margaretyagan

I woke up a few minutes later than usual today and was in a really fussy mood.  Dad tried frantically to keep me quiet (even letting me have use my pacifier outside of my bedroom, where it is usually banned!), but to no avail.  Mom was up and downstairs before 7:00.  I played with Mom while Dad was in the kitchen.  I had breakfast at 7:30 and then took a short nap.  (Dad keeps trying to run while I sleep.  It wakes me up!!!)

I’m still having some digestive issues and struggled to clear my system this morning.  Around 11:30 we headed to our favorite brunch place (the most kid-friendly in the neighborhood), Moonshine.  I’ve been there way more time than anywhere else.  I met Mom’s and Dad’s friend, Beth, who lives  less than a block away from Nana and Grandpa!

Mom and I walked back to the house with Beth while Dad went to run a quick errand for work.  After Beth left, it looked like Mom and Dad were zombies!  Dad looked almost dead on the couch and Mom looked almost dead on my play mat.   They each managed to come to life when I came by, but as soon as I left one of them, their eyes shut.  I knew they needed some shut-eye, so at 3:00 I took one of the longest naps of my life.  It was so long, in fact, that three and a half hours into it (conveniently, after Mom and Dad finished their own nap!), Dad came into my room, turned on lights, and started making noises to get me to wake up.

I was already late for dinner, which they had ready for me.  By the time I finished it was bed time, but since I had just gotten up, they delayed bedtime for a bit.  Even though I had a bath last night, I got another one today thanks to all the millet I covered myself with at breakfast.  I went to sleep very easily.  We’ll see how well I sleep…

I got a bit earlier than Dad would have liked today.  Not sure why he thinks just because it’s a Saturday I’m going to sleep until 6:00!  He got up with me and gave me my bottle (of course, making me scoot down two steps in order to “earn” it!).  We took off for our weekly  grocery shopping trip by 6:40 (it was too early for Whole Foods, so we just went to Dominick’s).  We got a great parking spot and the store was pretty empty.   We were really efficient and made it back home by 7:30 for breakfast.

Mom came down around 8:00 and I played with her until she left for her haircut appointment.  I played with Dad until he put me down for my nap a little after 9:00.  I didn’t cry at all, but I didn’t go to sleep, either.  I just hung out in my crib for about half an hour amusing myself, before I fell asleep in my usual position.  Then Dad, not being too smart, went for a run on his treadmill, which is right under my crib.  Even though it’s two floors away, I could hear him through the air vents (but apparently he couldn’t hear me!).

Mom got home just as he was finishing his run and she rescued.   I played with Mom and then had lunch.  Mom and Dad and I went for a walk (well, Dad drove the car to the post office and we met him there).  Dad went to Starbucks (what is it with he and A/C that they love Starbucks so much!?) to work for a couple hours and Mom and we continued our walk, stopping by Wicker Park where I got to swing for the first time in months (there was even a line for the swings!).

After we got home, I played with Mom and then had my 3:00 bottle.  Dad got home just as I was finishing and took me upstairs for my nap.  Since I didn’t sleep much in the morning, I took a nice, long two-hour nap to make up for it.   I got up, played with Mom and dinner with Dad.  Then Dad went to visit Nana and Grandpa Yagan while Mom gave me a bath and put me to bed.

I got up and hung out with Mom (I was in an especially good) until Nana came over.  I had breakfast at 7:30.  I spent most of the morning playing with Nana, walking holding just one hand, and cruising along the big gate in the living room.  Nana has been making me practice crawling backward down the two steps from the kitchen, but I still haven’t really gotten the hang of it.  I got to eat one of my favorite dishes for lunch (chicken curry — if only it were a finger food!) and a totally new dish: rice noodles (because I’m not allowed to have wheat yet!).  As soon as I finished, I was surprised to see that Mom had come home early to spend the afternoon with me.

It was great to have Mom around, but she was definitely multi-tasking me as she also did a bunch of stuff for work.  I had a teething biscuit around 2:00, my bottle at 3:00 and then napped from 3:30 to 5:30 (the first 20 minutes or so of which I spent crying in my crib!).

I had dinner at 6:00 and just as I was finishing I got a surprise — Dad got home early!  He was so excited to see me and we just started shrieking at each other like we usually do to greet each other when it’s been a while.  Mom, Dad, and I played until about 7:00, when Dad gave me my bath and put me to bed.

I had a really good morning today. I ate all of my breakfast, played a lot, and read a lot of books.  I had a slightly easier time pooping this morning, but it seems like this shouldn’t be so hard (pun intended!).

I took a good nap around 10:00 and then went about disassembling my play mat.  I like it that Nana will scream with me (just like Dad does) when I get excited about something.

My newest food is succotash, which was yummy and makes for good finger food.  I devoured it and everything else I had for lunch.  Hey, it’s hard keeping my belly as big as it is!  I took another good nap in the afternoon and then soon enough Mom got home.

