Let's see...

I can't believe how hectic it has been since July and the summer class followed almost immediately by the normal college school year beginning.

With some bit of routine back in my life I finally rememebered that I had started a blog!  Oh....Em.....Gee....When was the last time I saw this thing?!?  That long ago huh?  Yah, that seems about right.  Well, Alyssa is now 9--yes NINE months old and wow hasn't she gotten big??

She has gotten into everything within reach and that means we have almost less than no time between "GOOD MORNING" and "Sweet Dreams".  I have fallen in love with her each and every morning.  She is such a sweet and loving baby.  She gives 'hugs' which is actually gently touching her forehead to yours briefly.  She gives kissies by opening her mouth and leaning forward to your puckered lips.  She smiles at you when you coming into her room after naptime and has taught Momma how to change a diaper while she kneels.  (Oh yes, that is a new and common practice this week....*sigh*)

She is my world and somedays that world feels pretty narrow, then I realize how awful I feel about that feeling and it is hard.  Facing motherhood hasn't been all smiles.  Even the easiest of days with my daughter can feel smothering.  That rips me apart every time I think about it.  Thankfully, I have the most amazing man supporting me.  He has a full time job, does online schooling, and still finds time between house upkeep and time with our daughter to be my shoulder, my date, my love.

Alyssa loves spending time with her Papa.  She crawls all over him, chews on his watch, and slobbers all over him as she gives kissies to him.  They always have such fun talking with each other and Alyssa always enjoys her bedtime storytime with Papa!  He is involved in almost every part of her life and never backs down from the adventure.

We are excited for all the firsts coming up!  Halloween and the trick-or-treating (for Unicef), Thanksgiving and then Christmas!  Of course the event of our year will be her FIRST BIRTHDAY!!  ...and yes, I have already begun planning...well 'window' planning I suppose.  Looking at cakes, getting ideas for presents, and lettign family and friends know that it will be on her birthday (a Thursday) and we hope they can make it but understand if they can't.

She has been eating off of the adult plates for the last month or so without allowing us even a spoonful of baby food past her lips.  She won't take mush foods unless it is mashed potatoes right now.  Oh well...  She certainly enjoys eating what Momma and Papa eat!  Such a big girl!!  I can't wait to share pictures with everyone from her 9 month picture session!

Snuggles for Independence!

Our 4th of July celebrations were held at my family's lake cabin.  The fireworks were amazing, in fact the best at our cabin in many years.  My husband is a bit of a pyro and so he set up a wonderful show for everyone.  Alyssa wanted to sleep at her normal time of course but I couldn't have her back in the bunkhouse when everyone was down by the lake watching loud explosives.  So I wrapped her up really well (it wasn't cold but it certainly was a bug filled night), and we went down to the deck.  We joined my family for the show and Alyssa loved the colors.  She couldn't tear her eyes away from the fountains at the end of the docks.  She looked in awe of the sparks, then Papa set off one of those screaming whistle type fireworks and the lip came out.

I love the slow motion lip!  You all know it...the lip sticks out, the eyes narrow in a glare then suddenly widen with wetness glistening in them and then the lip disappears behind the chin as she starts to cry out loud.  The facial transformation is too adorable to not feel bad and want to laugh at the same time.

Other than the whistling ones, she was great!  She watched the fireworks intently and as she got too sleepy, she wanted nothing more than to snuggle with her Momma and hide from the loud noises that wouldn't let her drift off completely.  She stared at the sky as the colors burst above her and fell asleep regardless of the booms.  She did wake up and cry once for the only other whistler in our set but went directly back to sleep.  What a Goose!

I absolutely cry for chances at real snuggles initiated by her and last night I FINALLY got a completely baby initiated and desired snuggle!!!  I've waited for over a year for that...I dreamt of it from my pregnancy and wanted to stay down on the lakeside all night to keep them coming!

I hope everyone else's 4th of July was as awesome as mine!

We begin the 1/2!

Alyssa is now 1/2 years old.....SIX MONTHS?!?!  No freaking way!  I swear I was sitting on those beloved witch hazel pads a mere couple weeks ago!  Okay, so it was about 5 months ago (yah...ask me about recovery! hahaha)

We have had so many things happen in the last month!  Alyssa is right on track for development by all the paces set  via internet research.  She has two (TWO) teeth and of course these came literally 2 days apart from eachother.  Wow was that fun!  I was ready to cry with her after her second day of just being plain testy when she didn't have a bottle in her mouth.  All I can say from that experience is that Teething Tablets are my most beloved possession during teething!

Beyond the teething development we have been rolling and moving and spinning and propping ourselves up on tummy time.  She wants so badly to make her way across the floor to whatever catches her eye and that sure does frustrate her quickly!  She is getting very close.  It is endlessly amusing to watch her put her head down, pull her feet forward and then try to jump forward a bit.  Of course she MIGHT make it an inch further that way but hey, we're trying...  This last week we achieved one span of time sitting not supported by anyone but her very own arms.  Documented by a quick scramble for the cell phone camera means that I don't have a picture online for my readers but I promise to catch it with the real camera as soon as she wants to prove to us again that she CAN sit.  Ah the whims of my baby girl!

