Night weaning

Raegan is slooooooowly getting better at making it through the night without waking up. Everything I've read says that there is physical reason for her to need to eat several times a night, and the speed at which she would fall back asleep while nursing made me think that she just liked the habit of nursing to sleep. She was getting back to the point of waking up 2 or 3 times a night, which at 11 months old is just not neccessary, so I decided it was time to start weaning out the night nursings. Luke's been going to bed kind of late lately, so he rocks her back to sleep the first time she wakes up (10:30 or 11:00). When I wouldn't feed her and would only rock her the first few nights I got up with her, she FLIPPED out. Over the last week or so it's been getting better. I've found that giving Raegan a couple drinks from her water cup helps a lot. As long as it's at least 5:00, I'll go ahead and nurse her, and after doing so at 6:30 this morning she went right back to sleep. I got to see a very pretty sunrise this morning though, so that was kind of nice.

Now we just have to work on her not throwing a fit before she takes a nap. :S

Gettin' there....

We've been working with Raegan a lot trying to get her to learn to drink from a sippy cup. She's at the point where if you are tipping the cup up for her she can drink out of it pretty well, but she hasn't quite mastered the art of drinking out of it by herself. "Okay, how exactly does this work again?"

I like this picture because she kind of looks like a little girl instead of a baby. Luke hates this picture because she kind of looks like a little girl instead of a baby. :)

This is how Raegan usually tries to drink out of a cup. She's actually fairly successful with a straw because she can suck up liquid well. She just can't always coordinate tipping the cup up at the same time.

Jackpot!

Smoky Hill Museum

Yesterday I took the kids to the Smoky Hill Museum here in town. It's a pretty small museum, and we've been several times before. There is one area that they change out every so often, so I figured we would check it out. It was hot out, and I really didn't feel like filling up the pool or joining the masses at the spray parks, so the museum it was. It was a nice, cool, FREE way to spend an hour, and there was no one there so the kids got to play in the kid area for quite awhile.

Raegan loves blocks, so this area was really interesting to her. She even kept herself busy long enough for Zane and I to play a game of checkers.

They changed out this area from quilts (boring!) to an exhibit about trains, with a few hands on things for kids. Zane really liked this hand powered train.

And Raegan really liked riding on it with Zane!

He's an odd duck sometimes :)

My kids, they love to read

One of the many things I am very proud about Zane for is his love of reading. Raegan seems to be following in his footsteps because already while she's playing with toys sometimes she'll sit down and look through one of her board books. I LOVE reading and always have, and I'm just so happy that I've been able to pass on that love to Zane and Raegan.

Stinker!

I am desperately trying to get Raegan into a schedule before I go back to work. I keep a schedule now in that we always eat meals around the same times, and we start the getting ready for bed process about 7:30 every evening. Lately it's been a huge struggle to get Raegan to fall asleep and I think it may be because sometimes she takes a later afternoon nap, so she's not tired by the time we put her in her crib between 8:00 and 8:30. Plus, I love my sleep, so if she wants to sleep in in the morning, I let her. Not going to be an option in exactly two weeks. :( So today I cut off Raegan's second nap at 4:00. Not early enough, because she was still pretty wide eyed by 8:30 p.m. So tomorrow I'll try 3:30 and see what happens. We did the usual: bath, nurse, brush teeth, book, rock and sing. Then I put her in her crib and left the room. Sometimes she starts wailing because she doesn't like to be left alone, and sometimes she just stands up in her crib. I figured, if she's quiet and calm, she'll eventually sit down and go to sleep, right?

Ha! Actually, that's not a complete scoff, because she did eventually go to sleep. But first we had to take care of this little problem:



Typically, Raegan goes to the other end of her crib and stands there yelling until someone comes in. I think maybe because Luke was mowing she decided to go check it out. It was hilarious to see it from the outside, because you could see the blind in her window going back and forth. So I picked her up and rocked her in the living room for a minute and Luke lowered the mattress all the way down (which we needed to do anyways now that she can pull up in her crib). I put Raegan back in bed and after 10 minutes of complete silence, I peek my head in just a bit to find her standing in the same spot still moving the blind. Little stinker! At this point, I moved the crib away from the window about a foot. About 20 seconds after I left the room she let out a scream, which I took to mean that she found out she couldn't play with the blind anymore.

