11 Months Old!!!

Only one more month until her first birthday!  That is really hard for me to wrap my head around.  It is going to fast.  I love every new step, but I do miss some of the old steps too. 

She is starting to get her fifth tooth now.  It is coming in on the upper left.  We have been pretty lucky so far with the teething thing.  She doesn't excessivly drool and doesn't seem to be overly fussy compared to other times.  She might have moments, but that could be from anything.  She is my daughter after all, and we all know I have my moments!  =) 

She took her first steps on New Years Day.  She is very cautious about walking though.  Feels much better when she is holding on to something.  I am totally okay with that.  The longer the better.  She is fast enough when she is crawling.  She discovered stairs for the first time at Grandma and Grandpa's and she mastered climbing them within seconds.  She was so giddy about it too.  It was adorable.  Grandpa had a lot of fun with that.  Now the hard part is teaching her how to come down them.  We would grab her hips and pull her down slowly.  She thought that was pretty funny.

So my struggle with Layla right now is with eating.  She is a great eater when the food is pureed and pretty smooth.  If she gets anything in her mouth that isn't that soft, she gives a look of horror, spits it out or gags it down.  I am talking anything.  Saltines, fruit bits, puffed cereal, pancakes, eggs, pasta...the list goes on.  I am starting to worry that this could become a problem.  I have done some research on it online and some people have said they had to take their child to a type of speech therapist that basically teaches them how to swallow solid foods.  I'm not ready to take it to that level yet, but I wish there was an easy solution.  I can't puree her food forever.  It will be one of my many questions for the pediatrician at her year check up.

Not really sure what the frightened look was all about, maybe she swallowed some solid food.

On a hike with Mommy and Daddy.  Such a beautiful day.

Mommy slathering me with sunscreen!

Double Digits!!!

I can't believe my little Layla Bug is already ten months!!! She has her four front teeth in now, but still won't eat solid food. She will even bite saltines, crunch them a little with her front teeth, then spit them out. Though it is rather messy it is quite hilarious to watch. She will usually end up with a saltine goatee.

I decided to introduce meat to her, however, the idea of pureeing meat is rather nasty to me. I finally found some jarred meats that were just meat and not mixed with other stuff, as they are the highest in protein. Man, is that stuff nasty smelling though. She gags on it unless I mix it with her other foods, and I have to say, I don't blame her at all. She is a pretty good eater for the most part, it is getting her to drink that can be tricky. She mastered one of her sippy cups, but then seem to take a step back and is having trouble with it again. She used to just guzzle her milk down, now it is like she forgot how to swallow properly. I am trying to teach her to drink through a straw, but she just ends up chewing on it. I have about four different types of sippy cups, though, so hopefully we can find the one that works best for her.

We took some pictures on her ten month birthday, but she wasn't much in the mood. She did enjoy blowing bubbles for part of it, though. That is her new favorite thing to do. She looks very serious when she does it.

Love that sweet face!

Blowing bubbles

So serous

Cutest smirk

Silly girl

New Things All the Time!!!

Poor little Layla bug had her first cold the other day. Ironically it was about a week after getting her flu shot. She was a little trooper though. Luckily the worst of it was pretty short lived. Her temperature spiked at just above 103, but we got it back down to normal by the next morning and she was feeling much better. She has a bit of a cough in the morning and her nose is still pretty runny, so I have been trying to teach her how to blow her nose, however, she just laughs at me then flails her head around in an attempt to avoid the inevitable nose wipe. And of course, once she was on the mend, I got sick. Gotta love this time of year. Although this is the first time I have been sick in over two and a half years, so that isn't too bad. Now let's just hope Pete doesn't get sick.

I took these pictures just before she came down with her cold. Just couldn't resist.

Looking adorable wearing Mommy's baby dress and shoes!

