Search results
26 results found.
Day in the Life – 6.5 Months
Good morning! It’s hard for me to believe that another month has gone by, but indeed it has, and lots has changed as James has become so much more mobile and gotten really into eating solid food. This was our day yesterday.
We’ve been working with James on sleeping “through the night” lately. I suppose you could call it mild sleep training, but I honestly hate the word “training” in reference to children.
He was going to bed on his own just fine, but had started waking up habitually at 9-10, and sometimes other times, wanting to nurse or be soothed back to sleep. I knew he wasn’t really hungry because when he sometimes went back to sleep with just a little soothing, he woke up many hours later happy and playing.
Last night, he did pretty well! He woke up once at around 2:45 and started scooting out of bed. I admit I love watching him doing this on the monitor – it is both entertaining and kind of amazing to watch. I went in and moved him back into the middle of his bed and he cried for maybe 2 minutes. He sucked his thumb and kicked the wall for a while, not fussing, and fell back asleep. He woke up again at 5:20. I fed him and he went back to sleep.
I ate breakfast, read blogs, and worked on some bachelorette party planning for my sister (so excited!). I often workout during this time, but wanted to run on my treadmill today and all of my stuff was in with my sleeping husband, so I decided to wait until nap time.
James woke up right at 7:00, which is great because, according to Dr. Weissbluth (more on that on Friday), children waking up at the same time every day helps their overall sleep. James seems to naturally wake up around 7 most days, so we’re shooting for that.
He is so happy when I go in. One thing I love about his floor bed is that I can lay next to him and snuggle in the morning. I get him up, change his diaper, and get him dressed for the day.
We then go out to the backyard to “greet the world”. There are lots of interesting bird noises this morning and little snails out from yesterday’s rain. It’s fun to see him start to notice smaller things like bugs and snails. He was intent on trying to pet a tiny spider on its web the other day.
We go in to say good morning to his Dad, but James is more in the mood to roll around so we soon give up on morning cuddle time and go play in his room. He chooses his elephant shaker off of his shelf. He also bumps his head on his shelf, which he doesn’t seem to care about, but it leaves a red mark that makes me sad.
He starts sounding grumpy so I nurse him, which cheers him up.
I then put him down to play in the living room while I make his breakfast. I heat up his leftover oatmeal with banana from yesterday and fry a couple of egg yolks in avocado oil. I cut the egg into strips so he can easily eat it. He ate a lot more than what’s on his place mat, but I give him a little at a time so it doesn’t all wind up on the floor.
He is playing happily by himself, so I leave him alone while his breakfast cools off. I quickly change into my running clothes and get the treadmill set up so I can take full advantage of his likely short nap. He is still happy by himself so I load the dishwasher. I really try not to interrupt him when he’s busy playing because I want to encourage his concentration and his ability to entertain himself.
Eventually I interrupt him because we’re running out of time for him to eat breakfast before he naps.
He was much more into the oatmeal today than he has been in the past and is getting so good with his spoon.
He’s gotten much more stable in his little chair, so I can sit across from him now and eat with him sometimes, which is really nice.
Mealtime is fun and messy as usual. I place him on a blanket nearby while I clean up and talk to him about what I’m doing (washing his place mat, putting the extra food away, etc.) so that he at least starts to become aware of the process.
James is yawning by the time I finish cleaning up so I get him ready for a nap, sing him a song, and place him in his bed a few minutes after 9:00 AM. He falls asleep within five minutes and I book it to the garage for a treadmill run. I bring the monitor in case he wakes up.
I run three miles at a quick for me pace (8:10 minute miles, though my speed was all over the place). I was getting tired in the last mile, but my desire to have time for a shower kept me motivated. I watched Lilo and Stitch on Netflix while I ran because I haven’t seen it and I’m basically a five year old inside.
I rushed through the run and the shower and then realized James was still asleep, woohoo! Way to go little buddy. I’m so happy he is taking a real nap, not just 35 minutes, so he will be rested. I finish booking the place for my sister’s bachelorette. It is a house / B&B in the Texas wine country and has alpaccas…I’m pretty excited about it. I then work on this post – a fun and productive morning so far!
James wakes up a little after 10:30, an hour and twenty minute nap, which is great for him lately.
We sing songs and play in the mirror for a bit before I nurse him. Then we’re off for a walk! It looked like rain this morning, but the sun came out and it is a beautiful day.
We walk for a little under an hour. James starts mildly protesting after about 40 minutes so I book it home as fast as I can.
When we get home, James plays and rolls around the living room. I sit by him and fold laundry. He decides to come help and laundry turns into peekaboo. Fine by me. After a while, James starts getting sleepy eyes and goes down for nap # 2 around 1:00 PM. He falls asleep quickly and without much protest.
I eat a quick lunch while he naps and start to do some cleaning. I don’t get much done though because James takes an exceptionally short 30 minute nap. I’m not too surprised because I noticed he had fallen asleep on his arm in a way that didn’t look too comfortable.
I go to greet him and we go sit in the backyard in the sunshine for a little while. At times like this I feel so, so thankful that I get to stay home with him. It’s so nice to just be together outside on a Tuesday afternoon.
Eventually we go in and I nurse him. We read a few stories from the Bible I got him for Easter and he plays in his room.
