Nora has been into all things “nah-nah” (that’s ballerina in Nora-speak) for a long time now.
Months ago, she found a random pair of those mary jane socks buried in the bottom of her drawer. You know the kind: They look like they have a pair of mary jane shoes painted on them. They make a ton of them in baby sizes, but—as I’ve come to find out—not so much for the toddler/pre-school crowd. But Nora is OBSESSED with them and calls them her “nah-nah socks” because the mary jane part also looks like a ballet slipper, I suppose. (I’ve since found black and white pairs at Target for $1.25, so now she has like five pairs. Woot woot!)
Anyway, last year, I looked into the area dance schools and found that most of them start accepting students at age 3. However, since I was on maternity leave—and therefore had a newborn baby—come Nora’s birthday in the fall, it wasn’t top of mind for us. Of course, she’s become even more obsessed with dance and ballerinas since her third birthday, and in November, I started looking into classes again. It took a bit, but I found something that would work for us, and Nora started her dance classes last Saturday.
It’s adorable. Seriously adorable. I mean, I figured it would be. And then, when I took Nora shopping for all of the “gear” she was going to need (ballet and tap shoes, dance tights, leotard), I kept feeling little squeezes in my heart when I saw how excited she was over all of it. And then, when the day actually came, and she got dressed and went marching into that class all by herself? HEART EXPLODED.
I actually made a rookie mistake on the first day of class. I assumed I’d be able to sit in there and watch her during class, and take all sorts of adorable photos and video. Not the case. The teacher and her assistant take the girls back to the studio and us parents sit out in the “waiting room” area during the class. For the tap portion, they do come out into a room that we can see through the windows in the door. During this portion, the girls are often distracted by us, so I can see why they do it the way they do!
Probably needless to say… Nora is LOVING it. All she talks about all week is how many more days there are left until she gets to go to dance class again. She follows directions, she holds the teachers’ hands. She calls the other girls her friends (there are only two others in her class; I love that it’s small!). It’s so cute. It’s kinda pricey as far as preschooler hobbies go, but as long as she’s enjoying it, I don’t really mind. We want to expose her to a lot of different stuff so she can choose what she likes best as she grows. And we based the decision to put her in dance on her current interests—I didn’t have any preconceived expectations that my daughters HAVE to do dance.
The recital is in June. I can’t believe my baby is going to be up on a stage (assuming all goes well, of course).
In the meantime, I’m going to try not to spend a ton of money on the fantastically cute leotards that are out there. But she sure does need a purple one. :)
Yeah, two totally unrelated subjects.
First of all, I mentioned in Vivienne’s 5-month post that she is still rocking the swaddle. But unfortunately, the time has come—we need to ditch it. Last night, she rolled over in her swaddle about 30 minutes after I put her to bed. She was sleeping, but she fussed and I checked on the monitor and saw her, so I went in and turned her back over to her back. No problems until 4:00 a.m. this morning, when she woke up “yelling” at us. I know she can make it through the night and nothing was wrong, so we decided to play a little bit of hardball and encourage her to put herself back to sleep instead of having me feed her, or one of us rock her. It wasn’t “cry it out,” but we let her make more noise than usual.
During this time, however, she managed to turn herself over onto her belly 3-4 times. We were watching her pretty closely on the baby monitor (while trying to rest our eyes in between check-ins!), so we kept going in and turning her back.
Listen: I don’t think I need to explain why this needs to stop, right? Obviously, the first reason is safety, but also because no, I don’t really want to get out of bed several times a night to go turn her back over. Duh.
We broke Nora of the swaddle before she was even four months old. She had been repeatedly busting out of it and one night, we just did away with it. I was nervous to mess with the good sleep thing we had going, but she quickly figured out she could roll herself over and sleep on her stomach and BOOM. Transition done. No problems whatsoever. She was happy to have the opportunity to sleep on her belly.
