Tooth #10

 This is what we see all day long...
She CONSTANTLY has a finger way back in her mouth... sometimes on one side, sometimes the other!

Haven finished cutting one side of her bottom right molar yesterday.  I am "counting" her molars as soon as she cuts an entire side since molars are so big, lol.  So right now she has her top and bottom molars on her right side and both on her left side are close, super swollen, and the top left is starting to cut through.  It is torture!!!!  :(  I absolutely HATE seeing her in pain.  Today she was okay until noon, just biting on her fingers and stuff and then she started saying "OWWW!  OWWWW!  OWWWW!" with her fingers in her mouth and tears on her face and I just wanted to cry with her!  I gave her some Ibuprofen and Orajel and she was back to just biting her fingers again!  It looks super painful too.  She is not taking great naps because of it, but is still sleeping over 12 hours straight during the nights!!

2 more molars!

Are cutting through!  The bottom right and the top left!  They are just a tiny point so far, so I won't count them yet, but hopefully over the next day or 2 they will be through!!!!  I'm so ready to be done with them! 

Tooth #9!!

Haven's first molar (top right) finally cut through today!!!!  It has been a difficult week trying to get this thing through, but she woke up SUPER HAPPY this morning!  She continued to be SUPER HAPPY the entire rest of the day, so I looked in her mouth, and sure enough, it was cut all the way through! F.I.N.A.L.L.Y!!!!  Except, that we still have 3 more to go, lol!  She started getting crabby again around 5:30pm and was asleep by 6:15pm (which is her typical bedtime lately).  Her bottom right molar is extremely swollen and I can feel the tooth right below the surface and her top left seems to be really close as well, so hopefully we don't have too much longer with these darn molars!!

It's funny how different my girls are on some things and how similar they are on others!  When I looked back at Venily's babyhood, I remember thinking the following things in comparison to Haven:

* I hope Haven doesn't spit up like Venily did!  (Didn't luck out there, Haven definitely took after her sister on that one)

*I hope Haven sleeps better than Venily! (Yep, she continues to be an AMAZING sleeper, sleeping 12 straight hours at night.  I would have KILLED for 12 straight hours from Venily, lol, even for just one night!)

*I hope Haven doesn't have Venily's lactose sensitivity! (Definitely luck out here, Haven has ZERO issues with regular milk!)

*I hope Haven doesn't hate baths like Venily did!  (Haven LOVES baths and always has!)

*I hope Haven's molars don't bother her as much as Venily's did coming in! (Ick!  It's just about as bad as I remember!)

*I hope Haven is as easy to potty-train as Venily was!  (Still waiting and hoping on that one!)

*And of course, I also hoped that she'd be an early walker/talker/and milestone-reacher like Venily (and she has definitely done that!!!)

Venily's 1st Field Trip!!!

Venily went on her first field trip last Wednesday to The Apple Barn!!  She got to ride on a bus all by herself and Haven and I drove there as well, so we could come too!  She sat with her teacher, Mrs. Vivian (since she's technically still 2 and needed to be with an adult) and Mrs. Vivian said she was very talkative the whole trip and showed her where each and every corn stalk was that they passed, lol!  We got to go on a hay ride, pick apples right off the trees, pick pumpkins, go on a tour of the facilities there and all the things they make, and have a snack of apples, apple cider donuts, and apple juice! :)  It was fun, but Haven was not having a good time at all! :(  She whined almost the whole time, which is sooooo crazy for her!  It was supposed to be her naptime AND she is having an absolute miserable time cutting these molars!  I couldn't put her down for a second, I feel so bad for her!!  Venily wanted to ride the bus back to her school instead of just coming straight home with me, and I ended up getting HOPELESSLY lost on the way home.  Like hyperventilating, crying to a bunch of construction workers, barely able to think and lucky I didn't get into an accident, type of lost!  AND THIS IS WITH A GPS, lol!  I had taken a different way to get there b/c I had to run home quick and get Venily different shoes.  I luckily was only about 5 minutes late picking her up though since I left to go back to her preschool well before the buses left.
 

