Water Baby Live!

Eliza showed off her splashing and clapping skills in the pool yesterday:

(PS - I swear there never used to be an "insert video" link in the blogger posting toolbar, but now suddenly, one has appeared and I can upload videos again!  Hooray!  More to come...)

(PPS - Please ignore my annoyingly high-pitched motherly screeching in the background.)

Tuesday Fun

It's Tuesday!  We had a great day today, I just have to write about it so I don't forget it.  First we met some friends at a local independent book store for baby story time.  I didn't know what to expect, but it turned out to be awesome - it wasn't just someone reading books to babies (as, obviously, they probably wouldn't sit through that for very long) - the woman who runs it sang silly songs, played instruments (violin - yeah!), used puppets, danced/skipped/ran around (she had A LOT of energy, OMG)... it was perfect for babies who have naturally short attention spans.  Eliza was completely enthralled!  She seemed to love every minute of it, and it lasted 30 minutes!  And guess what?  She clapped for the first time today during one of the songs!  It was so sweet.  I think we'll definitely be going back soon.

This afternoon, to beat the incredible heat and humidity, we went swimming with Grandma at a local community center pool.  It was so fun, and the perfect way to cool off.  The pool was great.  It had a little area for kids with a "zero depth entry", and it has all kinds of fountains and water features.  Eliza had a great time splashing and laughing and sitting in the water (and clapping, too, which is now her new talent!).  Towards the end she did dip her face in the water, which she reaalllllly didn't like.  She got pretty upset, but she got over it quickly.  She must have gotten water in her nose, which probably stung; it was her first time experiencing that not-so-fun sensation.

I AM WATER BABY, HEAR ME SHRIEK!

Eliza was not so keen on this particular water feature for some reason. . .

Pinching mama's pretty toes under the water

She was so tired out from our fun day that she totally crashed tonight.  Hopefully that means she'll sleep well tonight???!!!  Ehhhh, probably not... :-)

Baby's First...

...corn on the cob!

We had sweet corn the other night and gave Eliza a quarter of a cob to try.  At first she was all "WTH do you people expect me to do with this?" and threw it on the ground.  So daddy modeled how to eat it, and then she put it in her mouth and found that it was pretty much the coolest food she's ever experienced.  

NOMNOM.  Tasty AND fun to eat!

OMGGIVEMEMOREMOMSRSLY.

Daddy, have you HAD this stuff?

Hey, he likes it too!

So our adventures in BLW continue, and I must say we are having such a positive experience.  Eliza seems to be way ahead of her fellow 8-month-olds in eating (what she will eat, how much, her ability to swallow food), and more importantly, she has fun and so do we!  

Big Girl

Big girl napping in her crib (*sniff sniff*):

BTW, my shutter release scared the pants off of her when I took this!

She totally looked at me and said "nice, ma", and then went right back to sleep.  Heh.

North Shore Vaca 2010

I tried sooo hard not to post like every photo we took (all 165 of them!!)... but I couldn't restrain myself and ended up posting quite a few...

Our vacation was really fun!  First we drove to visit Eliza's Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt in Duluth.  It was a really beautiful weekend so we enjoyed a nice walk by the canal where we took lots of pictures, went to the marine museum and then had a fun dinner at a nearby restaurant.  We hung out all day long and just had a nice, relaxing time.  Eliza had a ton of fun playing with everyone and exploring daddy's hometown.  She was exhausted by the end of the day and slept really well!

All the women in the family pose for a photo.

Grandpa and Eliza look at an exhibit on items found at the bottom of Lake Superior from shipwrecks of the past.

Daddy shows Eliza how to steer a ship!

Eliza hangs out with her Auntie.  I love this picture of them!

On Monday we drove farther north to meet my family.  We rent cabins that are right on Lake Superior and my whole family flies/drives in for the week.  We always have a lot of fun, and this year was no exception.  We had THREE kids there this year, which made for quite an exciting/chaotic week!!!  Eliza met her two cousins for the first time, they are 3 and 19 months old, and she loved playing with them.

We were excited to introduce Eliza to Lake Superior, it being one of our favorite places, so we couldn't wait to sit her down by the shore and let her enjoy the lake.  She was fascinated by all the rocks, and we - of course - had to dip her toes in the cold water... hehe.

One of the things we usually do when we're up north is go hiking.  This year we didn't get a chance to hike as much as we usually do because of kiddos and nap schedules, but we did get out once for a mini-hike.  It turned into somewhat of a water hike, until we decided to turn around due to the depth of the river...

My aunt's dog wearing her life jacket.  No joke.

This is when we realized that it *may* be a little too deep to walk through with the kiddos!  We had a good laugh though!

