Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Oooh!

For a while now, every time Lizzie falls down or drops something, etc, I say, "Uh oh!" The other day she dropped her binky on the floor, so I said, "Uh oh!" to her and she says, "Oooh!" I thought it was coincidence. It was sooo cute! But since then she's said it several more times. Then last night one of the little funny looking things on Ni Hao, Kai-lan said, "uh oh!" at some point and Lizzie looked at the tv and said, "oooh!" hahaha So cute!!

Its no "mama" or anything, but its the closest thing to a first word that we've got!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Last Day

Well, breast feeding my baby girl is officially over. Done. Finished. Ancient history. Okay, not all that ancient yet, since our last day was today. But still. It seems so final.

Yesterday was actually supposed to be our last day. But she was grumpy. Very, very grumpy. She cried and fussed and cried some more. I had to coax her into drinking instead of it being easy, comfortable, and cuddly. I decided I didn't want our last day to be like that. So we made today our last day. She still wasn't as happy and playful as she usually is, but she wasn't crying either. It was still cuddly though. Maybe she was sad it was our last day.

I probably could have gone on for a while longer. I certainly didn't mind that she was getting immunities from my milk in this crazy flu season or the ridiculously precious cuddle time every morning. But she seemed to be kind of over it. We have been having to give her a bottle after the morning feeding because she wasn't getting enough. It was like she was just getting a pre-breakfast bottle snack. But who knows. That's the thing about breastfeeding - its hard to know how much they are actually drinking.

So, I breast fed my daughter for 14 months and 1 day. I am sooo proud of us. And sooo not crying right now... =(

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Lovey = Binkys?

Elizabeth has never really latched onto any traditional type of lovey. She doesn't have any stuffed animal she carries around or a blanket that she's particularly attached to. She does, however, LOVE her binkys. She'll have one in her mouth and be carrying anywhere from 1-3 binkys around with her. She'll switch them out too. She'll pop one out and stick a different one in. We call this "The Binky Exchange." Some binkys are more for just carrying around though. The Nuk 6+ months binks make her gag, so she still uses the 0+ months ones to suck on, then just carries the other ones around. Same with her Hawkeye binkys her dad got for her when I was pregnant. When we put her to bed, we make sure to have at least 2 binkys ready, one for her mouth, and one to hang on to. The whole time we are reading her bedtime stories, she is switching the binkys back and forth.

This was taken shortly after Liz started walking. Its a little hard to see, but here she is with a bink in her mouth and one in her right hand.
Lizzie's 1st ride in her big girl car seat holding on to her Hawkeye binky

Another shot of Lizzie with her loves
Trying to get Christmas pictures taken with the binks. I had to bribe her with puffs and then sneakily hide the binkys.

By the way, even though it might look like it from these pictures, she doesn't always have a binky in her mouth! She IS capable of playing perfectly happy without any binkys. And she also loves putting the binks in a cup and carrying the cup around. I am dreading the day that we have to take these things away from her.

Updates

Elizabeth has been doing AWESOME at the whole putting herself to sleep thing. It just amazes me! Now when we lay her down in the crib, she won't even make a peep. She'll turn over onto her tummy and go to sleep! Okay, about 95% of the time she does this. There are a few exceptions where she'll stand up and fuss before she lays down and goes to sleep. But that is so rare. I am so proud of my baby girl!!

This morning Elizabeth came up to me with a binky in her mouth and one in her hand. She climbed into my lap and just cuddled, so I knew it must be nap time. I took her to our rocking chair to read her a couple stories, but she just stayed laying on my shoulder instead of turning around to look at the books. It was sooo wonderful. She is the best cuddler in the whole world. The only time she'll cuddle for more than 2.5 seconds at a time is right before bed/nap time and right after she wakes up. Normally she is a girl on the go. She's got things to do, doggy water dishes to explore. So when she is in the cuddly mood, I take advantage. My baby girl and I sit and snuggle until eventually, she'll get down and start playing with her toys.

I don't think I ever did an official post when Lizzie started walking, sooo...

ELIZABETH IS WALKING!!! =D

Okay, she's been walking for a while, I just feel bad that I haven't written about it yet. :) She started taking several steps around her birthday, and right after that started walking half way across rooms. Then she would drop to her hands and knees and crawl because that was faster. By 12.5 months, she was walking more than she was crawling. She'd crawl a little bit then stand up and off she went. And now she's practically running. It is SO CUTE seeing this tiny little short person walking around like a "growed up." She's getting so stinking big!

