Angelica's Awesome Trip to Target in 2009

From March 28, 2009.

Last night, I was cleaning some files off of my hard drive and memory cards and I came across a memory card that I hadn't seen in awhile.  On it, were these gems from when Angelica was 10 months old. I remember this day like it was yesterday! We needed to make a quick trip to Target for diapers (of course, what else?) and Scott bought himself a Java Chip from the in-store Starbucks. (For those of you who don't know my husband, Starbucks is pretty much like crack to him. Keep him away from it long enough and he starts to get cranky!)

Anyway, it was a little late, and Angelica was, to say the least, a wee bit fussy. So, Scott handed over his straw and the lid to his Java Chip so she could entertain herself (because there's always some chocolate syrup on it) and she had a field day. (Oh, how I wish it were this easy to entertain her in Target these days! A lid and a straw just doesn't cut it!)

Good times were had by all.

On the move...

A little less than a year ago...10 months ago, to be more specific, we made the decision to pack up all of our belongings and take them on the oh-so-long trek across...........the hall. Yes, that was quite possibly THE easiest move I have ever made in my life, and what made it even better was that we did it on a weekday, so Angelica got to hang out at daycare and play with her friends while we (along with a couple of good friends) did the gruntwork of moving. We got an extra bedroom out of the deal, so that was really nice.

At the time we made that move, Angelica (who was 13 months old then) had only been walking for a few months, was still not capable of climbing on things and only had a vocabulary of about twenty words. Now, at almost 23 months, she can run, jump, climb, yell, tell me to go away, tell me that she loves me, tell me that she hates me, tell me who her best friends are, and is generally a ball of giggly energy that goes flying across the apartment so fast that we call her "the streak". (Especially on the frequent occasions that she does it after stripping!)

And quite frankly, it's not always easy to take her to the park to burn off all of her energy, but I can't just open the door here and let her go, since running in the parking lot isn't necessarily safe.

So began our hunt for the perfect house to rent, and lo and behold, we found one! With a fenced in back yard! And about $300 less per month than we pay now! Although the finding it came about two months too soon, it was a deal we couldn't pass up, and so we jumped on it. And in just about a week's time, we will again pack up all of our belongings, but this time we'll trek them about 10 miles down the road in trucks and cars.

And therein was a dilemma.

Making this move meant that the daycare she attends now...the daycare we love, with her best friends and awesome teachers and her cousins, is no longer on either of our routes to work. There is, however, one that I can see from the front yard of our new house (well, almost...Mapquest says it's 0.4 miles). So we mulled it over and found out the rates of the closer place (way cheaper, too), checked their inspections, and decided to make the move.

I don't know why this always makes me sad, but it does! Tonight I told her teachers that next week will be her last week there, and it was hard, especially since I know that Angelica has really bonded with them, and one teacher has a son who is a week older than Angelica, and they're best friends. (I ask her all the time who her best friend is, and she either picks one of her cousins or her teacher's son.) But I also remind myself that she's turning two in a few weeks, and won't be in the class with these teachers anymore. And she'll make new friends. And she'll still have her cousins.

These parenting decisions are tougher than any decisions I've ever had to make. I sure hope she doesn't wind up hating me for it when she's older!

Not-So-Lazy Saturdays

The weather was still great today, so we met up with some friends in the park this morning for some more fun! We went to the same park that I took Angelica to earlier this week, and she was super excited once again for "the steps" and the gigantic slides.

After the park, we went to lunch, and Angelica discovered that her new favorite food is french fries. We had some left over (along with her chicken tenders) which we re-heated for dinner. When she said she was done, I took the bowl away which resulted in her screaming "Fry fries! My fry fries! Let go Mommy!"

Anyway, since I know pictures are fun, later in the evening we went outside to play with bubbles. And since I love taking photos...I did!

