March 23, 2007
Two big milestones in two days!

Ella got her first tooth yesterday! Yes, already!! It was a shock to me. The other two started drooling and chomping down with their gums at four months, but it took another couple months for the first tooth to pop through. Right on cue, about a week ago Ella started getting the front of her clothes drooly wet, and she been sucking really hard on whatever finger or thumb is in her mouth (she's beginning to favor her left thumb). Occasionally when she's been fussy I've stuck one of my fingers in her mouth to rub her gums. Yesterday I was doing just that, when I felt something tiny, hard and SHARP! I'd been feeling her teeth under her gums for awhile, but I thought I still had a couple months before I would feel anything sharp. Well, there it was! Since she's not yet past the tongue-thrusting stage, I could hardly get her tongue out of the way to look at her jaw, but I got a couple quick glances at it. Fully erupted, not all the way up to full height, but it's all the way through, and perfect, pearly white! She's been a little irritable this week, in mood and in -ahem- bowel habits, but I just attributed both of those to her vaccinations earlier this week. I wasn't even thinking about a first tooth yet. Ella's just trying to assert her individuality from her siblings, I guess! Just when you think you've got this whole baby thing figured out, your baby goes and gets unique on you...

The other milestone was accomplished last night. Ella finally slept all the way through the night! Though I'm not surprised by her age, I am amazed that it followed up the eruption of her first tooth, which is notorious for causing all kinds of trouble including crazy wake/sleep schedules. She's been a pretty good sleeper for a long time, at least for a breastfed baby, but she would still wake up at least once for a feeding. (But it hasn't been bad because of the co-sleeper; I barely have to wake up to feed her.) Last night she fell asleep at about 10:00, and then woke just as we were getting ready to head up to bed at about midnight. I nursed her one more time and then we got her down into her bed. I woke up, feeling VERY full, this morning at 9:00. Ella was stirring a LITTLE bit, so I woke her up enough to nurse on one side (meanwhile the other side just let loose too - through nursing pad and all). After that she fell right back to sleep for an hour more, when I finally had to go in and wake her up because *I* couldn't wait anymore! Time to nurse, kiddo!

I will get my vacation memories written soon. I've been busy this week (other than the doctor visits!) getting ready for my sister's baby shower, which is this weekend.

March 20, 2007
We've had a fun couple days around here. I say that sarcastically, of course. Natalie had her five-year checkup yesterday, including a big round of vaccinations, and Ella had her four-month checkup today. Including a big round of vaccinations. I know the girls are not feeling so hot either, but I'm completely exhausted. It's hard getting all three kids to the doctor two days in a row!

I'd almost forgotten about Natalie's appointment. I thought Ella's was Monday, but it was Natalie's, and Ella went today. Natalie had a tough time with the shots. This is the first time she really knew what was coming. She got four shots, including one combination MMR and varicella, which is a new combination. It's left a pretty nasty looking bump on her leg. I've been against giving my kids the varicella vaccine, because after all it's just chicken pox, and it's so new that no one knows how long the vaccine will last. I would prefer my kids just get chicken pox while they are younger and not have it be so bad, and get the full lifetime immunity to it. Instead, there is a good chance that this weakened strain will wear off in the future, leaving them open to getting chicken pox when they're older, giving them a worse case (like I had when I was fourteen and now still bear big yucky scars from it all over my forehead). But the part I hate most about the varicella vaccine is that the original strain was created using fetal tissue. Makes me feel ill just thinking about it. But now they've added the varicella to the MMR vaccine shot, so unless I leave her open to getting measles, mumps or rubella (German measles) then I had to go along with the chicken pox one as well.  She's been feeling pretty crummy for the last two days, and is still complaining of soreness on her legs. The good news is that Natalie is now done with shots until she's eleven. We hope.

Ella had the same four shots like last time, and also another dose of the oral Rotavirus vaccine. She tried to spit it all out again, too. It must taste pretty nasty because she gags and chokes and spits most of it out before getting really angry and screaming. I think that was her last dose of that one. I'm glad it's not another stick in her leg, but could they have made it a little more pleasant tasting if they are going to make babies swallow it? (Who are used to only having milk in their mouths?)

Between Ella with the live strain of Rotavirus, and Natalie with the live strain of chicken pox, I have the potential of a couple pretty sick kids in the next couple weeks!