Love the naked baby pictures

Layla has a few new firsts in the last week. She is standing all by herself, and is quite good at it. She is very proud of herself when she does it too. It is adorable to see her put her hands in the air and flash those pearly whites! Speaking of, she now has her third tooth coming in and her fourth one isn't too far behind. It is driving me crazy because just after it broke through she started grinding her teeth. It is the most awful sound. Now that it is in a bit more, she isn't doing it as much, so hopefully once it is fully in she will stop that completely, otherwise I may go nuts.

She just started saying the word "hi". It is so funny the way she says it. She opens her mouth so wide and draws out the word so it is more of a "hhhiiiiiiii", which is so adorable. And if she sees the cat or if I ask her, "what does the kitty cat say?" she responds with, "Yeow". I love it! I am so proud of her! Besides the couple words, she loves to babble all the time. It is hilarious to listen to her.

Six Months!!!

Sorry it has been so long since my last post, but we were without internet for a month! It is amazing that a company can have that long of a wait period to reestablish service. Our roommate moved out and as the cable was in his name we had to cancel it and start it again. So stupid the way those cable companies work. Anyway, we are up and running now, and I am sure my little Layla bug will be soon, as well!!! She is growing up so fast. It is amazing how much she changes from day to day. She finally hit the six month mark, and I can't believe it has already gone by. I was watching a video of her when she was about a month old and it's like she isn't even the same baby.

Just in the last month Layla has started saying her first word, "da-da," and just two days ago she said "ma-ma" for the first time!!! Although, I have heard that only three or four times since, and she says da-da all day long. It is quite cute though, especially when she yells it when she is frustrated. I tell her that is what I do when I am frustrated too. =) She has also started sleeping in her crib in her room at night. I miss having her in the bassinet right next to me, but it is so nice not to have to tiptoe around when we are going to bed. It was a very easy transition for her too. Probably because her crib has to be so much more comfortable than her bassinet was.

She has also mastered sitting up. I just decided the other day that she was going to sit up on her own, so we went outside and I propped her up on the blanket and gave her some blocks. After about twenty minutes of constantly swaying and me having to steady her, she had it down. It seems that all I needed to do was just let her try more from the beginning instead of holding her up all the time. But she is sitting up quite well now and is loving it. She especially loves that she can see out from her stroller so much better when we take our walks. It also makes it much easier for her to entertain herself, which is important, both for her and me. =)

I'm sure the crawling is going to be just around the corner now. She will lunge forward on all fours every now and again and then rock a bit before doing a face plant. It is pretty comical. I must say that I am really okay, though, if she wants to take her time with that. I wouldn't be surprised, since it seems like she isn't a fan of being on her stomach much anyway. She is funny because she will roll over from her stomach to her back all the time, but she refuses to roll the other way. She will turn as far as she can to reach something, but if she starts to roll over she will immediately roll back. It is kind of nice though, cause I don't worry about her as much that way.

She is a noisy little bugger sometimes. She loves to shout, and babble, and moan. I love it, unless she is doing her shrill shouts indoors. She is beginning to become more attached to toys and will sometimes fuss when you take something away from her. Yay... She is also starting to cut her first tooth. I don't know if that is to blame, but she seems to be a bit of a fuss bucket more often these days. She will seem fine then just scream bloody murder, yet nothing seems to be wrong. I'm sure this is just a small portion of the feisty little red head she is going to be! =)

Layla's doctors appointment was the other day and he said she is perfect!!! Well, he didn't have to tell me that, I already knew it. =) She was 14lbs 13oz and 25 1/4 inches tall. That puts her in the 25th percent isle, which is awesome. I am so happy that she is maintaining her weight and not loosing.

She has been on solids now for quite some time and she is loving it. Pretty much all of the veggies I give her I have been mixing with sweet potatoes or yams, and that works out great. She loves the avocado, green beans, butternut squash, and zucchini that way. Not so much on the artichoke, carrots, or peas. They make her gag. (Carrots always made me gag too) But we will periodically keep trying. She also recently started getting a fruit in the morning with some oatmeal. She has had pears, mango, and nectarines so far, and she loves them all. I love making food for her. It is quite therapeutic for me. Although I am running out of freezer space for it all.