And how fricken cute are these girls in their matching Halloween outfits?!  LOL!  They have other matching Halloween shirts too!  :)  Obviously Haven was a much happier camper after 2 naps and some Tylenol, haha!

12 month update!

Okay, enough procrastinating, I unfortunately was not able to prevent Haven from turning one, so I guess I will just have to write her update now!!!


Here are her 12 month stats:

Weight: 23 pounds (as weighed at the dr's on 9/28th)


Length: 32.5 inches (measured at dr's on 9/28th)



She is pretty big and definitely TALL! :)

(Venily was 21lbs, 12oz and 31.5 in at 12m!)


Haven's updated growth charts:

Her weight is plateauing, but her height continues to skyrocket, lol!



Clothes size: 18m

Diaper size: 3

Shoe size: 5's and 5 1/2's.  Even some of them are getting too small, lol!  Venily and Haven are going to be sharing shoes soon!  (Venily is a 9)


HAIR LENGTH: longest top pieces- 
longest bottom/back pieces-

SLEEPING: Still sleeps through the night.  Her bedtime keeps getting earlier and earlier!  Some nights she goes to bed at 5:30pm!!  But it's never later than 7:15pm!  Usually wakes up around 6:30am.


She takes 2 naps.  One around 9am and the other around 1pm.  Her morning nap is usually pretty short, around 45min.  And her afternoon nap is usually around 2 hours.

EATING: Eats anything and everything we're eating.  Some of her top favorite things are spaghetti, any kind of cheese (but especially string cheese), any kind of beans (baked beans, chili, refried beans in tacos), blueberries, yogurt, applesauce, any kind of fruit, and tons more.


We are done nursing now and she is on all whole milk!  She LOVES her milk and demands it throughout the day!  She goes up to the refrigerator, points and says "MILK!" :)  And I make her say "MILK, PUH!" which translates to "milk, please!"
PLAYING: Her favorite toys are her slide (which she calls all slides "weeee's", babies, fake kitchen stuff (she loves to pretend to eat food and feed it to her babies and little people and stuffed animals, lol, oh and mommy and Venily, of course!), any thing she can draw with, and anything she can ride on!
APPEARANCE: She couldn't get any cuter if she tried!!!  She still has her gorgeous smile and huge dimples and her bright blue eyes and reddish blonde hair!  (side story:  I left Walmart one day and forgot my extra reusable bags and the checkout lady, who I talk to often, comes running out, trying to get my attention and says " Hey, lady with the little red-headed baby!" LOL!)  I have different people tell me all the time that she looks like me and that she looks like Jason.  BUT, I know the truth, she most definitely looks like ME! :)



TEETH: 8 teeth!  And her 2 top molars are close to cutting through and it looks like she is getting her bottom 2 molars as well.  I SURE hope that all 4 come in at once... and SOON!  She is miserable right now!!!!

SPEECH: She can say over 75 words now!!!  And is VERY effective at communicating her wants!!

Some of her newest words are:

shoe (doo, LOVES shoes!!), sock (though she usually calls socks "doos" as well, until I correct her and then she'll call them socks!), STOP! (dop!, said when she doesn't want you to do something, lol), tickle (tick, tick), remote (mote), water (wawa), brrrrr (when she's cold or feels something cold), "spank your butt" (LOL, I pretend to spank her butt, and she picked it up!), fork (though again, she usually calls it a spoon first, until I correct her and then she'll say it right), wipe (calls them "weep"s), phone, buckle (says "buck" while trying to take off the buckles on her high chair and carseat, but when I pronounce the word correctly for her, she'll say "buck, cle, cle"), gramma, help (when she needs help with something), bug (her newest fascination since we have a gazillion boxelder bugs and lady bugs on the sides of our house, including our windows! and she has to make sure she points them all out to me, haha)!  Also, she calls Venily "DEE!" when she sees pictures and videos of her, but no so much to her face.


She also loves to point at any letter or word she sees and says "E!"  "E!".  lol.  She'll even grab one of my books, open it and start reading "E, E, E" while pointing at all the words.  When I sing her songs she always wants me to sing the "E" song too (ABC's) and she tries to sing them as well.  She usually sings "A...E... E... F... E".  :)


Venily knew about 50 words at 12.5 months.





