De Soto Falls National Forest

Following family tradition, we took Gaga into the foothills today to see one of North Atlanta's georgeous waterfalls. We did a nice 1.5 mile loop hike with the most stunning waterfall yet as our climax. It was a great day, and the fall colors were stunning.

Ana learned a few more outdoor terms (moss, tree stump, the 3 r's- ruts, roots and rocks-getting her ready for her mountain biking days) and continued to solidfy her knowledge of where the river's & waterfall's water comes from, "water from the mountains". Taylor squealed with glee hanging out in her favorite place- the Baby Bjorn. She LOVES that thing!!!!!!!!

Double Date

The girls were escorted to Stone Mountain, by Gaga and Daddy. Such a fun afternoon they had. Nothing beats fall in GA (not even fall in WI)

Happy Halloween 2006

Flower Child meets Suzy Spider

We have been in full blown Halloween cheer this weekend. It started with a party at Daddy's work on Wednesday. We then had a Halloween party in our neighborhood with all Ana's new friends and will end with Trick or Treating on Tuesday.
The best part of all is that Gaga (my dad) came in for the weekend and has gotten to see our adorable Flower Child and Suzy Spider. Cutest in town :)


Ana was a busy spider, decorating cookies, making pumpkin magnets and pointing out, counting, and reading all the letters, numbers and words that she could, wowing even the strangers passing by.

Taylor, while she wasn't too keen on being the flower child, was perfectly content staring at all the beautiful and scary costumes from the safety of Gaga's arms. And, as always, was most captivated by her sister the spider (how long do you think this will last?).

I must say, Ana is LOVING Halloween this year. And, again to my dismay, TV has come in handy. I bought her a Dora Halloween video. She watched it once and on her own came up with "Trick or Treat" while in costume in Daddy's office. I couldn't figure out how or why she knew to say it....so I asked. She replied, "mommy. Trick or Treat. Like Dora". Silly me, of course!!!!! She also is very proudly letting everyone know that, "spiders have eight legs. I have two!" Such a silly little Suzy Spider.

From one Contraption to the next

Taylor is really getting older now and enjoying all her fun contraptions! This makes daytime life A LOT easier on all of us!

A little mermaid worth noting

While I'm not a big fan of allowing too much TV in the house, many favorites have had their way of sneaking in....call it motherhood of two under two. Little Mermaid is a new favorite and often is begged for above all others. So the other day I was in the kitchen making dinner while Ana was watching the end of Nemo (another favorite). I could hear her asking repeatedly for "Mermaid", "Mermaid please". "Please watch mermaid". I continued with my dinner making trying to talk sense into her through the family room (her play room and kid TV is on the other side of the family room), explaining ever so nicely that Nemo was on and mommy was cooking, yada, yada. At one point she even brought in the disc of Nemo to me, a note I didn't think much of until later.....
The point of amazement is now, after dinner was complete and Daddy was home. I hadn't heard Ana in quite a bit and figured she'd found a book or toy to occupy her mind. So when I went to get her for dinner and found her sitting quietly in her chair watching The Little Mermaid I was more than shocked. This was no easy feat as we have all the DVD's stored away behind a closed drawer and the DVD player was playing Nemo when I left. This means that little Ana, all through her own determination, figured out how to open the DVD player, take out Nemo (and give it to me in the kitchen- have to give the girl credit for not throwing it on the floor....a big no no), open the drawer and find Mermaid amidst a couple of dozen DVD's, open that, put it in the DVD, close the DVD, push start and play on the menu. WOW!!!!!!!!! I guess when a mind is determined just about anything can be figured out! None the less...we let her watch Mermaid. She earned it, right?!?!?!?!?
Little smarty pants!

WOW! Big sisters are cool!

Taylor continues to be AMAZED by her big sister!

Mommy's day off

This Sunday Daddy gave me a MUCH NEEDED mommy break. He took both girls, BY HIMSELF, to Stone Mountain. I got to do whatever I wanted (which of course still revovled around the kids: cleaned their closets and changed out clothe sizes) and Daddy got to see what two kids is really all about. The three of them had a great time and I was nice and refreshed.

1st Annual Windermere Pumpkin Festival

Our neighborhood park had a pumpkin festival this weekend. The girls had a blast: playing in the corn maze, painting pumpkins, running around and getting a face "tattoo"

You Carve. We Paint

I spent the last few weeks pondering how to get Ana to carve a pumpkin without 100% adult intervention (I'm a firm believer that kids need to create their own masterpeices). I got a hint from Nora, who wrote with permanent marker and then mom carved for her, but relized this too wasn't perfect as the writing did not lend itself to carving. So ineveitably parents were forced to design the pumpkin carving.
Lucky for me, our local county park had my solution, complete with supplies, set up, and clean up (April, they must have read your blog).





BEHOLD. A masterpiece

Ferber signing off

Well....it helped in the sense that we no longer need the pacifier for her to fall and stay asleep for a bit longer stretches, but she is getting no better at sleeping through the night, or should I say putting herself back to sleep int he middle of the night. Naps are great and for that I'm thankful. However, we still have one middle of the night one hour to two hour long screaming stretch and today is day 7. So, we are going to modify our approach and see how things go. Perhaps I just need to succumb to the fact that my child is not a sleeper.

At any rate, this is it for my sleep reports. I'm going to do my best to focus on all the other amazing things my girls are doing, and function as best I can on little sleep.

BTW. We also have postponed solids for another month. We'll give it a try in month 5 or 6, but right now it just didn't seem to settle well with her and with all her other tummy problems the last thing we need is to give her another pain to try and work through.

If there is one thing I've learned in these last 4+ months, it is that children TRULY are unique individuals. Taylor reminds me of that everyday. I feel like I'm a first time mom all over again.

