Lilly's 6 month wellness checkup

Head size

Height vs Age

Height: 26.25 inches (74%ile)

Weight: 14.88 pounds (32%ile)

Head Circumference: 16.75 inches (67%ile)

Temperature: 96.7°F

Pulse Rate: 116 beats/minute

Respiration Rate: 26 breaths/minute

Milestones

Lilly can roll from her back to her front & from her front to her back. (She's not mobile yet, but soon!) She reaches / rakes for things she wants, moves things from one hand to the other, and brings things (EVERYTHING) to her mouth. 

Lilly smiles and laughs and even "talks" and "sings." (When she's trying to go to sleep, she often sings or hums herself a lullaby until she drifts off!) She is drooling a LOT and showing possible early signs of teething.

Lilly's pretty interested in food. She loves oatmeal and sucking on apples and peaches the most.

Lilly loves to stand and bounce.

She tracks with her eyes & moves her head up /down / left / right to follow an object. 

She enjoys playing peek-a-boo, "hole in the road," laying down and watching a parachute or blankets go up / down / spin over her, looking in mirrors, and grabbing at bubbles.

Since she's beginning to sit unassisted, we can start introducing meat and small bits of table food (start to move away from purees). Dr. Lin also suggested introducing a sippy cup of water.

No dairy or honey, but other allergen foods are ok to try now. (They no longer recommend holding off on the common allergy foods as long as they did when Shawn was at this stage.)

We are slowly working on baby signs, when we remember to use them! Lilly gets very excited when we show her "all done" after meals, but she hasn't produced any signs of her own yet (that we've recognized).

She's developed small, spotty red marks on the back of her neck / base of her head. Sometimes they are bright, while other times they've practically vanished. Dr. Lin said they're just "Stork bites" and they're birthmarks that'll go away on their own. (I didn't realize children could develop birthmarks months AFTER birth!)

Lilly's sleeping approximately a total of 16 hrs a day including 1-3 naps. She still wakes to nurse at night, but goes back to sleep easily. I co-sleep with her, so neither of us need to wake fully in the night. Many times, I'm able to spend the first part of the night in my own bed and go to hers for the last few hours. It works so well for the whole family! I don't feel like the walking zombie I was when Shawn was little!

Lilly has an internal clock that Raj has, but Shawn & I do not. It's amazing how much easier life is with this ingrained!  In spite of my lifelong struggles with time management, she has a very predictable schedule. In general, she wakes around 8 am, naps around 10 am... hungry at 5:00 pm, sleep around 7 pm. It has a little variation and she adapts well when things throw off her routine. I carry a Moby Wrap baby carrier with us wherever we go. If she needs to nap, she snuggles in the wrap and there's no need to rush back home.

She is nursing well, on demand

Vaccines

Pediarix (DTaP-HepB-IPV)

HEMOPHILUS INFLUENZA B (she has to go back in 1 month for a 2nd dose) PNEUMOCOCCAL CONJ VACCINE (PREVNAR) ROTAVIRUS VACCINE (oral drops)

Lilly loved the oral vaccine (she was pretty hungry during her appointment), but her face turned bright red as she cried and screamed about the shots. She recovered almost immediately when I nursed her. She even drifted off to sleep for a few minutes, but boy, was she chatty on the drive home!

Luckily, she didn't seem to be bothered by the shots, longer than their initial pokes. Perhaps she was a little tired from crying, but her legs didn't seem sore like they were after her 4 month vaccines. She didn't show a fever, cold symptoms, irritability, or any of the other typical side effects of shots. Phew!

Later that evening, the kids and I had an early dinner and went to the Wood Dale Public Library for a Halloween Harvest Magic Show.

"Get your little ghosts and goblins laughing and applauding with a magic show created especially to help celebrate Halloween at library family events. You will enjoy cool Halloween magic tricks, hilarious comedy and spooktacular audience participation."

The magician was fun and silly. Shawn was really disappointed that he wasn't chosen to assist in any of the tricks, but he understood that not everyone got a turn this time and that his luck may be different next time.

I'm ready for bed!

