Birthday Weekend

Saturday was my 29th birthday! Earlier in the week on Monday, Craig told Will it was my "birthweek" and that he should sing to me every day this week. Will singing Happy Birthday is definitely one of the cutest things I've ever heard. He sings:
"1, 2, 3...
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to mommy,
Happy Birthday to you.
Any morrrrrre..." (And many more... LOL)
At this age, kids put their whole heart into singing and he was just so cute and sweet about it. You can tell a child is aware of being "on stage" when they have a silly grin and have to sway/dance while singing. Several of the encores began with "Mommy, I wanna' tell you something! Happy Birthday to you..."

Another great birthday gift I received was SLEEP! Craig got up with the kids both mornings. Of course, I have to feed Sophie when she wakes at 7-ish, but then I went right back to sleep. SO NICE!!! Craig also got me some new Nike+ running shoes and the little chip that goes in the shoe for compatibility with the iPod: http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike/ Sweet! I'm psyched to be able to get out running again and plan to use it on the treadmill in the meantime.

My mom came over on my birthday morning with doughnuts for all of us. Will had one with us for the occasion. He looked ridiculous trying to eat something that huge and only made it through about a quarter of it.


My grandma, dad and brothers also stopped by to wish me a happy birthday and the rest of SaturDAY was just hanging out at home. I worked out again and showered during nap time and mostly just played with the kids while Craig took care of stuff I normally do like fixing lunch, doing dishes and a little ironing. What a good man!

We did lots of puzzles...
Hehe - she was just deciding which piece to chew on.


And Will's new 51 piece floor puzzle of the United States (from Christmas).


Here's that get-down move I was talking about for Sophie. It's not nearly as funny when you're not watching it in person. :)




In the evening we went out with friends to Blue Pacific for dinner.
Jill, Casey, me, Kelly and Julie (the respective husbands were all there too).


Afterward, we saw Lovely Bones. Not bad, but in the end I wished we'd seen It's Complicated instead. Lovely Bones was kind of depressing and it's always better to see a funny movie for birthdays.

Today, after getting Will down for an early nap, Sophie and I played and got prepared for our little outing in the afternoon. She LOVES mirrors (as do most babies, right?)...

Then she "hung around" in the Johnny Jump Up while I emptied the dishwasher, cooked her lunch and packed some snacks in the diaper bag.






When Will woke up, we got dressed and headed out to Toledo Zoo for "Frozentoesen" - a winter schedule of activities the zoo organizes each weekend to boost admissions such as ice carvings, animal feeding demonstrations, various little shows, etc. We're getting a jump start on our new membership! It got up to 50 degrees today so despite the wet grounds, it was a pretty good day for the zoo. Today there were puppet and magic shows (eh, nothing real exciting), a bounce house (just one little jumpy toy but Will had fun with it), and a "wild encounter" with a rather large reptile. Okay, so the zoo is much cooler in the summer... but we still had a good time.

Here's Daddy helping Will with his shoes before we headed out.

My guys are just too cute!




He's telling me "Will and daddy are number ONE!"


Daddy's trying to help him hold up TWO fingers for his age. He's going to be 3 before he gets that down.


Will LOVES the gas station for some reason! He gets so excited when we stop. Daddy even cleaned Will's window for him and Will found that quite amusing.



Here we are! At the zoo entrance.






Daddy asked Will if he was picking the elephant's trunk - LOL.

Inside the zoo, we headed to check out the shows and bounce house.

As usual, he took a good five minutes or so once inside the jumpy toy to get acclimated with the other kids and get up the nerve to actually jump. I think if he'd been alone, he would have gotten right to it. But Will always has to observe other kids for a bit before he gets comfortable.





Darn it!! At the last minute, we'd decided to take Craig's Jeep so he could get gas and I forgot to put my Ergo carrier in it for Sophie. Instead she hung out in the stroller.

On over to the aquarium where daddy and Will check out the real sharks.



And the fake ones...




Cheese!


This fish is called an "Old Wife"... seriously. Personally, I think she looks quite lovely.

Making our way to Nature's Neighborhood for the "Wild Encounter".

Daddy has an elephant head!


Will gets up close and personal with Monty - a 102# python.

At 27, Monty is just two years younger than mommy!

Back outside, there were actually quite a few animals out to see.

Poor Soph. This is her nap time and she might have slept in the carrier, but instead she looks like a zombie in the stroller. She was so good and quiet the whole time though - sweet baby. You can see the tiger on the perch behind us.






