Sunday, October 25, 2009

Tooth #2!

Every Friday, Matt is home with Lorelai because he doesn't work on Fridays.  I think that this is an AWESOME opportunity for them to bond and spend time together.  And as a bonus, it reminds Matt how hard it is to take care of a baby by yourself!  It definitely makes him more sympathetic when I'm having a rough day on school vacations or on Sundays. 


This past Friday, I got a call from him on my cell right before I got my kids at school for the day.  He said that LL had woken up from her nap and they were playing in the living room.  He said that she looked up and him and smiled, and that there was another tooth in there!  It must have broken through while she was sleeping, because I'm confident that it wasn't there when I left for work! 


I am so happy that this tooth came through with not much fussiness.  We had been noticing that she had been a little irratible lately, but it wasn't bad so we hadn't really even given it a second thought.  Well, now we know why!  Tooth #2 was on it's way!


First Word!

I was home for Fall Break Monday - Wednesday, October 12-14.  Of course my only goal was to stay home and play with my baby!  While cooking dinner that Monday night, Matt and I got a great surprise!  Lorelai said her first word!!  She's been "saying" things for awhile now, but we knew she never really understood what she was saying.  I was cooking in the kitchen, and Matt was in the living room with LL.  Matt was on the couch and Lorelai was standing up on the floor, holding on to the couch.  Lola walked into the room and jumped up onto the couch and walked over to Matt.  When she did, LL started "walking" towards Matt saying "Lola, Lola" as plain as day!  I could even hear it in the kitchen!  She definitely knew what she was saying!  She was walking towards Lola as she was saying it, too!  A couple of days later, we got it on video!


Since then, she's been saying "Mama" very consistently, but only when she's upset (haha!).  She says it at night when she's trying to go to sleep, in the morning when she's wanting to get out of her crib, any time she gets hurt or upset, and almost every time that she sees me walk out of the room.  Of course, I'm loving it!  We're very sure that she's equating the "Mama" sound with me, because she won't do it with Matt at all.  We don't have that on video, yet (because who videos their child when they're upset?!), but I hope we will soon!

Pumpkin Patch

Matt and I started talking about wanting to take Lorelai to a pumpkin patch as soon as it started getting close to fall.  The problem was, I didn't want to take LL to the pumpkin patch when it was warm enough for her to just wear a little onesie.  I actually wanted to have her pictures from the pumpking patch LOOK like it was fall.  We kept talking about it, but then putting it off because it had been so warm.  Finally, last Saturday it cooled down and it was actually pretty cold outside.  We decided that this was our opportunity!  We got her dressed up all cute, and headed out to a little patch in Lakeland.  Even though we live pretty close, we NEVER go to Lakeland.  We always go to Valdosta for everything.  We decided to go here because it was literally 5 minutes from our house.  We don't get to drive only 5 minutes anywhere anymore, so this was a nice treat.  The patch was at the Lakeland United Methodist Church.  I think that's probably a "methodist" thing, because Park Ave UMC in Valdosta has one every year, too.



We lucked out, because when we got there, we were the only ones there!  We had the whole place to ourselves and didn't feel weird about taking our time and taking lots of pictures.  LL was fascinated by all of the orange!  It's funny because in all of our pictures, we hardly have any of her looking at the camera because she couldn't stop looking at the pumpkins! 


We ended up getting a small sized pumpking for her and a medium one for us - both for only $3.75!  That was so crazy to us!  We were used to getting pupkins from the little stands in Valdosta for $20 a piece!  We will for sure be going back there next year!  Here are a few lot of my favorites!




One of my all time favorites!









Sunday, October 11, 2009

8 months!

These months seem to just go by faster and faster as we go along!  Here's an update on what's been happening with Lorelai for the last month:



Solid Foods: We've started giving LL some little pieces of solid food so that she can get used to chewing and swallowing something that is not just pureed.  We started her out on puffs and yogurt bites and she has done really great so far.  It took her a little bit to get used to chewing and swallowing, but she's got it now!  For snacks, we also give her pickles (very rarely), cheez puffs (the Gerber baby kind), regular yogurt, and we just started her on baby mum mum's this weekend.  By far her favorite snack is regular yogurt.  She ate an entire container the other day AFTER she ate a bottle and her dinner.  She LOVES it!  Here's a video of LL eating some of her puffs for a snack!



