I have sung little A to sleep since the time we brought her home. Lately she has started singing with me. When I start singing she'll close her eyes, snuggle in, and start babbling to the melody of the song I'm singing. It is so adorable! She also does it at church when we sing hymns.
 |
| Allan holding A's binky in while she goes to sleep. She still doesn't like to hold it in herself. |
A couple of weeks ago at church one of the girls I have was having a very rowdy day. She bumped her head during sharing time (sharing time is when all the kids are together and they sing and someone gives a short lesson), and then in our class time she was wiggling around on my lap and bumped her head two more times! The last time I told her "You need to calm down a little, you've bumped your head a lot today." She smiled and said, "I bumped my head thrice!" Hahahaha! I couldn't help but laugh; what 5 year old says "thrice!"
This same little girl was sitting on my lap during sharing time. We'd had a group activity so we were all sitting close to each other and eventually the kids all snuggled in to me, so we were all sitting there snuggling and listening to the lesson. This sweet little girl suddenly turned and kissed me on the cheek! This week I asked her a question, and she started her answer addressing me with, "Well, pretty girl..." Aww. Later she commented that she was wearing a very expensive dress. We were talking about forgiveness so I asked her how she would feel if someone ripped her dress. She looked at me in horror and said "Sad!...Sad, terrible, horrible!" She certainly keeps me laughing!
 |
| Cute romper we got A. |
A has been wanting to sit up all the time, and we'd been putting her in her Bumbo in front of her play gym. She's loved grabbing and chewing on her toys.
That worked pretty well, but we felt like she needed to have more opportunity to move around, especially since we have to keep her up for so long after she eats. So we bought her an activity center that is also a jumper.
 |
| A's feet hanging in the air. |
She's still a little small for it lol! We stacked some of Allan's civil war books and some of my Broadway song books under it so she could reach. Knew those books would come in handy for something someday! ;)
When we put her in it the first time she wasn't so sure about it. It moves a lot so she held on really tight and just tried to stay REALLY still. Poor girl. We tried again the next day, and she figured out how to play with some of the toys and then enjoyed it. Pretty soon she was turning around in circles and doing little hops.
 |
| Head butting the toy |
She also likes to head-butt the spin toy that sits above her mirror. She'll head butt it and yell at herself happily for a long time, lol! We hung some of the toys from her play gym on it as well. She can't quite reach them, and it drives her crazy. Lately she has resorted to giving them each a long scolding. There is one particular toy - a frog - that gets scolded every day. She'll stand straight up and just yell at him for a minute or two and then go back to playing! Too funny! There is also a piano on the activity center. She still can't figure it out. Every now and then she'll hit it with her elbow and then look at me and smile like she's saying "Oh, thanks for the music mom, I like it." Then when it ends she looks at me expectantly, wanting more.
 |
| One of our favorite outfits. So cute and so comfy. |
 |
| I laid A down for a while to see if she would go for any toys. She didn't. Instead she pulled her bow down over her eyes and then flailed around for a while until I took it off of her. Ha! |
I finally went and got my hair cut. It was down to about the middle of my bum. I cut off about 2 inches. I was so pleased when the hair dresser didn't use a brush on my hair. She was the first one I've been to in years that didn't use a brush and dampened my hair before she picked through it. I'll be going back to her because of those two things, but she did a great job on the cut too.
 |
| Love these overalls from Aunt K6 and cousin P. So far every time she wears them she has a blow out. |
We went on a picnic on the mountain. It was so nice to get away from the heat for a while. A loved feeling the breeze.
 |
| A fell asleep on the way up and was just waking up in this picture. |
 |
| Later we put her in her Bumbo and she played with her rattle. |
Allan put her feet in the creek to see how she would respond. It was
pretty cold, so we were expecting some sort of surprise at least. She
didn't respond at all. Not even a change in her expression!
We walked around a little and let A touch different leaves and things. There were a lot of butterflies and lizards.
Afterward we went for a walk and let A feel the grass for the first time. Every other baby I've seen put on grass hates it so I was expecting her to not like it, but she loved it. She really seemed to enjoy how it felt.