OH, and she still only has two teeth. FOURTEEN MONTHS old and still only has the two bottom teeth! I'm pretty sure there are more teeth in there! She fools us often and we think she's teething only for no teeth to ever appear. However... we are cautiously optimistic this time! ;) I just checked her gums the other day and thought I saw some white there, but then later I couldn't see it, so I thought she'd gotten me again! Trickster. But last night when Nate was brushing her 2 teeth, he got a good look at her gums. He saw white! I tried to see but she wouldn't let me, so she got her teeth brushed again! HA. White! Definitely! So we'll see how long it takes for those little stinkers to actually poke through. Hopefully not too long! Fingers crossed...

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Sleep success!!!

Well, we did it... we let her cry it out. Almost 2 weeks ago, she started putting herself to sleep. At first, she was NOT thrilled. In fact, she was pretty pissed off.

I got the book "Sleeping Through the Night" by Jodi Mindell and read it in one afternoon. That very night, we put our new knowledge to use. The book said to expect crying for about 45 minutes the first night, or up to 2 hours for stubborn kids. We were expecting the full two hours.

It was decided that Nate would be the one to break her heart, I mean, put her to bed on the first night. We did her bedtime routine and then Nate took her in the bedroom for story/cuddle time. Then he put her in the crib, said good night, I love you, etc.... and left.

After the initial look of shock, she cried. And cried. And cried. I cried right along with her. The first night, we checked on her a total of three times (every five-six minutes). I went first, then Nate, then me again. After 22 minutes, she laid down! Within three minutes of laying down, she was sleeping! She fell asleep in almost HALF the time the book said it would take! (I LOVE my video monitor, by the way. Really don't know how we functioned without it.)

The book said to expect around an hour of crying the second night. It said something about how the kid is thinking, "Okay, last night was a fluke. Tonight I really mean it." Or something along those lines. I thought that was funny and pretty scary sounding. So we prepared ourselves for lots and lots of crying. It was decided again that Nate would put her to bed. I just wasn't prepared to do it yet. After story time, he put in her the crib, said good night, I love you, etc, and left.... my precious little baby girl, who I am sooo very proud of, cried for less than a minute before laying down. She squirmed around a little and then fell asleep! We were SOOO impressed with our daughter.

Since then, she cries for around 10 seconds or less when she goes to bed. And Nate doesn't have to do it all by himself anymore. I de-wussed myself on the fourth night and managed to put her to bed. My heart was breaking as I was reading the last book and I was trying, pretty unsuccessfully, to hold back tears. After a day or two, when she caught on, it was especially heart breaking reading to her before a nap or bedtime. She'd cry every time a story would end, and then be okay when I picked up another book. And she'd whimper throughout the last book that we always read before we put her down. She is so dang smart. She doesn't really do this anymore, thankfully. She does reach for more books though.

We started doing this "sleep training" at nap times about a week ago. It was really hard on all involved at first. She didn't care for it. But we got through it and now for the most part, she goes down for naps pretty good.

Before we "trained" her, putting her to bed, for naps and at bedtime, was sometimes an hour long (or more) ordeal. And then sometimes it didn't take very long. After the bedtime routine, and the story/cuddle time, we'd have to pace the floor or sit in the rocking chair until she fell asleep. Then slowly, oh-so-carefully put her in the crib, silently pleading with her to not wake up when we lay her down. The pleading rarely worked. Sometimes she'd stay asleep, but a lot of times she'd wake up the first couple times we would lay her down. She'd wake up enough to realize that she was in her crib and then would start crying, stand up, reach for us... we'd start over. Rocking... pacing... taking shifts, waiting for her to fall asleep. Etc etc etc.

For a while, she slept through the night. She didn't sleep in like her mother would like her to, but she slept until around 7:30. But recently, she had been waking up a lot in the middle of the night. Usually Nate or I would just have to go in there and pick her up and she'd be out within seconds. And then we repeat the pleading to not wake up when we lay her down again. And sometimes she wouldn't go back to sleep until she ate again. It was like she wanted to go back to sleep but just didn't know how to do it by herself.