Mon and I played quite a bit  of pat-a-cake and then I got a bath (even though I took one yesterday!).  Apparently Mom doesn’t think it’s a good idea for me to go to sleep with food in my hair.  What’s the big deal with that?

I can speak!  My first official word is “up”.  Whenever I want to get picked up, I walk over to someone and say “up, up!”

I got to spend so much time with Nana these two days; it was so fun.

On Tuesday I didn’t really want to nap when I was supposed.  My 9:00 nap became a 10:15 nap and my 3:00 nap became a 4:20 nap.  I also had cried quite a bit because I was still a bit backed up and not really pooping quite as easily as I’d like.

Wednesday marked the second day of no bananas and extra prunes as we all tried to get things moving again.    Nana and I spent quite a bit of time reading and playing with my blocks.  We count them together as we build a really tall tower and then I take great pleasure in knocking it down…and starting all over again!

Dad got me out of my crib when I woke up this morning, and I was happy to see that I had gotten up in time to see Mom a bit before she left for work.  Dad and I went downstairs to play until Nana came over.  Apparently it wasn’t enough for Dad to make me crawl across the room to get my bottle.  Now he puts in the kitchen and puts the bottle in the dining room and makes me crawl down two steps to get it!  I don’t even know how to crawl down stairs yet!

Nana came by and was obviously very happy to see me.  I gave her a big smile and a wave and crawled over to greet her.  She was pretty amazed to see my new eating style (even turning oatmeal into a finger food!) and  my strong preference for O’s (even this new less yummy brand)!

Dad went downstairs to work and I played with Nan all day.  Dad came up to check on us a lot, and he would make little hissing sounds and make me try to figure where he was coming from!  We didn’t get to go outside, but I can tell Nana is really excited to get to take me to the park.  We looked out the window and saw some dogs, which reminded us of last summer.

Quick break! Here are the highlights of last month:

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

I had lunch (Dad joined us briefly), played, and then Nana gave me my 3:00 bottle.  I didn’t really nap well in the afternoon (or in the morning, for that matter), but I think it’s because I ate too much banana and not enough prunes, if you know what I mean.   Nana had let me play with a flash light when I visited yesterday, so Dad brought me up a flashlight from downstairs.  I really enjoyed playing with it (i.e., eating it).

Dad took over when Nana left and we played down in the office until Mom got home.  Mom fed me dinner and then Dad gave me my bath and put me to bed.

I got up around 6:00 with Dad and we played (as quietly as possible!) until 8:00 when Mom got up and joined us.  I had a good nap around 9:00 and then lunch at 11:30 before taking off to visit Nana & Grandpa Yagan.

I hadn’t seen Grandpa in about a week and he was really happy to see me.  Even though he’s not supposed to be lifting more than 5 pounds, he couldn’t resist lifting me up and setting me on his lap.

Then Mom & Dad & I went to Target.  I had a really fun time.  The carts have really deep seats for babies so I felt like I was swimming in my cart cushion.  I was excited because I got new shoes (we had to exchange a gift from Aunt Claire for a bigger size).  Mom and Dad got a few things, too.  We stopped by home for just a few minutes (long enough for me to drink some formula) and then we hopped back in the car and took off for my first super bowl party at Chris’s & Cate’s house.

I took nap on the hour-long car ride over to Batavia.  The party was really fun.  I made a new friend, McKenna, who was born just a couple weeks after I was. She likes spoons almost as much as I do!  She’s way smaller than I am.  I was jealous that her mom let her eat a cucumber right off the veggie tray!

We left at half-time and I fell asleep in my car seat.  Mom managed to get me out of the car and into the crib without much fuss, and I was back to sleep in no time.

I woke up pretty early and in a much worse mood than usual (I almost never wake up crying).  Perhaps related to that, I spit up twice this morning after my bottle (I can’t remember the last time I spit up).  Sorry, Elmo, don’t take it personally.

Dad got home around 8:20 and we were so excited to see each other.  We just made strange noises and he kissed me a million times.  Dad put me to bed for my nap and when I got up, it was time to go to the grocery stores, as usual on Saturday mornings.  Whole Foods was the first stop.  I waved to everyone I saw (both hi and bye) and everyone there was really nice.  There was even this one customer we met who would shriek back and me whenever I shrieked at him!

Dominick’s was especially fun because Dad let me sample the jack cheese with little pieces of pepper in it.  I really liked the spicy flavor.  We made it through pretty quickly and I giggled a lot when Dad made faces at me.  We got back home and I ate lunch (actually, I rejected most of it — parsnips are boring and the chicken was too dry!).  Then we had an interior designer come by to tell us how we could make our home a little prettier.  I decided  to be really, really fussy.  So fussy that Dad had to leave the meeting to take care of me and could only settle me down by getting some finger foods out of the fridge.  I finished the green beans and ate some cheese and apples.

