Post Christmas Holiday Greetings

Holly usually smiles after she sees the flash.

Mommy and Holly at the downtown carosel.

Mommy in front of the Macy's Star.

Holly being cute and quiet.

The downtown Christmas tree.

Here's all the latest Christmas videos if you have time to burn.

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrTurtleback#p/u/13/UNFNz0VMQaI

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrTurtleback#p/u/8/OsHWxEOv720

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrTurtleback#p/u/6/dFIx-yn504c

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrTurtleback#p/u/5/N6ugwbkuJEI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az-ALLC1EsI

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrTurtleback#p/u/9/IJWjGy3vs68

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OIAxbK5Lw0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2oMwl9qFCk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xy3ZWWk5v0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq6k5IMqXvQ

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrTurtleback#p/u/11/vXcwxY4Yd4g

Holiday continues her new tricks

Holly's learning all sorts of new things. We're not using the carrier so much for anymore except for carseat purposes. So now she goes straight into the highchair when we go out, straight into the shopping cart or straight into the stroller. Holly's gone from novice flipper over to expert in a week. She doesn't cry anymore on tummy time since she's figured it out. Lately she's been playing in her playpen quite a bit. She likes pulling smaller toys out of their containers and putting them back in (just not the same ones). I still got a to keep an eye on her because she'll fall over reaching for a toy. She hates that so I'm usually on stand-by to right her back up again. Holly's been enjoying her new-found independence. She'll probably like it more when she figures out how to crawl (or walk even). We found that she likes breezes, when the wind blows on her she laughs. She's been waking up a lot in the middle of the night lately. We're not sure if her sleeping patterns are going through a change, or teething, or constipated or a combination thereof.

More Holiday Pictures

Holly likes sitting on the big bed, especially with the kitty. He's still bigger than her.

Here's mommy decorating the Christmas tree. I think the antlers were weirding out Holly a little so I haven't worn them so much this year.

Holly and mommy right after bathtime.

Here's Holiday in Christmas jams.

Holiday and Aunt Kelly.

Holly and Sable playing with blocks. You can see those little teeth.

Ditto.

Holly and daddy opening a present from Sable. Wrapping paper is fun.

And here are the mommies feeding the babies.

8 months old

Holly turned 8 months old yesterday. She's getting so big. I looked inside her mouth and she's got all sorts of little tooth buds in there. She'll be eating the furniture before we know it. She's already started grinding her teeth. All I can do is distract her so she stops. David got her to turn over a lot last night, so she's taking her new trick and running with it. I'm starting to have her practice standing up with her hanging on to something for balance (other than me). Holly stood for about 3 minutes on her own hanging on to furniture. I tried playing 'roll the ball' with her, but she can't balance sitting up and roll a ball at the same time without falling over. Multi-tasking is an acquired skill.

Holly News!

Holly rolled over last night! She was pretty unhappy about the whole tummy time thing though. We had her do it a second time to make sure it wasn't a fluke. Her incisors broke through last Friday. Sable and Keri came over yesterday and the girls played with blocks. It's interesting how they develop similar yet differently. Sable rolls over good and is working on the whole sitting up thing. Holly is a good sitter-upper but has yet to be an expert roller over.

Witnessing all these milestones has made me think a lot about the last year and a half. Mostly about how I wanted to approach parenting and we had to make changes along the way. Maybe I can pass on what I learned.

-I recommend taking child safety, birthing, breastfeeding (if you're gonna) classes. David took a daddy class and thought it was good too. Even if you only get one golden nugget of information, that could save you pain and suffering.

-I grossly overestimated my ability to withstand pain during childbirth. But...my approach was to be off the pain killers until I needed them, just to see how I did without them. I think it took about an hour before I demanded them. The memory is kind of hazy...not from the drugs but from the pain.

-One of the great things about our hospital was that we could have as many or not as many people that we wanted in the room. The room phone does shut off to be turned back on at your convience. So if you have any demanding relatives that want to be in the room with you and you really don't want them there, you can instruct the nursing staff not to let them in and they can't do anything about it. I didn't actually have that problem with my relatives, but I did feel the need to throw the phone against the wall when I was having a contraction.

-Have your partner bring a sleeping bag when you go to hospital. Not only will everyone there think you're a genious, but your partner will be much more comfortable.

-I fully intended to use cloth diapers for a number of green and healthy reasons. Within about 3 or 4 days we switched to disposable. I hate cloth diapers. We were warned by friends but I had to try for myself.

-For breastfeeding I had a goal of 6 months. I dried up after 4.5 months so we had to go to formula. But Holly is healthy and happy with no adverse effects. It wasn't as magical as I was lead to believe but I did think it was worth it. I was really, really happy when it was over. I stopped having nightmares about my boobs. Yep, it really happened. It's also way easier when you're out and about. Mostly because Holly and I were used to the football hold due to my emergency c-section.

