Time for Twos

This morning, Gemma started her Time for Twos class. It's an unparented class, so I basically drop her off and go elsewhere in the building to have a cup of coffee. I've never left Gemma with anyone other than family and wasn't sure what to expect with regard to her reaction to me leaving, but being the social butterfly that she is, I don't think she even noticed I had left. 

When I went to pick her up, she told me she didn't want to go. They decorated a nice piece of paper with snowflakes. It was quite obvious she had lots of fun and though I wasn't sure about the class before, I think we'll keep going.

This and That

I've been so busy lately; there's been a lot going on. I barely have time to sit these days! I'll just make note of some things I wanted to write in here quickly:

Leni has discovered how to use a straw and is always stealing Gemma's straw cup to drink her water if it's in her reach. Leni loves to drink water!

Leni has also expanded her vocabulary! LOL. She now says "B" sounds all the time, "ba ba ba ba boo boo boo", "M" sounds, and "G" sounds. She is soooo chatty and between these two chatterboxes, I hardly get a moment of quiet in my day! 

Up until now, Leni's been very afraid of baths. As a baby, we always bathed Gemma and she developed a fear of showers. To prevent this, we showered Leni as a baby and that made her afraid of baths! Oy vay! The last couple of days, we tried slowly easing Leni into sitting in water and now she seems to really enjoy splashing around in the tub with her sister. It's so cute to see them shrieking and splashing together in the tub, having a great time!

Gemma's been complaining that her mouth hurts for awhile now, on and off. Unfortunately, I've contributed to her my canker sores gene and poor Gemma's been suffering them. She had one that healed, now she has another. She gets so upset while eating (especially things like fruit) and I feel so bad that I've passed this on to her. 

I'm going back to work in 2 months! I really hoped to take the full year this time, but I think this is the right decision. There are also many changes happening at work and I would rather be there to learn the new procedures with everyone else rather than try to catch up later. 

weird night, weird morning

Why do long weekends always go so fast? Jesse's parents came on Friday and left yesterday and we had a nice visit with them. Gemma always loves having them here with all the attention she gets. 

Monday night, Leni slept horribly. At 11 pm, she cried out and could not be consoled. She screamed on for a long time before finally settling down and falling asleep in my arms. We had barely any tylenol left in the house and I had to scrape every drop to give her in case her teeth were bothering her. Then, she woke up again at 4 am and then had to cry herself to sleep... Our whole family was so exhausted on Tuesday, including Gemma - Gemma actually napped on Tuesday for the first time in weeks. 

After having had such a rough night, Leni was really out of sorts yesterday. She still didn't nap well and last night just passed out in my arms while drinking her last bottle. I woke up this morning to Gemma calling for harmony and realized it was 8:10! Leni hadn't made a peep and I was starting to worry, so I went into her room. She had rolled over onto her belly and was sleeping like that, which she never does. She woke up when I opened the door and stayed up for 3 hours before going back down. Another weird thing this morning is that when Gemma called out for my mom and I went to see her, she had opened the door and was coming out of her room! Until now, she has been afraid to climb down her bed (it's quite tall) and so she would always call out from her bed. But somehow she mustered up the courage to climb down and also managed to turn the doorknob to open the door! 

Hopefully Leni sleeps well again tonight...

New Hair, Dance, and Song

Gemma got her first real haircut! I cut it myself just because her hair is curly and so it's hard to tell if it's crooked or not... LOL... She seems to like it and it's less bothersome on her face, so she's happy. 

She's also started really loving dancing! I will tell you though, she is a TERRIBLE dancer! When she "dances", it barely resembles dancing. I only know that's "dancing" because she tells me so. If an outsider saw it, they would be puzzled for sure as to what she's trying to do... So nice, I know... She's always asking for the music to be turned on and she shrieks and gets SO EXCITED. It's funny. 

I hate to admit it, but we watch a lot of TV in this house. One of Gemma's favorite shows right now is Special Agent Oso - but frankly, she likes ANYTHING on Disney Jr. Yesterday I noticed that she would sing the end words of every sentence in the title song. I remember my little cousin Trinity doing this around Gemma's age and thinking that it was so cute.

