Remember Sophie's waldorf doll that I was making her for a Christmas gift? Yeah, well I never finished it. But.... I did finish it in time for her birthday tomorrow (yes, my baby will be one tomorrow!! *sniff*).
All I can say about making a waldorf doll is this: don't do it! It's so hard, especially because I foolishly expected it to look like the ones you see online or in waldorf shops. Next time (for Parker's birthday I think) I'll be buying a doll instead of making it again. I'll never complain again about the dolls costing up to $125 as well handmade ones from all natural materials are so worth it. :)

(I had a better picture but the server rejected it. I'll upload a better one later on... gotta go to Parker's dr's appt about whether or not he needs a cast!).

Little Miss Sophie is 9 months old!

She's officially been out longer than she's been in!

At 9 months, Sophie:
~ is starting to wave.
~ loves to give kisses.
~ starting to dance to music. (so cute btw!)
~ is starting to become mischevious. She loves to do things that she knows she shouldn't do... and loves to watch me when she's doing something she knows she shouldn't do!
~ loves her brother and sister. Particularly loves pulling Parky's hair when he's sleeping.
~ is starting to nap in her crib in Parker's room. I also lay her in her crib at night but when bring her into our bed when she wakes up once we've gone to bed.
~ still nurses quite a bit at night. Even more so lately but I think its because she's so busy during the day and doesn't nurse much so she makes up for it at night.
~ weighs 19.7lbs
~ eats pretty much everything we do but nothing consistent. Eating is more of a fun thing to do and we offer her bits of food at the table to occupy her while we eat.
~ cruises around furniture.
~ crawls so fast now on hands and knees.
~ starting to feel seperation anxiety when I leave her sight.

Her personality is really starting to show, she loves to get a reaction out of us, loves to laugh but I can also tell she's going to have a bit of a temper. She can get so mad for such a little thing, take something away from her and look out! She's also so much more adventerous and "brave" than my other two were. Parker's always been very cautious and Sophie is his opposite. I have a feeling she'll be getting them both in a lot of trouble when they're older! All in all, we just love her so much and can't imagine our family without our little Sophers!

Sophie's Waldorf Doll

I've decided to try my hand at making Sophie a Waldorf doll for Christmas. I've wanted to make one for a while but was intimidated by the process, it looks so hard! But I went ahead and ordered some basic supplies from Maple Rose, a natural toy and supply shop in Nelson. This shop is great, the supplies arrived within 3 days which is flippin' amazing, imo!

There's tons of tutorials out there on how to make waldorf dolls, some have better written tutorial, some have better photos. For me, I used a combination of several online tutorials.

So far, I've been working on her head. Here's some pics, the first is a front view of her face, the second a side view. I still need to make a nose and then cover the head in doll skin before moving on to the body.

Sophie is 8 months old!

Sophie turned 8 months this past Wednesday and as always I think to myself how quickly this is all going by. Time flies by quicker these past few years: our lives are fuller and just plain crazier!

At 8 months, Sophie:
~ cruises around furniture
~ climbs onto and into things! This past week, she's climbed into more than one moving box as I was trying to unpack it (yes, we moved this past month!).
~ has mastered the pincer grasp.
~ looks for a toy if she drops it.
~ loves to throw a toy so we can retrieve it for her. Over and over again.
~ has started playing with the volume of her voice. Today she was all about whispering. :)
~ loves to eat. We still only offer her solids as an addition to breastmilk. I feel that breastmilk should be the number #1 source of food for at least the first year but she gets bits of this and that at meal times, mostly to entertain her enough so we can eat our dinner. Her favourites are banana or avacado chunks, peas, and toast. She just started to cry out for food if she sees one of us eating something that she wants.
~ still cosleeps with us all night long. I would like to start sleeping seperate from her for a few hours a night as she is becoming  restless and wakes to the slightest movement. Also, she's becoming an all night nurser. I'm hoping that having her sleep in her own space (a crib or mattress in our room, haven't decided yet), she'll actually get a better night's sleep.

Sophie is 7 months old!

Well, she's 7 months and 3 days old. :) This picture is from a few weeks ago but I just love it, we were at Rathtrevor beach and she was having such a good time!

At 7 months (and 3 days), Sophie:

~ has two bottom teeth. (and she has a bottom and a top tooth juuuuust about to pop through as well)

~ army crawls everywhere. This girl is speedy!

