Thursday, February 14, 2013
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
8 months
Two-thirds of a year! It's hard to believe.
Right now, you are sleeping. You just went down for your first nap of the day. You're snuggled on your side with your blanket cuddled around you and your lullaby puppy near your face. You adore your lullaby scout puppy. These pictures were not taken today, but this is pretty much what I see when I peak into your room right now.
You probably will not give me the chance to finish this entry this morning. You typically only sleep for a brief 30 minutes. You need more sleep than that, but perhaps you're just unwilling to let the day slip past you. There is too much trouble to get into!
I find that I have a harder time thinking of your new milestones and accomplishments now that you're growing older, mostly because I've grown accustomed to seeing something new and wonderful every day. When you were smaller, something new really stood out. Now you slip new tricks in all the time.
You can roll over, officially. On Jan 17th I finally saw you roll from your back to your belly! I know you could do that before then, since Dad found you on your belly in the crib once, but that was the day I finally saw it. Since then, you seem to have forgotten that you can roll back the other way. We've had to rescue you from time to time, since you act like a turtle on his back when you accidentally flip onto your belly. I am happy to see that you are comfortable spending more and more time that way, but still not signs of any forward movement. Instead, you seem to have taken up baby yoga. You like to bend all the way forward from a sitting position and kiss your toes or the floor. It's hilarious (and a little yucky!).
You have begun to wave and clap, which you seem very proud of, and have really increased your interaction with the people around you. You babble all the time. This week you're back on the "M" sounds, which means lots of ma-ma-ma-mas to make me happy. Today you seem to be practicing your volume control, mostly trying to find the upper limit. I blame your toy remote control for planting this idea.
You and I suddenly have a very busy schedule. On Mondays you come with me to work for a few hours. On Tuesday and Thursday you have swim lessons, which you seem to enjoy. At 8 months old you can do something I still, at 30, cannot: you can go under the water without plugging your nose. I sincerely hope that starting swim lessons early will allow you to share my love of water and will foster strong swimming skills. We also continue to go to reading hour at the library every Wednesday. We've been going since you were 4 months or so and you adore it. I think you really like the songs and activities, but mostly enjoy all the other babies there to play with.
You've taken great leaps and bounds when it comes to food. You were not very interested in food at first. Now, you eat pretty much everything we give you (except peas). You have mastered picking food up and getting it into your mouth and therefore no longer like to be fed from a spoon. You'd rather do it yourself, so we give you lots of little finger foods to keep you happy. The do-it-yourself technique does have the downside of making meals very, very messy. But that's all part of the learning process!
Lastly, you have hair!
You make me smile each and every day. I love you baby girl.
Love,
Mom
Right now, you are sleeping. You just went down for your first nap of the day. You're snuggled on your side with your blanket cuddled around you and your lullaby puppy near your face. You adore your lullaby scout puppy. These pictures were not taken today, but this is pretty much what I see when I peak into your room right now.
You probably will not give me the chance to finish this entry this morning. You typically only sleep for a brief 30 minutes. You need more sleep than that, but perhaps you're just unwilling to let the day slip past you. There is too much trouble to get into!
I find that I have a harder time thinking of your new milestones and accomplishments now that you're growing older, mostly because I've grown accustomed to seeing something new and wonderful every day. When you were smaller, something new really stood out. Now you slip new tricks in all the time.
You can roll over, officially. On Jan 17th I finally saw you roll from your back to your belly! I know you could do that before then, since Dad found you on your belly in the crib once, but that was the day I finally saw it. Since then, you seem to have forgotten that you can roll back the other way. We've had to rescue you from time to time, since you act like a turtle on his back when you accidentally flip onto your belly. I am happy to see that you are comfortable spending more and more time that way, but still not signs of any forward movement. Instead, you seem to have taken up baby yoga. You like to bend all the way forward from a sitting position and kiss your toes or the floor. It's hilarious (and a little yucky!).