Natalie is a skinny kid. She's tall and thin, just like Phil and I were (were!) as kids. Her weight is 37.5 pounds, which is about the 29th percentile. Her height is 44.25 inches, which is 75th. I figured she was at least 44 inches, because she was able to ride Space Mountain at Disney!  Ella isn't really following Natalie and Ethan's pattern for off the charts weight, but her height is. (The other two were about equally both, so there was no concern for their weights.) Ella is 27.25 inches in length, which is off the charts. Her weight was 14 pounds 15 ounces, so pretty much 15 pounds. That's the 76th percentile for weight. Her head has also grown an inch in the last two months - 17 inches.  I knew she was tall, but now I know that that is the reason why she's moved into 6-9 month clothes. Her weight is still in the 3-6 month range (most go to about 16 pounds) but her length is way into the 6-9 months clothes. Dr. Burns also said that Ella is officially too long for her infant car seat, and we need to find a good supportive convertible now. Apparently the baby carriers that they make these days allow for more length, but five years ago when we got the one we're still using, they only went up to 25 inches maximum. I told her, that's fine -- her seat is getting way too heavy to carry anyway! Though it is definitely easier to get a baby in and out of places when it's so cold outside, when you can just throw the blanket or cover over the car seat and go. Once it warms up I'll likely be using my new Moby Wrap a lot more, because I found it so wonderfully comfortable and handy in Florida, where I didn't have to worry about fitting a coat over me and keeping us warm. Oh how I look forward to soon being able to get out of the house without bundling up three kids and myself! Spring comes tomorrow, officially. That means snow is no longer welcome in my backyard! It hasn't been a welcome sight since returning from Florida, but as of tomorrow I don't just want no snow, I want warm weather. Too much to ask for Ohio, I know! 

March 15, 2007
Ella is four months old today! I've got her monthly picture here, but of course I've got lots more posted on my Flickr page!  Her checkup is scheduled for Monday, so I'll find out then how much she's grown in the last two months. She's solidly into 6-9 month clothes, though. That's all we took with us on our trip to Florida. I dug out the warm weather clothes before the trip, thinking they might be a little big on her, but they fit her perfectly. I guess we've been stuffing her into the 3-6 month clothes a little longer than we needed to. It better get warm soon, though, because I have very few warm outfits for this size. By the time Natalie was in 6-9 months, it was summer. We had lots of cute stuff to pick from, for Florida, though!

She's starting to find interest in toys, but her favorite toys are still her fingers. She sure goes to town on those! Sometime she reaches up and touches my face now, which is really cute. Most of the time her fingers are planted in her mouth, being vigorously sucked. She likes to be talked to, and always responds back with her own sounds and often a big smile. She also likes it when I give her kisses on her cheek (which is often since four-month old baby skin is so yummy). When I kiss her, sometimes she opens her mouth really wide and turns her head a little to 'kiss' me back. Ella rolled over for the first time as we were packing up the van to leave, on March 3. She just did it that once and hasn't since, but between the long car trips and being carried around everywhere once we were there, we haven't given her much opportunity to lay by herself on the floor. She got a little more practice in with it today. She still doesn't hold her head up very well when she's laying down, which concerns me a little, but she seems to have pretty good head control when she's carried upright, so maybe I just haven't given her enough 'tummy time'. What can I say, she likes to be held and she's my last baby. Yep, I'm thick in the midst of baby love time right now.

Wow, Ethan is just so smart. Just now he came up to me and asked, "What (a) piccolo, mom?" I explained that it's a musical instrument, kind of like a flute. Sort of like your green recorder." He said, "oh."  So then he went over and got out a bunch of his toy instruments and now I'm getting a concert. Natalie is playing and singing along to her keyboard (which plays background beats). These are the kinds of questions I get from him all the time. He also came up with a new favorite phrase while on vacation: "That's COOOO!" (Meaning, "cool" of course.)

Our vacation to Florida was great. We went to Orlando, where it was in the low to mid-80's (though a little cooler at night the first couple days), and it never rained a single time. Apparently they're experiencing a drought right now, but for the purposes of our vacation, it was very nice! We went to Magic Kingdom, Epcot, the Orlando Science Center, the zoo, Canaveral National Seashore, and Downtown Disney. I'll write all about the trip a bit later, since it's time to get ready for dinner soon. I want to make sure I take time to get it all written. In the meantime, I've posted some pictures on my Flickr page. I only took around 100 pictures while there (which is REALLY low for me!) because this time I focused on getting a lot recorded on video. Not only did I want to record the things we did so the kids would remember, but I also wanted to get my kids voices and reactions recorded. I don't take enough video of the kids, and Phil and I noticed recently that we can't even really remember what Natalie sounded like when she was smaller. We need to keep the camera more accessible so that we use it more often!

March 1, 2007
I got my first love letter from Natalie yesterday. I've gotten several pictures over the last few years, but this was her first real letter so I had to note it in my journal. She was scribbling all over a paper (doing "curly" writing, as she likes to pretend she's writing cursive even though it's really just a bunch of curly circles everywhere). After awhile, she handed me the paper and said it was for me. She'd printed at the top of the page: I LUV YEO.

She's been driving me pretty nuts lately, whining about half the time she's awake, and the other half either fighting with Ethan or crying about not being able to do things she'd just been able to do the day before. I've been attributing that to just a combination of hitting the 3-month postpartum mark, along with a good dose of cabin fever thrown in, but maybe it's also been regression because she's starting to take a significant leap in her mental growth. I remember when she was a baby, reading about how that happens just before milestones are reached, like when learning to walk, babies often forget about talking. Though I've never heard of this happening with older kids, it would make sense. It's just so incredible to see her learn like this, so quickly. I haven't been doing much different in our homeschooling lately - we're actually focusing on addition and subtraction right now because she seems to really have a good grasp on it and she loves it. She's known her letters for a long time, and we've been practicing writing them for the whole year. She can recite most of her favorite books from memory, but up until now hasn't really shown much readiness for actually reading and writing. Looks like that's changing quickly.