We had a fun time yesterday working with L.O.V. Photographer, Kala Stroh for 6 month pictures and as soon as I get them I'll throw a few favorites up here to oogle.  I can hardly wait because we had an adorable photo-op for the postcard of 4th of July and I truly hope it turned out!

Working on foods still.  She mostly wants to play with the spoon and drink her bottles so we never get as far as I wanted to with the meal but hey, progress only requires forward movement, not leaps...

Clearly I'm not keeping up with this blog as well as I'd hoped or intended when it began but I hope to improve as my fall semester will begin in August.  Right now I am in a fairly intense summer session (4-5weeks to do what normally would be done in 16 weeks...yes pity me).  So I will be posting a few pictures soon and then hopefully my posts will increase as the year stretches on.

5 Months and New Experiences

Our little girl is growing by leaps and bounds and I seriously swear that I just wrote my last post to this only a few days ago but a month has somehow passed in that time...

I can hardly believe how much has changed in the last month with Alyssa.  She is so close to sitting all by herself.  She smiles and talks and loves anything that plays music.  She tries so hard to control her bottles when they leave her mouth but as soon as she is being fed she forgets the importance of holding it  (we'll keep working on it).  She rolls over every time she is on the floor or in her crib.  She even decided to sleep on her tummy a few times (meaning we weren't given a choice because she kept rolling over after getting her nuk back).  She has pretty good control over grabbing.  She loves playing with rattles, bell toys, and her elephant blankie.  We have been having loads of fun in the jumping play station here and there.  She loves being outside in nice weather in the shade but still prefers being held up to look around instead of sitting around out there.

And on Alyssa's 5 month 'birthday' we decided to give her a new experience.  Carrots were on the menu last night!  She was unsure about them at first but just look at the picture I snapped at the end.  "Can I lick the bowl, Papa??"

My Digital Camera's Story....

Four months ago you would have been shocked at what was happening...NOT THAT PART!!!

Yes, only four short months ago my husband and I were frantically running into Walmart to purchase a brand new digital camera!  (Did you not expect this type of story?  It gets better!)  I was waddling because I was 5 days past my due date and Alyssa was just hanging out as content as could be.  After threatening her that morning for the hundredth time in the last five days that I was going to send the doctor in after her, we grabbed all the bags, tossed them in the car, fed the dogs and cats extra early and then tested the camera.

We are clearly last minute...and of course what better time for a camera to go wrong when you are about to have your very first baby born?  So with less than half an hour before we should have been at the hospital we decided that we would rather be late to our induction than to not have a camera for this event.  At 6:30am we hoped that it would be a super fast trip and maybe only end up 5-10minutes late.  Go ahead, laugh your common sense heart out at me because I know you all realize what I was too sleepy to think of that morning.

6:30am at Walmart looking for a digital camera on December 30th....Customer service representatives were nowhere to be found, the cameras were obviously locked up and it was December 30th.  So many of the models that we liked were out of stock from those last minute Christmas gifts.  Finally we tracked down an associate with keys, selected a very nice digital camera and I ran to grab a box of poptarts and we hit the road to make record time across town to the hospital that was only blocks from our house in the first place.  Looking back, it is a very good thing that we were on our way for an induction instead of running to the car in labor...

Now, over 1,000 pictures later, my little baby is FOUR MONTHS OLD!  Can I curl up on the couch and bawl while I watch her napping in her bouncer??

Time Flies, not always from fun...

There were so many things happening this month.  Time has truly escaped me.  I went back to work in March but only really began picking up shifts this month.  We had some travel for some family medical issues and honestly the whole month so far has been crazy busy.

I don't believe this is normal but I am more exhausted these last few days than any of my pregnancy or the weeks after where Alyssa was keeping us up all hours of the night for feedings.  She sleeps through the night, her papa has been taking many morning feedings so that I could try to get some rest and still I am dragging at any time of day.  I even went to bed before 10pm one night--this has not happened since junior high!

The issues between my parents are far from resolved and I still get overwhelmed by it but it is improving.  The winding road will keep stretching out ahead of us and someday we will see where it leads.  I would love to have powers to see where life takes us at the same time as I wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy.  To know what happens without any ability to change it or appreciate the surprise could be a curse worse than any punishment given by the Greek and Roman gods.

Alyssa, despite my desperate wish to keep her small, has continued to grow.  Can you believe that at less than 4 months she is already in 6-9month clothing?!?!  It hurts to even say that but I am a proud Momma who loves to dress up her beautiful little daughter.  I promise to post lots of recent pictures soon!!  Maybe even some pictures of a messy little girl enjoying a bowl of cereal!  I could never have imagined how honest people are when they say that kids grow up so fast.  There is NOTHING to show anyone how fast time can fly other than their very own baby growing faster than what should be possible.

Join us again soon for some exploits of cereal feeding!

I love junk mail!

Never leave junk mail unopened!  It is really only a few extra seconds a day to open that random piece of mail and sometimes you may just be surprised what they sent you...

Today there was a letter from our local paper.  We cancelled our subscription over a year ago and they have sent us umpteen letters asking us to renew our subscription.  If I hadn't opened the letter today because I completely assumed that this was the same letter we have received before, I would not have gotten the FREE DOLLAR!  Yup, they sent me one whole dollar as a gift.  Of course they would like me to participate in a short, one page survey but the dollar is 'mine to keep'.

Like I said, NEVER leave junk mail unopened!!