After a while, I bring him to his little chair for a late lunch of sweet potatoes, which he loves. I roasted them in lots of avocado oil and turmeric. He really loves sweet potatoes and is good at eating them, so I try to load them up with some extra goodness. Turmeric is the first spice I’ve introduced since it’s so mild and has so many health benefits. I’ll probably try ginger and garlic next.
He eats seven sweet potato rounds – looks like I’ll need to go back to the grocery store for more sweet potatoes tomorrow! He can’t get enough.
Cleanup is relatively easy because very little sweet potato made it onto the floor.
I place James on a large blanket in the living room with a couple of toys, but he often seems more interested in exploring the house than toys these days.
Eventually it is time for his last nap of the day. Some days he only takes two naps, but since his second one was so short, he took three today.
This nap was also short, about twenty minutes I think? This was strange because James’s short naps are almost always 35 minutes to the minute, so I don’t know what was going on today.
Regardless, he got up, I nursed him and he played some more in his room. Soon my husband got home and played with him until it was time for dinner.
James had avocado (he ate almost half of a pretty big avocado) and pear slices. He eats dinner around 5 and we’re not usually ready to eat that early so we sometimes compromise and sit with him and eat a salad so it’s more of a family meal.
After dinner, James played a little more and then took a bath. He is so cute and curious in the bathtub. He likes splashing in the water, but also really wants to explore the surrounding area.
After bath time, I nursed him again, gave him a massage, and my husband read him Goodnight Moon. I sang him a song and put him in his bed. He didn’t protest at all and fell asleep in about ten minutes.
We had leftover falafel (frozen from Trader Joes – I highly recommend it!) for dinner, so I didn’t need to cook anything. As I mentioned, the last couple of weeks were a little rough, but so far, this is shaping up to be a great one!
What was the best part of your day yesterday?
Independence Day
A couple of days ago, James made such major moves toward independence that I felt like he was about to head off for college. I kid, sort if, but I really was amazed!
The first was at story time at the library, which we go to every Thursday afternoon. For a little background, I first took James to story time when he was four months old. He sat in my lap the whole time, completely silent and almost completely still. He seemed stunned. He is often like this when he is in a new situation – he doesn’t act scared or cry, but is super serious and just takes it all in.
Over the weeks, he’s become increasingly active at story time, bouncing and squealing and reaching out to touch other babies. This past thursday though, he went off to play by himself for the first time.
After songs and the story, the librarian puts out a bunch of toys and blows bubbles. I set James down in front of me and after a minute, he rolled off to the middle of the room to check out some scarves and go see the librarian. I realize this probably seems like a super minor event, but I felt so proud of his independence! I was happy to see him feeling so comfortable on his own, even when a much older baby came over and started messing with his feet (lol). I honestly also was a little sad though…I know this was only the first of many steps of him moving away from me.
Later that day, he made another bold move and chose something off of his toy shelf by himself for the first time!
He was playing with a ball on the big rug in his room. He lost interest in the ball and started to roll around. He then rolled right over to his toy shelf, surveyed the options, and chose one! He chose an empty tray, which I suppose makes sense since it was the only thing on the shelf he hadn’t played with before.
Since then, he’s been going to choose his own toys. He isn’t crawling yet, but has become quite expert at pivoting so he can role in a specific direction to get where he wants to go. There’s no stopping him now! He even put a toy he was done with back on the shelf a couple of times, though I know this was likely just coincidence and not an innate sense of tidiness at six months 🙂
James also showed his newfound independence in one less desirable, though hilarious, way. One night at about 3:30 AM, he got out of his floor bed (he doesn’t roll out, but lies on his back and very slowly and carefully scooches out, pushing with his feet), rolled across the room and started banging on the door. It was pretty funny…as long as it doesn’t become a regular thing. We shall see….
Were you independent as a child?
I think I was in some ways, but I’ve also always been pretty shy and tentative in new situations.
April Goals
Inspired by this post and this post, I want to formally document some goals for April. I have about a million things in my head that I want to get done, but the weeks go by so quickly and I know organizing and sharing my thoughts will help me accomplish more.
Home: Conceptualize Playroom
I’ve decided that I want to turn our “office” (aka useless room full of junk that we never use) into a playroom for James. I want to do this for two reasons: 1) He is getting more interested in toys and I know his toys will get larger with time; I’d like to prevent them from taking over the house. 2) Since he sleeps on a floor bed, I plan to remove most toys when he starts to crawl to support him in sleeping at night. I’ll leave some books and calming toys, like a stuffed animal, but don’t want anything too stimulating in there as he adjusts to his new freedom to move around the room.
I plan to keep it very simple with a couple of toy shelves and a reading nook. All I want to do this month is start cleaning out the office and identify / select what I want to purchase for the room…keeping it manageable over here 🙂
I’ll share pictures when it’s through but in the meantime, if you’re looking for inspiration, check out this post – I love her ideas!
Home: Prepare Garden Beds
I’ve mentioned before that I am terrible with plants. However, I think gardening is such a great activity for children and have grand visions of working with James in the garden when he’s older. I feel like I should have some clue as to what I’m doing before I involve him, so the time is now. Thankfully, my mom has agreed to come help me start a garden (woohoo!). Outsourcing, my friends.
She’s really busy and traveling a lot in April, so we’re going to try for the beginning of May. This month, I want to prepare the garden beds so that everything is ready to go. I want to plant two small flower beds around trees in our backyard, and one medium herb / vegetable garden. I have no idea whether I should do raised beds, or what to plant, so I have some research to do!