Nana and Papa are coming for a visit tomorrow and Gemma is so excited! Leni hasn't seen them since she was a few months old, so I'm sure she won't recognize them, but I just hope she doesn't cry the whole weekend. 

Have a lovely Family Day long weekend with your loved ones!

A Valentine's Surprise

...probably not what you're thinking by the title of this post... but it's very exciting nonetheless!

Leni popped her first TOOTH! 

FINALLY!

seriously it has been long-time coming. With Gemma I remember her gums looked fine one day and then suddenly she had a swollen gums and then poof! there were teeth. Poor Leni's gums have been swollen and white for the last... month or more, always making me think that it's gonna pop out any day now... Well finally one has decided to poke through - which is also funny because Gemma got both teeth at the same time but Leni only has one... 

That was it, however, for Valentine's day surprises for us as Jesse worked late. I did get some nice kinder surprises in the morning and a lovely Justin Bieber card...

Leni - 7 months

I seriously can't help but smile when I see this little girl. She is just so sweet. She isn't temperamental, she isn't fussy, and she is generally content to sit and play for a long time. Of course, when she is tired or hungry, she will let you know! She is honestly the sweetest, cutest little thing I have ever seen. She is cute in a completely different way than Gemma was...

Still no teeth, which is really frustrating because I can feel them, see them, and they are RIGHT THERE, just not making that final push out. At this point, Gemma had her bottom and top front teeth, so it's odd having a toothless 7-month-old. 

She likes to clap with you and open and close her hands with you. She isn't a laugher and it's really hard to get her to laugh. She will squeal and smile, but not laugh. Maybe we're just not funny enough. LOL. 

She also loves to sit with Gemma and watch TV. I know, how awful...

Gemma is finally starting to warm to Leni more. Now, she gets really excited when she hears Leni wake up. She runs to her room, climbs the side of the crib, reaches in to touch Leni, and says "good morning Leni, did you sleep well (in korean)?" She will also give her hugs and kisses goodnight and if Leni fusses while playing because a toy is out of reach, Gemma picks it up and gives it to her. 

No signs of crawling yet, though she has been trying to go more from sitting to belly on purpose (and not just falling over by accident). 

Tomorrow is Valentines Day... wishing you a romantic day with your partners! I know we're not doing anything but...

This night sleeping thing is looking FANTASTIC! hopefully it continues. No peep again last night until the morning, then she went right back to sleep after her bottle. Unfortunately, her naps aren't as great - yesterday she only had one nap of one and a half hours. That's probably why she slept so great... she was freakin exhausted!!!

As Leni grows out of clothes and toys and accessories, I've been selling them like mad. I've sold a lot of clothes, her Bumbo, our Valco stroller and its accessories, the infant car seat, wrap carrier, swing, etc. I just feel like there is TOO MUCH STUFF in this house and Jesse and I know we're done having children, so I just got on the selling bandwagon.... and it's ADDICTING! I'm constantly looking around to see what else I can sell! We have been joking that we're totally screwed if we ever had an "oops" but THAT'S NOT GONNA HAPPEN!!! LOL. oh gosh...

we're off to gymnastics today. have a great thursday!

hate not knowing

2012 may be a crazy year for us Konnerts. There are many things that have been stirred and we're just in the waiting game right now, which is driving us all crazy. I don't want to say exactly what these things are for fear of jinxing them, but I ask for your thoughts and prayers as we attempt to embark on something new. 

Oh and Leni slept great last night. ... and it's Wednesday! my favorite day of the week! (my mom's day off from work, LOL)

Day #3 and Night #4

So yesterday was not too shabby! Leni slept 2+ hours for her morning nap and then had a shorter, maybe 40-minute nap in the late afternoon. She went down for the night around 8:30 (way later than usual) and woke up once around midnight, then quickly settled back to sleep until 7:15 this morning. 

So thus far, this is going alright. According to my blog notes, Gemma took about 10 days to be totally normal again after losing her soother. Leni is adapting way easier than I anticipated (knock on wood). 

Night/Day #2 and Night #3 sans soother

When Jesse and I went to bed, Leni had been sleeping a couple of hours already. I told him I wanted to let her cry tonight and see if she could put herself back to sleep. 