Penguins


Back at home, after a little rest, Soph peeks through the dining room door while I make dinner. We put that door there to corral the dog in the kitchen while we're away. But while I'm cooking, it comes in handy to prevent Sophie from snooping around by the dog food bowls and steps.



I had a very nice birthday with my family and friends this year. As always, I feel blessed to have such a great people in my life.

Sophia is 9 Months Old!

THREE-QUARTERS OF A YEAR!!! Just three more months and she will no longer be a "baby". But Sophia will always be my baby...


The above picture was taken before work on the morning of the 20th (her 9 month birthday) and neither of us look fully awake yet at 7:30 in the morning - LOL.

This months recent highlights: her hair is getting longer, she "talks" a TON, her meals and foods have continued to expand, and she's improved her furniture-cruising!

Sophie has lots of new babbles (ma, da, ga, ba, va) and she really sounds like she's "talking" a lot of the time. I'm sure she doesn't really understand it yet, but I swear she calls for us on purpose. :) When she hears Craig's voice in the other room, she'll start chatting "da, da, da, da...". And when I set her down to play while I'm doing something else, she calls me and I swear it sounds like "mom" very staccato. She likes to make various noises with her tongue and lips, sort of like smacking and clicking. But probably her favorite noises to make, that always bring a smile to her face, are squeals back and forth with her brother. One of them will start with a high-pitched squeal and, even if they're in different rooms, the other will hear it and squeal back with a big smile. It gets a little ear-piercing at times, but you can just see that they love it and it's an early form of communication between them, so we usually let it go.

Cruising the furniture is practically an Olympic event for Sophia these days. She creates her own paths and can move from one room to another! i.e. the length of the couch, connect to the end table, around to the wall, reach in to her high chair, and then connect to Will's chair or get down. The getting down part is the BEST and funniest thing to watch. I remember Will did a sort of crazy get-down-maneuver too when he was bit older. Sophie will spy something she wants on the floor (or just choose to sit down) and start spreading her legs into a straddle split while holding onto whatever object she was cruising. She sticks her tush out and gracefully drops onto it when she feels she's sufficiently low enough. I love it! I've gotten it on video several times but I haven't thought to take a picture 'cause it just wouldn't depict the hilarity of the action.

No more new teeth so far, but the two on the bottom are coming in quite nicely and look really cute when she smiles. We still wipe those two teeth and her gums twice a day with a washcloth and are planning to schedule a first dentist appointment around her first birthday.

Another new change is that Sophie has been joined by her two pals Mya & Stella at the babysitters house during the week now. Casey returned to work after the holiday break and now the Rethman family has adjusted to TWO full-time working parents again. I'm sure our babysitter, Lisa, has her hands full! But it is so neat that the girls will really get to "grow up together" as we had hoped.

Today was Sophie's well-check visit with our pediatrician. Here are her stats:
Weight: 18#14oz (~50th%)
Length: 28" (50-75th%)
Head circ: 18" (~90th%)

Everything went well and I really enjoyed the (unusual) extra snuggle time I got with my baby before work this morning! Sophie did not even have any stranger anxiety with the doctor this time. No pokes at the 9 month visit!! Hooray! I talked to the doctor quite a bit about the flu shots (we still haven't done either the seasonal or the H1N1 for either child) and, though she said it is safe and recommended, we opted not to do them at this time. I honestly don't have any strong reason or opinions not to do it and I did get both for myself, but Craig is very much against it and I try to respect his decisions as a parent too. Our kids aren't attending a large daycare to increase their odds of getting sick and our doctor said that (most of the time) when kids get the flu, it's about a week of fever and unpleasant symptoms and then they recover just fine. So I pray that we don't regret this decision, but I guess we're taking our chances...

On a brighter note... pictures:
Here's a few more from yesterday morning. Smiley as ever:


Holding her little hair comb.


Doesn't she look so big and grown up in this outfit and standing that way?




This was my attempt at the seated picture in the glider. Sophie's response? "Ha! You're sadly mistaken if you think I'm going to sit still for this, mom!" LOL


And here's a few more from last weekend.


She's been doing this silly face a lot lately. Craig calls it her "monkey face". LOL It cracks me up!

Sophie loves this little maraca from cousin Cora.


Playing in the laundry basket


Why are laundry baskets so much fun?


Cruising as usual.

InfantSEE

Our pediatrician recommended a free comprehensive eye and vision assessment for Will and Sophia both around the age of nine months. InfantSEE is a wonderful, free, public health program that will examine babies between the ages of 6-12 months regardless of a family's income or access to insurance coverage. Their goal is promote eye and vision care as an integral part of infant and child wellness, as early detection of an eye condition may help ensure appropriate development.