A Conversation About the Park

Since the weather is really nice now, and since it now stays sunny out later in the day (so it's not dark when I leave work), I've been making it a point to take Angelica to the park several times a week after school. I truly believe in encouraging her to be active, and it has the added benefit that when I spend an hour chasing her around a playground, I don't have to work out later on!

Tonight we checked out a local park that I hadn't actually been to before (and really regret not visiting before, because it was a million times better than the one I normally go to AND it's on the way home), and she climbed all over the toddler playground, progressed to the BIG kid playground and proceeded to scare the living daylights out of me by climbing up the big steps to the very top of the play structure. (I don't want her to inherit my fear of heights so I kept my freaking out to a minimum, and just cautioned her to "be careful on the big steps".)

We also spent time chasing ducks (which she loved), staring at the very picturesque lake, watching other kids on the playground (she was fascinated by a little boy about her age who had a Dora bandaid on his elbow), and chasing squirrels up trees (even as we were leaving she kept saying "Squirrel, where are you?? It could be anywhere!"). Finally she asked to go home to "get juice in Minnie Mouse cup and watch Minnie Mouse" so we left.

From time to time I like to ask her questions just to see if she'll answer them. Most of the time it's something I doubt she'll be able to comprehend or answer (like, "Why do you think the sky is blue?" or "What's your favorite animal?", stuff like that), so tonight during her bath (about two hours after returning from the park), I asked her, "What was the best part about being at the park today?"

She looked at me. I could tell her little mind was chugging away. There was a definite, deliberate silence, then finally she piped up and said, "Oh! The steps!"

The one thing I didn't make a big deal about (despite my freaking out), and the one thing I didn't think was a big deal (since she was thrilled with the ducks and the squirrels after all, and the girl climbs on just about everything she can wherever we go) and THAT was the best part for her.

And the best part for me? I had an actual conversation with my 22 1/2 month old daughter.

Angelica's Second Easter

What a great Easter it was! We spent the day before coloring eggs (complete with spilling blue egg dye on our light brown carpet...whoops!), then the next day Angelica woke up, had a "practice" Easter egg hunt at home, opened her Easter basket, and then we headed over to the Lindlaus (my sister's husband's parents...aka my brother-in-law's parents) for some more Easter festivities.

I could recap the whole thing, but pictures speak louder than words. Just for comparison, here are two photos from LAST year:

She was such a baby back then!

Here are a few from this year.

Dying Easter eggs with Daddy:




The blue hand of "doom":


The two eggs she finished (I did the other 9):


One casualty...(notice that 2+9 above does not equal 12!)


Easter morning, opening her Easter basket:


The "practice" Easter egg hunt at home:


Heading over to the Lindlau's house:


Cousin Willy shows her a pinecone:


I just like this one because it shows off her pretty dress:


Heading out on the REAL Easter egg hunt!


Stealing some of Anna's eggs (we stopped her, don't worry!)


Afterward, I did some group pictures for everyone. Here's one that my daughter (kind of) photobombed with a funny face. She's with Anna, Tyler (Willy & Anna's cousin), and Willy:


She did eventually smile though:


Then, my brother in law's mom took a family photo of us! It was nice to get a shot of all of us together for a change, since I'm usually the one behind the camera:


Angelica ate a delicious cookie:


I also took a couple of Anna and Willy:




Angelica got tossed in the air, then had a tantrum when Daddy stopped:




And, my favorite picture of Angelica from the day (and maybe one of my favorites ever):


And that's it for my photo-heavy post. But what a great day!

Be Careful What You Ask For...

I'll have an Operation: Lose the Baby Weight Week 2 update as soon as possible (it has been a crazy week for the Minute family this week!) but I wanted to share a funny anecdote from yesterday...

