6 Months!

I bit belated but better late than never!  How is it possible that Kiera is already 6 months old???  Wow...  it goes SO fast and it just keeps getting better!  She is growing and changing so quickly and is such a joy to be around.  I miss her so much when I am at work during the day and can't wait to get home and squeeze her!

Here is what she is up to at 6 months:

- She was 16 lbs 9 oz and 25.5 inches with a head circumference of 16.5 inches.  (That puts her weight between the 50-75th percentile and her height at the 25-50th percentile.)

- She has 4 teeth, the bottom two are completely in and the top two are both showing but have a ways to go before they are fully in.  Everything still goes in her mouth and she will chew on just about anything but the current favorites are Sophie, Mr. Crabby, and her feet or socks.  When she wakes up from a nap, her feet generally go directly into her mouth.  She also loves chewing on a big apple slice in one of those nets.  

- She is wearing mostly 6-12 month clothing, along with a some 6-9 month items and she is still fitting into her 3-6 month pants.  When she wears long sleeve shirts or pj's we frequently have to roll up the sleeves.  She seems to have a long torso but short arms and legs.  : )  She is wearing size 3 diapers which are on the large side but we like them that way.   

- She is sitting up all by herself.  We still occasionally have a pillow or Boppy behind her but she rarely tips over.   She is really enjoying playing with toys and is usually very content playing independently by herself on her play mat.  

- She has started rolling over both ways quite frequently and sometimes rolls onto her tummy or side to sleep.  

- She is SO curious and interactive.  She loves looking around and taking everything in, especially outside when we go for walks.  We have started using the regular seat for her stroller (we initially used the bassinet, and later the car seat attachment until she was 6 months).  

- She has been sleeping well.  She goes to bed around 7:30 or 8:00 and wakes up around 7:00, although lately it's been closer to 6:30.  She is still taking good naps in her crib 2 to 3 times a day.  The first two naps are 1.5-2 hours and the third is usually only about 30-40 minutes, if she takes it.  

 - She is eating 4 times a day and every 4 hours: approximately 7am, 11am, 3pm, 7pm.  When I am at work she still gets two 6 oz. bottles of pumped milk.  With her 7pm feeding she gets rice or oatmeal and a fruit or vegetable.  So far she has liked them all!   

- She loves to be sang to and her favorite songs include You Are my Sunshine and Cecelia with the name Cecelia replaced by Kiera.  : )  

- We have started bathing her in the big tub since she was splashing water all over the kitchen in the little tub.  We decided to get a bath ring for her to sit in which works well.  Unfortunately our tub has a glass door and deep sides so it's not the easiest but I have found that using the bath ring and sitting on the edge of the tub with my feet in the water works the best.  I am looking forward to the day when she doesn't need the bath ring though because it is very challenging cleaning out her little rolls and butt and I find that I have to do this with her laying across my legs when she is all done.  

- She makes all kinds of sounds, loves blowing bubbles, and lets you know when she needs a change of scenery! 


- She gets so excited when we get home from work.  She bounces up and down, makes these adorable noises, and lunges toward us.  It melts our hearts.  

- She loves reading books!  She likes books with bright colors and also enjoys tasting the pages so board books, plastic, or cloth ones are favorites right now.  She still loves the book Moo, Baa, La La La.  


Kiera, we love you more than words can say!!  


Now, that the 6 month post is finally up, Kiera will be 7 months in one week!  Stay tuned...

Happy Thanksgiving! We're still here... and guess who says MAMA?!

Aaahhh! When I went back to work I had no idea how so many things would just fall to the wayside... even things I loved to do: blogging, making dinner every night, keeping in touch with friends over the phone... I could go on and on! There is just not enough time in the day. : ( I am not going to make an unrealistic goal, but I am going to do my best to try to post at least every couple weeks. (Keyword: TRY!)

Kiera started saying "mama" on Thanksgiving! WOO HOO! That girl sure knows how to make the holidays special! She was born on Mother's Day and said her first word (and mama no less!) on Thanksgiving! : ) We are SO thankful for her!!! I included a quick video of her below, but will try to include a better one once we figure out how to get them off of the video camera rather than just our camera (another thing on my list of to do's that hasn't happened yet!). We had Joel's parents over for Thanksgiving and we all contributed a dish (or a few!) and it was delicious!

Happy (very belated!) Halloween! Go Pack Go!

Yes, this is a Halloween post one month late!  Just wanted to share some pictures of Kiera in her Packers cheerleader gear.  : )

5 Months!

My first attempt at a 5 month picture involved a little too much drool on the dress.

Much better! 

