Dancing Time

Music - Dancing - Lovin' Life!  

That's our girl.  We have music on much of the time - from Latin to Classical, from Jazz Standards to Golden Oldies, and don't forget the Folk and Bluegrass - we appreciate it all in our household.  And so does Little A.  She has started to rock to the music lately, whether it's ambient music or an electronic toy (cringe!) she seems to love it all.

Reading Time

I love books. I have always loved books.  I love the smell of books.  In fact, I love the smell of books so much that I love the smell of libraries. The smell of libraries is universal and whenever I move to a new place, I can't wait to head to the library and get my card. When I walk in the door - I take a deep breath in - and mmmmm.  It always smells like home.  So I really hope that Analiese will love books as well.

While she is still too young to sit still and listen to a story in its entirety, she does spend impressive chunks of time by herself on the floor opening, closing, and turning the pages of her picture books.  I hope it's a sign of a fellow book fanatic yet to emerge! 

 

December & The Holiday That Wasn't

You most likely think that this post will have all kinds of cutesy pictures of Analiese - and her FIRST CHRISTMAS.  But in fact, it won't.  Because our family didn't really have Christmas in December this year.  We had already planned on postponing the holiday to accommodate Jared's travel plans - and have the family Christmas in January. So Christmas Day felt more like "The Christmas That Wasn't".




Instead, we have all kinds of fun pictures to share from Life With Analiese - who turned 9 months old on December 25th. She's been out as long as she was in!

Analiese's Nana from Kentucky sent some Christmas presents in December.  Analiese had reached the weight maximum for her newborn car seat - not to mention her long Whittier/Thomson legs were crunched up against the back seat of the car.  But not anymore!  Now she has a brand new car seat that is big enough to accommodate quite a bit of growth (Thanks Nana!). Neither of us can wait until Analiese turns 1 so that we can turn that car seat around and let her face forward!!  She hates sitting in the rear facing position - who wouldn't?

I have been integrating "Diaper Free" parenting techniques from the beginning and they have certainly paid off.  I rarely have to clean a disgusting diaper because she knows how to go in the toilet...and has been since about 8 weeks old. Obviously when we travel, or have company and get distracted, she still wears diapers - but we needed something she could sit on because she was getting too big and too heavy for me to hold over the 'Throne' when she had to go.  Here she is, happily boasting her new found bathroom friend!

The one "Christmas-y" thing we did do this month was visit Analiese's cousins, who live in nearby Riverside. Aunt Mary Beth made a delicious lunch for us and then Lauren, Lila, and Analiese got busy making Gingerbread Men.  It was so much fun.  The girls started a tradition of a book exchange for Christmas, which made this mama very happy!






Now that Analiese is so mobile, she follows me all over the house as I go about my daily chores.  She watches and learns and as soon as she is able, she pitches right in to help.  Here are a couple of videos of Analiese helping me out around the house.  The first one is right before breakfast time as she helped me to unload the dishwasher:

A few days later, she nudged her way into the laundry room as I was folding the laundry from the dryer.  She asked if she could help and who am I to turn down a helpful hand?

The desert has been hard for us to get used to.  We have been here for six months now and, well, neither of us can say it has really grown on us.  We have started to get out a bit more, on Kevin's days off, to explore the areas around us.  Thankfully, within an hour and a half, we can get to the San Bernadino National Forest where we have begun to scout out future camping zones for next summer.  It is always a little cooler up there. We packed a picnic lunch and sat beside Lake Hemet, enjoying the view of water, trees, and wildlife. 

 Even though we knew we wouldn't be celebrating Christmas until January, the rest of the world seemed to carry on as if nothing had changed.  Analiese and I attended a MOMS Club Christmas Party in the park.  It was a warm sunny day but Santa Claus was still able to make it and Analiese had her first Picture With Santa...not a snowflake in sight!

Pajama Time

For those of you who have children past the age of five - does this sound familiar? 

For those of you who are still, "In the trenches", so to speak, you are not alone! 