Family: (Re)Start Family Dinners
In my former life, I really liked to cook. I enjoyed the whole process from browsing recipes, to grocery shopping, to the actual preparation of meals (and obviously, the eating). These days, it honestly seems more like a chore and we have lots of nights with no set plan where I eat eggs and my husband concocts some sort of taco creation.
We’re both fine with this, but I’m hoping to get back into cooking real meals at least 4-5 nights a week so that we can model family dinners for James now that he is beginning to eat solid food. I’d like to get back into the habit of this now, rather than waiting until he’s ready to eat what we’re eating.
Leisure: Watch less TV
I have three episodes left in my current Netflix obsession (The West Wing). I’m committing to not starting a new series at least for the month of April. It’s so easy at night when I’m tired to just zone out and watch tv, but I know I would be happier if I spent more time reading or just hanging out and chatting with my husband.
Reading over this list, I kind of feel like I should strive for something loftier, but I’m going to resist that temptation. For now, I’m going for manageable. If I check these off the list this month, maybe the momentum will help me accomplish more the next month. Or maybe not. For now though, this is enough.
Do you have any goals you’re working on?
Top Five in the First Five Months
It hardly seems possible, but little James turns five months old today. (Five month update coming soon!) I still clearly remember being pregnant and trying to sift through the ridiculously long lists of things you “need” before bringing baby home, so I thought I’d talk about the top five baby items that have stood out so far for us in these first few months.
These are certainly not the items I would have predicted, but they have been the best for us. I am by no means an expert and of course each baby has his or her own preferences.
Note: I did not include the floor bed, which has absolutely been a favorite, as I discussed it in detail here.
Thick Blankets
Everything I read when I was pregnant emphasized that you could never have enough light swaddle blankets, especially these Aiden and Anais ones. I don’t know why, but I feel like we barely use these. Sure, we tuck one around James in the stroller, but I seem to have about five times as many light blankets as I need.
We have far fewer thick blankets, but use them much more. These are the ones we lay James on when he’s playing. This may be because we have hard wood floors, but we often double up so he doesn’t bang his head when he rolls over. My very favorite is the one that my friend and former boss, Lisa, made me. It is soft and thick and was especially perfect when James was learning to hold his head up and often lost control and hit it on the floor. There were no head bumps or tears when he was on this blanket.
Independent Black and White Books
I love to read, and absolutely love reading to James. It is one of my favorite things. When he was a newborn, I would lie next to him on the floor and read to him. He now sits and my lap as we read.
As much as I love reading books with James, I really appreciate the books that he can look at independently.
Two of these we’ve particularly loved are the Black & White board book and Art for Baby. The Black and White board book unfolds like an accordion so that the baby can look at the images independently. James LOVED this as a newborn. He would lay and stare at the images for the longest time. It was the first thing I saw him really concentrate on.
We didn’t have the Art for Baby book until he was a little older, but he still loves that one now at five months. It features black and white images from different well known artists. It is much larger than most board books and quite sturdy so that it’s easy to stand it up opened to a certain page to allow your baby to look at it on his own.
Mirror
This was a relatively inexpensive item that I can see us using well into toddlerhood and beyond. It is probably my number one favorite baby item – and we almost didn’t get it! While I always loved the idea of having a mirror in James’s room, I got a little overwhelmed trying to figure out what type to get and how to mount it to the wall.
I was concerned about the safety of having a glass mirror in his room, since he could potentially bang toys on it and break the glass when he gets older. (I wouldn’t have worried about this if he didn’t have a floor bed / freedom of movement or if we were going to put it in a playroom rather than his room.) On the other hand, many reviews of acrylic / unbreakable mirrors complained about distorted images.
In the end, we ordered an acrylic mirror from Home Depot (our Home Depot didn’t have them in the store, but they do have them online). I couldn’t be happier with it! Is the image perfect? No. Does James stare into it and smile and gaze with fascination? Yes! He does this every single day.
He has been transfixed by it since we first showed it to him as a newborn. If you look into the mirror from across the room, the reflection does look slightly distorted, but from his close up vantage point, it looks great.
This is the only toy to make the list – James loves it! He has been given so many beautiful rattles and toys, but this one definitely stands out as his favorite. My mom gave it to him for Christmas because she remembered it as one of my little brother’s very favorites when he was a baby. It has not disappointed!
This was one of the first toys James could reliably grasp and hold onto. He also loves putting the knobs in his mouth. We have the one with colored knobs, but there is also an unpainted natural wood option.
This was something we added to our wish list just for fun, but it turned out to be so helpful in the first couple of months. While we mostly put him down on a blanket when he was awake to allow freedom of movement, he did sometimes seem to enjoy the change of perspective of being in the lounger. It let him get a better view of the Christmas lights or watch us as we were eating dinner.
As much as I have loved these items, even they have not really been necessary. I’ve been amazed by how engaged James is just looking around the room, watching us go about daily tasks. He has also been captivated by household items like the ceiling fan, a red and black plastic cup we got from a bbq restaurant, and, perhaps his favorite, a beautiful blue silk scarf given to me by a friend (thank you Lisa!).
In the end, we certainly have a few things we haven’t used (the bassinet…), but I’m so glad we didn’t rush out and get everything on the lists. Each baby is so different and you just never know what they will love!
