Lena Visits Grandma and Grandpa in Cherry Hill

Last week we took a plane to Philadelphia to spend some time with Grandma Marion and Grandpa Irwin. This was Lena's second time flying the friendly skies! Unfortunately, both Deborah and Lena were hit with a super nasty cold, which for Lena turned into her first ear infection. Despite being sick, Lena was a stellar air traveler, and even managed to get compliments from all the flight attendants and several other travelers, despite her snot covered face.

Once at Grandma and Grandpa's house we spent most of our time indoors, playing with new toys and Grandpa's glasses, reading the paper, cooking, and mostly resting. We had had plans to explore Philadelphia with G and G and little Lena, but because of Lena's ear infection we mostly just relaxed at home. Mom and Dad did manage to go out for dinner on Friday night, thanks to Marion and Irwin's generous offer to babysit.

On Saturday we drove up to Mont Claire, New Jersey to visit Jason, Denise and Paolo. This was the Tanz's first time meeting Lena and they enjoyed meeting her. Lena loved playing with Paolo and all of his old toys from when he was a little baby.

On Monday we met up with Laurie and Mark Turner and their new baby boy Logan, who was born just three days after Lenabel last year. We drove out to Devon, PA a suburb of Philadelphia and enjoyed the scenic views of the rolling Pennsylvania hills from Laurie and Mark's back yard. Lena and Logan really hit it off, playing with each other, stealing each other's toys, holding hands, and occasionally making each other cry. It was really wonderful to catch up with the Turners, and we wish they lived closer to us so that Logan and Lena could play more often.

All in all our trip out East was lovely, despite our poor health. Towards the end of the trip both Lena and Deborah were starting to feel much better and we are excited to return to Philadelphia for some more time with Grandma and Grandpa, and a bit more exploring.

Lena and Ayla In the Tub

Lena had a lot of fun this weekend with her cousin Ayla, who came over for dinner on Saturday and ended up staying for bath time and joining Lenabel in the tub for a great time in the water. The two cousins had a blast playing with Lena's new squirt toys and splashing away. Both sets of parents were thoroughly entertained watching the girls enjoying their first bath together.

Skiing the Northwoods

Winters can get long in Minnesota, so it's always important to plan some sort of getaway, preferably somewhere warm. Baba Delia has invited us to spend spring break with her in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and we can't wait. Unfortunately we still have two and a half more months till March!

This weekend we beat the cabin fever by driving five hours north to Lake Burntside, Minnesota for a cross-country skiing vacation. We joined several of our friends for the first of hopefully many yearly trips to Camp du Nord.

With the temperature hovering around 10 degrees fareinheigt, we were a bit concerned about keeping Lena warm, and we wouldn't have been able to enjoy our trip without the ski chariot. We were lucky enough to borrow this key piece of equipment from a friend and it proved to be absolutely necessary to our vacation. Without it we surely would have been stuck inside as the winds and cold were pretty strong. But the Chariot kept Lena surprisingly warm, warm enough for her to even take several of her naps in it while we skied. We were able to spend quite a bit of time outside, and Lena seemed happy and comfortable in her ride.

A Tooth! January 2011

Lena has a new tooth for a new year! We went to the doctor last Friday for a check up and mama asked why Lena hadn't gotten any teeth yet, when most of her buddies have already spouted one or two pearlies. The doctor took a look in Lena's mouth and noticed the gums were a bit swollen. She assured mama that Lena would probably get a tooth soon, maybe in the next month or two. So imagine our surprise a week later when mama decided to feel around herself and felt, yes, a little baby tooth! We didn't expect Lena to sprout a tooth that quick! And we were expecting the teething process to be painful and disruptive, but it seems that little tooth broke out without much commotion at all.

It's a New Year: 2011!

It's a new year and we've been busy! December was filled with lots of parties including Hanukkah at Bruno and Alicia's, Baba Delia's Birthday, Lena's Six Month Birthday, and New Year's Eve here at home.

Play dates were scarce in December because of the busy season and the crazy amounts of snow that made driving so difficult. We were lucky to have Lena's friend Ansel over between Christmas and the New Year, and he and Lena had a great time playing with the "crazy table" cousins Levi and Talia lent to Lena.

In the past month Lena has perfected her sitting skills so we no longer have to prop her up. She can sit by herself for quite long periods of time without falling over. She enjoys sitting on the carpet and playing with different toys. She especially likes Sophie La Giraffe, a cloth book about animals that used to be Levi's, a felt box that holds different small stuffed objects which she pulls out and sucks on, and a tambourine. We were also lucky enough to borrow an exersaucer from Ayla Rose, and Lena loves hanging in her gym playing with the different pop up flowers and musical trees.

Deborah was busy this month with different knitting projects including a bonnet for Lena's friend Stella, a cap for Ansel, and an earflap hat for Daniel. With so many snow days you'd think she'd have more done than she actually does.

Lena

Lena wearing the hat Mama made for Ansel

Lena and Ansel playing with the "crazy table"

Lena and Ansel

Lena does some Yoga

Lena meditates

Bath Time, Lena's favorite time of day

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!