Superfood for a Super Baby

We started Ellie's food experience with sweet potatoes, a superfood! Tom and I love sweet potatoes and it seems that Eloise does as well. A few bites and she was hooked. This little movie shows her enthusiasm. Actually, enthusiasm is an understatement, it was like we gave her baby crack.


This is my absolute favorite photo. Her mouth was just going crazy with the new flavor.


The experience from Ellie's perspective:

Can you get the camera out of my face please?


I think I like this dad!


Maybe I could try just a little more.


Please feed me faster.


Should I just do this myself?!


We'll see what other flavors Eloise enjoys this week!

Baby Friends

Insomnia strikes again, why not put up a new post while I have the time... Even though I just added something last week there are already many new things to discuss.

First a quick note on naps. Eloise's naps are consistently 30 minutes when she's sleeping in her crib. It's like she set her own timer to go off exactly 30 minutes after I shut her door. The bad thing is, it's hard to get a lot done during that time. I often try to take a quick shower, clean up the kitchen, maybe dry my hair and poof the time has flown bye. The benefit of 30 minute naps is that we can be pretty mobile if I need to get out of the house. I know she won't sleep for THAT long so I can usually make things work. Still, I think I would opt for longer naps if I had a choice. The amazing thing is that Ellie is completely refreshed after her little cat naps. I took a quick video of her right after waking up, she is always so smiley in her crib. It starts out looking and sounding like a creepy movie so please ignore the dim room and white noise machine (or consider them special effects).


Next topic: new babies! We met little Colin last weekend and had so much fun. I am very glad that we have friends with babies, it makes getting together much easier and we can still pretend we have somewhat of a social life because we "got out of the house" for a night (and when I say night we're usually back by 9pm, possibly 10 if we're really going crazy). Not to mention, me and my new mommy friends have spent hours upon hours discussing everything baby. Nobody else wants to hear the details like new mamas do. I take that back, new mamas AND new grandmas want all the details. A bonus for me and my friends Sara, Robyn and Karen is that all of our husbands are buddies so we can all hang out together. A non-bonus for the husbands is that there is strength in numbers and we encourage each other to do things like buy expensive (but absolutely necessary) diaper bags :)

Anyway, back to meeting Colin...it was the perfect photo opp. and I admit we did some very obnoxious proud parent things and posed all of our babies together. This was hilarious to us, I was laughing SO hard and probably took 50 photos. Eloise looked like such a big girl next to Colin and Charlie! I'm sure these guys will eclipse her in size at some point but for now the size difference is entertaining.

While Colin was otherwise occupied, Charlie moved in on Eloise. She looks like she's having a good time but I think Charlie was bored.

So then Eloise put the moves on Charlie to try and liven things up. It didn't work, Charlie fell asleep. Typical male :)


Colin came back and brought his A-game. Apparently, he had left to go change into his Michael Jackson onesie. What a stud. I like this first photo because everyone's eyes are open! We probably should have put Eloise on the end since she has the most balancing power at this point but instead we didn't and poor little Charlie kept tipping over! It was really hard to choose which of these photos to put up and since it's 4am currently and I just can't edit, here are a bunch.





Charlie decided to step it up and pose in just a onesie too. I think he is trying to flex his little bicep here and make a tough guy face!! Too cute. Colin and Charlie are about 5 weeks apart but very close in size!



Eloise couldn't take all of flattery from the boys and passed out on Karen (and next to her newest girl friend who was currently still in the womb)



I have a great report on Ellie's first taste of food...but have to come back to this one in a later post, I'm actually kind of getting sleepy. I will say that it was such a fun experience! And of course I took many photos and a few little movies.

