A Big Day for our Big Girl!

It's been a long day, but a good one! Adele had several "firsts" today, and as excited as I am for her, I'm also kind of sad. My baby is growing up! At bedtime tonight, Adele and I looked at pictures from when she was so tiny, it's hard to believe, but I can hardly remember when she couldn't sit up on her own, and now she's getting ready to walk!

So, I suppose I should tell you about our big day! Adele decided to "pull up" to standing using one of her toys today! She has been pulling up using Daddy and I for a while now, and has gotten very efficient at it, but she finally found something else to pull up on! She pulled up several times (Mean old Mommy kept sitting her back down) but when I tried to tape her, she just got frustrated and cried for me...go figure!

I had to go in to school today to interview a possible teaching assistant, Amy. (This is the first time I've ever had any say in who my assistant is, and I'm on maternity leave...go figure!) I think the principal just wanted an excuse to see Adele! She was a cutie and even fell asleep on the way there. I brought a blanket and toys for her to play with while we met. Unfortunately, she was WAY too busy trying to stand up from sitting on the floor (picture her in a "downward dog" yoga pose) to play with her toys. She kept scooting off of the blanket I had laid out for her, and I didn't want her to be on the carpet (which probably hasn't been cleaned in years...it was visibly dirty with muddy footprints) So, I sat on the floor with Miss Adele while talking with Amy, which is where her second first of the day came in. Adele pulled herself up to stand, and then let go of my hands. She stood on her own for at least 5 seconds (Really...it seemed like FOREVER) and then sat back down. She didn't even fall really. I think she would have stood longer, but everyone in the room (Like 5 or 6 people) started clapping for her, which shocked her a little bit.

And her third first was a sad one. The custodian came to clean the carpet, so I moved Adele to the linoleum. I sat her on the floor and squatted behind her. I was reaching into the diaper bag for a toy when she decided whe wanted to try to crawl/stand/walk again, and took a nosedive into the linoleum. She screamed pretty hard for a minute, and became VERY clingy (which she hadn't been up to that point, what a nice change!) but she seemed to recover well. We left shortly after that, to go see Daddy who was stuck at school because of Back to School Night (poor Daddy wouldn't have seen Miss Adele until TOMORROW after work if we hadn't stopped in!) Anyway, we noticed a bruise on her forehead. Poor little girl...her first bruise.

I must admit, I'm not absolutely sure that I brought the correct baby home with me. She didn't make a peep on the ride home, and while she did fall asleep eventually, she didn't sleep for the whole ride. Then, when we got home, she didn't want to nurse, she was very busy watching Cookie and "talking" with me instead. She fussed all through her dinner, and not because I wasn't feeding her fast enough (or at least, feeding her faster didn't help.) I had to hold her on my lap so I could get her to eat. At this point, I was dreading her walk...I figured she'd scream the whole way. Nope, she laughed and sang on our walk, and watched anything that would move. Cookie even "took us" on an extra long walk (which I was VERY nervous about, but hey, it worked out!) By the time I put her to bed she was back to herself, so maybe it was the bump on her head that changed her behavior this afternoon. I'll never know.

Now, if only there was a way to push her "pause" button so she'd stop growing up so fast...

7 Months!

I can't believe it's been 7 months! Miss Adele has changed SO much since January 22nd!

She can roll over both ways, but usually only rolls from her tummy to her back when she's frustrated with trying to crawl.

She isn't quite crawling yet, but expect that blog soon! She is now to the point where she'll be up on all fours, reach forward (she will only attempt to crawl in order to get something that is out of her reach) and then do a belly flop. Then she starts over, but she usually scoots backwards in the process.




She will pull to stand up if she's holding my hands, even if I don't help her. Today she tried to pull up onto her music table on her own. She would have been able to do it, but realized that she wasn't holding on to Mommy's hands, and got mad. She fussed at me, sat down and hit the table as if it was the table's fault. I wish I'd been taping her!

She will walk holding someone's hands. She especially loves to walk in the water!