ANIMAL SOUNDS: She's up to 19 now, I believe!!!

previous: fish (open/close mouth), sheep (baaa), cow (moo), elephant (blows lips), bee (bzzzz), and kitty (meow), lion, tiger, bear (all the same sound, haha! rrrrawrrrr), owl (who, who), horse (neigh), chicken (bawk, bawk), dog (ruff), monkey (ahh, ahh- I've tried to teach her "ooh, ooh, ahh, ahh").  

new last month:  frog (ribbit), giraffe (touches neck), pig (snorts), goat (meh), bunny (tries to wiggle nose)


She also knows that a train says "choo, choo" and a car says "vroom, vroom"

BODY PARTS:  Up to 13 now!!! 
Previous:  hair, hands, feet, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, ears, and bellybutton
also knows: fingers, toes, butt

MOVEMENT: (newest accomplishments)
Goes down the slide without standing up at the top now, which is a definite improvement! 


Also, a lot better at going down the stairs on her butt

Random happenings:  

Throws garbage away in the garbage can now, which is quite impressive since our garbage is in a semi-child proofed cupboard (it's hard to make things Haven-proof, but NOT Venily-proof, lol)


She is now sometimes answering "yes" to yes/no questions, but still often says a word associated with the question rather than saying "yes".  (And, of course, she has no problems saying "no" to things, lol.)  For example, if you ask her if she is hungry and she is she'll sometimes say "yes", but most times say "eat, eat" and run to her high chair.  Same for if you ask her if she's tired.  Usually she says "na-night" and runs to her crib.

November 12, 2008 (Venily is 1 year, 4 weeks, 2 days old)

I don't plan on being on this site as often as I used to. I have started another site, but it's not finished yet. I am keeping this one around until I can make Venily's stories into a book! This will take quite some time, lol. So, I will still update her stories and frontpage every so often, but no more pics. I put all my pics on my myspace site though, if you are interested:
mypace.com/jasonjennifer

Venily will be 13 months old tomorrow! She probably says about 75 words now, she can say almost anything!!! It's so funny when she says words you wouldn't expect her to be able to say. The other day she said "backpack". HAHA, more than once! She also says "eyebrow" (she loves to show me where my eyebrows are) and added neck and butt to the body parts she can show (though she thinks her butt is in the front, lol). I have been trying to get her to say "love you" too for awhile. She says something kind of similar and smiles and nods her head when she says it like she's proud of herself, lol!!!

I didn't get her 12 month pics done. I left it to the last minute again, and we had so much going on, it just didn't happen. Oh well, I can still get her "1 year" pics within the next week or two and I will still consider that alright!

I will weigh and measure her again tomorrow, I'll keep that up every month until she's 2 so I can keep filling in her little chart, lol.

Oh my gosh, Venily is SOOOOO FUNNY!!!! She does the silliest, cutest things all day long! Yesterday she brought a book up to the cat and kept saying "book, book" b/c she wanted the cat to read it to her! I was laughing so hard! Then she was trying to put shoes on the cat, that cat has been so patient with her, lol! She also tries to "help" me all the time and I always find it so funny. She'll take the clean laundry, piece by piece and hand it to me to put away (that actually is helpful!), loves to sweep, and helps me unload the dishwasher too, hahahaha, she'll take things out and then put them through the cat door, which leads into the basement (not so helpful!! haha).

Venily and I have been bringing boxes over to our house and unpacking them, it's a lot of work (for me)!! I have to go through my boxes here, put the stuff I know I can find a place to put in our house into new boxes or bags, but not too heavy that I can't bring them up the stairs with one hand, lol. Then I have to load them into the van, bring them to our house, put them all in the garage and then (while holding Venily with one hand) use my other to bring all the boxes up the stairs and then unpack them while keeping Venily entertained at the same time! AHHHH! I have a lot of stuff unpacked and put away in our kitchen and bathroom though, so I feel better about it! I am hopefully painting Venily's room tomorrow and then can start getting her room in order!!!!!