~ has started pulling herself up to standing onto furniture.

~ lifts arms up to when she wants up.

~ has started eating solids. We offered her some pieces of food when she turned 6 months but she wasn't too interested so we held off. ABout two weeks ago she started actually eating what was being offered. No baby food here!

~ loves to sleep with mama. She's been nursing more frequently at night but since we cosleep, I can't tell you how many times actually and I don't feel too affected since her waking up only requires me latching her on before drifting back to sleep. Cosleeping and breastfeeding rocks!

~ is still not interested in napping independantly. Naps are hard around here. Uusally her morning nap is a struggle, she wants to sleep with me but Parker's still up so that doesn't work. Often I'll either wear her, take her out for a walk or drive or if she's really tired she'll fall asleep while I nurse her and I can lay her on the sofa for a short whle. The afternoon naps are much easier as she naps with her brother. Sometimes she'll nap for just 1/2 hour but once in a blue moon she'll nap for two hours.

~ is much more vocal. When she's sad she says "dada" or "mum" over and over again.

~ loves to play. She often growls at me when she's feeling playful. Funny little girl!

Sophie is 4 months old!

I just can't believe that she's 4 months old already, time has been going by so fast!

New skills:
~ Sophie rolls over both ways now. Back to front is still easier for her though.
~ She knows her name. If we say her name she'll look for the person saying it.
~ Usually wakes once per night.
~ She has a tooth that's been poking up and down for about a week now. I can feel it but not quite see it.
~ Sophie has started to have full belly laughs. Of course she only does this for daddy though!
~ She can sit with support.
~ She pushes up with her arms when on her tummy.
~ Sophie has just started discovering her feet.
~ She loves to hold and mouth toys. Her favourite is a playsilk that I've tied into a ring.
~ We've put her in an excersaucer a few times. She likes to spend a few minutes in it while we're out in the garden.
~ I've been noticing lately that she naps better upstairs in my room than downstairs. She's a very light sleeper and will often only nap about 20 minutes at a time downstairs. But I'm not sure I'm ready for her to sleep upstairs and plus I can't quite figure out how to get her to nap upstairs when Parker's awake.

I'm sure there's more but as usual, I can't seem to think of them all right now! :)

Morning Adventures

Since Sophie's arrival, I've spent more time walking on trails rather than city walks. I find that it's easier to do so when you have two little ones because I don't have to worry about Parker as much. On most wide trails he can do and go pretty much where ever he wants. Not having to say: "be careful", "stay on the sidewalk", etc is also very relaxing for me just as it is for him to not have to hear it twenty times on our walk! :)

Today we went to Hemer Park which has really nice wide trails and is very quiet except for the occasional dog walker. I wore Sophie in the stretchy wrap (I'm impatiently waiting for my babyhawk to arrive!) and Parker led the way. Parker was fascinated with all the sounds he heard: birds singing and frogs croaking. We spent about an hour walking and discovering at a toddler's pace. We came upon a lookout over a large pond that Parker absolutely loved...we spent quite a while there watching geese, looking at lily pads and cat's tails.

I thought for sure that Sophie was going to fall asleep (she was dozing in the van on the drive there) on the walk but instead she became quite fussy and cried most of the way back. I'm finding it harder and harder to wear her as she's liking it less and less. I'm hoping it's just the wrap that she just doesn't like anymore (as well as the ring sling but I think that's because it shrunk and no longer fits properly) and not that she just doesn't like to be worn anymore. She was content if I was bouncing as I walked and patting her bum with her soother in her mouth but by then Parker was starting to become tired and wanted me to pick him up but of course I couldn't. Luckily just as we were all about to have a breakdown we passed 5 dogs. Parker loves dogs and the owners were nice enough to stop and let him pet the dogs and I was able to soothe Sophie until she calmed down. Next time I think I might bring the jogging stroller along with a baby carrier as a back up.. Parker can hop on when he gets tired and Sophie can go to sleep in it when she gets tired of being worn.

Needless to say that Parker fell asleep within 5 minutes of us being in the van. I nursed Sophie and she chatted to herself happily the whole ride back into town. :)

My Secret Weapon...

against chubby baby neck crease yuckies: probiotic powder!