The Nursery – AKA, My Favorite Room in the House
When I found out I was pregnant, we were living in a one bedroom apartment and knew we would move before the baby was born. We decided to buy a house and the process took months. While the search was sometimes exhausting and frustrating, it did give me plenty of time to research the type of nursery I wanted to have. Since I couldn’t do any real nesting to speak of, I poured all of that pent up energy into researching Montessori infant rooms. When we finally moved into our house when I was just over 30 weeks pregnant, setting up the nursery was fairly simple.
Right now, the room has four basic areas: sleeping, playing, diaper changing, and nursing.
I’ll start with the one that I spent the most time researching: sleeping. I knew I was interested in a floor bed, especially after seeing them work wonderfully in the infant room at the school where I teach. I was unsure of the actual logistics of this though, particularly making sure that it was safe. I researched floor beds and mattresses, but honestly didn’t find a whole lot of specifics, mainly just accounts of how a floor bed worked or didn’t work for different families. I did read somewhere that Ikea had a thin mattress lower to the ground than most, and that is what we decided to go with. We wanted a twin mattress that would give him more room to move and that would grow with him. The Ikea mattress (I believe it was this one: Minnesund) seemed firm and was under 4 inches high, so that when he does eventually roll off, he won’t have too far to fall. We also placed a rug by the bed to soften the landing. While a bed frame is totally unnecessary, I fell in love with this one from Etsy. When we assembled it, there was a small gap between the mattress and the frame, so we decided to wait until he’s a bit older to use the frame for safety reasons. I’m not too upset about this though since, as it’s a twin sized bed, he will still get plenty of use out of it into the toddler years. The flag bunting hanging over his mattress came with the bed frame. One other note, we could not find sheets that fit the low mattress tightly enough for an infant, but used sheet suspenders (I believe these) to pull the sheets nice and tight. We plan to start him out in a bassinet in our room, but to transition him to the floor bed for naps fairly quickly so he can begin getting used to his space.
For the “playing area”, we hung an acrylic, shatter-proof mirror on the wall (pictured above with the bed). We purchased it from Home Depot. They have all different sizes and it was very easy to hang. It is very lightweight, so there is no fear of it falling and hitting the baby. We hung the black and white mobile above the mirror so that he can watch the reflection of the movement for added interest. We were so fortunate and a wonderful Montessorian here in Austin gave us the beautiful mobile. My mom is also making a more traditional Munari mobile, which I’m so happy about, as I love the Montessori mobiles, but am decidedly un-crafty myself. I can’t wait to see him interact with both the mobile and the mirror! Along the lines of play, we also have a low shelf from Ikea with a few books, toys, and photos on it. The black and white rattle was part of a lovely giftset of Montessori baby toys I received and the pictures are photos my husband has taken.
For the changing station, I knew I wanted to have this on the floor for a few reasons. Since I know it won’t be long before he is mobile and crawling around the room on his own, I wanted to minimize furniture that may not be safe later on. I also plan to do stand-up diapering as soon as he can stand holding onto something, so did not want to invest in a piece of furniture we would use for such a short time.
Lastly, nursing: I was not planning to purchase a glider / rocking chair for nursing, but a wonderful family at the school where I teach gifted us this one and I could not be happier about it! It is the most comfortable chair and I already sit in it all of the time to read. Once the baby starts to crawl, we will likely need to move it to a different room so that he doesn’t hurt his fingers under the rockers, but for now, it is a great comfortable spot in the room where I’m sure we will spend lots of time over the next few months.
I’m sure this room will go through many iterations as we observe the baby in it and as his needs change. Right now I just can’t wait until he’s here to test it out!
Lilah at 15 Months
Good morning!
How are you guys doing? Obviously a ton has happened since the last time I posted, but today I’m really going to focus on a 15 month update for Lilah.
So I wrote this post months ago, in the “before time,” but with everything that’s been going on, didn’t get around to publishing. Lilah is now almost 18 months (whoops!) so it’s now or never. I know I’ll want to remember these sweet times of early toddlerhood and am doing my best to focus on the good these days.
Here’s what Lilah’s like as a little toddler!
Milestones:
Lilah wasn’t quite walking in my last update, but that’s hard to imagine now! She started walking a few weeks after her first birthday and is now power walking (lol, not quite running, but close), climbing, and my personal favorite, dancing up a storm!
She is also talking and using baby signs a ton. The words she says that I can think of off the top of my head are: baby, bear, rabbit, dog, car, outside, bath, eat, cheese, taco, avocado (“cado”), Mama, Dada, James (“Mame”), uh-oh, bird, no, yeah, goblin (from a Little Bear book she loves lol), cookie, cracker, milk, Mimi (my mom), tree, blue and coffee. I’m sure there are a lot more, she’s at the stage where she frequently copies words we say.
She also knows the signs for eat, more, cookie, milk, dog, bird, rabbit, cat, ceiling fan (a random one she loves lol), flower, potty, cold and thank you. She loves signing and I am definitely the weak link here, I need to learn more so I can show her! She seems to make up her own signs sometimes too which is as adorable as it sounds. (Note: her signs do not always look like the actual sign, but she has a consistent hand movement she does for all of those things.)
A not so fun milestone – she’s got 6 teeth coming in! She only had 6 before this, so it’s been quite the teething extravaganza which has naturally resulted in some grumpiness.
