Everyone needs three hats...and other daycare happenings

About a week ago, Autumn came home from daycare (via Brian) wearing three hats/hoods. Mrs. Rachel had insisted that this "new technique" was crucial in order for Autumn to survive the elements. I just thought it was hilarious and cute.

Yesterday, when I went to pick her up, Mrs. Rachel's husband, Asher, was watching Axle and Autumn. He had gotten off work early and Mrs. Rachel wasn't feeling well so, according to Asher, he told her, "don't worry hun, I've got this!" He'd also called in a neighbor-friend for some extra hands, but when I got there Autumn was fed, changed, and as happy as ever. The best part was how happy Asher seemed to have had a chance to prove himself. He and Mrs. Rachel have only been married a few months, and he seems to have adjusted well to the baby business. Anyway, he was so excited to tell me about Autumn and Axle's budding relationship. Sounds like she spent a good part of her afternoon rolling on top of Axle, reaching for him, and laughing with him. Asher was also excited to have something worth videotaping on his new iPod. Unfortunately, the "good videos" were too long to email me, but here are a couple short clips of two babies hanging out with their first substitute at Mrs. Rachel's daycare.

4 Months

Dang, I missed it...again. On Autumn's four month birthday (which was Saturday), I was enjoying a baby-free day on the hill at Winter Park, with Brian, Kellie and Dave. Well, maybe not a whole day, but 2.5 of skiing moguls (nevermind that it was total amateur hour for me) certainly warrants an hour lunch break and a Coors Original, no?  The last time I skied was about a year ago in Park City. Autumn was probably the size of a poppy seed at that point. But anyway, my parents flew out last week and rented a condo in Winter Park for the weekend. Kel and Dave came along for their first overnight Autumn experience. If anyone else out there is looking for a non-invasive form of birth control, you can come with us next time.

Beautiful weekend in Winter Park

Weekend credits go to Gerre Jones for cooking, cleaning, changing diapers, entertaining the baby, and letting me borrow everything I forgot; to Doug Jones for providing plenty of drinks and humor via his old age and general Doug Jones-ness (really, who mistakes their daughter's Jeep Liberty for a Honda CRV, gets inside said CRV, and then thinks the guy who actually owns that car is a lunatic for asking him to please remove himself from that vehicle?); to Doug and Debbie Boyd for sitting our other child, Wally; and to Kellie and Dave for the discounted lift tickets, and waiting for me in all of my out-of-shape-and-haven't-skiied-in-so-long-I-feel-like-I'm-gonna-hurt-myself glory.

So, four months old, and growing every day it seems. We'll just go with a list this month, or otherwise another one will pass before this one gets recorded.
At four months old, Autum is:
--Rolling over both ways, though not as often as she was a couple weeks ago.
--Grabbing things with a purpose -- well, one purpose -- to put them in her mouth.
--Along the same lines, grabbing her pacifier out of her mouth and slowly putting it back in. Then repeating that for 5-10 minutes. She can't believe how coordinated she is, even though the pacifier usually ends up crooked with the hard plastic in her mouth.
--Reaching for things while playing on her tummy.
--Still loving her Jumparoo, and amazingly, her infantile playmat. What a baby.
--Sitting up decently if we hold her thighs. She can also sit on her butt with her hands on the ground in front of her for less than a minute.
--Almost too big for her swing, but still enjoying a nap in it from time-to-time.
--Still napping randomly, but usually we can count on one good 2-3 hour nap in her swing or pack-n-play.
--Still sleeping in her pack-n-play next to our bed at night. We were going to start putting her in her crib this week but our baby monitor bit the dust. Now we're waiting to be sent a new one.
--Oh, and talking up a storm through the night. Really? She wakes up almost every hour, and coos to herself for 10-15 minutes.  If I give her a paci she finds humor in loudly spitting it out. Did I mention we want to start putting her in her crib? I guess it's better than crying, but sleep is becoming a distant memory around here.

--At night, going to bed between 7:30-8:30 and waking up once to eat, usually between 2-3:30am. Then she's up for the day between 6-7am.
--Wearing size 1-2 and 2 diapers.
--In mostly size 3-6 month or 6 month clothes. Almost outgrowing the 6 month footed pj's. Yikes she's long. (we go to her four month appointment next week so we'll find out just how big she is then).

