Scootching & Growing

Dear Miss Sammie,

Your days of being stationary are numbered. In the past week (happy 18 weeks, by the way), you’ve decided that laying there isn’t enough. You’ve also figured out that if you use your legs, you can get places.

So…you’ve started moving. It’s in little increments, but you’re moving nonetheless. When you’re on your back, you arch your back and use your legs to scoot your body in one direction or another to get closer to whichever toy or object pleases you at the moment. When you’re on your stomach, you lift up your upper body and keep moving your legs until you’re scootching off the blanket.

Gulp. I guess now we *really* have to make sure all of the childproofing we did last year with your grandparents and aunts and uncles is going to hold up, because you already like to get into everything.

And whatever you get ahold of, you put in your mouth. As in, one day when Roxy’s tail got within grabbing distance, you thought it might be fit for a snack so you started smacking away. Roxy wasn’t quite sure what to do with that, but since I took her tail out of your mouth, she’s been pretty careful to stay out of your grabbing zone.

In other news, I think I’m fooling myself if I think I can keep your four month self in the 3/6 month clothes for much longer…as in, through the fall season. The onesies that fit so perfectly back in August are getting harder and harder to snap. Sigh. I tried to be a good mommy and stock up on the clothes that were on sale—but I never anticipated a growth spurt of this proportion. So…the outfits that were supposed to last for a whole three months will likely only be used for seven weeks.

It should be interesting when I get the bag of 6-9 month clothes out this weekend. I thought for sure that we’d be well into winter when you wore this new batch of outfits, but as a result of this mistaken assumption many of the clothes that we’ve got for you to wear are for the cooler days and nights. I’m fairly certain that the oh-so-cute overalls and sweatshirt getup will not be oh-so-practical as the temperature outside continues to stay in the triple digits.

Nuts. Maybe your dad wouldn’t mind if I turned the air conditioner down to 50 degrees for a few hours so we could do a rapid modeling session—long enough to wear and photograph all of the winter outfits—like those butterfly overalls and sweatshirts? Yeah, I didn’t think so either.

Can’t blame a momma for trying.

Love you tons,

Your mommy

Nothing New...This Week

Dearest Sammie,

Happy 17 weeks sweetie! There haven’t been a whole lot of major milestones going on this week (hey, every busy girl’s got to take a rest sometime, I understand). In fact, this past week has been kind of…boring. And given the excitement and craziness of the past month (heck, the past four months), I’m totally okay with taking a break from the chaos for a very lovely “boring” week.

As the school year goes on, I’m getting more settled and used to the idea that I’ve joined the working mom club. As in…I have to go teach while your father gets the joy of staying home with you.

I think it’s harder on me than it is on you, because frankly, you and your father seem to be quite content to be two peas in a pod. He’s still getting a kick out of watching you feed yourself from a bottle (last night he proudly proclaimed that you had fed yourself “95% of the time”). He’s also leaving the comforts of his chair more often and getting down on the ground to chat with you on the activity mat. For someone who teased me so mercilessly for saying “ooga booga” to you to get you to smile, he sure has been using that phrase quite often. He even wrote it on the bathroom mirror this morning, after wishing me a good day!

While your father’s been using what only can best be described as the new Vogt household catchphrase, you and I have settled into a (dare I say it?) ROUTINE. When I come home from school (seriously 2:30 cannot come soon enough), if you’re not taking an afternoon nap, I’ll pick you up and chat with you. Usually, you’ve got quite a bit of things to say. Then it’s time for a bottle followed by naptime for an hour and a half while I get dinner ready. Once you wake up, we chat and play a little more, hanging out on your mat and putting you on your stomach so you can continue to lift your head up and strengthen your upper body muscles.

Around eight, I take you into your bedroom where we begin our bedtime routine: onesie, diaper change, swaddle and book. The book part was a new thing. Your Nonni pointed out last week that you really like to be read to, so I’m trying my best to read to you every night. It’s amazing how you sit and stare at those books, taking each page in as I read to you from your growing library. This week, we’ve been reading Sandra Boynton’s ‘Going to Bed Book.’ The lyrical rhythms have been doing a pretty good job of lulling you to sleep, because when we finish and put you in bed with a quick kiss and cuddle, you’re usually pretty content to lie in your crib and watch your mobile for a few minutes before turning to the clown/star/blue thing next to you and falling asleep.

Note that I said *usually* it works. Last night, I came home from a late night of teaching my college class in Visalia and was surprised to see that you weren’t in bed yet. I guess you had gotten pretty used to our little routine, because when I came home, Daddy and Grandma Max told me about the fit you had thrown a half hour before. They couldn’t calm you down…but they also hadn’t gotten past step two of the onesie/diaper change/swaddle/book technique.

