The Janzens: Stella is 10 Months Old!

Sweet Stella,
I literally just wrote your last post . . . but that was because I was way behind. Hehe! You are so much fun and I can't believe you are 2 months away from turning 1 year old!?!?!

Stats
At your 10 month well baby BVC appointment you weighed 7.84 kg (17 lbs 4.5 oz) which was in the 27th percentile. You were 70.5 cm long (27.7 inches long) which was in the 37th percentile. Your head was 44.2 cm (17.4 inches) around which is in the 50th percentile.

A little blurry but we finally caught a smile. You are NOT a fan of taking pictures in this box.

Sister shenanigans.

You love Sophie!

How you actually feel about these box pics!

Eating
You would like all of the table food, all of the time. Baby food is for babies and you are a big girl apparently. Ha! I struggle with knowing what I should and shouldn't give you because I know you should have limited amounts of salt and you can't have eggs. At home, it isn't a big deal because I know if something has eggs but if we ever eat out I just bring food for you instead of asking the restaurant if anything contains eggs.

For breakfast, you still have yogurt with some fruit pureed baby food. I've also given you some of my multigrain cheerios and you are a fan of those!

Lunch and dinner continue to be leftovers or canned veggies (peas - which are disgusting, green beans, and carrots). You love cheese and eat it fast than we can refill your tray. You would really like to eat dinner around 5 pm but I've barely started dinner at that point. So I've been trying to give you a little snack to hold you over.

You are still nursing 4 times per day. The morning session is 4 minutes on the first side and 2:30 minutes on the second side. The rest of the day it is usually 2:30 minutes on the first side and 1:30 minutes on the second side. You are efficient.

Sleeping
Oh, sleep. I've been looking back at my five-year journal and I think you are a way better napper than Linnea was. You used to nap from 9-10:30 (I'd wake you up at 10:30) and then again from 12:30-2:30/3:30. I've been making your morning nap a little shorter so it is closer to 9:15-10:30 and then your afternoon nap is 12:45-3/3:30.

You are not as good of a night time sleeper as Linnea. Once she started sleeping through the night she slept through teething, colds and whatever else. At least, that is what I remember. I know your dad went in to hold her occasionally but not as often as it seems you need us. Maybe it seems like you need more help in the middle of the night because I'm currently living in that state or because now there are two of you who could potentially need us in the middle of the night. Either way, you seem to wake up once or twice a week needing help (sometimes more if you are teething or sick). Help can sometimes mean your dad goes in to comfort you but sometimes that just will not work. It has to be me. But here's the deal. I cannot hold you and sleep in the chair. As soon as I'm awake my mind is going 100 miles per hour. I can't get comfortable, etc. Once we do get you calmed down then it is a guessing game as to when to lay you back down. It usually takes more than one try. One night last week your dad tried to comfort you and he wasn't cutting it. So I came in and you immediately stopped crying but then as soon as he left you started crying again. Apparently, you needed both of us. Spoiled much?

Clothes
You are in size 68 and 74 clothes plus 9 and 12 months clothes. Your pajamas are 12 months. You are wearing size 4 Libero diapers.

You are wearing opposite seasons from Linnea which can be a little tricky but thankfully apartments here are pretty warm so you don't need too much on in the winter when we are inside. Once we go outside you have lots of choices of things to keep you warm (fleece overalls, outside pants, coats, rain pants, rain suits, fleece lined snowsuit, etc)

You haven't quite figured out how to move around in your snowsuit.

Seriously mom?

Playtime
We used to have 'your toys' and 'Linnea's toys' but now they are both of your toys. You are more interested in her toys and less interested in baby toys.

You like playing with the stacking cups, scarves, balls, and puzzles.

But your favorite toy is probably a book. Which just makes my teacher heart so happy!

Our Days
I know I am going to miss our days together but I've sort of hit a wall. I have been doing the same things (cooking, cleaning, changing diapers, naps, etc) for 11 months and I'm a little burned out of the mundaneness. I like when we have things on our schedule but the cold weather and gloomy days make me want to stay inside. It is a hard balance to figure out.

Activities and Outings
We celebrated 2 Thanksgivings this month which friends which was great.

You had your second ER visit. Ugh. You woke up on a Sunday with some grunty breathing. We went to urgent care at 7 pm on Sunday night. Your blood levels were a little higher than normal so they gave you some medicine and two breathing treatments. You were still grunting so they sent us to the Children's ER. We were there from 9:15 pm to 3:45 am! They did a chest xray to rule out pneumonia and eventually landed on an ear infection that the first place missed. We got home at 4:30 am and slept until 10:30 am!

You think I should be sleeping just because it is 10:30 pm?

After screaming for several minutes you finally fell asleep at 1:50 am!