Eating:
I try not to use the word “picky” too much, but the things Lilah liked to eat at 1 year were quite limited. I’m super thankful that her tastes have expanded quite a bit in these last few months and she’ll now eat almost anything, depending on the day. Her favorites are still fruit, cheese and bread of any kind, but she also likes zucchini, tomatoes, roasted cauliflower, eggs, beans (which she hated before), sometimes meat, sometimes carrots and a bunch of other stuff. She does not seem to like salmon, but she’s come SO far with what she’ll eat. She also really likes soup and smoothies (even one I make with fresh ginger and a bit of cayenne which really surprised me).
Lilah really likes eating with utensils, particularly if something is messy. She needs help getting some things on the spoon at this point, but is working on it.
She usually eats a lot at breakfast and lunch and not much at dinner, so I’m trying to work in more vegetables earlier in the day. She also of course goes crazy for pouches, which I know some people don’t like. My personal stance is that they’re not a substitution for other fruits and vegetables, but are a good “insurance” policy if your child is still learning to like veggies.
I especially like these because they have 1 1/3 cups of spinach in them which can be harder for kids to eat before they have their molars. (I hate it when I buy a green pouch and then realize it’s all applesauce with like a tsp of spinach.)
Sleeping:
Lilah loves sleep. If she’s getting tired, she’ll just lay down on the floor and such her thumb. She hardly ever complains about naps or going to bed at night. I know enough from James to know this is not always the case and is nothing we did, we just got lucky!
She transitioned from 2 naps to 1 a couple of months ago. The transition went pretty well. It took several weeks for her one nap to lengthen, but I knew this was normal this time so didn’t freak out.
She now naps from about 12:45-3 (sometimes 4) and sleeps from 7:30-6:30 or 7 most nights. I can’t remember the last time she’s woken up at night. She’s also totally content to hang out in her bed when she wakes up. She just rolls around and gives her teddy bears kisses haha.
Personality:
Lilah is so fun, silly and incredibly affectionate.
She blew a kiss to a snail yesterday and that pretty much sums up her personality. She’s very snuggly and loving. She gives James the sweetest kisses and it kills me every time. She loves running around and playing, but she also still loves sitting in my lap and snuggling.
She has an intense love of teddy bears and will read any book about bears, even chapter books I have for James.
She already loves pretending. She took a tiny Lego coffee cup from James’s room and walked around pretending to drink from it, saying “co-ee” on repeat. She also pretends to brush her hair with a little Duplo hairbrush and constantly pretends to talk on the phone.
Lilah also loves books. She now likes stroller walks because she just looks at books the whole time and is totally content.
She loves music, playing instruments and dancing, especially if James is doing it too (he calls this activity their “jam sessions” lol).
She also loves to draw with sidewalk chalk or crayons and loves playing with play dough (but unfortunately also loves putting it in her mouth).
The biggest change in her personality lately has been the disappearance of her intense stranger danger. Who knows if this will reappear after months of only interacting with us, but she at least waves (and blows kisses to) people we see walking around the neighborhood. Before we were all staying at home, my sister babysat for a few hours and Lilah didn’t cry at all, which would have never happened before.
Having Lilah (and James of course) around us all the time has definitely been a source of light in this challenging time. It’s so fun to watch them both grow and I honestly think they’re loving this time of being home more and spending so much time together – something I’m going to try to remember when we can venture out into the world again.
I hope you are doing well and would love to hear what your family is up to in the comments!
Montessori abc Book
My Montessori abc book uses phonetic sounds. Montessori teaches phonetic sounds, rather than letter names, to help children learn to read.
The book also uses one letter and image per page. This helps the child focus and not be overwhelmed. Photographic images are used to spark curiosity and encourage the child to learn about the real world.
You can purchase the book here!
This post contains affiliate links, thank you for your support!
Happy Birthday Lilah!
Lilah is officially one year old! It’s so funny, but just in the couple of weeks before her birthday, she started showing signs of early toddlerhood (like the cutest tantrums you’ve ever seen) like she knew that the milestone was coming.
She will carefully lower herself onto the floor, flail a little bit and make whining noises, all while looking back at me to check for a reaction. It’s pretty funny although I’m obviously not looking forward to the real all-out toddler tantrums that are bound to come next.
Lilah is still super sweet and snuggly just as she’s always been, but with a little more sass which is pretty funny. My all-time favorite thing she does right now is wag her little pointer finger and say “neh neh neh neh” before she does something she knows she’s not supposed to. It’s pretty hilarious and she finds it hilarious too!
Milestones
Lilah is not really walking yet, but she has taken her first steps!
She’s taken 4 or 5 steps in a row a couple of times. This is usually when I’m reading her a book and she’s standing up to listen. I’ll scoot back a tiny bit and she’ll take little steps to get closer because she likes turning the pages.
The other big milestone for her has been starting to talk. She has the cutest little voice! So far she says yeah, ball, dog, baby, bye-bye, mama, and dada. She also loves signing and signs milk, more, all done, book, and eat. I need to learn new signs so I can show her because it makes her so happy!
Lilah has 6 teeth now with two more coming in and is in the 96th percentile for height – she is a big baby!