With Vivienne, I’m not sure this is going to go as smoothly. I did the one-arm-out thing with her for a while back (between months 3 and 4), but once our sleep went to hell in a hand basket because of her reflux, she got tucked back in nice and tight to promote the best sleep possible. There has been no question that she sleeps best when she’s swaddled—at nighttime, and even for naps. Morning nap? Girlfriend sleeps for 2-3 hours if she’s snug as a bug in a rug. Over the holidays, I tried one of her morning naps without the swaddle—even went so far as to put her down on her belly—and she only lasted like 30 minutes. Ahhhhhhhh!
Any suggestions for successfully breaking the swaddle with a baby who seems pretty dependent on it? Start with one arm out again? Seems as though we’d still end up having to go back in several times to turn her back over, though. Cold turkey? She’s already waking us up at the wee hours the past couple days, so it’s not as if sleep is amazing right now. I’m assuming it’ll get way worse before it gets better, but… hopefully it won’t take too long for her to adjust? I’m curious about others’ experiences.
The second, separate topic of discussion is Nora and her poor itching. While I was watching Vivienne closely on the monitor early this morning, I noticed that in her sleep, Nora was basically clawing herself the entire time. Literally, her hand was down her pants and up the back and front of her shirt while she was sleeping—scratch, scratch, scratch.
This isn’t entirely new. I’ve definitely noticed before that she has scratch marks—even tiny little scabs—on her legs, butt, and lower back. She doesn’t seem to have eczema (no real patches of a rash or anything), but the poor girl is itching badly. Dry skin?
We lotion her up after baths using Burt’s Bees, but I’m wondering if anyone else has a child with a similar affliction that might have better advice to make her more comfortable. I’m planning to call the pediatrician, too, but thought I’d ask here.
If I can get both of my girls sleeping better at night, I will be a happy mommy.
Dear Vivienne,
How are you five months old already??
All of the things that once seemed so far off—the six-month milestone for breastfeeding, starting solids, etc.—are just a mere few weeks away. I feel like I blinked and five months went by. How did you grow so fast from a tiny, squishy baby to the solid, adorable chunk of cute that you are today? I will forever feel like you and your sister are getting way too big, way too fast. Slow down a little bit, mmkay?
We had a very, very busy month—which is why your letter is a few days late this time. (I’m sorry.) Thanksgiving gave way to Christmas and then to the New Year and suddenly I’m like, Wait. It’s January? It’s 2014? (Yes. And already a week into 2014, thankyouverymuch.)
If I had one word to describe you this month, it would be: DELICIOUS.
I can’t get enough of you. You smile and giggle and coo and stare. You grab and roll and pull. You’re gaining more and more control over those chubby little hands. You’ve started to explore the world through touch, through taste. You received some toys for Christmas, and thank goodness, because you really do need them now. They are lifesavers when we’re in restaurants, or just hanging out in the family room at home. You want things to keep you busy, and if you’re bored, you sure do let us know it.
Your voice. You’ve discovered it. Boy, have you discovered it. I’m sitting here trying to think of the last time I’ve really heard you cry, because well, you don’t really cry anymore… you yell.
We’re in the midst of a stretch of really good nights with you. You’ve been sleeping through more often than not. You’re still somewhat inconsistent—the week of Christmas, we had to get up in the middle of the night and do a lot of pacifier replacements and such—but I know you’re capable of doing it, which makes me believe that one day, you really will sleep through ALL of the time. When you wake up, though—whether that’s at 6 a.m. (yawn), 7 a.m. (nice!), or in the case of this morning, FIVE A.M. (ouch)—you let us know by squawking. Or roaring? Loudly and repeatedly. You sound like a baby dinosaur. When I heard you at 5 a.m. this morning, I practically jumped out of bed and ran down the hallway to quiet you because I didn’t want you to wake up Nora! An hour, a feeding, and six trips into your room later, you were sleeping again. If your sister had done that at 5 a.m., I probably would’ve thrown a pillow over my head for an hour and let her continue squawking. You’re a tad bit more spoiled given the circumstances, my sweet second daughter.
