Stella's New Lid

Ta-Daaaaaa!

Stella has a new lid.

She got her helmet yesterday.

She's got a mild flat spot on the right side of her head

that needed a little rounding.

It's pretty common for preemies to get a little flat spot because their neck muscles are not strong enough

when they are born to move their head around.

We were still supporting Stella's head when she was almost 4 months old,

so it has just taken her a long time to build up those muscles.

We also noticed a few months ago that this was her preferred position for sleeping.

Always on the right side.

We tried positioning her differently but it always came back to this.

After a visit with a physical therapist we learned that she has

torticollis, which is why she leans her head in this direction.

She starts physical therapy for that on Monday.

So back to the helmet...

We visited the Helmet Clinic at Children's Hospital in Omaha

and met with some wonderful Doctors and their Occupational Therapist, John.

John is kind of legendary there.

He has been doing this work for 20 years.

He knows what he's doing.

And it's very obvious that he loves kids.

He likes to make nicknames for the children he works with.

He calls Stella "Poodle Doodle"

Here is John measuring Poodle Doodle for her helmet.

They put this stocking on her head

and the dots in her ears for the scanner.

It's a pretty slick system that only took a few seconds.

No more plaster casting.

Here is a link to a news story done a couple of years ago on the

Helmet Clinic

It shows the scanner that Stella was in.

So far she has done great with the whole thing.

We are easing her into wearing her helmet, but by the end of the weekend

she should be in it 23 hours/day.

They're telling us 3-6 months of wearing it.

We're hoping it comes off before her 1st birthday.

We think she looks adorable in it.

It highlights her cheeks nicely!

Moooo-ving

It has been a bit crazy around our house this week.

We are in the packing up and do without stage of moving.

Our closing dates have been moved up on both houses,

which is exciting for us.

We're anxious to get into our new house and get settled.

Cole said today that his room looks "depressing."

He's right. Most of our rooms look depressing.
If they're not jammed with boxes, they've been stripped of all of the extras.

We have stacks of boxes in various places throughout the house.

This is a stack of empty boxes that migrated in from the garage.

Hope we don't need to get out the front door any time soon!

There is one member of the family who is doing everything she can to make sure she doesn't get left behind.

Every time I bring an empty box in to pack it

this is what I find inside.

6 Month Stats

We had Stella's 6-month check up today.

She didn't end up getting her shots because she's been a bit under the weather

the past couple of weeks

and she was running a temp last night

so the Doctor preferred to hold off on her shots.

That was ok with this girl!

Here are her current stats:

Weight: 17 lbs 1/2 oz

Height 25 1/2 inches

She's a bit short for her age, but she more than makes up for that in her weight :)

March Madness

It's March Madness Baby!

We do brackets with Jim's family every year.

The winner gets to have posession of the coveted "Benny."

The Benny is an awesome trophy that bears the name of the winner

and the winner maintains posession of this prize until it is to be relinquished to the next winner.

The winner also gets something even more coveted-

All of the non-winners (losers) must pay 30 seconds of compliments

to the winner at the family Thanksgiving Dinner.

This is also when The Benny changes hands.

Currently Jim's Dad holds the prize.

Stella was working on her March Madness picks today.

She may have chosen a few stinkers.

She's just hoping she doesn't finish last in the family.

That would not be a good show for her first official March Madness entry.

St. Patty's Crash!

Stella wanted to wish you all a

Happy St. Patty's Day.

(forgive my fuzzy pictures, my phone doesn't auto-focus well on a wiggly girl)

So, good morning and

Happy St. Patty's.

She's working so hard on learning to sit up!

Uh-oh, she's slouching....

Oh no, there she goes.

Oh good, she recovered

Oh, this is bad....

There she goes....

That's not sitting up!

Guess we'll try again tomorrow!

Happy Half-Birthday Stella

Today is Stella's Half-Birthday

It's so hard to believe that it has already been 6 months

since this girl entered our lives.

Every single day with her has been a blessing and a joy!

Happy half-birthday sweet girl!

Rollin'

We've got something new going on at our house.

It starts out like this...

and then it looks something like this....

followed closely by this....

and finally we end up here....

Yep, that's right.

Stella is on the move.

She rolled over.

She has only done it once actually.

And amazingly, Jim and I were both home to see it.

It was awesome!

Green Beans- Yum!

Stella has finally gotten this eating thing figured out.

We have prepared and tried a variety of foods with her

and just this past week she realized that she likes the solid foods

and her body mechanics are allowing her to eat like a champ now.

I made green beans a couple of weeks ago

and she was lukewarm on them.

But then last night Cole wanted to try feeding her

Sure, why not.

(Ignore the stacks of boxes, we're getting ready to move)

I'm not sure who enjoyed it more.

Stella was digging the green beans

and Cole was cracking up.

I guess she liked them.

Marathon Training Update

Six miles down!

This week the running schedule looks like this:

Tuesday- 3 miles

Thursday- 5 miles

Friday- 3 miles

Sunday- 8 miles

I have heard a lot of ohh-ing and ahh-ing

about achy and tired legs after that 6-miler on Sunday.

Very proud of my running team though!

They're doing great!

Wake Up Dad!

Stella and Dad were taking a nap together this morning.

Except Stella wasn't.

Looks like one of the team members didn't get the memo.

He was snoring a little bit

and she kept looking at him

as if she were trying to figure out how he was making that noise

and why he wasn't recognizing her cuteness.

I wonder how long she'll let him sleep :)

Marathon Training Update

So I realized that a while back I promised to do weekly marathon training updates.