Eating
Lilah went through a really picky stage, but she’s back to eating a bigger variety of food. I would by no means say she’ll eat anything and she has a strong preference for bread and cheese, but thankfully she also eats lots of fruit and will eat some vegetables.
Her favorite foods are sweet potatoes, oranges, bread, cheese (and all combinations of bread and cheese), pancakes, yogurt, hummus toast, cheerios, bambas (from Trader Joe’s), and ground beef. She also eats most fruit and sometimes bell peppers, cooked carrots, peas, and green beans.
She eats what we eat for dinner so she’s exposed to lots of new foods and I’m hoping with time her palate will continue to expand…we shall see!
Sleeping
Lilah wakes up early but otherwise sleeps well and seems to genuinely love sleep. She loves her bed and loves snuggling her little teddy bear in bed now that she’s one year old. She hardly ever complains about taking a nap or going to bed and is pretty flexible with nap timing, which is great because I can almost always get her nap and James’s nap to overlap.
She does not sleep on the go – we drove back from Houston at nap time and she stayed awake chatting the whole time (almost 3 hours). This is actually useful in general though because it means she doesn’t fall asleep in the car when we’re out and about and ruin her nap.
Personality
Lilah is sweet, funny, LOUD, snuggly, and wants to be in on the action. She keeps her eyes locked on James and if he goes in the backyard she stands at the door looking through the window until she can go out too. She loves exploring, especially outside, and loves playing in the water table (even when there’s no water in it, it’s just a good height for her).
She has started to like drawing with crayons and sidewalk chalk, although James and I have also made up a song called “Don’t eat the crayons” so there’s definitely some of that going on as well….
Lilah still freaks out around strangers sometimes but is much friendlier than she used to be and warms up more quickly. When we went to visit my family for Christmas, it took her a day or so to get comfortable and then she was fine with other people holding her and interacting with her.
She loves books and loves to hear the same book twenty times in a row.
She is understanding SO much of what we say and it’s magical to see. I asked her to go get a specific book from her room the other day and she brought it to me. She also brought me a ball from her room when I asked her. I love seeing the language explosion happen, it’s so amazing.
I was a little emotional with Lilah turning one, but not nearly as much as I was when James had his first birthday because I know that the next stage is so wonderful as well. While there’s nothing like a snuggly baby, toddlers are so interesting and hilarious and just plain fun and I can’t wait to see her personality continue to develop and watch her explore the world!
Montessori abc Book
My Montessori abc book uses phonetic sounds. Montessori teaches phonetic sounds, rather than letter names, to help children learn to read.
The book also uses one letter and image per page. This helps the child focus and not be overwhelmed. Photographic images are used to spark curiosity and encourage the child to learn about the real world.
You can purchase the book here!
This page contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support!
Lilah at two months
I can hardly believe that it’s been two whole months since Lilah has joined our family!
She has truly been the sweetest addition and it’s almost hard to believe she hasn’t been here all along.
I love looking back on James’s monthly updates, and reading about babies of similar ages on other moms’ blogs, so wanted to capture what little Lilah is up to these days.
Personality
It has been so fun to catch little glimpses of Lilah’s personality as she wakes up a little bit more from the sleepy newborn haze.
If I had to choose one word to describe her, it would be sweet. She seriously has the sweetest little smile and loves to snuggle.
She is not a super needy baby, she is often content to lay nearby and watch the action, but she does love to be held in the evening when she’s winding down before bed.
Her favorite things right now seem to be:
- Watching her big brother! She looks at him with complete adoration and it melts my heart every time.
- Staring at our ceiling fans – they are black against the white ceiling, so high contrast, and she loves them.
- Music – I frequently play classical music for her and it seems to really relax and captivate her. James loves to sing her Twinkle Twinkle too “to make her feel calm and peaceful”.
- Her mobiles and black and white book
Her dislikes include:
- Any clothing being put over her head
- Bath time
- Taking a late afternoon nap in her bassinet
- Loud sounds (aka giant buckets of Duplos being dumped onto the floor nearby….)
Sleep
I’m not going to go into too much detail on sleep because it changes so frequently! (If it takes me three days to write a post, the sleep section changes about four times…)
Overall, she is gradually sleeping for longer stretches (max has been 7 hours) at night, with some off nights thrown in there.
She almost always falls right back to sleep after waking up to eat at night these days, which is a new development – fingers crossed this continues!
She has days when all she wants to do is snooze and she takes multiple long naps, and days when she takes a series of 30 minute naps.
Her sleep has been steadily improving overall and she seems happy and well rested, so we’re pretty happy with it!
Routine
While she is certainly not on a clock-based schedule, it finally feels like we have a bit of a routine down, which is great news for this type-A mama!
She’s generally up for the day around 7-7:30. I feed her and we either hang out on the couch with James and read books (she loves laying on the couch next to me because it’s a prime viewing spot for the ceiling fan, which is pretty much her favorite thing ever) or she chills in her lounger or topponcino while James plays Duplos nearby.
She’s usually ready for her first nap after about 1 hour. I swaddle her (with one hand out because she loves to suck on her hand), sing her a song, and place her in her bassinet. Sometimes she falls asleep right away and sometimes I go in to soothe her once or twice.
Just a note – many Montessori families choose not to swaddle because it in some ways goes against the Montessori principle of freedom of movement. We choose to swaddle for sleep because of the SIDS prevention guidelines, and because I’ve found it really helps my children sleep – to each his own!