I picked you up from Grandma Max’s arms, and you pretty quickly woke up and proceeded to sigh and tell me how your day was. It was almost like you were saying “Mom, I tried everything to get them to listen to me and follow our routine, but it didn’t work. I gave up and just fell asleep in Grandma’s arms instead.” You melted my heart, last night, kiddo.

I didn’t want what happened last night to happen again next Wednesday night when I teach again, so I had your father watch as I executed our bedtime ritual. This would be why I said that *usually* you like to be read to at night. Last night, of all nights, you decided to fuss as I read to you. With your father watching. So now he doesn’t believe me when I say that you like book time. Hmph. At least you fell asleep fairly quickly—I don’t think you were awake 10 seconds after I put you down.

So…that’s the boringness that was this week. I did spend sometime last weekend sticking you in your bumbo and taking what can only be described as an insane amount of pictures. I think you like getting your picture taken, because when I moved the camera over your head to get a picture of the bow you were wearing, you moved your head to face the camera. So then I moved the camera to the right—and again, there you were following the camera. This went on for a while—camera shy, you definitely are not. You really are my daughter!

You enjoyed making funny faces...

...and flashing the camera...

Notice that wherever the camera is, your eyes are focused and ready for your photo op...

...and this would be my favorite picture that I've taken of you EVER:

I love you like crazy and can’t wait until 2:30 so we can have our afternoon chat,

Your mommy

Hey Honey, You Gotta See This!

Dear Sammie,

Today, you turned sixteen weeks old. To be more specific, you are 113 days, 10 hours and 41 minutes (as I write this). You’re my big girl now!

Last week, I wrote about you making the steps towards holding your bottle. This week, there’s no steps about it: you ARE holding your bottle. Daddy is so amazed with this particular milestone. Each time you grab your bottle and ferociously put it in your mouth, he yells for me to come and watch you hold (and devour) your full bottle. That’s pretty impressive for a three and a half month old baby, Miss Sammie!

Holding your bottle as a proud Daddy looks on.

That said, it’s confession time. I’ve been told by everyone (friends, grandparents, photographer…you get the idea) that I need to give you “tummy time.” I knew that I SHOULD be giving you tummy time, but I haven’t been doing it then requisite ten minutes a day (so you could do better at lifting your head while laying on your back). In a nutshell, you screamed like a banshee whenever you were placed tummy down. In my defense, I tried on more than one occasion to lay you on your tummy so you could continue to strengthen your already Herculean neck muscles, but my efforts were circumvented by the crying that inevitably followed when you weren’t on your back.

That WAS the case until this week, at least. A few days ago, I reluctantly placed you on your stomach…and waited for the tears. Only, the tears never came. Ok…this could work! I grabbed the toy keys nearby and started rattling them in front of your face so that you had to lift your head to see where the noise was coming from. I watched your face as the light bulb went on. Gradually, you planted your hands on either side and pushed not just your head but your whole upper body up so that you could see what these *magic* keys were doing now. This phenomenon continued for two whole minutes.

Things are looking up, baby!

Now it was my turn to excitedly shout for your father to see what you were doing…and we both watched in amazement as yet another milestone was crossed off of your list. Unlike the rolling over phenomenon that happened several weeks ago, this milestone is one that has been repeated several times in the past few days. Whew. Just in time for your four month pictures in a few weeks, too. The photographer will be pleased.

Love you lots,

Your mommy

PS You went to your first wedding last week (my cousin Diedra got married), and boy were you the looker! In fact, I think we all looked pretty good--in spite of the blurry picture :-)

Baby, Meet the Thumb. Thumb, Meet the Baby.

Dearest Samantha,

Really? 15 weeks? Can I use my magical Tivo remote and stop time? No? Nuts.

So, yeah, you’re the old baby on the block by now. Two other babies (Benjamin and Wendy Elizabeth) have been born since you made your debut last spring, thus making you the older, wiser, gigantor baby.

Seriously, you’re huge. I can’t pick you up (and hold you) with one arm anymore. You’re officially “two arms needed” Sammie now. This makes it a little difficult when I’m trying to walk and feed you at the same time. With two arms in use holding you, I’m left with my chin to magically hold your bottle in place to keep you appeased. I guess it’s a good thing that you’re making steps to hold the bottle on your own (although a little part of me is a little sad that soon you won’t need me to hold and feed you, as I rather enjoy our bottle/cuddle time).