November 1, 2008 (Venily is 1 year, 2 weeks, 5 days old)

We FINALLY got our septic put in today!! YAY!!! Venily and I spent a couple of hours at our house yesterday, cleaning things up, washing windows and countertops, vacuuming and sweeping the floors. I'm starting to bring boxes over and want to start unpacking some stuff! We're soooo excited!!!! We're also starting to Venily proof it! I put lots of outlet covers in and Jason put stuff on all of the kitchen and bathroom cabinets that Venily can reach, though she's almost figured them out already, lol! Venily was so cute yesterday. If I was sweeping, she wanted to sweep too! If I was washing windows, she had to have a rag to wash windows! It was too funny!

Venily knows almost all of her body parts now- and shows them to me all the time (she's actually on my lap, doing it right now while I'm trying to get her to sleep!)! She knows where her eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair, tongue, belly button, hands, and feet are!

Venily has another cold! Her nose is very runny and she is coughing a lot! She is too cute to be sick, it's not fair!!!

I can't believe it's November already! I've been reading Venily Christmas books and singing her Christmas songs already, lol! I'm really not looking forward to the cold though!

October 29, 2008 (Venily is 1 year, 2 weeks, 2 days old)

We have been busy! Venily has been having fun doing fall and Halloween things this last week. We went trick-or-treating on Sunday. She was so tired and just completely relaxed the whole time, lol. I did let her eat some teddy grahams, she thought that was pretty cool, lol! Too bad it was cold and windy. She was all bundled up, so you could hardly even see her costume, lol. We might go again Friday, hopefully it's nicer out! On Saturday Jason and I went to a wedding without her! It was the first time we've been out together without her in a long, long time! We were sad and missed her, but she had a lot of fun with her Grandma, her Aunt, Uncle, and cousin Chase!

We have been fighting some sicknesses here. Venily got a virus a couple of weeks ago and had that ear infection, so she was put on antibiotics, which made her diarrhea worse. The antibiotics killed off all of her good bacteria in her digestive system, so we are working on getting that better. I took her to the walk-in again on Monday for a diaper rash caused by the diarrhea that keeps coming back. They told me she has a temporary sensitivity to lactose because I guess antibiotics kills off the bacteria that break down lactose too and the diarrhea is stopping them from being able to build back up to normal levels!! If it's not one thing, it's another! My gosh! Soooooo..... right now she can't have any fruit or dairy still! And I've stopped drinking milk just in case! I had to stop trying to wean her too which sucks because we were doing really good and now we're back to square one!

Venily has unfortunately learned how to throw a pretty good tantrum when she's tired! HAHA! You should see it! She makes her whole body go limp and screams and screams! I need to start putting her to bed earlier, before she gets too tired!

Her vocabulary is contining to grow and grow!!! She amazes me soooo much!!! She's got to be on 50+ words now, but I've lost count! Some new words she says now are "rock, rock", "knock, knock", "boy", "diaper", "chair", "button", "duck".... I'm always shocked when she'll say a word I haven't heard her say before and she knows exactly what it means! She is getting really good at fetching things for me too, lol, isn't that the real reason for having kids?! HAHA! I say "go get mama a ....(book, duck, baby, dinosaur, etc., etc.)" and she'll run and go get it for me!! She will be such a good helper by the time we have another baby! :)

Other than that, things are going pretty good. Our house is coming along slowly but surely. Everything that we have left we need to rely on other people so it is taking some time. We'll be in there soon though!

October 21, 2008 (Venily is 1 year, 1 week, 1 day old)

Venily HATES baths!! Hates them, hates them, hates them!!!! It has been getting steadily worse so she bought some cool new bath toys with some of her birthday money, but NO LUCK!!! She was hesitant to get in today, but once she saw her new toys, she was happily playing with them.... until... I poured a little water on her body (NOT her head) and she screamed the whole rest of the time and was standing, clenching onto me, begging me to get her out of there. It is so sad! She just absolutely hates when I pour water over her head and now if she even sees the cup, she starts to freak. I only give her baths like twice a week, lol, but now I don't know what to do!

P.S. I started updating her site. Look at her charts!! HAHA!! 64% for weight (which is pretty good) and she is even MORE off the chart now for height, she is a TALL girl!! Every time I tell someone that she is 1, they say she looks 18m or 2 because of how tall she is! :)

We're looking forward to a fun weekend this weekend, hopefully the weather is nice!


