Summer weather=cute dresses.

Photo credit: Danielle Esposti

We headed out this afternoon for an Addie photo-shoot. We took a ton of pics, here are some of our favorites, but you can see the entire selection at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/stevesilvestro/AdelineLovesNature

Addie's got some new tricks...

I've been trying desperately to upload a video of her newest trick all weekend and something just isn't working. So you'll just have to settle for some still shots of Addie---SITTING!

Without falling over!!

She woke us up ridiculously early on Saturday morning just to show us her new trick.


Look, Ma! No hands!


Why are you guys so excited? What's the big deal? It's like I've been doing this forever!



She's also now a world-wide web video conferencer.

Here she is batting her lovely long lashes at her great-grandfather in Sydney, Australia via webcam!


And getting some grandma lovin' isn't new, but it's still fun!


We're training Addie to help us fold laundry


Here's Addie telling Uncle Dan the history of Passover


Bathtime is way more fun when you're sitting up. Note the calmness of the water...


...and now the crazy waves created by the little boo....splish splash!

All this "growing" and "developing" apparently tires her out. G'night!

Pink-eye, Stink-eye and Addie's nicknames

Addie has pink eye! :( We're not sure where or how she got it, but between heading to three different stores on Wednesday and the fact that Addie's "I'm super sleepy" sign is massive amounts of eye-rubbing...we're not that surprised.

We had some friends from college over for dinner earlier in the week--they are very loyal blog readers ("So THIS is the house from the blog...") and Addie loved having them visit!

Corrine and Addie


Beth (aka "Schu" or "Shoe" to those who have heard me talk about her---she's a bride next month!) and Addie. Not pictured: Emily and Addie.


We thought it would be fun to list her many MANY nicknames that we and others call her. Adeline is actually quite rare to come out of our mouths unless a stranger asks her name. Addie is common, but these nicknames also tend to pop out of our mouths when referring to the little one...

Mudge
Little Peanut
Peanut
Bean
Little bean
Bean-nut
Peanut Butter
Peanut Butter and Jelly
Little Bear
Pooh Bear
Pooh-ba
Bear
Addie
Adeloo
Adelina
Addie-boo
Boo
The Boo
Squish
Little Squish
Super Squish
Squish Butt
Chubs
Little Stink
Stinkbum
Cheeks
Cheeks McGee (no relation to Shannon McGee)
Cheeks Magoo
Liney (courtesy of Uncle Doug)
Nugget (courtesy of Danielle)
AH-dee (courtesy of Grandma Eva...okay, it's just her accent and not a nickname, but it's still super cute)

Anything I'm missing???

5 month photo shoot and a Pile O' Babies

Addie turned 5 months old yesterday and so we had a couple of photo shoots to commemorate the occasion. (gots to get her in these cute dresses before she grows out of them!!)

Here are some of my favorites!







I'd heard great things about joining a group of moms who have babies around the same age so you can bond and have people to do fun things around the city with your little tykes. Bess told me of a group she and Anne were joining, so I jumped on the wagon. Well, we met such a lovely group of women and their little darling babies, ranging from 11 weeks to almost 6 months. They came over yesterday for lunch and we decided to do a "pile o' babies" photo shoot which we plan to continue as they grow older. That's Addie in the middle if you couldn't tell amongst so many fair-headed peanuts! From left to right: Helena, Braedon, Anne, Addie, Chase, Reese, and Robert.


Um...hey mom...who are all these other babies on my couch?

Oy vey...is it nap time yet?

Hey, Anne...see those toe-things at the end of my feet? They're great to suck on if you want a taste.

The flirting end of the couch---Addie fondling a sleepy Chase and Reese trying to hold Robert's hand. How cute are they?


Happy Tuesday!

A new video!

I keep wanting to make a video collage of Addie talking/singing/making inappropriate noises, but...
I haven't gotten around to looking through all the clips, so...since it's been awhile since we've had a video, I thought I'd throw a quick one together...

Enjoy!

And....we have a roller.

So when we posted a few weeks back that Addie had rolled from tummy to back, we didn't mention that it was with a leetle assistance. No, we didn't manually roll her over and then congratulate her for her efforts--however, we did soooort of hold a toy over here head until she looked UP UP UP and then the weight of her head kiiind of tipped her over and boom, she was over onto her back. To us, it seemed like a clear milestone achievement since we didn't actually touch her and she could have, in reality, been looking at something up high without our intervention--the chandelier, a box of cereal on top of the fridge, whatever.

Anyhoo, she hadn't made another body flip, assisted or otherwise, since then until...a few days ago. Addie was down for a nap. All of a sudden, we heard a strange scratching noise over the sound of the monitor---it was repetitive and insistent and quite strange when the only other sounds we've heard from the monitor are her crying, talking, or fussing. We went upstairs to check and Addie, who had been put down on her back as all babies are supposed to be put down nowadays, was now on her tummy! And instead of napping peacefully, she was carefully scratching at the Pooh design on her crib sheets.

Since last week we have found her on her belly in her crib several times (sometimes she's fine with it, other times she's screaming to get us to turn her over, and clearly she hasn't mastered it yet despite the previous "victory") but we had yet to actually catch the act of rolling. We were beginning to think that some bedtime fairy was turning Addie over :)

Well this morning during breakfast (mine, not hers) she proved me wrong--Addie is a roller...and here's the proof!




