A Very Weinstein Hanukkah

 Wow, you blink for one second and suddenly your daughter's first Hanukkah has come and gone.

Julia, one of the virtues of having an October birthday is that you were born in a super cool month!

One of the drawbacks is that your first holiday season (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Years) are kinda, well, uneventful for you. You're still a newborn, you know? So next year, your second Holiday season, you'll be a Holiday season seasoned vet, but probably won't know it.

So, your first Hanukkah was, like I said, a bit uneventful...for you! But not for the happy people who got to hold you, celebrate with you and just be with you. Heck, you even got some pretty cool gifts (diapers! rattles! chew toys! (baby kind, not doggy kind) dolls!

 

So...you may have been a bit concerned about all the fires being lit nightly.

But, I think every thing turned out quite well for your very first ever Hanukkah.

After all, you'll fight and win each fight you win, but you are only 2 months old!

Now, Aidan, this was your Third Hanukkah, and you definitely got the gist of it now.

Granted, when we told you what we were going to do, "Candles! Singing! Donuts! Presents!" You said "Happy Birthday!"

But, then we told you more and taught you a new one: "Happy Dreidel!"

Donuts!

Family!

Dreidels!

The Menorah!

 

Presents!

We Promise, you'll like them!

Fun fun fun!

And singing!

We had a lot of fun with both of you every night of Hanukkah. Sure, we got some pretty cool gifts, like a new water bottle, new sweater and books. But, you two are the only presents we truly want and need. And getting a smile out of you, or watching you spin like a dreidel, or sing your version of the Hanukkah prayers while playing with your new wooden menorah (l'shanah, l'shanah), or just watching you coo in front of the fire is enough gift for us for a hundred Hanukkahs. Every day is a celebration when you're a parent, especially of two lovely, creative, smiley, children like you. It's just not every day you get to celebrate with donuts, latkes, candles and dreidels!

Two Months Old! Short and Sweet

Baby Julia,

It's hard to believe, but you are now two months old!

You've grown from this:

To this!




Month 2

 And grown you have! You were born weighing  7 lbs 13 oz. and were 20.5 inches tall.

And today at your Doctor's appointment, what we have assumed for a few weeks has been confirmed. What we guessed has been blown away! I thought you were going to now be 10 lbs and 22 inches tall. But you're now 11 lbs 14 oz and 23.25 inches tall, placing you in the 75th percentile for weight and 80th for height!

What does that mean? It means you're growing! You're healthy! You're sturdy! You're becoming a little girl before our very eyes. And it's happening all too quickly.

You are kicking butt at tummy time, holding your head up for minutes at a time.

You are ruling at sleeping, still sleeping through the night, and sleeping on your Daddy and Mommy for hours at a time as we have you Moby Wrapped.

The other day, you slept on me from 4 pm until 8:30 pm. You slept while I grated a potato, while I cooked dinner, while I ate dinner, while we tucked in Aidan, while I wrote some thank you notes. Then you woke up to be fed, play a little, smile a lot and went back to bed to sleep through the night! We're really getting a hang of this whole Daddy/Daughter thing, you and I.

I really get the impression that you like me. Which is awesome, because that may mean that you recognize me and know who I am versus any old man off the street. This is an experiment we will not be conducting.


You've also been talking a lot more. Reacting to our voices, to our faces, to our kisses.

Cooing and gurgling and giggling. It's too much. Too much cuteness to handle.

 
You're doing baby sit ups now, and really seeming to like those as well!

This post is short and sweet, just to let you know that you, my dear, may have grown taller and heavier, but you are still so very sweet...and just a little less short.

Aidan Weinstein and Talking and the "And"

Aidan, over Thanksgiving, you really seemed to nail your list-making skills. By which, I mean, something really just clicked and you realized how to use the word 'and.' And ever since, you've been listing things and telling us about them and genereally being exciged about the word 'and' ever since.

It all started when we were at Mimi and Pops' house and you and Mommy were sitting underneath Mimi's 'Medusa Lamp.' It's got about 12 lights on it, and each one has a different colored glass shade.

You were excited by this and started listing  the colors:

"Blue and Pink and yellow and Red and Green."

Ever since, you've been listing all sorts of things...sometimes you skip like a record, but no matter what, it's adorable and amazing and just, generally, awesome.

Sometimes you climb into bed with us in the morning and tell us all about the farm: "rooster and cow and chicken and chicken and pig and cow."

Sometimes you tell us all about your favorite movie: "Buzz and Woody and Jesse and Lotso and Hamm and Buzz and Green and Buzz."

