Roll over, roll over

Elizabeth has rolled over from her back to belly three times today. She seemed befuddled the first time but took it as an opportunity to better drool on her pretty play blanket. Tonight she fell asleep in my arms, so I carried her upstairs and put her in her Pack and Play in our room. She started yelling about ten minutes later and I came in to find her on her belly again and seriously displeased. I flipped her over and while I was brushing my teeth, she rolled again and got mad. She doesn't seem to remember that she's rolled herself the other way several times when she's irritated with tummy time! But she calmed down and was smiley and cooing when I sang to her (Randy Travis seemed to be her favorite tonight!) so hopefully after another feeding, she will get a good night's sleep.

Elizabeth goes to school!

This is a picture from Elizabeth's first day at daycare with her sweet teacher. She has two of the same teachers that Ben did and is right across the hall from him. Other than refusing her first bottle on Monday, she is eating & sleeping well. It must be really tiring because she has been taking 3-hour naps each morning! They say she really likes watching the other babies.

Ben was worried on her first day because she didn't have shoes on. In the two days that he talked about this, I don't think we really convinced him that it's not necessary for babies to wear shoes or even socks. He was also morally offended by the striped onesie I dressed her in yesterday. She's worn it before and I don't remember him noticing it, but yesterday it was one of the things that set him off during a tearful morning. He cried and demanded I take it off and put something else on (I tried not to laugh too hard!). This morning he even remembered it, telling me he liked today's shirt "but I did not like the striped one. That was not a good shirt." We really wonder what's going on in his head sometimes! Well, most of the time!

We had a lovely visit from my parents last week and they watched Elizabeth during the day, which helped ease my transition back to work. We have a lot of photos from the week that we'll try to post soon.

A few photos

 Ben curling up next to Elizabeth while she has tummy time.

Maybe Ben has been whispering tips for escaping the Miracle Blanket, because Elizabeth has almost achieved it at 2.5 months. It took Ben at least five! She was fully swaddled when I went to take my shower and had busted her legs out of the pouch and was trying to wriggle free of the arms by the time I got back. She usually sleeps pretty well with just a sleep sack, but sometimes we swaddle her when she is flapping her arms so much it's keeping her awake. 

Note that Elizabeth is wearing her "I'm a Quiet Baby" shirt from our financial planner at Northwestern Mutual and blatantly ignoring the instructions. 



The many hats of Elizabeth:

Above is her sun hat that's still a little big and ends up flopping in her eyes a lot. Below are two super-soft hats that one of Elizabeth's Grandma's co-workers knitted. I need to ask her what yarn she used because it is lovely!

 


Jerry recently picked up a kalimba (thumb piano) for Ben at Ten Thousand Villages in Overland Park. He really liked this scene in the documentary "Throw Down Your Heart" with an amazing kalimba player and was thrilled when my friend Stacey brought hers for him to play last April.







He is so excited to have his own and is planning to bring it to show & tell tomorrow. I think he must have some of the more unique show and tell choices at preschool!

Trip to the zoo

Yesterday I took Ben and Elizabeth to the Kansas City Zoo. It was very busy because it was spring break for most of the local schools and the weather was gorgeous. But one of our Christmas gifts from Jerry and Herb was a family membership to the zoo for the year (thank you again!), so we got to skip all of the insane ticket lines which filled the sidewalk and go right in. It is also nice because we can take several short trips and take our time at each exhibit without feeling pressured to rush and see everything in one day.  We ended up having lunch there and staying about 2 1/2 hours, which was probably a little long for Ben's little legs, but he did remarkably well. He did see other kids in wagons and ask me if I could go back for his, which was at home. Today he says his favorite part was the tiger "snoozing for pictures." Elizabeth spent most of the time napping in the Moby wrap.

We had fun watching the big orangutan slide down the ropes and the baby swing around, pass a stick out of the cage to a visitor and then take it back again. The zoo is planning to redo the old tiger and orangutan habitats over the next few years; the sketches looked impressive.
                 

I had forgotten how big emus are! Ben declined to call to it with the sound that his daddy has taught him that emus make, which is "e-mooooooo!"