Project: Conversion - Part 1

Shawn did a fantastic job at swimming class.  We got in the water about 15 minutes before class started, so he had a chance to warm up (and wake up).  I let him start with a float-belt with 3 floats on it, which he loves because his head stays above the water, but he does have to work a little, yet he has the freedom to ‘swim’ on his own.  Once class started, we traded the float-belt for a noodle.  (They do about the same thing, but the noodle is easier to use and not use it between activities.)  Shawn’s getting good at blowing bubbles, voluntarily putting each ear into the water, kicking is now second nature, and he’s starting to get the hang of doing arm circles while kicking.  He can easily use his arms or legs, but using them all together is a bit tricky – it’s a lot to keep track of!


The older kids in the class after ours were participating in a water safety exercise, which the teachers always hold on the second to last class of each session.  The teachers don’t actually get into the water at all, instead they coach from the deck.  The students put on life vests, learned how to jump into the water wearing one, how to swim on their fronts and backs wearing one, how to get into a canoe-type boat and maneuver it around the water.  Shawn was in awe.  Though we had been in the water for almost two hours, he didn’t want to leave!  He was amazed at what was going on in the other side of the pool – especially when the boat was involved.  Once I got him out of the pool, we of course had to warm up in the showers.  Apparently, it took a while for Shawn to thaw out because he didn’t want to get out of the shower either!  It appears that he’s either turning into a fish… or a human raisin!


We came home just long enough to pick up Baron for his grooming appointment.  While he was getting beautified, Shawn and I visited the library.  When we pulled into the parking lot, Shawn asked, “Is there a concert?” I think he was disappointed that we at the library just to get books this time.  He enjoys pulling books off shelves, occasionally reading a few, and putting others into our check-out basket, so he got over his regret pretty quickly.  The librarian helped us find a small stack of rebus books so Shawn can help read the stories.  He was very excited about them, which got her all a flutter!


On the way home, Yuppie Puppie called to say that Baron was ready to be picked up.  By the time we made it home, Raj was done with work.  It was a busy morning and I fell asleep with Shawn during his nap time.  Though sleeping in a rocking chair isn’t the best place for a nap, it was absolutely worth it (and cuddling made it an easy thing to do)!


Later in the evening, Raj started converting Shawn’s toddler bed to the next stage.  We couldn’t find anywhere on the boxes or papers what size bed the next level was.  So, we didn’t know if we needed a new mattress or what size it needed to be.  Not the best planning or design for the bed company!  The only thing we could do was – put the thing together and find out!


After a badly pinched finger (Raj’s) and an awfully bruised shin (mine), we discovered that Shawn’s new bed is… a full!  Not a twin!  The little man is going to get lost in the monstrosity!  The enormous converted bed not only required a mattress and bedspring (and linens), but we had to move other furniture around to get it to fit in his shrinking room.  Amazingly enough, we only had to move two bookshelves to a different wall and all his furniture is still in his room. However, since there was no mattress or bedspring, Shawn had no place to sleep that night… so he joined us again.

...We probably could’ve planned this better!

A Bee-Boppin' and a Pee-Peein'

Shawn slept until around 8:15 am, when Raj brought him into our room to snuggle. (Raj must have been tired, because he never wants to have Shawn sleep in our bed!) We all fell asleep for another hour or so. Then, the boys went downstairs to have breakfast, while I hung out in bed, but awake. It was a very
                         nice
                                             slow
                                                                      morning.

Eventually, we started moving a little faster. Raj gave Shawn a bath and got most of his little black dog-nose off from last night. By the time Mike and Bill came over to take another look at our leaky toilet, everyone was up and ready for the day. Unfortunately, it turns out that Mike needs to order a part, so they weren’t able to finish fixing it today either. Hopefully, though, by the end of this week it should be back in business for ‘business.’

While Raj went to the Bears’ game and Shawn and I went to the Roselle Public Library to see a jazz concert. Shawn was really excited about seeing the instruments. We saw the Eric Schneider Trio featuring a saxophone, clarinet, keyboard, and bass. Shawn and I were the youngest ones in the audience by at least a few decades. I think we were the only ones that hadn’t retired yet! At first, I found a seat on the edge of a row (for easy an easy exit, if needed), but then I opted to find a seat for us on the floor off to the side in front so Shawn could see the musician’s hands better. (I made eye contact with the librarian who was hosting the concert to make sure it was okay that we weren’t sitting in the provided audience chairs.)