After her bath, you wrap her like a baby burrito in a pink fuzzy towel.  Her hair curls up - her sweet baby shampoo smell hovers in the post-bath humidity.  Her soft baby cheeks have those perfectly rosy patches that are a particular shade of pink only lovely luscious delightful baby cheeks ever have. You transport her down the hallway to her bedroom where you hold her with one arm and think, "Dang it! I meant to set her pj's out ahead of time!"  You open and close drawers with one arm and one foot as all the while she is trying to flip herself out of your arms like a slippery wet seal to reach for the lotion-the hairbrush-the dirty-diaper-folded-up-from-earlier-the-alarm-clock-cord-the-lampshade.  Whew! You keep saying, "Nnooo no, punkin" in a cheerful tone (although you are totally exasperated), hoping she won't think you are mad at her for doing perfectly normal baby things but that she'll hopefully recognize that new word, "No," and stop doing what she is doing.  She doesn't. You lay her on the towel and, in what appears to be a baby massage in rapid fast-forward, you apply baby lotion to a constantly moving target singing a manic version of the ABC's to keep her occupied long enough to remain in relatively the same GPS position on planet earth. Then you reach out for the short sleeve onesie and, "Gah! Arghghghgh!!!!" You begin holding the baby with one foot up on the bed as you reach your body in a yoga-worthy lunge to open and close drawers with one hand and one foot - again - to try to retrieve the onesie you forgot to lay out and then forgot to lay out again.  You put her in it.  You take her feet in one hand in a grip you hope won't hurt at all while you lift up her bottom half and slap the diaper down, already opened up, in the approximate position.  You have learned to get the onesie on first these days because when you used to put the diaper on first, she learned how to habitually open her diaper tabs so that the minute you re-did them she un-did them again while you were trying to get the onesie on.  It didn't work.  Now you get the diaper fastened and you immediately grab both sides where the onesie snaps are and snap them quick as she still tries to undo her diaper tabs through the onesie.  You take a breath.  You are ready to put the footie pajamas on.  She is not ready, nor will she ever be ready, to have you put those footie pajamas on.  You thank the goddesses that you grabbed one of the two p.j. sets that have zippers, as opposed to the nine p.j. sets that have snaps, which require two adults to get snapped up at bedtime - one to hold the squirming sweaty was-rosy-now-turned-red-faced baby and the other to say, "Let's count the snaps," as she attempts to kind of hold moving baby legs a little bit more still while holding two snaps from two separate sides of the now rapidly moving baby legs to get them together long enough to snap them closed and hope she snapped the right pair together so she doesn't have to start all over again.  Anyway, at least the zipper saves you from that.  There are miracles, even in this day and age.  You put one of her arms through the first arm hole, she starts to whimper and squirm.  You take a deeper breath.  You begin to reach for her second arm and she jerks it away. She has just learned to do that too.  It's made things more...challenging.  You play the "let me grab your gosh-darn-arm" game with a clenched grin on your face because it really is quite funny if you think about it. But while you are doing it, it isn't funny at all.  It has just become the least funny thing possible in that very moment.  You get it through. She wails. Woops! You thought you got it through but it turns out that her little thumb got slightly stuck on the hem right at the end of the sleeve and you begin to realize why she hates getting her p.j's on so much.  You take a breath.  Now it's time to zip it up. This is the fun part.  You hold her torso with one hand, simultaneously thankful for your large 5'-11"-person hands that can almost completely span her torso, because little-handed Mamas must really have to work it! With the other hand you start doing this crazy single-handed march that makes you look like you have seven fingers instead of five since some of them hold the separated zipper parts a little bit closer together, while some of them grasp the zipper tab, and the rest of them use a forward pushing momentum to help the zipper tab creep up the leg.  The leg that's moving. The leg with the cutest darn fat rolls you ever did see, all of whom (that's right, I said 'whom' because they are that cute) are in harm's way from the evil ever-moving zipper.  You get it up and over her calves, then the bending knee, as she kicks her legs straight, and bent, and straight, and bent, all while your six-to-seven-or maybe-even-nine  fingers on the one hand keep the zipper dance happening.  You get to the top, you snap the little top flappy thing over the zipper tab.  Finished!! And you are EXHAUSTED.  I mean you are so exhausted from putting on her footie-pajamas that you have to actually set her down on the floor in front of you, stand up straight, stretch your arms over your head and then take a couple more deep breaths.  You look back up to proceed with the bed time routine.,.,and she is already out of the room, back down the hall, into the kitchen area where she is happily splashing around in the dog's water bowl you forgot to pick up earlier to keep out of her way...

Feeding Time (or A Month of Thanks)

The feature of November is Thanksgiving, of course.  It's my favorite holiday because it involves the things that I love most in the world: family, friends, and food. Not always in that order...just kidding.