I've been flying solo in the evenings the majority of the past few weeks while SuperScott is working some mandatory overtime, so it's been a juggling act of feed/bathe/diaper/clothe/put to bed in the evening. So last night, I have a very messy, very naked toddler standing in her room while the bath is sitting, waiting for her. Needing just the slightest moment to dispose of the dirty diaper I've just removed and a moment get her PJs out that isn't interrupted by  her yanking everything else out of the drawer, I distract her by handing her a towel and asking her to "Please go take this to the bath."

So, off she toddles to the bathroom (yes, she's so smart and obedient that she really does do what I ask of her, about 80% of the time - the rest I chalk up to free will). I grab the PJs, ditch the diaper, and follow her into the bathroom just in time to see her walk over to the bathtub and follow the directions I gave....

So perfectly in fact that I see her reach over the side of the tub, releasing her grasp on the towel as it falls INTO the bath.

She was quite pleased with herself. And we had a good laugh about it.

(Safety note: She was never out of my sight so there was no risk of her climbing into the tub by herself - which she doesn't know how to do yet, but hey, there's a first for everything.)

Angelica is 9 months old!

So, the jellybean has now been an "outside baby" longer than she was an "inside baby". That's kind of weird to think about. For stats...we had her 9 month check-up on the 1st, and she weighed in at 17 pounds and is 28 inches tall. That's 50-75th percentile for height and 25th for weight...still my long, lean, baby machine! Other than an entire month of the family being sick (stomach virus, cold, then stomach virus) she is doing extremely well!

Let's see...what else is the little jellybean up to...she's still not quite walking full time yet. It's really funny actually, because she will take a few steps without thinking about it, but as soon as she realizes she's not holding on to anything, she sits down or grabs on. She can walk, she just doesn't realize it yet. Also, she now claps on demand. She started the clapping right before 8 months, but now if you say "clap clap" she claps. She also starts clapping if she sees or hears someone do it on television. She's also started on table foods and is really proficient at feeding herself.

In other news, we've got the urologist appointment next week to follow up on her kidney condition. She's been doing great, no other infectons or anything since the first one, so I'm thinking everything will be okay.

I'll add pictures later...I tried to do it now but Blogger isn't cooperating.

Angelica Walks!

Our little girl has been threatening to walk over the past few weeks. She's been cruising for what seems like forever, and has been letting go and standing, and taking a few very cautious steps, but today she took what was very obviously some deliberate steps!

We were watching Lazy Town and one of the songs came on. She pulled herself up on the couch and just let go and took off! She took about ten steps before she tripped and fell, then sat up and clapped wildly for herself! Oh, how I wish I had that on video!

I did get a video of her pushing her toy car across the room (walking while holding onto the handlebars) but my camera is not Mac-compatible, so I'll have to share at another time.

This will have to hold you over until then...Angelica in her pretty Valentine's Day dress (sorry for the lack of smile, she was pretty tired):

Angelica is 8 months old!

I can hardly believe she's 8 months old already! Look at this adorable picture, though...you would never know by looking at her that this little girl had been sick with a stomach virus for six days!

Let's see...what's new in the world of Angelica? She claps now. She started clapping last Saturday and thinks it's a complete riot whenever she does it. She's also getting frighteningly close to those first steps. She navigates between pieces of furniture in the living room with ease, barely holding on for balance. She's even let go a few times. I'm sure those first few steps are just days away at this point.

Things she's into at the moment...she likes Moose and Zee on Noggin. Last night (between 1am and 3:30-ish) she had a major crying fit...Scott couldn't calm her down for two hours, so he woke me up and then I tried for about a half hour to no avail. So, I put on Noggin and the second she saw Moose and Zee, she cheered right up. About a half hour after that I was able to get her to go back to sleep. She loves music. She can't resist dancing.

