Eat. Sleep. Play.

Okay, so I lied about the sleeping part. She is not a fan of that, still fighting naps and she totally throws a fit a night now. I don't know where the baby that would just lay in bed talking to herself went. Every night is a struggle. But on the upside, she is loving the eating and playing part! Ready for a picture overload?


Eat.

~Mango~

~Sweet Potato~

~Cantaloupe~

Play.


...Apparently I only take pics when she is in her jammies. She has such cute outfits too, Ill have to get on that!...

.The End.

Mommy's Girl

I really need to keep up better with these posts! So much has happened, its hard for me to remember and document everything.

Makenna is now fully on the move. And very proud of herself. She has been scooting for a while now but 2 days ago she took her first "real" crawling steps. I was so proud, and so was she! She doesn't do it 100% of the time yet though. I think its hard for her to do on the wood floors, she had a better time with it at my parents last night on the carpet. Of course she cant just stick to crawling for a bit. Nope. Not my Makenna. She has to do the next big thing. For about 3 weeks now she has put her feet and hands on the floor and sticks her little butt up in the air like she is just gonna stand up and walk away. So silly. Today she decided since she crawled 2 days ago- now she should stand on her own. She climbed one of her toys to the point where she was just standing, holding on. She has some serious determination. Of course I was right next to her in case she took a spill. Every great step she does, I'm so proud of her! Its so exciting to watch her grow. But at the same time I'm thinking "oh crap". No more stepping out of the room for a second. No more turning around real quick. She is making sure my attention is on here 24/7. Little stinker. I really am proud of her and the excitement I have for her ever accomplishment definitely outweighs any "oh crap" moment.

I love that she loves me, I love her hugs, I love how she blows raspberries on my neck and belly, I love her little slobbery kisses that only a parent could love, I love the way she looks at me and smiles when I come in the room. I cherish every moment. But in the last 2 weeks she has been extremely clingy. All she wants is Mommy. It breaks my heart for Waylon, when he has had a long day and just wants to spend time with her and she just wants to cling to me. I know its just a Mommy phase but I want her to cling to him too. I want her to find comfort in other people, not just me. Some days she is better than others though. And she still has fun playing with every one else. Especially her wrestle time with Daddy.

She is too funny. She cant get enough rough housing. My Grandfather (Father Pop who recently passed in October) did this trick with all his daughters and most of us grandchildren where he holds the baby up and they stand on his hands. Super scary to watch. I never thought I would be okay with my baby doing that. A few days before Christmas Waylon joked about getting her use to doing it. The next day she was. Am I a crazy Mom? Maybe. But seriously, he isn't going to drop her. He is super quick when it comes to reactions and she is really stong. I wouldn't let anyone else do it to her aside from him. And she LOVES it. She smiles and laughs and does her happy yell. I know Pop would be proud of her, I just wish he was here to see it.

In other news we are full force going with the baby led weaning. She is doing much better. She has learned to chew and swallow the foods. She will spit out any chunks she bites off that are too big. We have tried sweet potatoes, broccoli, mango and cantaloupe. All of which she loves. And then she has had grapes and peas in her mesh thing so she doesn't choke on the skins. We also picked up these Gerber graduate puffs. She loves them. They are quick dissolving she she doesn't choke. And they are good for her learning to use her fingers for grabbing.




My little girl is growing up.

Tomorrow is the first day in a while we don't have plans so I am going to play around with the camera and try to get some good shots. Until then...

Christmas!

Hope everyone had a good Christmas! Ours was wonderful.

Christmas Eve we went over our friends/my parents neighbors/waylons cousin/waylons boss's house...yeah, confusing. It was great. My Mom & Dad actually gave us our Christmas gift early, that night- a video camera! Now we can record all Makennas cuteness to share. :o) Although I am having trouble uploading the videos onto the computer. Hopefully one of these days I can call Canon and figure out what the problem is.

Christmas morning Makenna gave us the best gift that a 6 month old can give, she let us sleep in a bit! So sweet of her. We started the day off at home, just the three of us (and critters of course). We woke up and had breakfast and opened gifts. She loved eating the wrapping paper and could care less what the actual gift was. So silly. Once the toys were out of the box she was loving it though. Then around 2 we went over my parents for dinner and gifts. Makenna made out like a bandit. We also didnt do to bad! My brother got us a pretty sweet 75-300mm lens for our camera. I am still playing around with it but so far, I love it! I cant wait to go to the Bronx Zoo and get some shots in the spring.

