First Christmas for Eliza Jane!

Christmas Time...

Eliza is doing her best to grow her hair.  She has started to play with it every once in a while, but still likes to just eat combs.  

Inspecting the cookies left for Santa.

There are bites missing, so Santa must have been here!

Now it is safe for me to have some! Yeah Right! 

Here she is eating the very special custom ornament I had made for her.  She will appreciate it later, maybe years later.  haha

This is the best tag she has ever seen!

Out of PJ's and in her little Christmas outfit.  Of course I just can't cover up her little toes!

Group Selfie! Merry Christmas!

8 Months! Sorry it is late!

So.....I just realized that this was never published.....  Well as you can see we are doing a lot of baby proofing and this is Eliza trying to climb over the gate after it had been up for about 3 hours.  haha  When Christmas and baby proofing are at the same time things get expensive.  One great way to save money is to buy doggie gates because they are way cheaper. haha We also plugged in all the little stoppers for the electrical outlets and I discovered her chewing on a night light about 10 minutes later.  So, now I am going to fall to my death when I put her to sleep at night because we can no longer have night lights. This picture reminds me of how much she is growing because we have already moved the play mat toy into storage because she has outgrown it.  

I love this picture because it is full of blue eyes! Eliza is easier to take to restaurants because she loves to eat her little food, and as long as they have fast service we can usually make do.  

Thanksgiving and Updates

Thanksgiving!

  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday ever! Combining wonderful foods (that are special because they come around just once a year), with family time and not having to worry about presents - just makes it perfect! I made Eliza a little shirt with a free .pdf of a turkey, some iron on transfer paper and a little orange ribbon from the craft store.  I think it turned out cute, but I bought a "My First Christmas Outfit" today.  Well it was on sale and was cuter than what I could make anyway. haha

Our Little Turkey

As you can see I recently cut my hair. I am attempting to get myself into better shape and that was one drastic step towards this.  I am currently going to the chiropractor twice a week to hold proper alignment in my neck and back - this prevents a lot of pain and migraines.  However, this is not a long term solution - and not a cheap solution.  I am also doing exercises each day, but having a rough and tumble baby makes everything more difficult.  So, back to my hair - it occurred to me that the weight of my hair in a pony tail might be stressing out my neck muscles and since Eliza tries to rip it out when it is down - I just chopped it off.  I think it really has helped and getting ready is so much faster in the mornings, so I really like it.  Eliza just has to work harder to rip it out, and she usually succeeds.

We had to keep her hands busy the whole time, or the bow was coming OFF! haha

Eliza is growing so fast.  She is starting to say Da Da and is finally sitting up!  She is also pulling up on everything and we have had to implement the next level of baby proofing (perfect timing on her part since we have put up the Christmas tree).  Her crib is now on the lowest level and I can barely reach low enough to put her to bed at night!  Getting her to sleep past 5 in the morning is still hard, but she goes to sleep every night before 7.  I really like having Daniel home this week because he will get up around 6 and I get to go back to bed.  I am still having to hold her for naps, or just go for a drive around town (she sleeps longer when we do that).  Trying to lay her down and have her immediately wake up - just isn't worth it.

We have also started to convert the extra bedroom into a play room because she has taken over the living room for long enough.  We are also feeding her starter foods on a regular basis.  She loves blueberry puffs and the only flavor of baby food she likes is pear ginger.  We are going to keep trying vegetables and see what works! We are also slowly transitioning her out of the infant tub, but she is such a little dare devil that I am not going to try again until I get a spout cover.  She is fine with it, but Mommy does not want the stress of "big girl" baths every night right now.  The funniest thing is the face she makes when she does something new, and surprises herself.  She has a "wow" moment every time she learns a new skill.  I think it is cute when she gets so proud of herself - she thinks she is pretty neat and so do we!

"Helping" with the dishes

Halloween and the Joys of a 7 Month Old!

Halloween!

