Good weather, good pics!

This past extended weekend was fun! We were able to spend alot of good quality family time, which we always love.  Sylvia was very good through the whole weekend minus not sleeping very well Sunday night but she's only 6 months old.  For her young age I think she handled traveling like a pro! :) These are three of my favorite pictures from this weekend.  They are priceless!

We have a good thing going!

I woke up this morning at 6:00 a.m. and realized that I woke myself up. Sylvia was not crying.  I looked at the baby monitor expectingly, waiting for the cries of Sylvia to fill our bedroom.  Nothing came.  It was silent.  I fell back asleep hesitantly knowing in the back of my mind that my 6 month old alarm clock would be ringing soon.  I again woke at  6:45 a.m. on my own, staring at the baby monitor bracing for it.  Still nothing.  Finally at 7:15 a.m., I heard the tired morning cry of my little one signaling she was in need of her Momma. 

 SUCCESS! The first night that Sylvia slept straight through the night from when we put her in her crib until she was up for the day.  No 2 a.m. crying.  No crack of dawn rising. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

Two Things

One: Sylvia slept from 9:30 pm to 6:30 am in her own room, with only waking up once!
Two: I think she's the cutest kid in the world!

My hair is getting longer! See, I have a bow in it!

Look Momma, I'm just like Daddy!

I bet this would taste good!



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Actually, it's kind of dry.







Family updates

A very serious conversation between baby and doxie.

Sylvia has been semi-sleeping in her crib.  She has been sleeping in her crib for about 4-5 hours per night this week, which is better than not at all.  The more she gets used to waking up in her own room, the easier it will be for her to stay in her own room longer.  We aren't ditching the swing quite yet, but it is nice to have claim to our room baby free for at least a few hours!

At Allen's work they have announced they are eliminating the running of the sauce room on second shift.  First they announced they were eliminating his position as label inspector, which was bad enough as is because we need him to have a very specific 2nd shift in order to avoid Sylvia's having to go the babysitter's house multiple times a week.  Now, this announcement means that EVERYONE else in Allen's team is also looking to bid into other positions.  It makes the bidding much more competitive and Allen just doesn't have very much pull yet because the bids are won based on seniority.  The good news is, that this is not in any way shape or form a lay off.  Allen's employment is secure, but what he will be doing and when is up in the air.  Please pray for us that he will find a position that will allow us to continue to use minimal child care for Sylvia.  Also, his headaches haven't fully disappeared yet.  They have decreased in frequency, which is good; but having them end would be wonderful. 

I'm still loving my job. What I do is fairly easy and rewarding.  It's rewarding in a much different sense than my prior job. I'm no longer adjusting claims to pay thousands of dollars to a hospital for someone surgery anymore, but seeing a child's eyes light up when I give them a "special" bookmark, or an adult's smile at finding that we have the new book they have been waiting for is rewarding.  Now that the summer reading program has kicked off, I'm getting to interact with many more children and I love it!  I'm also super excited about the opportunity I have on June 8th, to prove my worth as part of library programming and to show the people who hired me what I have to offer besides the ability to check books in and out.  I have been placed in charge of the "Babies and Books" storytime.  I'm being told it's the first time the library has tried something like this, so there is a lot of pressure on me to make sure it's successful. Also,  it's taking some getting used to having coworkers again that I am working with closely.  Before at BCBS, I was in my own little telephone world, in my own little cubicle, just me and that faceless person on the other end of the phone.  Now, I'm interacting with coworkers and patrons at all times during the day. I'm still adjusting.

My little brother Caleb has been coming over for dinner with Sylvia and me after he gets off work this week.  It will be the arrangement for the summer.  He is working in town for park district, so he is staying at Grandma D's during the week and going back home to Mom and Dad's on the weekends.  It's kind of nice to have an incentive to actually do some real cooking.  For the past few weeks, with Sylvia being as attention needy as she is, it has been very difficult to get any substantial cooking done.  So we have been leaning on the convenience foods, which is bad for our health and bad for the pocket book.  With Caleb coming over he can help keep Sylvia pre-occupied for long enough for me to fix a real meal. WONDERFUL! :)

Green beans...