Im kicking myself in the butt becuase I didnt take any pictures of christmas day since we played with the video camera the whole time. It is what it is though, atleast we have the video to look back on.

The blog stone age

I'm not very good at this blogging crap. I really could list all the excuses but I think I'm mostly starting to have blogging envy. Sad but true. I originally started this for friends and family to see how the renovations were going...and our life with the many animals. Then along came my pregnancy. That overwhelmed my blog. The more pregnant I became- and the more things I talked to family about the pregnancy- the more I realized a lot of people don't remember those little pregnancy details. I wanted to, or at least wanted to look back on them. That became the goal of the blog and continued when Makenna was born. I think in doing this I have bored the few readers I had though. Although I would still like to have this as something to look back on, I also envy the people who have fun looking blogs...who write random things and it makes sense... who are mixed in the creative blog world. Not saying I don't like blogging about my fabulous little girl- I do! I just feel like I'm stuck in the blog stone age. I might as well have a rock and a chisel to document Makennas steps.

So I think sometimes, even when I do get a chance, I hesitate posting.

But. For a while, this blog will have to stay in the stone age. I just don't have time to revamp things. And if I did, I'm not sure I would know where to begin.

Hopefully this week I can break out that rock and chisel and do an update post. We have had a lot go on with the holiday, especially since it was Makennas first Christmas!

Until then...

Its begining to look a lot like Christmas!

Readers beware, this is gonna be a long one!

Im not really sure where to start. A lot has gone on in the world of Makenna since I last blogged. Last Saturday night we ventured into Philly for her first big city trip with a few friends of ours and their baby (who is a few months older than Makenna). We were Macys bound to see the little light show they put on. It was cute. Cheesey if it were just us adults but cute for the kids. Makenna loved it. She jumped around in her Daddy's arms and made silly noises at the lights. I think we may have started another family tradition. Next time we will be sure to take the train though. Parking is NOT fun in the city and the train station is right at the Macy's building. I also realized how incredibly uncomfortable I am in the city. I have been to Philly plenty of times, but never with my baby. She was in her stroller snug and safe with her Daddy pushing her but the streets of Philly were packed. It made for a very nervous Mommy. I dont know what it is. I have never been a city person but I guess being in the hustle bustle of Center City never scared me until I had her with me. My life. But despite my nerves, it was a great little trip. She seemed to like the fast pace of the city- all the lights, all the new noises.

Tomorrow we are Philly bound again. This time on the train! My brother is graduating with a Digital Media Production degree, I couldnt be more proud of him. He is so talented and I know he will do big things. He is a city boy, for sure. He has it all planned out for the three of us, my parents and him and his girlfriend to take the train to his graduation then stop buy a Christmas display done by his school, then dinner. Im sure Makenna will love it!

Then Saturday we are headed out to PA for a Christmas party at my Dad's friends. It will be our first year going to the party but I heard its a great time!

In other news... Im extremely disappointed to say that I tried out cloth diapers and didnt like them. Neither did Makenna. Im really bummed about it because I was REALLY looking forward to them. I love that they are better for the environment and dont have the chemicals disposables have. But it just didnt work. I think if I had tried them from the start, it might be a different story. Maybe I will try them again with the next baby. But the first few I tried were very bulky. Makenna is a very active baby and didnt like the fact that she couldnt move around as much as normal. She was majorly fussy. I guess I didnt think of the fact that they would be a lot bulkier than her normal diapers. Her clothes didnt fit her right since they were so bulky either. I thought at first I had the size wrong (ordered them too big) and that was causing the extra bulkiness but I tried the adjustable ones that were for her size and weight and had the same problem. Also the second diaper I tried she leaked right through after about 2 hours. I was frustrated. She was frustrated. We gave up. I have to admit, I did love the fact that they were easily washable though. Going into it, I thought I would hate that part the most. I am glad I tried them out before buying a bunch though. If anyone is interested in using cloth diapers I highly recommend using the trial program at Jillian's Drawers.

A few cute Makenna happenings...