I love this because it's EXACTLY how I feel! :)

October 20, 2008 (Venily is 1 year, 1 week old)

Venily officially has 6 teeth now!! She popped those 2 top teeth through a couple of days ago. So that makes 4 on top, 2 on the bottom! My little llama needs some more bottoms now!

She is getting really good at saying "all done". I think it's her first two word combo that she says (well, at least two different words).

I am sick, so I haven't gotten much done on this site. I still need to put up pics, write her 1 yr likes and dislikes and fix up the front page.

October 15, 2008 (Venily is 1 year, 2 days old)

We had a lot of fun on Venily's birthday! We played outside, went to the zoo, went out to eat for dinner, and went to the puppy store!! She loved it- and it was such a nice day out again! I have pictures from her party and her birthday up on myspace. I don't think I'll have enough room to put them all up on here. (I am contemplating getting a new website soon, I'll keep you updated on that). Venily is still a little sick though. And even this morning, she is still sticking her finger in her ear that had the ear infection. She has her 1 year well-check and shots today so I will have the doctor take a look at her ear as well. She will have been on antibiotics a week tomorrow so I hope it is better soon! I am DREADING having her get shots. It will be especially sad this time, because she will know what is going on much more.

I have a list of all Venily's favorite things and such as she turned one year old that I still need to type up and put up on here. I also wrote her a letter. It was very hard to write, let me tell you! :)

I still haven't got Venily's 11 month pics online yet! Hopefully soon. I also need to schedule her 1 year pics very soon and we are going to be getting family pics done as well! I can't wait to not get pictures every month! I think I'll get her 18 month pics, and then every year after that!

October 15, 2008 (con't)

Venily's check-up went really well. The doctor was very impressed with all of the things she can do! Her ear still has pus in it, but it's not red anymore so her ear infection is getting better, though it's still bothering her. Venily's height was 31.5 inches long, her weight was 21 pounds, 12 ounces, and her head circumference was 46.5cm. Her doctor said she looks awesome and that we are doing everything right!!!

She did have to have 3 shots! :( She screamed of course, but as soon as she was done and her Daddy picked her up, she was waving at the nurse again and saying hi to her, lol (with tears all down her face). Then she didn't cry at all after that, I'm hoping it doesn't bother her at all tonight. She got the first half of her flu shot and has to go back in a month to get the other half! Then she has more shots at 15 months.

I am starting to try to break her from nursing, I'd like to be done by the time she's 13 months. It is not going to be easy, but we were able to get her to take a sippy cup of warm whole milk instead of me last night, even though she kept insisting on me. She gave up and drank the milk though, so that gives me hope. We're going to substitute one feeding a day w/ whole milk every 4 days or so and see if that works for us!

This past week she has gone back to taking 2 naps a day!! YES!!! BUT.... she rarely takes them in her crib. Most of the time I have to either hold her or she sleeps on our bed. In either case, I can't get much done. I think it has a lot to do with her ear hurting her so I'm hoping she will go back to taking her naps in her crib when she is all better.

A letter to my daughter:

Dear Venily, my sweet, darling, baby girl,

You are a year old now and I can't believe how fast this year has gone.

I was elated when I found out I was pregnant with you. It's hard to explain, but I needed you. I felt so empty. I wanted a baby girl more than anything in the world and I finally had you. Your Daddy was everything to me, but I still felt like there was something more I was missing out on. Your pregnancy had its ups and downs but I was always so happy. There was life inside of me and I would protect it with my own. But I was scared.... scared something would go wrong, scared to hold the one thing I wanted more than anything and have it taken away from me. My whole world was inside of me and it seemed so fragile.

You were born on a Saturday afternoon, just as I asked you to be! I wasn't even sure I was in labor with you but your Dad raced us to the hospital and I asked the people at the front desk what I should do. "Umm... I think I might be in labor. What should I do?" haha. I had to stop every couple of minutes as I was having contractions, but I still couldn't believe it was really happening. Less than 2 hours later you were here! You were SOOOO perfect. It went so fast. It was almost painless. I couldn't even comprehend it at first. Where were the hours of screaming and eating ice chips and yelling at my husband that I hated him? Where was the gooey, smashed up face, bald-headed, screaming baby? As I held the most perfect little girl in all the world I couldn't understand how I could be so lucky. You were perfect. Just perfect. And you were mine. I couldn't sleep at all the first night. I just stared at you and held you all night long.