At 3:00 I accidentally weaned myself from my second bottle.  I refused to cooperate with Dad’s attempts to give me my bottle, so Dad put my formula in a cup and I actually drank most of it (well, most of what didn’t end up on my clothes).  I think this may become standard!  After I ate I got to take a nap with Mom in her bed.  That’s my favorite!  Dad didn’t join us because he was cooking some food for me.

I didn’t wake up from my nap until 5:30, so my day was almost over.  I played with Mom and Dad (mostly Mom).  I crawled, I danced, and I had a good time.  Dad keeps trying to get me to learn how to go down the two steps from the kitchen to the living room and he also keeps trying to trick me into standing up all by myself.  Usually, he fails.

At 7:00 Dad gave me a bath and put me to bed.  I didn’t fall asleep right away because I slept so long and so late, but after talking to myself for about half an hour, I was done for the day.

The last couple months have been quite as an adventure, as I’ve gotten to spend a ton of time with the Droste side of my family while Nana Yagan was traveling.  Grandma Droste has spent a few weeks up taking care of me, but this week was probably my last chance to hang out with her until my birthday!

The only disappointment of the week was that we had a camera malfunction, so we don’t have pictures from every day.

Tuesday morning was great.  I had my full bottle in the morning with Mom.  At breakfast, they finally got the clue and started giving me prune — much needed prunes, at that.  I took a nice long nap from 10:00 to noon and then had lunch (I love curry!).  The most exciting news of the day is that I finally got blinds in my room!  I have always had curtains, but since I have the bedroom with the most windows in the whole house, without blinds my room was cold, loud, and bright.  Hopefully, no longer!  I celebrated my improved room with another 2-hour nap.  I only drank 4 ounces of my evening bottle…hmm.

Breakfast on Wednesday was a bit rocky; I just wasn’t in the mood for millet.  I finally got it down (thanks to Grandma adding some formula) and then we read a bunch of books on the floor next to the couch.  I fell asleep in  Grandma’s arms — it was so cozy with the big fleece blanket!  I got my latest new food — red beans and rice.  I loved it.  Finally I am starting to get food with real flavor!  The rice was a bit mushy, but otherwise it was great.  Then, maybe thanks to the beans, I let out a ridiculously loud burp — so loud it scared me!  The rest of my day was fun, with lots of playing and eating (which involved food getting in my hair, nose, chair, floor and even the back of my shirt!

Thursday was a really exciting day.  The first big event was that Grandma and I went out for a walk.  It was really cold (but sunny) so we bundled up  and headed across Division street, all the way to Wendy’s (don’t worry, Mom, we didn’t go in!).  One our way back we stopped by everyone’s favorite: Milk & Honey.  I waved and blew kisses to everyone there!  The second big news was that my schedule was rearranged.  Instead of getting bottles when I get up and before I sleep, my second bottle was moved to 3:00 pm.  The afternoon bottle sure helped me take a good nap!  I think I am going to like this new schedule.  We’ll see how long it lasts…

Friday was a rare day that I got to spend time with both of my Grandmas!  Grandma Droste and I played and hung out most of the morning.  I took a nice long nap, but other than that it was pretty uneventful.  Around 3:00 Nana came over so that Grandma could  head for the train station!  It was definitely sad to see Grandma Droste leave, but I am so happy that I got to spend so much time with her and also excited to be spending more time with Nana again.  I am so lucky to have two wonderful grandmas!

I woke up around 6:30 and Dad was here to get me dressed and give me my morning bottle.  I was so happy to see Grandma Droste here to hang out with me this week!  I’ve missed her over the last couple weeks.

Breakfast went really well.  I loved the millet!  Grandma is so patient and let’s me eat everything with my fingers, even though it takes so much longer.  We read Busy Kittens three times — and a few other books, too.  I played around with the mirror, making all kinds of cute faces at myself.  After several attempts, I finally took a good long nap from 10:30 to 12:00.

I had lunch (curry, again), which I “inhaled,” according to Grandma (shoveling it in with both hands!).  Dad stopped by while I was eating and I tried to smear curry all over his face (as it ended up all over mine).

After hanging out in the office for a while, I tried to sneak my way up the steps, but Grandma Droste caught me.   Then we moved back upstairs, I left a trail of curiosity and destruction as I tore apart my mat, made a mess of the bibs, etc.

I refused to take my afternoon nap, despite numerous efforts by Grandma to get me to fall asleep.  Instead, we hung out on the couch, looking out the window and I kept trying to say “car.”  I got especially excited whenever a dog went by.

We played, made music, dang, and read books.  Supper went really well and then Mom came home.  We played and had a really good time.  Mom gave me my bottle and put me to bed!