24 weeks!

This week Wren was introduced to butternut squash and avocado - both were big hits!  We have been figuring on seeing a tooth one of these mornings after interrupted sleep and grumpiness but nothing yet.   Sweet shrieks from last week have turned into very powerful and assertive yells.  I was lucky enough to get a direct earful of Wren's loud voice over the weekend!  We have been exploring what we can do to get laughs.  Silly dances to silly songs, jumping up and down, and smooches to Wren's neck have all earned us sweet giggles!  It's hard to stop trying for more laughs once we get her started.  

On Friday Wren had her first trek sitting in her stroller without her car seat.  She spent the majority of our walk running her hands along the fabric of the stroller interior and we aren't sure if she was really excited about it. The rest of the weekend we were back in the car seat for strolling but will try again soon.   

Grandma T. came to visit for the weekend and brought some toys and a high chair that cousin Karsyn is letting Wren borrow.  Sitting up at meal time has been a great change for Wren and she is much less distracted.  Tonight she held on to her spoon and practiced using it all by herself - is this kid ready to grow up or what!  

Opa and Oma brought down a bike trailer/stroller we found on Portland's Craigslist site - gotta grab a screamin' deal when you see it!  Even though Wren won't be able to use it for a while (recommended age of 1 year to ride in it as a trailer) we are excited to tote Wren around town in a few months.  

Since it is Spring Break and Jay actually gets a few days off of work to finish up some grad school projects we decided to head into the forest this afternoon for a little hike.  There is still snow on the side of the logging roads we walked on after the crazy snow fall we had last Wednesday and Thursday (Wren and I came home early Wed. and went in late Thurs. - a nice short week!).  Wren snoozed in her carrier most of the journey but has now been introduced to one very small section of the beautiful McDonald Forest.  

Jay says this is Wren's "Burning Man" outfit 

Trying on her Sherpa hat from Grandma T.

Real or staged?  You be the judge 

Becoming best friends....slowly but, hopefully, surely 

Not so sure about this stroller business 

Laid back with Oma and Opa

23 weeks!

This past week Wren has been working on her upper octaves - squeaks and shrieks! She practices in the car, in her Exersaucer, sitting on the floor and laying in her crib (even at 4 in the morning!).  She is really working to find her voice!  Green beans and oatmeal were introduced with mixed results.  But hey, can we blame her for not being super excited about a fine green puree? 
Sleep....oh, sleep.  We have been back to being up three times a night...growth spurt again?? I fear that I will go into Wren's room one morning and she will be 4 feet tall, have crawled out of her crib and be sitting in her recliner reading Curious George. 
Wren has been doing a superb job of sitting up - she's a pro!  We will soon be borrowing a high chair for meal times and I think that Wren will love being totally upright while eating.  So far she either sits in a reclining mini chair or I try to hold her, but Ms. Grabby McSquirmsalot is hard to keep contained.  She has been sitting in a high chair at daycare and does very well - and everyone's plates and food stay safe from Wren's little fingers! 
Bottle holding is going well - not quite able to get the necessary angle to ensure that milk is always accessible but on our way to that. 
I forgot to mention in the previous post that Wren was weighed at Week 22 and was just over 18 pounds! 
On Sunday afternoon while in her Exersaucer Wren had a fit of giggles and Jay and I just admired how adorable every little laugh is. 
We heard that Baby G from up the street has a tooth - oh boy, oh boy - maybe we are almost there, too!
During a recent bath Wren held on to the edge of her tub and tried to pull herself up....this again leads to my crawling-out-of-the-crib worries!  Such a strong lady!

Tasting every toy - as you put them back in the bin she pulls them right out!

Shep - our other, bigger baby

Just waking up from a snuggly nap with Mama

Mmmm....Green beans!

Exploring the World with her bodyguards

22 weeks!

The past week was fairly low key around our house.  Wren continues to be curious about everything and really enjoys watching out the window and grabbing at her toys.  Her interest in face grabbing also continues creating a near-constant need for nail trimming - yipes! We experienced two beautiful days last week allowing Wren and her daycare pals to make the trek to a local park for some fresh air. 
Wren started having a bit of a runny nose on Thursday leading to full-on cold symptoms by Saturday. Hey - it's another milestone! She hated the bulb syringe so much that we bought the Nosefrida to use instead.  She hates that, too!  But we know that at some point Wren will realize that we really are trying to help her breathe better even though it seems like a silly way to go about it. 
To mark Wren's 5 month birthday she had a delicious dinner of sweet potatoes and rice cereal and she really liked it! We have found that no matter how well we think her bib has been secured that darn cereal can still get down her neck!  Maybe blowing raspberries with a mouthful of food is partly to blame...  We will stick with sweet potatoes a few more days before trying something new - butternut squash or green beans....decisions, decisions!

21 weeks!

This week we started rice cereal!  Tuesday night we went ahead and mixed 1 tablespoon cereal with about 3.5 tablespoons of warm milk for a nice runny consistency.  Wren was pretty excited to eat from and nibble on a spoon.  The first few nights cereal time ran fairly close to bed and that seemed to give Wren a little bit of an upset tummy so we backed up her "dinner" time and falling asleep has gone better.  Now, you are all at the edge of your seat wondering if she has actually slept better from this.  The answers is, thankfully, yes. Cereal hasn't been some miracle cure and I still get to spend about 30 minutes with my girl once or twice a night, but piecing together chunks of ~4 hours of sleep is so much better than 2!  Now, if I could just make myself go to sleep at 8...8:30...9 I would be doing even better.  

