THE GREEN(wald) HOUSE … (growing rosemary & raising a little wolf)

Happy 2008!

We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s - so relaxing. Joey had almost 2 weeks off, so we spent a lot of time just hanging out, playing with the kids, baking cookies, (with Rosie helping - she mostly enjoyed licking the batter off the mixer)

going to the library, doing a little shopping, playing in the snow,

catching up on reading and projects around the house, etc. Rosie had fun going to see Santa and being able to tell him that she wanted “a dollhouse AND a kitty cat” for Christmas. She was very excited to see the dollhouse that Santa left for her under the tree, but she was a little sad she didn’t get the kitty cat too. We told her that Santa only had room in his sleigh to bring one present for each kid, and that maybe Mommy and Daddy would work on getting her a kitty or doggie (Joe’s preference) for her birthday…

We continued the tradition from my childhood and let them open up one present on Xmas eve, which was matching pajamas. We also left a couple cookies and a glass of milk out for Santa.

Christmas morning was spent with just the 4 of us, with Rosie “helping” everyone open their presents, and then Joe’s family came over in the afternoon to do a gift exchange and have a nice Christmas dinner. We also had some friends (and one of Rosie’s best playmates) stop by for dessert. It was really fun and mellow and festive. Rosie always loves to see her cousins Cory, Noah, Marisa and Ari - and they enjoy coming to our house to celebrate Christmas and get their “Christmas Sock” that Santa specially delivers to us, since they don’t celebrate at their house.

Sam was officially 6 months old on the 6th.


I can’t believe how big he is already. He is great at sitting up on his own now - and is *this close* to crawling. Always trying to move and pushing up on his toes into plank pose. I found this description in a post from when Rosie was 6 months old and it sounds just like Sam…

“She is on the verge of true mobility - not quite crawling yet - but up on her hands and knees and bouncing and pushing herself backwards and in circles… “

Since I totally forgot the milestones for things this time around, looks like Sam is right on track and where Rosie was - developmentally- at this age. He is showing signs of readiness for eating (sitting up unassisted, being interested in what we are eating and being able to grab things and bring them to his mouth with control), so we have started to slowly introduce food to him, following the self-feeding guidelines, also known as Baby-led weaning. He has tried apple, banana, avocado, cantelope, pear, asparagus, carrots, and some teething biscuits too.



He seemed to like cantelope and asparagus the best so far. He is not really ingesting anything yet, he spits most everything out, he is just experimenting with texture and taste and practicing bringing things to his mouth and chewing right now. We will take things slowly and follow his lead. Right now he is getting plenty of nutrition from breastmilk (as you can see by his healthy body) and will continue to do so for quite a while.

He still has just the 2 bottom teeth, but he is biting and drooling like crazy, so I am hoping some new teeth pop in sooner rather than later… He laughs all the time, loves having his diaper changed, babbles constantly, saying mostly “Ba!” but also has randomly been saying things like “larder” “bow” “mala” “bala” “lana” “wa” and other nonsensical sounds. The one thing he did say that sounded like an actual word was “water”. He is always squealing and cooing and blowing raspberries, really trying to communicate. I have to remember to try to show him the few simple signs I know to start him with baby sign language. I am mostly just showing him the milk sign for “nurse” now.

He is taking fewer naps, and for longer periods of time, even sleeping 3 straight hours occasionally in the afternoon. I think we will start seeing more of a routine with his naps, and hopefully they will coincide with Rosie’s afternoon nap as well. He still is up nursing A LOT at night, maybe it’s the developmental changes, maybe teething, maybe a growth spurt. Whatever it is, I hope it slows down soon so I can finally get some decent sleep.

GiGi came in to visit this weekend and we turned Joe’s office into a room for Sammy (Joe moved his office to the basement). Not that Sam really NEEDS his own room at this point, he will continue to sleep with us for the time being, but he was accumulating a lot of clothes, toys and stuff already (at only 6 months old!) and it was crowding Rosie’s closet and her room, so we figured it would be nice and less cluttered if we organized everything in separate rooms. We painted it a nice mellow tan-ish, yellow-ish, maize kind of color, and decorated it with a moon and star theme, combined with a Michigan Football theme, and used Rosie’s old crib, rocking chair, and changing table along with some cheap target white cube furniture. It turned out super cute (Thanks GiGi!) and Rosie loves her new “big girl room”. She was sleeping most of the time in the big bed in her room anyway - and we had my old white “shabby chic” bedroom furniture (from before Joe and I married) in the basement, so Rosie now has a fancy vanity with a mirror, end table and antique chair to add to the big bed in her room.