Now, however, is a different story. Now my wondeful little baby girl sleeps through the night. Yep. You read that right. She sleeps through the night!! Anywhere from 9-11 hours straight, without waking up!! Well, without needing us to put her back to sleep anyway. She will sometimes wake up, maybe sit or stand up, maybe even cry or fuss for a minute, but she puts herself back to sleep. She'll find her binky and lay back down. Its incredible. We haven't had to go in there to put her back to sleep since before Day 1 of this new sleeping situation. (By the way, this book says that if the baby has night wakings, you can put the baby back to sleep as you normally would, so pacing, rocking, etc. They don't need to keep crying it out all night.) But, we haven't had to!

Putting our daughter to bed is no longer such a chore. We don't fight over who's turn it is. It is actully really nice to have that special cuddle time while we read books before she goes to bed. I don't cry (as much) when we put her down. She still cries for the 10 seconds or less, but I'll take it. Of course there are times that she will even cry for a minute or so, and we realize that there will probably be setbacks from time to time for various reasons. That's okay. Because right now, our baby girl is sleeping!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

The light at the end of the tunnel

My days of breastfeeding are almost over. I am down to nursing twice per day - in the morning and before bedtime. I have very mixed emotions about this! On the one hand, I am very much looking forward to being done with breastfeeding. I am very excited to have my body back to myself for a while. I won't have to think about how everything I put into my body is going to effect my daughter. I can enjoy a beer or two without worrying about pumping and dumping or waiting so many hours before nursing. I can quit wearing these super sexy nursing bras!! On the other hand... I think I'm going to miss breastfeeding!

I have been looking forward to being done with breastfeeding for a while now. About a year, give or take. I do enjoy the special bonding time with my daughter, I love that she's getting the health benefits from it, it was super easy to prepare her meals in the middle of the night or when we were out and about (although sometimes it was a little difficult finding a place to nurse. Didn't so much enjoy nursing while perched on a gross toilet seat covered with toilet paper and trying to not let her touch anything. Ew.) And even though we had LOTS of trouble in the beginning with latch issues and not getting enough milk sometimes, I was also blessed to not have to deal with chapped or cracked anything, even though I usually forgot to apply the Lanolin cream, and I never had to deal with engorgement or mastitis. Its not like I dispised breastfeeding. Obviously not or I wouldn't have lasted as long as I have.

My goal always was to go a year. When she was around 9 months old, I considered weaning. I just wanted to be done. But I was so close to my goal. I had already made it 75% of the way, so I decided to keep going. Now here we are, past a year! I realized the other day that I made it to my goal! It kind of shocked me. I am so glad I continued.

I did have a freezer full of expressed breast milk. Well, around 65-70 oz anyway. But since I have only been nursing twice per day, we've gone through the freezer milk pretty fast. Even when mixing it with whole milk. I am down to only 2 bags left. This is really depressing to me! After these two bags, the only breast milk she'll get is twice a day from me. And that's not lasting much longer either.

Its really weird to me that after this whole year of wanting and waiting to be done, I'm going to miss it.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

My new favorite thing

When I say "good girl!" or "whoo hoo!" or anything like that, Elizabeth will start clapping! She'll stop whatever she's doing and drop whatever is in her little baby hands and smile real big and clap. I LOVE IT.

It is REALLY fun watching Iowa games with her. She'll be playing in her little Iowa cheerleading outfit, or whichever Iowa outfit she's wearing that week, and minding her own business. Then when there is a good play and we start cheering, she gets all excited and crawls over and starts clapping with us. Hilarious.

I just didn't want to ever forget this. Oh man I love this little girl.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Its Party Time!

Here are some pictures from Elizabeth's 1st Birthday Party!
The invitation I made for the partay.

The drawing that my 16 year old cousin gave to Lizzie. Girl's got some talent!!! I may or may not have cried when I first saw it.

This balloon shows the design on all the stuff at her party- "Hugs and Stitches."


Playing on the rocking chair from her grandparents.

"I like presents!!"

The cake. They put "Happy 1st Birthday Girl" on it. We scraped off "girl" because that's just stupid.

Elizabeth's cake - Before
"Happy Birthday 1st Elizabeth" Grrrr....

Mmmm... frosting.

I think she likes it!

