Christmas Time

This year Christmas landed on a Wednesday which means we had to cram all of our activities into two days. Monday night we headed back to Shueyville for the Salwey side Christmas on Christmas Eve. It was a lot of fun watching Henry & Hannah tear through all their presents. Leah & Luke weren't quite as excited :) Leah was of course spoiled and got several new toys, a Minnie chair and a pillow pet. 

Christmas Eve Morning

All the grandkids after church

Salwey family picture

Bowzer didn't cooperate for our pic :)

Then Wednesday we headed over for round two of great food and of course, more presents. Leah got more toys, some books and a new sound machine since the iPad is no longer safe in her crib with her rolling around everywhere. She even helped tear open some of her presents which was so fun to watch!

The Meyers girls

She loves her new Sophie from Grandma!

Leah's second tooth poked through on Christmas but unfortunately she still isn't sleeping through the night. She seems to have one really bad night a week and then only up one or two times the other nights. We are resorting to tylonel and orajel before bed each night and that seems to help. We miss our good sleeper!

6 months old!

Leah is six months old today and always wants to be on the move. She is very stable in sitting up in her own and seems to think that she is ready to crawl/walk/run with how much she is always moving and wanting to be on the go! And yesterday, I felt her first tooth popping through! It is her bottom right so I am sure the left is on its way. Hopefully this explains why she hasn't been sleeping thru the night anymore and that there is an end in sight! It feels like she is doing something new everyday, just now she cried after being asleep for an hour but as I checked the monitor to see her, she had found the pacifier and plugged herself and was back asleep. First time for that! Such a big girl :)

Nothing is safe anymore with this crazy girl, I turn away for 30 seconds and all the diapers were out of the pack - and they were not within arms reach!

So big!

Another new thing this week is that she sticks her tongue out and pants when she gets excited. It's pretty funny, she must have learned it from Bowz :). You can sort of see her doing it here. 

We don't have out 6 month check until Jan 9th but I will post her stats then. Hoping to be out of the teen percentile ranges!

Sitting without Support and Christmas Photo Shoot

Leah has been pretty sturdy sitting in our laps for a while now so on December 5th Bri and I decided to test her sitting alone and she passed!!

Look at this big girl. 

She is still a little unsteady but getting much better. This week at daycare there were several notes about her sitting with support and last night we played for half an hour, only toppling over a couple times :)

Look at all my toys!

Last weekend we were back at home for the boys to hunt (unfortunately, Brian didn't even see a deer to shoot at) and my Mom had scheduled us a Christmas photo shot for the grand kids and the pictures turned out great!

Luke & Leah

I feel like Leah doesn't look like normal Leah here but the background is pretty!

All four kiddos!

 

Happy (First) Thanksgiving!

This year is flying by and we have much to be thankful for. We are blessed with great family and friends and a beautiful & healthy little girl that has filled our lives with so much joy. Brian started a new job this week at Mid American Energy that he is excited about and I have a great job as well. Life is good! :)

This last week was full of family time! Wednesday night we head to Iowa City after work for a 'friendsgiving' hosted by the Stallmans. Then on Thursday we had the Meyers Thanksgiving in Fairfax which was full of great food as always and we managed to sneak some family pictures in as well.

Meyers Cousins

The whole Meyers clan

Look at that adorable little girl :)

Thursday was my Mom's birthday as well so we headed over to my parents that night to hang out with them and of course to go Black Friday shopping in the morning - even Leah came with! Since stores now open on Thursday the crowds weren't bad at all Friday morning which was nice. Then Saturday we traveled back home for a night of family games and the Salwey Thanksgiving at the Schmidts' on Sunday.

Turkey butts

Leah had an off week between being sick(ish) and getting out of her routine, combined with being away from home so she decided that she didn't want to take naps (unless she was being held) or sleep much at night from Tuesday-Saturday.  After two nights back at home she is getting better (slept from 9-5 last night) so hopefully after being back at daycare today she will have a normal night tonight.

Getting ready for Christmas!