She is a pro at eating her "solid foods." Here are some foods she has tried (and loved...all but that silly avocado):
Veggies:
Sweet potato (jarred baby food and real sweet potato off of mommy's plate)
Carrots
Squash
Green Beans
Peas
Avocado

Fruits:
Apples
Peaches
Pears
Bananas
Honeydew Melon

Meats:
Chicken

Other:
Rice Cereal
Oatmeal (Unfortunately, we discovered she's allergic to it...)
"Wagon Wheels"
Zwieback toast

She actually started taking a bottle (well, 2 whole oz) of formula every day, but we discovered that she is allergic to the formula we have, so we're back to the drawing board there...which means I still can't really leave her for longer than 3 hours unless I pump for her beforehand...argh!

Hmmm...how else has she changed...well, she's probably almost tripled her birth weight. She was just shy of 18 lbs at her 6 month checkup, so I'd guess that she's at least 19 or 20 pounds by now (she was 7 lbs, 4 oz at birth) She has grown 6 or more inches taller too!

She goes to bed around 7:30, as opposed to 10 or 11, but she's still not sleeping through the night (although last night she only woke up once, at 11...too bad I was already asleep! And I woke her up this morning at 7:30.

She's not as small, and she doesn't snuggle as much anymore, but she is a lot more fun! She knows her Mommy and Daddy and has the cutest reactions when she sees us! She is still stubborn, opinionated and determined, but most of the time I like that about her!

Happy 7-Month Birthday, baby!

It is AMAZING...

how clean your house can be when your baby ACTUALLY takes naps...on a schedule...kind of! Adele has started taking 2 naps a day, usually a short-ish morning nap (although they can last over an hour!) and a long-ish (at least an hour) afternoon nap. In fact, the past two afternoons, we had to WAKE HER UP so that she'd be able to go to bed on time! She is still waking up a few times overnight, but I think as this daytime napping pattern becomes more established, she'll start to do better at night too (or maybe that's just wishful thinking...)

For now, I'm loving my clean house! This week I:

Swept the kitchen (twice)
Vacuumed (the TV room twice, the rest of the downstairs once)
Cleaned all of the doorknobs and light switches downstairs...

And....

She's still sleeping, so I guess I have to dust (of course, now that I've typed out this blog, she won't sleep for me at all next week, but I don't care...I'm so proud of both of us right now!)

***Edited to add***
She slept for 2 hours. I dusted, washed some windows, and made myself lunch. Then I took my own rest for about half an hour before she woke up!

And some pictures

Per your request, Aunt Katie...

I'm pretty sure she's screaming because she hates her new 'do:

I wonder what we were talking about?

I Love You, Aunt Jenny!

Just plain cute!

Wave for the camera!

I think she's hugging herself:

It's Fun to Play at the YMCA!

I've finally started a workout program that I think I can stick with! We go to the "Y" when Adele wakes up from her morning nap, and I run while she goes to childcare. I might start swimming too, but they've been cleaning the pool, so there haven't been any lap lanes available. Adele has done pretty well at child care. She has some "favorite" toys, and the workers are getting to know her. I didn't know if I should feel happy or sad yesterday when I dropped her off and they knew her name! (I feel happy because they know her, but sad because it means I'm leaving her there often enough for them to remember her...)

Busy, Busy!

"Blog" has been on my "to-do" list since last Thursday....oops!

Thursday night was a GREAT one! Adele slept over 10 hours! She ate around 6:30, and went to bed just after 7. Then she...finally...woke up around 5:15 to eat...too bad I had been up since 4 just waiting on her! I even went to peek in on her around 4:30 because I was sure she'd stopped breathing or something...over 10 hours without nursing...I never thought I'd see the day!

Friday night we drove up to LaPorte for James' first birthday party. I had the great idea to leave around 7, at Adele's bedtime, since she's been SO good about sleeping in the car. Some great idea! She fell asleep around 7:30, then woke up at 8 and stayed awake for the rest of the drive! We got there about 9:30 LaPorte time (10:30 our time) and she took at least an hour to "wind down" once we were there...argh! (And that was after I gave her Benadryl). She was up a few times overnight too. So much for sleeping through the night!