You have begun to wave and clap, which you seem very proud of, and have really increased your interaction with the people around you. You babble all the time. This week you're back on the "M" sounds, which means lots of ma-ma-ma-mas to make me happy. Today you seem to be practicing your volume control, mostly trying to find the upper limit. I blame your toy remote control for planting this idea.
You and I suddenly have a very busy schedule. On Mondays you come with me to work for a few hours. On Tuesday and Thursday you have swim lessons, which you seem to enjoy. At 8 months old you can do something I still, at 30, cannot: you can go under the water without plugging your nose. I sincerely hope that starting swim lessons early will allow you to share my love of water and will foster strong swimming skills. We also continue to go to reading hour at the library every Wednesday. We've been going since you were 4 months or so and you adore it. I think you really like the songs and activities, but mostly enjoy all the other babies there to play with.
You've taken great leaps and bounds when it comes to food. You were not very interested in food at first. Now, you eat pretty much everything we give you (except peas). You have mastered picking food up and getting it into your mouth and therefore no longer like to be fed from a spoon. You'd rather do it yourself, so we give you lots of little finger foods to keep you happy. The do-it-yourself technique does have the downside of making meals very, very messy. But that's all part of the learning process!
Lastly, you have hair!
You make me smile each and every day. I love you baby girl.
Love,
Mom
Monday, January 28, 2013
Cuteness and giggles
I have some adorable pictures of Tara coming soon, but to keep you all entertained in the mean time, I leave you with these. Please excuse the poor cell phone video quality and instead, only focus on the super cuteness.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Friday, January 4, 2013
7 months and a new year!
Dear Tara,
You're 7 months old now! You turned 7 months on January 1st, the first day of 2013. I find it very hard to believe that we've already left the year you were born behind.
On New Year's Eve, you seemed to know something was up. We spent the evening with friends playing card games. Daddy and I decided that we'd let you make the call as to when to head home. We figured you'd start to get fussy when it was time for bed, but you must have been enjoying the company. You stayed sweet - and awake!- until after 11pm. You almost made it to midnight!
I feel the need to point out that New Year's Eve is a treat, not the norm. I say this because since then you seem to want to move your bedtime to 10pm. Mom and Dad go to bed at 10pm, not you. You, little one, need to be in bed sooner than that. We love spending time with you, don't get us wrong, but we need a little down time at the end of the day. Mama is tired!
In the past month we've seen more event firsts with you, rather than development firsts. December is probably my favorite month, because I love Christmas. I can safely say that Christmas was completely different and wonderful in so many ways, now that you were here to share it with us. We took you out to the tree farm and wandered around until we found just the right tree. This is how Christmas always starts. Mom wanders and wanders, hunting for the right tree, and Dad humors me (until it gets too cold!). Then we took you to meet Santa, who was thrilled to meet you and said you were the best baby he'd met all day. We took you to see some beautiful displays of Christmas lights. I think you liked that. Then we got to one of the best parts of Christmas: the food! On Christmas Eve we joined friends for a lovely dinner. You got to try turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, and homemade cranberry sauce. You mushed it all into a big ball and spread it all over the highchair, your arms, your face, and some ever made it into your mouth! You really seemed to like the cranberries.
Christmas was spent with just Mom and Dad. You received lots of lovely gifts from family and friends. You like all the new toys you received and still play with everything pretty much every day. I know you didn't really understand Christmas this year, but you did have fun and I absolutely loved seeing Christmas through your eyes. Having you here made me feel like a kid again myself.
While you haven't shown us many new tricks this month, I think you've got a number in the works. You try hard to sit up on your own when you are lying down. With all those crunches, you've got to have better abs than I do right now. You may also be thinking about crawling. Just today you laid down onto your tummy twice, all by yourself, and stayed there without complaint for longer than I've ever seen. One area that is developing is your hair! It's getting much thicker and a little longer.
