First word!

Eliza said her first word!

Janie was feeding her, and she said "Good." Said it twice again later, too.

7-months-old!

Eliza turned 7-months-old today. She's been having a lot of fun being a big girl lately. As I noted here, she's recently started eating a breakfast of cereal and fruit. She loves her food so much that she'll lick it off her bib if we don't shovel it in fast enough. She's now trying to hold her bottle a bit and she's mastered holding (but not necessarily drinking from) her sippy cup. She's started to scoot across the floor to get to a toy and we're just now working on letting her hold herself in a standing position using a piece of furniture.

Getting ready for bed is a joy. She loves her bath in her giant duckie bathtub. If we undress her and put her pajamas on without putting her in the bath, she complains about it loudly. She loves to try to eat her books at story time and really seems to pay attention once in a while. She no longer sleeps swaddled, but she does give us a bit of a challenge at bedtime. Even though we've gotten into a routine, she gives us a good 10-20 minutes of crying fairly loudly before she'll go to sleep. She generally has a couple of crying fits in her sleep at night, but if she doesn't get back to sleep on her own, giving her back her pacifier usually does the trick.

Mostly, though, she's such a good and happy baby. She still loves Yo Gabba Gabba and can even tell we're turning it on when she first sees the DVR menu screen. We're a bit concerned that she seems to be a tad behind some friends' babies at this age, but she's such a joy. We're just glad she's happy and healthy.

Baby and Daddy

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. I spent the beginning of the week laboring under the illusion that I was going to get more organized and regimented. When I realized that forcing a family onto a schedule is a near impossibility, I abandoned the effort. None too soon. We spent some quality time together as a family last night and I don't think that would have been the case if I was trying to accomplish everything on my list.

As for Eliza, she had breakfast for the first time yesterday. I've been trying to avoid forcing too much food on her too fast, but it seemed like a good time to start. I mixed some rice cereal with some pears and she gobbled it up. I guess the trick to getting her to eat rice cereal was t0 disguise it as delicious cereal. Too bad they don't make Trix or Fruity Pebbles flavored baby fruit.

She turns 7-months-old this weekend. My how time flies. I'm already planning her first birthday party.

Eliza sleeps like a big girl and babbles, too. Also, more on package shrinkage.

The last thing in the subject line has nothing to do with Seinfeld. I was confronted with another incidence of package size shrink yesterday. I was checking out the nutrition information on the back of a can of Starkist tuna. I noticed that the serving size was smaller. Yep. Another case of the sneaky package shrink. We're paying the same price and getting half an ounce less. If the store brand is the old size, I'll be sticking with that from now on. I plan to call out every incidence of this I find. I think it's unconscienable. Especially in this economy. For fans of the 80s movie Mr. Mom, perhaps I should switch to Schooner Tuna. The tuna with a heart.

Now, about Eliza. As soon as we bought her a new swaddling blanket, bedtime became a nightmare. We'd swaddle her and she'd cry off and on for two hours. Busting out seemed to be her lone objective. Night before last, I was so frustrated I just unswaddled her and it was INSTANT sleep. She slept all night without waking up to cry once. Last night she gave us a hassle about bedtime for about 45 minutes, and then she fell right to sleep and was still sleeping when we got up this morning. I guess swaddling is a thing of the past. I hate that we spent the money on a new blanket, but I'm relieved that she seems to be learning to sleep on her own. Now I need to tackle her new aversion to afternoon naps.

She's also been babbling a ton lately. I tried twice to catch it on video today, but with little success.

Eliza's first trip to the park

Since Eliza was very small when it was still warm enough in the fall, today was our first day at the park!

She was very grumpy because she just had her shots today. She's still so very cute. Even though we had to constantly hold it steady, she seemed to be content in the swing. We just couldn't coax a smile out of our grumpy Gus.

Six month check-up!

Eliza seems to be doing really well. She's gigantic for her age. She's in the 95th percentiles for height and head circumference and 97th for weight. 27.5 inches tall and weighing in at 20.05 lbs. Can you believe how much our girl has grown? Apparently her size isn't of concern because she's height/weight proportionate.

Eliza is such a happy baby. She smiled and giggled during her entire exam. Both the Drs. noted just what a sweet disposition she has.