Throughout the concert, Shawn had stellar behavior. He watched the concert, listened quietly, and clapped when he was supposed to. During the brief intermission, when we found some cookies and water, a few of the blue-hairs came over to talk to Shawn and comment on how surprised they were at how interested he was in the concert. Apparently, a few of them were paying almost as much attention to Shawn as they were to the musicians they came to see! Before the show resumed, I brought Shawn to the instruments so he could see them up close, yet explained that we couldn’t touch them. He noticed that the clarinet and saxophone had “metal on them” and that the bass was made of wood, “like the harp!” He was a little confused about keyboard versus a piano, but did point out it had a pedal, “like the harp, too!” When the musicians returned from their break, we rushed back to our place on the floor for the remainder of the concert. Afterwards, Shawn told the musicians (I translated), “I really liked your music, thank you very much!” A few more blue-hairs offered their compliments and then we went upstairs to the children’s section. We found a stack of CDs (songs, instrumental, as well as stories), a few ABC books, a few Dr. Seuss books, and a few potty training books (some for kids and some for parents).

When we got home, we stripped off the pull-up and really focused on potty training. We read the kids’ books while we ate a snack. We sat on the potty seat on the toilet while we read them again. Shawn didn’t reject the idea of sitting on the toilet a single time this afternoon/evening/night! Sometimes in the past, he’d say, “I don’t want to go pee-pee OR poo-poo!” at the slightest mention of the toilet, but not this time. He was much more willing to sit, whether he had to go or not. So, I took advantage of it. I had him ‘race’ to see how fast he could put on or take off his underwear - off is much easier! I had him ‘race’ to see how fast he could put his seat on the toilet and sit on top. I had him ‘race’ to see how fast he could put it all away. He was loving it – though it was nothing that I hadn’t done before! I’m not sure what made today different, but I guess it doesn’t really matter. Not a single accident all afternoon or evening… until he pooped in his underwear. But that was the only one! Without a doubt, he earned another Toy Surprise for filling up his Potty Paper with stickers. This time, he pulled an armored half track military jeep/pickup truck from the bag. He (we) had never seen a truck like this before so I explained that it was a truck that carried soldiers on the benches in the back. We talked about how soldiers and other the people in the military were very special people. The military is a little bit like the police, but they keep all of America safe, so we can be free. I also told him that Opa, Pappy, my Grandpa Bill were all in the military.  (I’m not sure if he understood all of what we talked about, but he seemed to be listening and concentrating very hard.)

Things were going so well that we didn’t even think about naptime. He didn’t get to sleep at 8:00 pm, like the other non-nap days, but today wasn’t quite as exhausting as those were either. He was tucked in bed before 9:00 pm, which is still far better than 11:00 pm!

Shawn had been long asleep by the time Raj came home around 11:00 pm. I got some cleaning, blogging, email, laundry, and reading all done in the meantime. And, celebrating with a little glass of wine…

It was a good day!

Chicks, Ducks, and Wheels on the Bus!

It was week four of the library’s Drop-In Story time.  Ms. Nancy’s theme this time was “Chicks and Ducks.”  We read:

The Chick and the Duckling by Mirra Ginsburg
“A chick and a duckling hatch at the same time.  The chick can imitate the duckling except when the duckling goes swimming.”

Just Ducky by Kathy Mallat
“A lonely little duckling looks into the pond and sees its reflection.  The duckling thinks that it has found a new friend.”

Peep! by Kevin Luthardt
“A duckling follows a boy home.  The boy is sad when the duckling is ready to be reunited with other birds of the wild.”

Wee Little Chick by Lauren Thompson
“Other farm animals comment on the tiny size of the little chick.  Little chick is proud of everything that it can do.”

We sang and danced to:

FiveLittle Ducks from Raffi in Concert with the Riseand Shine Band

  And, we recited a few poems:

Baby Duckling
One baby duckling, he’s brand new.
Here comes another.  That makes two.
Wait, here’s another.  That makes three.
Three baby ducklings waddling across the floor.
They meet a little friend, and that makes four.
Four baby ducklings, watch how they dive.
At last they see their mother.  That makes five.

