Uh Oh

We have an official first word - "uh oh". Isla has been babbling for quite awhile now. She will say mama or dada, but not on command or in context. Uh oh is the first word we can get her to repeat. This morning while I was dropping her off at daycare, she dropped a toy and said "uh oh". It was adorable! She has also started using her sippy cup more and more. I just can't believe what a little person she is becoming. She is just so smart, sweet, and adorable.







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7 months

Isla is 7 moths old. I can't seem to keep up with blog in order to report all that she is doing now. She is reaaaallly close to crawling. She will use her arms to spin in a circle and will go backwards on her tummy. She can get up on her hands and knees but just sways back and forth at this point. She is definitely mobile though. I will put her on her owl mat with lots of toys and the next thing I know she is stuck under the TV armoire. I really can't take my eyes off her for a second now. She is basically all over the place. She want to grap everything in sight.

She is becoming a little more vocal now. She will say things that sound like hi or da da, but nothing for real yet. She is still usually her happy little self.

We finally stopped swaddling her. It worked well for so long and I was really hesitant about stopping, but it was a pretty easy transition. She was flipping over onto her stomach while swaddled, which made me really nervous. So now we just put her to bed and tuck a blanket around her. She immediately turns onto her side to fall asleep and eventually ends up on her stomach. We've been cluster feeding her at night in hopes that she doesn't wake up at 3am wanting to eat. Sometimes this works and other nights it does not. I still haven't quite figured out the trick. I'm wondering if she might be going through a growth spurt and is just hungry.

She is doing very well with her solids now. She gets them three times a day. Her favorite dinner time toy in the highchair is a wooden spoon. I think I will need to stock up on them. The first one I gave her was actually a very nice one from Sur La Table that ended up on the floor and chewed up by a certain small black dog that will go unnamed. We've been through most of the cereals, fruits, and veggies. I haven't given her meat yet b/c those just look disgusting. I'm not sure I can stomach spooning it out and feeding her!

She just loves all the pets. She lights up and smiles whenever she sees them. She does a good job of softly petting them while I supervise her.The dogs love the attention and the cats, at least Sashimi, tolerate her. Soju just runs away. I can't wait for her to be able to chase the dogs around and give them a taste of their own medicine.

Here's a picture of her first thing in the morning. We put her to bed with her hair still a little damp and this happened:

Christmas Recap

Isla's first Christmas can be summarized in one word: TOYS! She got a ton of toys, all of which make noise (thank you Nana Breard)! She didn't quite master opening the presents, but she loved the tissue paper. If I would have let her put it in her mouth, I think that would have been her favorite thing of all.

We spent Christmas in Little Rock with my side of the family since we spent Thanksgiving in Nebraska with Ryan's side. We usually switch back and forth each year. We went to Church on Christmas Eve and then had the obligatory viewing of It's a Wonderful Life. Although I think I passed out on the floor before the movie was over. We opened presents on Christmas morning with my dad, Sam, and MG. Then we headed over to my mom's for more presents. My mom definately spoiled Isla as there were a ton of presents and they were all for her! She got lots of great stuff and I know she will enjoy playing with it all.

Here she is with her new "laptop". This picture is pretty scary. She looks just like her dad!

Here a few pictures from Christmas Eve. She is wearing her Santa Baby outfit from Grandpa Stadter that was just adorable.

6 months

While I was traveling for work, Isla turned 6 months old. I was gone for almost a whole week and this is the longest I have been away from her. It was difficult to not see her smiling face everyday and to give her hugs and kisses whenever I wanted. I did get to facetime with her several days and that helped. I have several trips this winter for work and I'm not looking forward to leaving her again:(

I noticed the other day that I still keep saying/thinking "I just had a baby". I guess I need a reality check that is has been 6 months. It still seems like we are trying to get in a routine or get a handle on having a baby. I guess that's probably how it will be from now on. It seems like whenever we get something down, it changes. I can't get over how big she has gotten. It's hard to remember how small she was when she was born.

