Not much has been happening with us this week, which is why I have had a lack of posts as of late. We've been taking it easy around our house, trying hard to get Stella on a regular sleep schedule, which she still fights like crazy at every nap, and every bedtime. Even if I lay down with her and nurse her to sleep, she wakes up as soon as I get up... lame. The other night she was awake for 2 full hours from about 2:30 til about 4:30.... again.... lame. She has such an active mind, and is such an active little girl, I think she just prefers going a million miles a minute, and we prefer her to chill out and nap at least twice a day, so for now were agreeing to disagree, and trying our best to get her to like sleep a little bit more. She is so active, that currently I am sitting out on our deck blogging (because it's finally tolerable to sit out here and there is an awesome breeze going through), which she bounces away in her activity jumper. I never thought I would be one of those parents who rely's on a big toy to keep their child happy, but seriously? She is so active, it's tough to put her down and have her stay happy for more than 5 minutes, even if surrounded by toys. She wants to be into everything, touching, seeing, biting, jumping. Her favorite thing to do is stand up on our laps and jump, she laughs and we get the biggest, gummiest grins when she's jumping, she just loves it.
This little girl is going to keep us on our toes. We can already tell she's a mover, we've known this since the first ultrasound, she was wiggling all over, just this little embryo, standing straight up. Where most babies at 10 weeks gestation are curled up and looking like a seahorse, Stella was dancing across the screen, even the tech warned us we were going to have our hands full. I wouldn't have it any other way though, She keeps me moving, gets me out and about, loves the park, loves being outside (literally, could stay out there all day) and is just our little firecracker. I cannot wait to see what her activity brings us as a toddler :)
I have a ton of pictures to share from the last 2 weeks, I am just now getting around to uploading them, and didn't realize just how many there were... Enjoy!
The little, or Gremlin as we affectionately call her when she's got this face/attitude going, is now into EVERYTHING. Fighting hard to reach things she wants, putting everything she successfully grabs right into her mouth, yea, it's fun
Daddy's cup is especially yummy to chew on
mmmmmm. cup.
Daddy trying to take it back... Stella was having nothing to do with handing it over though...
look at the sheer happiness and huge smile on Stella's face, you can see it, even though she's upside down, you can see it on Brent's face too, I love it.
so happy!
Have you ever had an ORANGE watermelon??? We have! and it was delish!!
I've only dared take one photo of Stella sleeping... i'm afraid the flash will wake her. But isn't she so freaking adorable!?!
She's such a big girl now sleeping in her own crib!!
Last week I finally got around to painting our dining room chairs, yay! I had been wanting to for awhile, but it's tough finding extra time for crafty stuff with the little. So, I had daddy watch her, and I was able to paint all 4 chairs! I only got one coat, so they are a little rough, not as smooth as I had hoped, but at least they are yellow!! I love the color, it brightens up our kitchen a ton!
We've had some pretty awesome sunset's lately, and I finally got a picture that turned out! For some reason the pink skies never look the same in the pictures, but orange? It looks pretty great!
These next pictures are of Stella eating some of her first foods, I just loved the intense look on her face watching daddy scoop the rice, and how big her mouth gets as the spoon approaches, love it.
And don't you love her bib? Yes, my sister bought it for her, so it's totally ok that she is pretty much advertising her auntie is Hot... and Single. Her number is 555.... ;)
I'm so excited to be linking up for the first time this week and share our week in phone pics! I've wanted to do this link up for awhile, but I rarely upload all the photos I take, until I realized I could easily upload them right to the blog through picasa, how awesome is that?! So, hopefully now i'll remember to join in the phone photo fun!