"HEY! Who took my cake?!"

Elizabeth's Cake - After

Hanging out with Uncle Mitoe

Hugs for mommy!

"ooh, something shiny!"

Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Just some stuff


  • Elizabeth got her second tooth on September 21st!

  • In mid to late September she started standing on her own for 20-30 seconds at a time. We were ridiculously impressed. Now she can stand all day long like its nothing.

  • FIRST STEP! - October 7th, 2009 - She takes one step at a time and then falls down. So cute!

  • TWO STEPS! - October 9th, 2009 - Now she takes two steps before falling or sitting down.

  • Yesterday she took 5 steps in a row!

  • Elizabeth turned one year old yesterday!!!

  • Lizzie clicks her tongue! If we do it first, she'll smile really big and take her binky out (if she has it in) and click her tongue back at us. Sometimes she'll smack her lips. I love this.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Birthday Girl

Happy Birthday, baby girl!

Happy 1st Birthday, Elizabeth!

Dear Elizabeth,
Today you are one! I can’t believe we survived this first year with you! You, my dear girl, are quite the handful! =) I am amazed at how fast the past year has flown by. It feels like yesterday that I held you in my arms for the first time. You were so tiny and adorable and awesome. You depended on me to take care of your little baby needs. And now you’re trying to climb into the trash can. Even though you still need your mommy, you are very independent.

I don’t think I can accurately put into words how much I love you. I didn’t know my heart could be so full! I feel so lucky and blessed that I get to be your mommy. I get to hang out with the coolest person ever, every single day. I get to watch you learn new things, reach milestones, explore. (And explore you do! You don’t know how many times you’ve made my heart skip a beat or two, or how many times my heart falls to my knees. You fail to see any danger in anything you do. This worries me. A lot.)

You are such an amazing person. You are so funny. You are weird and ornery and adorable. I have never in my life seen anything more beautiful than you. Your smile instantly makes me happy. Your cries break my heart. (Not so much your fake cries that you have learned recently. Those are kind of funny. But your scared or hurt cries are gut wrenching). I watch you every day as you play, dance, climb on anything and everything that you can, and I am amazed at how smart you are and how fast you are learning and growing.

You made me a mommy one year ago today and it has been one heck of a year. You scared me more than I have ever been scared. You made me laugh more than I have ever laughed and cry more than I have ever cried. You made me love more than I have ever loved.

You are my world. You are my heart. I love you with every fiber of my being.

Happy 1st Birthday, Elizabeth!

Always and Forever,
Mommy

Friday, September 25, 2009

Just a few cute things


  • Sometimes when she crawls around, she'll pick up everything in her path and throw it behind her. She'll just crawl around in her baby jail throwing things around. Quite a destructive little lady!

  • She likes carrying things around when she crawls. A spoon, butt paste, paper, my camera, a phone, sometimes a toy, but that's rare.

  • When we come up behind her when she's crawling and say, "I'm gonna get you!" she'll giggle and crawl faster. But instead of just glancing behind her while still on the move, she'll completely turn around and sit down to look behind her. Then squeal and take off again. Its really quite easy to catch her!

Friday, September 18, 2009

What she's up to at 11 months

Elizabeth is quite the busy little girl. She's got places to go and toys (and non-toys) to play with!

She's still only got the one tooth, but tooth number two looks like its going to pop out any minute. Hopefully she'll have at least two teeth to chew up her birthday cake in a month!

My little girl is still pretty dang little. I weighed her yesterday and she was 16 lbs. At 11 months old, she still isn't quite double her birth weight (8 lbs 3 oz)! She is also approximately 27.5".

But my little girl sure can eat! She eats pretty much anything we give her. She still eats the fruit and veggie purees I make for her. And she'll eat little finger foods like peas, cut up spaghetti noodles, carrots, bread, crackers, bananas, etc. And she loves her puffs and mum mums! I am really enjoying this champion eater thing she's doing, but I'm not holding my breath for it to go on forever. The only time she wouldn't eat something was about a month ago, and it lasted a week or so, but she would spit out bananas. There was no fooling her - whether it was plain bananas, mixed with cereal, or snuck in between bites of something else, she'd spit them out. Now she eats them just fine. Weirdo. =)