I decided to make Eliza a little owl for Halloween because half the noises she makes sounds like a little hoot owl anyway.  haha  Unfortunately, we didn't get to take her out because the temperature dropped and the wind really picked up - so we took some pictures and called it a success!

She was all ready to go and liked carrying around her basket.  This basket was one that Daniel used as a kid to!

Had to get a picture with the shoes!

I think she wanted to smile, but was too busy trying to figure out what leaves are. 

She was so tired when we were taking pictures, but as soon as Daniel picked her up she was all smiles.  This will be one of my all-time favorite pictures.

Such a sweet little face!

First Halloween as a family! Maybe next year I will get us all costumes! (Look for Daniel's objection in the comments lol)

Randomness...

The time change was a chance for us to trick Eliza to going to bed an hour early and it worked!  However, she is tricking us back because she is waking up at 5am instead of 6am.  Ouch!  I hope things even out soon.  She is a good sleeper at night - most of the time.  I am still walking around like a zombie, I can't seem to catch up on all the sleep I have lost in the past year.  I eat a crazy amount of sugar during the day and take caffeine any way I can get it!

Eliza is a professional army-style crawler, but she is practicing lifting herself up so she might change her style soon.  She is crazy at problem solving.  Because she crawls so low, she will see something she wants that is out of her reach (usually the DVD's in our TV stand) and she will crawl toward it until she can't see it anymore and then lift herself up to see it again.  By the time she gets to what she wants she does a blind swipe with her hand - and usually gets it.  The way her mind works amazes me, it also scares me. haha  She also likes to try to chew on the furniture, so I have to watch her close as she explores.  She looks more like Daniel everyday, and now I think people are starting to believe me when I say that.

I feel strange having a 7 mo old that has been crawling already for a month.  I feel like time has gone by so fast and she has so much personality now.  A few days ago she fell asleep while I was holding her, and then I fell asleep to.  I woke up and looked down and she was just smiling at me.  She had never made a sound, so I don't know how long she had been doing that.  Such a sweet moment for sure.

Eliza is still not sitting up (for longer than a few seconds) - I still believe it is because that skill requires her to stay still, and that is not going to happen.  Diaper changes are such a hassle because she thinks it is so funny to try to escape.  She also thinks it is hilarious to grab my hair and stick it in her mouth.  I have had to stop wearing hair product most days because she will seriously be poisoned. It is really funny when she tries to grab Daniels hair, because it is usually too short.

I was really dedicated to getting Eliza to eat solids starting last month, but I am not having any luck.  She wants to eat so bad, and she watches us like a hawk as we eat, but she is just not physically ready.  I will try again later, but I am burned out fixing tiny portions of food and having her spit it out at me (or act like she is going to vomit). I just don't have the energy.

Everyday she is exploring the house - and learning what furniture she can move around.

This was really funny because she scooted herself under the Pack-n-Play and was kicking her ball from underneath. This kid is so crazy. 

I finally got a good picture of her eye lashes!

Nursing her to sleep is the easiest thing to do for naps, but I am trapped until she wakes up!

6 Months Old & Much More.....

Lately,

I feel like everything is changing and I am behind on posts.  My baby is growing so fast that I honestly can't keep up.  She started crawling and got her first tooth on the same day, within a week she had her second tooth (both her little center bottom teeth).  I seriously may never get a picture, she is very good at hiding them.  haha  

You may say "Holly I didn't even know she was sitting up and now she is crawling".  I would have to reply "concerned friend she is not really sitting up, because sitting up means you have to stay still and that is too boring". 