Sleep Issues: LL is definitely not much of a napper anymore!  Since she has become mobile, she hates to nap!  I really think that she understands that life goes on while she sleeps, and she doesn't want to miss anything!  Her morning nap is usually around an hour, her afternoon nap ranges from an hour and a half to just an hour, and her afternoon/evening nap is usually just a half an hour long.  That is not much napping!  On the plus side, she is sleeping GREAT during the night!  This little girl is so worn out that she barely makes a peep at night!  Matt and I MIGHT have to go in once to giver her her paci, but it's not usually more than that.  And she starts to wake up at 5 instead of 6 in the morning (grrr) but if she does we feed her and she goes back to sleep.  Not our favorite thing in the world, but it's the only way that we can get her back to sleep.  We definitely don't want to start the habit of her waking up at 5!  We also are having a really hard time with putting her to sleep because she crawls around her crib and then stands up and bangs on the side and looks out.  It used to take her 15 - 30 mintues to go to sleep at night and now we're up to an hour some nights!  We have to keep going in and laying her down and giving her her paci.  But by the time we make it to the door, she's back up again!  Eventually, she wears herself out and goes to sleep, though.




Crawling:  We most definitely have a mobile baby now!  When she first started crawling, it was very akward.  She couldn't go very fast or very far and she didn't really move her legs very well.  Those days are gone!  This girl can book it!  She is a pro at getting where she wants to!  Here's the first video we got of LL crawling!


Pulling Up:  Her second favorite thing to do besides crawl is to pull up and stand.  Anything that she can crawl to and stand up, she will!  She loves, loves, LOVES to stand and I think she'll be doing it by herself here soon.


Teeth: We finally have a tooth!  After about 6 weeks of teething, we finally had a tooth break through!  It is her bottom right tooth (so it's on the left when you're looking in her mouth) and it's so cute!  It still isn't poking through much, but there is no mistaking that it is there!  There are days when we think that she's teething again, but so far we haven't seen anything else.  I'm kind of enjoying just that one little tooth right now and I'm not rushing the next one!



Bathtime:  LL has finally gotten to where she loves bath time!  She sits up on her own during the bath, and we have little toys for her to play with.  She also has finally learned to splash the water!  Splashing is one of those things that Matt and I decided that we didn't mind her doing, but she never did it!  After about two weeks of sitting by herself in the tub, she finally got the hang of it.  It is so cute!  We used to spend only 2-3 minutes in the bath total, but now we're closer to 10-15 because she likes it so much!  The only bad thing is she tries to stand in the tub - a big no-no!  We're in the process of trying to teach her that you stay on your hiney or your hands and knees, but it's still a process!  Here's a video of bath time!


Talking:  Lorelai has always been a pretty vocal baby.  She says "ahhh" and "gooo" and similar combinations, but until the last week or so, she's not repeated sounds.  She's just started saying "babababa" over and over and I LOVE it!  She has the sweetest little voice and her face looks so cute when she says it!  Obviously we're trying to get her to say "mamamama" or "dadadada", but so far it's a no go.  She's said "mama" twice now and both times it was in the middle of screaming/crying - Haha!  I know it'll come soon enough, I'm just glad for the little bit that we get right now!  Here's a video of her saying "babababa".


Walking:  She's obviously not walking on her own right now, but she will walk with help!  We don't do this with her too much, but she likes it when we do!  Sometimes she won't be in the mood and she won't really go anywhere, but sometimes she'll take off!  Realistically, I hope she won't walk for a little while yet.  I really like the crawling stage (but it IS an adjustment) and I don't want to skip over this phase to quickly.  I can't imagine having a walker at this point!


Independent Play Time:  We've really started to work with LL on independant play time.  We want her to be secure enough to play on her own sometimes and not always have to have someone occupying her.  To start independant play time, we set her pack-n-play back up and we put it in the living room.  She usually has independant play time twice a day.  Once in the morning after breakfast when Matt and I are getting everything ready to leave, and once in the evening while we're getting dinner ready.  We don't use the pack-n-play as a babysitter, and she's never in there for extended periods of time, but now that she's crawling, we needed a safe place to put her so that she couldn't get hurt!  She can average about 15-25 minutes of independant play time before she gets frustrated and wants up.  She also does not take to it everytime - sometimes she'll cry and we have to go get her out, but we're working on it!  I think it's super important for her to have that time to herself!


Hair:  It's growing so much!  I don't think we'll have enough for pigtails or anything for awhile, but she can sufficiently hold a bow in it now!  It's funny because it looks so long to me, but when other people see her they ALWAYS say "How'd you get that bow to stay in?!" and I always think "Ummm....I just clipped it in..."  She does have enough, even if it doesn't look like it!


Paci:  We're still only using this at nap time and at night, so I'm really at a standstill on when I think we're going to try to phase it out.  I know we don't want her to have it past a year, but I'm clueless on when to take it.  Do I try to phase it out now?  Do I wait 4 months and then do it?  I guess I don't feel the urge to get rid of it right now, because she only uses it as a sleep prop and it does really help her go to sleep.  I guess I'm still really undecided on this issue.