Craig took Sophia last night to see the same optometrist that Will saw (only now he has an office even closer to our home!) We really like this doctor and he remembered Will. The doctor has a daughter in my mom's preschool (my mom is one heck of a social connector with her job - LOL) and is currently building a new home near our house. Anyway, he said Sophia was the best behaved baby he's ever examined! She didn't make a peep or squirm or fidget at all as he shone lights and held various lens up to her eyes. He then put drops in to dilate her eyes, wait 15 minutes, and do all those same exams again to see how her eyes responded. Her eyes are continuing to change and develop as she ages so the doctor is mostly concerned with seeing that the muscles around her eyes are developing at the same rate so that one eye isn't having to work harder than the other. In that circumstance, the brain may give up on developing the weaker eye and the doctor could prescribe a lense to help balance the eyes and trick the brain into continuing normal development.

In our case, Sophia's eyes and muscles are developing equally and normal so that's good to hear. He did say she may be slightly farsighted but that that may also change. Craig and I are both nearsighted. I don't know much about the numbers and prescriptions, but for example, Craig knows that he is a -1 and the doctor said that Sophie is a +1 (where "0" would be 20/20). So given her healthy exam, she doesn't need to be seen again until age 3. Will should probably have another exam this summer after his 3rd birthday.

One other interesting tidbit: the doctor noted Sophie's large fleck of brown color on the bottom of her right eye. Her eyes are currently blue, but she has a little bit of brown in her right eye, which I always thought was funny. When Will was a baby and his eye color started to change from blue to brown, both of his eyes looked like a color wheel with varying shades of blue and brown in different places. I noticed the one darker fleck for Sophie when she was just a few days old and assumed it meant her eyes would eventually change to brown as well. That fleck has since gotten a little bigger, but still only on the bottom of one side. The doctor says that is actually the equivalent of having a freckle on the eye. No harm, no problem, but that he thought her eyes would likely remain blue. I tried looking back at pictures of Will to see when his eye color was noticeably brown. I thought it was around 9-ish months (which seemed late to me) but in pictures, they don't really look brown until after a year. So who knows what Sophie's will do. Here's a close-up picture of her blue eyes where I think you can see the brown pretty clearly.

For more information on the InfantSee program, visit: http://www.infantsee.org/

Milkin' It

If you've never breastfed a baby before, be forewarned: this post may be a little more information than you care to read. But statistics show that breastfeeding mother/baby duos are on the rise again - 70% of mothers start breastfeeding immediately after birth - Hooray! And I know quite a few breastfeeding mommies that read my blog and will appreciate the boost of encouragement and pat on the back. You can also check out my post from last summer: http://arae-ashley.blogspot.com/2008/08/ode-to-breastfeeding.html

The women in our country have made great strides in breastfeeding support since the early 1980's. Before that, formula was pretty much the only "accepted" means of feeding our babies since it was first introduced. Now, it is not only legal to nurse your baby in public in the state of Ohio (as well as 42 other states), but many states also have protected rights to breastfeeding in the workforce. Additionally, extended nursing (nursing beyond infancy) is on the rise and information on it's continued benefits are more and more publically accepted. For example, immunities in breastmilk become more concentrated as the child matures and the longer a woman breastfeeds, the lower her risk of breast and ovarian cancers.

In my job, I work with breastfeeding mothers on a daily basis. One of the biggest issues our new mothers (or mothers-to-be) face is a lack of support. If no one you know has ever breastfed or it's not the "norm" in your circle of family and friends, you are much less likely to view it as something you CAN do with confidence. Rather, most women tell me they are "going to try", which demonstrates a lack of trust in their body's abillity. Almost ALL women are able to breastfeed! And with a little knowledge and support, they can continue to provide the benefits offered by that "gold standard" - breastmilk! I love that part of my job - providing breastfeeding support and seeing the babies flourish from that wonderful bond.

In my personal life, I am lucky to be surrounded by breastfeeding support from family and friends. My mom breastfed all four of her children; many of my friends, cousins, aunts and co-workers breastfed their children; my aunt was a lactation specialist; and now my sister (the amazing woman that she is) is breastfeeding her 7 1/2 month old twin daughters like it's a piece of cake. (I've been meaning to write a post about my sister and what a wonderful job she's done jumping right into parenthood with TWO children and never once seeming overwhelmed. She's pretty incredible and I'm so proud of her!)

Strong and capable women surround me! I also feel blessed that my co-workers have been so supportive of my desire to breastfeed and my need to pump routinely during the day. I have access to a hospital grade pump at work and 15 minute breaks 3 times per day to pump the milk that Sophia takes for the following day while I'm away.