Rosie has started telling people she is “two and a HALF” just in the last few days. She has been so funny lately - letting Joe and I use her as our little pawn to make each other laugh. Her latest thing is something she heard me say when Joe neglected to warm the car up before we all got in on a chilly morning. I said ” Daddy pimped us- he didn’t warm the car up” and as soon as Joe got in the car - Rosie said “Daddy…. YOOOOOU PIMPED us!” and we both erupted into laughter, so she knows that is funny now and repeats it almost daily…
Another popular game is when we ask Rosie who her favorite band is - she takes her hand, raises her forefinger and pinky, tucks her other fingers down under her thumb, proudly waves her hand in the air and says “SLAYER!”

She also has a few cute phrases that she says often now. Things like:
“That’s pretty cool”
“I have an idea” and “Ok, that’s a good idea”
“I’m forgetting something” - said as a stall tactic when she is not sure what she wants…
“I can’t talk right now, I’m singing (eating a banana, etc.)” - usually said when we are trying to tell/ask her something she doesn’t want to hear.
She also still loves to ask us “Are you happy?” and “did you take a good nap?”

It is going great having Rosie in panties and out of diapers. She has only had a few accidents since being in panties full time. It is SO nice for me to not have to do a much laundry, although I spend an inordinate amount of time in the bathroom lately, especially public bathrooms, as Rosie thinks it is WAY more fun to go in a bathroom out of the house - usually declaring about 2 blocks from home “I have to go potty”. She has such bladder and bowel control though, it blows me away. There have been times, I swear, when she peed for a full 20 seconds, more than I ever thought would fit in her little bladder. She has never had an accident in the car, despite her having to hold it frequently when we are on our way somewhere. She sure takes after her dad on the poop side of things - it takes her no less than 10 minutes to complete her bowel movement. I usually am trying to rush her, frequently asking “are you done?” - as I am impatiently crouching or sitting on the cold bathroom tile in front of her so she can lean forward and hug me as she poops (her favorite position for pooping). And it always amazes me when she has already pooped what I assumed to be the entire contents of her bowel, and she says “not yet - I’m still pooping more” and , sure enough, she squeezes out a little more. Other than pooping, she is very independent when it comes to going to the bathroom on her own. She can pull down her pants, climb up on the big toilet seat, go potty, wipe, flush, and pull up her pants all by herself. The only thing she really needs help with is washing her hands. Half the time, when we are home, I don’t even know when she is going to the bathroom until I hear the toilet flush. She realizes the urge, stops what she is doing, and goes to the bathroom all by herself without any assistance.

She loves to paint, draw, pretend to cook, help us cook (with the aid of her learning tower), pretend to be something (she especially loves to pretend to be a butterfly), play chutes and ladders, do puzzles, dance with daddy, do yoga with mommy, play with baby Sammy. Dancing is definitely one of her favorite things, she usually likes to do it without clothes, or at least without pants…

She can also dress herself now, (excluding buttons) and take her clothes off by herself. She sings and talks all the time, she knows pretty much all the words to the Dora CD, Elmo songs, and Raffi songs we listen to almost every day. She has several books memorized and will sit and turn the pages and narrate them - pretending to “read”. She seems to be constantly excited by everything, every sentence is punctuated with an exclamation point. She is always pointing things out to us and asking us to look at something, or watch her do something. Whenever we are driving someplace, she usually points out signs on buildings - saying “Look mommy - LETTERS!” and “Look mommy TREES! (birds, cars, etc.) I love her enthusiasm for life.

Whatever Sam is doing excites her too. When Sam first started to be able to grab things, I would sometimes say to Rosie “Look, baby Sam got it!” - and now, whenever Sam is holding or grabbing something - Rosie exclaims “LOOK - he got it - baby Sam got it Mommy!”

Sam is still such a cuddly, chunky baby - he is around 22 lbs now - and is in mostly 18 months clothes. He looks like he is getting taller and thinning out in his upper body and face lately, but his butt and thighs are still round and bulbous - totally squeezable. When he and Rosie are next to one another - they really look only a few months apart. I stand by my claim that he will be as big as (or bigger than) her by the time he is 1 year old.

Rosie is still such a great big sister and helper. Sometimes, if Sam is getting fussy while I am busy reading emails reading blogs, making dinner, doing dishes or something - I can say “Rosie, will you give baby Sam a toy and make him happy?” and she will almost always go and play with him and talk to him and give him toys to keep him entertained and happy.

Sam still ADORES his sister, every time he even looks at her, he gets a huge smile on his face and coos and giggles. I hope this continues to be the case as they grow up and hopefully become the best of friends.