Little Sweet Pea

8-Month Milestone

Another month has crept by and our little girl's personality is emerging very strongly. We notice some traits about her and often those observations are confirmed by Anne, her daycare provider. She will go after "her" toys. Very possessive. We don't notice this at home since she's the only baby. Right now she's the oldest at daycare and has been dubbed the "Queen of the Pond".

Some of her milestones include:

standing all the time (at times letting go)

walking along the sofa

babbling ba-ba, da-da

big enough to sit in a shopping cart

her two front teeth have come in

saying the sound "esss" a lot

increasing her solid intake, less milk

more aware of mommy & daddy

laughs at our funny faces and sounds

more feisty in general

crawling quickly across the floor

in the last day or so, she's been making this high-pitched squeal

She has a lot of energy and stamina! It's going to be tough keeping up with her once she starts walking. I hope that I have the strength and stamina when that happens.

She's so fun, and we absolutely love it when she recognizes us and smiles. It just melts your heart!

Going Going Going

I'm sure I've said it before but as soon as I wake up, I'm always on the go. The only time I can slow down or unwind is usually in the wee hours of the late night. Lately, I've been settling down around 10:30pm and making it to bed between 11:30pm and midnight. Unfortunately, 5am creeps up pretty quickly. Yesterday, as I progressed through my day, I began to mentally record all my tasks even before I made it out the door.

So, this is how my day begins:

Alarm goes off and so do I!

Put drops in my ear [fighting an ear infection]
Make coffee
Unload the dishwasher
Prepare baby's bottles for daycare
Make breakfast for RT & me
Pack lunch
Baby wakes up, nurse baby
Prepare baby's diaper bag for daycare
Feed the dog
Change baby
Play with baby
Take shower
Iron my clothes
Get dressed
Gather all my stuff for work
Eat breakfast [cold]
Grab coffee and go
Drive to work
Arrive at work and decompress a little
Work, work, work
Pick up baby from daycare
Drive home
Deposit check at the bank
Stop by grocery store
Arrive home
Carry everything into the house
Get mail
Grab garbage, recycle cans
Greet dog
Play with baby
Unpack bottles
Wash bottles
Change baby
Prepare baby's food
Feed baby
Bathe baby
Play with baby
Nurse baby
Eat dinner
Rock baby to sleep
Unpack baby's diaper bag
Wash diapers
Chop veggies & fruit
Steam veggies & fruit
Make baby food
Wash dishes
Pay bills
Watch tv to unwind
Get ready for bed
Put drops in my ear
Go to bed

All in a day's work! Whew! I'm exhausted just proof-reading this...

We can get a little reprieve when she amuses herself in the playpen.

Hats, Hats, & More Hats

Laundry Again...Seriously???

I'm sure all moms can relate...doesn't it seem like laundry is your life? I don't mind doing the laundry, folding laundry is actually very relaxing as well. It's the putting away of clothes that I loathe. Someone was trying to help me by scattering the very carefully folded clothes. I gave up and just put her in the middle of it!

Party: My Crib @ 3 a.m.

Sacked out. The late night partying takes it toll...

This is what is has been like for the past 3 weeks or so. Since Little P had her back-to-back colds/congestion/runny nose for the past month, I think this is why she has been getting up a few times throughout the night. It has been a sorry state of affairs for mommy dearest's sleep patterns. Since her crib is up in our bedroom, I've been getting up as soon as I hear her cry. I pick her up and put her on my chest to sleep. Everytime I put her back in her crib, she sits back up and refuses to sleep! I don't want to wake RT up, so I take her back into bed with me and let her sleep in between us. I know. I know. Bad idea. Really bad.

On top of that, she's been waking up at 3 a.m., wanting to be fed. Have you seen our little girl? She can stand to go without an additional feeding! I've been so lazy and tired that I've just been nursing her in bed. She eventually falls asleep and then 5 a.m. brutally comes knocking on my door pretty quick!

Well, now that the antibiotics have kicked in, her breathing is better and shouldn't interrupt her sleep, but I think she's gotten used to this schedule.

Also, because she has been standing up in her crib, I have been hesistant to let her "cry" or "soothe" herself because I was afraid that I'd fall asleep waiting and then she'd stand up and fall out! RT finally lowered her crib, so all is safe again.

Tonight, I am going to try and let her cry it out. RT is sleeping downstairs and since I've got the next couple of days off, who needs sleep? Hopefully we can re-adjust to the oh-so-heavenly pattern of sleeping through the night!

Let the games begin!

Lucky 7

All clean!

Daddy bought her a new toy!

Skyping with Obachan.

At daycare hanging out...

Our little girl is growing up so fast. And, she has to do everything so quickly! There are many firsts in her life, obviously, but she seems to want to do things in a hurry. What we've noticed, and what others have shared with us (which confirms our suspicions and doesn't make us feel as biased), is that she's definitely a go-getter. Bound and determined, and nothing is stopping her. Some of her milestones in the past month and up until recently include:

Sitting up on her own.
Laughing at us without us physically touching/tickling her.
Clucking sound with her tongue, trying to copy Daddy.
Started drinking water.
Experienced rain.
Crawling--army crawl to get toy away from Ben.
Rolling over in the changing table and fighting to stay turned over.
Runny nose that never seems to go away! (It's been about a month now, is this normal?
Playing independently in her playpen.
Likes when stuffed animals “talk” to her.
Trying to stand on her own a couple weeks ago, by now she is grabbing ahold of something and standing on her own! (Way too early for that...babyproofing is on our to-do list this weekend!)

First Bites, Part III

We're still at the stage where we're just trying the mild, easier to digest foods. Depending on which resource you read, it seems everyone has different opinions. The route I took was to introduce the foods with the yellow and orange colors. So far, Little P seems to like food. She definitely likes her rice cereal!

It has been so fun to make her food and witness her reaction to the first bites.

The one book I've been referring to is called Organically Raised: Conscious Cooking for Babies & Toddlers. She makes a good point about making your baby's food fresh and not freezing them into the ice cube trays. Do you want to eat frozen, thawed out food every night? Another good comment a friend pointed out was that we're teaching P to like fresh food.

I was hand-mashing her food, but figured with some veggies, I need a finer strain. So, I went out and bought a food mill. Right now, it's fun, and I look forward to making her meals. There is something to making her food that evokes a tender emotion within me as I'm peeling the skin off the pear or mashing up a banana. Even better, seeing the vibrant bright colors of the produce and their freshness and knowing there are no pesticides, it gives me hope that we are giving her a "leg up" for her health and wellness. It's working out well so far. Belonging to a CSA helps so we can use the fresh produce towards her meals. We'll see how things progress and how much time I can keep dedicating to this.