She must have contented herself with her Cookie Monster or blankie, because she was quiet for another 10 minutes or so, then started slowly escalating in her "I need attention" cry, that's not actually a cry at all. At one point she started screaming, so I went in, laid her back down and patted her. I left after a minute, which as always Raegan was not pleased about, but she didn't scream for more than a minute. She eventually fell asleep completely on her own (which is a very rare thing these days), but probably not until close to 10:00. We have two weeks though, so hopefully through some trial and error we can get this figured out. My goal for tomorrow is to get her up around 8:00. Which means I need to go to bed! lol Good night all!

Good eater

I am so very proud of Raegan's eating habits. One of the things that I was very determined to do was make sure that I introduce her to a variety of healthy foods as a baby so that hopefully she would not be a picky eater. Zane is actually a pretty good eater. This is very surprising, because Luke is horribly picky and when Zane lived with his mom when he was very little he ate McDonalds almost every day. But by some miracle of God Zane eats most fruits and vegetables. He really doesn't like most ethnic foods though - Taco Bell and spaghetti are about as ethnic as he gets. I love just about any kind of ethnic food there is, so I really wanted to introduce Raegan to a lot of things early so that she would hopefully feel the same way I do. I've also read that the flavors of what you eat while you nurse pass to your baby, so I hoped that she was getting a taste of the goodness from the get-go.

Here's a list of foods that Raegan eats well. I put a star by the foods that she L-O-V-E-S.

-Bananas *
-Applesauce
-Fresh Apple
-Mango
-Fresh Canteloupe *
-Pears
-Salsa *
-Black Beans *
-Avocado *
-Peas *
-Spinach
-Carrots
-Green Beans
-Rice
-Squash *
-Turkey and Chicken (not a huge fan of beef so far)
-Sweet Potatoes
-Pita bread
-Tortilla
-Water (she loves drinking water, which is great in this summer heat)

I flavor a lot of foods with garlic and/or onion and she really seems to like those flavors too. So far the only foods I've tried with her that she doesn't like are blueberries, beef, and any kind of cereal, no matter what texture I make it. Not too worried about that one though - she likes most fruits and vegetables, and that's the important thing! Hopefully she will like cow's milk more than I do....

Manhattan water park

Yesterday my mom and I took the kids to the water park in Manhattan. When we went to the zoo last week we discovered that City Pool had been transformed from the large pool with a simple slide that it was when we lived there to a full out water park. It was a lot of fun. They have a really good kids' area (which you can see pictures of in the link) and some neat things that our water park doesn't have. I think we will go back next summer when Raegan is able to last longer so that we can also go to the splash park and playground in City Park. Raegan really did very well - we managed to stay from a little after 1:00 until 3:30, when she conked out. I wasn't able to get my usual picture of the kids together when we do something fun, or one of me with the kids, but by the time we all got back together again Raegan was beyond tired.

Some pictures:

Zane's insane amount of hair did a faux-hawk every time he came up out of the water. :)

Raegan found this cup on the side of the pool and she would NOT leave it alone. She actually cruised along the side of the pool to get to it when I moved it away, which is pretty brave for her!

My exhausted little mama

Past and Present

While puttering around on here during Raegan's nap, trying to figure out how to load a little slideshow of pics on the sidebar of my blog, I logged in to my Photobucket account. Which I haven't been in for years. It was awesome to see all these pictures of Zane when he was younger (which I don't have on my current computer because the old one crashed and I have yet to spend the money to get the hard drive off of it). I think I'm going to post some of them (from the kindergarten to first grade era) on here sometime, but for now here's a comparison picture. I cannot believe how much he's grown up. Granted, the first picture was 6 years ago, but still. :)


This is from Zane's first day of kingergarten (August 2004). Look at how little he is! I remember at the time Luke and I were talking about how big he looked, in comparison to his chubby cheeked toddler and preschool years.