In honor of November, and Thanksgiving, I thought it appropriate to dedicate this month's blog to "Feeding Time". Anyone who knows Kevin and I, knows that we love food.  So it comes as absolutely no surprise to us that our daughter seems to feel the same. In fact, since she began eating solids, I have yet to see Analiese act full or express that she doesn't want another bite.  Her meals end because I eventually tire of having to monitor her, or because things around the house still have to get done, regardless of how much we all love to eat.

 One of my favorite presents was the Baby Bullet that my brother and sister-in-law gave us.  Not only have I used it for Analiese, but it also has come in handy as the household food processor since ours is still packed away in storage.  For the first couple of months, Analiese got to taste her way through every known fruit and vegetable (at least the ones not on the high allergen list) in pureed form. She seemed to like it all, for the most part but her favorites were definitely avocado, pears, and butternut squash.

Once she was able to eat more solid food, I found it was a lot better to keep her occupied with food on the tray, then it was to sit there and shovel it into a moving target. It is so interesting to see what patience it takes to coordinate small precise finger movements. Eating seems like such a natural process but parenting reminds you that every single thing has to be learned. She was happy, I was happy, and...





Unfortunately - some meals are messier than others.  And why is it that babies hate being cleaned off? I use a soft cloth, I wait for the water to warm up, and still I am waiting for the day that CPS  shows up at our door because the upstairs neighbor has turned us in for the shrieking of a tortured child!










Analiese loves to talk while she is eating.  Here are her thoughts on Peas and Carrots. It's nice to see that Marshall is finally coming around with some affection towards Analiese...

As I mentioned before, Thanksgiving is my very favorite holiday.  I love the premise. I love the tradition. I love my family. I love stuffingmashedpotatoesandgravy.  Here is my mom's table before we all sit down to devour the yummy homemade food.  Those dishes came over with our great great great grandmother, Mary Hart (the one Analiese received her middle name from) on a ship from England circa the early 1800's.  They are hand painted and lovely.  They are also small compared to our plates nowadays, which just goes to show that gluttony is a more recent American past time.

This year was a special one because Alejandra's parents were visiting from Puebla, Mexico.  It was their first time to experience a traditional Thanksgiving feast.  It was also Paisley's first Thanksgiving Feast.  Paisley is Adam and Alejandra's beagle - now about 7 months old - and her little nose can sniff out the smallest of scents so a huge turkey was no match for her!

Here's the Thanksgiving table in action starting with my mom, Nana, Lupita, Juan Miguel, Burnie, Adam, Ale, and our Auntie Sue.  My place is the empty one - with the one stick of celery - and it stayed that way for the duration of the meal because Analiese was sick and teething...which meant my Thanksgiving Dinner was a microwaved plate at 8:45 p.m. when Analiese finally collapsed to sleep.  Kevin had to work that holiday and his presence was deeply missed!

As I mentioned before, Analiese never misses a meal, so although she was sick and teething, she still managed to smile while she ate her peas and potatoes.  She did not look like this about five minutes later, though, when she started fussing all over again...

She does love food but it turns out that some things are less desirable than others. During a complicated few days (enough said about that) I decided she might need some prunes introduced to her diet.  She, however, wasn't as enthusiastic about them.  In fact, I think that she actually flipped me off at the end of her 'prune shudder'.

Now that Analiese has passed the 8-month mark, it feels like her development has accelerated. Every day brings new fun things to notice about her.  Her face keeps losing a little more of the baby look and we can see her little girl features beginning to shine through. Her hair is slowly but surely catching up to her one single long luxurious birth lock you have seen in previous blogs. She becomes more confident about standing/cruising the furniture, and loves to stand at her toy box and pull her own toys out.  Mirrors are a favorite place to hang out and she loves to dance.  She can walk with support and thankfully she seems to smile all day long.

October

Well - all it takes is a little baby crawling around and POOF! - there goes the blog time.  In the same three day period (waaaaay back in October), Analiese learned to crawl, learned to pull herself to standing using the furniture, and got her first two bottom teeth. Whew.  It made for a very loud few weeks - teething fussiness accompanied by her wails of pain from constantly falling down.  Glad we're through those milestones...and now she is starting to learn to walk. That's why this month's "Signature Picture" is of Analiese happily standing at her baby gate.  That's before she really understood what it was for.  Now, she doesn't really look like that when she is on the other side.