Well back to work has meant belated posting!  It is so hard to come home and only have a couple hours with Kiera, wash all of the pump and bottle parts from the day, make and eat dinner which also may include a trip to the store, clean up, and find a few minutes to relax before going to bed!  I wouldn't trade it for the world (well, ok I would be willing to stay home, but I wouldn't trade motherhood!), but it keeps us BUSY!  


Kiera has been growing and changing so much, it is truly amazing how much a little being can grow and learn in 5 short months.  I truly remember the doctor handing her to me (ok, well I guess I actually handed her to myself since he asked me to basically pull her out!) like it was yesterday.  
Here is what she was up to at 5 months:

- We don't have a doctor's appointment till next month so no stats yet, but I assure you she is still a growing girl!  Although I feel like she is starting to thin out a bit (just a bit!) and isn't growing quite as fast as she was.  


- Everything goes in her mouth!

- She is still wearing mostly 3-6 month clothing, along with a few 6-9 month and 6-12 month items.  

- She is wearing size 2-3 diapers.   


- She is sitting up extremely well and loves to sit up on the bed (where she topples over occasionally) or on the floor with her Boppy pillow around her in case she tips.  

- She still to stand up and therefore loves hanging out in her exersaucer.  One of her absolute favorite things to do is hang out in her exersaucer and chew on Mr. Crabby or throw her balls on the floor!  

- She has been sleeping through the night since about 4 1/2 months.  YAY!  At first this still involved an occasional waking where she couldn't settle herself and required an assist from the pacifier around 5:40am, but she is generally able to settle herself if she wakes.  She is such a good sleeper and sleeps from about 7:30 or 8:00pm until 7:00am or so.  She is also a good napper and naps in her crib 2 to 3 times a day.  The first two naps are 1.5-2 hours and the third is usually only about 30-40 minutes.  


 - She is eating 5 times a day and every 4 hours: 7am, 11am, 3pm, 7pm, 10:30pm.  When I am at work she gets 2 6 oz. bottles of pumped milk.  We gave her the first taste of rice cereal on her 5 month birthday (Dr. said it was ok anywhere from 4 to 6 months) and she did pretty well!  A little unsure at first, but ultimately liked it and swallowed more than she spit out.  

- She is very vocal and makes all sorts of noises- squeals, dolphin and horse noises, and grunting are some of her favorites.  She loves it when you imitate her sounds and will hold a conversation.  : )  

- She still loves her baths, but we are starting to consider a way to put her in the big tub because she loves to kick her legs and splash the water all over the kitchen!
- She is so happy and fun to be around.  She loves to be outside and look at the trees, although the occasional loud downtown siren sometimes scares her.  

- She has rolled over from her tummy to her back a total of six times now.  She started to lay her head down when she is tired of tummy time instead of working to turn over.  


- She started to laugh and we are having fun finding ways to make her laugh.  She don't give us the laugh very easily, but tickling the thighs and neck/shoulders will generally do it.  


We have been blessed with such a wonderful, healthy, happy baby girl!  : ) 

Did you miss this face or what?

I have a new found respect for women who work outside the home and manage to do regular blog posts!  (I am by no means saying I do not respect women who stay home, in fact I wish I was one of them!)  I have been back at work for almost 3 weeks and the posting has come to a sudden halt!  : (  I am going to do my best to get back to posting a couple times a week.  For now, here is a quick video of Miss Kiera.   Belated 5-month post coming soon...

Back to Reality!

Monday was my first day back to work, although I worked from home on Monday so it doesn't really count.  Tuesday was the real test.  A full day back in the office away from Kiera.  The longest I have been away from her since she was born was about 5 hours to go to a concert, most of which she was sleeping, so I was definitely not looking forward to this.  But the reality is that unfortunately we cannot afford for me to stay home so it was back to work.

Leaving her in the morning wasn't as bad as I expected.  Joel's mom is watching her on Tuesdays (I'm home Mondays and the nanny comes Wed-Fri) so I knew she was in good hands and Barb has spent a lot of time with her so she knows her and her schedule pretty well.  Since I took on a new role at my company my manager and another person came down from Orange County to go over things and begin training me.  There is a LOT to learn so as the day wore on I started to stress more about being away.  The worst part was looking at the clock at 6:00 and realizing that Kiera goes to bed in an hour and a half and I was still at work.  : (  I finally told them that I needed to head out shortly after 6:00 and hopped in a cab (I would normally walk since it is only about a mile!) and headed home.  When I walked in the door I was overcome with emotion from being away, realizing that I missed so much of her day, and what little time was left with her.  I shed a couple tears and then spent the rest of the evening thoroughly enjoying the moments I did have with her.

