8 months!

Daddy took me to see Santa!

  
    Limited pictures in this blog, sorry! We got rid of our cable and internet in December (we have internet on our smart phones and have laptops we can take somewhere to get wi-fi). If I get a chance, I'll add more photos in a few days.

   Ayla is 8 months old! When I weighed her a few weeks ago, she was about 16 lbs, so I'm sure she's around 17 or so now. We have a pediatrician next month around her 9-month birthday, so check back later for her height, weight and percentiles.

   Chris lowered CC's crib a couple weeks ago since she had been trying to pull herself up to standing on several different objects around the house. Good thing, because she can pull herself up now! I was doing dishes one day and had the door of the dishwasher down. Ayla was "scooching" around the kitchen, entertaining herself. All of a sudden, I look over and she's STANDING with her hands on the dishwasher!! I totally wasn't expecting it, so I reacted pretty quickly. I think my sudden movement scared her and she lost her balance a little. I caught her, but it made her cry a little. I couldn't believe it--standing! She's still scooching around (using her arms to basically drag herself while she uses her legs to kick/push). She gets up on her knees from time to time, rocks a little, then plops back on the floor to drag herself around. I'm not sure if she'll skip crawling all together or if she'll discover it in a few weeks. She also comes towards you and reaches for your hands (especially if you hold them out to her), grabs them and gets herself up to standing. It makes me laugh, because sometimes she just goes from laying down to standing up, in a plank-like fashion. Good ab muscles!

  

   We're still doing mostly breastfeeding/breastmilk in bottles and pureed foods a couple times a day. She really loves trying out different flavors and eats 1-3 times a day (1-4 "ice cubes" at each feeding). We're slowly making our way into introducing "real" foods, but I'm worried about her choking on things. Ugh.

   We got a lot of visits in with family for the holidays. We saw Chris' dad and Joan the week before Christmas. They invited us for dinner at their place and it let me just say... it was really good! Lots of healthy stuff, but even me (the picky eater) enjoyed it. Ayla enjoyed opening her gifts (I have pics and a video, just need to upload it), but mostly enjoyed the wrapping paper (she loves "crinkly" things right now).

   We also had dinner at Chris' Aunt Nancy and Uncle Gary's house. Their daughter and son-in-law (Betsy and Mark) were in town from Idaho with their daughter, Molly (2 weeks younger than Ayla). It was great to see them and meet her. She and Ayla got a little face time before Molly went to bed. Chris' other cousin, Carrie, was there with her kids, Riley and Cobey. Ayla's uncle Carl and Grandma Peggy were there, too. It was a nice relaxing night which was nice (we went over after I worked a 10-hour shift... yay).

    Christmas Eve was spent at my brother and sister-in-law's house. My dad was home for a few days, so he was able to join us for dinner. It was another nice relaxed evening (I had worked a 10-hour shift that day, too). We enjoyed some food and opening gifts. Of course, Ayla like the boxes and wrapping paper more than the toys (she likes clanking the tea cups together now, dad!)




Tea set and bouncing piggy from Grandpa Harry!



Pretty in bows!

  

"Normal" family picture (with the exception of my brother, ha ha)



Dorks!



   I'm not a "Christmas person", but Chris and I like to do holiday stockings on Winter Solstice (the 22nd this year). Ayla liked the couple of toys she received and even the dogs got some chew bones.

   Christmas Day, we drove over to Grandma Peggy's for brunch with her and Carl before Chris went into work at 3pm (and I got called in, so I worked 6-11p). Ayla had a sleep over with Grandma since Chris and I both worked late (and I had to be back at 8am the next morning).



Macchiato is ALWAYS trying to make out with Ayla. And Pogo looks like a werewolf. Nice.


   I've finally (I think) pulled all her 3-month clothes. She can still pretty much fit into most of them, but the length is just a little short. Kind of funny to have a 7-8 month old fitting ito 3-month clothes. So we're in 6 and some 9-month clothes now. Pants are still a little long sometimes (she has short little legs like her mama), as well as some sleeves. I have noticed on her "footie" pjs that her feet fit pretty snuggly. I think we'll have to go up to 9-month pjs just so her piggies don't get scrunched.

