I are in the bathroom brushing teeth...rather he is brushing his naked belly with his tooth brush, with his pj's around his ankles because they have a hole in the toe and are NOT OKAY TO WEAR TO BED!!!!!!!

Oscar says to me from his room, "Mom.  Did you see the chapter books and clothes I put on..." and I could hear a twinge in his voice. 

I walked into his room and said "What's up Oscar?"  He was headed to the closet, with a strange smile on his face, "Nothing" - in a high pitched, strangled voice -still smiling.  "Are you OK Oscar?", I said. 

His face crumbles and he starts to cry.  Hard crying.   I just got down and hugged him as long as he needed - and it was a LONG hug.  In my ear he chokes out, "I just miss Rowan so much.  I want her to play with me."

He picked out the clothes and books that he knows she likes and set them on her bed to feel like she was there.  

We talked about how cool it is that he misses her so much and how sometimes it takes someone we love being gone to realize how much they mean to us.  I held him and told him over and over how sweet he was and how she'll be home in the morning.  "I want to make her bed for her too."

On to my bed for story time, he's still fighting back tears as he says, "Mom, my note said that she can hold Autumn first." 

I felt such relief that Wally was there to keep Oscar company in their bedroom tonight.   Autumn and Wally will be this for each other too.  Can't find the words to explain how happy I am to be a mother of four.  They fight, they cry, they scream about holes in pajamas, they tattle on each other 20-30 times per day...but at the end of the day, they love each other with a fierceness that humbles me. 

Rowan's birthday morning.  The outfit that Oscar set out on her bed tonight.

Four Months of Autumn

She's the sweetest baby!  I am so in love with her.  Her legs are so chubby.  The rolls and creases in her thighs just make me laugh.  She's a tubby little thing.  I know I've forgotten so much, but she just may be my fattest baby. 

She smiles all the time.  If you put your face up to hers, give it a second, and her face will explode in a smile.  She smiles with her WHOLE face. Her eyes crinkle up and they truly do twinkle. 

She loves to chew on her hands and she sucks her thumb a lot.  It sometimes seems like she's attempting to get her entire hand in her mouth.  If she gets a hold of my finger (my just been scrubbed finger thank you very much) - it hurts!  She goes to town on it.  I can't imagine she's getting teeth yet?  Her little fingers will have red marks on them from her chewing on them.

She laughed for the first time a few weeks ago.  I was doing squat jumps in our bedroom while she lounged on the bed.  After 2, exhausting squat jumps - she just started cracking up!  I couldn't believe after all the attempts to make her laugh - she thinks my exercising is hilarious!

The second time she laughed was just this past weekend.  On Saturday, Tim was working on the new house (now that's another blog posting!), I was doing solo bedtime, fighting a nasty cold, and trying to read the kids a book with a failing voice.  Rowan had a tummy ache and was moaning, groaning, and crying in her bed with her head in a puke bucket (just in case).  I gave a little cough and Autumn cracks up!  So, for the next 10 minutes the boys  kept "coughing" and "coughing".  She kept it up quite awhile.  The kids thought it was the best thing ever. And they are right.  Even Rowan cracked a smile.

Tonight she laughed again while I moved my face back and forth - waiting for her to track me - and then got my face front and center and away she goes!  It's awesome.

Autumn is so stinkin' calm!  She only cries when she is overtired at night and I missed the "window"; when I'm attempting to get her to nap without nursing her; or when she is in the car - although that has just started getting better within the last 2 weeks.  When you change her diaper she lays there and looks around.  When she sits with you, she looks around and smiles.  When I'm making dinner, she watches from her "swing" that doesn't swing (she was completely unfazed when the batteries died).  It's amazing to me how content she is. 

Meanwhile, I am drowning in laundry- done and undone.  It's the putting away that always gets me.  Even when I get in a groove and get it washed, dried and folded - it will sit in a laundry basket in the hallway or my closet for days even weeks.  There are 5 of those baskets upstairs as I type.

Wally is sleeping on his crib mattress tonight on the big kid's bedroom floor.  He's pretty excited to be there.  Next to his bed is a tiny stuffed polar bear.  Tim and I said goodnight to him. He says "say goodnight to him too!"  So we do. Then Wally says, "An in the morning I can just go downstairs! Yeah! An I can bring him (bear) too" Us: Yup that's right buddy!  Tim gets him in the middle of his bed and we say we don't want him to fall out.  "If I fall out I'll land on him(bear) and poke his eye out and he'll say -hey you poked my eye out." 

Rowan and Oscar have the week off.  We have no plans - I feel bad about how little we have planned.  Today we just hung out.  All. Day.  They played outside with Jack for a long time.  Rowan did a 500 square hopscotch!  I think it was fun for them to just do whatever they wanted.  If the district really does cut all specialists next year - I think homeschooling could have some wonderful benefits. 

We visited Tim at the yellow house.  For the first time I felt really excited about the new place.  I've been excited - but today I felt kind of thrilled by our plans and the slightly bigger space.  It will be good.  Tim has his work cut out for him though.  It's going to be a LOT of work.  We closed on Valentine's Day and he's been there every night since and all day today and Saturday.  Today/tonight he is re-plumbing the whole house.

Tonight was karate night.  Or so we thought. It was closed because of mid-winter break.  Oscar loves karate and tonight Rowan and Wally were going to watch.  They came home bummed that it was closed! So we had our own karate class in the living room.  Such a good time in our life.

This post on Autumn being 4 months has turned into a mass catch- up for the family.  I don't think I know how to do it any other way.

Oscar is READING reading - so cool. Rowan is having a great time singing and talking about being a singer - fun to see.  We've all been belting out Taylor Swift's song "Mean".  Until Wally covers his ears and yells "STOP!"

I need to get to bed.  Oh - a thought I had today.  I like Autumn's name.  I know that sounds funny because I should probably already know that by now.  But I didn't.  My kid's names have to grow on me a little.  Even if I go into their birth day liking it - it still takes me a while after the fact.  So here was the thought:  Autumn is   my favorite season.  Tim's too. ( I knew that before - and we met in the fall blah blah blah)  But this mothering young children is also a season in my life - so far my favorite and one that I will miss terribly.  Autumn is my last baby.  She is the LAST baby - the one that will bring this season to a close.  I am so incredibly grateful for her and what an joyous finale she is!