She's also really developing a personality now. She's got a great sense of humor. She thinks it's hilarious to hit me or Scott in the face, and she loves to reach in my mouth and try to pull my teeth out. She knows what "no" means now, but objects to it strongly when you say it to her. As in, whenever she's about to rip fur out of one of my cats backs (or tails or heads) and I say no, she gives me a sarcastic grunt. She's also ridiculously tolerant...for being as sick as she's been, she has been extremely happy. Finally, she's becoming really loud. Loud, as in when we were walking through Target, she was in the shopping cart seeing how loud she could scream, and then laughing. We were getting some funny (and some annoyed) looks.

She's starting to reach a few more milestones. She got a second tooth (front bottom, right). She's starting to hand objects to us to play with. She's getting a little better at holding her own bottle, though still prefers us to do it for her. Oh, and the sleep thing? Yeah, she's finally got that down to a science. She just stays up a little later now. Unfortunately, this means she sleeps in a little later now too, which makes mornings a little chaotic. Still trying to find a good balance there.

I think that covers all of the latest Angelica news. We're still waiting for her to kick this stomach bug, and now she's got a cold on top of it (and yes, she very generously shared those germs with her parents, so all of us are sick). I'm sure I'll have some more news to share soon!

Angelica has TWO teeth!

Breaking news: We discovered yesterday that Angelica now has TWO teeth, both on the bottom. Which explains why she has been a crankypuss the past week.

Other things she's doing:
- Starting to stand on her own. She chickens out and crouches down and sits after about 5 seconds.
- She's been dancing for awhile, but now she REALLY gets going, at the hint of anything that could remotely be considered music. Even mommy talking to her in a sing song voice.
- Waving. She does this CONSTANTLY. She waves when we walk in a door. She waves when we walk out of a room. She waves when someone says hi, bye, or whenever someone who wasn't in the room before comes in.
- STILL SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT! YES!

And with that, I leave you with the latest, most darling photo of our princess.

Angelica is 7 months old!

I'm late on this update - it's been a rather busy few weeks since she turned seven months! It was right after Christmas (December 29th) when she had her seven month birthday, and right after that was New Year's, then back to work and I also started my master's degree. Anyway, look at our smiley little girl! She's such a happy kid. She's finally making up for those first few months where all she did was cry, because now she is all smiles, all the time. It's great!

Here is a slideshow of photos from Christmas, including some professional ones we got done at Sears.. Her first Christmas was AWESOME. I swear, it's like they opened up a Toys R Us store in our apartment now. She had a really good time though, she even helped open a few of her presents.

She's hit a few more milestones recently. Let me think what I may not have covered already...she's up to six words now! She says "mama", "dada", "baba", "kitty", "ducky", and her latest one, "ah-choo!" Which is exactly what you think it is. She sneezed, her daddy said "ah-choo!" and she replied with "ah-choo!" It is really freaking adorable!

Also, we've started moving onto more solid foods, namely puffs. She got them for the first time on Christmas, they were a gift in her stocking. She loves them and she's gotten it down to a science how to pick one up from her tray and get it into her mouth. So far, we haven't had any major mishaps with them, other than on Christmas day, she plopped down on the floor and got one stuck in her throat in the process, and gagged and threw up all over her pretty dress. So now she only gets them when she's strapped in her high chair.

We also took her to her first Santa Land, hosted by my company. This picture is of all of us at the cookie decorating table. I have another picture from that day, showing her trying to eat a gingerbread cookie (she didn't succeed). She did succeed that day, though, in taking a huge bite from her daddy's italian ice when he wasn't looking. He left it on a spoon and she just helped herself.

Going back to milestones, you'll see in this picture, she's got the standing thing down now. In addition to standing, she dances. Anytime there's music, she just starts bouncing up and down or swaying side to side. It's like some sort of knee-jerk reaction how she does it, too. She doesn't just kind of ease into it...nope, the second music starts it's like a violent, "OH MY GOD I MUST SHAKE MY BABY TUSH" reaction. It's freaking adorable. She does it a lot when playing with this table, because just about every button on it plays music.

