Susanna at Two Months
Jun 20th, 2011 by ECM
Today Susanna had her two month check-up. Her stats:
Weight: 10 lbs 3 oz (35%) (Elizabeth was 11 lbs 7 oz; Tommy was 13 lbs 5 oz!)
Height: 23 in (55%) (Elizabeth was 22 1/4 in; Tommy was 24 1/4 in)
She seems a lot scrawnier than the other two–which today’s measurements demonstrate!–and she eats a lot less (usually just on one side at a time, only 6 or 7 times a day). She’s dropped quite a bit in the growth chart (I’ve never had a child below 50th percentile in anything size-related before!), but Dr. Huffard said that she’s still in the normal range and it’s probably just that her appetite is different, not that my milk supply is worse or anything. If she’s not interested in eating, I don’t need to keep trying to force her to eat more. She is still growing, albeit slower than her siblings, and she’s completely healthy, so I’m trying not to worry!
It’s fun to see Susanna’s personality emerging. She still seems pretty content when fed and rested, and so far, we haven’t seen any evidence of food allergies. Because of having older siblings, she has had to be on the go more than they were. She will sleep in her carseat or stroller, but it definitely messes with her routine. In general, she dislikes the car and takes about a day to recover from outings. I’m trying to balance the big kids’ desire to be out and about with her desire to stay home and take two good, long naps during the day. Her favorite position seems to be over the shoulder, and she prefers sleeping on her tummy.
It’s fun to have three kiddos around!
Susanna’s Dedication
Jun 19th, 2011 by ECM
This morning we dedicated Susanna to the Lord at State College Evangelical Free Church. At our request, “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing” was part of the worship service. The kids did moderately well up front, though Susanna did cry the whole time Pastor Keith was holding her and praying for her!
After church, Tommy and Elizabeth played with friends Susannah, Ellie, and Joy.
And here’s another attempt at a family picture!
Playing With a Baby
Jun 18th, 2011 by ECM
The big kids’ concept of playing with Susanna cracks me up. Tommy loves to build her towers, and Elizabeth will sing to her, “play the oboe” for her, or generally just jabber next to her…
Peter and Cammy’s Last Visit to State College
Jun 17th, 2011 by ECM
There will likely be a lot of “last” posts in the next month. We loved hanging out with Peter and Cammy the past day and a half, though Elizabeth was under the impression that Peter was John. Or maybe she just thinks “John” is a generic term for any tall brother of Mommy’s. Peter was a good sport about it, though. We went to the Creamery two nights in a row, showed them Wegmans and took them to the park, played a lot of tag, read a lot of books, and generally had fun! And we’re looking forward to seeing them again when we drive through Columbia in a few weeks!
Sweet Smiles
Jun 16th, 2011 by ECM
Susanna has started smiling! But it’s really hard to catch her at it when she’s showing off her adorable dimples. Here are some recent attempts.
Lucy Goes to the Park
Jun 15th, 2011 by ECM
With the temperatures dropping this week, we’ve been getting out for nice, long bike rides. Tommy bikes, and I push the girls in the stroller. It works pretty well, especially since we discovered that it takes us less than half an hour to get to Tudek Park. Yesterday we met friends there for a play date, and Elizabeth insisted on bringing her bear Lucy along!
We even got to “feed” the horses!
Last Visit to the Island
Jun 14th, 2011 by ECM
On the way home from the wedding last week, we knew it would be our last chance to visit Johnson’s Island before we move, so we stopped in Ohio overnight to introduce Great-Grandma Tony to her namesake. Cousin Kevin took Derek and the big kids for a ride on Lake Erie, and Grandma relished holding Susanna Helen, emphasis on the Helen!
A long time ago, I read on someone’s blog about this great idea of using a cookie sheet somehow for car trips. I don’t remember whose blog or how exactly it was used, but we came up with our own version for the Chicago trip. I’d “bought” Tommy a magnetic Tangoes Jr. game with diaper rewards points, and since Elizabeth wants to do everything big brother does, I made her a similar “game” by sticking some cheap magnets (that I didn’t mind losing along the way) to a cookie sheet. I thought they might even use it as a tray for coloring, but we didn’t even pull out the coloring books this time around. Any other good car trip ideas? We have a lot of time in the car coming up this summer…
Hannah and Robert’s Wedding
Jun 11th, 2011 by ECM
I actually don’t have any pictures of the wedding (read on to see why), but here are the kids at the rehearsal.
I didn’t know any of the groomsmen, so I didn’t worry about capturing them. =)
And the rehearsal of the walk down the aisle. Oh, if only it had gone that way in the ceremony…
This is about the time to share Derek’s and my firm resolution–no more weddings with kids! It really stinks to spend hundreds of dollars and six crazy days of travel to not see your dear friends get married. Now, you may be asking, wasn’t Tommy in the wedding? How could you have missed it? Well, Derek and I had to separate beforehand in order to get Tommy to the church for pictures and pick up food for all of us between church and the 2 pm wedding. Derek circled for over half an hour trying to find a place to park in Evanston (because there are no drive throughs in Chicago), so by the time he got back with lunch, the prelude had started and he had to go join Tommy in the back to send him down the aisle. I had not had a chance to take Tommy to the bathroom (dun-DUN) or feed Lizzie or Susanna (dun-DUN-DUN) before I had to go up to the second row to pick up the kids at the front of the church when their gig was done. Any parent can see how we were already heading for disaster.
So the kids started down the aisle just as Elizabeth started loudly asking for milk and Susanna started stirring, hungry. I slipped down to the center to smile encouragingly at the front, but not fast enough to prevent stage fright. The crowd overwhelmed both of them about a third of the way down the aisle, and poor little 2 1/2 year old Coraline started wailing. Tommy stopped, tried to hold her hand again, and failed. Alyssa ran out for a quick save and scooped our sobbing flower girl up, exiting left. Tommy stared around, confused what he was supposed to do next, then finally caught my eye at the front and sprinted down the rest of the aisle and into my arms, trying bravely to hold back tears. Good thing he hadn’t really been carrying the rings, or they would have been lost!
Elizabeth only made it through another couple minutes of the ceremony before she was asking for her lunch in louder and louder whispers. Derek pulled her out to join Alyssa and Coraline in the hallway. Tommy hung on valiantly through the longest Protestant wedding sermon I’ve ever heard, but he really needed to use the bathroom. I couldn’t very well leave a slightly fussy Susanna alone in the pew in case she started screaming while I was gone with Tommy, and I knew that once I roused her, she’d be fully awake and cry if she didn’t eat right away. So just as Hannah and Robert started the wedding part of the ceremony, I slipped out, too, with the two remaining kids. We heard the clapping after a few minutes and told the kids, all happily playing with blocks on the floor by now, that Hannah and Robert were married now. Tommy and Cora had done their part, but we’d missed getting to see the McConnells actually get married.
One redeeming thing was that Margee was able to take pictures of the five of us dressed up outside the chapel.
And Derek says I’m in no emotional state to talk about the rest of what we missed, so I’ll just leave it at that and say definitively that next time, the kids are staying home!