At her 6 month check-up, she weighed 17.8 lbs and was 27 inches long. I'm surprised how "tall" she seems all of the sudden. Hopefully she will get her daddy's height and not be a shorty like her mom. Here's a picture of her at Thanksgiving with Grandpa and Grandma Siffring.

Isla loves the jumperoo! It keeps her attention longer than any other toy. Unfortunately, it also tends her get her systems moving and can be a bit messy!

She is sitting up on her own now and enjoys sitting and playing with toys. We couldn't get her to really sit for very long until we discovered the trick. We went to her daycare for a family night and they sat her down with a mat full of toys and she was perfectly content. We weren't giving her enough toys! Now we just load her up and she will play by herself for much longer. At the family night, Santa was there for pictures and she did great! She didn't have a care in the world and gave a big smile for the camera (as always). She is quite the ham!

5 Months

Isla turned 5 months old yesterday. On one hand it seems like it has gone by so quickly, but at the same time it feels like she has always been here. It's weird. We had her first parent-teacher conference last night. What you might ask could you possibly have to discuss in a parent-teacher conference for a 5 month old? Turns out not that much! It was a pretty short meeting. She is almost doing a lot of things but hasn't mastered most of the skills for the 1 year old classroom, which makes sense because she's only 5 months! We did get to see her binder where they keep her artwork and they type up a little sheet when she does meet a milestone. She is rolling back to front and front to back regularly now. I have to make sure she is strapped into anything I put her in. She has started to get a little big for the beloved bouncy seat as well. I'm actually kinda sad about that one. It was so nice to put her in there when I need to get ready in the morning or when I was folding laundry. The little travel swing she was using also is starting to not really swing very fast when she is in it!

She is still battling ear infections. She's had three now in the past 2 months. Basically anytime she gets a cold it is soon to follow. I did figure out some of her signals now. She doesn't really cry too much but basically talks really loud or even yells. Last time she would wake up every few hours at night and just yell. We go back for a follow-up with the ENT later this month, so we will see what he says.

She is generally just a happy baby. She loves to play and chat with anyone that will listen. She has really become aware of the dogs lately. Whenever she sees them she gets a huge grin on her face and just loves to watch them play. We have been working on petting them without grabbing their hair, but that's probably a lost cause at this point! The dogs do really well with her. Evie will lay down and let Isla "pet" her. Evie really wants to lick her face, but I try to prevent that whenever possible. Milo still comes running anytime she cries and really wants to lick her feet. The cats are not at all interested. We've tried "petting" them but they do not really appreciate it. Sashimi does love to sleep in the chair in the nursery when I forget to close the door.

She started eating rice cereal every few days after her 4 month appointment with the pediatrician. She wasn't a big fan.

"Daddy, why are you making me eat this?"

Since then we have tried carrots which she likes a little better. I think later this week we may try some oatmeal to see if she likes that any better than the rice cereal.

Isla's First Halloween

Isla started off her first Halloween with a party at school. She "painted" a pumpkin at the party. Here is her first outfit of the day.




Later she dressed up to hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters.





Then she discovered the candy bowl...




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Warrior Dash

Yesterday Ryan and I ran in the Warrior Dash. It was a 5K with about 12 obstacles ranging from rope climbs to cargo nets and even jumping through fire. It ended with a crawl through the mud pit. Ryan stayed with me throughout the race even though I was really slow. I attempted all of the obstacles, but there were two that I couldn't do, the ones that involved scaling the top of a wall. I didn't think that was too bad for being four months post-partum. Overall it was really fun and everyone had a great time. We couldn't have asked for a nicer day. Ryan's parents came in town for the weekend to watch Isla while we ran. After the race some friends came over for dinner and shuffleboard. We are pretty tired and sore today! Plans have already been made for Warrior Dash 2012 in KC!

Here is the group before the race.




Ryan coming out of the mud pit.



I was trying really hard not to get all muddy, so of course I fell in and it was all over! I don't think I've ever felt that disgusting before. You basically have mud EVERYWHERE!





Group shot after the race.



Warrior Baby!!!



Shoe donation pile.




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