About two weeks ago, she started waving! This is really cute. She doesn't do it all the time, but we were walking around the mall one afternoon and she was waving at everyone we walked past. She also waves every time we walk through a door. This includes her bedroom door, so it's like every morning, she leaves her room and starts waving to the world. She also waves to everyone when we walk in the door at day care.

Finally, this past week marks two new milestones: she can successfully hold her own bottle (whew...this may be one of the only milestones she's slow on!), and she's FINALLY SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT. You heard it here, folks...for the past five days, she has gone down to sleep around 9pm and not stirred until 7am (or, in some cases, 8am) the next morning. Of course, I'm sure now that I've said this, she'll start waking up at 2am again...but this is huge for us. Not only do we not have to worry so much about alternating nights, she's also starting to wake up at a convenient time for us for work so nobody's getting up super early (except on the days where she wakes up at 6am).

I think I've pretty much gotten everyone up to date! I'll make sure to keep up on the posts better from now on :)

Angelica hits another milestone

We'll start this story yesterday.

While we were at the hospital getting tests done yesterday, I got a good look inside Angelica's mouth (since she was screaming her head off). She's been teething for awhile, and I've been wanting to get in there to see if I saw any sign of teeth coming through. No teeth yet...I saw a tiny "crack" in her gums on the bottom but no tooth. I suspect her teething has been causing her increase in sleep trouble lately so I was kind of hoping for a sign that the tooth was about to come through.

As an aside from this, last night I was packing up some of her old clothes, which I am eventually going to bring in for my boss to look through (she's having a girl) and looking at her newborn stuff...I got a little sentimental. She was SO TINY...and comparatively speaking she is SO BIG now. When did that happen? Can I go back? And started thinking about our first few days home...the newness of her, the new baby smell, the lack of sleep, the overwhelming emotions...It kind of gave me another wave of "I want another" (and then I snapped back to reality). Then my thinking shifted to...well at least so far we don't have walking, and we don't have teeth. She's still a baby.

So last night, I'm rocking her to sleep and letting her chew on my finger (it soothes her) and I was thinking...another perk of her not having teeth yet, and we should take advantage of this time, since she can still chew on our fingers and it doesn't hurt, and we don't have to worry about getting her teeth knocked out or anything.

She's having trouble falling asleep, and I have a massive headache, so after about 20 or 25 minutes I put her in her crib (awake) with a blanket, lovey, and pacifier (which she normally doesn't take, but since she had been chewing the crap out of my fingers I thought it'd make a good substitute) and head out for some Tylenol. She lays down, but I keep hearing her make angry grunts. After about 5 minutes, I check on her, and she's awake, a little annoyed, but not crying. So I start patting her back and she goes to sleep.

We repeat this cycle about three more times. She never actually cried during the whole thing, but you could tell she was having trouble falling asleep on her own, and I had a BAD headache and hadn't eaten in about 8 hours so I needed dinner. Since she wasn't crying and I could tell she was on the verge of sleep, I left her.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I sat down to eat dinner and about ten minutes later realized...oh my gosh! She hadn't made a peep! I went in to check on her and sure enough she had put herself to sleep after being put down awake for the first time (and thrown the pacifier out of the crib into the middle of her bedroom).

And here I was thinking we'd need to try Ferberizing!

She didn't wake up until 6:30 this morning either. She'd been waking up so often during the night lately and it was draining both of us.

So this morning I get up with her, change her, dress her, give her a bottle (which she prompty grabbed from my hands and decided she would feed herself...something she's been trying to do lately but hasn't fully grasped the idea that you have to hold the bottle upright to get the milk) and then Scott took over while I was showering. About five minutes later, I hear him bust in the door and yell:

"Mommy, Mommy! Gellie has a tooth!"

Sure enough, when I checked, the spot where her gums were "cracked" yesterday, there's a sharp little nubbin of a tooth.

And then come the unexpected feelings. My heart sank. She has a tooth. No more toothless smiles. No more letting her chomp away on my fingers. As if the sitting and crawling or standing and cruising weren't enough to do it already, the tooth did me in. My baby is growing up.

