laurelai is nine months old...

...but still hasn't been out of me as long as she was in me.  she was twelve days overdue, if you remember, so she's still got a few days to go before she's seen as much of the world out here as she saw of my innards.

the most notable thing lately?  her tongue.  she takes it with her wherever she goes.

girlfriend also has one tooth, and can sit up.  she loves going on walks and playing with the big kids.  she still isn't all that interested in food (she pushes the spoon away if i try to get her to sample whatever i'm eating), unless she finds it on the floor, in which case she's all over it.  todd found an entire pretzel in her mouth the other day.  she also ate two saltines on her own.  i think she just feels patronized by pureed foods.

her legs are still super muscular, and i may or may not be genuinely jealous of a tiny infant girl-baby.

bottle feeding is going well, albeit very messy, and she's growing!  she's also finally sleeping through the night, which is a huge blessing.

stuff is starting to feel normal and predictable, which i'm grateful for after the year we've had.  we love our baby girl, and can't believe she's getting so big!

bittersweet, but good.

so, we did it.  we moved laurelai to formula.  or, mostly, anyway.

she had a check up last week, at eight-and-a-half months, and she weighed 12 lb 8 oz.  the doctor was really respectful about the whole thing, but really encouraged us to move her to a concentrated-calorie formula.  and maybe this is something i should feel guilty to admit (and i do, a little), but it was kind of a relief to have that decision made for us by an outside source.  laurelai still wasn't sleeping through the night - waking up at least twice most nights, actually - and i'm tired.  and i've been nursing forever, it feels like.  i did the math last night, and i've spent nearly three of the last five years nursing.  i feel ready for a bit of a break, you know?  and, i get that this is totally self-seeking, but i'm ready to start losing some weight in clean conscience, knowing that it's not going to affect how much she's getting.

it's sad though, and i'm still nursing at least twice a day, since i can't really wrap my head around quitting cold-turkey.  the snuggle time is hard to let go of, when she spends time just staring at me and rubbing my face.  plus, i'm just going to shoot you straight, quitting just-like-that kind of sucks.  it hurts, and i end up leaking milk everywhere, and the last thing i need right now is one more reason to be covered in bodily fluids throughout the day.

so anyway.  we've been at it for a little under a week now, and the transition has been smooth.  she's taking a bottle well, and eating about three ounces every three to four hours.  she started sleeping through the night right away, and i'm feeling a bit more freedom from the tiny-infant stage.

bittersweet, but good.

laurelai at seven months.

girlfriend turned seven months old and is rocking it like a boss.

 still in 0-3 month clothes but getting longer, and i've noticed her feeling heavier, though she doesn't have another weight check until next month so i don't know exactly what she weighs.  we've started trying some baby foods, but she has such a sensitive gag reflex that it's not going super well.  i've done baby-led weaning in the past with my kids, but i think we're going to try actual store-bought baby food at first, since it's so finely pureed.

she goes to bed around 8 p.m. and wakes up two or three times before 8 a.m. the next morning.  i'm getting seriously ready to sleep through the night for once, but since nursing is going so well, i don't want to mess with the schedule for now.

she's strong enough that she can crawl out of the bumbo on her own, which means she's had a bruise on her face at any given time over the last week or so.  she's strong, but maybe not the most graceful.  yet.

she's still not crawling, but she's close.  she gets up on all fours and rocks so hard she scooches the pack-n-play across the floor during naptime.  when she really wants to get going, she gets her feet up under her, but that clearly gets her nowhere.  she'll figure it out.

what a stinkin' cutie.  i could just eat her up, i love her so.

laurelai update.

laurelai had her six-month check up on wednesday and has been given a clean bill of health.

length: i don't remember; who ever really cares about length, other than when trying to respond to comments about how 'she looks long' without just being like, 'yeah...she probably is.'

head circumference: i don't remember specifics.  it's round, though, which is good.

(i'm starting to realize that i maybe should have pulled out her sheet before typing this up.)

weight: 12 lbs 6 oz!  which means she has officially broken the first percentile mark!  1.04%, to be exact.  what a massive chunk of human.

the doctor was great.  she said laurelai looked healthy and happy and there's no need to 'artifically fatten' her with breastmilk supplements or anything.  she gave us the all-clear to start laur on foods, but as i do Lazy Mom's Intro to Big Kid Foods  baby-led weaning, and laurelai doesn't seem all that fascinated with food yet (although, she did look pretty into a brownie i was eating last week.  go big or go home in the van voorst house), we probably won't start, like, yesterday.  maybe once i can get to the store and grab up some bananas and avocados.  or dig around in the fridge for some leftovers.

anyway, that's all to say that she's doing really well, and my fears regarding her size and the climate of resulting doctor visits were alleviated.  no blood draws, no constant weight checks, no trips to specialists.  all is good in van voorst vorld.

now, on to what everyone (or maybe just me, but i trump all in this case) really cares about: cute pictures of our cute baby.  today's exhibit:  Sibling Time on the Kitchen Floor.

going for the glasses.  way to disarm your opponent, little one.