Her nap duration is all over the place right now – sometimes it’s 30 minutes, sometimes almost 3 hours, we never really know!
When she’s up from her first nap, we frequently have some sort of outing like the park, story time, or the Wildflower Center. Sometimes we just stay home or go for a walk around the neighborhood (James loves to ride his balance bike while we walk and is getting so good!)
Lilah generally snoozes in the Ergo or K’tan while we’re out.
We come home and James eats lunch, often while I feed Lilah. I help him get ready for his nap while Lilah either hangs out with her mirror and mobile, or lays nearby on her topponcino if she wants to be with us while we read books and sing songs.
This part of the day has gotten SO much easier now that she is out of the fussy newborn stage. There were some days that she screamed and cried the whole time we got ready for James’s nap and I felt so badly for both of them – not a restful way to go to bed.
Since she naps so frequently, she is generally ready for her third nap by the time James is in bed or soon after. This means I have at least 30 minutes to eat lunch or blitz clean the house, woohoo!
Some days she sleeps for his whole nap time and some days she’s up again quickly and we hang out together. These days are nice as well because I get some rare one on one time with her. I love laying next to her on the floor and just talking to / watching her. She gets the biggest smiles when we do this.
When James is up, he has a snack and we play at home most afternoons, often in the backyard. Lilah sometimes takes another nap in her bassinet, but this often ends up being in the K’Tan while I hang out with James in the backyard. She has a hard time falling asleep for this last nap, but the evening goes so much more smoothly if she gets at least a little power nap in the late afternoon.
On an ideal day, she wake up from her last nap around 5-5:30. This seems to work perfectly for a 7-7:30 bedtime.
We play or read books until my husband gets home, eat dinner, and begin the bedtime shenanigans. Lilah gets a bath every other day. She doesn’t love it, but she’s coming around.
I feed her and put her to bed while my husband does bath time with James, and then I help with his bed time.
She usually goes to bed between 7 and 7:30 – a recent development that has made me SO happy!
Like many newborns, she had been going to bed later, around 9. I went to bed around the same time since I was up with her at night and getting up early with James. This meant I had zero free time at night, which was a little tough. I love having time at night now to just zone out or catch up with my husband. It makes all the difference.
Of course every day is different, but this is generally how things are looking around here with a two month old and a two and a half year old.
I really love this not-quite-newborn, but still tiny stage. She is still super portable and snuggly, but now rarely cries unless she’s tired. Every stage is wonderful in its own way, and we are certainly enjoying this one!
If you have kids, did you like the newborn stage? It seems like some people love it and others much prefer older babies / kids.
This post contains affiliate links. All opinions are my own.
James at 11 Months
I’m a little late with this update and cannot believe James turns one THIS month. I’m honestly trying not to think about it too much and to just enjoy the month, as I tend to get overly sentimental. Still, things are changing rapidly as James takes his first steps and I look at going back to work part-time. It definitely feels like this very special year is coming to a close in a very real way.
Okay, before I get too sappy, on to the update!
Eating
James eats all the things. He normally eats what we’re eating for dinner now, which makes things so much easier. We offered him a few bites of ice cream on vacation and he was fine with it, but made it clear he’d rather eat his peas. Who is this kid?
He did however love the homemade pizza we made last week, and really loves mashed potatoes. He also continues to love yogurt, fruit, and anything someone else is eating. He literally begged on his knees for a bite of a granola bar my sister was eating when she was here…five minutes after finishing a big breakfast.
My favorite development with his eating has been his desire to share. He holds out tiny bites of food to me and, even though his hand is covered in unidentifiable food residue, I think it is the sweetest thing. Sometimes if it is a bite of something really good though, he takes it back at the last second haha.
Sleep
I don’t want to jinx anything, but sleep has been so good! Before our vacation, he had been frequently waking up at 5:30 or so for the day. For some reason, ever since we got back two weeks ago, he’s often been sleeping until 7 or later. Apparently he decided to stay on East Coast time and I am not complaining. (Right now it’s 7:30 and he’s still sleeping…I literally never thought that would happen.)
I’ve also woken up a couple of mornings and all was quiet, but when I looked at the monitor he was silently walking the perimeter of his bed. Works for me little man!
The only negative with sleep is that he has hit the clingy stage and sometimes cries when it’s time to go to bed now. It generally doesn’t go on too long though, I just hate to hear him crying!
Physical Development
The biggest change has been James has started taking his first steps! This happened last week, so just after he turned 11 months. I would not say he’s walking, but he is taking a few steps at a time and is very close. Right now, it is more of a mad dash between two things so that he can make it there before gravity catches up.
He is also standing for long periods of time – he likes to stand while we read books these days. And a smaller, but one of my favorite physical developments – he is waving! Something about this is just way too cute for me to handle. He stood at the door waving for the longest time when my sister and her fiance left last week. It melts my heart.
He has also started climbing things, which is interesting. I was sweeping the floor after lunch the other day and looked over to see him sitting on the couch…holding the remote control no less.
Seeing him climb the furniture with no regard for safety is a little scary, but still fun to watch him exploring the world in a new way.
Personality
He is the sweetest. Clearly I’m not biased at all, not even a little bit 🙂
He has become more clingy this month, but I honestly don’t mind. He is normally so independent and on the go, I will soak up every long hug and slobbery baby kiss he gives me during this stage and will hold him in my lap all day long if he wants. I of course still encourage him to be independent, but I am loving this time when he wants his Mama.
