sleepless in wisconsin...

You wouldn't know it from that sweet face, but this little girl has been a real trouble maker lately. Instead of my sleeping angel, she's decided to stay up partying and "drinking" lately. Now I'd love for her to be just like her big brother in many aspects. Sleep is not one of them. I think I started having a little post-traumatic stress disorder Monday and Tuesday nights, with flashbacks to Zane's first year of life. I told Hollin that I'm pretty sure I could still return her for a refund, so she better get her snooze on. Wednesday night, when she woke up after being asleep only 45 minutes, we let her cry. For a really long time. Okay, it was actually only ten minutes, but it was a really long ten minutes! Then I went in and fed her, put her back down, and she slept for seven hours!

Please, please go back to being my predictable, all-night sleeper, sweet girl. I'm a much nicer mommy when i get my beauty rest. But even if you don't, just look at me with that cute face and I'll probably forgive you.

 

what we’ve been doing

Just hanging out, being ‘cozy’, and eating brother’s hair.Matt moonlighted/moonlit/was moonlighting (how the heck do you make ‘moonlight’ past tense?) this past weekend from Saturday 10pm to Sunday 8pm. The weather was perfect on Sunday. Mid-60s and sunshine.  After this little girl slept late (8:15am), the kids & I decided to check out some new parks close to our neighborhood.We started out by ‘finding those bad pirates. Arg! My pirate boots help me.’Then we took the stroller to the ‘purple park’. His ‘pirate boots’ have been rubbing blisters on his feet, but he refuses to wear anything else because ‘real cowboys wear cowboy boots!’ So we got inventive and made our version of a double stroller.At the purple park we played grumpy old troll. One of us had to guess the troll’s riddle before we could cross the bridge. I’m pretty sure he talked for a solid 30 minutes without taking a breath. What did little sister do while we played? Snored.I have this thing about eating in restaurants alone. The ‘thing’ is, I don’t do it. Eating a restaurant with two kids by myself….well, never really thought about it. So, I was pretty proud of myself that we strolled all the way to The Great Dane, a great restaurant in our neighborhood, and had dino nuggets for lunch without any catastrophes. Well, Zane had dino nuggets. I had a great cajun chicken sandwich. Zane even smooth talked the waitress into bringing him cherries for dessert! After nap time we had even more fun playing with the neighbors. The best part of the day? When daddy finally got home! We were already having bath time and getting ready for bed. Love these adorable faces. 

oatmeal.

Hollin has been trying to get her hands on my food anytime it’s near her. I decided today to give her a taste of some oatmeal cereal.

It started like this:

And ended like this: Eh, we’ll keep practicing.

Oh, and Zane was very concerned. He reminded me, “Her don’t got any teeth.”

five months

Happy five months to the happiest girl ever! This girl just loves life. She is happy 99% of the time and if she’s not, there’s a reason. Hungry, tired, or wet. Or sometimes she just wants mama. She likes to stick her tongue out of the left side of her mouth and kind of sucks on it, which makes me think she feels a tooth trying to come through.She has teeny tiny feet (like her Nana). She still wears newborn shoes. And I love how she’s always curling her toes and rubbing her feet together. She’s really discovered her feet in the past few weeks. Zane was the same age when he found his feet.Funny girl. This is the same face she makes when we stand her up. Like she’s so surprised! She is really strong, too.We met some neighbors the other night and they said, “Look at that pretty red-headed baby!”  I love it. When I was little, I got in trouble at the baby-sitter’s house for biting a little boy. When my mom asked me why I bit him, I said (very matter-of-factly), “Because he has red hair.” So my mom joked that I would have a red-headed baby. Don’t worry, I haven’t bitten her…yet!

At five months, Hollin:

*weighs 16 lbs

*has just moved up to 3-6 month clothes

*wears size 3 diapers

*has red hair and blue eyes

*drools all day

*has found her voice and likes to squeal!

*smiles all the time

*went through a couple of weeks of poor sleep, but is now sleeping ~8 hours at night (9pm-5am and then back down until 7:30 or 8).

*has found that her bows and shoes make great chew toys.Here are a couple of pics of her and Zane at the same age. I don’t think we’ll ever get their baby pictures confused! They look so different. And the bow kind of gives it away, too.    

firsts

 First pair of jeans.

First black eye. Tried to climb over the bed rail and hit one of the drawer handles on the way down. While Matt was consoling him, he said, “I just want mama come take a wook at it.”First time playing in the jumper.