She cried out and I let her go at it for a few minutes, then just went into her room. All she had to do was see me and she turned her head and went quiet. 

The second time she cried out, it was very brief - more like a quick yell - then she was back to sleep without either of us going in there. 

The third time, she yelled out again, but then went back to sleep without us. 

That was it. 

My mom and I went up to Edmonton for the day with Gemma on Sunday and so Jesse was at home with Leni by himself. When we got home, the word was that she slept a total of an hour - obviously not very much. When we got home, he had just put her down for the night and she was screaming. She kept going so he brought her back out and I got to say hello to her and all that and I put her down again 20 minutes later. 

Night #3: No peep until 6:30 AM. This hasn't happened in quite some time and I was very pleasantly surprised when I heard her and found out what time it was.

Today is day #3, so I'll tell you all about it later!

First Day and Night sans Soother

Well, it turned out to be not the best day to start going without the soother. I was busy running errands all day and so my poor mom was stuck at home dealing with Leni. (sorry mom!)

To make long story short, while I was gone, Leni had two 40-minute naps. Shorter than normal, but at least she slept. Mom said she didn't even cry that long (5 minutes maybe??). 

I was nervous to put her down last night, but she went down without much of a fight. Four hours later, she cried out for the first time. I got up, went and stood over her with my hand her on her chest, patting lightly, and shushed her. She turned her head to the side and went back to sleep. 

I thought "well, that was easy". 

Then she started waking up more frequently - 2 hours later, then an hour later, then an hour later again. The same tactic worked each time, but I wanted her to be able to put herself to sleep, so at her last waking, I went in briefly, but left before she fell back asleep. She cried once she saw me leave and kept crying. I let her cry until she fell asleep. She slept longer and woke up to eat early in the morning. Then, she went back to sleep right away and slept another few hours. 

I just put her down for her first nap. I put her down awake, she played in her crib for a bit, then she cried out (kinda) for a few minutes. Now, she must be sleeping because she is quiet. 

So far, so good. Not as easy as it was with Gemma (night-wise), but really not that bad. Woohoo! Hope this continues...

Exhausted

I don't know why I do this to myself. Why do I have to take a happily sleeping baby and put myself through many nights of sheer misery? 

We have a bit of a vicious cycle going on here. Leni "likes" to be swaddled. Actually, she fights me while I swaddle her, but she sleeps wonderfully this way. When she wakes in the middle of the night to find her soother gone, she calls out to us and, like zombies, we get out of bed and pop the soother back in. 

With her teething and all (still no teeth), she has been sleeping more restlessly and seems to wake up more at night, which means she calls out more and more needing her soother back in. 

I, for one, want to take the darn thing away as I did with Gemma at this age. Leni minus soother minus swaddle but sleeping as well as she does = perfect. 

Well, first thing first, we decided to stop swaddling her. And I'm one of those folks where if I start something, gosh darn it, I would like to finish it. I started the unswaddling and the goal is not to give in and swaddle her for a decent nights' sleep. 

With her arms out, she is losing her soother more often because she rubs her face or whatever and she just keeps knocking it out. I sock her hands because we keep the house cold at night and i don't want her hands to freeze and I don't like to see her in the morning with new scratches on her face even though I trim her nails religiously. 

Last night was awful. Actually, this was night #2 and both nights were awful. The first night, we went in still to pop the soother back in - the goal being we wanted her to get used to sleeping unswaddled. Last night, I let her cry for longer because I wanted her to just go to sleep without us popping the dang soother back in. It's a bit annoying to keep hearing "can I go in there?" a million times throughout the night because SOMEONE can't handle a little crying.... anyways, this morning I've made up my mind to take the soother away too. All in one shot. I know Leni is a much slower adjuster than Gemma, so this may prove to be quite difficult. With Gemma, it was surprisingly easy. Actually, I almost don't think Leni will ever fall asleep without the soother, no matter how long I let her cry. A big difference from the first few weeks of her life when she couldn't figure out what to do with it and I kept forcing her to take it. Backfired! 

Anyways, wish me luck. If I never post on here again, it's probably because I ran away.