Sippy Cup:  We try to give LL water in her sippy cup every couple of days, and I think Matt's Mom gives her water in a sippy almost every day.  We really need to buckle down on this and start giving her bottles through a sippy because I would LOVE to be done with bottles!  I do know that when she drinks from a sippy that she gets some water, but I also know that she gets frustrated and doesn't drink alot from a sippy.  I guess if we started giving it to her more often, she wouldn't have a choice but to drink from it.  I think she just gets frustrated because it is a completely different sucking action than a bottle and a bottle is "easy" for her.  Hopefully we'll get better in this department in the next month!


Blue eyes: They are still as blue as ever and I'm 99% confident that they'll stay that way! I'm not going to be sure until that year hits, though!





Sunday, October 4, 2009

First Tooth!

Lorelai has had her first tooth for a little over a week now, and I have FINALLY gotten a picture of it!  It sticks up just barely over her gums, and she usually coveres it with her tongue.  Here is a picture of her first tooth!


The Honey Bee Festival

Yesterday was Hahira's annual Honey Bee Festival/Parade.  I used to march with the band in that parade when I was in high school, and Matt and I have been for several years, as well.  We did not go last year because I was pregnant and it was SO HOT outside that I didn't think I could stand it.  We kept debating for several days if we wanted to try and go this year or not.  I really like the festival, but usually it is SO hot and every year it gets more and more crowded.  I'm not kidding when I say that it's packed like Wal-Mart on Black Friday.  Seriously, I think they estimated 10,000 this year.  All of these people packed into a 2-3 mile radius.  That plus heat plus baby = major decision.  After thinking about it for several days, we finally decided Friday night that we wanted to try and go.  We check the weather as it was kind of cool last week and it was forcasting about 80.  Not so bad.  We decided that we would feed LL her bottle after she woke up from her nap at 10 and then head out.  I knew that there was no way that we would be home by her next nap time at 12, but I figured that she's either nap in her stroller or just be content with riding and nap when we left.

Getting ready to leave!


LL absolutely LOVES to ride in her stroller.  It is probably on her top 3 things to do.  We got to the honey bee around 11:30, so we were just getting started about 30 minutes before her next nap.  It was so crowded!  We walked for a little while and stopped at some vendors.  I bought LL a bow holder to hang on the wall, and some new bows.  They were such a good price!  I was getting bows anywhere from 1 to 3 dollars!  That is EXCELLENT!  Usually bows are between 5 and 8 dollars.  Which is crazy to me.  We found a vendor for lunch right as the parade was about to start.  Suprisingly, we got a spot to watch the parade right up front.   

Even though it was past her nap time, LL just relaxed in her stroller and watched the parade!  She was perfectly content!  You can most definitely tell that she is tired here, though!


It wasn't as hot as it has been in past years, but sitting in the sun we did get pretty warm.  Of course, I was worrying about LL the whole time.  She's never really spent any extended period of time in the heat before.  I brought some water in her sippy cup, so I just kept giving that to her to drink out of.  Matt and I also had some cold water that came with our lunch, so I kept pouring it on my hands and rubbing it on her legs, arms, face, and head.  I think that helped alot!  I think that I spent more time giving her water than I did watching the parade!



She did so good the entire time.  I really don't think that I could have asked for a better baby.  The only time that she made a peep was when these really loud cars came by and stopped in front of us and started revving their engines.  After about the 5th one she started crying and I had to take her out of her stroller and walk away.  I really can't blame her, though!  They were probably in front of us for a good 2-3 minutes and it was extremely loud! 

LL watching the parade.


After the loud cars, we stayed for a couple of more minutes, but then we decided that we probably needed to start heading back. She did just as good on the 30 minute walk back to the car as she did the whole time!  We stopped at a few more vendors and I bought some more bows.  Here's a pic of us walking back to the car:



I've noticed before that when LL rides in her stroller, she props her feet up!  She actually does this in her highchair at home while she is eating.  It is so funny to me!  She is a baby just like her daddy - she likes to relax!  Even though she's been doing this for several months, I finally got a picture of it while we were walking back to the car!  How cute is this??



We made it back to the car and all three of us were hot, sticky, and tired!  LL was so worn out that when we got home, LL drank a bottle and then slept for the next 3 hours!  It really wore her out!  But I am so proud of her and how well she did.  While we do keep her on a schedule, now that she is almost 8 months old, we are trying to get her to be flexable with that schedule some so that we can start incorporating things like this into our lives.  We all had a blast and I think we've started a new family tradition!