Happy 6 Months Lenabel!

Lena is 6 months old today! Honestly I just can't believe it. It can't be true. She is 6 months, she's been alive half a year. She's such a young little person, and at the same time, she's grown so much since her birth in June. I look at her and I can't believe she was ever only one day old, or just three weeks, or a mere five months.

And then all of a sudden half a year has gone by, and my little baby is suddenly going to bed on her own, sleeping through the night, eating solid foods, sitting up by herself, rolling around, reaching for things, grabbing things, smiling, giggling, laughing, playing, and babbling. She's growing at an amazing rate, and we can't wait to see her grow even more in the months ahead.

Milestones!

Dear Lenaboo,

You've hit too many milestones all at once, it's hard to keep up! In the past two weeks you have done some really amazing work, the biggest and most important leap forward being that you've developed the ability to put yourself to sleep and stay asleep through the night. Sure we had to help you out with this a bit, but you learned fast, and it only took you one night/40 minutes of crying to learn this new skill. My dear Lenabel, this is called tough love.

Did we mention you're also putting yourself to sleep unswaddled and without a pacifier? We used to swaddle you up, give you your pacifier, sing to you, rock you, and put you

in your crib, sometimes asleep, sometimes just almost asleep. Exactly 45 minutes later you would wake up, and we'd have to run back into the nursery to help you get back to sleep. We'd find you out of the swaddle and without your nuk, and so we'd re-swaddle you and pop the nuk back in your mouth. Then we'd soothe you, and walk out the door, praying that you'd stay asleep this time. 2 minutes later you'd be whining again, waiting for us to come back in, and as dutiful loving parents we'd return, only to find you unswaddled again, and having spit out your nuk. This would continue through out the night, generally 3 to 4 times. So we decided it was time to teach you to sleep with out the swaddle and nuk.

Our new sleeping routine looks like this: Mama nurses you around 5:30 and we give you a bath at around 5:45. Then you get ready for bed and we sing you some lullabies. At around 6:00 we put you in your crib, awake, and after 5 or 10 minutes of babbling to yourself you're asleep, unswaddled and without a nuk. It is amazing. And as I mentioned earlier, you're staying asleep through the whole night too. This kind or sleeping has really helped everybody to feel better and more rested during the day. We can tell in the morning that you feel better, that you've gotten better sleep, and at night it's almost as if you can't wait to get into your crib to go to bed. We give you a bath, sing to you, hold you for a few minutes, and put you in your crib, always awake. Sometime we can't even get through 2 of the 3 songs because you want to be in your crib so badly. So we skip the last two and park you in the crib for the night.

You've become a champion sleeper my dear, going to bed on your own at 6:30 at night and sleeping straight through till 6:30 in the morning. Mama is still feeding you at 10 every night, just to make sure you're tummy's full and you can make it till the morning, but you sleep through this feeding and we're even contemplating getting rid of it all together, since you don't seem to eat much from it anyway.

In addition to the huge improvement in your sleeping abilities you've also learned how to roll over from your back to your tummy and from your tummy to your back. You are constantly turning onto your side and reaching for things. It's so fun to see you look at something that you want, turn on your side, reach and grab it. Then of course it goes in your mouth. Everything goes in your mouth.

Speaking of which, we fed you solid food for the first time this week. To be safe we started you with a very small portion of rice cereal mixed with breast milk. You were funny tasting your first bite of food. We've got it on video so when you're older you can look back. In a couple of days we're going to try giving you sweet potato. We'll steam it and mash it up and we hope you'll like it. It's crazy to think that you haven't had anything but breast milk for 6 months, and now this whole new world is going to open up for you!

Winter Wonderland

'Tis the season and we've been having a lot of fun! Minneapolis was slammed with 9" of snow on Friday that turned the entire city white and magical, just in time for Hanukkah. Bruno, Alicia, and Ayla hosted a very nice and delicious Hanukkah party for the family, and this year there were four children who received presents: Talia, Levi, Ayla, and Lenabel. It's so nice to have a growing family and happy healthy children to treat for the holidays. We don't have any pictures of the Hanukkah party but we do have these very cute pictures of Lena in the snow from earlier that day.

Happy Thanksgiving

Halloween came and went. It's now late November and the snow is falling, a day before Thanksgiving, making holiday travel for many a royal pain. Luckily Uncle Grish and Grandma and Grandpa Spirn flew in for the holiday earlier in the week and they're here in Minneapolis, safe and sound, ready to celebrate with us.

Lena is taking her third nap of the day, while Daniel bakes pies in the kitchen for dinner tomorrow at the Pesky's house. With Thanksgiving around the corner there's so much to be thankful for.

We're thankful for our cozy home. It isn't selling as fast as we'd like, but it's not too bad a place to be stuck in for a while.

We're thankful for Dan's job, and his attainment of Tenure. Thank you University of Minnesota!

We're thankful that Deborah is happy and able to stay home with little Lenabel.

We're thankful for the long and beautiful Fall we were able to enjoy this year, before the snow started falling.

We're thankful for Minneapolis, a safe and peaceful, albeit cold, place where we are able to raise our family.

We're thankful for our good health and the good health of our loved ones.

We're thankful for our family and friends. We feel so much love and kindness and we're so thankful to have such wonderful people in our lives. Without you we'd be alone in the world, it would be much less fun and a whole lot more scary out there.

We're thankful to have a beautiful and healthy baby girl who continues to amaze us with her giggles and smiles. Lena you have brought a joy into our lives that we didn't know was possible, a love that is so big and strong it's hard to describe. Thank you for your presence in our lives.

My First Halloween

We celebrated Halloween yesterday with a costume party at our house. We had 13 babies, 3 toddlers, 1 big girl, and 15 adults in our living room. The more the merrier as we say here at the Spirn household.

Lena had a great time with her friends and we loved seeing all the kiddos in their costumes. Lena was a lamb, a hand me down from her friend Jasper. There were also a zebra, a pea pod, a hot dog, a pumpkin, a garden gnome, and two giraffes, two lions, and two dinosaurs. A true zoo!

Puppies!

Lena was smothered by puppies yesterday! On our way home from a walk we saw these puppies playing in the park, and we just had to stop and say hello. Mama dog was there, with her little kiddos, one of them sold and the other three looking for homes. These Swiss Mountain Dogs were adorable, and Dan's lucky we're trying to sell our house and don't have the time to take care of a puppy, or we certainly would have ended up taking one of these home! They were so sweet with Lenabel, and the Mama dog too.

Nighty Night

Lenabel went to sleep totally on her own today, for the first time in her life. We've been on a pretty decent schedule with the little one for the past couple of weeks, and today was the highlight. After feeding, a bath, and a couple of lullabies, we put her down in her crib awake, and she talked to herself for a while, let out a couple short little yelps, and after about fifteen minutes or so, fell asleep. It was by far the easiest bedtime we've had with her yet, and very satisfying to feel that she is slowly but surely learning how to get herself to sleep on her own. She still can't do this for naps, but at night she's been getting better and better, and earned an A++ tonight!