When she starts walking I am probably going to self destruct.

But, I've moved on from that and now I'm excited. She has a tooth! And she's sure to get more! That vastly increases the variety of food she can eat. And now, until the next tooth starts coming through, maybe Scott and I will be able to get some sleep! Oh boy!

Angelica's trip to Arnold Palmer

Just a little update following our visit to Arnold Palmer children's hospital today for Angelica's kidney/bladder testing. We got there around 8:30 this morning (okay, we were scheduled for 8:30 but those of you who know me know we didn't actually get there until around 8:50) and finally got seen at around 9:30 and were completely done by about 11:30.

The first test they did was a VCUG, which required yet another catheterization (good times...that part in and of itself took about a half hour because she's so young and was so incredibly upset, they couldn't get the catheter in until about five people had tried five times...even though they did restrain her...the actual test took about 5 minutes once she was catheterized). During this test, they found that she has a condition called vesicoureteral reflux...essentially, her bladder is refluxing back up to both kidneys. On the right side, it's grade III reflux, and on the left, it's grade II reflux (they rate it on a scale of I to V). Also, on the right side, she's got something called a duplicated system. Essentially, her bladder is refluxing back up to both kidneys. On the right side, it's grade III reflux, and on the left, it's grade II reflux (they rate it on a scale of I to V). Also, on the right side, she's got something called a duplicated system. Essentially, she's got two tubes coming from her kidney instead of one. They fuse together right before they reach her bladder. They think she may also have it on the left side, but had to send the urology films off for further review. Nevertheless, this is what caused her UTI about a month and a half ago.

The second test was just a renal ultrasound, which still made her completely miserable but was thankfully much quicker and less invasive.

So, the plan from here is to put her back on prophylactic antibiotics and after the holidays we'll go visit a pediatric urologist (we have to wait to get the referral before we can schedule it). Her pediatrician told me that in most cases, kids outgrow it the reflux, but the duplicated system is something that may or may not require surgery (which is why we have to see the urologist).

Anyway, the good news is that all of this sounds a lot worse than it is, and she's going to be fine. The bad news is that it means more tests that are going to make her unhappy and uncomfortable. (Also the prospect of surgery and dealing with insurance crap...never fun.)

Also, interestingly enough, as I was reading up on the condition, I learned that this problem happens more commonly in girls than boys, and also more commonly in girls who have red hair. Also, not that we're currently planning on having future children, the condition is genetic and any siblings she may have will have a 1 in 3 chance of also having the condition.

The nice people at Arnold Palmer also gave her two beanie babies which she loves :)

So, that's the update for now. Will post more updates when we have them.

Hope everyone has a happy holiday!

Mommy Moment #4/Angelica's 6 month checkup

15 pounds, 7 ounces, and 26 1/2 inches of pure spitfire. Still 50th percentile in weight and head size, but 80th in height. Tall, skinny, with a normal-sized head. She's perfect!

She screamed through her shots, as usual. She's been to the pediatrician so much in the past couple of months that she knows it's going to be a bad time the minute we walk in the door, so she was angry before it even began. But, when it was all over, she went to daycare and had a great time, acting like her normal self.

I was reflecting this evening on the past six months as I packed up the remainder of her now too-small clothes in the 3-6 month size. (always a tough milestone for me, it means she's growing up). I remember her being only a few days old, and asking questions about this and that...everyone told me "It gets easier at 6 weeks." Six weeks!?, I thought...I couldn't grasp the concept of her being six weeks old. especially being as sleep deprived as I was, with a colicky baby! And now here she is, 6 months.