You’re still nursing like a champ, and draining your bottles without issue. You get seemingly angry at me during some bedtimes, as if by then the milk is not flowing as rapidly and freely as you’d like it to. One night last week, I had to give you a bottle because you absolutely threw a fit after just a couple minutes of nursing. What gives?!
You’re showing a huge interest in real food. You stare us down while we eat, and you follow with your eyes as we lift food from our plates to our mouths. I’m not feeling in any hurry to start you on food, but the reality is that time is going to be here very soon, so I better start preparing. I’m trying to decide if I’m going to try you out with some oatmeal and a little banana or applesauce like I did with your sister, or if I’ll skip that for now and try something like avocado. I guess we’ll just give something a try and see how you do!
Sometimes, you just want to be alone. Or at least that’s how it seems. You’re beginning to show some signs of independence. You sometimes fuss (or squawk!) and move all around to let us know you want to be put down on the floor, or in your jumperoo. You “yell” at me after nursing at bedtime some nights, letting me know that no, you don’t actually want to be rocked to sleep—you want to go to bed in your crib.
You hate wearing hats. You don’t seem to like sleeping on your belly. You are being tough about giving up the swaddle. You still don’t like your car seat if it’s not moving.
You love people’s faces. You’ll stare when people talk to you, and if you’re close enough, you’ll touch and grab noses, lips, cheeks and hair to get a feel for it all. One morning over the weekend, I was nursing you in bed, resting with my eyes closed, and I kept having to pull your fingers out of my nose. :) You love your big sister. You pay close attention when she talks, sometimes smiling, sometimes just studying. And god does she love you! Last night, on the way home from daycare, she was telling me about how a pair of sisters at Mary’s were fighting over a toy, so Mary took it away. I asked her if she is going to fight with you when you get bigger, and she said, “No, Mommy! I not fight with Biddienne. She my sissy!” That’s her current pronunciation of your name. And I’m going to hold her to this statement when you’re ages 6 and 3. And hell, when you’re 16 and 13, too.
Oh! You’ve “found” Tessa. I’ve caught you following her across the room with your eyes, a slight little smile on your face. I remember when Nora first discovered her, too, so it is fun to see you have the same fascination.
At your 4-month doctor’s appointment on December 11, you were 13 lbs., 2 oz. You’re wearing 3-6 month clothes now, for the most part. Speaking of clothing, you have more clothes than you could ever possibly need, thanks to hand-me-downs from your sister and all of our generous family members at Christmas. Your first Christmas was special, of course, but you really had no idea what was going on. Nora had fun opening all of your gifts for you, though!
You’re figuring out the rolling thing. You can roll both ways, but sometimes still get “stuck” one way or the other. Last weekend, I had my first experience putting you down, walking away for a few minutes, and then coming back to find you in a completely different spot from where I left you. I guess you finally figured out how to connect a couple of rolls to get from Point A to Point B.
When you’re not squawking at us and it’s not bedtime, you’re a very happy girl. It’s so easy to make you smile these days, and the giggles warm my heart. You are such a blessing, and I am so thankful you’re ours.
XOXO,
Mommy
A little less than three years ago, I forked over a good chunk of change to upgrade my DSLR camera from an entry-level, tiny Canon Rebel XT to the newly released (at the time) Canon 7D. I was blown away by my new capabilities. While my Rebel XT had only allowed me to go to ISO 1600 at most, the 7D is capable of ISO 6400—making shots like this…
…possible. Outside at night, with only light from the Christmas lights, our front porch, and inside of the garage illuminating my cute little MOVING subject. So although I still dropped my shutter speed way down—which created some blur in the motion of her sprinkling the reindeer food—I couldn’t drop it TOO low since she wasn’t perfectly still. Thank you, ISO 6400, huh?
Anyway, that is just one example of how my camera upgrade changed my life and the way I could capture it. And the HD video capabilities? Awesome. I have video clips that, when played back on our computer, are so crisp and “real” that it feels like I’m living those moments all over again.
The 7D has been a great camera, and has served our family well. But it’s a new year, and I’m feeling ready to make another upgrade. But first, I’d like to find this guy a new home. Because I know that so many of you are “into” photography as much as I am, I thought I’d let you know that my Canon 7D is officially for sale.
These photos are of MY actual 7D. They were taken with an iPhone 5S, since realistically, that’s the second-best camera I own! :)
I won’t go into tremendous detail here about the camera’s specifications, since you can find that all spelled out right here: http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/cameras/slr_cameras/eos_7d
My 7D body has been well cared for, as it has been a “baby” of mine ever since it first landed on my doorstep. It has captured both of my REAL babies in their first days and weeks, and has recorded time as they’ve grown. It has traveled with us all over the place. All buttons and wheels are in excellent working condition. LCD display is unscathed, as is the display on the top of the camera.
My Canon 7D (body only—no lenses) will be shipped in its original box, with included strap, battery, battery charger, cables (USB and AV), and instruction manuals.
I’m asking $700.
If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know. Interested buyers can email me directly at heatherdriveblog at yahoo dot com.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I’m shamelessly stealing this survey from Erin over at It’s All Happening to look back on our 2013. Except I skipped a lot of questions because they either seemed irrelevant to me, or like the answers would be too boring. Hopefully the ones I kept are at last semi-entertaining. :)
Here goes nothing…
1. What did you do in 2013 that you had never done before? Spent time in the hospital for something OTHER than giving birth. Eight days, to be exact. This is something that I definitely don’t want to repeat in 2014… or ever.
2. Did anyone close to you have a child? ME! I had Vivienne on August 2. My brother and sister-in-law had my first niece, Sadie, on October 19. My cousin had a baby boy, Wyatt, in April. We also had a few good friends who had babies as well—Logan in February, Amelia in May, Hattie in November. I’m sure there are others I’m forgetting, but it was definitely a good year for babies around here.
3. Did anyone close to you die? No, no one close to us. SO THANKFUL. We had a few friends who had pretty significant losses, though. One of our friends suddenly and tragically lost her brother. Another friend from college lost her newborn son. I’ve shared their heartbreak. :(
(January)4. Where did you travel? We went to California—San Diego, Disneyland, and Los Angeles—at the end of January. It was nice to be at the beach (Nora loved it!) and to take Nora to Disney for the first time. I actually teared up a little bit when we were waiting in line to enter the park (pregnancy hormones?). I thought it was really special. And she had a great time. For Memorial Day weekend, we did our traditional trip to the Poconos with my family to visit lifelong family friends. Then, in September, we went back down to the Poconos for a wedding! It was a relatively low-key travel year for us, what with my pregnancy and all.
5. What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013? I can’t really think of anything that I feel like was missing from my life in 2013.
(February)6. What dates from 2013 will remain etched upon your memory? April 5—diagnosed with appendicitis, which was such a nightmare. April 15—Boston Marathon bombing, a horrific day for America, and particularly memorable for me since I was at home recovering from my appendicitis and watched so much of the coverage. August 2—Vivienne’s birth. August 6—my due date. September 14—Nina and James’s wedding. October 28—returned to work after maternity leave.
7. What was your biggest achievement of the year? By far my biggest achievement was carrying and delivering a healthy baby girl for the second time. The birth itself felt like a big achievement for me because I felt so in control this time around. I chose to do it without any drugs, and succeeded in “achieving” what was basically my dream birth. The whole experience was tremendously empowering and I hope that I always look back on that day as fondly as I do right now. Professionally, I was also promoted this year, and have gained confidence in myself as a professional that I’ve been working toward for years.
(March)8. What was your biggest failure? It’s very possible that I’m forgetting other failures, but the one that sticks out in my mind the most is that I missed the birth of my niece, Sadie. I never really blogged about it because it was such a sensitive subject for weeks afterward. I was (once again) invited to be in the delivery room in order to take photos. Kara and Trevor had me in the delivery room when Hunter was born, and Tyler and Marie had me in the delivery room with Bryce, too. It’s been such an honor to be part of all of that, and I was looking forward to it with Sadie, too. When Kara was induced on a Saturday morning, I waited around and finally headed up to the hospital around 3 p.m., not knowing her progress because they weren’t checking her (they had broken her water and didn’t want to check any more often than they had to in order to avoid risk of infection). After a few hours, they checked Kara and she was only 2 cm—exactly what she had been when she had been admitted to the hospital 12 hours earlier. It sounded as though it was going to be a long haul, and after a quick discussion with my brother, I made the decision to leave, to go home for a while since I had Vivienne (who was only 10 weeks old) at home, and Michael was hosting the entire rest of my family all by himself. My brother told me I should go home for a while, and given all of the circumstances, I agreed. The hospital is about 20 minutes away from our house, and I was home no longer than five minutes when I got a frantic call from Trevor that Kara was suddenly 9.5 cm and was beginning to push. I dropped everything to rush back to the hospital, but of course, I was too late. I walked into the hospital room and when I saw the baby, I just cried because I was so pissed off at myself. Of course, the most important thing was that she was here and she was healthy, but I had a hard time forgiving myself for leaving the hospital and missing out on the privilege that I had been given. I honestly don’t know that I’ll ever really FULLY get over it.
9. Did you suffer illness or injury? YES, unfortunately. I had acute appendicitis at 22 weeks pregnant and required emergency surgery after the appendix burst before they could get it out. I was in the hospital for 8 days, and out of work for 2.5 weeks. It was AWFUL. So awful.
(April)10. What was the best thing you bought? Hmm. There are no huge purchases coming to mind for 2013. I guess my iPhone 5S? Not anything outrageous, but it’s a daily fixture in my life and helps me capture moments of my life and keep in touch with those I love. A fun purchase, for sure.
11. Where did most of your money go? Oh God, I don’t even know. A few things that come to mind—our vacation to California in January; the kids’/guest bathroom makeover we did in April/May; preparation for Vivienne/baby supplies; my maternity leave; and CHRISTMAS PRESENTS! :)
(May)12. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Expecting our second baby. Duh. :)
13. What song will always remind you of 2013? Probably the ones that have been Nora’s favorites—Katy Perry’s “Firework” and “Roar,” and Lorde’s “Royals.” But some others I’ve loved are “Demons” by Imagine Dragon, “Wake Me Up” by Avicii, “Stay” by Rihanna, “Mirrors” by Justin Timberlake, “Brave” by Sara Bareilles, “Daylight” by Maroon 5, and “Just Give Me a Reason,” by P!nk. What can I say? I listen to a lot of pop radio!
(June)14. Compared to this time last year, are you A) happier or sadder? B) thinner or fatter? C) richer or poorer? A) Happier, because last year at this time, I was still miserably in the first trimester of pregnancy and was wishing away the days and weeks so that I’d get to a time when I would finally FEEL BETTER! B) Thinner, since, you know, I’m not pregnant anymore. And I finally saw a pre-pregnancy weight on the scale the week before Christmas, so woot woot! C) I would say richer, since both Michael and I got promotions and/or salary raises this year, except that now we’re paying for two in daycare, so… I think it probably evens out, for the most part.
(July)15. What do you wish you’d done more of? I wish I would have taken more photos and more video. I never feel like I’ve taken enough, and I sometimes am overcome with this sense of dread, that some day in the future I’m going to be so regretful that I did not record EVERYTHING. I mean, I know it’s impossible to do so, but I often times feel like my children are just slipping through my fingers. Where do the days, weeks, months go? Nora is so different from month to month. Vivienne has already grown so much. GAH.
Aside from that, it obviously would’ve been nice to travel more, but it wasn’t very practical this year. I also wish Michael and I would’ve been able to spend more one-on-one time together out on dates and such, but being pregnant and stuff, it was tough. We’ve resolved to change that in 2014!
I wish I had done more exercise.
