Baby Girl is ONE!

I can't believe I have not updated this blog since she was 7 months old!  Where does the time go?  We have been so consumed with Haylea and watching her grow.  It has been an amazing year and a perfect ending to our "Journey to a Miracle".  She is truly the best thing that has ever happened to us.  Our journey was full of emotional trials and struggles but we came out of it stronger and better parents because of it.  All the pain and heartache of miscarriages and failed attempts to conceive were worth the end result.  I still think of my angels often and I still get sad when I wonder what could have been but I know they are watching over us and they are the reason I have my sweet little girl.  She was meant to be our miracle and we thank God every day for her. 

Haylea is doing so much these days.  She is crawling and cruising around.  She is really getting close to walking but is afraid to let go just yet.  She loves her "doh" (dog) and gets so excited when she plays with her and she just cracks up laughing!  Besides dog, she says mama and dada consistently and appropriately.  She also says "ba...ba" for ball and/or balloon.  She can point to her belly and her ears...she LOVES her ears!  She can point to a dog in a picture book and laughs at the cows and pigs.  There is just so much to learn and discover these days that it seems like every day she does something new.  This is such an exciting time...sad because she is not a baby anymore but exciting to see her thrive! 

At her 12 month check up she was 17lb 1oz.  That puts her in the FIRST percentile!  She was in the 7th at 9 months so she dropped a little but her Dr isn't worried.  She loves to eat so that isn't a problem...she is just petite!  She has 8 teeth too!  The last four came in within 2 weeks of each other so that made for some rough days/nights.  We possibly have two more coming in soon.  That is a lot of teeth for a little girl!  Haylea's favorite toys right now are anything that move like a car.  She has a couple little people cars and a bus that she loves to push around.  She also loves looking at her books!  Banging toys together and stacking things or putting toys in a bucket/basket are also super fun right now!  My favorite part of this stage is that all of a sudden she loves to cuddle!  She will randomly crawl up on our laps and give us hugs...and of course she has a huge grin on her face when she does it!

She is only a year old and already I can't imagine my life without her.  She filled a huge hole in our hearts and made an opening for another one or two just like her.  How could you not want more of her?!  I am excited to see what the next step is for our family and to sit back and enjoy the miracle that we have been given.

Seven Months!

Haylea is seven months old today!  We had a great day outside enjoying the beautiful weather.  It has been so much fun watching her this past month.  She is so observant about the world around her and she loves to watch and take everything in!  She is starting to get frustrated about not being able to go where she wants to go but I think she is starting to figure out how to scoot around a little.  She usually just gets frustrated and screams at me until I help her though! 

Our nights have been a little rough the past few weeks.  I think it is the separation anxiety stage.  She will cry about every hour and sometimes put herself back to sleep but usually I have to go rock her for just a few minutes.  Usually she is back asleep before I even sit down.  Ocasionally she will let daddy console her but most of the time she cries until I go.  It is nice to be loved but momma needs some sleep!  My cut off is about 2am...if I have been in there every hour by then I am done and usually give in and either put her in her swing or bring her to bed with me...but then of course I don't get quality sleep.  Hopefully she gets over it soon...whatever her deal is!  Naptime, however has been much better!  I have been able to actually put her in her bed for naps instead of the swing most days.  She doesn't quite sleep as long but it is a start. 

She did get her bottom two teeth and we thought she was working on two more on the bottom but she seems to have put that on hold!  For a while her gums were really swollen and she was really drooly (drooly is a word, right?) but nothing really came of it. 

I am really enjoying this age.  She can interact with us and show emotion and affection.  She lets you know what she wants in her own way...usually by screaming at me!  We are starting some baby signs...we don't expect her to start doing them until about 9 mo but we are introducing them now.  Right now we do Mommy, Daddy, Milky and All Done.  She usually laughs at me when I do All Done!  She has said Da Da a few times in context but usually it is just babbling.  I am pretty sure she said Mommmm-eeeeeee the other day as she was screaming at me while I was trying to clean the kitchen.  That got me to stop and pay attention to her!! 

She is also still doing great with the solids...although she is not a fan of mashed potatoes (who doesn't like mashed potatoes?!) and we won't try bananas again for a while...it was the reason we had to introduce prunes!