-The best part of this advice is that you don't have to follow it. You don't have to follow your mother's or other relative or friend that knows everything about babies' advice either. It's good to have a plan but it pays to have a plan B...and plan C. But ultimately you are in charge and no one does anything with or about your baby without your say-so. So everyone go forth and be confident in what you do. I'm sure I'll come back to read this post on a day that I need more self-assurance.

It's a Holly Jolly Christmas

Here is the Anderson Family.

Daddy/Daughter picture...sweeties.


Look at all the cuteness sitting in the snow.

Just when you thought you couldn't take any more cuteness.

Holly's visiting Ellie and Anna.

Holiday with Daddy.

Holiday's Santa picture!

Holly told Santa she wants Seasame Street toys (Elmo's her favorite), spinny toys, rattle toys, and crunchy toys. Although Mommy would say she needs to ask Santa for more onesies (6-9 mo & 9-12 mo sizes) for colder weather. The slip on pants are good to have too.

Bath Time Video

Here's the latest video of Holly. http://www.youtube.com/user/MrTurtleback#p/a/u/1/WBNH0HYSerU

Holly's simply too cute. :) Be sure to check out all of our latest videos by searching for Mr. Turtleback on YouTube.

More Holiday Pictures

Holly and Daddy by the Goat Walk and Pig race course at Maris Farms.

Holly and Daddy by the goat enclosure.


It's a pony! (That's such a great shot).

Mommy was at Maris Farms too.

Holiday likes playing with her toys.

Sleepy baby girl...Mommy was sleepy too. It's like having a cat in your lap, you can't help but fall asleep with a little snuggler on you.

Holiday and Mommy.

Holly thinks Sable's toys are pretty cool too.

Holly and Daddy in their bathrobes.

So Holly has her front uppers and lowers cut and growing in. Her incisors are budding now. She's like a little shark. They're sharp too. The biter from a Series of Unfortunate Events makes more sense to me now. :) It's a good thing she likes getting her teeth brushed. We're pretty sure she's saying "dada" (meaning daddy) now. She's called the cat "keekee". She doesn't have a word for mommy yet, but m's are harder. We've noticed lots of little things that's she's improved on.

Teething Newsflash

Holly's two front teeth are already on the way in. The left side seems to be leading, it's totally cut. The right one has almost cut through. Holly's new trick is to rock herself. She leans pretty far forward and throws herself back as hard as she can. Whole lots of fun... :) She's a very active, squirmy kid and you gotta be ready to catch her as she tries to launch herself off of your lap. Or she can bop you in the face while she's rocking herself.

Holly Pictures

Holiday and Daddy

I believe this was rice cereal. Not a fav but edible.

Holly's playing on her baby laptop with Daddy.

Holly playing with Daddy.

Holiday giggles when Daddy holds her upside down.

This was either carrots or sweet potatoes, but both of those she liked.

Snuggling with Mommy.

Laughing with Mommy.

Little Holly tooth buds

So Holly has some more tooth buds coming in, we're guessing in less than a month we'll be seeing Holly's little two front teeth...just in time for Christmas. :) Makes sense since she's been turning on the drool machine again. Her little hands are all pruney from sucking on them. She seems to figuring out more stuff too. Her favorite teething toy has a spinny rattle on it. She used to just smack at it, now she takes one finger and deliberately spins it. Holiday really likes spinny toys.

Poor little pooper

Holly had a little constipation bout yesterday, but after some apple juice everything is running smooth again. She did not enjoy that. I think it's time for her to get apple juice regularly to try to prevent constipation. I mixed in some water in her applesauce last night and Holly liked that way better. In fact, I think it's her favorite thus far. She was smacking her lips and her mouth wide open for more. It was also suggested that we try a sippy cup. She might be needing a little independence, that might be why she pushes bottles away. We'll give that a try.

Hold the green beans please

So Holly doesn't like green beans either. We think she likes the applesauce. She makes a yucky face but she still eats it, it might seem sour to her delicate palette. :) She's been refusing her bottle a lot lately, but really can't do solid food more than once a day. She's been getting food in spite of this, it's just more work for us to get it in her. It seems strange that she's suddenly pushing everything away, but I don't think she's sick. Holly plays with her toys, sleeps, poops and pees as usual, just the feeding is different. Weird. Holly still motions at her teeth though, so all this behaviour could be related to teething pains. Poor little thing. I hope this part doesn't last too much longer.

Elmo's the best

We've noticed that Holly pays more attention to tv now. She likes Sesame Street, she smiles and giggles at Elmo and whenever they have little kids on it. This also means anything PG-13 shouldn't be on till after she goes to bed. Holiday has also moved up to size 3 diapers. Her teething has been pretty hard on her lately. She gets to the point where she's simply done with the day and nothing else can comfort her and we have to put her to bed.

Happy Halloween

You can see the little stinger.

The tights are super cute.


Definitely super cute.


Little Holly Bee.