I'm pretty sure I've posted this one on here already. This was Zane's last day of 5th grade, which was also his last day of elementary school. At his physical last week he was 5'1, which puts him at the 85% for height. And (MOM - lol) he's not as skinny as he used to be - his weight is up to 86 pounds, which puts him at exactly the 50%. Zane's jumped up quite a bit since his physical last November, when he was in the 30-some percentile for weight and 58 or 59% for height (if I'm remembering right).

They grow up way to quickly!

More fun at the mall

I mentioned in front of Zane that I really like taking Raegan to the playplace at the mall but there's always big kids there being foolish and it makes me nervous. He said that we should go right before the mall opens, because last summer when he would go to the summer movies with his friend Gavin, they would always get there early and the playplace was deserted. So this morning we headed over to the mall a little before 10:00 (which is when it opens) and had the WHOLE playplace to ourselves. Great idea Zane! I told him he was awesome!


So because there were no big kids running around and leaping over the top of my baby's head (!!!!!) I was able to take this video of Raegan climbing the stairs. She's also started climbing our basement stairs at home, but she has a lot more luck with the ones at the mall because they're shallower and she can grip the plastic a lot better.

More new accomplishments!

New accomplishments that I can think of for Raegan this last week:


-If you say the words "bye bye" or "hi" she will start waving without you waving first. Most of the time, that is.

-For quite a while now I've been telling Raegan "feed your baby" or "kiss your baby" and mimicking what to do for her, then she would smack the baby's face with its bottle or put her open mouth on her for a kiss. Now I tell her to do those things and she does them without me showing her what to do first.

-At the mall playplace yesterday Raegan climbed all four steps up the slide. They're very wide, but pretty shallow, so perfect for learning on.

-Another tooth poked its way through on the top right on Wednesday. There's a hard bud on the bottom (left I think?) so I would expect another one before summer's over. And boy oh boy, can we tell that she's teething because she was up every two hours last night and a BEAR to be around today!

-Raegan ate an entire size 2 jar (4 ounces) of food for dinner last night, along with some pita bread bits and a couple bites of a new jar of fruit. This was after a half jar for lunch, along with a few noodles and bits of fruit. Today she was a little more out of sorts, but still ate a whole jar between lunch and dinner along with bits of my steamed veggies. This is a major increase over what she used to eat, so I'm pleased. I think weaning is going to be hard going, because she L-O-V-E-S nursing more than anything, and would still be content not to eat any solids and just nurse exclusively.

Video Post

Here's a couple short videos I took this evening of Raegan. Leave me a comment if you can't hear the sound. I can't, but I think it's just my computer?

This is Raegan's latest trick. She likes to dance to her ball pop. I can't believe what a smart girl she is that she starts kicking when I ask her if she's going to dance. :)

Raegan's a little speed demon these days. I love the dramatic panting she does when she really gets going. Can you see the pissy look on Daisy's face as she zooms by? lol

The latest in baby fashion

You have got to be kidding me!

I saw the end of a commercial on television, and I thought, "No way is that real." I thought maybe it was some kind of SNL spoof. Apparently they are a real thing. Weird.

Raegan + Radar = True Luv

So I mentioned in this post a couple months ago how much our cat Radar loves Zane. Turns out Raegan is crazy in love with Radar. Unfortuneately, Radar does not return the sentiment. Raegan's getting better at petting him without pulling hair, but she is 10 months old after all. :)

Well, hello there kitteh!

What's this?! A tail! You are AMAZING!

Note that Radar is slowly trying to slink away into the bathroom....

No come back! IloveyouIloveyouIloveyou! We can be friends!!!!!

Summer movie

The cheap summer movie this week was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Zane really wanted to see it when it was originally in theaters last year, but I was still adjusting to working and having an infant and grad school and somehow neither Luke or I ever took him to it.