 

and then, as any mom of small children probably already saw coming from a million miles away:

laurelai at six months.

get ready for picturepocalypse.  (the a-PIC-alypse?  nope.  i've gone and crossed the line.)

anyway.  get ready for tons of cute photos of laurelai, because, in the words of my friend amanda, 'good gravy, that's a cute baby.'  i just couldn't narrow them down.

one thing you will notice is that she's in the same outfit in pretty much every photo.  not because they were all taken on the same day, but because, as she was born in august, we did not anticipate needing warm 0-3 month clothing for her.  and considering this winter has been especially hemmorhoidy, as far as winters go, and she's especially pocket-sized, as far as babies go, we've had to default to the same four warm outfits over and over and over.  apparently she's especially photogenic in the blue jammies.

kay, so without further ado:

i'm SIX MONTHS OLD?! hmmm, interesting.

i'm not sure what she weighs at this point; she'll have a doctor's appointment on wednesday and i'll let you know.

girlfriend is on the move.  she can do upward facing dog and is working on her plank.  she is, no lie, the Most Muscular Van Voorst.  she has these tiny little buns of steel.  she's so muscular she's like beef jerky.  or a hamstring with a head.  there is not an ounce of baby fat on her; she's a lean, mean, drooling machine.  like, no, really:

kay, srrsly, is that not the cutest baby you've ever seen?!

see? drooling machine.

she is currently torn between two great loves that are passionately vying for her heart:

Sucking on the Nuk, and Sticking Out the Tongue.

it's seriously like an episode of the bachelorette.  i really have no idea which will steal her heart for the win.  but she can't love them both at the same time, so at some point she'll just have to choose.  high drama right there, folks.

she can roll from back to tummy.  she still wakes up once or twice a night to eat.  she loves to stand, and can sit if you prop her up right and mutter some incantations and hop on one foot with your fingers crossed behind your back.  she's starting to be interested in toys/stuff to do/stuff to chew.   she is adored by all:

she's, like, always happy...

except for, you know, when she's not.

or when she's super concerned.

and in her kicky matching jumpsuit and knit beanie, she's a regular baby from the block, and all my mothering dreams have been realized in this photo:

laurelai at five months.

on the 29th, this little lady turned five months old!

what she's up to:

* she's wanting to stretch her feeding times out.  as much as i try to feed her more often in order to beef her up, she's dead set in her ways.

* she's pushing up on her arms and loves tummy time.  she kicks her little legs like a regular michael phelps, or that other swimmer that was also famous.  i want to say ryan?

* she grabs things and brings them to her mouth, and has gotten adept at finding her pacifier and, well, pacifying.

* she goes to bed for the night around 8:30 or 9:00, and wakes up for the day between 7:30 and 8:30.  she eats once or twice in between.

* she loves her brothers and sister, and gets the giggles when she watches them playing.

* she poops out of her diaper pretty much errrday.

* she's the reigning midwest bumbo champ.  she'd sit in that thing all day if she could stay awake that long.

*i'm not sure how much she weighs at this point, but she's due for a weight check soon.

*she's still in newborn/0-3 month clothing.

* while she's the special pet of her brother finneas, we're all absolutely smitten with her.

 

 

 

 

 

ermmm, she's not always thrilled with the attention.

 

 

 

less mauling attention, happier baby.

 

love you, laur!

penelope is tha-ree.

penelope had a small birthday party on saturday.  in the true spirit of van voorst birthday parties, it was podunk.  we ordered pizza, and i even coerced my sister into baking the cake so i wouldn't have to.  (penelope requested a 'chocolate sparkle feather cake.'  between the two of us, we really expected a lot out of lauren.  but she totally came through for us.  minus making the cake out of feathers.)




some things to notice in this video:

1.  the one and only candle i could find in the house was a #1 candle leftover from finn's birthday, so that's what was on her cake.

2.  atticus looks bored out of his mind.  when asked if he could be more excited, he answered, 'yeah.'

