I love to listen to Anya sing, which is a good thing because Anya loves to sing. It’s not always pretty, but it’s always cute. However, there are a few children’s songs out there that are written in such a way that causes Anya to get stuck. An example:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky
Twinkle, twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are
Up above the world…

And so on. That one I understand, since the words at the end are the same as the words at the beginning. There are a few others where the words at the end are similar to the words at the beginning and she gets a little confused, such as:

The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the waterspout
Down came the rain and washed the spider out
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain
And the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the waterspout
Down came the rain…

And so on. Then there are the songs where Anya doesn’t know all of the words and doesn’t realize that she doesn’t know all of the words (because if she does realize she asks what they are). These, I’m not such a fan of, because one can go a little crazy with too much of this:

Did you ever see a lassie
A lassie
A lassie
Did you ever see a lassie
A lassie
A lassie
Did you ever…

And so on, And on and on. She reminds me of a skipping record/cd/mp3 (depending on your generation). You need to give her a little nudge to avoid getting caught in an endless loop!

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Dear Sierra,

For the love of all that is decent and holy, please keep your hands away from your mouth while I’m trying to feed you.

Love,
Mommy

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I got some of Sierra’s smiling on camera, finally!  I haven’t been able to catch her big, gummy open-mouth grin, though.  As soon as she sees the Flip she’s mesmerized and forgets all about smiling at me, but here I managed to get a few little smiles before she noticed the camera.  Also in the video – tummy time without tears!  She doesn’t love to be on her belly, but she’s able to tolerate it for longer periods now.  Well, sometimes.

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Amazingly enough, Sierra – the baby I claimed would never be born because I didn’t think I was ever going into labor – is already one month old!  She had her well checkup yesterday, and aside from a rash that the doctor wants us to treat with Aquaphor, she is doing very well.  She is now 9 lbs, 11 oz and 21 3/4 inches long (75th percentile for both); she’s officially in size 1 diapers and is sort of between newborn and 3 month-sized clothes.

In the last month, Sierra has gone from a mushy little baby who slept all the time to a baby with ever-improving head control who sleeps most of the time.  She’s actually doing really well figuring out how to hold that head up; the doctor even commented on it.  Sierra isn’t a huge fan of hanging out on her belly yet, so she gets most of her tummy time on my chest, staring up at me with those huge brown eyes.  You have to watch out, though, because every now and then her head is more than she can take and if you’re not careful, you’re going to get head-butted!  She’s smiling a lot now and makes wonderful eye contact with the sweetest little coos.  She’s a pro at getting her hands up to her mouth, though she’s not always sure what to do with them once they get there.  It’s a big pain in the butt when I’m trying to feed her!

Some nights she sleeps very well – up to 6 hour stretches! – and other nights she’s up more often, but we’ll take whatever breaks we can get.  We swaddle her at night, though she doesn’t startle very much and might be able to sleep unswaddled fairly soon.  During the day, she nurses every 1 1/2 to 3 hours.  Her latch isn’t perfect yet.  She grabs on but doesn’t always start sucking, and then she gets angry when she realizes she’s not getting any milk.  Though she’s had a bottle a couple of times, I’ve been hesitant to let her use one again until she’s got breastfeeding completely down pat.  She’s a pretty easygoing baby for the most part, and when she does get cranky Dr. Karp’s 5 S’s do the trick every time.  She absolutely loves to be held, and thank goodness Lex’s parents gave me a Moby wrap for Hannukah or I’d never get anything done!

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As Cinderella:

Sleeping Beauty:

And Snow White:

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I mentioned in an earlier post that Anya has created her first imaginary friends, two bears named Jack and Bearney.  Well, meet Bearney:

It’s almost recognizable as something other than scribble!  You can kind of make out the head on top with two green eyes and a smile, and a body with some sort of appendages below.  Of course, he is brown, since Bearney is brown and Jack is blue, according to Anya.

It was really hard not to laugh at her today when I told her it was time to go up for her nap and she said, “Okay guys, let’s go upstairs!”  She got up and ran to the stairs, holding her arms as though she was holding hands with someone on either side.  I asked her who she was talking to and she said, “The bears!  They’re coming with me.  They’re climbing up the stairs behind me.”  This morning she had me giggling as well.  We had somehow started talking about laughing and we were making funny laughing sounds, when she goes, “Ha ha ha.  Hee hee hee.  Grr grr grr.”  Apparently Bearney thought it was funny, too.

One thing Anya said that was interesting, to say the least:  I was putting her down for her nap and she was talking about how Bearney was taking a nap with her.  I asked her where Bearney was, and after thinking for a second she pointed to her chest and answered, “In my heart.”  I’m not quite sure what she meant or if she heard that somewhere else.  I don’t think that she was trying to explain that he was imaginary.  As bright as Anya can be, I doubt she’s capable of that kind of symbolic thought yet, but it was amusing to me because it still sounded so profound coming from her little mouth.

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Happy New Year! 2008 was a pretty good year for us, and we hope that 2009 brings even more happiness to our family and all of you as well.

Since there aren’t many hopping parties geared for two-year-olds and three-week-olds, we spent a quiet New Year’s Eve at home with Lex’s parents, but don’t say the Friedmans don’t know how to celebrate in style! We had a rocking time enjoying our scrumptious cheese fondue dinner and a delectable chocolate fondue for dessert:

How did I spend the moment when 2008 ends and 2009 begins? Unlike when Anya was a newborn, I was actually awake this time, but I was upstairs in my room nursing Sierra. I had hoped she would finish in time to be tucked into bed so I could be downstairs to watch the ball drop, but it didn’t work out. Still, I can think of worse ways to start a new year than holding my new baby close to me while looking at my first baby sleeping peacefully in her bed on the video monitor.

January 1 is my dad’s birthday, so we joined my family for dinner and cake to celebrate on New Year’s Day.

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My stupid moment of the week:  Getting my hand stuck in the Diaper Genie – so stuck that Lex needed to come help me get it out.  OUCH.

My restful moment of the night:  Waking up at 5 am to feed Sierra – for the first time since we all went to bed at 11 pm!  Sweet.

My gross moment of the morning:  When Sierra spit up all over me, with much of the output landing in my bra.  Did I mention that a good amount of this came out of her NOSE?  Yuck.

My peaceful moment of the afternoon: The sudden realization that it is 2:15 pm and the house is so quiet because I have two sleeping daughters.  Ahhhh.

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We gave Sierra her first bath earlier this week.  She was not a huge fan:

But she liked being wrapped up in her towel afterward:

And she tolerated wearing these cute pajamas:

It seems that Sierra has been smiling FOR REAL for the last week.  She looks you directly in the eye and gives this enormous open mouth grin, it’s so sweet.  Lex’s parents and my mom agree that they are more than just gas, but perhaps we’re all suffering from doting-on-Sierra-itis.  Of course I CANNOT catch it on camera, but I did get a video of some little gassy smiles.  They’re not quite as fabulous as the real thing, but they’re kind of a sneak preview:

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