The end of an era

Today we bid farewell to our dearest, most beloved infant tool - the bouncy seat.  This morning I put Eliza in the seat while I was getting ready for the shower and when I turned around she was leaning completely forward and almost touching the ground.  Surely not, I thought . . . surely I had put her in wrong.  I pushed her back to the standard reclining position and watched closely.  Soon enough she started a heave-ho type movement to try to get herself sitting up, lifting the back feet of the bouncy a bit off the ground each time.  After three big heaves she was sitting up with a huge smile on her face - proud as pie!
We have treasured this piece of equipment for the past five months almost as much as we treasure the little booger that sits in it.  Regardless of it's ill-informed design (see below), it has provided us with hours of sanity and back breaks.  Not to mention that aside from the car, it has been the only way that little miss will take a nap during the day.  With that said - any ideas on how to transition her to the crib for naps?

What is that bear doing to my child???

Below we pay homage to our dear bouncy - you will be sorely missed.

Sitting up!

Crazy changes here at the Grolnar house as this week Eliza learned how to sit up!  Last weekend she couldn't support herself at all sitting.  On Monday she started sitting for 10-15 second intervals and on Tuesday she had a record one minute sitting before she sneezed and fell over.  On Wednesday it just clicked and she could sit up for several minutes at a time.  This weekend all she wants to do is sit and she can hold herself for 20-30 minutes no problem.  Crazy!  Here's video of her sitting, playing with Ginger and doing one of her favorite things these days - making noise!

Updates and pictures

All is well here in the Grolnar house as we happily welcome cooler temperatures. This past weekend we saw the first hints of fall with highs in the 60s and 70s. Finally!

Jeremy's mom came to visit for Labor Day and got to meet her little grandbaby. Eliza had a lot of fun with her and was spoiled with lots of fun new toys and cute clothes :)

Eliza is still shocking us with all of the speedy growing and changing. She has finally started rolling over again after taking about a six week break. The past few days she has also been getting both of her knees up under her and pushing to scooch forward when she's on her belly. I hate to say it but I think that's a precursor to . . . (gulp) crawling! I'm trying to enjoy these days of limited mobility while I can. Right now she loves anything hard to chew on, and anything soft and fuzzy to snuggle with. I'm packing away the 3-6 month clothes today and busting out the 6-9 monthers. I probably should have done this weeks ago as she's gotten some sad little elastic burns on her thighs from her onesies, but I just couldn't bring myself to admit that it was time. It's been awhile since I've posted, so here are a ton of photos :o)

Moms are good for napping

She loves to eat fuzzy things these days

Hangin with dad and Grammy

Fun with Grammy

Couldn't resist a butt shot when she was sporting her jeggings

Love the big eyes

Olive and Eliza have been bff's recently

Who needs toys when you have feet?!

Relaxing after the Buddy Walk

Outside with Grandma

Maaaaybe getting a little big for the tub

Sad face :(

Happy girl

Love the cow outfit

Hangin with auntie

Going for a stroll

Four Months!

Eliza is four months old! We had her well-baby checkup yesterday and she's taking the immunizations pretty hard today, running a low fever and just being pretty much pathetic. Poor kiddo.

The doc said she's looking great! She weighed in at 17lbs even and is 25 3/4 inches long. Her head measured at 43cm. That puts her at the 97th percentile for length (she was at the 50th last time!), 95th for her head and "over 97th" for weight. I'm not really sure what that means - does the chart only go up to 97th? Is our little girl off the charts? :-p

Eliza has been changing so much recently. Last week she spent two days having sooo much fun rolling over. She went from back to tummy once and then tummy to back countless times. She clearly loved it but then she just stopped - hasn't rolled over since. I guess she's done with that and ready to move onto bigger and better things! She's holding her big ol' noggin much more steadily now and loves to sit in her bumbo and watch what's going on. She also likes to be on the floor a lot more, just talking and playing with her toys. Recently she has really discovered that she can make noise - mostly in the form of yelling. It's sooo adorable (though I think other restaurant patrons might disagree!)