3.  i made the mistake of allowing penelope to open presents before the whole candle-blowing experience, so she's so absorbed in her new purse full of colored pens that she is pretty apathetic about the rest of the party.

and if there's one thing that can be said about the van voorst children, it's that they have a deep, unending (and sometimes crazed-looking) passion for cake.

happy birthday (recap) to our biggest little girl!

penelope is three!

yesterday was penelope's birthday.  while we didn't do much specifically for it (i was packing all day, plus her party will be this weekend), we did get a chance to do a few little things.  she blew out three candles at breakfast ('when i am three, i blow out three candles.  one candle, two candles, and then three candles.  like that.').  then, after she pooped in the toilet rather than in her diaper (it's still a work in progress), she got three chocolate chips instead of the regular two.  after lunch we ate ice cream with yet another candle in it.

i spent little chunks of the day reflecting on what we've been through and who she is.  she is a spitfire.  she knows what she wants and she's impossible to convince otherwise.  she knows how (and likes) to push your buttons on purpose.  she is a total clown and inherently knows what kind of stuff will get a laugh.  she is in a stage where she loves to pretend to be a baby.  she prefers to color/draw with pens rather than crayons.  she hates getting dirty.  she loves to read.  she speaks jibberish on purpose.

we've been through a lot together - we dealt with my postpartum depression after her birth, which was really hard for both of us, obviously in different ways.  there was that one time she was almost strangulated in her crib overnight.  but those experiences have really led to the unique relationship i have with her, and i'm so grateful god used those things to help me see her and and know her and appreciate her in ways i don't know that i would otherwise.

one of the more surprising parts about becoming a mom is that i find that their birthdays are less about 'them' than i would have assumed - every birthday that rolls around has me reflecting on their birth stories and their uniquenesses and my experience being their mom.  i find i have more to celebrate than just 'another year down,' as it feels when i'm celebrating my own birthdays.  i honestly enjoy their birthdays more than my own for that reason.  anyone else feel this way about their kids' birthdays?

finneas at eleven months.

finneas turned eleven months old yesterday, which is crazy because it means that in less than four weeks, this tiny guy will be a year old.  it shocks me to my very core.  where does the time go?  and how in the world will this tiny man be a big brother in six short months?  i don't even want to think about that.

yes, this photo is blurry, but it's the best one i got this month, and i'll show you why in a sec.

player's stats:

weight: 17.8 pounds (second percentile - he finally gained a percentile point this month!)
height: 29.5 inches (50th percentile)
signature move: el tigre. 

he started dancing, which melts. my. heart. 

he's still in 9 month clothing.

he rarely ever says the words he knows, but he's been sick the last few days, and when he gets really miserable or wants to be held he just liquifies and gets all, 'mamaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.'

he still takes two naps a day, one from about 10 - 12:30, and again from about 2 - 4:30.  he conks out for the night around 6:30, we wake him up and feed him before we go to be, and then he wakes up between 8 and 9 the next morning.  he sleeps a lot.  no complaints.

he's been spending more time in the playpen lately, partly for my own convenience so i don't lose track of him and have to go looking for him.  with an easily-accessible back stairway and an unfinished kitchen floor, he has a 75% chance of involuntarily winding up in the basement at some point, and if i go down there looking for him, i'll probably have to justify doing some laundry while i'm there.  so i avoid that by putting him in the playpen.  but really, he spends most of his time in there for his own protection:  he's always either eating questionable bits from under the dining table, or he's being squashed to oblivion by his siblings.  i swear that pack and play has saved his life.  he hates it, but that's a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things, right?

he's been working on cutting molars for the last month and a half, and i'm thinking he should just throw in the towel.  who really needs molars, anyway?  they're too much work, and cause too much crabbiness, that i say they're overrated.

his favorite toy right now is a tiny travel-sized tube of lotion.  not sure why, but he loves that thing to the death.

and that's about it!

 

he was NOT into staying put.  that pretty much sums up eleven months.

finneas at ten months.

unfortunately for us all, blogger is not allowing me to upload photos today, so i'll try to be brief.  (lengthy posts are only made more tolerable by the presence of photos.)

ten month stats:

weight: 17.0 lbs (first percentile)
height: 28.5 inches (32nd percentile)
fave wrasslin move: the lightning bolt

kid is fast and kid is hungry.  his main activity at this point involves busting over to the dining room table and filling his hamster cheeks with anything his little hands can grab in the .2 seconds before i snatch him up and mouth-sweep him.

this month, he learned to clap and say 'dada.'  i'm also somewhat confident he says 'hi,' but since it just sounds like, 'aaaaah,' i'm not positive.  he's pulling himself up on the furniture, which he seems to think makes him a man now.

we're working (again) on getting him to sleep through the night.  he was back into his old habit of waking every two hours or so and wanting to eat.  needless to say, i was done entertaining that and for about the last week or so, we have been letting him cry it out.  before now, i've been hesitant to be too strict about it, but since he's taking all his feedings from a bottle now, and i know exactly how much he's getting, i'm much less worried that he's legitimately hungry and am sure it's just habit at this point.  so i've been somewhat heartless.  but it's been a good week, and he's only waking up about once a night at this point, and once he gets himself back to sleep, he sleeps until 8:00 or 8:30.  bliss.

he finally moved into 6-9 month clothing, and although he's still only in the first percentile, he gained an entire pound last month, so i'm feeling really good about that.

he had an eye doctor appointment, and will need glasses come march when he turns a year old.  bummer, but i'm glad to catch it early, i guess.