In other milestones, you’ve discovered your thumb, or more specifically: thumb sucking. This momentous occasion happened when we changed you to the larger size swaddle last weekend. The smaller green one worked perfectly for the first few months, but in the past few weeks it required more than a bit of effort on my part to squeeze your growing body into a too-small swaddle. So, we handed off the smaller green one to your baby cousin and put you in the larger pink one.

Modeling the larger pink swaddle

Still, the new one is just a little too big for you because it doesn’t take long for you to work your pudgy arms through to the top so that they’re free…and ready for thumb sucking. Every morning, when I go to check on you before leaving for work, I find you sucking mercilessly on that little thumb of yours.

You're all thumbs in one of the last nights in the green swaddle.

Speaking of thumbs, you’ve got your father wrapped around your little finger. Nonni and Poppa babysat you last night (I had Bible Study), and when I brought you home he couldn’t get to you fast enough. I hadn’t been home two minutes before he had you out of the car seat and on the floor, chit chatting away with you. I know the look that he gets when you’re around—it’s pure love!

Love you lots,

Your mommy

The Baby Boom Continues

Dearest Sammie Girl,

Yesterday, you got a cousin! Benjamin Iley Pullen came into the world on Friday, August 28th. He's a beautiful little baby who's got Uncle Grant's dimpled chin and Aunt Erin's beautiful mouth. Yesiree, Uncle Grant & Aunt Erin are definitely two proud (and tired) parents right now.

We went over for dinner tonight and had a good time with Nonni and Auntie Erin's parents. It's so weird to hold Benji: he's half your size! In fact, next to him you look like gigantor baby :-)

Here you guys are side by side on the Boppy (this picture brings me back to when YOU were the small baby beside your older cousin Keston several months ago).

Here's the close up--your eyes got super big when the cameras started flashing!

These pictures marked the first of what I'm sure will be many pictures of the two of you. You're so lucky to have a cousin who lives in town who's so close in age to you!

Love you lots,
your mommy

PS. The title of this post says it all--2009 is the year of babies in mommy & daddy's world. I did a little bit of counting--and we know of19 babies that were born (or are due to be born) this year. Schools better get ready because the graduating class of 2027 is going to be a big one!

14 Weeks: A Novel (with Optional Cliff's Notes Version)

Dear Samantha,

It’s Thursday—which means that it’s time for another weekly update on all things “you,” so without any further adieu, my not-so-little-fourteen-week-old-bundle-of-joy…

I’ll give you the Cliff’s Notes version first:

• You discovered your hands. More specifically, you discovered that you like the way your hands taste.
• You also learned that if you try hard enough to get out of your swaddle, you can loosen your arm free and enjoy the benefits of thumb sucking in the wee small hours of the morning.
• We met your newest cousin last weekend: Wendy Elizabeth. Methinks the two of you are going to get along like two peas in a pod.
• When you are hungry or tired, you cry. A lot. This throws me for a loop when I’m not aware that the source of your tears is hunger or fatigue.
• You currently are weighing in at a whopping 13 pounds, 8 ounces and are 24 inches long.
• Although you’ve given us slight half laughs before, yesterday you gave me a full on, can’t-hold-it-in-anymore LAUGH.

Now for the full-length version:

Discoveries

Over the course of the past several weeks, you’ve learned that if you grab something (skill one) and put it in your mouth (skill two), you can explore the world around you by taste. As I write this, the things that you like to put in your mouth are your clothes, burp cloths, blankets, toys and hands. If left to your own devices, that little hand of yours starts rooting around for a shirt or dress hem to clasp in your fist for a little taste. This also works if one of the aforementioned objects is anywhere in your vicinity. Mickey’s nose will never be the same, I’m afraid.

If you can’t find anything for a grab n’ taste, you settle for your hands. This seems to work for you, because you smile like no tomorrow as you cram those fists in your mouth (yes, I said fists—sometimes you get overly ambitious and try to fit both of your hands in your mouth).

New Additions

The family baby boom continued last week with the birth of your second cousin, Wendy Elizabeth Collins. She was born exactly 13 weeks after you were born. Had she been born on the 21^st instead of the 20^th, you two would be exactly three months apart. Little Elizabeth is absolutely adorable…and tiny. She’s two pounds smaller than you were at birth. She was a few days old when we made the pilgrimage to Exeter to see her, and I couldn’t help but stare at her and compare the size difference between the two of you. Were you really a little newborn like that? The changes that have happened these past few months have been so slow and gradual that it’s hard to believe that you’ve left the newborn stage and are now officially an infant.

At any rate—back to you. You were pretty content for the first part of the visit, but for the last hour, you were NOT a happy camper, which leads us to the next “chapter”:

Tears

Seriously, kiddo, you threw me for a loop last week. Just when I (rather smugly, I must admit), thought I had you and your routine all figured out, too. Your routine had been something like this:

§ 7-9AM: wake up, get fed and changed (order depended on the urgency of the morning diaper).