I have a feeling that 2013 is going to be a great year. You have so many more firsts coming this year, like your first crawl, first steps, first words, and first birthday. We have so much fun ahead of us! I can't wait.
Love,
Mom
You're 7 months old now! You turned 7 months on January 1st, the first day of 2013. I find it very hard to believe that we've already left the year you were born behind.
On New Year's Eve, you seemed to know something was up. We spent the evening with friends playing card games. Daddy and I decided that we'd let you make the call as to when to head home. We figured you'd start to get fussy when it was time for bed, but you must have been enjoying the company. You stayed sweet - and awake!- until after 11pm. You almost made it to midnight!
I feel the need to point out that New Year's Eve is a treat, not the norm. I say this because since then you seem to want to move your bedtime to 10pm. Mom and Dad go to bed at 10pm, not you. You, little one, need to be in bed sooner than that. We love spending time with you, don't get us wrong, but we need a little down time at the end of the day. Mama is tired!
In the past month we've seen more event firsts with you, rather than development firsts. December is probably my favorite month, because I love Christmas. I can safely say that Christmas was completely different and wonderful in so many ways, now that you were here to share it with us. We took you out to the tree farm and wandered around until we found just the right tree. This is how Christmas always starts. Mom wanders and wanders, hunting for the right tree, and Dad humors me (until it gets too cold!). Then we took you to meet Santa, who was thrilled to meet you and said you were the best baby he'd met all day. We took you to see some beautiful displays of Christmas lights. I think you liked that. Then we got to one of the best parts of Christmas: the food! On Christmas Eve we joined friends for a lovely dinner. You got to try turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, and homemade cranberry sauce. You mushed it all into a big ball and spread it all over the highchair, your arms, your face, and some ever made it into your mouth! You really seemed to like the cranberries.
Christmas was spent with just Mom and Dad. You received lots of lovely gifts from family and friends. You like all the new toys you received and still play with everything pretty much every day. I know you didn't really understand Christmas this year, but you did have fun and I absolutely loved seeing Christmas through your eyes. Having you here made me feel like a kid again myself.
While you haven't shown us many new tricks this month, I think you've got a number in the works. You try hard to sit up on your own when you are lying down. With all those crunches, you've got to have better abs than I do right now. You may also be thinking about crawling. Just today you laid down onto your tummy twice, all by yourself, and stayed there without complaint for longer than I've ever seen. One area that is developing is your hair! It's getting much thicker and a little longer.
I have a feeling that 2013 is going to be a great year. You have so many more firsts coming this year, like your first crawl, first steps, first words, and first birthday. We have so much fun ahead of us! I can't wait.
Love,
Mom
 |
| Happy New Year everybody!! |
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Our first Christmas for three
Christmas is always one of my favorite times of year. The decorations, music, lights, food, warmth, and family; I love it all. It's a dose of bright and shinny in an otherwise dark (and here, often rainy) time of the year. I eagerly look forward to breaking out the decorations and setting up the tree. I appreciate a well lit house more than most. So it goes without saying that I was particularly looking forward to this Christmas, as it was our first Christmas that we got to share with Tara.
Tara is just shy of 7 months old, so she doesn't really have any idea of Christmas right now. Even so, I loved sharing it all with her this year. She "helped" pick the Christmas tree. She watched as I decorated the house. I pointed out pretty houses and took her to see beautiful light displays. We told her all about Santa and got her her very own stocking. Of course, we took her to meet Santa as well.
Jeff had some vacation time that needed to be used for the new year, so we had some extra days to enjoy together in addition to the normal holidays. The extra family time made this Christmas that much nicer. We spent Christmas Eve with friends who graciously invited us to share in their family dinner. Tara got her very own meal consisting of mashed potatoes, stuffing, chopped green beans and cranberry sauce. She thoroughly enjoyed it. Some of it even made it into her mouth!