He also has a serious love of games…or what passes for a game at this age. He of course loves peekaboo and also loves any other silly little game we come up with around here. He gives the best belly laughs.
He has become fascinated with taking things in and out of containers.
He loves the splash pad, the beach, exploring, and READING. He will seriously sit and listen to books for the longest time, which is funny because he is otherwise never still. I’m very excited about this as I love to read and really look forward to reading him some of my childhood favorites as he grows.
I’m going to try not to become overly sentimental this month as his birthday approaches. I want to look back and reflect and remember this first year, but I also don’t want to waste too much time thinking about the past. I want to truly be present and enjoy each day with the little buddy as he continues to change and grow.
Does anyone have a birthday this month? (Apparently, it’s the most common birthday month in the US.)
James at Ten Months
This has been such a happy month. For the most part, James has been really happy and independent and we’ve fallen into a really good rhythm lately.
Eating
James continues to love to eat! The big change this month has been family meals. We’re finally eating dinners as a family, and loving it. I always wanted to do this, but when James was napping so poorly, he needed a super early bedtime and he was eating dinner by like 4:45 a lot of days. My husband wasn’t even home from work yet, so family dinners weren’t possible.
James still goes to bed early, but has dinner at 5:30 or 6:00, depending on his naps that day, so while it’s earlier than we’d ideally want to eat, we can swing it. It’s interesting to see how much better James eats when we eat as a family. He’s always been a good eater, but he seems to really enjoy dinner time more when we all sit down together. I suppose I wouldn’t want to eat with people just staring at me either 🙂
His favorite food was avocado for a long time, but lately his favorites seem to be bread, yogurt, peas, carrots, bananas, and fruit in general.
Sleeping
I left sleeping out of his updates for a while because it was stressing me out and I didn’t want to dwell on it or continually complain about it. Sleep is finally going pretty well!
I’ve come to terms with the fact that James will likely never be an epic napper (spell check suggests I say rapper instead of napper, but I don’t want to count him out just yet ;), and that’s fine. He is on a pretty good two nap schedule now though, generally napping around 9:00 and between 1:00 and 2:00. He usually takes one short nap and one long nap (for him – an hour to an hour and a half). He needed a third nap a couple of times this month, but he had a cold, so wasn’t sleeping as well in general.
He is also sleeping through the night! James had been down to eating once at night, between 3-4 AM for a long time. I knew he probably didn’t really need to eat at this time anymore, but it was honestly just easier to go in there and feed him so I could go back to sleep. All of a sudden though, he was wide awake after I went in to feed him, and taking up to an hour to fall asleep again. I knew it was time to stop. I phased it out a little bit, but feeding him for less time each night so I would be confident he wasn’t starving.
James never cried when he woke up at night, just started talking to himself, so it was relatively easy to not go in there. Still, I was worried he would just be up for the day at 3 AM or get upset after a while when I didn’t go in. I was prepared for the worst, but it was totally fine! The first night he talked to himself for ten minutes or so and then went back to sleep. For about a week, he still woke up between 3-5 and chatted for a while, but he never started crying. After a week or so, the habit was broken and I haven’t needed to go in there at night since. I probably should have done this sooner, it is so nice to sleep all night again!
Physical Development
James is becoming more and more confident and capable with standing and cruising. He can pull up on walls without anything to grab onto, and he comes down so carefully. He will sometimes bend down to get a toy from the floor and stand back up again.
He will also lean on his shelf or the couch without holding on so that he can use both hands to play. He sometimes stands for several seconds without holding on to or leaning on anything. It is so amazing to see his independence growing.
We don’t have any stairs at home, but he can also go up and down the little steps at Barnes and Noble with ease.
James graduated to the big bathtub, and a big kid car seat, this month. He is getting so big!
He has started banging two toys together with both hands. He is also getting better and better at using his fingers to turn the pages of books. He loves picking up a string with his two little fingers.
He does not yet sign back with any of the baby sign language. He is super verbal and I’m curious if he’ll ever use the signs. He also doesn’t wave or clap or point yet though, so he may just not be there yet, which is fine.
James also got his two bottom teeth this month, which is the cutest. He is a big fan of brushing his teeth, and finds the experience so funny 🙂
Personality
I feel like that picture says it all….
He is super confident and friendly. He crawls right up to strangers, children and adults alike. He made friends with a couple of seven year olds at the pool last week.
He is SO HAPPY. James got his first cold this month and he was such a trooper. He did not get the memo that babies are supposed to hate the nose frida thing (basically you stick it in their nose and it sucks out the snot since they don’t know how to blow their noses yet). He thought the thing was hilarious. I have this baby chest rub I put on his chest at night too and he found that equally hilarious. His default is definitely joy.
He is super independent. He is on a mission to explore and is absolutely happiest when he has the freedom so crawl around and touch and taste everything in sight.
He loves books, as long as we’re at home. If I ever try to read him a book at the library or Barnes and Noble, forget it. There is much too much to see there. At home though, reading books is one of his favorite things to do.
If I could freeze time at one age, this would absolutely be it (so far). He is super interactive, but also independent and able to entertain himself. He is so sweet and happy and flexible. He is exuberant and talkative and curious and brings us so much joy.