We've learned so much this last year. Your Dad learned what a onesie was and how to hold you so that you'd fall right to sleep. I learned how to nurse and change a diaper at the same time! That has come in very handy. And YOU learned how to smile, sit, talk, walk, and get every person who lays eyes on you to fall instantly in love with you. I'm so proud of every little thing you do. Your Dad and I used to fight about who got to push you in the stroller when we'd go grocery shopping and who had to push the grocery cart because we each wanted the "credit" for you. HAHA! You are so cute. You have to wave and say "hi" to every person you see. Everyone adores you!

You know when you have those moments where you stop and say that you want to remember it forever, so you try to take a picture of it with your mind? Remember each and every detail and exactly how it made you feel? You memorize the sights, the smells, the sounds, the overwhelming emotion? Well, there were so many times I wanted to freeze moments in your first year!! I never want to forget!! You did the cutest thing with your lips. They were so precious. We called it being "sghettoey" and only your father and I could truly understand and appreciate what that word meant! :) You'd giggle and laugh at the silliest things. There were entire days when we'd just stick out our tongues at each other and laugh. I remember times when you were so sleepy and I'd hold you in my arms, rocking you, singing some silly made up song about how much I loved you and you'd give me the sweetest kiss after every line I sang and you'd have the cutest little smirk on your face as your eyes were getting more and more tired. I have never felt so loved and my heart would physically hurt knowing how much I loved you back. There were trips to the museum, park, lake, zoo, hiking, and everywhere else we'd go. I wanted you to see everything. You loved new experiences and meeting new people.

The smell of lavender hand sanitizer brings me right back to our duplex, holding my newborn baby who slept ALL of the time as long as we were holding her. You were so content to do anything as long as it was with us. Your Daddy and I would literally be shocked each and every morning at how big you'd grown over night. We would never say that you couldn't do something because the next chance you'd get, you'd prove us wrong. People said that it would go fast, to enjoy it while we could, but we never dreamed it would go THIS fast. That in an instant, you'd go from a tiny, helpless baby to our little girl!

You have grown into the most adorable, gorgeous, smart little girl with the sweetest personality ever! Every month you'd grow, I'd remember thinking "this is my favorite month, please stop growing" and of course, you never listened! But, each month I'd say the same thing again and it would continue to get better and better. You have little conversations with me now. You always want to show me things that you think are cool. You get frustrated when you don't get your way. You pretend you are doing something else when we catch you do something naughty. You dance and sing and try to jump. You love to imitate us. You love to share. You say 35-40 words and your Daddy and I are convinced you're a genius! :) You love your family so much.

You are playing right now on the floor around me and you keep coming up to me to give me a kiss and you keep bringing me books to read you. I just read "Mr. Brown Can Moo Can You" for the 5th time today. You love it.

Thank you for letting me be your Mommy for this last year, it has been the best year of my life. I have taken my job very seriously and have always tried to do my best. I wanted you to have the best possible start and I think I've done a pretty good job! I want you to know that you are loved sooo much. I look forward to watching you grow and change more in this next year. I love you Venily! Happy Birthday love!!!!! XOXOXO

OCTOBER 13, 2008 (VENILY IS 1 YEAR OLD!!!!)

Happy 1st BIRTHDAY sweet baby girl!!! I love you so much!!!!

Man, I was doing so good with not crying but now I'm ready to lose it again, lol!

Venily's birthday party yesterday was awesome!!! Thank you so much to everyone who came, we couldn't have asked for a nicer day! Venily had so much fun seeing everyone. And I have NEVER seen her eat ANYTHING the way she devoured her cake and ice cream, lol! HAHA, that was too funny! We are so happy so many people helped us celebrate her big day! I will have more to write later... it is hard to write while she is napping on me, lol!

I can't believe my baby girl is a year old already!!!!