She is doing awesome for her naps. For the most part. She has been taking hour and a half to two hour naps, sometimes longer! For her first nap anyway. Her second nap is anywhere from 30-90 minutes. Somehow her bedtime got to be pretty late again. So we're working on pulling that back to 8:30-ish. So far we've gotten it to 9:15-9:30, which exceptions of late nights still. But it seems like she always wakes up at or around 7:30 no matter what time she goes to bed. Except for the last couple mornings, its been 6:30, and that is too stinkin early. Hopefully that doesn't continue. Sometimes in the middle of the night, she'll wake up and stand up and cry. One of us will go in there and pick her up and she falls right back to sleep. Not sure why she does this? This has lasted for a while now, but hopefully it stops soon too.

We are still chugging away at that whole nursing thing. I'm starting to get a little nervous because she has that ornery little tooth. I'm still planning on weaning around a year, which means I probably need to start pretty soon. I nurse her usually 6 times per day. When she wakes up, before her first nap, before lunch, mid afternoon, after second nap, and before bed. And I have been getting up in the middle of the night to pump (so even when my daughter does sleep through the night, I CAN'T!) Well I sort of accidently quit doing that whole middle of the night pumping. Just not hearing the alarm on my phone (I usually have it on vibrate and put it under my pillow - it usually wakes me up way better than the loud alarm. Weird.) because it fell off the bed, or I left it on my night stand, etc. and then just not setting the alarm. So I'm trying to decide whether I should just go with it and quit getting up in the middle of the night or if I should start up again. I really like sleep though...

Let's see, what else... she plays catch! I passed a ball to her and said, "Throw the ball to mommy, Lizzie!" and she did! She doesn't have great aim yet, but that's okay. We have so much fun just passing the ball back and forth.

She is finally getting the hang of sippy cups! I have been giving her one every once in a while for a few months, and she mostly chewed on it or banged it on things. She finally realized it has yummy, delicious water in it! She also sucked from a straw once a few weeks ago. We were SO impressed, but she won't do it again! Little punk. She also drinks from water fountains. It is the cutest thing and pretty much a 2 person job. One person has to hold her and her arms down so she doesn't touch anything. The other person pushes the button on the fountain and makes sure her mouth doesn't touch anything. And Elizabeth just laps up that water like a little puppy. Actually, she kind of looks like a Lizard while drinking!

Oh, our little monkey one day decided to just climb into her high chair. Just went right on up. We just looked at her, and then at each other, and then really fast at her again, as we rushed over to her. Nate put his hands behind her in case she fell (she did not!) and I grabbed my camera. =) We have to keep the tray on it now or she'll just want to climb up and play.





What a big girl!


Tuesday, September 15, 2009

11 Months Old!

In one month, my little baby girl is going to be one year old. ONE YEAR OLD. I can't believe how fast this year has gone by! Her picture was particularly hard to take this month. She wanted to play, dang it. She kept trying to leap from the chair, she destroyed the sign (as you can probably see), and she kept scooting down so she was laying down on the chair, then would try to shimmy her way to the floor. I finally got this picture, mid scoot, I believe.


Me and my baby, who almost isn't a baby anymore.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Look what I made!

For the most part, my poor sewing machine sits in a cabinet in the basement, all lonely and dusty. But since Lizzie was born, it has gotten pulled out and dusted off a few times! Before our trip to Vegas, I made a breast feeding cover using this tutorial.


This is the breastfeeding cover being put to use in a bathroom in Caeser's Palace. This was quite possibly the fanciest bathroom I have ever been in. The breast feeding cover did not, however, stop the cleaning lady from pulling the top of the cover out, looking in, and saying, "ooh, she's eating!" Umm.... yes. I didn't know what to say to that. She was a really nice lady and complimented Lizzie several times when we first came in, so I didn't mind too much. =) It was just really weird!

Next I made crib rail covers so Lizzie doesn't make a giant chew toy out of her crib. I used this tutorial for tips, but pretty much did it on my own. The side rails were interesting, since its all curvy (the far rail shows the curvy). Those took the most time by far. But it was fun and I think they turned out pretty decent.

The crib rail covers took a while since it took Lizzie soooo long to get a tooth. I just lacked the motivation! But once that tooth came in, I got the motivation I needed and finished the project... finally. Nate is happy to be able to get the sewing machine off of the kitchen table and back to the dusty cabinet in the basement. :)

Monday, August 31, 2009

We have a tooth!!