Here are some of my favorite pics from the past month:

First taste of puffs...I don't think she was quite ready for them.  She doesn't really know how to chew yet!  We put them away and might bring them back out in a few weeks!

First two teeth!

Drooly...see I told you it was a word!

She loves to stand!

Trying to go somewhere!

They love each other!

Big girl bath!

First taste of peaches!  And of course mommy had to take a picture of the pretty bow!  I wish I had more to work with!

First day at swim class!

Workin on the sippy cup thing...

New Blog and Subscriptions!

I have a new blog! I will continue this one for documenting our little peanut as she grows and learns new things. I love the idea of being able to look back and have all the little moments and milestones captured forever. I am better at this than a baby book...haven't really started one of those! Oh, and I need to get to work on my scrapbooking too but I have a new distraction...my new camera! I love it and I am so excited to learn more about it and learning how to take better pictures. The goal is to get to where I can have a little studio in the basement (once we get it finished) and do portraits. I am leaning towards maternity, baby and kids mostly so I am really excited to get things going and see where this takes me. My new blog is April Snaps 365 and you can subscribe using the link at the top right to get automatic updates! Speaking of subscriptions...I have also added that feature to this blog as well. So for those of you that get automatic emails this will be the last one you recieve unless you click the link at the top right of this blog as well (link to the actual blog should be at the bottom of your email). This way I make sure that only the people that actually WANT to read my ramblings will get automatic emails!

Six Months!

Where has the time gone? My little girl is growing so fast. Every day is a new adventure. It must be so exciting to be 6 months old! She thinks everything is hilarious and interesting. She is sitting up so well now...I don't even have to sit by her and catch her every 10 seconds anymore.

We started solids at 5 months. I really wasn't ready...but she was! We couldn't even eat dinner without her trying to grab our food or drinks. We started with rice and it was a big hit! She loves to eat!

After we went through all the grains we tried some carrots! YUMMY!

I have been making her baby food. It is really fun and simple...and most of all cheap!! The first weekend I made food I made carrots, squash, and sweet potatoes. I got at least 16 servings of each out of one bag of baby carrots, one butternut squash and two sweet potatoes. Talk about saving money and doing something good for my baby. It is really simple too. Just steam the veggies, pop them in the food processor and freeze in cubes. After they are frozen I pop them out into a freezer bag and label it. Then I just grab a frozen cube and thaw when I am ready to use it!

Carrots ready to be frozen!

Her favorite breakfast by far is oatmeal! Although now we have added apples to it and it makes it even better!

We are also teething right now. She has one tooth on the bottom that is through the gum but not up very much. You can feel that sharp little thing but can't really see it. It would help if she let you look at it without trying to lick you! The one next to it should be coming soon!

We gave her a teething biscuit and she loved it...but totally made a mess! After this she went straight to the tub!

This is her first taste of squash. It looks like she doesn't like it but actually squash has been the biggest hit. The first few bites of something new looks like this until she figures it out!

We tried the ducky tub! She had so much fun but once she got soapy she was slipping everywhere so until she gets better at sitting on her own we are back to the mesh wedge for baths. She loves a bath though!

The only things I haven't made on my own yet are peas and green beans. I could probably do green beans but with peas you have to have a food mill to get rid of the skins (apparently babies don't digest them well) so I figured I wasn't saving much if I had to buy a food mill. Maybe I will try green beans later though. Here is a pic of her eating peas!

Tummy time is becoming a lot more fun now that she doesn't face plant anymore! She pushes up pretty well but hasn't really figured out how to get up on her knees. She will roll over if she wants to but it is a rare occasion. She can scoot around but usually just fusses if she can't reach something. I feel an army crawl or at least better scooting soon!

These next pics were taken with my brand new Canon SLR!! Brian got it for me for Valentines Day and I LOVE it! I was really not impressed with our professional 3 month pics so since I want to get into photography anyway we decided it was a good time to invest in a good camera. I have learned a lot but still have a long way to go. These were taken the day after I got my camera so I can tell they are a bit over exposed and some are a little grainy but still way better than paying for crappy ones at JCPenney!