The kiddos start back at school today and it's a little bittersweet, but especially with E being so sad and pathetic I'm so glad to be home to comfort her.

Sometimes she falls asleep in the most inconvenient places - and then I am stuck :-p

E loves this toy - it vibrates which just fascinates her

Helping Uncle Jeronce lose at cards

Sreepy

Tummy time!

Daddy and the dogs showing E how to roll over

Santa's a bit scary when you're little!

A little over a week ago, still pretty shaky with that head

Suddenly she's figured out how to hold it up!

My Baby Essentials

I have a few pregnant friends who have asked for my baby must-haves, so these are the top things that have helped us get by the past few months with a newborn.

Bouncy Seat - Pretty much since birth, E has insisted that she must be bounced up-and-down 90% of the time. The bouncy seat isn't always the answer, but it has definitely saved our backs many a time. There are even occasions when the only thing that will calm her down is to stick her in her bouncy seat and give it some major bounces. It's also been really fun now that she's interacting a lot more to have her facing us while we act like total fools trying to get smiles out of her :) The one we have was a hand-me-down and it's one of the cheapest, but other than getting squeaky over time it's served us well.

Soothies - I don't know how I would have survived the first few weeks of breastfeeding without soothies gel pads. Coping with the blisters - yes, gentlemen, blisters - was incredibly painful and being able to have the cooling relief between feedings was a lifesaver. (Everyone who was breastfed as a child, go thank your moms now!) :-p

Swaddles - The nurses at the hospital made swaddling E up with a blanket look like the easiest thing in the world, but J and I were never able to master it. These velcro swaddles (basically a baby straightjacket - for the crazy babies ;-) ) have made our nights so much easier. Without being able to put her hands in her face, she sleeps for sooo much longer. Recently she's been a little Houdini and I'll occasionally wake up to an escaped arm, but they still help out a lot.

Teethers - With an early teether, it's essential to have a few of these around. Recently E has preferred this guy, who J lovingly coined the Boob Monster. It's the perfect shape for her to grab onto and shove into her mouth, and as an added bonus he makes a squeaky sound every time she bites down.

8,000 receiving blankets - I have a pile of these handy in every major room around the house. Our little girl loves to eat about twice as much as she needs and kindly gives the rest back to us, so having these around for quick cleanup, burping, etc. has been super handy.

The Baby Buzzer - We sold this toy when I worked at Learning Express and I had several moms tell me it was a lifesaver. I was hesitant at first because I tend to avoid noisy toys, but the music is surprisingly quiet. When E is on the brink of losing it, her bee can often help her keep it together with it's combination of vibration, lights and noise.

CoSleeper - We have been borrowing my cousin Erin's CoSleeper and it's been sooo nice. It's basically just a crib-sized bed that attaches to your bed so E is right there next to me, but has her own space. Being able to just pull her over and nurse her in the middle of the night has made it much easier for me to fall back asleep and be well rested. I'm super excited that Erin is due in just a few weeks with baby number 3, but a little sad that we will have to figure out something else for the nights. A fun new baby in the family totally makes up for it though :-)

BOB stroller - I was a little hesitant to register for this stroller as it's pricier than some, but we've loved it. Living in an older neighborhood, the sidewalks are very uneven and bumpy and the offroading capabilities have been sooo nice.

Rocky Mountain Cloth Diapers - We were using a cloth diaper service for awhile, but I recently took the plunge and cancelled the service so we could start doing it all ourselves. I've been really happy with the switch. If anyone's interested in the details, let me know - that could be a whole blog post on it's own!

Of course we have tons of other stuff that we love, but if I was stranded on an island with the baby, these are the things I would insist on :-p

I can hardly believe it, but E is going to be four months next Wednesday. We take her in for her checkup on Tuesday and I can't wait to see how much she weighs - it's been two months since she's been weighed. Sadly, she has to get more pokes this appointment, but hopefully these are the last for awhile. I'll keep everyone posted!