And then I kind of didn't do any updates.

Well, I want you to know that it's not because marathon training isn't still occurring at our house.

I didn't do any updates because I realized that

posting the same pictures of Jim & Cole in their running gear week after week

and posting their running times and distances

would be a little bit monotonous and boring.

But, we're several weeks in to training now, and we're 50 days away from Marathon Day

so it's time for an update...

The guys have been doing a great job on their training schedule.

I modified the half-marathon training schedule from Marathon Rookie

just a little bit in order to fit our household schedule and they have been using it as their guide.

I think it has been helpful for Cole so he always knows which days he needs to run,

and how far he has to go.

When I made the schedule, they were 11 weeks out, and it's a 10 week schedule

so there was an extra week of training built in as a little cushion for them.

Unfortunately the snow the past couple of weeks ate into their cushion,

and so they now have to follow the schedule without any additional breaks.

The guys are doing all of their training runs together

and they plan to run the race together as well.

They are able to run 4 miles easy and under thier goal of 10-minute miles.

They have a 6 mile run tomorrow.

Stella and I continue to be their biggest supporters.

And we can't wait to cheer them on on race day!

Sibling Love

I often say how nice it is to have my children 13 years apart.

In some ways, having a teenager and an infant is like starting over,

but in other ways it is nice to have the extra set of hands to entertain her.

The other day I was working in the kitchen

and Stella was tired of sitting in her high chair waiting for me.

So Cole stepped in to help me out.

Stella clearly loves her big brother very much.

She is constantly watching his every move.

I tell him that her fascination with him will continue for years and years.

He is always going to be her super cool big brother.

He told me one day last week that he wants Stella to come and live with him

when he gets out of college.

I asked him if he realized that she will only be a 4th grader when he graduates from college.

He hadn't done the math on that.

We agreed that maybe she could just come hang out

with him, instead of moving in.

I wonder if he'll still be beat boxing for her when he is all grown up.

My guess is

------

he will.

Naptime Rebellion

Dear Stella,

This is not napping.

You have been awake since 6:30 this morning.

Please close your eyes before we both melt down.

Thanks in advance for your consideration.

Love,

Mom

An Apple and A Raspberry

Stella was enjoying an apple slice the other night.

That is what I thought this video was going to be about.

But her Daddy taught her a fun game earlier in the day.

So now she's trying out the raspberry.

She likes to do it when she eats.

That's fun!

Squash Cubes

I finally was able to get that squash cooked.

I used these instructions from Wholesome Baby Food to prepare it.

I had instructions in my baby food cookbook, but these were simpler.

I had an acorn squash, but the instructions could be used for a butternut squash too.

I just cut the squash in half.

And then scooped out the seeds.

I don't think I've ever handled an acorn squash before.

It smelled nutty.

Then I put it in a cake pan with about an inch of water.

And baked it for about 40 minutes.

It came out soft.

Then I just scooped the "meat" into the food processor and

smashed it up.

Here are the squash carcasses after I scooped all the good stuff out.

I ended up with quite a bit of squash, so I was able to freeze some.

They came out pretty good.

I was pretty proud of the squash cubes.

Here's Stella's first taste of the squash.

She actually liked it.

This is the first food that she has really liked.

She tolerates avocado, but she really seemed interested in the squash.

She was pretty interested in the way it felt on her hands.

I was proud of my girl for eating her veggies!

And now it's time for dessert!

The Tummy Time Deterioration

Stella still hasn't rolled over yet.

I think it's because this is how our tummy time goes...

This is how tummy time starts out

Stella is usually happy, and holding up her head like a champ.

(By the way, check out those amazing arm rolls. I think I count 5 on one arm!)

We can usually get a few smiles out of her as she kicks her feet

and holds up her head.

She really gets herself high centered, and occasionally she will get onto her side.

But so far she has not been able to do a full roll.

The smiles quickly turn into this.

As she realizes that tummy time requres some work that she is not interested in doing.

And when we get to this stage, someone usually rescues her.

And then we're back to happy!

Who really needs to roll over anyway?

Happy Friday!

I took a bunch of pictures last night that I wanted to use for a post today.

But I forgot to put them on my computer.

So instead you're stuck with this boring picture of Stella today.

Maybe I'll get the pics uploaded tonight.

Happy Friday!

Crazy Busy

Wow have we been busy lately!

Stella has just been growing and changing so much lately.

It seems like every day she has a new trick.

She has been gracing us with lots of giggles and also some very important conversations.

We do a lot of nodding and agreeing,

even though we have no idea what she's saying.

It's clearly important to her though!

We have finally been able to get her back to sleeping in her bed.

That is a huge relief to us.

We had gotten really off track after she was sick earlier this year.

Now, if we can just get her sleeping through the night we'll be in business.

Last night she went to bed at 8:30, was up at 4:00 for a quick bottle,

and then slept until I woke her at 8:00 this morning.

I think we're really close to our first full night's sleep.

Of course I say that, and then tonight will be a disaster.

Maybe Stella is also feeling the busy-ness of our household right now.

We're so busy because we've got big news!

We're moving!!!

We have had our house for sale by owner since right after Stella was born.

We accepted an offer on Feb 14th, and we close on the sale of our house on April 1.

That was all awesome news, and a huge relief to us.

Except...

We didn't have a place to move to.

Thankfully, Jim is constantly on the house hunt.

So after a marathon day of open houses,

we found 'the' house.

This one, to be exact.

We're very excited.

So now we're just busy with packing and organizing.

And trying to enjoy the process.