- she is even closer to crawling. If she would move her hands/ arms she would definitely have it down. She does this little frog hop where she hops both legs but keeps her hands in place. So silly. I wish I had video to show! She does so a little scoot/army crawl to get where she needs to go though.
-She has created her own "pick me up" sign language. When she has had enough of playing on the floor she will scoot over to you and lift her arms and legs up and move them like crazy while being on her belly. She looks like a turtle on its back but she is on her belly. So funny.
- We are trying out a new cup. I figured it would be easier for her to hold a cup with handles rather than a bottle for her juice or water. She loves having a "big girl cup". If I could only get her to like the pear juice so she would get things flowing again!
- We have started the Baby Led Weaning. She has had fresh bananas. Which she isnt fond of. This morning I boiled some apple slices for her to try. Also not such a hit. I am not sure if she just isnt sure what to think about it or if she really doesnt like it. She does play with them and try to eat them and figure things out though. Usually she ends up spitting them out but its a start! Im going to try some veggies this weekend, maybe they will be a better hit.


Okay, this post is getting really long and I know she is close to waking up from her nap so Im going to quit the ramblings for now and upload the holiday pics I promised.

First, this is our awesome card that my brother designed. I also owe him the credit for taking the pics!


And here are a few un-editted pics. I havent had a chance to edit them yet. I do plan to so we can get some printed.













She will probably hate me some day for posting this one but its too funny...



And a little pj/elmo time




Last but not least, we visited Santa in a local town's holiday fest with her buddy CJ on the 3rd!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is how blogging goes when you are a stay at home Mom. I cant imagine being a working Mom! I started this Thanksgiving night and finally Im getting to updating and posting it. Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! As you know, it was Makenna's first. I dont think it could have gone better. We woke up to snow this morning. I brought her to the window and told her all about the snow, she loved it. Big smiles. I can't wait till she is big enough to play out in it- well, I can wait but I'm excited for that day. Don't want to rush these precious infant moments! They are already going by so fast. She is almost 100% on sitting now. We have been practicing. I always sit behind her just in case but for the most part, she is a champ at it. We moved the area rug from the dining room to the living room on Sunday so she wasnt playing on the wood floor now that she is more active on the floor. She is getting really good with scooting around on her belly. The day after we moved the rug into the living room, she figured out how to get traction and get up on her hands knees and rock. So close to crawling! And she gets so proud! Check it out...




Since she is more active on the floor and scoots her way to her toys, it's much easier to keep her occupied for a bit. She is definitely less frustrated too. I picked up some new cars for her, they are super cute and have a ball to roll them instead of the wheels. She loved them!




And of course she loves her Elmo time...



We have also started to let her "taste" things. I'm not sure if I mentioned it but I have been looking into Baby-Led Weaning. She has really shown an interest in foods the past few weeks. I dont think she is ready to fully try it out just yet so we have started with a few frozen things, like a tastey teething treat. She loves frozen peaches, hated the bananas and loved sucking on a carrot. My cousin gave us this handy little Sassy Teether. It's pretty awesome.

We used it on Thanksgiving for the carrots so she didnt choke. She went to town!

~~~~
Updated from December 3...

Makenna is fully sitting on her own now. I still put the boppy behind her incase she takes a spill backwards but its rare. She also is much better about getting up on her hands and knees. She pulls her knees closer together, she is SO close to crawling. Which means Ive been shopping for more baby gates!

Last weekend we were in Delaware for her cousin Mikey's 4th birthday. She went to town sucking on a pretzel stick (of course I got the salt off first). We try to include her in every sit down meal we have. She doesnt usually get anything aside from her teething ring or frozen peaches but she loves being a part of the family. She is showing more and more interest in food and sometimes reaches for our plates or watches in amazement as we put the food in our mouth. With even the small amount of things she has tasted in the last 2 weeks, it had her bound up bad (tmi, sorry!). I tried giving her prune juice- she hated it. Then we tried baby food peaches (eventhough I didnt want to do the puree thing). She didnt like it, who can blame her though?! It tasted kinda like peaches but smelled like wet dog! Gah-ross! So then finally I called the doctor and she said to try pear juice, it has the same effect as prune juice but tastes better. She still isnt too crazy about it but likes playing with the bottle so she drank some. And after a few days, we are back to flowing normal. :o)

In more exciting news, my brother helped out a ton with her Christmas pictures in the last week. I wont post any until after the cards go out next week but they came out really cute. I couldnt have done it without him. It took us 4 days of shooting- about 45 mins each day but he got some great shots. Then he designed an awesome card. Im really excited to send them out! One of my favorite things about Christmas is getting the photocards from everyone!

Okay, enough blabbing in this post!