We had a great picnic lunch on the shore of a river that day - some of us swam, some of us stayed on the shore while babies napped in Ergos... :)

Having a snack by the side of the road before going home.

It's such beautiful country up there, it is very peaceful to me and makes me feel so relaxed...

Our view. 

Our cabin.

Resting on daddy's shoulder.

Haha - Eliza looks so bored with us!

Enjoying her puffs - LOVE this high chair, I got it on craigslist for $15.

Sink bath!

Tired after a long day - she fell asleep on the swing with Grandpa!

We had a great week!

8 Months

We're back, and our baby girl is 8 months old!  Now would someone please tell me how that happened?

Eliza, you have been up to many things this month... now let's see if mama can remember everything (HA!).

• You have SIX teeth already!  Four on top and two on the bottom.  You love using them to bite into your food (cherry tomatoes from the garden are a recent favorite), and you also like to scrape them together, which drives your mama bananas. 

• You are waving!  You know to wave when someone leaves (we say "wave bye-bye!" and you do!), and you often wave at people spontaneously.  You also waved at the waves of Lake Superior... I think mama was confusing you when she said "look at the waves!".

• Talking: you say "dada" a lot now, and we think you actually use this "word" to refer to both me and your daddy.  It's pretty sweet.  You also have a word/sound you use/make when you see your kitties.  It's the same word/sound every time, so we've decided that you've invented your own language and that you are the most brilliant baby on the planet.

• Food: just like your parents, you seem to enjoy it.  You eat everything that we offer you - you haven't refused one single food (yet?).  You now eat almost everything we do (except for the honey that mama puts on her toast!), and you are eating lots of nummy and in-season summertime foods like watermelon, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes... the list goes on!  We've also introduced you to the famed "puffs" that everyone talks about - and you do enjoy those as well, though I think they provide more entertainment for you than nutrition.

• Sleep: At around 7.5 months, mama finally felt ready to have you start sleeping in your crib.  It took me a while, but I could feel that it was time to start the transition.  I wouldn't take back one single night that you spent cuddled up next to me, though, and I am so glad that we made the decision to co-sleep for this long.  You're still not sleeping all night long in your crib, but you do sleep there for most of the night now, and I think you actually like it because you have so much more space.  I am actually surprised how well you sleep there.  You usually still wake up once or twice every night, so I bring you into bed for your second feeding and you finish out the night there.  I still need some baby cuddles (and daddy likes it too!), I'm not quite ready to let them go altogether!  :)
• You are also a good napper; you take two naps a day that are about 90-120 minutes each!

• You are working so hard at crawling.  I think you are quite frustrated by the fact that you can't crawl yet.  You do the "army crawl" quite well, and you are able to move yourself around that way, but you get frustrated with that quickly and resort to your "bug pose" (or "mission impossible" pose):

• You are looking more and more like a little girl every day, and less like a baby.  I have really noticed a change in you over the last 2 months - shifting from squishy, round baby to a more defined, unique and (I didn't know this was even possible) more beautiful girl.  You are well on your way to becoming a toddler!

• We don't actually know exactly how much you currently weigh, but I think your weight gain has slowed down a bit.  You were 20 lbs 13 ozs at your 6 month check up, and I bet you have only gained a little more since then... but we won't find out until your 9 month appointment next month.  You are still wearing size Medium cloth diapers and when we had you in 'sposies last week on vacation, you were in size 3 (although mama can tell they are starting to get a little snug!!).

I know there is more, but someone has just woken up from her morning nap, so I better go!  I still have to write a post about our fantastic vacation last week, which I will hopefully be able to do before the end of the week.

MIA!

We're leaving for a week-long vacation tomorrow, so the good old blog will be silent until I return.  We aren't going anywhere exotic, just spending what's sure to be a great time with family a few hours away from home.  I'll be trying to just relax and leave the internets behind for a while... but we'll see how well that works.  HA!  I'm definitely going to have to find some wi-fi somewhere and use my mom's computer to check in maybe once or twice (can't wait to hear Emmy's beta #2 results!!).  As usual, I'll be sure to post lots of photos when we get back!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Fourth of July

(BUT FIRST, everyone has to go over to Emmy's blog again today, because she is definitely not in "is-that-a-line?" land anymore thanks to a good 'ol FRER!!!!  CONGRATULATIONS EMMY, I AM SO HAPPY FOR YOU!!!)

We had a simply wonderful Fourth of July celebration at the cabin this weekend.  It was just the right combination of relaxation, sun, napping, food and family, and I was just on cloud nine being there with my beautiful baby girl.  I have dreamed about this for a long time... and this year it was finally a reality.