I don't think I like these green beans, Mom.

They taste kind of icky!

Actually, they are really icky!

Awww , Mom, I don't want to eat them any more!

One more bite and then you promise I can have mangoes?

The pictures speak for themselves but captions are fun!

Mmmmm....Mangoes!

We put a mango through the yonanas machine today and it was AMAZING. Way better than the bananas.  I can't wait to try pineapple.  Sylvia can't have pineapple yet, but she can have mangoes, so we all three had mango no-nanas for dessert after lunch today.  She took the spoon away from me!

Sunday Fun

Cohen says: I'll put your number in my phone.

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Cohen: I'm gonna get it. Sylvia: I'm closer!

Sylvia:What? I was closer, and it's MY basket!

Tonight we had homemade Italian night with a few of our friends.  It was so delicious! Homemade lasagna, homemade bread, salad, and a yonanas Sundae bar for dessert.  Sylvia and Cohen spent some time playing on the floor together, and it was so stinkin cute! Of all the toys on the floor to play with, both of them were most interested in the basket that the toys were in.   Go figure!

Banana, walnuts, and a sprinkle of cinnamon, with a cherry on top!

6 month Check-Up Report, Chester, and Yonanas!

See Momma! I'm so cool, I'm six months old!

I love my Dada!

Hey there baby! You're awful cute. You remind me of someone...

Well, I took a several day vacation from blogging.  It's been a pretty long week. Sylvia has been staying up pretty late and getting up early. Tuesday was Sylvia's six month check-up and shots.  We were in the dr's office for an hour and a half! Considering it was right through her nap time, she did a pretty good job.  We didn't have a melt down until the doc stuck his tool in her ears and up her nose.  She didn't like that at all.  It was kind of down hill from there.  She had to have three shots which again brought tears to my own eyes.  I absolutely hate seeing that pain and confusion in her eyes. 

The doctor told us she is growing like a weed.  She is still skinny for her age, but because she is steadily growing he didn't have a problem with her weight this time.  She weighs 14.6 lbs. She is 26 inches long, and her head is 17 inches around.  Average height and head size, below average in weight.  Doc didn't have any concerns about her, and she goes back in three months. 

Can you believe she is 6 months old? Half a year has passed since she came into the world.  Time is fling by so quickly. 

Check out this funny toy she picked out from Hobby Lobby.  I had to buy it because of the reaction it got from her.  She and I look at a lot of toys when we go to the store together.  Normally she just looks and touches and then we reshelf whatever we were looking at, but not this funny little guy.  I originally picked up a green one, and then offered her a pink one, but she reached for the orange one on the shelf.  When I picked up the orange one and pushed his noisemaker button, she laughed at him.  She LOVES this little fur ball.  He's made by the makers of Beanie Babies.  His name is Chester and he makes a high pitched jibberish noise. I'm not kidding you, he is worth the few bucks I spent on him.  It has immediately stopped several crying fits dead in their tracks already!

Meet Chester!

On this shopping trip we also bought my mother's day gift: The Yonanas machine.  I am soooo impressed with this machine.  I cannot even begin to tell you how truly happy I am with it.  For once, it's an "As Seen on TV" item, that does EXACTLY what they say it does.  It turns frozen bananas into a delicious dessert that has the same texture of soft serve ice cream.  It turns other frozen fruits into smooth sorbets.  I kid you not, I will not be buying ice cream from the grocery store again for a very long time, if ever again.   Besides being good for us, because it's made out of fruit, it's something Sylvia can eat too! A great family treat for us all! I made some for us a couple nights ago and Sylvia LOVED it.   If this machine were cheaper, I would honestly love to purchase one for each of my friends and all of our family members.  It's THAT good.