Sick Baby...Well sort of

Well our luck ran out after 5 months. We have been lucky with Leah so far and besides a few runny noses/colds she has been a very healthy baby. Then last Wednesday (11/20) I got a call from daycare saying I needed to come pick up Leah as she had vomited and then had a blow out. The usual rule is 2 pukes or 3 blowouts are cause to go home but since they happened simultaneously she had to go for the day. She didn't have a fever and was a happy, giggling baby when I picked her up so I decided to use the opportunity to bring her into work to show off since we were so close. Leah did great for the first 30 minutes, then all of a sudden she started puking in the aisles at my office! Three times in a row, projectile vomit style. I couldn't believe it! We headed home, she took a good hour and a half nap and then woke up and was happy/normal again. She slept great that night and didn't have a fever in the morning so we sent her back to daycare the next day and she was fine. We had a good rest of the week and weekend but then come Monday morning I got another call at 10 saying she had puked again. I got the second call 45 minutes later saying I needed to come get her as she wouldn't really eat her bottle, looked white and then puked again. Once I got her home she slept most of the afternoon but for the short while she was up she was happy and ate fine for me the rest of the day. Unfortunately, she couldn't go back to daycare unless we had a note from the doctor saying she wasn't contagious or she had been symptom free for 24 hours. So I decided to play the Grandma card :)  Luckily my mom had Tuesday & Wednesday off work so she was able and willing to come down Monday night and stay home with Leah for me today.

Leah had a great day today hanging out with Grandma Deaner and was happy and playful the whole time. As you can see below - she was a very 'sick' baby :)

Nap time

Before Oatmeal

 

She loves Peek-A-Boo!

One last side note - Leah's new bedtime the past couple weeks has been 7. It's so crazy but she is tired and cranky around 6:30 now so we try and get her to 7 and then she sleeps all night! 

New Daycare

The 8 weeks with Michelle went way too fast! While she was great with Leah I was excited and ready to start at Principal's daycare. November 4th was her first day and things have been going great. It is so nice having her just a few blocks away and even nicer that I have been able to go and visit most days over lunch. I figure I need to take advantage of it now before she gets old enough where it might be upsetting for me to leave her there twice a day.

The buggy ride that Leah loves at school 

Another great thing is Leah has turned into an amazing sleeper. Starting the last week of October she went from crying herself to sleep and waking up frequently and needing plugged, to going to bed by 8 and us needing to wake her up at 6:30 to get ready for 'school'! It has been VERY nice for Mom & Dad to consistently get a good nights sleep. And she is so much happier when she wakes up. I guess she just needs her sleep, and lots of it! 

We hit a few more milestones, Leah found her feet (and loves playing with her toesies) and also rolled from back to front for the first time! Both happened on November 3rd. We also started baby and she seemed to love it! It's a little bittersweet, first time she's ever had anything besides breastmilk. Pretty soon she will be eating real food. 

Not real sure of the whole spoon thing :)

I love my feet!! (And the Hawkeyes of course)

Leah is still a little peanut. We had her 4 month check on November 6th (we are a little behind) and she weighed in at a whopping 13 lbs 8 oz putting her in the 21%. She is 24" (12%) and her head is 16" (42%).  So she has grown a little from her 2 month check but is happy and healthy which is all that matters. No worries that her younger cousin Luke is about 2 lbs heavier than her already:)

We are so blessed to have the happiest baby ever.  Even the daycare ladies go on and on about how happy she always is.

Peek-a-boo!

5 months already!

September & October

Time keeps flying by and again I am behind on blogging! It's hard to believe that I have been back at work for almost three months and Leah is almost 5 months old.  This is my attempt to summarize the past two months :)

September 21st: My mom scheduled Salwey family pictures and they turned out great!

   Such a happy girl!

October 4th - The Dells.  We take a Salwey family vacation every year (special thanks to my parents for having a timeshare for us to stay at!) and as excited as everyone was (especially the guys :) ) to go away for the weekend with two kids and two newborns, I think it was a very successful vacation! Lots of time to relax, drink, play games and enjoy the water parks.  At 3 1/2 months, Leah wasn't so sure about her Dad bringing her in the water but I am sure she will be splashing around the next time we make the trip!

   First time in the wave pool

Lasted about five minutes at the wave pool before needing a nap

  She wasn't a big fan of the cold water hitting her!

A week before we went to the Dells Leah regressed with her sleeping habits. She went from being happy to go to bed around 9ish and sleeping until 5ish to being a sobbing girl that woke up every few hours screaming until she was plugged again. We ended up having to let her cry it out for 10-15 minutes in order for her to sleep for more than a few hours at a time. It was a rough couple of weeks but luckily she got it figured out again late October and is again sleeping through the night and going to bed much happier. She found her hands and always wants them in her mouth and LOVES playing with her ball and sitting in her bumbo.

Our first Halloween! 

Leah was the cutest ladybug ever :)  We went over to the Schmidt's to get a few pictures in and then Leah & I went around to a few houses before calling it a night. Next year she can actually get some candy!

Great cousins picture - Aunt Bri dressed up too!

Leah is still loving her Bowz.  There are times when she will just sit and stare at him with a big smile on her face.  We are lucky that he is so great and patient with her. Hannah & Henry have been great practice for him over the past few years.

Four month picture: