Leah's Stats at Eight Weeks

Leah went to her eight week checkup today. She got 4 shots and 1 oral vaccination. She did not like the shots and she screamed a lot more than I remember the boys crying. If it isn't obvious from all the photos, she is still doing well, growing and developing right on schedule.

Her latest stats:
Weight 11 lbs; 50%
Height 22 3/4 inches; 75%

Kid Comparison: One Month Old

Kid Comparison: First Bath

There is no denying that our kids have a certain... visual similarity. Here are photos of each one taken during their first bath.

All My Children

Leah slept for seven straight hours last Thursday night, and for five straight hours the other night, but has not duplicated either feat since. I would be happy to settle for anything more than four hours with any kind of regularity.

On Friday, Avery decided he was going to make the cat beautiful. He painted Nutmeg with purple glitter. She had it all over her from head to tail and is still tearing fur off to get rid of the glitter, poor thing.

On Monday, when Zachary and I were going to pick Avery up from school, Zach heard a commercial for Snowshoe, West Virginia on the radio. He said to me, "Grandma and Grandpa live in West-Ginia." My bright boy isn't even three yet, but he is certainly paying attention to what he hears around him.

Eyes Wide Open

I realized after looking back at some of my recent blog posts that most of our pictures of Leah were taken with her asleep. It's understandable, since she was always either nursing, burping, or sleeping again. But lately she is awake and studying the world around her, so I was able to take some new photos where her eyes are open.

Avery's Preschool Progress

Avery has been going to preschool since last fall and seems to be learning new things every day. Just today he was playing a preschool video game on the Sesame Street website. The goal was to find the three objects (out of six) that begin with the letter they show. To my amazement he said the names and sounded out the first letters.

If you take the time to go through the sounds of a word with him, he can spell them out. He is also in a rhyming phase, which is pretty amusing to hear. And he can spell and write his name with no trouble. Sometimes the letters come out backwards, and sometimes he writes them from right to left ('yrevA') but he seems to do it on purpose rather than by mistake. I wouldn't be surprised if he is able to read before Kindergarden starts, a year and a half from now. Eli and I are both very proud of him.

Happy New Year

We are off to a good start for the new year: eating healthy, exercising, having fun. I guess it isn't much different than our normal life, but now that Leah is born I can move around and cook again so my outlook has improved. The weather has been very mild so we have been able to go out and play at the local parks.

Like the boys at this stage, Leah isn't even close to sleeping through the night. If we're lucky it'll happen around the 10 month mark. She wakes up anywhere from 2 to 4 times during the night to nurse, and sleeps a lot during the day as well. She has adjusted well to our schedule of me driving the boys to school all week and running random errands.

Leah rarely ever cries for any extended period of time. There is some fussiness when she is tired, and a cry to let me know she is awake or hungry, but other than that she is an easy baby. She loves to be held, and I currently have her sleeping in our bed at night. In another month or so we'll transition her to the crib, at least for the "first sleep".