At 10.5 months old, Elizabeth finally cut her first tooth today! I tried to take pictures of this momentous occasion. It didn't go the best, but you get the idea.

I looked up symptoms of teething to see which ones she had. The ones that fit her are: runny nose, a bit of a tempurature, extra drool, a bit of a diaper rash, and ear pulling. She's also been trying even harder to eat everything, whether its a toy, a baby gate, nail clippers, etc., she doesn't care. Not sure if that is due to her teething though...

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Guh!

Elizabeth has said mama, dada, baba, mum mum, etc, but lately she has been stuck on "guh." It is so cute. I have been wanting to get a video of Elizabeth saying "guh" for a while, and I finally got the camera out. She would be saying "guh, guh" like her life depended on it... until I had the camera on and aimed at her, then she would just sit and look at me. Little punk! =) So I finally got this video after chasing her around the house, and I think she was just like, "Fine, mom! I'll do it! Now leave me alone!" =)

Saturday, August 15, 2009

She's in the double digits!

Wow - 10 months old!! When did this happen?! By the way, getting her monthly picture was a whole lot easier when she was just a few months old. Before she was mobile and wanting to eat or destroy EVERYTHING. Now it's an incredible challenge to try to make her sit for longer than 0.7 seconds while I try to put the sign beside her, while also distracting her from said sign so she doesn't destroy it before a single picture is taken. Trying to make her sit for longer than the 0.7 seconds I mentioned doesn't even include the actual picture taking, just sign placement. Its an incredible feat, let me just say that!



Here she is trying to make a run for it. No worries, Daddy stopped her!


Daddy thought this would be a great idea. She figured us out right away. We are not nearly sneaky enough for this little girl.

10 months old and still no teeth! I love her little gummy smile. =) Although you can't see the sign, you better believe she is still reaching for it. Little stinker!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Updates

It hit me recently that I need to start seriously planning Elizabeth's 1 year birthday party. Huh? How can that be?? She will be 10 months old on Saturday - in 2 days! It is so weird to me that she is getting so old. She's like this big girl now instead of my tiny baby.

I was recording something of her the other day on the video camera and the tape ran out. It rewound to the beginning and I pressed play. Up pops little 8 week old Elizabeth. How is that the same child who is practically climbing up the walls now?? How did that little baby on the camcorder grow up so fast? I was watching the tape as my mom and I were trying to get her to laugh on film, just mesmerized by how little and different she was then, when big girl Lizzie pops up in front of me and says, "Uhh!" As in, "Pay attention to me, woman!" How is this the same child??

This girl is everywhere now. She is the world's fastest crawler. She gets into EVERYTHING. She climbs up anything that is taller than she is (which is pretty much everything because she's pretty short). Her favorite things to play with are non-toy items. She bops along to music. She STILL doesn't have any teeth! I'm afraid that five are going to come in at once. And I think that changing her diaper really should be considered for an Olympic sport.

As far as the sleeping situation goes, she is doing better (this week anyway). She goes back and forth. Some nights she'll sleep all night (like last night - 10 hours straight!) and some nights she'll wake up in the middle of the night and won't go back to sleep for 2 hours. And getting her to go to sleep is quite a chore sometimes. Especially for naps. We still have to rock/pace/hold her until she falls asleep. I long for the day when we can give her a kiss and put her in the crib where she falls asleep on her own. I really hope this day is in the very near future.

I took some tips from a few different baby sleep books and those have helped tremendously. Her bedtime routine before included nursing to sleep (or drowsy and then pacing or rocking until asleep.) But we wanted to get away from that. We don't want her to think she needs to eat in order to fall asleep. So now she eats out in the living room, then gets her diaper changed, put into jammies, then story time, then pace/rock to sleep. I do think it has gotten better, with some exceptions here and there.

I am still breastfeeding and am still planning on weaning around a year. My goal was always to go to a year and I am proud of myself for making it this far. It is hard work! Not that I don't love it. I am just looking forward to having my body to myself again! But I am sure I will miss it like crazy once she is done. That's how I roll.

Elizabeth is still eating the purees I make for her. She has done great with everything she's given (except recently she spits out her bananas). She is a champion eater so far, but I know that won't last. So we are enjoying it for now! With as much food as that girl eats, I don't understand how she is so little!