Daddy and I took Adele and James over to see Grandma and Grandpa on Saturday morning while Uncle Tim and Aunt Laura got ready for James' party. Adele was tired, but wouldn't sleep at Grandma and Grandpa's and James was a busy little guy, crawling (and driving?) everywhere!
Adele did finally nap once we got back to Tim and Laura's. (She pulled the blanket up over her head to make it nice and dark.) James fell asleep shortly after she did. It sure was quiet with both babies sleeping! Once they woke up, we took the munchkins in James' pool. Adele had a BLAST splashing! That night, we went back over to Grandma and Grandpa's for some yummy dinner! We had corn on the cob, chicken, pork chops and ribs, fruit salad, veggies and chips...and sherbet for dinner! Adele had a little taste of the sherbet...don't tell!

Some cute pictures of the cousins playing:



Sunday was James' party. Adele was a VERY good girl all day! She liked hanging out with her relatives and only fussed once for Great Grandma.
She took a nap in the morning before the party started. then took another nap while James opened his presents. During the party, she was happy to look around at everyone and practice her crawling (or her scooting backwards...). James was absolutely adorable eating his cake! Adele was definitely jealous! Hopefully she won't develop any more allergies, and she'll actually be able to eat cake on her first birthday!

She slept some on the drive home, but then it took a while to get her back to sleep once we got home. I guess she's back to not sleeping in the car, eh?

Aunt Jenny!

Aunt Jenny spent the last few days with us. Adele is in love! Aunt Jenny has such big, animated facial expressions that Miss Adele just can't get enough of her!

Here they are playing in the backyard:


Aunt Jenny (unfortunately) had to work while she was here, and had a videophone conference while sitting in the kitchen. She was signing into her camera and Adele just loved it! She sat on the couch and just stared at Aunt Jenny! While Jenny was signing, Adele smiled and laughed, and when Jenny was "watching" (or "listening") Adele watched even harder...waiting for more of that "silly" sign language!
(While I was taking pictures, I was blocking her view, so that's why she's not smilling in the pictures)

Adele also loved when Aunt Jenny fed her green beans!

"They just taste better when you feed them to me, Aunt Jenny"

Aunt Jenny decided to put herself up to the ULTIMATE TEST! You guessed it, NAPTIME! She forced me to take my own nap while she attempted to get Adele to sleep (I'm not even going to discuss her TERRIBLE naps this week!). They read stories and rocked, then Jenny put her down...awake...without any tears! Sorry Aunt Katie....you've got some stiff competition! Miss Adele slept for about half an hour...which doesn't sound like much, but TRUST ME...it was a LOONNNNGGGG nap compared to the rest she's taken (or not taken) this week!

Okay, Aunt Jenny isn't in this one, but it's a cute picture, so I'm posting it anyway!

Princess Paci's New Trick!

This morning, Adele was sitting on the carpet playing with toys. She had a paci in her mouth. She grabbed the paci, pulled it out and "tossed" it a few inches away from her body, kind of to the side and behind her. She then fell over to the side (on purpose) and played with a toy for a while, while supporting her weight on one arm. Then, she rubbed her face on the ground (she was tired from holding herself up!). When she looked up, she had the paci back in her mouth, the right way! It was too funny! I wish I'd gotten it on film!

Bubbles!

Daddy had to go back to work today, and Adele and I were beside ourselves with boredom...okay, not really, but we did decide to go outside and blow bubbles since it was too cool to go swimming. (It felt like April or May for most of the day today...not even fall like, but very spring like. We loved it!) She had a fun time sitting in the grass, reaching for the bubbles.

I know these aren't the greatest pictures, but I was blowing bubbles AND taking pictures at the same time....

Indiana State Fair!