We all went to Maris farms on Halloween to do the corn maze, watch the pig races and see the other farm animals. Holly did really well and she fell asleep during the corn maze. Soooooo...We think Holly doesn't like peas. She was doing the gag reflex thing. Then she'd hold it all in her mouth until such a time she felt the need to do a "dump truck" on daddy. Anyone in my immediate family could tell you she gets that from me, David has a very short list of foods he'd refuse to eat. But we tried sweet potatoes last night and she liked those just fine. Holiday has also discovered the fun of crinkling newspaper. Poor daddy has difficulty reading his funnies with ... what's the word he used? Ah, yes...a decimated newspaper. :) She lays her hands flat and rubs them on the paper for optimum ink transfer. But that's what wipes are for, right? Her little legs are getting stronger too. She did a couple steps with assistance from daddy. And now she likes to stand up and sit down on my lap while holding on to my hands for balance. We kind of thought that she might just get up and walk around before she'd roll over.

The usual stuff

Not a whole lot new to report. It appears that carrots have no adverse reactions so we will move on to peas tonight. It didn't take long for the poopoos to get solid, but it doesn't seem to be so bad as many had warned me it would be...it's just baby poop. Although it is exciting when she wasn't quite done and you thought she was and you change her diaper and you practically have to catch it. Talk about playdough factory. LOL. I didn't think she couldn't get any closer to rolling without actually rolling over but apparently that's possible. She is really on that edge of doing it. I've sorted through her clothes again so it looks like we have plenty of the 6-9 month sizes, it'll probably last us awhile before we need to upgrade. :) Maybe early to mid-December if I had to guess. It was kind of funny though because a lot of the clothes I might not be able to use do to the warm weather weight of the item. I probably won't be dressing her in sleeveless onesies for awhile. But I understand...you go shopping find something cute and didn't think if Holly would be able to wear it for that particular season and go ahead and get it. It can be difficult to gauge sometimes.

Holly's New Food

Holly's tried carrots for the first time last night. It was kind of funny. She's closes one eye, makes a yucky face, and shudders...but she still eats it. We're thinking it's because it's the first time anything has had any taste, the rice cereal kind of smelled like elmer's glue so I'm not convinced that it's tasty. Holly did eat way more of the carrots than the rice cereal, so maybe she does like it...it's just new. We'll give her more carrots tonight. We've been much more on the whole tummy time thing and Holiday has been making improvement. It's just that she cries so loud and hard that we cave and pick her up. So we've been letting her cry a little bit. It's when she seems her angriest that she looks like she's trying to crawl or turn over or anything that isn't laying on her tummy because she hates it. Seriously...she hates it. There's the suggestion of putting some sort of cushion under her but she hates that more. We'll just have to let her have her cry sessions till she figures it out. I hoping that won't take too long.

Holly pictures

Sleepy little baby holding pink baby.

Monkey jams and mommy.


Repeat (I'm going to miss those jams)

Daddy and Holly with toys.

Here's Holiday in a high chair.

Holiday is practicing sitting up.

6 month check up

So Holly's all caught up on her shots. She definitely remembered that she hates shots. But this time she cried while she was getting weighed too. I think it's the nurse, Edna. She gave Holly her shots yesterday and two months ago and weighed her yesterday. Poor Edna, I actually really like her. Holiday is 25.5" long and weighs 16 lbs 12 oz, so 50th percentile in height and 67th percentile in weight so Holly's doing great. We started her on solid food last night, just rice cereal. That's going to take practice but she actually did really well. David and I got our flu shots yesterday too. It feels like someone punched me in the arm. :) All for the greater good.

Holiday is 6 months old today

So her next check up is on Tuesday. This time I'll ask the nurse to set up her shots where Holly can't see her and bring them over once they are all ready to go. At the 4th month check up Holly remembered and started scream-crying before the shots even got started. Holiday got her second tooth yesterday so she's got both of the lower front teeth. Now she's appreciating her teething toys more. David's been teaching her how to pet the kitty. She doesn't understand 'gentle' yet. All she sees is KITTY and wants to grab a hold of fur. It's a good thing that the cat likes it rough...good Vader kitty. We went and had 6 month pictures done on Wednesday with Holly dressed in her halloween costume. They'll be back in two weeks. She picked out her costume, we held up three outfits and she laughed at the bumblebee so we had a winner. The pictures turned out really cute...you can see the stinger even. :)

Raspberry Contest and other stuff

Here's a link to Holly and my raspberry contest...good stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhAy9BTyAWA

Man...the last two times we gave Holly a bath she's splashed all over the place. Not like angry splashing, but as if she was on a mission kind of splashing. We'll have to do a video next time, she's pretty intense about it. But next time her baby bath tub won't be on the dining room table for mommy and daddy's ease. We'll put her baby bath tub inside the regular tub...attempt at containing the splashing.

Holly's speaking babinese now, she's making all sorts of little noises. She's been making a lot of funny faces with that new tooth in there now. We can tell she's running over it with her tongue too.

Holly Pictures

Holly on her blankie...

...and all of her toys.

Totally Sweet (but of course)

Daddy's little SeaGal.

Killer cute sock monkey onesie from Grandma Linda.

So cute that it warrants another picture. (That's Holly's thinking face).

We're grabbing toes in the playpen.

Can't get enough of those toes.