§ 9AM-Noon: Hang out on the activity mat, kicking and reaching and cooing away whilst wondering what will that magical white light up bear do today? At least, I think that’s what you were wondering. Somewhere during this time, we fed you your second bottle of the day.

§ Noon-3PM: Naptime in the swing (burp rag on one side of your face, doll on the other, and pacifier in your mouth).

§ 3PM: Mommy’s home! Time to lay in mommy’s arms, drink the third bottle of the day, and coo away to tell her everything that you did that morning.

§ 6-8PM: Drink fourth bottle, lull yourself into a food coma that results in the second nap in the swing (preferences for this nap are somewhat the same as the afternoon nap).

§ 8-10PM: Wind down time. Have the fifth bottle and get into a onesie and swaddle. Suck on the pacifier, and with a full stomach and happy heart, fall asleep in mommy’s arms.

§ 10PM: Bedtime! Sleep for a very long time so you can repeat the routine again the next morning.

Yep. It was all figured out and a mutual understanding had been met by all three parties (you, and your dad & me): if we followed the routine, you were happy, and rewarded us with the babblings and spittles of a happy baby.

Last week, however, you changed your routine…and it took dear old mom and dad a while to figure this out. It seems as though you didn’t want to wait until it was “time” to eat or sleep. You much preferred to cry your way to getting what you wanted; your needs were met faster. This confused your father and I, as we weren’t used to having you cry so hard that your face resembled a ripened tomato. We thought you were tired of being held, so we would lay you on the ground and wiggle your feet to get you to calm down—to no avail. Then we thought you might be teething, so we gave you teething tablets and Tylenol. The sweet taste of the Tylenol calmed you down for a little bit, but when that taste wore off—you still looked something like a screaming Bob the Tomato.

After trying everything to get you to calm down while visiting your new cousin, I was convinced something was wrong. Were you hot? Getting an earache? Gas?

Turns out it wasn’t any of those things. We took you to the doctor, and after you almost made me look like a liar (you grinned your way through the exam), she witnessed you not being happy for a solid fifteen minutes. We tried everything to make you happy (teething, ear aches and heat had already been ruled out), but in the end it was your bottle you wanted.

Sooo…we’re upping the amount of formula you’re getting. We are now giving you six ounces per feeding. That’s two more ounces than you were getting only a month ago, but if it’s working for you, I’m not complaining. It still amazes me that you’re able to knock that much back at a time, though. The bottle—it’s bigger than your head!

Meanwhile, the tears have subsided and you’re a much happier baby. The routine of choice, while slightly modified, lives on. Thank goodness. Because with school back in session I really need all of the sleep I can get.

Growing up and out

So it totally makes sense, then, that with all of this extra formula, you’re growing by leaps and bounds. In mid-July (six weeks ago), you weighed 10 pounds, 12 ounces and were 21.75 inches long and fell perfectly in the fiftieth percentile. This past doctor’s visit confirmed what I had already suspected: your bigger than you were at that last visit. Specifically, you are 2 pounds and 8 ounces bigger. And 2.25 inches longer.

We better get working on the closet full of 3-6 month clothes. We’re making good headway, but we’ve got a long way to go. I had guessed that you would be in this clothing size during the fall and early winter months, but you’re growing before the seasons are changing. This is a bummer, because we received some adorably cute cool-weather outfits at your baby showers. Maybe you’ll get a sister who can wear them one day?

Laughs

You don’t seem to mind the closet quandary too much, because you LAUGHED for the first time yesterday. You had given your nonni & poppa half laughs (I think you were being more polite than anything), but you gave your mama a full on, if-you-held-it-in-anymore-you’d-pee-your-diaper, LAUGH. And yes, I am going to put the world LAUGH in all caps because that’s how big that LAUGH was. And you LAUGHED twice for me. Apparently, you like to have your booty shaken while your mama says “Oooga Booga,” because that’s exactly what we were doing when you LAUGHED. And then you LAUGHED again because you didn’t get it all out the first time.

So, my darling fourteen week old daughter, this one’s for you:

Oooga Booga.

Love you lots,

Your mommy

Anyone There?

Dear Cyberspace,

As I write these letters to my daughter, I can't help but wonder...is there anyone there? The map to the right of the blog is lighting up with flags from around the world--but now I'm wondering: who are you?

So, if you're one of those ones who's been following our adoption journey, could you come out of the closets of the world wide web, leave a comment and let me know who you are?

Thanks.

-Samantha's mom