When I last blogged, I had a video of Analiese as she scooted to me in our living room.  About 48 hours later, no joke, she decided scooting was outdated and took up real crawling. She was 6 months old and already crawling, standing, and toddling around the furniture.  It's been "crazy time" around here every since!

We spent the first weekend of October, in Tehachapi, celebrating my Nana's 96th birthday. The weather was gorgeous and we enjoyed quite a bit outdoor time in Granna's beautiful yard. ( It was still 100+ here).  Analiese got to play for the first time in an antique wooden rocking chair for toddlers that was originally used by my Aunt and Mom - and then was refinished by my Pop Pop years ago for myself and my brothers. Now it's on to generation number three. I wish they still made mainstream toys like this.





We celebrated Nana's birthday by enjoying dinner out at a restaurant.  We are so happy to be close enough to share these special moments with family! And I would just like to take a moment here and honor my 96-year old Nana.  She is an AMAZING woman (and says that if she had a $1 for everytime people said that about her, now that she's "old" - she would be rich).  We sure love her to pieces.

Once Analiese learned to roll over and scoot, the days of naptime in our bed with pillows as "roll guards" was over.  We set up her crib and that is where she spends her naps and the first part of every night since then...

She is quite vocal now and can entertain herself for surprising lengths of time by making sounds and watching her hands move.  We call the exersaucer her "office" because she loves to hang out there.  I titled this video, "Chatting at the Office".

As I sort of touched on earlier, learning to stand up means learning to get down. That seemed to be the toughest part of the learning curve for her. She LOVES drinking water from her cup - so much so, that we have to ration it out to her in small doses a couple times a day or she would just end up being a water-tarian. This video just goes to show how scary 'getting down' really is - not even her precious water was worth the risk.

For those of you who were wondering: Yes, that is her real hair. It's one solid lock of baby wonder hair that has grown since birth. Weeee LOoooove iiiiiiit!

Analiese LOVES her bath.  There are so many cute bath pictures we have - but they are not web appropriate. Darn it!  But this one is still pretty cute...can rolls get any more delicious than those???

And, of course, Halloween.  Our little MOMS Club had a Halloween Party so here is a picture of Snow White and I.  She was sick for the first time so she wasn't really all that thrilled.  We just went to drop off my first official batch of "Mom Cupcakes For a Kid Party" which I am showing here because I think they came out awesome and I am proud of my presentation.

I will leave you with these - no more stories - just cutie pie pics!

I

Six Months or "Scoot-A-Rama"

HERE'S TO SIX MONTHS OF LIVIN'

Six months!  Can you believe that it's been six months?  Well, I can.  I mean - of course the time has flown - but since I am lucky enough to be with Analiese everyday I am also lucky enough to see every minute of her development.  And when you think that THIS:

Can so quickly change to THIS:

It is pretty amazing but it also seems like six months is a rapid amount of time to grow and change so much. Here are some of our favorite pictures and milestones that have occurred from month five to month six - -

Analiese has learned how to undo her cloth diaper covers.  It's really fun for me to discover her around the house with diapers dangling. Or worse, finding the diapers in their cover on the floor- - - with no baby in them.  Needless to say she wears her onesies more often now.

Analiese loves to drink water from our cups. She gulps down about three times more air than water, and most of the water goes down the front of her clothes, but she loves it anyway.

Since she was so enthusiastic about water, and watches us eat like it's a tennis match, we thought she might be ready for food.  It turned out that she wasn't so ready for that after all.  We'll stick to water and breast milk for now.

I joined a MOMS Club in this area in an effort to actually meet people.  Part of that experience has been joining a baby playgroup.  Our Analiese has been all over the southern CA area, passed around to multiple strangers, been to weddings, funerals, airports, etc. and has greeted everyone with a smile. Put her down on the floor with five other children under the age of 1 and this was her response.  She wanted none of it. For now, she spends her time on my lap while the rest of the babies roll around happily with one another.

The weather has finally cooled off around here.  Translation: The highs are usually only in the low 100's now.  As a result, we can hit the pool once in a while in the late mornings before the temperature rises.  Analiese plays happily for a long time in her little floaty frog.

 Analiese is a scooting machine. She's real thrilled with herself and the fact that she can get around the house without our help.  It's a game changer for us. Daytime relaxation is nonexistent. And watch out, because today she pulled herself into a standing position for the first time...