Christmas day was spent quietly as a family of three and I wouldn't have had it any other way. We slept in as late as Tara would allow, got going slowly, and enjoyed a fantastic breakfast of eggnog french toast and homemade whipped cream, courtesy of Jeff. Tara had a more healthy breakfast of homemade applesauce. I was finishing up a Santa hat for her, so we didn't open presents until after her first nap of the day. Instead, we started the morning off right by watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. It's just not Christmas without that movie. We also made a fire and watched the rain turn to snow. It didn't last long but snowed just enough to coat the ground and trees, giving us a beautiful white Christmas!
Once the Santa hat was ready for pictures, we proceeded to open gifts. While we of course did the majority of the opening, we did let Tara "help". This could best be called "Tara eats Christmas", since most of her skills involve putting the wrappings up to her mouth. We'd like to send a collective thanks to everyone who sent something to Tara this year. She made out like a bandit with new pajamas and clothes and toys. Some of her favorites are some rubber ducks, and peek-a-boo playing teddy from her Grandma, a sleepy time puppy from her Maga, and an toy remote control from her Great Grandma S.
After presents we Skyped with both sides of the family. It's wonderful to be able to see and chat with everyone, even when we can't be there for Christmas in person each year.
Dinner was a yummy ham, scalloped cheesy potatoes, crescent roll and, of course, pumpkin pie. Tara enjoyed a bit of the potatoes.
So Tara's first Christmas was warm and simple, with lots of fun, love and good food. I really couldn't have asked for a better day.
Tara is just shy of 7 months old, so she doesn't really have any idea of Christmas right now. Even so, I loved sharing it all with her this year. She "helped" pick the Christmas tree. She watched as I decorated the house. I pointed out pretty houses and took her to see beautiful light displays. We told her all about Santa and got her her very own stocking. Of course, we took her to meet Santa as well.
Jeff had some vacation time that needed to be used for the new year, so we had some extra days to enjoy together in addition to the normal holidays. The extra family time made this Christmas that much nicer. We spent Christmas Eve with friends who graciously invited us to share in their family dinner. Tara got her very own meal consisting of mashed potatoes, stuffing, chopped green beans and cranberry sauce. She thoroughly enjoyed it. Some of it even made it into her mouth!
Christmas day was spent quietly as a family of three and I wouldn't have had it any other way. We slept in as late as Tara would allow, got going slowly, and enjoyed a fantastic breakfast of eggnog french toast and homemade whipped cream, courtesy of Jeff. Tara had a more healthy breakfast of homemade applesauce. I was finishing up a Santa hat for her, so we didn't open presents until after her first nap of the day. Instead, we started the morning off right by watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. It's just not Christmas without that movie. We also made a fire and watched the rain turn to snow. It didn't last long but snowed just enough to coat the ground and trees, giving us a beautiful white Christmas!
Once the Santa hat was ready for pictures, we proceeded to open gifts. While we of course did the majority of the opening, we did let Tara "help". This could best be called "Tara eats Christmas", since most of her skills involve putting the wrappings up to her mouth. We'd like to send a collective thanks to everyone who sent something to Tara this year. She made out like a bandit with new pajamas and clothes and toys. Some of her favorites are some rubber ducks, and peek-a-boo playing teddy from her Grandma, a sleepy time puppy from her Maga, and an toy remote control from her Great Grandma S.
After presents we Skyped with both sides of the family. It's wonderful to be able to see and chat with everyone, even when we can't be there for Christmas in person each year.
Dinner was a yummy ham, scalloped cheesy potatoes, crescent roll and, of course, pumpkin pie. Tara enjoyed a bit of the potatoes.
So Tara's first Christmas was warm and simple, with lots of fun, love and good food. I really couldn't have asked for a better day.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
6 months
Tara,
You turned 6 months old on Saturday, December 1st. I simply can not believe that you've been with us for a half of a year already. It's been a whirl wind 6 months, to say the least.