   Still no teeth, but that's fine with me! It seems like everyone else we know (even if they're 1-2 months younger) has at least one tooth. The way I see it, she doesn't need teeth right now. She's getting milk and pureed foods, not gnawing on a rib bone (though, if I'm not watching her every second, she makes a beeline for the dog toys/bones... Go, go super immune system! Ha!). I think it's pretty normal to get their first tooth between 4 and 16 months of age, so we still have plenty of time.

   Ayla still hasn't been sick yet, which is great. There was one time a few months ago where she was a little snotty/stuffy/drainy, but it seemed to be mostly at night (I wonder if it might have been allergies more than anything, or just some congestion because of the weater, which happens to me at night sometimes). Either way, happy and healthy baby. Yay!



Not sure if she's helping with laundry or requesting a bath

   

7 months!

     I'm getting bad at keeping up with this, so there's going to be a lot of pictures in this post!

Sitting up by herself now!

All bundled up and ready for a dog walk!

     Ayla is now sitting up by herself, which is awesome! She can't get into or out of the sitting position by herself yet, but once she's in it, she can stay for 5 or 10 or 20 minutes. When she's on her tummy, she is on the move! Not crawling just yet, but definitely "scootching". She gets her legs going and uses her upper body strength to drag herself around. The nice thing about her not being able to get out of the sitting position yet (unless she happens to topple) is that I can have her on the ground with her toys and not have to worry about her ending up under the table or in the dog's food bowl or heading for the couch... she's getting pretty speedy and Chris and I are already planning on purchasing more baby gates for the stairs and a play pen for when she's crawling.

Blurry, but smiley!

She likes to scootch over to the toy box and pull out all of her toys

     We celebrated Thanksgiving with Chris' family in Oregon City this year at his mom's house. Carl came up from Corvallis, great grandpa Eugene, Nancy and Gary (Chris' aunt and uncle), Coby, Riley and Rick (Chris' cousins' kids and husband). My two goals for the day were to eat and sleep and I accomplished both. It was glorious :)

Me and my brother-in-law, Carl. We make a good T-day nap team.

 

      We were able to meet up with Chris' dad for dinner a few weeks ago, too (but we forgot to take pictures... sheesh!). We're hoping to get together again soon. Dinner was good (Henry's Tavern in NW Portland) and Ayla acquired a new outfit (the jacket in her toy box photo above was part of the outfit).

     My dad was home for a few days, so Ayla and I were able to spend a little time with him, too (he drives semi trucks and is away for weeks/months at a time). He brought Cupcake a cute hat that she has plenty of time to grow into:

Baldies!

          Cupcake's been enjoying lots of new foods. She still really likes bananas and sweet potato, but she also really likes avocado. She's also tried pear, apples, applesauce, butternut squash and carrots. We still  need to try peas. Chris and I are still buying the fruit/veggies fresh, pureeing them up and freezing them in ice cube trays. It's been working really well and is cheap! It's easy to pull one or two cubes out of the freezer and then let them defrost or stick 'em in the microwave for a few seconds. In addition to breastmilk (her main staple still), she gets foods 1-3 times a day depending on what we're doing that day. She seems to really enjoy it!

      Chris and I went to Bend for our 1-year anniversary/5-year wedding anniversary, but I'll post that in a separate blog since this post is getting so long!

6 months old!

     Baby Ayla Cupcake is 6 months old!

CC and I found this book at the library and had to promptly purchase it at Powell's the next day!

    We started trying solids just a couple weeks ago. She was helping me make pumpkin cupcakes one day, so I gave her a little bit of the canned pumpkin. She was way more tired than I thought, because she ended up passing out within about a minute of trying the pumpkin (resulting in the following pictures):

Droopy head

Even slept through me holding her head up and then taking her out of the wrap!

Who wants banana when you've got rainbow pants?