It was HILARIOUS! I highly recommend seeing it if you haven't already. It's good for little kids, and older kids. It has some older kid humor, but not anything inappropriate that I can think of. We loved it, and only wish that Luke could have gone with us too.

Flint: "I've never actually been in a snowball fight before."
Sam: "Really?"
Flint: "I don't even know the rules. Is there like a point system, or is it to the death?"
Sam: "No. You never? I mean look, even Steve is throwing chocolate snowballs." (Steve is a monkey. They're in the middle of a huge snowstorm of ice cream.)
Sam: *pause* "Ew."

Loved it!

We do love zoos!

The weather was so nice today (low 80's) that I packed up the kids and we went to the Manhattan Zoo. My mom came along with us, and it was a LOT of fun! Manhattan's zoo doesn't have a lot of exhibits, but it's very spread out. We spent about two hours there, and for only $6 for me, Raegan and Zane, it was good cheap entertainment. (Have you noticed I'm always on the lookout for cheap fun?)

Raegan did very well on the car ride up (except for some instances of throwing toys at Zane!) and seemed to enjoy the zoo. We could tell when she was actually looking at the animals because she would either point or wave at them. :) My intent after we left the zoo was to stop at City Park and nurse her before we headed home, but she was so tired she conked out in the five minutes it took us to get over there. She slept basically the whole way home, and was VERY!!!! hungry and thirsty when we got in the door. Zane seemed to enjoy himself too, and I even got a thank you, which was a nice end to the day.

Some pictures:

Raegan waving at the monkeys

My two monkeys :)

Granny and Raegan checking out the swans

Climbing the slide with a little bit of help from Granny

I love the look of intense concentration on her face!

I think we may have our hands full! :)

Not the best picture, but you take what you can get

Manhattan's zoo has a lot of pretty, scenic spots.

This week's achievements

Some of the new things Raegan has been doing in the last week or so. I can't believe how quickly she changes now! As inconvenient as it was with me being a teacher to have her in August, it's been nice to have the summer off when she's this age because I get to see her meet so many milestones. :)

-Now that she can crawl, if you tell Raegan to "come here" and make a little hand motion, she will crawl over to you.

-If you tell Raegan "no" meaning not to crawl off somewhere or get into something, she will stop and turn away from what she was about to do, 9 times out of 10. :) I think that's pretty good listening for a 10 month old!

-If I do the sign for "milk" when she starts getting fussy asking her if that's what she wants, she starts really fussing and doing the fake cough she does when she wants to nurse. She will also make the sign when I do it first.

-Today when I sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star along with our CD and did the motions in the air for the first line, Raegan also started opening and closing her right hand like she was making a twinkle star.

-Three different nights this week Raegan has slept through the night (at least 10 hours). Last night she slept from 8:30 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. and the night before was 9:00 p.m. to a little before 8:00 a.m. Tonight she put herself to sleep in her crib! We've gotten to the point this week where she will put herself to sleep without patting if you are still in the room - tonight she did it with no one in the room! Yay!!!! *dances around the room*

-I've heard Raegan say "mama" or "mom" when I've walked in the room several times this week. I love it!

-Raegan's crawling is getting a lot faster, and she can pull up very quickly on a lot of different objects. She's started cruising along the coffee table a lot more, but she won't turn corners anymore. She's very nervous about falling, and still hasn't figured how to drop down when she's standing up.

Kelley family barbeque

This afternoon we went out to my mom and dad's house for a barbeque. The harvest ruined our original plans for a barbeque on Fathers' Day, but luckily we just had to push it back a few weeks. We had beautiful weather, so we were able to eat outside in the tree circle that my parents have in their front yard. My mom made a little sand pile and got out the water table for the kids. We had a pretty good gathering for my family - my mom and dad; me, Luke, Zane and Raegan; Zac, Deeanna, Khloe and Koen; and my grandparents.

I like this picture a lot!

Better than playing in the dog's water, huh? lol

Granny Ruth and Raegan

My mom with all the grandkids.

Raegan loves pickles!

Somebody needs a haircut.....

I love this picture of my dad at the water table with Raegan, Khloe and Koen. :)