Typing this out isn't really getting the point across too well about how cute this listing is, so I will try to capture it on video. But if I don't, rest assured, it's adorable. Something about the cadence of your voice and the lilting way you say 'and' when you're thinking about what to say next!

"Next Dinosaur. Two Dinosaurs"

And you don't really need to think too hard about what you're saying next, because words just seem to come to you. Sometimes we know where they come from, and they're simply adorable.

When playing upstairs, I introduced you to "Pinnochio." This is hard to say, but you tried your darndest:

"Hi Hokey ko pokey!"

"Hi pokey pokey!"

"Hi Mokey po kokey!"

Sometimes you just make a phrase you've heard your own. Like when at Gigi's house for Thanksgiving, I took your  Hulk toy out of the bag of toys we brought and you said "What's up, Hulk?"

Other times, you really floor us by saying something we didn't teach you.

Like when you see something amazing you used to whisper "Wow!" Now you say "Wow, Cool thing!"

And, all of a sudden, your catch-all, all purpose phrase has been "Oh. My. Goodness!"

It comes out of your mouth at the cutest and most unexpected times. I know you know how to say it, but everytime you do on your own accord, it cracks me up. For instance, last night I told you that Aunt Kari had a baby in her belly. And you whispered: "oh. my. goodness!"

You also have been telling your mom and me how "sited" Julia is. We cracked the code, and we're excited that you're excited that Julia's excited!

With your communication skills really kicking butt lately, we all have a lot to be excited about!

7-week Sleepies and Super Smiles

Julia,

You are almost 8 weeks old, and it seems like you've been part of our family forever.

You're developing so quickly, and your milestones just keep going by faster and faster.

We saw your first smiles in and around week 6. And now your smiles just keep coming and coming. You don't even need to be tickled or spoken to directly to find a reason to smile.

Just last night, we were tucking your brother in to bed and he wanted to read "Gossie and Gertie." So, as he and I read the book, I caught a glimpse of you sitting in your mother's lap. As I was reading, you were just sitting there, beaming with a huge smile. It was truly a beautiful sight!

So, what could I do? I kept reading the book...but was now reading it to both my Children! So, based on Aidan's recommendations and requests, we read it 3 times. But with smiles like that coming from you (and some excellent participatory reading from Aidan) how could I resist?

Of course we thought your brother was (and is) beautiful, and his first smiles were amazing, but yours have a different effect on me. They are just...well...they're magial little smiles that consume your whole being. I hope you never find reason to lose that.




Smiles on your 8-week-i-versary


And, it also helps, that you've been starting to make some sort of gooey-giggly-gurgly noise when you smile sometimes too. It's like an excited grunting, but way more cute than that label makes it sound. All in all, when you're happy, we're happy!

And part of the reason we're so happy is that you're such a good sleeper!

Even when you were born, we had to set a timer to 4 hours to make sure you ate enough in the hospital. Well, soon after leaving the hospital, you established yourself as a well-growing girl, so we didn't need to worry about you eating enough, so we didn't need to worry about waking you to feed you. And the results have been spectaculary. We've probably been among the best-rested parents of newborns in the history of the universe.

And this weekend, you've started a trend that is giving everyone even more rest:
Saturday night, you ate your third dinner  around 10 pm and fell asleep around 10:30...and didn't wake up for breakfast until 6 AM. That's 8 hours, kiddo...a NEW RECORD! We officially think that counts as sleeping through the night!

And, even better, you did it again Sunday night!

And Monday night!

So, yeah, I'd say we're very pleased with the way this 7-week old is sleeping.

Now, of course, you're very good at sleeping on people.

And you're very very good (as explained above) at sleeping in your cradle rocker.


But, after we left the hospital oh-so-many weeks ago, you really decided you didn't like to sleep laying flat. So, the co-sleeper crib by our bed has been very useful as a laundry holder, pacifier placer, desirable spot for Aidan to climb into, extra elxbow room, snot-sucker holder...but not very useful as a spot for you to sleep.

We're still in the phase where we couldn't possibly spol you if we tried, so we're okay with it. Sleep in the rocker cradle. For 8 hours! Sure, no problem!

But, we wanted to give the co-sleeper a try. After all, eventually you're going to need to sleep in your crib. So, your Mom swaddled you up like when you were a newborn and tucked you in in the co-sleeper. And there you napped for two hours!

Way to sleep, kiddo!

And between all this sleeping and smiling, there's definitely time for working out. You keep getting better and better at tummy time, and able to do this excersize for longer periods of time. Which probably also is helping the sleeping arrangements too.

So, between the tummy time, sleeping and the smiles and interactions, I'd say we're in heaven on week 7.