When a Yellow Duck
When a yellow duck walks down the street (hold up hand)
Quack! goes his bill (open and close thumb and fingers)
Waddle! go his feet (waddle hands back and forth)
He comes to a puddle and with a bound (pretend to jump into a puddle)
In goes the yellow duck and he swims around. (pretend to swim)

The Little Chick
This little chick heard a loud horn (hold up index finger)
This little chick ate all the corn (hold up middle finger)
This little chick saw a big ball (hold up ring finger)
This little chick said, “Please don’t fall!” (hold up little finger)
But this little chick said, “Peep, peep, peep!” (hold up thumb and wiggle it)
Please be quiet, I’m trying to sleep!” (wiggle thumb)

Each time we saw a picture or read about a chick, Shawn and I would whisper, “Just like the chicks at Oma and Opa’s house!”  Maybe next time we visit they’ll have some chicks for Shawn to see up close.  (He and Abby got very good at quacking and cheeping and peeping during story time today!)

At the end of naptime, I could hear Abby chatting to herself for a little while.  At one point, I think she was trying to sing Ring Around the Rosie! I also heard her say, “Abby awake!”  Before I went to get her out of bed, there were strange rustling noises in Shawn’s room.  Here is what happened when I went to check them out:

In case you need an interpreter, Shawn’s phrases included:

“Momma, go see Abby?”

“It’s really bright.”

“Let’s go find out!”

“Ready? Watch!”

“Shawn opened the door.”

“I have a good nap, Abby.”

I guess it’s time to go play some more!

After Abby went home, Shawn and I took Baron for a walk.  (Or did Baron and I take Shawn to the park?)  Shawn loves climbing on the playground equipment, but he prefers one particular corner…

Never knew that playground equipment could double as a performance stage, eh?

A Good Day Outside

Today was a significantly better day than yesterday!  (There was plenty of room for improvement!)

We arrived at the library a little early for story time today, so Abby and Shawn got to play in the children’s corner for a few minutes.  We also found lots of animals painted in the mural and the stuffed animals that live among the bookshelves (out of reach) in the story room.  Ms. Nancy was very impressed with how many animal names they knew.  When she was ready to start story time, we were the only ones in her audience, but a few others showed up later.  Today’s theme was “Going for a Walk.”  Shawn, Abby, and I really liked the first story, I Took a Walk by Henry Cole.  It had beautiful and very realistic illustrations showing different places a child went outside and the things he saw there.  There weren’t many words to the story, though there were a lot of labels identifying various things in the pictures.  It was really hard for Shawn and Abby to resist running up to the book to point out something they found on each page.  (If we had been the only ones there, I probably would have let them, but when they managed to slip from my fingers, they blocked other kids’ views.)  Another boy who would rush up to point at something was called back by his mom a few times too, but he was a little older and was pretty easily redirected.  The second story Ms. Nancy read was Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins.  It was about a hen, Rosie, who had no idea that a fox was following her as she walked around the farmyard.  Rosie reminded me of Oma and Opa’s chickens at the Barony and, oddly enough, the fox reminded me a little of Wiley Coyote - each scene showed the hen walking safely by various objects, which inevitably fell on, hit, or somehow battered the disaster-prone fox.  I Went Walking by Sue Williams was a very short book about a child pointing out familiar animals.  It was a lot like Brown Bear, Brown Bear  by Bill Martin and Eric Carle.  It was cute, but not very memorable for me though – I had to look it up on Amazon to refresh my memory!  We also read Spot’s First Walk by Eric Hill.  We have one of the books from this series at home.  Shawn and Abby both like to discover what’s hidden under the flaps on each page.  Spot encounters surprises along his walk, which Ms. Nancy revealed from under the flaps.  Toward the end of the book, a fish warns Spot, “Don’t fall in!” as he’s about to drink from a pond. The next page shows Spot shaking water off his fur.  I smiled when his mom asks him what he did while he was gone.   You see him next to various things he picked up along his walk, but, just like the typical kid, he tells her, “Nothing.”  The last book we read was also by Eric Hill.  Spot’s Walk in the Woods told about things Spot saw during an adventure into the woods.  Since it was written as a rebus, Ms. Nancy had the children help her “read” the words that were replaced with pictures.  They got pretty excited about interpreting the pictures with her.  Abby liked the ending of the story, when Spot was back home and discovered a frog from the woods had jumped into his backpack.  She started hopping each time Ms. Nancy read the word ‘frog.’