Lately when we give A a bath she has been hanging her head back so it can soak in the water. The girl loves to have warm water on her head!
 |
| Love the look on her face here. |
We bought a second car! Woohoo! We've been looking for a while, but every time we went into the dealership the cars we were interested in had already been sold. So frustrating! We never thought we'd buy a brand new car, but Allan's brother told him about the Nissan Versa that starts at a really low price for a new car, so we looked at that as well. We also discovered that the used car market where we live is ridiculously high priced! (14-16,000 for anything under 70,000 miles.) So, we finally decided that buying a new car would actually be a better deal for us. Once we decided that we looked at the Nissan dealership to see if they had a Versa. They didn't. Allan was planning on calling the next day to see if they could get one in. Before he did he checked their website one more time and there was one there. They'd got it in the day before and put it on their website that day! We went in immediately, test drove it, loved it, and bought it. Hooray! A and I have a car!
Because we have a car now I decided to put it to good use and take A to story time. She loves being read to and loves other children so I thought she might enjoy it. It goes from 10:30 to 11:30 and A usually eats at 11:00 so I wasn't sure how it would go, but we tried anyway. For the first half hour they let the kids have unstructured play time. A is pretty reserved at playing when we're anywhere but at home so she just sat and looked around with an occasional bat at a toy. At 11:00 they started story time. A wanted to eat so I sat on the side and fed her while the story was read and they did some other interactive games and stories. A was very distracted and had a hard time eating, and a few of the other kids were so distracted by her bottle that they had a hard time too. I think she would have loved it if it wasn't right during her feeding time. I don't think we'll go again until she's a little older.
 |
| I was folding laundry and gave her a bunch of things to play with. She thinks it's funny when I put something on her head. |
Like I said in the last paragraph, A loves other children! She loves it when people with children come and visit us. Our neighbor has a daughter that is 6 months older than A. She has come to visit several times. A loves this girl. I'll stick her in her activity center and the little girl (who is walking) will go over and play with her. Eventually A will start screaming and babbling at the little girl and then just burst into giggles! It is so funny! My friends daughter isn't ever quite sure what to think though. She just stares at A like she's crazy and looks back at me and her mom every now and then for reassurance. I guess it's hard at any age to have someone laugh at you, lol! A laughs like this at every child that comes to visit.
 |
| Love her sweet smile. |
The other day I decided to see how long A could sit up by herself. I put her on our bed and put pillows all around her to cushion her fall and then sat her up. She can last about 3-5 seconds. Occasionally she'll get herself in a really good spot and can sit for about 10 before she topples over, but that is rare. While doing this we discovered a new game. I sat her up and she sat there and eventually toppled onto the pillows. I said "Whoa!" and sat her up again. She eventually fell over, I said "Whoa!" and sat her up again. After the third time she burst into giggles when she fell and decided that falling over is a really fun game. Every time I would sit her up she'd jerk back and fall onto the pillows laughing. There were several times that I couldn't get her to sit up all the way because she just wanted to fall back again! This is one of her favorite games now.
When A gets really tired she gets a little delirious. It is so funny! She'll just stare straight ahead and laugh and laugh. Sometimes she'll start fussing for her pacifier so I'll get her all cuddled up and give her the pacifier at which point she'll look at me with big eyes and say "Oy, oy, oy, oy, oy" Like she's saying "Wow, mom. That was rough."
 |
| My new favorite outfit. A loved playing with the ruffles so much that she wouldn't play with me, lol! |
Allan and I also got a new computer. Our old computer has been on it's last leg for a while and crashes occasionally for no reason, so we thought it was time. We've enjoyed our new computer but are still getting used to all the new programs.
A came to my primary class for the first time. At first I thought that I would never take her because I thought she would get hurt, but the kids have calmed down enough that I felt okay bringing her. Allan needed to teach in the Young Men and she is very distracting to them so he needed me to take her. It went surprisingly well. I was very relieved! She actually helped them be more reverent because they were trying to be gentle and soft around her. They all wanted to hold her so when we got to our class time they all took turns holding her. They did a really good job and A loved it. She smiled and babbled at them. They played peek-a-boo with her and she loved that as well. She was really good during the lesson too. We even went on a little field trip - I think that is the best the kids have been all year. I might have to start bringing her more often.