Want to hear another really exciting new thing for us this week??!?! Stella is sleeping through the night!!! Well. Almost. We've started putting her in her crib, in her room for naps, and she sleeps so well, that we thought we'd try out putting her in there for bedtime. She slept 9 hours the first night (albeit, after a 2 hour sleep fighting battle between her and us...). It was rough, especially for me, but she finally went to sleep, stirred once and daddy calmed her down in just a few minutes, and then... she slept! All night!!! So, we tried again last night... and it only took about 25 minutes of fussies and just a little bit of dancing and again, she went right to sleep!!! Tonight??? Umm, she was asleep in less than 10 minutes :) I AM SO HAPPY!!! She has woken up a couple times tonight, but she was down by 8:45... which meant Abby and I could go on a bike ride, which I haven't been able to do with her since last summer, it was so great! I would love to share a picture, but I don't dare sneak in there and use the flash... i'll get a cute one of her napping, we don't mess with nighttime. Hopefully it will continue to get easier every night, and soon, she'll just lay down, and go right to sleep, babies do that, right?
so, here's some of our week in Dphone pics...
The beginning of the week I found myself doing some projects around our house... I installed a retractable clothesline, which, I love. and I painted our dining room chairs an amazing shade of yellow! I looove them! They have brightened up our tiny dining room a ton! and now pull the living room and kitchen together :)
Brent, Stella, Abby and I took a walk along the greenbelt downtown, our power went out for a few hours and it was way too hot to hang out inside with no AC, so we packed up, and walked almost 4 miles along the river. Stella passed out halfway back, and I kicked an exposed root somewhere along the way, leaving me with a split big toe and lots of blood to clean off my sandal.
We are officially starting Stella on more solid foods, still mushed, but different from her norm. This week she LOVED avocado, which is the green stuff smeared around her mouth. She also enjoyed chewing on a green bean that we picked up at the market, she would not let that thing go, and cried when it broke and I had to take it away :(
More of Stella's culinary adventure a few nights later, applesauce on the left (the yellow mush) and zucchini on the right (the green mush), the small bowl in the middle is a mix of the two... this wasn't a big hit with her. and the last pic was out grilled dinner that night, chicken, squash, and corn with a garlic parsley butter, yum!
Linking up with Amy @ a good life, head on over and check out their week in pics!
Oh, and how about sharing the love and clicking through for a vote? Thanks!
While camping this weekend Brent introduced Stella to her first red plum.... and....... I think it may have been love at first taste,
Yummy Plum.....
Even my hands taste delish! (Look at that tounge work!)
Dad "rejuicing" the plum, because she kept sucking all the juice out and would leave dry spots, lol.
So much better with new juice
She took to this plum like it were my own breast, sucking and holding it, making the little 'nomnomnom' baby noises, it was hilarious! We have been letting Stella explore more flavors over the last 2 weeks. We're holding off on any more Brown rice for just now, she wasn't sleeping very well after having it, so I stopped for a few days and she returned to her better sleep patterns, tried once more and no sleep that night. So, Were just sticking with letting her taste things for now. So far she's in love with plums, Rainier cherries (Seeds out, just licks them) and grapes (bit in half and she just licks them). She's not so much a fan of peaches, but that could have been because they were not quite ripe, she really likes juicy fruits with lots of flavor. I am so excited to be introducing her to these flavors, we really want the little to love her fruits and veggies, and to have a very versatile palate. One thing Brent insists is that she never say no to any food, or tell us she "doesn't like" something. I know it's bound to happen, all kids go through some stage of frowns and noses turned up at the suggestion or look or smell of something, or they come home from a friends house or school and magically no longer like something, but he's really hoping we can nip this in the butt from an early age, I never realized he meant this early though.
Stella had her first taste of food the other night, and? SHE LOVED IT! See that smirk? And the organic brown rice bits stuck all over her face? Yea, it was pretty adorable.
licking every last bit off her fingers... mmmmm
MOMMA!!! I WANT MORE!!!
I thought I'd link up to my first Wordless Wednesday today, hosted by The Paper Mama. I realize i'm a day late, yesterday kinda got away from me, I had this all planned out... and then life happened :) So, at least i'm only a day late, not too bad in my book for blogging.