The kangaroo exhibit is an open one and most of the animals were sunning themselves on some grass. This mommy & joey decided to hop over and try to get through this fence, beyond which was an enclosed area with some other kangaroos or wallabies. She hopped down the sidewalk about three feet away from us! We saw the joey's ears pop out of the pouch very briefly but didn't get a good look.

We made it through the Tiger Trail/Asia and most of the Australian area before backtracking so Ben could play on the playground. 

After lunch we stopped and watched the sea lion and polar bear before heading home. Ben also says he liked watching the sea lion "splash back in the water." He is excited to go back again and ride on the train and possibly the animal carousel.

Elizabeth is two months old!

Elizabeth had her two-month checkup Tuesday afternoon. Everything is looking great. Here are her stats:

Length: 23 1/4" (83rd percentile)
Weight: 11 lbs, 4 oz (63rd percentile)
Head circumference: 37.5 cm (19th percentile, which doc assures me is fine!)

In comparison, Ben's 2-month stats were:
Length: 24.75" (95th percentile, about the size of a four-month-old per the doctor)
Weight: 14 lbs., 8 oz. (97th percentile)
Head circumference: 40.8 cm (75th percentile)


In the past few days Elizabeth has started smiling and cooing, which is adorable. She is generally a mellow baby unless she is hungry or you're not holding her in the exact position she prefers at that very moment. She seems to like being snuggled in one of our wraps, particularly if I'm moving around while wearing her. She isn't a huge fan of extended tummy time but does hold her head up well. Her eyes are starting to look lighter so we're waiting to see if they'll turn green like mine. We looked back at Ben's photos and his eyes were already brown by this age.

We are looking forward to getting out a little and enjoying this crazy beautiful week of weather - estimates are 80s for the rest of the week!

More Photos

Elizabeth has been especially photogenic recently, as she becomes more aware of and interested in what's going on around her.  Below are a few of the better shots.

Homemade bagels

Homemade bagels were one of the things I had on my list of recipes to try while I'm on maternity leave. I haven't tried many recipes with yeast dough but would really like to explore that. I used a recipe that our friends Neilam & Jen recommended. They were a lot easier than I expected and the taste and texture turned out well.  Unfortunately, the camera seems to have eaten the pictures and neither Dave nor I can find them on our computers. But I know my mom and a couple of other friends were thinking of trying them so here's how they turned out:

The recipe I used, originally from Nigella Lawson, was found on Bri Says: "Seizeon That Food!"  I made some plain, some onion & salt, some poppy or sesame seed, and several everything bagels.

A few notes:

• Jen recommended using brown sugar in the poaching liquid, which saved me from having to buy malt.

• When forming the bagels, it turned out much better when I rolled the dough into a ball and then poked a hole in the center rather than making a long rope and then looping that. The rope method didn't always stay together in the poaching liquid. Annie's Eats  has a photo of this, but uses slightly different process for the rest of the recipe.

• Next time, I would try not to stretch them out so much, as some of them were flat and skinny, making them difficult to slice.  

•  Some of the bagels stuck on the greased cookie sheets, even though I re-greased while the bagels were poaching. Next time I'd use parchment paper (or maybe a Silpat?) and spray that with a non-stick cooking spray like Pam. The Annie's Eats bagel recipe also recommends sprinkling the parchment with cornmeal or semolina flour before replacing the poached bagels on it & baking. 

•  If I was going to make bagels with mix-ins in the dough, like cinnamon raisin, I'd do that after the first step Bri lists. With toppings, as with an everything bagel, I sprinkled them on after the poaching while the dough was still wet.  

•  "Everything” topping from Food.com, found via Annie's Eats (makes more than you need, so store it in a Tupperware)

• 4 teaspoons poppy seeds
• 4 teaspoons sesame seeds
• 4 teaspoons dried garlic flakes
• 4 teaspoons dried onion flakes
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt or coarse sea salt 

• Some of the bagels, especially the everything ones, got a little chewy after 3 days or so, so I'd recommend freezing the ones you won't use by then. They defrost and reheat well. 

Next on the baking experimentation list: bread/baguettes and pizza dough!