Ms. Nancy taught us the sign for ‘walk’ in sign language.  We danced to Walk Outside from Raffi’s Box of Sunshine CD and tried to sign ‘walk’ whenever it came up in the lyrics.  We also recited a few rhymes:

Read a Book

(To the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat)

Read, read, read a book

Travel anywhere

World-wide, you decide

A book will take you there!

Around the Yard

Let’s go walking around the yard. (walk)

We’ll keep on walking, then we’ll stop. (stop)

Let’s go walking around the block. (walk)

We’ll keep on walking, then we’ll stop. (stop)

Let’s go walking to the library. (walk)

We’ll keep on walking, then we’ll stop. (stop)

Going for a Walk

Going for a walk is so much fun (walk)

We look at all the lovely trees (cup hands over head)

We don’t’ hurry, we don’t run (shake head)

We watch for birds and watch for bees (flap hands and make buzzing sound)

After the library, we played outside.  Abby and Shawn pulled out a lot of toys.  The bubble machine is Abby’s favorite.  The Cozy Coupe ranks pretty high with Shawn. 

Balls, buckets, and shovels littered the yard, too. 

We even wished for warm weather by pulling out the kiddy pool! Shawn and Abby had a blast pretending to swim and splash and toss toys into the non-existent water. 

Unfortunately, we had to stop our pool party short because Shawn tripped and scraped up his fingers.  It was time for lunch anyway, but it would have been nicer to end the festivity without the need for Band-Aids! 

 

When Abby woke up from her nap in the afternoon, I heard her say, “Hi, Baby!” She talked to herself a few minutes before I went in to get her. We played together while Shawn continued his nap.

After Shelley came to pick up Abby, Shawn woke up.  He found a book on his bookshelf (I could tell by the sounds of him rattling around in his room), then tried to open his door (I was on the other side secretly trying to help him).  When he got it open, he rushed out smiling and then made a bee-line to Abby’s pack & play, “Abby?  Abby?”  He was really disappointed when I explained that she had already gone home.  He just stood in the hallway looking at the stairs going down to the front door.  I had to take his hand to get him to snap out of it!  Then, he went back into his room and found some books to read, which were quickly spread across the floor.  He misses her already.  It’s a good thing there’s still one more day with Abby this week!

A Disappointing Library Story Time

Story time at the library used the theme “Going to the Park.”  I was a little disappointed.  Not very timely, since the weather has taken a turn toward the cold and hasn’t been (and won’t be) very conducive to actually going to the park.  I wasn’t very impressed by the book selections either.   Oh, well.  Maybe next week will be better.

Ms. Nancy read:

·         Hop! Plop! By Corey Rosen Schwartz and Tali Klein
A cute story about an elephant and a mouse who are friends and try to find something they can do or play together.

·         Spot Goes to the Park by Eric Hill
Shawn and Abby like lifting the flaps in stories like this.

·         Please Play Safe by Margery Cuyler
Ugh.  A book about what not to do when playing?  Gee, sounds like fun!  It had good points like not pushing into each other and sharing, but… eck!  We won’t be checking out this book!

·         Play Ball with Me by Lynn Reiser
This was another flap book that Shawn and Abby liked.  Each page featured a specific sport’s ball and equipment and the readers guessed what sport was being hinted. 

We danced to Jumping and Counting from Jim Gill’s Irrational Anthem, though I didn’t quite get the connection to the “Going to the Park” theme…??

We also learned a couple of poems:

Outside Play
Let’s go outside and play.
The sun is shining.
It’s a beautiful day.
We’re sure to have lots of fun.
We’ll hop and skip
And jump and run!

On the Playground

Playing on the playground is a treat,

Swinging and sliding can’t be beat!

(make swinging and sliding motions with hands)

The playground is where we like to play,

We run and skip and hop each day!

The Slide

Climb up the ladder

(climb fingers up arm)

Hang on to the side

(grasp arm with fingers)

Sit down on top

(place fist on top of arm)

Then down you slide!

