Friday, April 24, 2009

(Soon to be) Toothy Grin

Thea is 25 weeks old today, and an even 6 months in just 5 days. Day before yesterday I felt that tell-tale little hole in her gum, with just the tiniest shard of tooth jutting through. That explains the constant gnawing and recent increase in poo...I wasn't expecting a first tooth for another month or so, based on the other girls' previous teething habits. Ella was 7 months old, her first tooth poking through on my...25th birthday. Hard to believe that was five years ago - that first tooth is now her first loose tooth. She is catapulting through childhood!
So updates about the girls, since I cannot seem to post more than every few months. (With the exception of NaBloPoMo - I cannot believe that I did it last year with a brand new baby.) My "brand new" baby is now half a year old - sitting up, trying to crawl (she does a mean plank pose but just cannot get all the motions coordinated). Though she hasn't hit the magical six month mark, I did start her on oatmeal a couple of weeks ago...I find that when they are starting to steal my food and make little chewing motions with their mouths then they deserve a taste of something. If they're not ready, that tongue thrust reflex shoves it right out. I ground some oatmeal in the food processor, and cooked it fairly thick. She swallowed like a pro and gave the the baby bird response: mouth open, arms flapping. She loves it.
Käthe is potty trained...after Ella was trained just a couple of weeks after her second birthday, I was hoping that the cloth diapers would do the trick again. No such luck...she was quite able to use the potty, but would rather not, thankyouverymuch. I had neither the time nor energy to embark on an intensive training before Thea arrived, but a few weeks ago we gave it another serious go and we seem to be over the hump. So nice not to have two kiddos in diapers. Käthe is fast approaching three, and she is hilarious. She is also mischievous, and my refrigerator and freezer now sport child locks on her account. As soon as I sat down to nurse I would hear the doors fling open, only to find her eating a smorgasbord of items as soon as I could get to the kitchen. She is ever considerate of her sisters, whenever she is offered anything (stickers at Target, samples at the grocery store...anything) her first reply is "one for my sister?" Still my little pixie girl, she is tipping the scales at a whopping 24 lbs. Thea is near 17 lbs, so I expect that Thea might outweigh Kate by her first birthday.
Ella is getting so big, both in body and intellect. She is reading well, and her constant artwork is now being captioned as well. My favorite drawing of late is "Through the Bus Window" - black window frame, the trees she sees outside, and ever so faintly a self portrait of her reflection. She also did a fantastic painting of a robin:

She has her first sleepover at a friend's house tonight, with her Daisy Girl Scout Troop. It is their "Fun Item: with their cookie money. For their service project with cookie money they made blankets for the Preemie Project at the University...I was so proud of their efforts.
I need to get her packed for said sleepover, as it starts in an hour. I am pretty confident that she'll make it through the night...nothing scares my adventurous firstborn (with the exception of Disney movies, which can be pretty freaky). Hopefully the film d'jour doesn't have any suspenseful music, or I will be getting a late night phone call!