YONANAS!

Well, Mother's Day was very special being a mom this year.  It was great to get to see our Mom's and Grandmas.  The pictures I took haven't been able to be uploaded yet.  For some reason they are uploading with wierd blank lines on the bottom of the pictures.  So I will have to upload them to the desktop and then transfer them to this laptop.  I will email the pictures out once I have them available. 

Love you all!

A Good Day to Sit Outside

Today, the weather was as close to perfect as I have seen so far this year.  The temperature was exactly right! Sylvia and I took advantage of it by doing something we haven't tried before.  We took a big comforter outside and set it up under the big walnut tree in out backyard.  We laid on our backs looking at the pretty leaves, listening to all of the different outside noises.  At first Sylvia was a bit overwhelmed looking up into the tree.  She stayed very serious for several minutes.  It was almost as if I could see her little brain making notes through her beautiful blue eyes.  It's so very special to watch her experience things I take for granted for the first time.  I know I've said that before, but each time it happens I'm left in awe.  We had a really nice time together under the walnut tree!

In other news, Allen didn't have a headache last night!

One long day!

Today was just one of those days where Sylvia just wouldn't let up.  She wanted to be held from the minute she got up til she went to sleep.  She did it to Allen while I was at work, and then this afternoon and evening she put me through the wringer.  The longest stretch of time in which she was not either in my arms or whining when I put her down was during her bath, that she didn't really need, I just gave her to see if it would make her happy for a while. (Which it did...she loves to take baths.)  I'm not sure what her problem was.  It wasn't that she is sick , she was happy as a lark as long as she was in my arms or eating.  We played ALOT sitting in the wingback chair.  I think I played 50 games of patty cake.  On the plus side, I got alot of super duper wonderful slobbery baby kisses which are my favorite! Kisses from miss Sylvia just can't be beat!

Allen didn't have a full blown headache again last night, but he did wake up with a heavy shadow, and experienced a shadow practically all day. Please pray for a quick end to this cycle. 

Which will it be Momma or Dada?

Well tonight, both came out of her mouth, but they came out in a string of other syllables and not inentionally.  It's coming soon though. She was just babbling up a storm tonight.  I have no idea what she was talking about, but whatever it was, she enjoyed discussing it with me.

We had a surprise visit with Josh and Debbie today at Grandma Downings.  They were on their way through with their dog to take to my parents house to breed with Mia. It was good to get to see them.  Sylvia had a nice time playing.  We also walked in the park today. 

Allen didn't have a headache last night.  Overall, a great day! :)

Applesauce, she's not a fan.

Sylvia had applesauce for the first time today.  At lunch she hated it, at dinner she tolerated it.  Maybe for lunch tomorrow she will be used to the flavor and love it.  She was really making a fuss about not liking it too.  She was making faces and crying about it.  I didn't catch any of the faces on camera this time, they would have been blurry if I had tried because she was fussing about so much. It wasn't funny to her, but it made Allen and me laugh.  She definately prefers her bananas and avocadoes. I gave her a little bit of banana for a snack today since she hardly ate any of the applesauce for lunch and she gobbled it up.  She's a very outspoken little girl!

Awww!

Such a big girl!

Give me that camera mom!

Sylvia can now sit on her own for a minute or two at a time.  She can't pull herself up to sit, nor be left unattended sitting on her own, but it's a start!

Meeting Great-Grandma Hazel

My Grandma Hazel has returned from Florida for a three month stay before she moves to Arizona. So, Sylvia got to meet her great-grandma this afternoon.  She took to her instantly, and it warmed my heart! I've missed my grandma, and I was really glad to get to see her. 

On a different note, it stormed loud enough this morning to wake up both Allen and me, but Sylvia slept through it and after her morning feeding at 7 a.m, she went back to sleep and the three of us slept together until 8:45 a.m. . Allen didn't get a headache, and the extra sleep was glorious!

Today, Sylvia tried avocado and she loved it!