One last "Catching Up"

A work of art! Doesn't it look like a face?!

They grow up too fast.

So much happening! Stewart has become incredibly agile. I guess he always was... he first climbed that climbing wall last summer. His fine motor skills are really developing. He can draw a nice circle now, and has really been into drawing in general. His vocabulary expands everyday, including an "oh shit" the other day when he dropped soup on his chest! And I really felt like we had cleaned up our mouths! He loves to say his name, and upon meeting new kids declares "Hello, I'm Stewar Prapp." He's still working on enunciation. He was really shocked and sad when he said it to a little three-year-old girl who came to play with the toys he was playing with at the library and she didn't say Hi and say her name back. He knows my full name, his dad's and the town he lives in. I'm so proud. Now, if only we could get him to use the toilet when he's not naked.

Eliza has started real food. The last week of September I started giving her a bit of rice cereal with breast milk for dinner. She loved it! She wasn't sleeping through the night anymore and was really needing more food. The week I went back to school we started giving her a jar of carrots with rice cereal. That's when she really started sleeping through the night again. And she is finally on a regular hour and a half nap. She often goes down before Stewie though, so there's little layover for mom and/or dad to get much of a break! She and Michael (and Stewie too) have done really well with my going back to work. He's such a great dad! She's quickly becoming a daddy's girl. The first few days I cried in the morning, but once I'm there its great... I remembered that I really do like my job, and I'm having fun being intellectually stimulated again. We nurse in the morning before I leave and she goes back to sleep till about 8:30... but Stewie's up at 6AM so its not like we get to sleep in, except on Saturday because my husband is the best. She has one bottle of breast milk before her nap, and then two formula bottles in the afternoon. I'm so busy at work I just don't have time to pump more than once. It makes me sad that I'm not giving her more, but its just life. I give her an organic milk based formula, from a VT company so I feel a little better about it, both nutritionally and in terms of not supporting the pharmaceutical companies. We nurse when I get home, and before she goes to bed. Her father has also started her core strengthening program. She's almost sitting up already! She rolls around the floor to get to what she wants, and she's started trying to army crawl, but doesn't really get anywhere. Thank goodness! Boy will life change! I'm worried about Stewie giving her little toys... and we've had lots of talks about it in preparation. He's such a good brother... he likes to share with her! ;)