--Eating 5 ounces of milk at a time from a bottle (mainly at day care). Will probably be mixing with formula soon since I can't keep up with her anymore.
--Officially in love. Her long-awaited boyfriend Sam Davis made his appearance last Saturday. He is perfect. Congrats Heather and Jeremy!!


Oh, and for the record (and I swear I never intended this blog to have anything to do with her poo), Autumn had the blowout of a lifetime on our drive home. Brian and I had done everything we could possibly have done to ensure a quick, stop-less ride back to Denver yesterday. She was fed, changed, tired, and we had a bottle to feed her on the fly in case she got hungry again. I even sat in the backseat with her so I could make this happen if need be. Well, ten minutes into the drive she begins to grunt her telltale little grunts. Though I wanted to think she was just concentrating very intently on something, a few minutes later the smell hit me.
Me: "Brian, I think we might have to stop in Empire."
Brian: "No, I think it's a false alarm. You've cried wolf like four times this weekend."
Me: "Ummmm, if you can't smell this something is wrong with you."

Two minutes later, Autumn falls asleep.

Me: "Well, maybe we can hold off, I don't want to wake her up again. She needs to sleep."

30 seconds later. Autumn is still sound asleep.

Brian: "HOLY SHIT, what is that???"
Me: "Exactly that."
Brian: "I don't care if she's sleeping, that is terrible. I'm stopping at the next exit."
Thankfully the next exit was one we frequently stop at for bathroom breaks. Of course they would have a changing table.

Or not.

When I go to get Autumn out of her carseat, I notice she has already leaked out of the front of her diaper. So, I carry her as I might picture someone who has never seen or held a baby might handle one (arms straight out, baby as far from contact with me as possible). I run to the bathroom only to find that there really is no changing table in there. People open the doors for me as I run her back out, and to the cashier's counter, which happens to be right next to the Subway sandwich line (I'm sure those customers were thrilled). For some reason, the cashier informs me that there are some tables and a couch upstairs that I can change my poo-stained child on. Yes, some tables and a couch that it appears people take their lunch breaks on.

So to wrap this up, changing her was a two-man job that took Brian two trips to the car for more baby wipes, and of course a change of clothes. I still throw up in my mouth a little when I think about how extensive this mess was, but one day I'm sure we will look back fondly on this epic event.

Enjoy the pics! Thankfully my dad was here for her four-month photo shoot(s). We'll have to start flying him out every month. Otherwise our iPhones tend to be our main source for pictures these days. We'll get better at this, someday.

Really, Dad?

Reading with Grandma

Wine please!

Just farting around

This clip provides a minutes-worth of Autumn's one and only activity last night. It was a ridiculous, slobbery mess -- but of course she kept at it for that long because we thought it was so funny. Actually, we thought changing her into her pj's would get her mind onto something else (hence the changing table and Brian's hands in her pants), but I guess this is just where her three month-old little mind wanted to be.

Aren't you glad we kept it to a minute?

"Snow" Day!

Well, it really should be called a "Cold Day" since I can count the number of inches of snow on one hand. But in any case, all the school districts called for a snow day early yesterday evening, due to a high of -3 today, freezing rain from yesterday and snow through the night. I'll take it.

Not much on the agenda today.
A little sleep...

A little play...

And one step out the front door...it doesn't look much like a snow day but it's freezing out there!

Icy, not snowy, road

One year ago, we never knew...

One year ago this weekend, we found out about Autumn's existence.

One year ago we never knew...

That we'd feel thankful for being woken up at 7am (as opposed to 5 or 6) on weekends.

That we would start setting the DVR to tape "Sunday Morning" every week. Don't old people watch that?

That we could really be okay with going out in public with trace amounts of barf, or sometimes poop, on our clothes.

That it could take an average of four hours to watch a two hour movie...and that we'd just be happy with getting to watch the whole thing.

That, often times, we'd really start to see our dog as, "just a dog".
That we wouldn't mind pink being the predominant color in our house.

That it could take thirty minutes to prepare for a trip to Costco.
That we would make such a good team, if we don't say so ourselves.