A New Kind of Happy Hour - Rice Cereal

I can't even believe these photos. Yes, Eloise is definitely propped up and could not stand on her own but she just seems so old to me for 4.5 months! I did confirm in my baby book that it is okay for little ones this age to try to stand, if they are pushing down on their feet then they want to try it! Some 5 month olds can pull themselves up to standing position too. I don't think Eloise is close to doing that but we have to start thinking about lowering her mattress down a notch. In addition to her leg strength, her hands are grabbing at everything and holding on really tight. She keeps grabbing my hair and I have to gently release her little fingers. Hold that thought, this is not a prelude to me chopping off my hair for a new "mom" cut. It wouldn't work anyway since she will grab the hair underneath my pony tail and pull. Really, I would have to buzz it all off. I wonder if Eloise and I would look even more alike if I was nearly bald too...


She kind of looks like a jail bird behind her crib bars and with her stripes (I love the outfit PK :)


Last week we had a blast hanging out with new friends! Eloise and Allison have hung out before, stuff like going to the movies, cruising around EP center, standard baby activities. This time they got to fight over the attention of a little man, Hendrick! Allie and Hendy are about 2 months younger than Eloise. You wouldn't know it by Hendy's size though, he weighs practically the same amount as Ellie. I had so much fun hanging out with Lindsey and Kate, our conversation topics sure have changed since college days...
Before: "Thursday night, buckets of beer at Grandma's!"
After: "Have you tried Huggies diapers? They really seem as good as Pampers"



We tried a few times with this photo and concluded there was no way everyone would smile for the camera at once. Notice Parker pulling his usual shenanigans, I'm glad both Kate and Linds have dogs so they were very understanding of his attempts to get attention.

I'm happy to say that bath time has become a fun event for Eloise. She "talks" quietly to herself from the second she is in the water until she's taken out. Lately she's been sucking on wash cloths (which the doctor had noted would help with gum pain). She's almost too big for her baby tub. We know we need to advance to the big tub but that just seems so BIG. Tom also brought up a good point, we actually have to keep the tub clean then...not that it's covered in soap scum and mildew but there is a difference between a quick shower and having your baby take a bath in that same tub.

Here she is sucking away (she still "talks" with something in her mouth which is pretty funny)

So cute in her bunny towel - thank goodness no more tears upon exiting the tub.



We've officially been giving Eloise rice cereal for a week now and she's actually eating it!! I know that people say starting solids does not help with sleep so perhaps it's a coincidence or her just getting older or a combination of both, but Ellie's sleep periods at night have been getting longer and longer - finally! I was slightly nervous that she was going to reject food since she has so vehemently rejected a bottle - whew! Tom and I are planning on giving her a taste of some real baby food this weekend. Can't wait to see her reaction!


Last weekend we had a mini draft party with our friends to pick our Twins games for the season. Tom and I are SO excited to experience the new stadium and especially with good friends. We enjoyed the beautiful spring day in MN by walking around the new stadium and peering in through the gates. The season opener is April 12th, not much longer!



We get to meet another new friend of Ellie's tomorrow, Colin Krieg! We can't wait!

The Wiggles

Aren't The Wiggles a kid rock band? The name makes sense, Eloise has been wiggling and squirming all over the place. Last night when I went into her room around 4am she had wiggled from lying horizontally in the middle of her crib to lying completely vertical across her crib. She finally got herself out of her tummy position and onto her back - where she likes to be! She's close to going from back to tummy but hasn't quite gotten there yet. I have lots of updates but our computer crashed and died last week so I feel all out of sorts. Here is a quick video of her 3rd roll over ever!

4 Months Into This Gig

4 Months in and if I didn't have the photos to prove it, I might not believe that Eloise has gone from this:

to this:


I got this flower headband from etsy a while ago. I will admit, the size of it is completely ridiculous. So ridiculous that I have not even bothered to show this one to Tom. He was already taken back by the headband with a simple bow, this surely would have been too much. It makes for some cute photos and is perhaps Eloise's first lesson in being a girl. Sometimes you want the most impractical thing (i.e. shoes, accessories, bag, dress) and there is no good justification for it but you get it anyhow.