I had a dream last night that I was talking to a pregnant friend (Hi Cara!) and telling her that when her baby is a newborn, she is going to be so overwhelmed by how much he's going to need to be held...and how much she's going to want to put him down! I know that's how I felt when Angelica was still teeny tiny and very needy. Now that she's bigger, she's not cuddly at all and I MISS those days so much. Between the time I spend away from her at work and her new-found abilities (crawling, pulling up to standing, etc) there's not much cuddling to be had. Part of me would give anything to go back to the zero to six weeks phase, where all I did was snuggle my baby.

Truth be told, though, so far every stage has been precious and wonderful, especially in hindsight (I've found as a parent, I tend to look at the past with rose-colored glasses). Her first cry, her first smile, her first laugh, her first crawl, her first time sitting up...the first time she reached for a toy...the first time she reached for me...I feel lucky that I haven't missed any of these things, even though I am a working mom. I'm lonely a lot for the early days when I was with her 24/7, but even now the time we spend is so precious, and I know I'm doing her the benefit of being a good role model (meaning, showing her that women can have it all...careers, family...they just have to work extra hard to balance it all!) But I would give anything to have one more day to just pick her little 8 pound body up and bring her to bed and snuggle.

So I take the moments as they come and try to be as present in those moments as I can. Babies grow so fast; once they've moved on from a stage, you can never go back. Every stage is a challenge, but is also completely wonderful and fulfilling to experience. So wonderful that sometimes I contemplate what it'd be like to do it all over again (and then I slap myself in the face and return to reality)!

Until you actually have a baby, though, there is no possible way to fully understand this.

Angelica officially crawls...and stands...

I was waiting to make the crawling announcement until I was sure it wasn't a fluke...last Wednesday, I got off work early, picked Angelica up at daycare, got home and sat down on the floor to play with her. She caught a glimpse of Rudy (one of our cats) and just took off crawling after him. Anyway, ever since then, it's been all crawling, all the time. Getting her to sit still in one place is completely impossible.

Then tonight, I was playing with her on the floor again...she had her big stuffed penguin, pushed it over against the couch, and used it to pull herself up to kneeling. Then she grabbed the sofa cushion and pulled herself completely up, and giggled wildly with pride. Then she got a little too confident, let go with one hand to turn around and look at me, and fell on her butt. Which she also thought was wildly hilarious.

Look out world, here comes mobile Angelica!

Tomorrow's her 6 month checkup...wonder how much she's gonna weigh and how long she'll be?? (She'll be at least 15 1/2 lbs...but possibly more!)

Angelica's Half Birthday

Can you believe it? Angelica is six months old today! That means that when she wakes up tomorrow, she will be closer to her 1st birthday than the day she was born. As you can see, she's grown tremendously in these first six months. When we brought her home, she could barely move herself around, slept most of the time, cried the rest of the time...now she crawls, kneels, stands with assistance, laughs, "talks" (in baby babble of course) and is just all-around a joy to have as a daughter.

We spent the afternoon out with her grandma and grandpa picking out some Christmas gifts, and went to dinner together. Daddy shared some of his tuna sandwich and fruit with her, and she ate a bite of grandpa's cottage cheese. Then she got a bath in her new big girl tub and went nighty night!

Happy half birthday sweet baby, mommy and daddy love you!

Angelica's First Thanksgiving

As you can see from this picture, Angelica's first Thanksgiving was a hit! She probably stuffed her face with more than I did (especially since I spent more time feeding her than myself). Eventually she got so excited over everything that I just handed the plate to her and let her have at it. It was hilarious because she knew exactly what to do. She grabbed stuff off of the plate with her hands and shoved it in her mouth. Then that got too slow, so as you can see, she resorted to picking the plate itself up and shoving it in her mouth. The end result, of course, was this...

That is what her Thanksgiving onesie looked like after she'd been stripped down for a bath. She was SO messy, but had such a great time. I'm so glad we were able to make her first Thanksgiving a success!