That it would be possible to have ZERO days of skiing under my belt by late January.

That Brian would become a two-cups-a-day coffee drinker.

That happy hour would really only last one hour.
That two grown adults could second guess themselves about anything as much as we do now.
That doing the dishes could ever be considered, "taking a break".
That we'd ever argue about who can come up with the better outfit.
That something so small could be so much work...and so worthwhile at the same time.



One year ago we never knew that it would be possible to love something so much.

A milestone...

...caught on video! Autumn rolled over from back to tummy today, about five times! We caught the third trial on video, which is a total miracle in itself because we usually don't think about grabbing the Flip Video cam until about twenty minutes after Autumn starts doing something cool. By that time she's totally over it, and we get video footage of Brian cussing and/or calling himself an (F***ing) idiot. Seriously.

The nonchalance of it all (note paci in mouth) makes me wonder if she hasn't been doing this for Mrs. Rachel all week. I did ask her to lie to me about any milestones reached in my absence, so if this is the case, Mrs. Rachel has done well.

So, here we go. Three-and-a-half months old.

Now we'll work on sitting in the Bumbo seat. She's terrible at this, though she doesn't mind her own version of "sitting up". She'll sit like this as long as we let her. Whatever makes you happy, kid.

Three

Three months, for each of us, in categories:

ACTIVITY AND NEW SKILLS

Autumn: So, just in case anyone has ever wondered, my one-subject study has confirmed that fetal activity in the womb absolutely predicts a child’s activity level during the first months of life. My doctor referred to Autumn as a “highly active” baby while I was pregnant, starting many of his sentences with, “active babies typically…” or “that’s very normal for babies who move all the time.”  I remember wondering if we would ever get a quiet moment once Autumn was born, or if we were destined to be on-the-go forever. In the past month, we can probably count Autumn’s wakeful, still hours on three fingers. Not daily still hours, but total…over the past month. The kid likes to move --  flailing, kicking, grabbing things, hitting things, bouncing on our laps, attempting to stand up, attempting to roll over from her back to belly, you get the idea. Last week we set up her Jumparoo since we were at a loss for what else we could do entertain her. While she still has a good 2-3 inches to grow before her feet touch the ground, we were able to rig it by putting a box under her feet. Best. Idea. Ever.  See video below, which conveys about a one minute glimpse of how Autumn can entertain herself for up to twenty minutes.

She’s also still babbling away, especially when she has an audience to talk to. I recently learned at an autism conference that children who have been diagnosed with autism usually did not babble much or focus on faces as infants. I’m pretty sure we can cross that potential disability off the list.

p.s. I started this entry a few days ago, and in that amount of time, Autumn has learned to spin the toys on her Jumparoo and to fully grab onto toys in a purposeful way. She is also rolling over from front to back more consistently. Yay her.

Gimme that bird!

Emily:

Well, I started back at work on January third, which was quite a rude awakening. Getting up in the middle of the night (which only happens once, thankfully) is a whole new ball game when you actually have to be presentable, alert, and on the road by 7:30am or earlier. My activity level has unfortunately had to change due to this new schedule. Work is tiring and busy, and so is home. While on maternity leave I had been getting back into running, very slowly. Twice a week for 2-3 miles. That slowly. Now that’s all gone to hell. I keep saying I’ll go to the gym one of these days before picking Autumn up from daycare, but really I hate the gym, and I love Autumn – so why on earth would I ever do that?

But, Autumn isn’t the only one learning new things.  Never in my life would I have imagined that I’d some day find myself pumping in my car when it’s three degrees outside, in a shower stall of a YMCA gym, or in a storage closet at work. Such are the adventures of a mom who works in different schools or places every day, and who just isn’t ready for her kid to eat formula quite yet.

Brian:

New Years fun with Abigail

Brian’s activity level has also tanked over the past month, much to his (and Wally’s) dismay. Brian had to quit his beloved boot camp , and joined 24 Hour Fitness instead. He tries to go on his lunch break a couple times per week, which means Wally doesn’t get to go on his lunch break walks. Sad, sad times. However, Brian has acquired a new work client, so we'll count that under the “new skills” category. He now works for a big outdoor gear company and a company that sells extravagant vacation packages. I’m hoping the discounts on the latter start rolling in soon – and that grandma and grandpa Boyd are ready for some longer-term babysitting gigs. 