Other Developments

She is also sleeping every night in her big girl crib in her bedroom.  Up until a few weeks ago she was in our room in a pack-n-play at night.  I had tried some sleep training, but she was getting up 4 times a night every night (during growth spurts it would be every hour).  I don't think she was ready for it before 5 months, but what we were doing was not working.  It is so wrong that most of your problem solving with babies must be done when you are the most exhausted.  I had purchased a baby video monitor months before and I decided it was time to move her into her room.  This monitor is really neat because it does not turn on the video unless it picks up noise from her, so it is not on constantly and I can sleep with it next to me.  Well the first night Eliza got up at her usual times and she whined and my monitor clicked on.   However, instead of escalating her cries she looked around and rolled over and went back to sleep.  I couldn't believe it I was having to nurse her back to sleep 4 times a night when she was in the same room, but since she didn't see me she decided to go back to sleep.  Ever since then she has slept every single night, through the night, besides a few whining episodes that last 30 seconds.  

I learned many lessons from this: 

1. I didn't give Eliza the opportunity to show me that she was developmentally ready for her own room.  I wanted to keep her close to me for feedings because I was so tired that the idea of walking across the house to feed her filled me with dread.  She is getting much more sleep and is so much happier during the day.
2. If you do not sleep train your child (and not all sleep training is evil), your child will sleep train you.  You do not want to be on your infants schedule - trust me.
3. Eliza is a liar.  All those nights I was so worried about actually doing sleep training because I thought she was really hungry, and needed to eat, and I was so exhausted I couldn't even think straight - I want all that lost sleep time back!
4. The cruel truth is that after having that schedule for so many months it would take several more weeks before I did not continue to wake up at the times I expected to have to nurse her. I still do every once in a while.

A 1/2 Birthday!

I decided to throw Eliza a 1/2 birthday party when she turned 6 months old.  I mostly did it because I was looking for an excuse to make a bunch of junk food (seriously).  There were 4 people present and no invitations were sent because I didn't want to share my goodies (seriously).  I also decided to make half a cake since it was a half birthday and it is much harder than making a whole one.  

Sure I have pictures with her eyes open, but they are not this cute!

I am so proud I held back on the decorating. 

Half a cake for half a birthday!

This was right before she tried to dive into the cake.

One of the few times her feet will be on the table.  haha

I thought this one was cute because she is non-stop

Getting every body part to focus is hard with her. lol

My sweetie (a few days before she started crawling)

She finally was still for a second, but no smile. haha

Bath time is a lot of fun for her and I am glad because she uses up a lot of energy before bed.  

This is the sneaky little mastermind that I have to match wits with each day.

The weather is starting to turn and Eliza got to wear her new hat on an evening walk.

A Special Family Tradition

I wanted to dedicate this blog to a family tradition.  When Eliza was born we bought a tree to plant in our yard.  Growing up I had my own tree in my grandparents yard and it is something I always wanted to do with my kids.  I thought that it was neat to have a tree that grew with me.  So I am posting this now because we wanted to make sure that it would survive before we documented it. We had a lot of trouble picking out a tree until I found one called a Magnolia Jane and that seemed perfect for Eliza Jane!

Mom, Dad & Eliza Jane by her Magnolia Jane

Well I am very glad we got that picture because a week later this happened: 

I was so sad to wake up my birthday morning and see this.  Evidently, some buck must have been showing off during the night and shredded the poor tree.  We have a serious deer problem here and purposely bought a deer resistant tree.  Well at least it didn't get eaten! We think it will survive, but now it lost the head start it had and Eliza might be able to catch up.  

I am hoping that we don't have to move again because it could get expensive having to plant trees everywhere.  haha

Vick Wedding

The first week of July 2014 we had our first family vacation when we attended the Vick wedding in Florida.  Eliza was 3 months old and we were lucky things went as well as they did, but it was not an easy trip.  I am sure we will just remember the good times and forget the hours of screaming on planes.  It was fun seeing everyone and watching my best friends family double in size in a single day. haha This was also a fun trip because it was full of so many firsts for Eliza. 

She had her first plane ride in first class. 

Here she is ready for her first dip in a pool.

She thought it was interesting and even though the water was super cold she didn't seem to mind. 

Her first wedding.

Her first dip in the ocean.

The photographer at the wedding was really nice and took pictures of us and I love them!

Congrats to Lauren & Mike!