Speaking of which, she had her 9 month doctor appointment on July 28th. She weighed 15 lbs 10 oz, which is in the 6th-ish percentile and was 26.5" long, which is in the 20-25th percentile. Her doctor said she is doing great! Everyone was happy that she didn't have to get shots at this appointment. Not looking forward to her 1 year checkup...

One last cute thing: She is still using 0+ month pacifiers. When we stuck a 6+ month one in her mouth, she looked perplexed and spun it around like it didn't feel right. Now she just spits it out. What a weird kid. =)

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Happy Anniversary, honey!

Today is our 2 year wedding anniversary, and our 7 year anniversary of when we started dating. It's hard to believe it has been that long. It doesn't seem like its been 2 years since our wedding, and it certainly doesn't seem like it has been 7 since we started dating! Happy anniversary, baby!

We are planning on staying in a cabin next month for our anniversary get-away. I'm excited for that but am extremely nervous about being away from Lizzie for 2-3 days. Hopefully I can handle it!

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Her 1st freckle!

Today I spotted the cutest little tiny baby freckle on my little girl. It is her very first freckle! Isn't it just the cutest little freckle you've ever seen??


Thursday, July 16, 2009

She's on the move!

As of July 10, my little girl was still army crawling wherever she needed to go. Sure, she could only go sideways and backwards, but she made it work. Then on July 11th, she took a couple little crawly steps. Exciting, right?! Within days, my little baby girl who isn't so much a little baby anymore is an expert crawler.

Here is a video of her the other day crawling to me. Pardon my appearance, I had just woken up.




Also, Elizabeth has learned to pull herself up into a standing position! I thought it was amazing when she started sitting up from laying down earlier this month. She has turned into a big girl right before my eyes this past week. Here is a video of the second time Lizzie pulled herself up. She looks so proud of herself! The beginning shows her pulling up - the rest of the video is of her trying to get the camera and then trying to eat a bird.



Wednesday, July 15, 2009

9 Months old!

How the heck is my little, tiny, itty-bitty, newborn baby 9 months old already?? Here are some pictures from her photo shoot. =)

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

30 Day Shred

Well, I have started the 30 Day Shred over this month. I started it a couple months ago only to get to Day 9 and have to quit because of the surgery. But I got the go ahead from my doctor to start exercising again (although I'm still not allowed to ride a bike). In the 9 days I was able to complete the first time around, I lost 3 lbs. So here we go again! I am on Day #5 today. I won't be posting any measurements like some other brave women out there, but I will try to update for any pounds lost.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Reality Show Idea

I have a fantastic idea for a new reality show. There are shows that teach dogs to behave, shows that teach parents how to control their kids, some where people lose weight, switch spouses, and compete in singing and dancing competitions. There are shows where people eat bugs for money, compete for modeling gigs, and follow teenagers around while they lounge on a beach. I think its time for a reality show that can teach babies to sleep all night.

Seriously. Experts can go into a house and teach the baby to sleep through the night and teach the parents how to get the baby to sleep through the night. How great would this be?! They could use no-cry solutions, cry it out, Ferber, etc, depending on what the parents prefer or what the particular baby responds to better. They could call it, "So You Think You Can't Sleep" or "America's Next Top Sleeper." I, for one, would watch this show religiously.

And also, I volunteer to be featured on the first episode.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Shopping for... a helmet?

This is probably a total "you had to be there" thing, but its something I want to remember forever, so I thought I'd write about it here. :)

Today, Nate, Lizzie, and I went out and had a fantastic lunch together, and on the way home, passed by a cycle shop. We were almost home when Nate thought we should turn around and take a look at this shop since I am in the market for a new bike.

So we turned around and went the mile and a half back to the cycle shop. He said he is going to run in to make sure its worth getting Lizzie out of the car and lugging her in. Several minutes later, he gets in the car looking all sheepish and tells me to drive.

What happened inside is this:

Nate poked his head inside the door and saw that the cycle shop was in fact a motorcycle shop, and not at all a bicycle shop. As he is shutting the door, the salesman asks, "What are you looking for today?"

Nate, so as to not look like a complete fool by simply saying, "Just didn't know if this was a motorcycle or bicycle shop," and then quickly leaving, stepped in, looked around, and said, "Uh... helmets."