Burger King Dating Anniversary tradition. Your dad and I became boyfriend and girlfriend 17 years ago after we had dinner at Burger King.

Christmas cookies with friends!

Firsts and New Skills
You are starting to crawl over and under things which is fun to see. You like to pull your knee up like you are going to crawl onto something which always freaks me out. You've face planted a few times but you are quickly learning to put your hands down to catch yourself.

Look Ma, no hands!

So proud of yourself!

See that little knee. You just want to climb!

You kept trying to look at where we were going in the stroller and you bumped your face a few times so we turned your seat around and you seemed to like it.

I wanted to get you a flu shot before we traveled to the US and that was a little tricky. Since you are allergic to eggs and the flu vaccine is live I had to convince the shot clinic to give me a flu vaccine and then walk it to the allergy doctor so they could give it to you there. They first did a prick test with it to make sure you didn't show any signs of allergy to the shot and then they gave you the shot. We had to wait 30 minutes after the shot before we could leave. Thankfully everything went well and hopefully, you are protected from the flu this season!

Blinking

Sister Moments
I've caught your sister reading to you which is just the sweetest. She likes to encourage you and she does it in the highest pitched voice. I'm sure she hears us talking to you like that but it is so sweet. I can't wait to see Linnea cheer you on even more as you get older.

Playing doctor. Linnea is so sweet with you but sometimes she doesn't realize you are so little. Like when she starts hitting you in the head.

You look thrilled!

Linnea New Skills
Linnea did a somersault for us one night and then 'taught' Jake and I how to do somersaults. It was really cute and made me dizzy!

Reading, in Swedish, at the library.

Wearing Daddy's pants

Recently if Linnea naps then she has a really hard time falling asleep. She gave up napping at preschool once she started back this August (when she was 3 years old). We still try to get her to nap on the weekends so we can have a break during the day. One Sunday she napped and then stalled her bedtime until 10:22 pm. We went to bed at 10:30 that night. She came out of her room multiple times. She wasn't being bad she just couldn't sleep. I felt bad for her but I caught one attempt to get out of her room on video.

Jake was in Romania and Germany for work so we made this video for him to watch while he was away.

Linnea Funnies/Quotes
At school, Linnea did an interview about either her mom or dad. She picked her mom ;). They asked her all kinds of questions and one was about my age. I didn't know this until later but one morning at breakfast Linnea asked: "How many år (years) are you?" I told her I was 35. Her response: "Mama, are you joking?" Ha! No sweet girl. We often joke in our house and apparently, she thought I was joking. In the interview, she said I was 4 years old.

Jake was in Germany and Romania for 4 days this month. One night Linnea woke up at 2:50 am and said there was a shark in her room. I scared it away and then she told me there were 'actually 3 sharks' in her room. She's a funny girl.

Walking to school with her walking stick.

After Jake got back from Germany and Romania I had a spa day with this friend. It was THE BEST. I can't wait to do it again!

Linnea started sleeping at night without a diaper. She had a few accidents but not nearly as many as I was expecting. Woohoo for being out of diapers!

Linnea started showing signs of another eye infection like she had two months ago. She woke up int he middle of the night crying saying 'Mama, I want to go to school. I want to go to school." I realized that she knew if she was sick she couldn't go to school. She stayed home one day and then was able to go back to school again. She has also started putting up a fight to leave school. Apparently, she loves it there which makes us so happy!

Linnea had to miss out on a Thanksgiving get together with our friends since she was sick. So Jake and Linnea had a date night. I think they both thoroughly enjoyed it!

Remember

One night I was rocking you after you had woke up. I was a little frustrated because I wanted to have some down time before going to bed but then I realized you will never be this little again. I am rocking my second baby in our apartment. An apartment that is safe and warm. You are in a family that loves you very much and you are safe. We have food, clothes, and shelter. We are not going to sleep wondering if we will be bombed while we sleep. You are not yelled at or hit or anything else that just breaks my heart thinking about it. As I sat there rocking you I just thought about how thankful I am that you are in our family.

This was from the ER after you finally fell asleep.

I want to remember the excited squeal and look I get from you when you see me. It could be first thing in the morning or after being apart for a few minutes. I really need to get this on video.

I want to remember what it is like to be someone's very favorite person in the whole wide world. I remember babysitting babies as a teenager. I loved holding them but if their mom was an option they would choose her. I remember wishing I knew what that feeling was like to be loved more than anyone else. To be someone's very favorite. And now I have that again for the second time (although Linnea's favorite flip flops between me and Jake).

You are one loved little girl.
Love,
Your Mama

Stella at 9 Months, Stella at 8 Months, Stella at 7 Months, Stella at 6 Months, Stella at 5 Months, Stella at 4 Months, Stella at 3 Months, Stella at 2 Months, Stella at 1 Month