One highlight was that Eliza experienced her first boat parade -- an annual tradition on our lake in which people decorate their boats and drive their boats around the lake, as if they are in a real parade.  It's highly cheesy, it's true.  Eliza enjoyed waving (OMG she waves now for REALS, it is so dang adorbs) at the boaters and she got lots of waves, smiles, "oohs" and "awww, look at the bayyyyyybeeeeeee!"s.  I was quite the proud mama.

Eliza also took her first dip in the lake, and I think she enjoyed it!  We already knew she loved the water, so we weren't surprised.  We wanted to take her out in the boat for a ride around the lake, but the little stinker wouldn't let us put her life preserver on her, so no boat ride for baby!  Those are the rules, honey, sorry!  I'm so mean, aren't I?  :-)  So just hubby and I went for a spin around the lake while my mom watched Eliza on shore.

It was a wonderful weekend.  We saw lots of great fireworks, enjoyed some summery drinks, did some floating (no swimming this time, just floating on our water floaties - ha!), took naps, did some grilling, lots of playing with baby, took a sink-bath (Eliza, not me :), and hubby did a lot of fishing out in the boat.  It was so much fun, I can't wait to go back.  The ONLY rough thing was when Eliza decided that 5:00 was the perfect time to wake up each morning.  This was not so easy on mama!  But thankfully I got to nap a lot, too (thanks to my hubby and my mom and dad!).

And now for a few photos:

Postponed

So.  I have a lot of photos and such to post about our fun fourth of July celebration at the cabin, but I must postpone that post because there is something more exciting going on over at Emmy's blog!  Please head over to her corner of the blogosphere and obsess with her over her "is-it-a-line-or-isn't-it?" HPT photo.  Those are the HPTs I sent her, and I was hoping beyond hope that she would see two lines on one (or more) of those tests!

I sooooooo hope this is it for you, Emmy!

Little Things

Things I don't want to forget...

• That - and I'm almost positive - Eliza started waving yesterday!  It is so cute.  You really have to demonstrate it to her and then say "wave bye-bye!", but she did it yesterday to my mom and then this morning when hubby was leaving for work.  It is sooooo completely adorable to see her do it.

• That Eliza is working really hard on clapping!  Also adorable, of course, and totally entertaining (for both of us!).

• That today, when I put her down on the "playroom" (= our dining room with the table moved to the corner and blankets put down on the floor!) floor and went to get dressed, she was talking and shaking her rattle and squeaking her favorite squeaky blocks... and then all of a sudden, it went totally silent... and so I went in to check on her (because, you know, quiet never means something good)... and she was just staring down at her lap, totally zoned out.  Yep.  She was fine.  Just pooping.  Ha!  

• That she is in a very needy, "Mama-is-the-only-one-[I want]-in-my-world" stage right now.  She's just hit a developmental stage where I MUST BE in viewing distance and, preferably, holding her whilst she views me.  :)  It's hardest on Daddy, but he understands that it's just a phase.  One day soon I'm sure she'll be all about her Daddy and be bored of me!  The only downside is that she is REFUSING to let him put her to sleep.  He used to be better at putting her down than me, but now it's Mama or bust.  Poor thing, she just screams when he tries to soothe her or rock her (or do just about anything).  :(  Then, of course, as soon as I hold her, she calms right down.  Oh, these babies, they keep you guessing, don't they!?

• That she is just so cute, I can't even stand it.  I think I might die of the cuteness!  The way she smiles at me, the way she flails and rocks her body and bounces when she gets excited.  The way she laughs when I nom on her little tummy... she is just too cute for words.  Seriously, it's too much!  

• That she is SO SMART.  OMG.  SRSLY.  The child is brilliant (wait, every mother says that about her baby?  Noooooooooo...).  She is curious, active, always needs to be exploring something, figuring out something, playing with something, looking at something... it's amazing to watch. 

• That (on the less interesting side of things), she is down to two naps per day, and they are fairly reliably at around 8-8:30 and 1:30-2:00.  She's a great napper, and I'm thankful for that!  She usually naps about 3 hours per day in total.  Mama usually does too :).  In other sleep-related-news, she has become an early riser like her Daddy, and is up for the day between 5:30 and 6:00 most mornings.  She is still waking up at night to nurse, which is fine with me; I don't plan to night-wean her anytime soon.

• That she is almost crawling!  She hasn't mastered it yet, but oh she is hard at work on figuring it out.  She can go from sitting to all fours and then back to sitting again, and she is doing the tell-tale rocking motion on all fours that I know comes right before crawling... she is so close!

That's all for now, just needed to get some of these little things down so I didn't forget about them.  Time is flying by at warp speed, and things change so quickly I'd forget these little things if I didn't write them down!