Otherwise, things looked good and we're excited. We were promised no shots at her next visit. It's always so heartbreaking too see her cry when she's been so good for the entire doctor visit.

After the doctor we went to Babies r Us to get Eliza a new swaddling blanket. Try as we might, she just won't sleep without it. We figure we probably have another month or two with it. The velcro was wearing off her old one, so I hope the new one lasts until she's ready to sleep unswaddled. We also get her a smaller sippy cup. The one I got her aroun Valentine's Day is just too big for her to handle on her own. We got her an Avent sippy up and it's slightly smaller. Hopefully she'll get in the habit of drinking some water with her baby food at night.

Speaking of baby food, she LOVES peaches. We also gave her a bit of baby chicken last night. Once she got used to the unusual taste, she was totally on board. *sniffle* Our little baby is growing up! *sniffle*

Walmart, Pampers, Price hikes and Package Shrinking

It really irritates me when products shrink their package size and think we're too stupid to notice. We're then expected to dutifully pay the same price. Today at the store we got a double whammy. We paid a dollar more for a box of Pampers Baby Dry and there were four fewer diapers in the box. We used to pay $19.97 for the 100 count box at Walmart. We now pay $20.97 for a similar box that contains 96. It's one thing to raise the price or reduce the package size but both? That's just evil. It's enough to make me consider switching to Huggies. We've been loyal to Pampers because they seemed to help clear up the diapers rash Eliza had when she was born. Now I just don't know. We found a $5 off coupon for Huggies online. We may have to switch.

Mimi Visit

We hadn't seen Brian's Mom since the ice storm, so it was nice to see her for dinner last night.We're lucky to see her regularly when she's in town for work. Since we hadn't seen her in a month and a half, Eliza had her second bout of stranger anxiety in the beginning. I felt terrible, but once she calmed down, she really warmed up to her Mimi. After she attempted to take off Mimi's glasses, I knew she'd be okay.

Eliza's New Nursery

Eliza's room is considerably smaller at the new house. Unfortunately, that meant not bringing along Grandmomma's dresser from Mayfield. We actually bought her a new chest for the new house and had to use it in our room. Everything else seemed to fit somehow and I finally finished Eliza's room today.

Funny story, though. Brian's Dad and Stepmom bought us a rocking chair when Eliza was born. I love the chair and you'd never know it's a rocking chair. It just looks like a big ole comfy arm chair. It never really rocked right. It always seemed to fall too far forward. Also, the rockers would scrape up the baseboards if it came anywhere close to a wall. The other night, we were sitting in Eliza's room and I started really examining the chair. It occured to me that the rockers might be on backward. I was right. Last night Brian turned the rockers around and now the chair is much more comfortable! You don't constantly feel like you're falling forward. I think Eliza and I are going to enjoy reading stories in that rocking chair.

Baseball Season

Eliza's looking forward to baseball season. As for her choice of team, well, there's no accounting for taste.

Settling In

We had a tough move to Richmond last week, but we've managed to settle in a little more. First I was sick for our move, then while we were in Mayfield, Eliza came down with the virus of doom. Since she had a 103 degree fever, we took her to the ER and had her checked over. After a couple of days of recovery, she was fine. She's just fighting off the lingering cough we're all stuck with after this bug.

Unpacking has been slow going. We have a three bedroom house worth of stuff to fit into a two bedroom townhouse. We have lots of storage space under the stairs, but everything really needs to be repacked so we can use the space efficiently. Meanwhile, I'm still the mommy of a six-month-old baby and our daily routine makes it difficult to get much done. Thank goodness for her afternoon naps.

Eliza is, as ever, a joy. She continues to be extremely grabby and we have to watch what we put within arm's reach. Her motorskills are improving every single day. I think crawling is a good way off. She DOES NOT like to be on her tummy for an extended period of time. She does, however, like to stand (with help, of course). Yesterday I let her stand while she held on to the laptop and the coffee table. For a few seconds she was holding herself up without any help from me. Brian caught a picture of that, but excuse our surroundings. We are still unpacking.

Also, since we had a tough week, Brian came home with some gorgeous tulips. They also afforded him the opportunity to play with his camera. Lastly, Eliza took a ride in a laundry basket yesterday and giggled up a storm. Enjoy the pictures!