Today Wren is 8 whole months old! Recently Wren has gone for an outing in the woods and started her new daycare - still close to my workplace for now. We are very glad to have that process complete and things are going great! We think Wren might be teething again (still just the bottom two!) but we aren't 100% sure. Wren is currently dealing with a case of thrush but is handling herself very well and seems to enjoy having her sugary medicine applied inside her lips and cheeks (well, she really just likes gumming the q-tips we use!). She does better with that than her fluoride which, I admit, tastes pretty terrible. Wren likes to chew on the squeezy top of the fluoride bottle but I learned a lesson about making sure the top is on securely before handing the bottle over. Our little gal wound up with fluoride goop on half of her face and hair this morning.....she was a very good sport about her morning bath and accepted my umpteen apologies graciously.
Wren is making progress toward crawling but isn't quite there. But her latest talent is getting herself up from her belly onto all fours and then a seated position, which has meant that when she isn't quite ready to go to sleep or when she wakes up in the middle of the night we find her sitting up! Let me tell you, it was quite a surprise the first time I saw her sitting in her crib on her own (this past Tuesday night) - kind of freaked me out a little! Wren can pull herself up onto her knees in her crib - good thing we lowered her mattress last weekend. When she is standing and you hold her arms she walks a few steps! (video below)
Wren has tried apricots, nectarines and chicken. She does pretty good with the chicken....as long as we mix it with a lot of peas or sweet potatoes. Now that she is 8 months old the list of foods she can try has gotten quite a bit longer.
Wren loves to flail her arms while sitting and she uses this motion to power some bouncing as well. The kids at daycare like to copy Wren - such a trendsetter. Just this week she started clapping - video #2!
It's time to get this blog back to its roots - a post about the house! As you may recall there once was a flurry of yard activity that mostly halted with Jay starting grad school and baby Wren growing in my belly. The time finally came to resume the yard work, but this time around we're leaving things to the professionals. Thanks to the generosity of Opa and Oma (Larry and Dorothy), Wren will soon have grassy areas to crawl and play on. On May 2nd folks from Gaia Landscapes came out to the house to get to work. After de-weeding our yard they marked out in pink the areas where peat moss and then our eco-lawn seed would be spread. In the process we learned what one particularly pesky weed is that was once featured on our blog - Arum weed! We were instructed to go after it with a hoe whenever we see it starting to pop up.
Here are some before (5/1/12) and after (5/2/12) photos from the initial visit- what a difference a day makes!
Since seeding the yard on 5/8 the grass has just taken off, thanks to vigilant watering and a handful of sunny days. We have actually been thankful to have some rainy days to give us a break from twice daily watering! Here is the growth progress in a nutshell! There are a number of different grasses and little plants growing in the mix and it will take another 2 months or so for things to really fill in, but golly gee it's amazing to watch! I am in no way exaggerating when I write that our yard is the talk of the neighborhood! No, seriously....the front window was open the other day while two chicas from the block discussed our yard from the street corner. Sheesh!
Wren has been busy over the last few weeks with growing her first two teeth and becoming somewhat mobile. We put her down in one spot and come back to find that she's traveled! Similar to the watched pot that never boils, Wren doesn't really go anywhere when we try to see the scooting. A few times we've seen her in a semi-crawl pose but she sits up and gives us a mischievous grin. Over the last few days Wren has been getting onto her belly and maneuvering around in semi-circles to play with her toys. When she is sitting in her crib Wren tries to pull herself up - we better lower the mattress, stat!
Wren is really getting into her books - when we sit in her recliner before bedtime she leans over the arm to reach for different books. Of special interest lately are her lift-the-flap books and Wren now knows that the starfish/frog/elbow/farmer is under the flap!
Wren recently tried bananas in chunk form and she is working on her fine motor skills with picking them up from the high chair tray. Before trying to put the pieces in her mouth she really likes to give them a few hearty squeezes to achieve optimum consistency. We are heading down the path of semi-solids! We tried a few very cooked peas last week but there was little interest at this time.
Wren's favorite items to play with and chew on right now are plastic keys, shoes, and her hairbrush.
Wren is now napping better at home then she used to. About 2 hours after waking, 3 hours after that nap, and another 3 hours later Wren sleeps for about 45 minutes. Night sleep has been fairly good with 2 or 3 wake-ups.