I also wish I had blogged more often, but hey, I’ve got priorities and sometimes this blog does fall to the wayside.
(August)16. What do you wish you’d done less of? Am I allowed to say working? Haha! I know it’s a fact of life, but man, it would be nice to work less. And hell, I had a 12-week maternity leave in there, so I worked less this year than I do most years, you know? I guess I also wish I had done less worrying. Less complaining.
17. Did you fall in love in 2013? Yes. I fell completely, head-over-heels in love with my new daughter, Vivienne. I cannot imagine life without her.
(September)18. What was your favorite TV program? Breaking Bad. Hands down. We binge-watched it on Netflix over the course of four weeks or so in September and October. There wasn’t anything else I watched this year that was really worth watching.
19. What was the best book you read? Um, holy shit. I don’t know if I read a single book this year. That’s terrible, and embarrassing. I know I started one on our vacation in California and got about halfway through it. But it was about a man having an affair and it was a love story so it was supposedly justified. I just couldn’t get past it (it was disturbing!) and stopped reading. I’ve read lots and lots of children’s books with Nora, though. :) The favorite of the year was definitely “The New Baby” by Mercer Mayer. We read it SO MANY TIMES—every night—in the months leading up to and weeks following Vivienne’s birth.
(October)20. What was your greatest musical discovery? Well, I don’t really get hooked on particular artists in this day and age of digital music. I can’t tell you the last time I actually purchased an entire album. But if we’re talking about a new artist that I’ve become relatively familiar with and like a lot… I guess it would have to be Imagine Dragons.
21. What did you want and get? iPhone 5S. New clothes after the baby was born (so nice to go shopping again!). A beautiful right-hand ring from Michael and my girls.
22. What did you want and not get? New DSLR camera, but it’s something we’ve been talking about and planning for, and this year just wasn’t the right time for it. But I hope that’s coming soon in 2014. Also want a new car, but again, it just hasn’t been the right time yet. In both of these cases, these things aren’t something that I NEED yet, so they weren’t high priority in a year when we were expecting a baby and all.
(November)23. What was your favorite film of the year? I think we only saw one movie in the theater all year, and that was Planes on Nora’s birthday—which I didn’t care for much at all, and most certainly wouldn’t be labeled my favorite! I’m trying to think of what else we saw at home that I enjoyed. Nothing is really coming immediately to mind. I really liked Pitch Perfect (and just got it for Christmas, yay!) but that’s more of a mindless, fun flick than anything else. We also watched End of Watch when we were in California and I thought it was well done, but deeply sad… in a way that sticks with you for a while after you watch it. But overall, no real “winners” this year.
24. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? It was a Friday, on maternity leave, so I stayed home and snuggled my 2-week-old baby all day long. When Michael was done with work, we all went out to dinner and my family joined us. We came home and had cookie cake. It was low key and just what I wanted/needed at the time.
(December)25. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013. Nothing is guaranteed. Everything you think you know can change in the blink of an eye.
When we had our anatomy scan with Vivienne, we were alerted to a potential problem with her heart. We had to go to the hospital to get a fetal echocardiogram done on her heart, only to find out that—thank God—all was okay. But between the time we were told there could be a problem and the time we found out everything was fine, we faced the possibility that our baby’s life may not be what we pictured. And then, just a few weeks later, I had appendicitis and before I went into the emergency surgery, we were told that there were risks to the baby and it may not survive. It was a scary, scary time. And now, looking at Vivienne, it is amazing to think about how it was her all along. On the fetal echocardiogram. On the doppler before, and countless times after, surgery. Thump, thump, thump. She was a fighter, and so was I.
I saw major, major changes at work this year. My entire team, whom I loved and considered great friends—even “family”—all left within weeks or short months of each other. It used to be a joy to go to work every day, and now things are different. I still work with some great people, but I still miss those who left. And not only that, but my life has changed in that I am now a working mother of two kids. It’s been hard all around. Honestly, I’m still adjusting.
But life goes on.
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
