Wednesday, March 23, 2011

You are crawling!!

You are on the move now. You started crawling this week. Today, you really got going. You are still working on your form, but you are an amazingly smart and strong little girl. Not much going on this week other than chasing you around the room.

We went to feed the ducks today with a few other kiddo's and we are going to the zoo on Friday with our Gymboree friends. You liked the ducks, but it was kind of warm out so we didn't stay long. You have my skin and you will burn very quickly. If I have taught you well, then you will stay out of the sun, it is not our friend. I am sorry that you will have spent your childhood in those special SPF swimsuits and sun screen from head to toe. I know other mom's just let their kiddo's run around with out. Both your father and I slather it on everyday. Someday, when you are in your 30's you will thank me. I wish I had done a better job protecting myself when I was younger. I have never been a sun worshiper, but I had a pool in my backyard growing up and one at the ranch and I lived outside as a kid. Your grandmother tried, but they didn't know as much about the damage that sun will do to you as they do now.

We love you scooter. Mommy

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Hi sweet baby girl. I am sorry I am so neglectful of writing in this journal. So much is happening. You are growing so fast, and changing constantly. Here is what is going on so far:

You are sort of crawling now, that just started a few days ago. We are thrilled to see you make progress. You would really rather walk then crawl, but you are not ready for that yet. You can stand on your own for about 8 seconds before you sit down. Yay! You are getting so active!

One of your top teeth (the one on your right) broke through the skin on Sunday! It seems like you have been teething forever! You are uncomfortable, and we hurt for you.

You had your first cold about three weeks ago. It was hard to watch. You were so stuffy and your chest was congested. The first night you were so miserable that your dad strapped you into the baby carrier and walked around the neighborhood for almost 2 hours, from around 4am-6am. It got better from there, but we just wanted to make you feel better. The doctor gave you a nebulizer to take home and we did breathing treatments, um, you didn't like that at all.

Your favorite food currently is blue berries! You can eat them non-stop!

You still sleep between your daddy and I. You started waking up a couple of times a night crying, which is out of character for you. I think your mouth hurts.

You are still a little celebrity. People take pictures of you and stop us all the time to touch your feet. You smile so much that people can't help themselves.

New nickname: Cuckoo Banana's

I love you sweet girl. Thank you for being you.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Moving!

Bugs,

we are moving into a rent house tomorrow. As of tomorrow night, you will have lived in three houses in the 8 short months of your life. You have been so great and easy going while we are packing. Your daddy takes breaks to come kiss your head, he is working so hard for us. Yesterday, you reached your arms out for the first time for him to pick you up. He was so excited!

You are so close to crawling, I can't wait. Although, I know once you get started, I will never get to sit again. Watching you grow and learn is amazing to me! You concentrate so hard, and have a quiet determination. That said, you are starting to show your preferences, you will turn your head and push things away that you don't want. Wow, my independant baby! You are also starting the stranger anxiety phase, I don't like seeing you scared, but I can't keep you in the house forever. Cowboy came to visit last weekend and when he picked you up, you pushed out your lower lip. It was really cute!

I am so happy I get to stay home with you. I will write all about that sometime.

I love you sweet baby girl.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Bear: You are cuddled up with your daddy right now and it is so sweet. He was reading a book to you tonight called, "On the Night You Were Born" and you were turning the pages. He just looked at me, like he couldn't stand it. I mean, he was beaming. He thanked you for being who you are.

We had a great time at Gymboree yesterday, and lots of fun at Little Gym today. We are both worn out from all of the activity. You like to forward roll, but not go back so much. I don't think any of the kids in the class do. There were two daddy's in with us today. When I told your father, he was disappointed that he couldn't go. He has been several times, and loves to participate. Some of the daddy's sit and watch. Not yours, he is up dancing around with you and helping you roll.
I am going to try to go to sleep. I love you sweet Bear.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

About your family!

Since I can't sleep I will tell you about the history of education in your family tree.
Every woman on my side of the family, including both great-grandma's have college degrees. This is extreamly rare, not many women were educated back then.

Great-Grandma Honey- Degree in Social Work She worked both as a medical social worker and as a fraternity house mother. That must have been fun!
Great-Grandma Marjorie: Degree from University of Oregon. I believe she was an executive assistant, but married Great-Grandpa John right after that so she stayed at home.
Grandjan: BS Mathematics (smarty pants) from Oklahoma State University and a Masters in Computer Science from University of Houston. She worked in Computers for Shell Oil out of college. She stayed home with us and then went back to work as a recruiter and human resources person until she retired.
Aunt Kathy: College degree from UT in Psychology and a Masters of Psychology from Pepperdine in California. She stayed at home with your nephews and niece for a few years and now works as a recruiter.
Aunt Misty: Degree in Computers (IT)from Texas A&M
Great Aunt Barbara: also has a degree and had a very successful recruiting company for many years in Houston.
My cousin Pam has a degree in Advertising from UT, she works in advertising in Chicago now.
My cousin Raechel will soon graduate with a degree in nutrition from Texas State.

I received my degree in Health Promotion-Community Health and a minor in Psychology. I hope to go back to get a masters some day after you are in school. I went to University of Houston.
Your daddy's family is full of college educated women as well:
Grandmax- LVN. She was a psychiatric nurse and now helps people who call with questions.
Aunt Jennifer: BS in Journalism from Florida. She is a stay at home mom.
I will try to find out more about his side of the family!