So the salesman goes over all of the helmets with him, telling him which ones had blue tooth capabilities, which ones had two speakers as opposed to one, etc. (by the way, helmets have blue tooth and speakers??) Then he asked, "Is this for a dirt bike or a road bike?"

Nate: "... Road."

Salesman: "What are you riding?"

So at this point, I thought Nate should have just said, "A motorcycle." I think that would have been hilarious. But since Nate wasn't sure of any actual names of any motorcycles, he said, "Um..nothing yet."

After the salesman talks a little more about the helmets, probably wondering why the heck someone would shop for helmets before actually owning a motorcycle, Nate said, "Well, my wife is in the car, I better get going! Its nice to know you guys are here!"

As I am driving away from the motorcycle store, he is telling me this story, and I am literally crying and shaking from laughing so hard and considering pulling over. I asked him if he was going to buy a pretty helmet first so he could get a motorcycle to match.

So, needless to say, bicycle shopping today was a big FAIL!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Somewhat less scrawny

I took Lizzie in for her weight check today and she's up to 14 lbs 11 oz. So now she's in the 5th percentile instead of below the 3rd percentile. Her doctor was very pleased! He said this is excellent and that she's back on the charts!

Monday, June 15, 2009

8 Months Old!

My baby girl is 8 months old today! She is learning so many new things. And she's really starting to get around. She army crawls all over the place. She pushes up on her knees, but isn't actually crawling yet. She is also sitting pretty well unassisted, although I still don't trust her. So either I am sitting behind her or have pillows stacked around her for when she flops backwards. Oh, and also, she's the cutest baby ever. This week: baby proofing.

"Look mom! My sock!"

She got ahold of the paper and destroyed it! But she looked so innocent doing it. =)



Sunday, June 14, 2009

Nap time

Right now Lizzie is FINALLY down for her afternoon nap. The little brat just kept giggling and giggling! When I was feeding her before her nap, I decided I would pretend that I was going to eat her foot. She thought I was hilarious! She laughed so much that she got the hiccups. So then every time she hiccuped, I said, "Hiccup!" and she would laugh harder. I'm so mean. I'm not sure how much she got to drink since she was laughing so much. Oops. (Watching her nurse and giggle at the same time is soooo cute, by the way.) So after all of our fun, she just didn't want to go to bed. So THEN the little monster just played in her crib for a while until she was ready for naptime. Then we cuddled until she fell asleep.

I love that little girl so much.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Messy Face!

I realize other people might not care to see pictures of my baby with food smeared all over her face, but I do. =) Elizabeth has been eating solids for almost 3 months now. She started off with rice cereal, and then moved on to bananas, apple sauce, peas, sweat potatoes, avacados, prunes, green beans, and carrots. She is WONDERFUL with everything so far. There hasn't been any thing that she won't eat. I am very relieved about this! I know it probably won't last, but for now, I am so glad I don't have a picky eater! And now, here are a few food smear pictures.


















Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The girl hates sleep!

Which really stinks, because her father and I LOVE sleep. Every once in a while, she'll tease us with sleeping all night, or at least a really large portion of the night. Then it is right back to getting up multiple times per night. I don't know what happened! She was doing SO WELL.

Last night was horrible. I hadn't fallen asleep yet when she woke up. Got her back down and I got to lay down for 15 minutes before she woke up again. This continued until 3:30ish. After waking up once more around 6:00, she slept in until around 8:00.

There were days not too long ago that she was regularly sleeping 8-10 hours straight at night. Now we're lucky if we get three hours. I know this could all change by next week. Or hell, by tonight. Or it might not ever change. *gulp*


Although she has gotten a little better since she's figured out how to roll around in her sleep. Sleeping on her side or tummy (I'm not too fond of this...) has been helping a lot. And her naps have improved greatly. She consistantly got 30-45 minute naps before, and now has been getting at least an hour and fifteen minutes for her late morning nap. Often times more. Woot!

So turns out my daughter is a long time member of the "Sleep is for Wussies" club. Here's to hoping I can get ahold of her membership card and tear it to shreds. =)


Here's my angel sleeping peacefully a few months ago. Now I wouldn't dare go into her room while she's sleeping to snap a picture!