Eloise received great reviews from the doctor and has been super healthy so far (besides a few little colds). I swear that she remembered the doctor's office and that she had a painful experience during her last visit. Or maybe it's being stripped down to a diaper without bath time immediately following. Eloise was suspicious before anything painful even happened.


Weight 13lbs 11oz - 50th percentile
Height 25.5 inches - 90th percentile
Lucky little lady has the long and lean thing going on.

The awful cry came out again when Eloise got her shots. I feel a little better knowing that this is only the second time she has ever had a reason to cry that hard (first time being the first round of shots). The aftershocks from the shots were much better than at 2 months. She was happy for our ECFE class in the afternoon and just a little bit fussy in the evening. The doctor noted that with the amount of drool Eloise has going on she is very likely teething. Thankfully it should take at least 2 more months for any teeth to pop if not longer. We still need to get on that bottle asap...The doctor gave us the go ahead to start rice cereal and then other solids. We had already started practicing having Eloise in her high chair. She seems to like it and when her body is supported she can hold her head up without a struggle. I'm excited to start foods but it's a little intimidating too. I had one of those "holy crap" moments thinking about how responsible we are for her well being and nutrition. Having my own baby makes me appreciate my parents even more. All of these years I've taken for granted the fact that they had to teach me how to eat. Well, 30 years later I can say - thank you! Better late than never, right? I wonder what other a-ha moments I'll have, perhaps potty training...


There seems to be a flip that was switched sometime during the past week or two and I can really tell that Eloise has changed from newborn baby to baby (not sure how else to describe this step, because she hasn't been newborn for a while and she is still not advanced beyond baby!). She now "gets" the going to sleep routine and I have been able to put her down while she's still awake and she falls asleep on her own. That is actually quite a nice feeling. I didn't realize how awesome this achievement would be. She might whine for 5-10 minutes but it slowly fades out and she wakes up smiley and happy. The best is a silent drift into sleep but that doesn't always happen. Watching hand coordination develop is pretty exciting (well for every mom and dad it's pretty thrilling but otherwise might not be sooo exciting). Ellie likes to hold things and is starting to pass from hand to hand. She was really into this rattle the other day.



I am slowly trying to get myself back into shape. I would really like to be able to fit into my clothes comfortably and not keep searching for the items that are looser or more likely to hide my stomach! As motivation I signed up for a half marathon in the beginning of may. The other day I huffed and puffed through a 3 mile run! I have to keep remembering how great it felt when I was in the running mode and could easily jog for a few hours with my friend Kara while we chatted the entire time. The warm up in weather lately has really helped my motivation as I love being able to get outside. Hopefully April will have some warmer days and we can hit the trails in Chanhassen then. For now I just need to face down the six boxes of girl scout cookies sitting 4 feet away from me on the counter...

Parker finally had some relief last weekend when we went to the dog park on saturday AND sunday. I carried Eloise in the bjorn and on sunday she fell asleep while we trucked around with Parker, Mike, Katherine, and their new dog Minnie! Unfortunately I forgot my camera and didn't get any photos of Minnie, she is really cute and did really well with her first trip to the dog park. Tom and I also took Eloise on a quick walk around our neighborhood and Tom tested out the bjorn too.




I'm still very tired but now the majority of the issue is my own and not due to Eloise waking up at random hours. I am having the hardest time falling asleep initially and falling back asleep after I do feed her. The night pattern seems to be tired, tired, tired, extreme tired, easy sleep, tired, tired, tired, extreme tired, easy sleep, and repeat again...oh well. I know Eloise's sleep will only get better over the next month or two so my fingers are crossed that I can get back into a better pattern too. Am I boring or what?? So much talk about sleep and babies. I guess that is what dominates my life currently.

More 4 month photos:

Toppled over again this month but smiling!

I'm so cute!

Oh and last but not least. Tom is convinced that Eloise can stand "on her own". She definitely bears weight on her legs when you hold her and likes to push down. And I guess this photo shows her "standing". I have no idea if this is okay to do with babies but it was very brief and she seemed okay...