This weekend, we went to the State Fair. We rode the train down and spent a couple of hours checking everything out. Adele behaved herself for the most part and seemed to enjoy the sights!
Riding the train with Mommy: Apparently the part of the train that we were riding on was the old bathroom, so that is why there is no window. Thank goodness we didn't learn that until our return trip, where we sat in the "regular" seats...although, I think I would still prefer riding in what used to be the bathroom than riding backwards in the supposedly "nicer" seats. (In my opinion the entire train stinks, and there aren't any "nice" seats...ask Aunt Katie about the field trip on the same train if you don't believe me!)

The whole family on the train:
Under the arch at the midway:
The brand new covered bridge:
Adele had a little snack inside the bridge...it was so cool in the shade! She ate a "wagon wheel" (no oats!) and I tried to nurse her (discreetly) but she was too busy looking at all of the people to eat (that's a first! Adele not eating???!!!). So, we found a different location to nurse, under a big shade tree. When we got up and started walking back the way we had come, we saw a "Lactation Station" (Seriously!) set up with rocking chairs and fans...if only I'd known!!!

Isn't this just the cutest little piano? It's just Miss Adele's size!

Such a cutie!

Yummy!

Here's a video of Adele attempting to feed herself puffs...this was before we discovered she is allergic to the oatmeal in them :(

Long time, no Blog...

Adele has certainly been busy doing "big girl" things, but we've been traveling and also enjoying the last days of Daddy's summer, so I haven't been spending much time blogging. (Plus, it's been so long since I've blogged that I've forgotten my "blogging voice" so it's hard to think of what to say...) Even though it's sad that Daddy will be going back to work, Adele and I are looking forward to getting into our own routine again, and that will most likely mean more blogging...yay!

Adele has been a pretty good baby lately. She is starting (knock on wood) to sleep for longer stretches at night again (6 or 7 hours), so that is good! She isn't crawling yet, but when you put her on her tummy, she ends up scooting backwards (that belly is a bit heavy to be lifting off of the ground...)

She has also started eating "Zwieback Toast" (I'll give a dollar to anyone who can pronounce that...other mommies excluded!)
Yum! She is still learning to feed herself, and occasionally she bites off (more like "slimes off") more than she can chew, so sometimes feeding her is a 2 person job! She needs Mommy to pry her mouth open so Daddy can dig out a chunk of toast out of her mouth.

While in Wisconsin, Adele attended her first wedding. My cousin Kelle got married, and Adele met Kelle, and new Hubby CJ, along with Kristen and Peter, some of my cousins, and some more aunts and uncles. She looked so cute in her pretty purple dress. Too bad I forgot to bring a little ribbon for her hair! Unfortunately, the wedding was at 6:00 Central Time (7:00 Eastern...) Adele's bedtime. She actually surprised us and lasted almost 2 hours past bedtime, but then started screaming crying, and there was no calming her down, so we headed back to our hotel. Here we are, zonked on the day after the wedding

While on our trip, we discovered that Adele loves to suck on lemons..weirdo! (Okay, maybe it's not SO weird...I liked lemons as a baby, too...) I didn't get a picture of her eating a lemon (I'm waiting to get Aunt Jenny's pictures, she has some, I'm sure) but I did get a picture of Miss Adele eating an orange at the wedding.

Yesterday was our "photo shoot" at Target. Adele was not nearly as smiley as she was the first time (we kind of figured that it would work out that way). They put her in a bathtub and took some pictures, but poor Miss Adele looked scared the whole time....that, and she was looking for the water. We didn't end up ordering any of their bathtub pictures, but we did take our own bathtub picture at the hotel....we think she's pretty darn cute!

Today Adele had lots of "Daddy Time" while I went to school and set up my classroom. I will be teaching Kindergarten when I return to teaching (YAY!) so I had to move rooms (UGH!). Today I met my maternity sub, and had to finish setting up my classroom. For some reason, it always takes a LONG time to get my room set up...and I promise I didn't even spend much time gabbing today! Anyway, Daddy and Adele survived, despite little Missy not taking a bottle. He even took her to the "Y" by himself (for the second time!) but she was fussy, so they didn't last too long.