You now weigh 17lbs 9oz and are 26.5 inches long. It's no surprise that you are a little taller than average. You've got parents that happen to be on the tall side.
You still do not roll over from your back to you belly, but you do flip in the other direction from time to time. Instead, your big new trick is sitting up all on your own. You almost never fall over any more, but I admit I do put pillows around you just in case. It's so much fun to sit you with toys on the living room floor or in your room and watch you play with them.You also like to sit next to the toy basket in your room and take all of the toys out, which gives me time to get a few things done!
I adore watching you bounce around in your jumperroo. You move your little feet like a ballerina jumping into the air.
We've begun offering you solid food. Your first food was sweet potatoes, which you tried on Thanksgiving day. Since then you've tried green beans, bananas, avocado, carrots, blueberries, and a piece of whole wheat pancake. Of all of those options, you only liked the pancake. Everything else gets a decidedly yucky face and gets smeared around. You do enjoy feeding yourself and easily move your tiny spoon into your mouth. You're so independent already!
Christmas is coming. Christmas is always my favorite time of year, but this year is so much better because you're here. I love sharing all of my favorite parts of the season with you, like classic Christmas music, lights and decorations and of course, the tree. We went to get the tree today. You didn't pay it much attention, other than to touch it a lot. But tomorrow it will be lit and decorated and since you can't get at it yet, I'll get one more year of decorating it normally before little hands start reaching.
We took you to visit with Santa Claus, although you have no idea who that is. You were wonderful, as you nearly always are in public. Everyone there said you were the best mannered baby that had visited. Truthfully, we hear that a lot. You love people and are often nothing but smiles and giggles when we're out and about. Only daddy and I know that you are learning to yell when you're mad. Those moments are few, though, and you are generally the sweetest baby girl anyone could ask for.
I can't wait to see you on Christmas morning!
Love always,
Mom
You turned 6 months old on Saturday, December 1st. I simply can not believe that you've been with us for a half of a year already. It's been a whirl wind 6 months, to say the least.
You now weigh 17lbs 9oz and are 26.5 inches long. It's no surprise that you are a little taller than average. You've got parents that happen to be on the tall side.
You still do not roll over from your back to you belly, but you do flip in the other direction from time to time. Instead, your big new trick is sitting up all on your own. You almost never fall over any more, but I admit I do put pillows around you just in case. It's so much fun to sit you with toys on the living room floor or in your room and watch you play with them.You also like to sit next to the toy basket in your room and take all of the toys out, which gives me time to get a few things done!
I adore watching you bounce around in your jumperroo. You move your little feet like a ballerina jumping into the air.
We've begun offering you solid food. Your first food was sweet potatoes, which you tried on Thanksgiving day. Since then you've tried green beans, bananas, avocado, carrots, blueberries, and a piece of whole wheat pancake. Of all of those options, you only liked the pancake. Everything else gets a decidedly yucky face and gets smeared around. You do enjoy feeding yourself and easily move your tiny spoon into your mouth. You're so independent already!
Christmas is coming. Christmas is always my favorite time of year, but this year is so much better because you're here. I love sharing all of my favorite parts of the season with you, like classic Christmas music, lights and decorations and of course, the tree. We went to get the tree today. You didn't pay it much attention, other than to touch it a lot. But tomorrow it will be lit and decorated and since you can't get at it yet, I'll get one more year of decorating it normally before little hands start reaching.
We took you to visit with Santa Claus, although you have no idea who that is. You were wonderful, as you nearly always are in public. Everyone there said you were the best mannered baby that had visited. Truthfully, we hear that a lot. You love people and are often nothing but smiles and giggles when we're out and about. Only daddy and I know that you are learning to yell when you're mad. Those moments are few, though, and you are generally the sweetest baby girl anyone could ask for.
I can't wait to see you on Christmas morning!
Love always,
Mom
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)