... i think that's it.  we're still loving having him part of our family, and even though life is a bit chaotic right now, he's still just as chill and fun as ever.

finneas at nine months.

finn turned nine months last week.  he is now fully gestated twice over.

stats:

length: 28 inches (33rd percentile)
weight: 16.0 pounds (first percentile)


still tiny.  i admit i weighed him three different days, hoping to see some growth.  the first two days, he still weighed 15.6 lb, which is what he's weighed for a while.  then the third time, he weighed 16 pounds, so we're going with that.  cheating?  maybe a little.  but he's still in 3-6 month clothes, so i need a little encouragement that he's growing.  but i'm hoping soon (as in, sometime before christmas maybe) he'll move up to the next size, since he's gained a bunch of length (1.5 inches over the last month!).

what is there to say about him?  he's precious.  he loves waving and smiling, and has said 'mama' a few times.  he's all-out crawling, and likes sitting up on his knees to play.  he loves playing with the big kids' toys, and the big kids hate it when he does.  he got his eighth tooth this month.

he's in a bit of a clingy stage right now, where he just wants to be held whenever he's awake, which is a bit challenging, but also sweet in some ways.  there's a little part of my heart that melts when he just crawls laps around the island, whining, trying to keep up with me as i'm cooking.  (but the part of my heart that hates tripping over kids and listening to whining stays hard as stone and cold as ice.)

he's in that stage where he gets up to sitting in the middle of the night, but can't figure out how to lay back down, so then he just cries until he conks out or someone comes to help him.  we'll probably have to lower his mattress soon so he doesn't learn how to vault over the side in the middle of the night.

he no longer spits up very often.  (he's been a really spitty baby.)

he has figured out that the rug under the dining room is a veritable feast of crusty pretzel bits, dried cheese, and old almonds.  whenever he stops whining because he's not being held, i know it's because he's found something only barely edible and i should come mouth-sweep him.

nursing is still going well, and i'm praying that i can make it a full year for the first time.

he loves music, and gets really quiet to hear people singing.  after a while, he'll start singing along.

he is by far my cuddliest baby, and will even still immediately lay his head on my shoulder and start sucking his fingers whenever his bed is in sight.

he's almost sleeping through the night again.  after a couple months of feeding him two or three times a night, we finally let him cry it out for a couple of nights, and now most nights he'll sleep until 7:30 or 8:00 in the morning after taking a 10 pm feeding.

we took him to the eye doctor the other day because we've noticed his left eye turning in the way the other kids' have done.  he will need to get glasses in march, if not before then if his eye-turn gets worse.  we apparently produce children with very large, very beautiful, and very ineffective eyes.

i love this precious one, and would be perfectly happy to have as much of him as possible to snuggle. (meaning, if he decides to bulk up at any point, i'd be okay with it.)

it wasn't official until we partied it out.

like i mentioned last week, atticus' birthday was on wednesday, so on saturday, we had a party for him.  we began the morning by baking his cake, which the kids really enjoyed.  mostly for this reason: 

 

 

the end product: 

the party had a loose construction theme (meaning, this was the cake, the kids wore construction hats, and we used caution tape instead of streamers.  and that's the extent to which paige van voorst throws theme parties.)

the idea for the cake was todd's; the execution was mine.

just like penelope had a special chair to sit in at her birthday party, we also rigged one for atticus (and a bilingual one at that).

we got some hand-me-down toy tools from his cousin, so we just purchased a vintage toy tool box off of etsy and put the tools inside.

penelope did a great job of waiting her turn to open a few gifts of her own.

after opening gifts, we ordered pizza and then did cake and ice cream.  the cake was a hit.

and that was the celebration for atticus' fourth birthday.  i forgot to take down the streamers and balloons overnight, and yesterday when he realized everything was still decorated, he was all, why is my birthday still here? it was a little sad to have to break the news to him that it was simply laziness on my part and it was, anticlimactically, just a regular sunday.

(go here to see atticus' first birthday, second birthday, and third birthday.)