She has changed around her schedule and instead of being cranky during the evening, she has been cranky in the morning.  This is rather inconvenient since we are usually in the car or out with friends in the mornings.  I get the impression that she is sleepy, but doesn’t want to sleep through the action.

She has been taking super long naps in the afternoon, which probably leads to her waking up more at night.  On the days that she is up more in the afternoon she sleeps better at night.

She has been talking more this week.  She especially likes to talk to her toys but has started talking more to us too.  One day I had her in the bouncy seat in the kitchen and she was looking at a toy dragonfly making a sound exactly like a mourning dove.

She holds her head up on her own all the time and definitely reaches for toys and bats at them.  When she does tummy time she is good at holding herself up when she feels like it.

Things have been so busy around here lately that I didn’t even realize I had missed Sarah’s ninth weekiversary post until I went to write the tenth!  Sarah’s ninth weekiversary landed on Pat’s birthday this year.  We had two celebrations, one with Auntie Christine and one on the actual day.

The weekend before last Auntie Christine came and she and Ted made a cookie cake for Pat’s birthday with dairy-free chocolate chips!  She also went to Whole Foods with me and helped me pick out some dairy-free items while wrangling the kids.

Wednesday I took Sarah in for her two-month check up.  She is in the 80th percentile for height and weight.  Other than some dry skin and cradle cap, she is doing fine.

That night, which was Pat’s actual birthday, I made him pizza with dairy-free cheese and an angel food cake with white frosting and sprinkles this year instead of m&ms.  He and Ted opened his presents together, including a new book from Auntie Kristen called Goodnight iPad.  Ted liked the book but is still concerned over the grandmother’s choice to throw all the “gadgets” out the window.

This weekend Grampa came to visit.  He and Ted made cupcakes together and ooey gooey critters.  We all went to Marbles Kids Museum together on Sunday before watching the Super Bowl.

Sarah has fussy days and sleepy days.  There is no telling what kind of day it will be.  Yesterday she was pretty fussy and threw up all over me at playgroup.  Today she has been sleepy and fell asleep in the arms of another mom at our MOMS club meeting.  You just never know.

He’s been a big-brother for two months now and seems to be handling it a little better now.  I suspect the fact that he and Kate and Sarah are usually booked up with school and social activities daily helps take the edge off of no-longer-being-the-sole-recipient of our attention.

His forty-sixth month brought him a few visitors.  First his playgroup pals stopped in for an morning of hanging out and sharing toys. Then last weekend Auntie Christine stopped by to swing Ted in circles (and maybe snuggle with Sarah a bit).  Then just the other day  Hike Club charter member Scott and his girlfriend stopped in to deliver some prizes.  It’s nice that we live so far away and still somehow get a ton of visitors!

Below is a picture of Ted doing his best not to eat the cake placed in front of him.  He and Kate made it to celebrate cousin Ben’s first birthday, even though Ben is 750 miles away.  Just because you’re using skype doesn’t mean you can’t have cake!

Sarah has been with us for two months now, and she’s adjusting to life in our family (or the other way around). She’s asleep right next to me now in this magical sort of chair that I imagine must be just like sitting in the most comfortable recliner ever (except, for babies). Much like her cousin Abigail, Sarah digs the rocking.

Just this past weekend she’s started smiling the heck out of the place, we assume because her Auntie Christine was in town.  It’s hard to capture her smile in photo form though, as she immediately sees the camera and loses the smile.

Her baby acne is mostly gone (yay!) but she’s got some fierce cradle cap like her brother did. She’ll sometimes smile at you if you look at her and ask and make silly faces.  Tickling her gives her an inquisitive look and does not produce giggling.

 She sucks her thumb sometimes, when she can find it. She likes the animals on the mobile in the pack ‘n play, and will try and bat them with her hand when they swing on by.  She makes little noises, mostly grunts although I swear I got a ‘coo’ out of her yesterday.

Her eyes have turned a bit more blue than they were a month ago, but who knows if they’ll stay that way… her brother’s were blue for a while and changed to a greenish hazel color.

She’s pretty awesome, and we’re very lucky.

And the big news this week is that Sarah is most likely allergic to cow’s milk protein.  We found some blood in her diaper and took her to the doctor.  She hasn’t been particularly fussy.  You would think that if she is having that much intestinal distress she would be screaming her head off, but she isn’t.  Apparently it could take up to two weeks for the dairy to clear my system and hers, so we won’t know if my elimination of dairy is helping until then.  If she is still having symptoms after two weeks, then I take her back to the doctor and also cut out soy.  Luckily this type of allergy is something she should grow out of by her birthday and isn’t related to any dairy allergy she may have later in life.

Cutting out dairy is hard.  Thank goodness Sarah is so cute and gives me a huge smile every time she sees my face.

Other big news is that she had her first bottle this past weekend!

Here are some pictures from Sarah’s last bath.

Here’s me hoisting up Ben’s brother Jack and his cousin Ted while we were at the science museum.  Jack is pretty darn awesome, too and hanging with him and Ted is lots of fun.

She is a very accommodating baby.  She is happy to go wherever Ted and I are going during the day or wherever we are all going during nights and weekends.  She does have a thing about red lights though.  She hates them and lets us all know about it.  She is also rather fussy in the mornings when I have to get ready for the day instead of holding her.  She also frequently is fussy in the evenings when Ted is getting ready for bed. In the evenings no amount of holding her stops the anxiety.  But (so far) she is not the type to scream without stopping.  There is generally some intense arm waving and loud heavy breathing punctuated with yells.  Then we calm her down for a few minutes with walking her around and singing and then repeat the whole process over and over.  Overall she is a pretty calm happy baby though.

Something else worth mentioning is Zoe’s overwhelming need to sit on this baby.  She is quite crazy about it.  Like a duck determined to hatch an egg.  I let Zoe sit with us but that is not enough.  She is constantly inching closer trying to get on top of Sarah.  I have to hold her away and if I move my hand she is instantly moving in.  It is quite comical when Ted joins in and I have Ted, Sarah, and Zoe all on my lap at once.