Neither of my other children really had that problem but while they were big babies (9lbs12oz and 9lbs 3oz at birth) they were also long and not roly-poly like Sophie is. I always washed her creases in the morning and at night but that darn neck crease always got so red and I hate to say it: gross. It was cheesy and smelly and not very pleasant. I tried washing and drying it more often but that seemed to just irritate her. I tried cornstarch which we all know just feeds yeast so obviously that didn't work. Then I thought I'd try some of the probiotic powder that I had in the freezer (Reuteri brand) and it honestly cleared it up almost completely overnight. It was completely gone by day 2! Just sprinkle a little bit on and wash it off in the morning.
Works like magic!

12 weeks already!

Sophie Maddelyn is 12 weeks old today. I'm doing the best I can to savour every mili-second as she's most likely our last baby but it seems every time I blink, she's grown an inch or changed in some way!

Sophie at 12 weeks:
~ can hold her head up 90 degrees when on her tummy
~ has great head control
~ is starting to grow back all her newborn hair that she lost
~ Coos and baby talks
~ smiles all.the.time!
~ thinks her hands are the best playthings ever
~ on average, wakes up twice a night to eat
~ grasps for toys in her reach
~ kicking with her feet
~ thisclose to rolling from back to front. (I think the big cloth bum gets in the way, lol)
~ weighs about 12lbs (was 11lbs 15.5oz at 11 weeks)
~ is starting to create a daily rythm for herself.
~ loves to "sit" and prefers to face out to observe her surroundings
~ tends to really only get upset when she's overly tired
~ even though we've never adjusted our noise level when she's been asleep and she's been used to sleepign through normal family noises since birth, she now wakes up to the slightest sounds.

It's moments like these.....

                ......... that make the stresses of the day melt away.

2 months old already!

How did that happen?! Little Miss Sophie Maddelyn is 2 months old (plus 2 days as of today) and she weighs 11lbs 2.6oz.

She has her first visit with our family Dr. on Monday to check her weight. Between weeks 5 and 8, Sophie has only gained 3oz. At our 6 week m/w appt, our m/w said to check her weight again in a week and if it isn't a substantial gain to take her in. Well, I missed week 7 so I took her in on Monday (2 months exactly) and since there wasn't a decent weight gain in that two weeks, I made an appointment.

I'm worried that the Dr. is going to blame tandem nursing for her slow weight gain but my supply seems to be as strong as it's ever been. In fact, when Parker nurses more often like when he was sick, my supply increased big time. Sophie is different from my other two in how she nurses. She doesn't like to comfort nurse, doesn't like to fall asleep at the breast either. She's just there to eat and that's it which makes it hard when she's very uspet and I'm trying to comfort her as nursing my other two would always be the way to instantly stop the fussiness and tears. So I get that's why she's not gaining a pound a week at this stage like my other two were!

Anyways.... here's hoping for a decent weight gain at the doctor's office on Monday!

Quality time..

Quality one on one time seems to be my biggest struggle since our family grew to a family of 5. But it's something I'm really working hard on lately. This past week especially, I've been thinking more about our family and my relationship with each member in it and I learned that each one of those relationships can use a little help.
I find that Ally being that she's almost 14 is hard to connect with the most on a daily basis. We butt heads and don't always enjoy each other's company. But I know that she's been feeling left out now that we have 2 small ones in the house so I've been making extra effort even when some days I just don't want to! Quality time with her is all about doing things away from the little ones, letting her have all the attention for a little bit. That doesn't happen every day but we go to the library, sneak out for an ice cream cone and every night we'll talk about her day while doing the dishes.
With Parker most of my one on one time with him is when he's nursing or if he wakes up in the middle of the night and we'll cuddle together until he falls back asleep. I look forward to when Dave's home on the weekends so that I can lay down with him for a nap just the two of us. We snuggle in tight, arms wrapped around each other and he'll grab onto a lock of my hair to twirl as he drifts off to sleep.
Sophie... again one on one time comes when she's nursing or when Parker's asleep and I sing to her or bathe her.
Staying connected with my husband hasn't been easy either. Since Sophie's been born we pushed each other's needs to the side and forgot about us as a couple which I know isn't uncommon but it's scary how quickly a happy marriage can sour if neglected. Having three children (and all who are at such tough ages: teenager, toddler, newborn) has been hard on us and we were getting resentful of each other as well as felt rejected by the other so this past week we've been working more on us: going to bed together, sitting near each other on the sofa and actually talking to each other.
It's not easy and we're just a family of 5. Makes me wonder how large families do it and make it look so easy at the same time!