Ferberization: Report 4

As of today we have survived 4 nights of Ferberization, and I hesitate
to say, but it is thus far proving to be a HUGE SUCCESS.

Last night was the best of all thus far. She went down at 8:30 with NO
TEARS WHAT SO EVER. We gave her 4 oz at 12:00 AM and she didn't even
wake up. Then it was 5:55 on the clock before we heard another peep.
This time she "played" in her crib for 15 min and at 6:15 was squealing
with glee when I went in and got her. "Man it feels good to sleep!",
thinks Taylor (and mommy). Let me remind you....NO TEARS ALL NIGHT!

Who knows what tonight will bring- as all you moms know, just when you
"think" you've got it, it all back fires- so I'll just take last night
with GREAT THANKS to Dr. Ferber and be prepared for whatever is next :)

Cyclist in Training

Ana's new favorite activity is to go on a bike ride with Daddy to the park. She has no objections to the helmet and truly enjoys her daddy and Ana time (as do I!)

Taylor Blossoms

I've been so consumed by sleep lately that I've completely skipped so many amazing things that little Taylor is doing now.

1st off...she's eating solids. We started Sat. Oct 14th and have been doing a little each day. She wasn't too thrilled with Rice cereal so we're onto banannas. Her face was priceless at first and then she opened wide for more and more once she got used to the new flavor.

2nd- she is having so much fun playing by herself lately in many different positions. We have a Baby Bumbo seater (I HIGHLY rec. this to all new moms) which helps her sit up straight and watch Ana play. She loves this. Her new all time favorite is the exersaucer. It's quite amazing how much fun she has with it and how purposefully she hits the animal sound buttons over and over again to hear the sounds. She also is trying so hard to roll over without assistance from her back to her tummy. It's so fun to sit and watch her.

3rd- she's beginning to really like to be read to. Goodnight Moon is by far her favorite. She sits up on my lap and grabs at the pages pushing them and "turning them".

Justin and I comment everyday how much she is doing and playing with her toys. She is even starting to hold her bottle with 2 hands and tipping it into her mouth adjusting her head and hands to get the nipple in. She can get it in, but can't get a suction yet. She is so intense and just tried and tries and tries, yelling violently at herself when she can't get it, but keeps trying!

(side note.....she just fell asleep during tummy time...THIS IS FABULOUS! She usually HATES tummy time...oh how precious!)

Ferberization: Report 3

This sucks. This sucks. This sucks. This sucks.

3:45 AM, my baby has been violently screaming for 43 minutes now and is not calming herself one bit.
I sit here and wonder- is she hurt, is she sad, is she hungry, is she scared? Why is tonight such a hard one for both of us? Is it the lack of sleep on my end making me more sensitive? Did I secretly think, hope and wish tonight, day 3, all our sleep trauma would be solved? Is she not handling this OK? Does she have a better memory than everyone says a 4 mo old is capable, thus is remembering that her mommy is completely ignoring her cries for help? Am I raising her wrong............
do these worries ever stop?

2 more minutes...the slowest of my life!

Wait. At last, quiet. Is it a tease? Is it for real? Could she be asleep? How long will it last?

Will I be able to sleep now, or will I worry about all these infinite questions......................

good night

Next Morning addendum: OK, so really isn't wasn't all that bad. She fell asleep in 45 minutes and didn't wake again until
6:15 and was happy as a little clam:) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Ferberization: Report 2

Today is day 2 of Ferberization and I am happy to report that things have improved ever so slighty. Last night Taylor went to bed at 8:00 as usual and only cried for 20 minutes (as opposed to 40) and didn't wake again until 3:30 in the morning, putting self back to sleep after 25 minutes. She then made it until 5:45. We left her until 6:20 and then fed her (this time Daddy's heart was breaking...it is so very sad to see you little baby screaming). She took 4 oz. (again, an improvement)

Then, at 8:30 she took a bottle (another 4 oz) and went straight to sleep, no pacifier, no swaddle and NO CRYING. That's huge....been out 2 hours now so I have to look into waking her........YIKES!

Ferberization: Report 1

WELLLLL.........it WAS going GREAT! Just like the book said.
We put her down awake with no pacifier, she cried for 40 minutes, which was 4 checks. At 11:00 we fed her 6 oz while sleeping (instead of waiting for her to ask for it...parent directed). Then she awoke, crying, at 1:30 and 7 min. later put herself back to sleep. I was AMAZED...thought, "hey this is the trick. Why doesn't EVERYONE do it?"

BUT THEN....4:30 AM came around. I let her cry until 5:45. Then I decided I COULDN'T take it any longer..."she MUST be hungry. SHE NEEDS ME", I thought. So I got her up, gave her her meds and fed her. 2 oz...that's it, that's all she took. "HA, gotcha mom, I wasn't hungry." SO.....she stayed awake as the book says to do...once up, stay up until nap time. (tomorrow morning I'll have to stick it out longer, baby steps)

I kept her awake until 8:30 (now), which is after her little morning snack and breakfast- which BTW is CEREAL NOW, YEAH TAYLOR- and another bottle. She's been crying for 8 min. (today we extend the wait times to 10 min, 12 min, 15 min, 15min,....) and I don't hear her anymore. I'm praying this means she put herself to sleep in 8 min. Accordin the "the book" a good night time sleep is only second to good napping behoaviors. I figure, double bonus!

Off to check. Wish me and Taylor luck. THIS NEEDS TO WORK!!!!!!

(just for the record, if you take note, I've been up since 4:30 AM. Of the joys of motherhood...really, not all that tired)

Lovin GA fall weather

70 degrees and sunny, playing in the backyard after a cookout this weekend while you WI folks bear the elements. AH it's good to be "home"

Wolf Mountain Winery