But today was much better, a more normal day.  I got home at 5:00 and felt SO much better about that.  There is such a difference to me in having 2.5 hours to spend with Kiera vs 1 hour.  I think it will just get easier from here.  I am so thankful to have found a new position that will allow me to stay home one day and make it home at a reasonable hour, to have a great mother in law to help out, and to have found a sweet nanny to watch Kiera the rest of the time.  Oh and for having such a ridiculous maternity leave that allowed me to spend the first 5 months at home with Kiera!  Things just really fell into place and I'm so relieved.  I do wish I could stay at home with Kiera, but I guess the next best thing is having a flexible schedule, great people to care for her when I can't, and to enjoy the time we do have together!

On another note, we had some visitors last weekend!  Kiera's Uncle Ryan, Aunt Kristin, Cousin Brady, and Cousin Addison came down for the day from LA and her Uncle Michael was also in town for a conference from Seattle.  It was so fun for Kiera to get to see Michael again and meet the rest of the crew for the first time!  Brady really took to Kiera and wanted to constantly hold her, play with her, sit by her, push her stroller, etc.  It was so cute!  A few pictures from the weekend...

One week : (

One week from today my time as a stay at home mom will come to an end.  : (  I am returning to work three weeks early to take on a new position at my Company that will allow much more flexibility (I get to work from home one day a week!) and I hope to enjoy a lot more (which isn't that hard to do compared to my old one) so I think it will be worth it.  But I am filled with emotions... mostly just sad to not be able to spend every day watching my baby girl learn and grow, scared that our tight bond will somehow change, anxious to leave her with someone new (although we have a great situation: a nanny coming over 2.5 days/week and my mother in law 1.5 days/week), wondering if I will miss something important.  That said, I am SO grateful for the amazing leave I have had... I haven't been to work in 6 months!  My company has a great maternity leave combined with the state of CA FMLA, so I know I am lucky to have had this much time.  I look forward to coming home to this smiling face every day.....

My Two Teeth!

Got a couple of pictures today of Kiera showing off her two TEETH!  What a big girl!  She likes to bite my fingers and knuckles (along with anything else she can get in her mouth) and ouch those babies are sharp!

 

I finally picked up a Sophie the Giraffe for Kiera.  At first I just couldn't get over how much it resembled a rubber squeaky dog toy, but man she loves that thing already!  I think it's because it is small enough that she can easily pick it up and maneuver it to get it in her mouth and chew on it's little rubber face and legs.  If you don't have one already, you should really get one!  

That's all for today... happy Friday! 

Are you going to do this to me EVERY Saturday?

This is what happens in a home with competing college football interests...

Saturday morning attire:

Saturday afternoon attire:

Not sure what we will do when Iowa plays Wisconsin!  : )

At Last!

I have been trying to upload videos forever with no luck so I finally created a YouTube account to do it and it works.  Yay!!  This video was taken during our trip to Idaho and is about 6 weeks old, but better late than never!  I will get some more up now that I have found the secret!

Homeward Bound

OK, well it's not really our home anymore, and Madison never actually was my home.  I'm referring more to the Midwest in general... you know the place where people actually smile and say hello to you on the street... and where the high and low temperatures of the day can be 50 degrees apart... where there's 4 real seasons and not an empty seat to be found at a Hawkeye (or insert your favorite Big Ten team here) football game.  Aahhh, the Midwest, we miss you!

We had a great trip to Madison over Labor Day weekend (yes, this post is a little late... still getting used to this motherhood and blogging thing)!  Kiera was a trooper on the plane.  We flew Southwest and learned to ask ahead of time how many open seats there were; that way if we knew there were going to be open seats we would just let Kiera chill in the open seat so no one would sit there.  We had the whole row to ourselves and Kiera even napped laid out across the middle seat between us.  She also practiced sitting up in the seat and even tried out her seatbelt.  : )

The wedding was great and I am so sad to report that I have no pictures of the lovely bride and groom!  Oops!  It was on their land out in the country and turned out beautifully.  They had a big white tent and all sorts of cute details like little birch tree stumps holding up the table numbers and the placecards hung on a mini clothesline with little clothespins!  I love weddings!!  It was definitely a bit challenging to have Kiera with us at the wedding reception though.  My back was very sore after holding her most of the night.  We took her out on the dance floor for a couple songs when she was fast asleep... isn't it amazing how babies can sleep in the strangest/loudest places?

We stayed in downtown Madison on Sunday night and it was so much fun!  Taste of Madison was going on so we walked around the Capital tasting some yummy food and drink before heading to the Union for a beer on the lake followed by dinner (a Gritty Burger and fried cheese curds!) at the Nitty Gritty!  The house Joel grew up in is on the other side of Lake Mendota behind us in the lake picture (not that you can see it!).

Now that we're back and have no more trips planned (yet!) hopefully Kiera will get back into her routine and start sleeping ALL night!