This meal was also, appropriately enough, the first time we introduced meats. She got a feast of turkey baby food with strained sweet potatoes (I took some of my own sweet potatoes and strained it for her.) I also introduced her to the wonderful world of cranberry sauce (to which she was indifferent) and pumpkin pie (which she loved!) The turkey also seemed to go over okay. She made a face with the first bite, but ate it anyway. I think we'll probably keep trying one meal with meat a week until she gets used to it!

Hope your Thanksgivings were fantastic!

Angelica put herself to sleep!

Oh man, here's a first!

I put Angelica down for bed tonight...she got her bath, we had a little play time in her bedroom, and then she got half-swaddled and got a bottle. She decided it was full and pushed away...I could see she was tired but was having trouble falling asleep.

So I put her down in her crib, put her lovey in her arms...went and sat down in the rocking chair and nary a peep came from the crib. When I looked back in on her, she was sound asleep, thumb in her mouth and lovey in her other hand.

Sniff...sniff...my baby girl is growing up so fast...just one in a series of things she'll no longer need my help with as she grows up.

Angelica updates...doctor visit, milestones, and more!

First of all, we had a follow-up with the pediatrician today about Angelica's UTI. We won't know if the infection is gone until probably Wednesday, but the poor thing broke my heart, screaming during the catheter again. She's still at 15 1/2 pounds...one week shy of her half-birthday!

The screaming she was doing sounded even worse because the two of us are fighting terrible colds. She came down with it last Monday and I started coming down with it last Tuesday. I think I'm finally starting to get better, and so is she, but it's been miserable the past few days. Just miserable.

And now for.........milestones!

I will have pictures of this to add later on (probably tonight), but our little angel is standing! About 2 weeks ago, I was sitting on the floor with her, and she lunged forward and grabbed the edge of exersaucer and pulled herself to standing. Then all weekend, whenever I'd try to sit her down, she'd get rigid and demand to stand up. So I put her next to the coffee table and she just held on and stood there...kind of cruised for a couple of steps but then fell onto her butt. The coffee table which is too tall for her to pull herself up on, but she can still reach up and hold on if I help...it's about mouth-level for her, so she can hold herself up and gum on the edge of it.

She also braced herself up against the edge of the pack & play, which didn't have anything to hold on to. She just put her hands against the mesh and used her legs and balanced...for a good five minutes probably!

Finally, we are probably going to have a tooth any day now. She has become a biter...she bites and chews on just about everything from her toys to the nipple on her bottle, to her own fingers.

Only 5 more days to her half-birthday. My how the time flies!

Angelica's first trip to the late night pediatrician

We had to run Angelica over to AfterHours for the first time last night. When I picked her up from daycare, she felt a little warm...I thought maybe it was because she was in their swing snuggling with a fleece blanket. So when we got home and she was still really warm, I was surprised.

So I took her temperature under the arm...101.1. Yikes. So then I did the dreaded rectal temperature....103.5! Yikes! So off to AfterHours we went.

(I have no idea how she could have had a temp. that high and nobody at daycare noticed. But we won't go into that rant.)

Three hours, one blood draw, one catheterization, one dose of Tylenol and two shots of antibiotics later we had our diagnosis. She has a UTI. Poor baby!!

Her screaming while being held down for the tests nearly killed me. After each one I would rock her to sleep but she would wake up to more torture.

She's better today...still a bit of a temp but overall in better spirits. We got a script to pick up more antibiotics and get her rechecked in 10 days.

We did get complemented last night on how calm we were...the nurses said there was no way we were first time parents. I try hard not to panic in front of the baby because I don't want her to pick up on it and feel worse, but I was scared over how high that temp was.

Anyway, it's time for me to drag myself to get ready for work after a long night...

[Edit] In my haste, I forgot to mention that she got weighed yesterday...15 1/2 pounds! WOW! She was only 14 lbs 4 oz a month and a half ago. This also means she's essentially reached the "doubling her birthweight" benchmark (15.6lbs is double her birthweight). Wow!!