We learned recently that our current daycare provider will be moving out of state before the end of June so we are fully involved in Operation Find New Daycare!! The process is fairly stressful and we hope to find a good long-term fit for our gal. Will we find someone close to our house where Jay can take Wren by bike trailer? Or will the right fit involve a trek off the beaten path? Stay tuned!
Mommy/Baby lunch with friends to celebrate Mother's Day
Rather than a belated weekly post (...again) we thought we would bundle all of the latest happenings into one celebratory post about Wren being 7 whole months old today! Just in time for upcoming Mother's Day Wren decided to expand her syllables to: (drum roll please......
Be still my heart! That sure makes a Mama feel extra special! A few days after we started hearing the mmm sounds Wren is now making "pa pa" sounds. She wakes in the morning practicing her little words and chats up a storm on occasion in her car seat and stroller.
Wren is becoming more adventurous when sitting up and will reach and reach for items around her. A few times we have found her laying on her belly after we have set her down with toys and making slight turns and movements around to get what she wants.
The exersaucer got bumped up a notch for our tall gal.
Over the weekend Wren repeatedly put both arms in the air and leaned her head to her arm....a sort of stretch? It was very cute and interesting and I am not sure what the purpose was.
today at daycare I attempted to get Wren to nap before I headed back to work from my lunch break and as she laid in the pack-n-play she kept lifting her blanket over her face and putting it back down. What a silly goose!
We are getting more and more giggles for silly things. Little dances, sudden movements and silly noises get a good laugh and my favorite is to nibble her arms like little corn cobs - works like a charm!
We are working on using the sippy cup and tried this morning to give Wren some milk from a regular cup. It was a bit messy but a good start!
Sleeping times were getting pretty rough and the last week brought some nights/early mornings of excessive wakings. With a few suggestions and little bits from the stack of baby sleep books we've checked out we have actually had three good nights in a row this week. For us "good" doesn't mean sleeping all night - it means waking up two or three times - but believe me when I tell you that this is a h.u.g.e. improvement over where we've been. I had 4 days off over last weekend and committed myself to making some headway on the short naps we get. Sleep literature tells me that her 20 minute naps are completely insufficient and she might just be "chronically sleep deprived". I trialed some ideas on Friday and Saturday and was super stoked on Sunday when I got a one hour nap from Wren exactly 3 hours after waking. I thought this was a miracle and tried to replicate the results for the following nap with a pretty good outcome, but the afternoon nap did not follow the pattern. Monday didn't follow this pattern and we wound up with 4 short naps, 20-30 minutes each. Regardless, the one day victory and subsequent nights of better sleep have rejuvenated me quite a bit and we have renewed hope for a good sleeper in the future. It's tough to then return to the work week and leave your sleep-challenged little one to be someone else's project but we will get back to the drawing board on Saturday.
Wren and I hit the grocery store on Sunday for her first ride in a shopping cart. She did a great job and really liked looking around. In the future I picture us strolling the aisles singing little songs together - so fun!
The weather is turning absolutely gorgeous around here so we have hit the park for some hang out sessions on the grass. Our yard is undergoing a major transformation - blog post upcoming - so we are making sure to get Shep out and about as much as we can so he doesn't go nutso from being inside so much.
Still no teeth!
Jay is in the thick of his student teaching for a middle school in town and is enjoying the students. It's also pretty nice that he gets home earlier in the afternoon than he used to and we get to have some very quality family times in the evening.
The biggest development this past week was an expansion in Wren's vocabulary. We are used to her yells and calls and now we hear "bla, bla, dla, da" - will there be an "mmmm" sound soon maybe? It is so fun to hear Wren chatter away. Since there's a resemblance to "Da Da" Jay is very giddy about our gal's new syllables.
Since her Little Gym experience Wren really likes being upside down!
She enjoys munching on a chunk of frozen apple or peach in her mesh feeder each day. We haven't introduced any new foods this week - still working on sleep issues and we just want to be sure wake-ups aren't food related. On Friday Wren spent two hours with me at work due to a daycare conflict - she's quite the distraction for everyone! Jay came over to pick her up for some quality Daddy-daughter time for the rest of the afternoon and they had a great time together.
On Saturday we headed downtown to peruse the local Farmer's Market and enjoy the beautiful weather. Wren did a great job on our stroll and while we ate lunch - we are so proud!
