Etta on Etsy

Etta had a brush with fame yesterday. Her picture from Becka's Etsy store (Baby Bolt) was featured on the front page of Etsy! I didn't see it, but Becka sent me a link to a site that apparently saves them all. You can see it here.

This is very cool because, well, my daughter is adorable and I want the whole world to see and, more importantly, Becka sold 3 of those onesies yesterday because of the prominent placement. Yay! She also wants Etta to model some more stuff. How fun!

Of First Meals and Ballet Recitals

Etta ate her first solid food Monday evening. It was the standard first food: rice cereal. She seemed sort of intrigued by it at first, but quickly broke down. That might have had something to do with the fact that we did it shortly before she goes to bed. She sure did look cute while doing it though!Yesterday was Stella's last class of Ballet. They invited parents and loved ones to come watch the class. It was so much fun to get to watch Stella in a totally different environment! I was so intrigued by how she interacted with the other students and the teacher. She was very good about listening and following directions and was quick to pick other students for her partner or share when sharing was called for. Other girls would talk, or sit there and not get up and join in, but not Stella! She also was a enthusiastic dancer. She couldn't stop jumping, it was so cute to watch!

Sitting on her circle at the beginning of class

They jump or do some sort of dance when their name is called during roll call. Stella gave a very high jump!
Dancing with her scarf, perhaps a little too enthusiastically.

I took way too much video. In fact, I filled up my memory card! It was wonderful to see my fearless little girl having so much fun. I definitely plan to enroll her in another dance class, she seems to be learning so much and getting more and more comfortable dancing and moving. She also LOVES watching the big ballerinas.
She got a haircut today, so no more shaggy girl. I also scheduled pictures wth an actual photographer for the end of August. No openings before then, unfortunately, but I think it will be worth the wait. I ordered tutus for Stella and Etta from Etsy, and matching hairbows. The cuteness might break her camera:)

Cute quote from Stella: "For Halloween, Etta will be a ghost and I will be a cat." No clue where she comes up with this stuff!

Four Months Old!

Hey, look, they're actually bathing me! This is my first bath in the bathtub

Etta turned 4 months old yesterday. It's hard to believe how big she's getting! I still think she's tiny, and then I see her alongside our friend's baby who's 3 weeks old and I realize she's big. She's a real baby now!

Last week, Etta got both her first cold and rolled from her back to her tummy for the first time. The combination of these two things kept her from sleeping much. At nap time and bed time, she'd roll over onto her tummy, scream because she was unhappy on her tummy, and we'd flip her back over. Lather, Rinse, repeat until the poor thing was too exhausted to roll over anymore. It is getting better this week, though. The cold seems to have finally made its exit and Etta seems to have made peace with rolling onto her tummy. Taken right after Etta rolled over for the first time

We had her 4 month check-up yesterdat and she was 25 inches long (75th percentile), weighed 12 lbs, 1oz (10-25th percentile), and her head was 41cm (50th percentile). Her sister weighed 14lbs, 12.8oz at 4 months and was 25.5 inches long. Stella's head was 40 cm. Dr. Patil said Etta slipped a bit in the percentages, probably because she's so active, so we need to start giving her cereal to get her more calories. I don't know when we'll squeeze that in, we barely get the poor thing bathed on a somewhat remotely regular basis! I can't believe she's ready for food, my baby is growing up way too fast! It's also weird to have a baby so different from Stella was always at the top of the percentages. Just goes to show that every child is different! Things On My Baby.com

Other fun things Etta loves to do: chew on her fingers, stare at her fingers, when I got her up to eat in the middle of the night the other night she was clutching on to her binky by the mouth end. She pushes way up on her arms when she's on her tummy. She loves to "sing along" with you when you sing. She LOVES to watch Stella dance.

Stella at just shy of 4 months
Etta just shy of 4 months

Now I feel like the girls are really starting to look quite different!

Television rots your brain

I decided this morning that I didn't want to do the drive Tim to work, pick him up routine, that we would hang out here and be lazy instead of going to the weekly pool playdate out at my friend Beth's. It's only been an hour and twenty-five minutes since Tim left for work and I think I made the wrong decision. See, when Stella got up this morning, she asked where we were going today and I said, we're staying home. And I started to rattle off all the fun stuff we would do: eat breakfast, play outside on the playset, watch Sesame Street, all just us girls. Well, she latched onto that Sesame Street and declared, as of 10:15am after about 30 minutes of playing outside that it was "too hot" and she wanted to watch Sesame Street. I tried my best to dissuade her, that this was probably her only point during the day that it would still be cool to play outside. Heck, I was enjoying being outside, and as I had just put down Etta, I was really looking forward to playing with Stella. But I have created a monster.

Holy crap, they had the little German guy from Laugh-In on Sesame Street!

Yes, we are watching ancient Sesame Streets from the early 70's. Anyway, Tim and I have been strictly no television for most of Stella's life. We let her watch Sesame Street a couple of times last fall, once when we were sick and once when she was sick. We watched a Muppets Christmas special together, etc. I've never missed it or felt like I needed it to keep her entertained. Then since it's gotten wicked hot, in the late afternoons, like 5 or 6 before Tim gets home from work, we've watched an episode here or there, probably once a week or once every other week. I enjoy Sesame Street probably nearly as much as she does, honestly. She's 3 now and I don't have any problem with her watching occasional tv, but I sure wish she wouldn't whine for it. That makes me think I've turned her into an addict.

I think one of the hardest things about being a parent is that even when you give them your full attention, they can still sometimes be difficult. Like, I understand when I'm doing laundry or cleaning the kitchen or trying to get whatever done that she would start whining. But when I'm trying to be an actively involved Mom, which, I might add is 90% of the time, I want Stella to be an Actively Involved Kid. Which she is about 75% of the time. But man, when she throws temper-tantrums or wants to watch Sesame Street when I'm trying to play with her, that is tough.

Wow, Bill Cosby is YOUNG in this show! And wearing a weird leather vest and yellow shirt with butterfly collar.

Yesterday afternoon we had a super-fun time talking about my childhood. I saw a little glimpse of the buddy I'm going to have (and I DO think you can be a Mom and a buddy. I considered my parents to be my best friends growing up and they were definitely still my parents.) Stella kept asking me what toys I had when I was growing up, and who gave me my Barbies, etc. I got a little choked up telling her about how most of my Barbies came via my Grandmother, one each Christmas, who passed away when I was 15. But I was surprised to realize that I couldn't remember most of my childhood toys, even though I'm sure I had a ton.

Wow, some of this old Sesame Street is very Dada. No wonder they say it is "nostalgia for adults but does not meet the needs of today's preschooler." Whatever. My today's preschooler loves it and loves to talk to me about it.

Woah, they are showing the Lion and Tigers eating big bloody pieces of raw meet. Ewww.

Dude, the German from Laugh-In is back! God, I loved Laugh-In re-runs when I was a kid. I wonder if you can get them on DVD.

Oh man, that is a super-young Alan Arkin on Sesame Street. Was there any actor who wasn't on Sesame Street?

Stella and Etta had their first modeling gig yesterday. My friend Becka makes awesome clothes and she used them as models for her aprons and bibs. Check them out at her Etsy shop.

Well, I'd like to leave you with a cute picture, but uploading pictures to Blogger doesn't seem to be working right now, so you'll have to just be content with the pictures on Becka's shop for now.