Doesn't she look so proud?? :) We are, too!

And finally, I present to you the newest favorite toy in the house...the Rainforest Jumperoo, providing minutes upon minutes of uninterrupted fun and distraction for the bean while I do things like cook dinner or....update the blog :)

Thank you Dr. Richard Ferber

And there is finally sleep in the household.




Addie's sleep had gotten progressively worse over the last month. She was waking up 4-5 times a night and it took her a good 30-60 minutes to fall back asleep each time. She was unable to put herself to sleep so we would rock/bounce/shush like crazy until she passed out, then we ohhh so carefully put her in the crib, which would inevitably wake her up...and the process would start over again.

Apparently, we all wake up partially throughout the night, but we adults don't usually notice it--we just adjust our blanket or turn over, and go right back to sleep without ever actually waking up completely. Babies do this too, but more often (every hour), and while some babies naturally learn how to put themselves back to sleep, others (like Addie) did not.

The analogy is this: let's say you fall asleep in your nice comfy bed, but all of a sudden you wake up on the living room floor. You try to get back into your bedroom, but you can't do it without getting someone's help to unlock the door. You get back into bed, fall asleep again and the next time you wake up--living room floor again. If this happened all the time, you'd undoubtedly be suspicious of falling asleep and fight it for fear that the next time you'd wake up you'd be in the undesirable situation again (reminds me of the movie "Groundhog Day"). Well this is what happens when babies are rocked to sleep in your warm, cozy arms (your bed) and then they wake up in the hard surface of the crib (living room floor) and they need your help to get back to sleep (unlock the door).

So Addie was not only unable to fall asleep on her own, but she was fighting sleep, and when she did arise from those brief intervals during the night, she would rouse herself completely. She was exhausted and less smiley than usual, and we were exhausted and less smiley than usual. Something had to be done, so after a LOT of research, reading 4 different sleep books, and some preparation (such as unswaddling her), we started "Ferberizing" Addie on Tuesday night. Ferberizing means putting the baby to bed sleepy, but not asleep, and letting them learn to fall asleep on their own. They usually cry, which is hard to take (trust me that I (Monica) cried a good bit, too) but you don't just abandon them until they fall asleep, you check back in on them in progressively longer intervals--assuring them that you love them and are always there--but you don't pick them up, just rub their heads or bellies, and speak comfortingly to them.

The first night you go back in after 3 minutes, then 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, then 10 until they fall asleep. Addie's first night wasn't perfect, it took her 30 minutes to fall asleep (which was quicker than we anticipated) and she woke up 3 times through the night, and went back quickly the first two times (within 10 minutes)! The last time was up for a good while, which was hard. But the 2nd and 3rd nights, Addie only woke up once during the night for food. ONCE! We never did this method to get her to sleep through the night, I'm more than happy to feed her if she needs it, but we really wanted her to learn to put herself back to sleep...and she did!

To give you a comparison, I'll give you the schedule of wakings from the Tuesday night before we started the Ferber program (and Steve was working 2-weeks of a night shift at the hospital, so this is allll me): (note, each time I had to bounce her back to sleep)

Put Addie to bed at 7:00pm
Up from 7:45-7:50
Up from 8:00-8:10
Up from 9:15-9:50 (feeding at 9:30)
Up from 11:10-12:10a
Up from 1:20-1:45 (feeding at 1:30)
Up from 4:45-5:35 (ate at 5:00, diaper change)
Awake for the day at 7:15a

Ugh...right? Clearly she wasn't getting enough sleep either!

Last night:
Steve put her to bed at 8:00p (I was out with friends) and she fell asleep within 10 minutes
I fed her at 9:30p (because she didn't eat much from the bottle he gave her at bedtime)
She woke up at 4am, I fed her, put her back down and she put herself to sleep with NO crying
She woke up at 7am, I fed her, put her back down and she put herself to sleep with NO crying
Awake for the day at 8am.

Um...VERY different, huh?

Some people who are anti-"cry-it out," as some people label this method, argue that the children become clingy and fearful as a result of feeling abandoned.

I took these photos this morning--tell me, does this little smiley bear look fearful to you?



So she's sleeping much better, we're sleeping much better, and everyone is very happy that she learned SO fast. No, it's not fun to hear your child cry and not do whatever you can to help them to stop as soon as possible, but I strongly believe that this was what we had to do. There may be hiccups in the future. If she's sick or in pain from teething, we certainly won't let her
cry it out, and often kids "regress" on what they learned during illness or sleeping in another place on vacation, for example. But we have faith that she can do it and that she'll be a healthier little baby from getting such good sleep. And no one will be driving off the road from LACK of sleep in the Silvestro household.

And to quote from a very serious and somber movie, "Meet the Fockers":

Roz: I think that baby might need a couple pulls on that knocker of yours, Jack.
Jack: No, it's OK, we're Ferberizing him.
Roz: You're what?
Jack: The Ferber method. You let him cry it out, this way he doesn't depend on coddling.
Roz: On the other hand, the Continuum concept shows that a baby benefits from constant physical contact.
Jack:.....We use the Ferber method.
Bernie: We used the Focker method. We hugged and kissed that little prince like there was no tomorrow. We Fockerized him.

So in conclusion, we Fockerize Addie plenty in the daytime...at night....Ferber is our man.