5 Months and Santa

Amelia has continued to do great at daycare! With Aunt Mara's Bottle Boot Camp 102 behind her, she is finally taking down up to 4 ounces at a time.  Although, she refuses to take more than 1/2 ounce or so from me, she's a smart baby and knows the other option.  :)

She can now sit up on her own.  She can sit "tripod" style for extended amounts of time, and all by herself for just a few seconds before she topples over.  I will try to post a video of her sitting soon. 

She is loving food!  So far, she had tried rice cereal, carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, pears (yum), apples (yum), and peas (YUCK!). 

It's hard to believe she is 5 months old.  She is really a good baby now, she doesn't cry unless she is hungry or tired or wants a change of scenery.  She is even getting better in the car.  This weekend will be the big test as we are making the drive to Freeport again. 

She was happy to sit on Santa's lap

I wonder what she asked for....

Waiting in line to see Santa, it took 45 minutes!

Good thing there were glittery pin wheels to look at!

5 months old!

I am happy all the time now! 

I love to smile and laugh!

Get me out of this chair!

Or, give me a book - I love to read.

I can even turn pages all by myself.

Daddy likes to help me read too.

Catch up

Here are some photos to catch everybody up on Miss Amelia!  We visited the VanHeirseele's, Sophie came for a visit, and Amelia is getting used to her high chair.

Olivia patiently waiting for Amelia to tell her a secret....

Unfortuately, she wanted to get her close so she could pull her hair.  Ouch!

Charlie is so stinkin' cute!  She and Freddie played together the whole time.

Kevin and his favorite little girl (besides Amelia and Vivian)

All 3 kids

Wow, look who's NOT crying?  Poor Sophie. :(

But seriously, I had to post this pic because it's usually the other way around!

We set up a new area for Amelia to play and guess who's staking claim already....

Sometimes she isn't too sure about the high chair.

She eats rice cereal, carrots, and sweet potatoes here.

And, she's really starting to enjoy it!

Busy, Busy

We have had quite a week.  I went back to work last Friday and worked three days this week.  For the next two months, I will work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday only.  "Bridging back" is a nice perk that Pfizer allows its employees.  I think it would be really hard to go back full-time after I have been home with Amelia for 4.5 months. 

I am very happy to be back at work!  Staying at home is so incredibly hard.  Way more difficult than my Pfizer job.  I have been completely fine leaving her at daycare.  No guilt and no tears, but I do miss seeing her during the day.  Amelia is doing great at daycare!  She receives so much stimulation and she loves watching the other babies.  They really tire her out.  In fact, last night she slept for 8 hours without waking up.  That is the longest yet!  There have been other times she has slept for longer stretches, but she wasn't able to keep it up.  Fingers crossed it becomes a habit now. 

She has not taken a bottle at daycare yet and they do not think she ever will.  Amelia is eating two rice cereal meals at school and then being spoon-fed the milk.  I am going to work on transitioning her to a sippy cup since the bottle continues to be battle. 

No pictures this post because I am tired and lazy.  :(  Hopefully I'll find some time this weekend.   

4 month appointment

Amelia had her 4 month appointment today and all was good!  The doctor said that she is definitely "thriving".  She weighed 14 pounds 7 ounces (60th percentile), measured 25 7/8 long (95th percentile!!), and her head circumference was 16 1/8 (60th percentile). 

We talked a lot about her sleep habits since she is not a good napper and still wakes up frequently during the night.  The doctor gave us the okay to let her "cry it out".  She can cry up to 1 hour for a nap (after that it is considered a "failed nap").  She can cry indefinitely at night, meaning 2 hours if she needs it.  Apparently she needs to become accustomed to "learned helplessness", meaning that she learns that crying isn't going to bring mom and dad to the rescue. 

He also gave us the okay to start solids, but also said that since she is doing so well on breastmilk we really don't need to start it until 6 months.  I have already been giving her rice cereal and still plan to start some solids even though it isn't necessary. 

She also had some shots, but was a trooper and hardly cried.  She did go down early tonight though, I think the shots made her tired.    Next visit is her 6 month appointment in January.

Here are some pictures of her today after her bath:

And here is a video of the first time we fed her rice cereal

Thanksgiving

Our family had a great Thanksgiving!  We all (including Freddie) made the trip out to Freeport where my Uncle Kenny and Aunt Lorraine hosted Thanksgiving dinner.  As always, it was so nice to see everybody and to hear that they think Amelia is doing better than her last visit.  We were able to see Kevin's family over the weekend too, Amelia loves seeing her cousins Christopher and Vivian.  Make sure to keep scrolling down for a VERY special announcement. :)

Amelia is comfy with Uncle Kenny

Maddie loves to hold Amelia

Close up!

Amelia with Debbie :)

Jessi and Amelia

Lisa and Amelia

Amelia with Aunt Lorraine

All the girls

 

Grandpa O and Amelia

Amelia and Vivian reading together

Cousins!

Cousins!

And now for the special announcement-
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Ziesemer Baby #5 is on his/her way!  That's right, Pauline is pregnant and due just one month after Mara!  That makes 5 Ziesemer cousins in just 3 years, and 3 of them will be 9 months and under.  How fun is that!?!  Greg and Pauline will not be finding out the sex of the baby either, so a double surprise will be coming this spring.  I can hardly wait, being an only child - I really appreciate this growing family.  What a great Thanksgiving, we have a LOT to be thankful for!!

Christopher loves his little sibling already!

Almost 20 weeks!

4 months old!

Happy 4 Month Birthday Amelia!  Her doctor's appointment is next week, so we'll post more then, but here are some pictures from today.

California Bound

We spent the last week in San Diego with my mom's side of the family.  We were able to see my mom, my Aunt Fe, Uncle Ernesto, and cousins Mark and Jesse.  We also saw my mom's cousin Ester and many of my mom's childhood friends from the Philippines.  Surprisingly, Amelia did amazing on the flight out (4.5 hours!) and pretty darn good on the way home.  There were other babies on the flight who behaved worse than her so it took the heat off of us.  The weather was perfect and it was so fun to watch Grandma Olthoff play with Amelia, they both had a blast.  My family out there thinks that Amelia looks very "white", but is confident that her "Asian Beauty" will emerge as she gets older.  We also were told many times that she has big ears (she obviously inherited those from Kevin).  Good news though - in the Philippines it's said that big ears = long life.  So there! ;)

Amelia's first trip to the ocean

With Mark, Fe, and Ernesto

Grandma O and Amelia!

Ice cream at the park

Amelia LOVES to swing (only in the real thing though)

Guava picking

Persimmon picking!

Never seen her so happy

Just loving that swing!

Ester, Amelia, and Grandma O

Mark, Amelia, and Jesse