A Week of Firsts!!

Miss E has hit some incredible milestones this week! We're having so much fun watching her learn new things, and get bolder in her endeavors. She was still pretty much content to just sit and watch the world around her when we headed back to Texas...not so anymore!! She's into everything, and it cracks me up!

Here are some of the things that she's learned this week:

May 21st ~ First Word "Dada"

She said it during the day while she was babbling, but later that night she said it more clearly while looking at Daddy's picture! She also says "buh-buh" (bye-bye) and attempts to wave. Pretty cute!!

May 22 ~ Learned to Clap!

She does it ALL the time now :)

May 23 ~ Learned to go to sitting position from her belly.

This is how we usually find her now...sorry for the poor iPhone quality!

May 25 ~ Stands Without Our Help

(Though, as you can see, I can't quite take my hands away yet!!)

May 26 ~ Crawls Backwards (still hasn't mastered frontwards yet!)

She's been scooting backwards for some time now, but she's finally up on all fours...she's just moving the wrong way. Ha!

I can't wait to see what she does next week...we're likely to have a walker on our hands by then! Well, maybe not quite yet, but soon I tell ya!! And it's already getting harder to keep up with her...wonder what it's going to be like in a few months. Oh my gosh, it makes me tired just thinking about it :)

Success!!

Our first attempt at homemade baby food was peas...

this was Elli's reaction.

(Please excuse the runny nose, we're teething at the moment!!)

She wasn't a fan, obviously!

So then we tried sweet potato's...mommy's favorite!!

Just puree' the cooked potato's in the blender,

**Yes, that's a food processor in the above pic, but it didn't work so we moved to the blender...I'm ever-so-adaptable :)**

and you'll end up w/ some yummy goodness :)

Chris fed her one night...

and my dad fed her another...SUCCESS!!

I store the extra food in ice cube trays,

and I just get two per day out to thaw for dinner :)

So simple, so good, and so healthy for my sweet baby girl.

Next up: Zucchini!!

I gotta admit, I'm not all that confident that we'll get another happy reaction!!

Happy 4 Month Birthday, Elliana!!

We had our 4 month "well baby" appointment on Wednesday, and everything seems to be looking good for our girl! She's weighing in at a whopping 15lbs 5 oz (90th percentile), and is 25 inches tall (75th percentile)! The Dr. said she's perfectly proportioned, so I'm not too concerned that she's been putting on a few extra rolls around those sweet legs :) She's not rolling over yet, but she's so close she can almost taste it! She can lift/hold her head up really well, and she's working on lifting her body up & supporting herself on her arms/hands. She still loves her bouncy chair, and now that she has a Bumbo (thanks GG!!), she loves that too!! It's so crazy to see her sitting up in that thing...she looks too much like a little girl, and not enough like my tiny baby! She's "talking" all the time now, and smiles & laughs a lot more, too. If I can ever figure out how to do the video thing on here, I'll post a cute one of her laughing...it gets me every time!

We also started sleep training again, and it's been fantastic! This time we went with the Ferber Method. A few days ago, when we put her to bed at 8, she cried for about an hour (us checking on her every 10 min). She then slept from 10pm - 5am, and then from 5:30am-9am (when I woke her up!). She had also had her shots that day, so I think that's why she was so sleepy! But then the next night she only cried for about 15 min (with us checking on her at the 10min mark), and then she was down...she ate her "dream-feed" at 10, and slept from then til 3:30am and then went back to sleep until 7:30. Though I don't want to jinx it by saying this, but I think it has been a success. My goal was for her to only wake up once per night, and she's doing great!

She's learning new things every day, and she is truly the happiest baby I've ever seen! I'm one proud Mama :)

First Attempt at Rice Cereal...

After talking with the pediatrician, we decided to start Elli on rice cereal the other day. It was pretty funny!! She liked it at first, then liked it a little less, and by the end, she was just NOT going to do it anymore! We've since decided that she's not really ready yet, so check back in about a month for our 2nd "first attempt"!!

Yay for Rice Cereal!!

Hmm, this stuff is okay...I think I like it!

Ehhh, not so much anymore!!

Give me that bottle!!

On my mind...

Obviously, with all of the big changes that are coming up in our lives, I have quite a bit on my mind. I thought I'd just post some of my questions/concerns/worries/ideas here for y'all to ponder and perhaps help me out with. Some are silly, some serious...feel free to be as honest as possible, I need all the help that I can get!!

1. Vaccinations. Where do I even begin with this one? Any good book recommendations or suggestions? Are there any pro-vaccine people out there? Con-vaccine people? Just don't really care people?? This has been on my mind frequently lately!

2. Our child's name. Holy moly, how hard can it be to come up with one that we both like??? I'm seriously starting to consider Amy Jr.! (We've already got 3 Amy's in the family, why not add one more?)

3. Sleep Routine Books. "The Baby Whisperer", "Baby Wise", "Parenting for Dummies"? Any suggestions? And if you do have one, can you tell me why you like it?

4. Vinyl Wall Designs/Letters. Yes, I'm thinking about these...A LOT! Do I use them? Do I not? Has anyone seen any cute ones? What do you guys think of the one below? Remember that the room will be Pink/Brown/Green :)

5. Car Seat/Stroller. Why is the ONE car seat/stroller combo that we really like sold out of every store in America? Anyone have a Chicco Keyfit 30 combo in Romantic...if so, I'll pay just about anything for it!

6. Houses. We're still in the midst of our house search, with one promising lead. We have the sweetest lady in the world working on it for us, but I'm still just wanting something to be settled already!

Hmm, I guess that's all for now. Like I said, feel free to give me some honest feedback...I promise you won't hurt my feelings if you think I'm a complete mess for thinking about all this stuff!...I'm fully aware of my mess-ness!