Anna's 9th & 10th weeks

I'm a little behind posting about Anna's 9th week, so this post will include Anna's 9th & 10th weeks. The next post will be about our almost THREE year old Eli!!

During Anna's 9th & 10th weeks, Anna has laughed 2 times, began to drool BIG TIME, discovered her hands, discovered her brother, fell asleep in the swing, and continues to smile, be a chatter box, and loves to be held up & out.

Anna laughed for the first time on Friday when Eli & I were laughing at her for doing something funny....and I can't even remember what!! We were both laughing at her and she just kept smiling and making noises and finally let out 2 distinct chuckles in a row!! It was too awesome and I was glad that her brother (with my help) was the first one to make her laugh. I have a feeling he will always be able to make her laugh throughout their life and Eli will LOVE the audience. He already is "showing off" to her to try to make her smile or laugh and boy, does she track him now!! She knows his voice immediately, looks for him, and then will track him even when he is running around the room. It's TOO cute because then she will even smile every once in awhile while watching him do his tricks and crazy maneuvers.

Anna also started to drool & make bubbles with her drool! She has become SO drooly now that she started to wear bibs today and went through 2 of them! She chews on her hands a lot and if she is resting against my chest on my shoulder, a nice little line of drool goes down my arm if there is no bib or burp cloth to catch it! Looking back at Eli's posts, he also began to drool around this age!!

Anna also has discovered the amazement of her hands! She will stare very intently at them and move one hand close to her face making her cross eyed and then back out again. Hopefully she won't punch herself out as she continues to love fists :)!

Anna has fallen in love with her swing. This is a wonderful love affair for mommy (and daddy & grandma when I return to work) as she really can spend a fair amount of time in the swing and be genuinely happy! She stares at the rotating animals above her head and just talks away! She also fell asleep and actually napped in the swing today which is something I NEVER experienced with Eli. Amazing :) Here's video of Anna in the swing & Eli mimicking her noises :)

Speaking of talking, Eli has always been a chatter box since early on, and Anna is no different. Who knows why this is but I remember a nurse asking me if I talked to Eli a lot at home. After thinking about it yes, I did. I remember talking to Eli like he was an adult about what we were going to do, where we were going, etc. along with the baby talk. She said that was probably why he was so noisy! In my babycenter email about Anna, it had a section about just that. It talks about the importance of talking, singing, and reading along with mimicking back to baby what you hear them saying. I do this ALL DAY pretty much, so much so that Eli does the same thing back to Anna! So, I guess it's my own fault I have chatty kids :)

Anna continues to enjoy her tummy time mat....but mostly on her back. She tolerates tummy time much better than Eli, probably due to her napping on her tummy at least once a day. But, she is yet to find motivation to try to lift her head off the mat. She usually just chews on her hands. While on her back, she hits the parrot with her hand, stares at the butterflies, and occasionally makes the cat sing by kicking it with her feet. When on the mat, Eli does great by wanting to lie next to her but must be reminded that he cannot run or throw things when she is on the floor!!

She also likes to "play" with and stare intently at her other toys while on the floor:

Here's a good picture of her looking at Eli even though she has to arch her neck back to see him!:

Holding her rattle!:

Almost outgrowing her adorable sleeper with her initial on it!! It's a 3-6 month size!:

Just some cute pictures on the boppy:

Sportin' her bib!:

Video of Anna tracking her mobile animals:



Oh, a bib AND a hair accessory....a must!:

In looking back at Eli's posts, I read that I brought out the bumbo and jumperoo at around 3 months for Eli. Eli loved both these items and stayed in his jumperoo until he was too tall for it!! I look forward to seeing how Anna does and if she loves them as much as he does!

Lastly, Anna continues to not take the bottle well. We have tried 6 types of bottles, several positions, different times of day, different people, etc. She has taken at most 1 oz., and that only happened once. She just doesn't like it....period. BUT, she is doing better with accepting it in her mouth...now she just needs to actually swallow the milk! With that said, I have been really nervous about returning to work. While I only work 24 hours a week, being gone 5-6 hours a day seemed like a long time for little Anna. She is much better now being soothed by daddy & grandma and is overall a happy baby. But, she has yet to be STARVING and having only the bottle to drink milk from. Thankfully, after talking to my very supportive boss (who previously had breastfed her daughter), I will start by working split shifts. That way Anna will only have to take a bottle while I'm gone 3 hours if she wants to and I will slowly add more time away. I am so happy for this as it will be a gradual transition and it will be easier for ALL of us. Yay!! My first day is Monday, August 16th....one week!

Next post coming up....Big brother Eli!