With a week of just rice cereal under her belt Wren is perhaps ready for a little organic pea mash in her cereal, no?  (Read the last 7 words of that in your best french accent) Then, who knows - avocado.  Green beans.  It's about to get k-razy up in this house at meal time!  

Wren very much enjoys looking out the large front window in the living room, taking in the trees and neighboring houses, watching the occasional car drive by.  The other day a gentleman walking by even gave a wave.  She has a good time grabbing onto the sliding windows and patting her little hand on the glass.  

With all of the reaching and grabbing Wren has been doing we have to be more and more careful about what's around.  Tonight Wren grabbed a dinner plate on the table and started pulling it right toward her and even managed to dip her tiny fingers in a dab of salsa.  Our little explorer is so very curious.  

Not much action this week toward rolling over.  When we help her swing her leg over her body and twist to wind up on her belly Wren is happy to then reach for toys around her but isn't seeming too curious yet about what it took to get her there.  Then when tummy time is no longer interesting we prop Wren up on her forearms and roll from front to back with excitement and clapping, though again she isn't very worried about making this motion on her own.  Just like everything else she has started doing I imagine that one of these days she will just go for an independent roll and it will be another impressive moment in Wren's life.

This past week we have gotten a lot of enjoyment out of Wren getting right up in our faces.  She will put her slippery mouth right on my cheek - mimicking all of the kisses she gets? - and then she will start to "chew" on my chin, sending her drool down my neck and causing me to have a fit of giggles.  With Jay she loves to grab his beard and has started munching on his nose - our lady wants no part of a mouthful of beard hair!

When I get asked at work how Wren is doing I often remark "Good.  She's getting so big!"  It's my go-to short answer to keep myself from rattling on about how amazing/strong/smart/adorable Wren is.   I spend a lot of time thinking about how much Wren has grown, developmentally yes, but mostly physically.  Sometimes it feels like we didn't have a little baby for long - her weed-like growth spurt so early is a big contributor - and she seems like a little grown-up at times with her silliness (it's true that a 21-week old can make you laugh every single day!).  But over the weekend as we experimented with ideas to prolong napping (which didn't work) and made a mini bed on her floor to avoid the possibly disruptive lift-over-the-cribside-because-Mama-is-a-shorty maneuver, I stepped back to see our little gal curled up in a big space and realized that she really is still our little baby and that hasn't changed.  I just hadn't paused for a moment to flip my perspective and take in how big the world around us truly is.  

Yum-o!

Washing down her cereal with a bottle and doing a pretty good job of managing on her own.

How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time!

Future Cirque du Soleil performer perhaps?

20 weeks!

On Tuesday I walked into daycare at lunch to find Wren laying on the ground, chatting away.  I said my hello to her and received some little coos in recognition - melted my heart!
We started out the week with good nights of sleep - up only once.  The remainder of the week wasn't so great, with Wren waking up after 2 and 3 hours of sleep.  Makes for one very tired Mama! Rice cereal is on the upcoming agenda though we realize that might not be a solution.  We are in a supposed period of wakefulness.  Wren is learning so many things all the time and just doesn't want to shut her mind down, which has an amazing clock that has her wake up at times like 11:20 PM and then at exactly 2:20 AM....really it's exactly three hours later.  How does she do that?? Naps are still minimal but better at daycare than home. 
This past week Wren started reaching for things - door knobs, toys, whatever is in your hand.  So inquisitive!  She is now playing with her feet and on Sunday discovered she can put her foot in her mouth!  We found it very entertaining and, of course, captured it on video.  In an effort to corral the expanding lot of toys and animals that I keep bringing into the living room Jay created a little toy bucket for Wren.  She had a very good time over the weekend pulling everything out.  She just keeps amazing us!
On Monday we had dates with two different Mommy/baby couples.  It is so nice to get together with others and compare notes about our little ones and their kooky stages.

Snuggle time on one of Daddy's rare days at home

Sitting up so well!  P.S. These are the polka dot jammies Wren has loved looking at from her changing table.

Learning about the world on her talking globe.  Thanks Aunt Mickey!

  

19 weeks!

This week was another "wonder week" for Wren and we had some stormy sleeping.  Nothing too terrible, but it's tough going back to waking up every 3 hours when you've gotten used to 4 hours of sleep in a row!  Sunday night was an up-one-time night and it was amazing!  I like to think we are back on track.  Naps, though, that's a different story. Wren  is a much better napper at daycare and only slept in bursts of up to 20 minutes all weekend.  She must just love to be with us so much that she can't bare to miss a moment! 
A new and completely adorable thing Wren is now doing is rubbing her hair when she nurses.  She runs her hand along the side of her head, just above her ear.  Reminds me a little of my Magic Moves Barbie from years back, sans permanently angled arm and toggle switch on her back.
Wren has been doing a great job of expressing herself and chatting away.  Her fine motor skills are improving every day and it is amazing to watch her grab at things.  At breakfast on Sunday morning she practiced holding onto a cup and she is able to pick up a bottle and put it in her mouth.  Time for a sippy cup, perhaps?
With the addition of Wren in our household I decided early on to keep music playing in the house.  I turned to Pandora's preset playlists for this and started with Disney but later switched to Raffi's Radio. Some of the songs are highly addictive and they play in my head during meetings at work (!).  My recent favorite, and one we pull up for bathtime, is "Do De Rubber Duck.  I love the part where the construction guy, a Jersey native I suppose, adds "all around the woyled, whenever folks get soiled..."  You can make a rhyme of anything!
I hope that was enough links for you.  Now here's picture mania!

Wren's future is so bright! 

Beard! 

Perfecting her balance to sit up!

Raspberries with Grandma T! 

Smiles with Gramma W!

Happy Valentine's Day!