I finally started sewing! My first attempt is curtains. I got one panel done but messed up a little so I have to patch it. Thankfully it was just that the rod pocket wasn't quit big enough so it should be an easy fix and shouldn't show too much.
 |
| Pinning the edges. |
A started eating solid food. My friend gave us some baby food that expires toward the end of the year that she couldn't use so we've been using that food. We started her on oatmeal cereal because rice cereal makes her constipated. We mixed it with her formula and she didn't like it at all. It made her really confused.
 |
| Allan giving A her first bite |
 |
| Not sure what to do. |
 |
| She loves to lick the food off of her bib. |
 |
| All done. |
We gave her squash next because it is supposed to expire the soonest. She liked it okay and did pretty well with it. The following week we gave her green beans and she LOVED them! She gobbled them up like crazy. We tried carrots next and she loved those as well. She's getting better and better at eating it without making a big mess and she's only blew raspberries once - at Allan :) She prefers to help feed herself and will hold onto our pinkies or another part of our hands to help guide the spoon into her mouth.
Since her thighs started getting stuck in the Bumbo we decided it was time to get her a highchair. We got her one that changes heights so she can be level with the table. She loves sitting in it while we eat dinner and just laughs and giggles and kicks her feet the whole time. I like the highchair a lot - Graco TableFit. The only thing I don't like about it is how huge it is, it really takes up a lot of space. It folds up well to store though.
 |
| She always holds on tight to whatever she's put in for the first time. |
We had a fun Independence Day. Allan had the day off which made it even better. We started by going to the Parade. It was pretty hot by the end but we had a good time. A got tired and fell asleep through part of it.
 |
| Volunteer band |
 |
| Smokey the Bear |
I went inside a store and plugged A's ears while the ambulance,
firetrucks, and police cars went by with their sirens on. A hated
having her ears plugged at first. She would struggle and struggle until
she got away, then hear the loud siren and burrow back into me. She
learned quickly though and by the end was allowing me to plug her ears
without a fight.
When we got home we gave her a frozen blueberry to help her cool off. She really liked it!
 |
| Sucking on a blueberry |
We went to a BBQ with some friends in the neighborhood. We enjoyed getting to know our neighbors a little better and A enjoyed watching all the kids play. She got really tired and needed to take a nap so I put her down in my friends son's crib. Boy was she scared. She did not like that at all. I came back in and rocked her to sleep and then put her down again but she woke up about 5 minutes later crying. Poor girl.
After the BBQ we went home and lit some fireworks. We just had a small pack of small fireworks but we enjoyed it. Our next door neighbors came to watch as well and we enjoyed getting to know them.
 |
| Ready for the fireworks |
 |
| Allan enjoyed setting them off. |
A wasn't too sure about the fireworks, but she never cried. I plugged her ears on the loud ones.
She woke up a few times that night because of fireworks going off, but slept pretty well for the most part, which was a relief.
We've been loving going to the Temple together and are so grateful to J for watching A while we go. A usually does really well. This last time though she cried for almost the entire evening and refused to drink her bottle. We felt so bad for J and her husband. They did great with her though. When we got back we sat down to chat for a minute before we went home. Allan was holding A and A was looking around at everyone. He started to hand her back over to J and A stuck out her lip, her eyes got huge and she said "Mom!" She doesn't say it very often, and when she does it's because she's feeling distressed, but it always melts my heart when she says it.
 |
| This adorable dress was chosen by Daddy. He did a great job! |
A rolled over by herself! She's been really close for a long time but just couldn't get over her elbow. Finally a few days ago she did it! She'd been struggling for so long and was lying on her side throwing her arm back but all she would succeed in doing was moving forward. Eventually she got tired and put her arm on her forehead and sighed. That shifted her weight enough that she rolled over the rest of the way. Once she rolled over she looked at me like I had done it for her and she was so happy that I had, lol! I made her do it again and she still didn't understand that she was doing it herself. She still does it really slowly but she's getting the hang of it.
She is also getting really good at using her hands. She's studied them very methodically for a long time and that seems to have paid off for her. She has no problem grabbing things and holding on to them and picks things up with ease.
We finally finished her nursery! Pictures to follow.
