Well, we learned something new this weekend.

Elisa has a competitive streak. We met a friends baby, and they
decided to have a sqwaking war to see who could scream the loudest.
I'm afraid Elisa won.

Hi!

So Mommy and Daddy thought they'd see what I thought about swimming.



While I wasn't opposed to it, I didn't love it either. But as long as I had my ball, I was ok.



And my daddy of course.



Here's a boring video of me chasing my ball around. I wasn't really sure of this whole swimming thing so I was concentrating more on figuring it out than having fun.


I finally warmed up to the idea when I realized that I can really get jumping with Daddy's help!



So it wasn't a fail! I think I'll try again this Saturday and see what happens.

7 months!

I'm a bit late on this post, seeing as how it is June already. But you'll have to forgive me. It's been extremely busy in our neck of the woods and I've been so worn out by the time the evening comes around and little miss is in bed that I've not had the brain power to do anything but crash.

So we are seven months!





We were concentrating on sitting so much that I think we forgot to smile, lol! Oh well, I still think she's adorable and you can see how much she has grown. I still find it hard to believe she's 7 months old. And that it's June. And that she's now been here longer than I was pregnant lol!

We have tried many new things. Carrots.



Sweet Potatoes.



Crawling. Don't have a picture of this one yet. Takes both mommy and daddy to get her "into position" lol.

None of which we have liked very much. We keep trying the carrots and sweet potatoes, only get a few spoonfuls in before we start turning up our noses and pushing the spoon away. But, seeing as how we are now 12 lbs 1 oz, I'm not so worried about how much of the veggies she gets. She's scarfing enough of the formula down and I think our ped is letting us do the veggies just to make mommy and daddy happy lol. The ped still wants her main nutrition to be coming from the formula so that takes precedence over the veggies.

We have been working with her on crawling, but so far all we get is a face plant. She much prefers to be on her feet balancing on us. She's very strong and can even sort of "step" but really prefers to bounce. (Forgive me the blurriness of this one. Catching her in motion with my camera is a bit difficult. I'll figure out the settings at some point and hopefully get a clear shot of her in this at some point.)



But we are mobile in our own way. We manage to change our location through a combination of twists, kicks, bends and can even find ourselves in a different place in the crib than where I started. Just the other morning, Andrew walked in to find her at the top of the crib with her arms wrapped around the bars. Here's how we found her this morning:



We usually go to bed by 8 (7:30 really, but mommy likes the cuddle time so we sleep in mommy's arms until 8) and we can normally wake up between 6 and 7. If it's before 7, we play to ourself in the crib and you can hear the most precious sounds as we coo, twist, plop and have a blast until Mom or dad comes to get us. You can see above how we found her after such a play session this morning.

Strong willed child is not strong enough a description to describe her, I'm afraid. We were doing very well on our naps. Until this weekend. And we are just refusing all but the afternoon. Maybe we only need one? But we get so cranky in the morning and fall asleep so easily with our routine, but the second our back hits that crib, our eyes pop wide open and our legs go up and our arms stretch out. Mom is tired today from battling her and eventually an impromptu car ride took care of the napping issue.

I'll leave you with a clip from our weekend. We had the special event of having both sets of grandparents around to give us their undivided attention and we did enjoy it. Here's a portion of it, showing the most wonderful sound in the world. Our laughter.

Carrots = fail?

I'll let you tell me.

Whoops

Wow.



I have been seriously remiss in my duties to keep you updated on my progress. I will have to get on mommy to be a bit more diligent in updating you all.

So what's new with me? Well, I'm 12 lbs 1 oz!

*Gasp*

Yes, ME!



Mommy and Daddy are always marveling at my rolls now. It's kinda funny when they wiggle my thighs just to see the fatty part there jiggle.

I've also begun napping during the day. In my CRIB! Yes, really. I wasn't too happy about mommy putting her foot down with this one, but the more I do it, the more I like it. I'm hoping to get my naps down to two long ones a day rather than 3 short ones. I know mommy and daddy would like those extra hours to be productive.

I also got to meet my Aunt Karen and Katrine for the first time! As well as my dog cousin, Elvis. It was really fun, and I behaved. For the most part. I only became cranky when I was tired!

OH and I get to try carrots today! I'll try to get mommy to tell you all about it after I had them. I'm excited, but not so sure of this strangely colored stuff. Guess we'll see!!

Parental Preference

Is starting already. And of course, the preference is for daddy!

We were all playing together on the floor and daddy was reading Elisa a book while I held her in the assisted sitting position for her to practice sitting and when daddy went to get a new book, we were NOT happy. Once daddy got up to walk away, our little face screwed up, the whining started, followed by outright bellowing, LOL. No matter what I did to try to comfort her or let her know daddy would be back was good enough. She had to have daddy.

Wish I could have gotten it on video tape, it was so adorable! I hope I still think it is in 5 years when she runs to daddy for everything and forgets mommy exists.

Oh, and she has finally transferred an object from one hand to the other yay! Now, whether she did this intentionally or not is another question, but she still transferred it! :)

March for Babies and CEREAL!

So, I know I'm a bit late in posting about the March for Babies on Saturday, but it's been busy AND I found out that I was going to be able to try to give Elisa solid foods. So in an effort to consolidate my efforts, I thought I'd wait until I got all of those pictures taken and would blog about them both!

So, March for Babies was a blast, but it was also eye opening. I mean, I have a preemie, I know the risks. But it brought it home to me just HOW lucky we were. I saw many shirts for people walking in memory of a preemie who didn't make it. It just broke my heart. I didn't see all that many, though, who were showing their preemie's off. I did make a sign for her, I'm not all that creative when it comes to visual arts but I tried:



Thanks to a company match and my many generous friends, we were able to raise $210 to give to the cause! It's really a small amount, but since I didn't have much time to get anything raised, I was quite proud of our small contribution. I even got a "$200 hero" sticker lol!

Here's a closer view at my attempt at artwork.


Alright, now onto the REALLY fun part. Yesterday, we called the ped to get a refill on our zantac prescription for Elisa, and during the call, I asked again about the solid foods. She has dramatically upped her intake of formula and Andrew and I were pretty sure she was saying I need more than just this formula stuff. So, they came back with an official yes you can try!!!! Said we needed to do it after a bottle and to make sure her formula intake doesn't go down as they really liked the new increased intake. So....We went on a mission today.



Andrew found a bulk set of dishes and picked up some rice cereal. Around 1 pm she decided she was hungry so we gave her a bottle and then...on to the cereal!



She didn't hate it, but didn't seem to love it either. She had this look on her face for most of the time of "what IS this stuff?" But she kept taking it and didn't just reject it. So, I guess that's a good start!!