A tale of two Fae's

I think these pictures illustrate both sides of Fae. At times she is quiet and sweet. Then there are times when she is a ball full of energy (but still sweet ;-) ) !

Noah @ 6 months

Noah had his 6 month visit and here are his stats:

14 lbs 2.5 oz
25.5"
16.5" head circumference

Started saying "ma ma ma ma ma ma" this week.

Fun in the snow

We joined Drew and Karen at the Northstar Ski Resort for the weekend in the snow. We had a great time on the slopes and Fae had some fun in the snow too. We had to head out early on Sunday due to the threat of road closure. Tahoe had 16" of new snow by Monday morning!

More Photos

Fae and Caleb

Fae plays with Caleb (18 months) at the mini playground in Santana Row.

Noah and Daddy

Fae and Kevin

Fae makes Noah laugh.

Daddy's Home

Mommy, Fae and Noah are happy to see Daddy come home from his week long business trip. Fae shows off her gift from cousin Sarah and Noah plays with his soccer ball.

Both asleep by 8:45pm.

What a relief.

Where's Fae's milk?

Fae can often be found with her sippy cup full of milk nearby. Well, on Saturday evening, after Uncle Jason and Joleigh had left for the night (we saw a movie downstairs in the theater...) I could not for the life of me find her sippy cup of milk. I figured it would turn up and that, most likely, it was empty.

It is now Monday and I just happened to come upon that missing sippy cup. I was sitting on the sofa and just happened to stick my hand between the crevices of two sofa cushions. I felt a sippy cup. Strange. It wasn't cold and I'd just poured her a fresh (cold) cup. Uh oh, the fresh cup is right in front of me on the coffee table. I pulled out the (old) sippy cup and, luckily, it was upright. Man, it's practically full. Wow, this thing has been sitting out for 2 full days now. I poured it down the drain immediately.

365 Organic Chocolate Teddy Graham (Cookies)

are a lifesaver. We found these last weekend at the Potrero Hill Whole Foods.

1) It's organic.
2) 6 grams of sugar per 19 cookies.

I gave Fae five --- 1, 2, 3, 4, FIVE -- cookies and she was ecstatic about it! She acted confused (but excited) as though she couldn't figure out what she'd done to deserve FIVE chocolate teddy graham cookies. I don't have the heart to tell her that those five cookies have less than 2 grams of sugar.

Rainy days and playdates

The past few weekends have brought us lots of rain and time indoors. What a great time to see our friends with children! Fae has had a play date almost everyday of the past two weekends (sorry, no pictures.). Today we spent the day at home with the kids and we're exhausted.





Noah and daddy got to enjoy the jumper while Fae and mommy played with dolls.

**Binky Update** - Fae is over the binky, in fact she is ok with giving Noah his binky. The downside to not having a binky is that she hasn't found a way to soothe herself so her tantrums are more "energetic" than before.

Bye, Bye Binky!!!

BINKY BEFORE

Fae has, so far, gone over 24 hours without her binky! On Sunday, before her afternoon nap, we took a snip out of her favorite binky.

BINKY AFTER

When she woke up from her nap, she, as usual, requested her binky. We gave her the snipped binky. It was interesting to see her look of confusion when she put it in her mouth (she didn't notice anything was wrong with it until she did this.)

Fae: "Oh. It's broken. Someone broke my binky!"
Tina: "Uh oh. What should we do with it? Should we throw it away?"
Fae: "Yeah."
Yoel: "OK, we're throwing it away," as he steps on the garbage pail lever to lift the lid and toss the binky in it -- making sure Fae can clearly see that her binky has been "thrown away."

We also did some preparatory work before this. We gathered up all of her binkies (which were stored in a nightstand drawer next to her bed) and hid them. Her nightstand is now empty. This is to prevent her from falling back on a different binky which would eventually become her new favorite binky.






Now, every time she asks for her binky, we remind her that it was broken and she told us to throw it away. We have been doing very well with using Gummi Bear Vitamins as a distraction. Costco sells them for around $10 per jar of 200-300 and we have 4 varieties: Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Omega-3, and Immune Booster (with Echinacea.) Each Gummi Bear only has about 1.5 grams of processed sugar. She gets 4-6 Gummi Bears each day between distractions, bribes to get her to sit on the potty more frequently and as rewards.

This morning, she did go looking into the garbage in an attempt to find her binky. And then, just before her nap, she saw Noah asleep on the couch with his binky and had a meltdown because she wanted her binky. The meltdown was more indicative that she was just tired and ready for her nap -- and Yoel had no problem getting her to lay down in her bed for naptime.

We are very proud to say we have a binky-free Fae now :-)

Meltdown...

Fae having one of her infamous meltdowns and, this time, pulls all of the books off of her bookshelf.

Noah is bigger and longer.

We finally made it to our "4-month" visit .. at 4 months, 3 weeks, 4 days! Noah received 4 shots and the Rotavirus vaccine which was given to him orally (by mouth.) He cried for a moment after getting the shots and then got over it. Must be a boy thing.

Length: 24.5" (10th percentile)
Weight: 13 lbs 5 oz (5th percentile)
Head Circumference: 16" (5th percentile)

Mommy, you have ...

beard.

Ugh.. that's not something you want to hear from your kid, especially when you're a woman. I was curled up with Fae in her Toddler bed (because I'm so petite ...) and talking to her when she pointed to my face and said,

"Mommy, you have beard."

Yes, there are some little hairs on my face near my mouth that could be construed as a mini-beard (or, mustache.) I guess I'd better take care of that ...

Where's Kenya?

Fae asks that a couple of times a day.

Kenya's gone to a new home. We adopted Kenya out to our (animal-loving) friend, Tana. We've found that the birds haven't been getting the attention they were previously used to since the arrival of the Homo Sapiens cubs ...

Why?

This week Fae has entered into the "Why?" stages. Almost every statement is responded to with a "why?". It's fun, for now, to respond to her with something that she can understand.

Noah gets a taste of Rice Cereal.

Shaheena, Noah's babysitter, is currently giving him a bit of rice cereal in the mornings. We've also decided that he will be totally on formula (Similac Organic) when he's not with me (during the workday) and breastfed when he is with me during the evenings and weekends.

NYE 2007 @ the Holly Farm

We spent NYE with friends at a venue called the Holly Farm in Carmel (Valley), California. We had a lot of fun playing Bocce Ball, preparing food (fresh Dungeoness crab, steaks, salads, Chilean Sea Bass), playing Guitar Hero and just a little drinking .. adults only, of course.