Boulder trip and updates

We took a spontaneous jaunt to Boulder two weekends ago because our friends Jeff and Asmita have an apartment there for the summer and generously offered to let us stay there while they were in Vail. I was really excited because Jeremy had never been to Boulder, but unfortunately it turned out to be the hottest weekend of the year! Nights were pretty rough with no air conditioning and we ended up just escaping to nearby Estes Park during the day where it was much cooler and doing dinner in Boulder. It was a pretty fun weekend anyway and we plan on doing Boulder again this fall when Jeremy can see it and enjoy it a little bit more. Eliza did pretty darned well considering that she spent most of both days either in her carseat or stroller. She only had two major breakdowns but of course they ended up being during our two dinners out so one of us had to hold her and bounce her during the meals. Overall it was a nice getaway for us - Jeremy has been super stressed with work and it was good for him to be able to unwind and not feel like he had to be doing stuff around the house.

We saw a moose up really close in Rocky Mountain National Park!

Beautiful hike

Family :)

Enjoying riding with Momma

Tuckered out

We wore her out!

Eliza is growing so fast. Just today she flipped from her back to her stomach for the first time! She has started to reach for and grab onto toys and then promptly shoves them into her mouth. I'm also about 95% sure that she's cutting a molar. Since babies usually don't teeth this early and they usually get their molars last this is very unusual, but not unheard of. I can see a white dot on her gums and she's been exceptionally mouthy, drooly and sad. I'm hoping it will go back up into the gums here soon and wait to bug her later since molars are so difficult to cut. It's so hard to see her sad and know there's not a whole lot I can do to help. I've discovered that our big battle is probably going to be naps. She used to sleep during the day just fine but recently she's really been fighting it. Luckily she's been sleeping between 6-9 hours straight every night though. I'd rather have a hard time during the day than at night!

This week is when I would have had to go back to work if I had stayed on at Columbia and I must say I am very happy to be at home. I miss Eliza when I leave for just a few hours and think I would be very unhappy to be apart from her so much.

Ready to walk around at Grandma's house

Cousin Natalie made her a hat

So happy!

Hangin out

Daddy's favorite outfit

Sooooo sleeepy

Elephants for breakfast

Sorry, Sorry!

I have been pretty bad about taking pictures recently and especially bad about posting them. Many people have sufficiently guilted me, so here's my attempt at making up for it by flooding the blog with pictures!

Updates - Eliza is getting really good at holding her head up. I'm looking forward to full head control so she can sit in the bumbo (see pics below) by herself and can be carried facing outwards with my moby wrap. She pretty much only likes to be carried if you hold her facing out so she can see what's going on these days. That makes trips to the grocery store super fun for me. Holding her facing out + pushing the cart + trying to grab stuff off of the shelves = no fun at all. Better than having her scream her fool head off though :-p Just yesterday she finally figured out how to suck her thumb - something she's been working on for weeks. It's so cute because she's soooo loud. I'll try to get a video up soon. She has also started to parrot, which is super fun. If you stick your tongue out, she'll stick hers out back. If you make a cooing sound she'll coo back. Last week at the ripe age of 2 1/2 months I had to pack away her 0-3 month clothes and pull out the 3-6 month batch. The crazy part is some of the 3-6 month stuff is already pretty tight! Jeremy's headed to DC for the week, so we're on our own. I promised him I'd have her saying "daddy" by the time she gets back so I'd better get to work ;-)

Happy baby

Funny faces

Oh but he did - Daddy's little gamer

Little Elmo

Fun with Jeremy

Cute

Dreaded tummy-time

Olive loves hanging with baby

Not quite ready to sit in the bumbo alone but still likes it with help

Big enough to ride in the stroller without the carseat!