About the smart men in your family!
Great Grandpa John (my mom's father)- Phd. in Chemistry. He was a chemist I will need to write a whole section on what a genius he was.
Great-grandpa Newton "Big" was a Rabbi and has a Doctorate. Again, I will write a whole post on what a pioneer he was for civil rights. He was an amazing man.
Great-grandpa A.D. "Poppy" He was Honey's second husband and he was also a wonderful Rabbi.
Your Grandpa Gary "Cowboy" Degree from Lamar University. Medical Doctorate Degree (MD) from Baylor Medical School. He attended UC San Fransisco for his internship and back to Baylor for his residency. He is a famous and brilliant medical doctor. Expect to hear tons about him.
Uncle Rick: Degree in finance and business from University of Houston. He is a investment professional.
My cousin Charles went to the Naval Acadamy and is a very important person in the military. He is in charge of an aircraft carrier and has a masters degree.
My other cousin Chase is currently enrolled at A&M. We hope he will graduate since he has been in college for almost 10 years.

Your fathers side of the family:
Grandchris- was a psychologist. He worked for the Veteran's Administration. We believe he went to school in Michigan.
Uncle Aaron- has a BS in Computer Science from UH. He currently works for a video game manufacturer.
Your Uncle Chris

Happy New Year!

Here is a run down of the excitement that was your first New Years Eve. I got some sleep, yay! We went to Lowes, grabbed a subway sandwich from Jimmy Johns for dinner and then home by 6:00. You haven't been feeling well, I am praying you aren't getting sick. Knock on wood (I am superstitious like most Jewish women), you haven't been sick yet, I would like it to stay that way.
2010 was an amazing year: you entered our lives and made my dreams come true! I love you! 2011, G-d willing, you will learn to walk, talk and dance! I can't wait to see it unfold.
You are sleeping with your arms up and your daddy is snoring away. Happy New Year baby girl!

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Merry Christmas and Happy 7 months!

Hi baby girl! We are at Grandjans for your first Christmas. You have been such a peaceful, sweet and happy baby. We have loved celebrating your first Hanukkah and Christmas with you. I will write post about all of the wonderful gifts you received. To be honest, and you will appreciate this one day, we sort of took it easy this year on the gifts. You have so many wonderful toys, you simply wouldn't have time to play with many more. Still, you received a nice amount of new things.

Here is what you are up to going into your 7Th month:

You have two teeth now! You haven't had that much trouble (read: being crabby) teething, I have been pleasantly surprised. The one on your right came in first at Thanksgiving and the left one broke through about three weeks later on December 10th.

You are eating tons of baby food now. You really like peas (are you my child?), pears, prunes, sweet potato,harvest vegetables, squash and anything with oatmeal in it. Not too keen on meats, but they are all mushed up anyway. You LOVE your puffs, they are little star shaped bite sized puffs that dissolve when you gum them a little.

You started drinking water from a sippy cup tonight, we were thrilled. You have been demanding water through a straw. This is something that your daddy started doing. We dip a straw in a bottle of water and put the end in your mouth and let you bite and sort of suck on the straw to get the water. You love doing this, but it is dangerous and you get irritated if we don't fill the straw fast enough, so we are excited that you will drink from a cup.

You can sit up on your own for long periods of time now and you scoot on your back to get around. Don't tell anyone but a few weeks ago you fell off the bed while you were napping with me. You fell on a pillow thank God and there was not a bump or scratch anywhere. I was terrified and was screaming like a crazy person. You stopped crying right away and went back to playing. Quit pulling that kind of stuff ok?

You currently are refusing to roll over, because you know it makes me worry about your development. I know you can do it, since you still sleep on your side and can roll yourself from your back to either side with no issue while you are practically asleep. You also have no interest in crawling... You are still young, but we need to work on that. You would rather stand than sit so you will probably walk instead of crawl. When you have your own babies, you will obsess about this too.

You love it when daddy juggles. Oh my goodness! You laugh and laugh and laugh. He starts laughing because he loves to hear you laugh and then he drops what he is juggling. Lately, toilet paper rolls seem to make you laugh the hardest. You also love it when daddy says "Can I have a drink?" There is a story behind the statement, but the first time he said it you laughed so hard and now he says it all the time to make you giggle.

Sissy, the kitty, is still your best friend. She is very patient when you grab her fur and pull her hair. Buddy is not sure he wants to play.

Tonight is Christmas night (technically the night after Christmas since it is 2:57 am) and I am still awake, your daddy is snoring next to you and you are between us. How you can sleep through that I don't know. You were not interested in going to sleep until almost 2:00am, although you took a few naps tonight. You don't cry or anything, you just want to play. We went to look at Christmas lights and I think we missed the window to get you to sleep at a decent hour. Sorry about that. Bad parent alert: since we were just driving through the neighborhood, you sat on my lap, you love that.

I need to be better at keeping a journal for you. I hope that one day when you are in your 20's, 30's or so on, you read this and get an idea of how loved you are and how much fun we had with you when you were a baby. I have never met a daddy that is as involved and in love with his child. I picked an amazing father for you, it is the best thing I have ever done. I need to devote a post to just telling you more about how wonderful he is. I pray that you meet someone just like him some day.

I love you sweet baby! Merry Christmas and Happy 7th month in the world.