Just watchin' TV

SLEEP

Autumn: Things seem to be going well for Autumn in this category. She still sleeps wherever she wants, and as much as she needs. Must be nice. 

Sleepy burrito

Emily: Actually, I don’t have a ton to complain about in this category. Autumn only gets up once per night these days, anywhere between 3:30 and 5:30am. So I get a 6-7 hour stretch, and then another hour or so before work. And in fact, she slept all the way until 6:30 last weekend, so I’m hoping this is a sign that sleeping through the night is just around the corner.

Brian: He doesn’t deserve a spot in this category. Brian sleeps with earplugs, so he wakes up when he needs to pee or when I violently shake him around 6:30am, so he can take a shower before the beast awakens. Must be nice.

EATING

Autumn: I don’t know what to say about this. When I was home with her, Autumn was eating every two hours during the day, almost to the minute. It was tiring. Last week my mom came out to take care of her while I got used to being back at work. She took a bottle ever 2-3 hours too. Well, she’s now been at daycare for the past three days and has only taken two bottles each day. Hmmm. She's eating about 4-5 ounces per bottle, and barfs up at least 2-3 of those ounces half the time.

Fun new mobile

Emily: I win. I am still eating like it’s going out of style. I seriously can’t help it. Sometimes it still impresses me that I am capable of eating twice as much as Brian at every meal, but it’s also starting to gross me out a little. Take yesterday, for instance. I met up with my co-worker Jennifer at Heidi’s deli. Since I brought my lunch, and ate it on the way (sandwich, orange, string cheese and carrots), I was just going to have some coffee while she ate lunch. Well, let’s just leave it at, don’t we all need to eat two lunches before noon sometimes?

Brian: Poor guy. His sensitive stomach doesn’t stand a chance in this relationship these days. That’s probably all you want to know.

CLOTHES

Autumn: This category makes me sad. We’re already starting to pack away some of her 0-3 month clothes! She is still swimming in the 3-6 months for the most part, but her 0-3 onesies are getting too short. She’s also in size 2 diapers. On a positive note, she will soon fit into her new, trendy wardrobe her Aunt Kellie bought her for Christmas. Skinny jeans here she comes!

Showin' off some of "cousin" Madeline's cute hand-me-downs

Emily: Fortunately I am not growing out of my clothes. I somehow managed to get my non-maternity clothes back into my regular wardrobe within a couple of weeks of having Autumn, though at this rate (see Eating above) I should probably breastfeed this kid until she’s 18 or I’ll need to start shopping in those men’s Big & Tall stores.

Brian: I bought him a new sweater from the Gap and some sweet snowboard pants that have some really cool removable liner pants. He loves them and he’s wearing them right now. Happy guy.

OTHER ADVENTURES

Autumn: Last week, Autumn spent her days with her Nana Gerre, who came out here to help us with the transition back to work. I’m not really sure what they did all day, but by the time I would get home from work, dinner was made (sometimes two dinners, one to freeze) and the house and Autumn were clean. My mom also seemed to have showered each day. Impressive.

 But alas, Autumn started full-time at Mrs. Rachel’s daycare this week. Mrs. Rachel is slightly loony, but endearing in her own, bubbly way. Autumn seems to like her, and she really seems to like Autumn, so we’re all pleased with this situation. Autumn also seems to enjoy her two new friends – Remy is an 18-month old little girl who seems to be named after a rat in a recent Disney movie, and Axel is a giant beast who is two weeks older than Autumn. He usually has a knitted Viking hat on (horns and all) when I pick Autumn up. I think his parents put it on him to compensate for his adorable dimples that make him look slightly wimpy.

Emily: Between when I first started this entry and today, I actually went to the gym. For 28 minutes, or three miles on the treadmill. Does this count?  Oh, and we also got to go to a Broncos game a while back (thanks Kel and Dave!) Not that anybody cares about the Broncos anymore, but we’ll take what we can get.

Brian : He went snowboarding a couple weeks ago, and will be going to Salt Lake for work next week. Dad’s big adventure, coming soon! 

Til next time…