Teeth!

Michaela awoke with not one but 2 teeth this morning! All of the previous week's fuss and constant suckling at night are explained! I thought the bottom right tooth had erupted by Monday but then it seemed to go away, but this morning, both bottom teeth are definitely through! She kept pushing her tongue over the area the past few days so we couldn't see them when we tried, but this morning, I felt those sharp little teeth and have been able to see them when her mouth is open too. If she allows us to get a picture sometime soon, I will post it. She does like to cover them with her tongue though. Other news is that Michaela's great grandparents and Uncle Gary arrived this morning and will be here for a week, so we are excited about that. Also, she will be 5 months old already tomorrow. I can't believe I have a big 5-month-old baby with 2 teeth!

Jumping Queen

Michaela has figured out how to really jump in the past week and now LOVES her jumper. She will jump and jump with a smile on her face the whole time. I can get stuff done while she is jumping, so I love the jumper too. I tried to upload a video of her jumping yesterday, but it didn't work for me, but hopefully you will enjoy this one. She was jumping while I was washing dishes. I started clicking Michael's grilling tongs to entertain her, and she laughed a lot when they got her. This was after the game lost its novelty a little, but she was still enjoying it a little. Please ignore the cluttered laundry/trash closet behind her.

Latest Teething Toys

TOES! (for some reason she switches them out for the fingers whenever the camera appears)



COFFEE TABLE (which I have been pushing to get rid of for awhile...I guess we will have to hold onto it a little longer since Michaela is putting it to good use)

Check-up

The clinic on-post lost its pediatrician recently, so after weeks of calling for an appt, we finally got a referral off-post, and Michaela saw the German ped. today. I hope we can stick with him. He is the one that examined Michaela in the hospital when she born and did the ultrasounds of her heart and hips. Anyway, the office visit is just a lovely experience. We walked in at 10:00 and out at 10:25, were offered water and coffee as soon as we entered, only waited about 3 minutes for the doctor who also did the vaccinations himself so no waiting in the middle for that either...wonderful. Oh, and it was a Saturday!

Anyway, Miss Michaela is still very healthy. She weighed about 14.5 pounds (6.61 kg), and they measured her at 67 cm (which I think was a little off cause that is like 26.5 in., and I measured her last week at 25.5 in.), with a head circumference of 41.5 cm. According to my charting of these measurements, that would put her at 95th percentile for height, 75th for weight and about 65th for head. She got more shots and did okay with that. She did the thing where she cries so hard that she pretty much stops breathing for a second or two. Michael had never seen her do this before and did not like it. She was fine as soon as he picked her up though. After hearing about her bowel changes this week and feeling her gums, the doctor seems to think that teeth are imminent. Michael and I both got our first teeth at 5 mo., so we'll see what happens. She definitely exhibits lots of signs and symptoms of teething, but I know these can last for a long time before a tooth actually appears.

AMSTERDAM!

Last weekend was a long weekend for Michael (being Labor Day and all), so we took a nice little family trip. We were planning on going to Denmark to see where Michael's dad was born and meet some family members, but Michaela really HATES the car after about 15-20 minutes of driving (forgot to mention that one before when I said she is only fussy when tired). When we found out the cousins live VERY far north, we decided to postpone that trip until a time when Michael can take leave and we will have more than 4 days to do all that driving. So, at the last minute, we decided on Amsterdam instead. We drove Friday and Sunday nights (with me in the back with the baby the whole time) so that we could do most of it while baby was sleeping. It worked out pretty well with only a few minutes of crying before sleep time each way.

While we were there, we were able to see the Anne Frank House (truly amazing that they were in hiding there for over 2 years), the Van Gogh museum, another museum with a lot of Rembrandt, some hidden churches (catholicism was outlawed for awhile), lots of bicycles, a nice tour of the canals by boat (didn't know Amsterdam was the Venice of the north, did you?), and many other things. Michaela did great on all the touring through the city. She loves being outside, seeing new things, and being worn by us, so it worked out pretty well. Michael LOVES taking pictures and took over 300 over the weekend, so it was hard to choose which ones to include here, so there are many below. :)


We are about to get on the tram, which we took many times (no subway as the city is built on water).


You can see where our modern rowhouses in NYC originated.

One of the nice views from the boat.

We are in a hidden women's colony (on an island) where dogs, roosters, and human males over the age of 3 were forbidden (at one time, not anymore, obviously).

On the boat tour, we went under several bridges. Michael got this one right before or after one of the bridges. He was trying to capture Michaela's face, because whenever there is darkness suddenly, her eyes bulge.

After the first long day of hours of walking and touring, the little chicky was still smiling and happy to be back in the warm hotel room.

Urinals right out in the middle of the main square for all the drunkos who can't hold it.

LOTS of bicycles. In Thailand, we saw entire families on motorbikes, here we saw entire families on old-fashioned man-powered bikes. The wagons for the kids were awesome (in front of the bike, however, they came with a hefty pricetag...we saw a used one for sale for like 1800 euro).

You, too, could be the proud owner of a cannabis starters' kit.

Or buy as many tulip bulbs as you can carry.

A quiet, pretty canal near our hotel.

Some nice park near the Van Gogh museum.

How Michaela spent much of the walking tour...

Michael and Michaela at the Italian eatery where we had lunch. Michael had to get some Pizza Margherita, of course. :)

More Michaela, of course

Here a couple pictures of Michaela with some of her favorite toys. The first one is her sleeping on the way home from church Sunday holding the yellow measuring cup. She likes my measuring cups, which are made from silicone and different sizes and colors...and perfect for little fingers to hold and little mouths to gum.



This next one is Michaela playing with the very best toy, a fisher-price story rhyme book, affectionately called the baby ipod in our neighborhood. If you have a baby of any age, you should look into getting one. Michaela loves this thing EVERYDAY. It has been a lifesaver in the car, when Michaela is tired, and when I am just plain worn out and need a little helper. My friend's 18 mo. old loves it too....although he just really wants to hear Row, Row, Row Your Boat. Michaela loves the music, the light up face, turning the pages, and pushing the buttons.

Sitting pretty...

or is it sitting angry? Michaela sat unassisted for the first time today (since I am always behind in posting and am doing them in retrospect by changing the dates...now a week and a half later, she is getting really good at it!). Now, back to Sept. 1st, she was feeling pretty steady when I was helping her...she had been kind of fussy early, like way before her normal bedtime that evening, so I was trying to find ways to entertain her. I was helping her sit and let go when she was feeling so steady and started supporting herself with her hands. I grabbed the camera and instead of being all smiley and proud of herself like I thought she would be, she got very mad! To my surprise, she was utterly exhausted that early in the evening, and the poor thing just wanted to sleep while I was making her use all her muscles to hold herself up. She fell asleep about 5 minutes after these pics were taken.