        The next food we tried was banana. I mashed up just a little and she wasn't very interested (at least, not in the banana). Chris bought some small Gerber baby food containers a few days later (banana and peaches), so we tried the banana and she seemed to like it. The next day, she was grabbing for the spoon with both hands and leaning forward with her open baby bird mouth! She only had a few teaspoons, but seemed to really enjoy smearing it around her face and getting it on her hands. We tried peaches a few days later, but every time I gave it to her, she'd make a slightly disgusted looking face. I told her that I wouldn't want to eat something that smelled like feet, either. Just a few days ago, I cut up, baked and pureed a sweet potato that she seemed to really enjoy. On day two of the sweet potato project, she was leaning forward and grabbing for the spoon again! I think the next food we'll try will be avocado. Should be pretty easy to scoop out and puree up. I'm definitely more interested in keeping with fresh fruits and vegetables instead of buying the pre-made baby food. It's pretty easy at this point and a lot cheaper. I think we bought the sweet potato for less than a dollar and got about 12 cubes out of it (after you puree it, you can freeze it in an ice cube tray then pop out each cube and keep them frozen in a bag until you're ready to use one). I think 2 cubes fit in a baby food container and each one of those is about $0.50. I'd much rather pay the $1 for one sweet potato as opposed to $6 for the equivalent in pre-made food (not to mention much less plastic to have to re-use or re-cycle).

I found her sleeping like this one day... beautiful little weirdo!

     On Sunday, Cupcake participated in her first 5k! Chris ran this one as well and we met up with Will and Caroline. Chris' mom showed up to support us and take pictures (and get some Cupcake snuggles while we enjoyed the post-race food and entertainment). It was a good run, no rain and lots of costumes to look at. Ayla made it to about the one mile mark (right by the water birth center!) before getting bored (or overwhelmed) and falling asleep. Chris pushed her in the jogging stroller for the first 3/4 of a mile and I pushed her the rest of the way. We crossed the finish line at 35:31 (my second fastest run of the four 5ks I've done these last few months). Not too shabby.

Cupcake dressed as a cupcake!

She was fascinated with grandma's earrings

"Grandma, where did you buy these?"

"Can I get some mama, please??"

Caroline, Will, Mama, Cupcake, Chris

First family 5k... high five!

We went over to Voo Doo Doughnuts after the race and had to take a picture for our 1-year wedding anniversary!

    And some pictures from a playdate with Omi and Icen a few weeks ago at the Children's Museum:

On the sweet water bed!

Icen is crawling around and getting into things!

He liked the scarves (or whatever they were)

Water bed again

Water bed and bead toy

Wobble warning! Icen is too speedy to be captured on film.

Making his way over to Ayla

Making his way over to my cell phone. That kid is addicted!

Pumpkin fest!

     Ayla had her 6-month check up at the pediatrician's office yesterday. She now weighs 13 pounds and 15 ounces (almost double her birth weight! Only half a pound away) and is 24 1/2 inches long (she's grown 5 inches since her birth day). She's in the 25th percentile for both height and weight, but has shown consistent growth at every visit.

She loves watching the fish tank!

 

 

 

       Chris, Ayla and I went to the Wooden Shoe Pumpkin Fest in Woodburn after her appointment yesterday. It was weird to be back there when just 6 months ago, we were there on Ayla's birth day (I was in labor). We didn't do as much walking (no tulip fields and it was getting too dark/cold to do the corn maize), but got some good pictures!

Floppy hood

That's better!

Pirate ship and pirates

Pumpkin face

Dorky mama (with CC still strapped on my chest)

Dorky daddy

Pumpkins!

Chris setting up the "photo shoot"

Look at that face! Love that little baby!

"Hmmmm, what's this?"

"Hey, what's that?"

"Dad, prop me up!"

I'm not sure what this face is... maybe wet butt from the muddy grass?

"Whoa! That's a big pumpkin!"

"There's a reason that big pumpkin was sitting to my left before... whoa!"

"I'm okay!"

Yeah!

Socks came off when she was "walking" in the grass

"Whoa, dad!"

"Ewwww, gross!! Is that supposed to be horse hair?"

Teeter toter!

Inside a little play house

Inside the pumpkin wagon

So happy!