(slide fist down arm)

 

Even though story time was a bit disappointing, Abby provided us with plenty of entertainment throughout the day.  She was an extraordinarily garrulous little girl!  Whether she was talking specifically to me, to Shawn, or to herself, she certainly had a lot to say!  By the time she went home, she wore me out!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Shawn and I dressed in green in honor of today’s holiday.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t a very green day outside though – it was nice and warm (low 60 F!), but it was grey and threatening to rain all day.  At least we didn’t need coats again today!  But, rather than risk getting caught out in the rain, we played inside and listened to lots of Celtic music!

The Drop-In Story Time at the library resumed this week, so we were excited to get back to it.  We recognized another mom and son from a Northwestern Suburban Families playgroup at the Elk Grove library a few weeks ago, though we had to re-introduce ourselves.  The other mom, Sandra, mentioned that maybe this could become an event for the NWSF members to come to, since free events are always nice to include.  I haven’t been a very active member, so it would be nice if this could be an NWSF event!

The theme for the next few weeks is ‘Going Places’ and today we focused on ‘Going to see Grandparents.’  I thought it was a little odd they didn’t do anything for St. Patrick’s Day, like ‘Going to Ireland’ perhaps! They observed Valentine’s Day and other holidays in the past, but we certainly can’t complain about honoring grandparents on any day of the year!  Anyway, Ms. Nancy read:

·         Grandparents are the Greatest Because… by Adele Aron Greenspun and Joan Swartz

·         Grandfather and I by Helen A Buckley

·         What Grandpas Do Best / What Grandmas Do Best by Laura Numeroff

·         The Grandma Book by Todd Parr

·         The Grandpa Book by Todd Parr

We learned two new rhymes:

Here are Grandma's Spectacles.

Here are Grandma's spectacles, (make circles around eyes)
And here is Grandma's hat, (place hands above head to form a hat)
And here's the way she folds her hands, (fold hands)
And puts them in her lap. (lay hands in lap)

Here are Grandpa's spectacles, (make circles around eyes)
And here is Grandpa's hat, (place hands above head to form a hat)
And here's the way he folds his arms, (fold arms)
And sits down just like that. (lean back and put up feet)

Do It for Grandma/Grandpa
(to the tune of Did You Ever See a Lassie?)

Let’s clap our hands for Grandma, for Grandma, for Grandma,
Let’s clap them this way, clap this way and that way,
Let’s clap them this way, clap this way and that way,
Let’s clap our hands for Grandma,
Let’s clap them this way

Repeat:  Let’s stomp our feet for Grandpa…

Ms. Nancy did a good job on the topic of grandparents, but I was still surprised that St. Patrick’s Day wasn’t even acknowledged!

Abby, Shawn, and I returned home to rekindle our Irish spirits.  We danced to some Celtic music and I found some books about Ireland, St. Patrick, and (of course) harps.  (Ms. Nancy, let me know if you need to borrow anything for next year!)  I even had Celtic music playing in the background while we had lunch.  After dancing our sillies out and then filling our bellies, it was nap time.

Abby woke up and was back to her home before Shawn even woke up.  I went into his room to wake him from his very long nap, only to find him already standing at the railing of his bed, “I had a good nap!”  (I love when he wakes up like this!) 

You could hear some neighborhood kids playing outside, so Shawn said, “I want to play game with boys outside!” and then asked for his football that was on top of his bookshelf, his shoes, and his Spiderman hat (which is in the laundry).  He was quite the determined little boy!  We went outside and he looked at the boys playing football, but didn’t go further than our sidewalk.  Instead, we tried out his tricycle, which has been waiting for him in the garage since he was born, but his legs are still a little too short to push the peddles.  I pushed him instead and that was just as fun.  When Raj came home, Shawn mentioned he wanted to play with the boys again, but this time he actually walked all the way over to them – by himself!  Luckily, they saw him coming and paused their game so Shawn wouldn’t get tackled.  He and Raj watched for a few minutes from a safe distance before getting the mail and delivering it back home, as their usual routine.

For dinner, St. Patrick returned!  I made corned beef, potatoes, and carrots and we drank Harp beer.  For dessert, we had homemade Shamrock Shakes w/ homemade whipped cream and green sprinkles on top.  YUM!