I haven't been without a few bumps in the road, but overall my experiences with both children have been wonderful. They are VERY different in their nursing mannerisms! Will was long and leisurely with nursing. As a newborn he nursed 8-10 times per day for 30 minutes at a time - nursing consumed my day! And even after 6 months, he still took his sweet time with all 4 of his daily feedings, twirling my hair with his fingers (he still loves to play with my hair) and often dozing off. After his first birthday we continued with one morning nursing until about 14 months when we mutually decided to stop... and I got pregnant. Sophia, on the other hand is fast and feisty. She almost never takes more than 10 minutes and she's usually always wiggly and grabby. I have to hold her hand and look at her (no reading books or watching TV!) or she's immediately distracted. Having a quick nurser was super helpful when she was a newborn, considering she wasn't my only child. An average newborn day for her consisted of 7-9 feedings (about 8-10 minutes each). Now she's down to 4-5 feedings and we're almost always secluded in her room to keep the environment quiet so she can focus. :)

My goal with both children has always been at least the first year and "then we'll just see". The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends breastfeeding "for as long as is mutually desired". This time around, I still plan to stop pumping at work after Sophie's first birthday, but I'm open to morning and evening nursing as long as she would like.

Since I started pumping awhile before my return to work last July and continued pumping more than my daughter was taking, I have quite a freezer load of excess milk. At first I was reserving it for any potential need my sister might have for her babies upon return to work, as I was more than happy to share. However, Casey is a freak of nature and has a milk supply sufficient for quads - LOL. And I am still pumping plenty of fresh milk for Sophie so that I shouldn't need to use frozen for her either.

So herein lies my open (and unabashed) confession: Will has been drinking breastmilk (from a cup, of course) since the beginning of November. (Let the scorning begin!) After his bout with roseola and subsequent febrile seizure, our pediatrician told me that Sophie would not likely contract it because I was breastfeeding and supplying her with my own antibodies against roseola. I remember after she told me that, I immediately thought "Well shoot! If I'd have known that I could have prevented it with Will, I would have been giving HIM breastmilk too!" The more I thought about it, I wondered why this had never occurred to me before. I MAKE MILK! Duh. And it's loaded with immunities and designed for humans! Duh. Why in the world shouldn't BOTH my children benefit from this temporary health shield? I spoke to a lactation consultant about it and she said that any amount of breastmilk Will consumes will be beneficial to his health. I wasn't sure how he'd respond or if he would even be accepting of it, so I didn't have any expectations when I offerred him a cup of excess fresh milk (cold) that I'd pumped that day. He drank it without even a curious look. So I continued with that for awhile and then decided to try using some frozen, thawed milk. There IS a potential for flavor change with frozen milk so, again, I had no expectations of his response. And still, he drank it. So currently he drinks on average between 4-15oz of fresh or frozen milk each day. Usually just with dinner and more on weekends. Will has never been a big drinker ever since he turned one, but since starting breastmilk again, he has actually increased his fluid intake and started asking for something to drink more often. Maybe the taste is just familiar to him...

Cringe if you must, but first think about this: cows walk around in their own manure, are covered in flies, eat a diet that may or may not consist of excess hormones, and create a milk that must then be handled and treated by all sorts of machines and processes before we purchase it in the store. I, on the other hand, shower every day, eat a pretty healthy diet, and make a milk that God designed for MY babies (with no stipulations on their age) and without any special treatment. Which is more weird? (I'm certainly not trying to suggest that cow's milk is unsafe or unhealthy, and I DO still drink it. But it IS designed for animals. And we have to process it to fit the health standards that we desire. Unlike breastmilk.)

The bottom line: I NEVER want to witness my child having a seizure (EVER!) because of an invisible virus that I could potentially have helped prevent him from contracting simply by offerring him a milk of which I currently have an abundance. Roseola strikes most commonly in spring and fall, so he will continue to get breastmilk at least through the spring time. I don't like jinxing my luck, but my children have been surrounded by sick kids many times over the last few months and have yet to get anything more than a runny nose. Sophie will be nine months tomorrow and she has never had a fever, ear infection, or other illness. I certainly don't think breastmilk prevents children from ever getting sick, but it most definitely helps. And it's simply one more measure of prevention I'm stacking up in my kids' favor. If nothing else, it's FREE! It's already there and I worked hard to make it - I'm certainly not going to waste it.

So to all you breastfeeding moms out there - KUDOS! You're doing a great job and giving your baby an amazing gift. Keep up the support to other moms and let's continue to watch those statistics grow!

For more information on breastfeeding, check out: http://www.kellymom.com/