There are so many things I love about her. One thing is she is never too old (well right now that is) for a good snuggly sleepy nap session on mommy. Pardon my horrid looks, I was soaking up some non-refundable/returnable sugar with my baby.
(Sunday morning picniks with daddy)
(as you can see she loves to help....PULL EVERYTHING OUT. She loves pulling all the food out the pantry. All the tubawear out of their space. All the laundry out as mommy folds)
I can't wait for summer. I am not trying to rush time, but I think this summer is going to be so fun. We already have several fun family trips/day excursions planned and I cannot wait. She is going to be the perfect age for all that too. What fun she is.
YES. That is a paci. No we have not transformed her to be a paci baby. Her cousin M came to visit a couple months ago and they tried one of Riley's old paci's that she never used and let say it was a hit for M. Well they took one but left the other one. Riley has taken this one as her newest toy if you will and now crawls around the house with it in her mouth. She thinks it is funny. And so do we. She doesn't really suck on it more like chews on it. I'm kind of glad she is a thumb baby though. Mostly because she really does not depend on her thumb. It's more of a comfort thing. She only does it at night or when she is really tired. She doesn't keep her thumb in her mouth all day. Since she stopped using the paci around 3 months, thats when she really started jibber jabbering and discovering her voice. Now the paci is just a funny toy for her. That is A-OKAY with us.
Riley 13 Milestones:
1) She has a MOUTH full of teeth. Ok, not a mouth full of teeth but she is now up to five teeth fully showing, two teeth broken the VERY tip of the gum and some molars in the back if I do have to say so myself. Why you might ask? Because she has a HORRID diaper rash. She is not sleeping as well at night because of teeth. and she chews on everything lately. Something she has never done. I also so this because she didn't get her first tooth until almost nine months old... YIKES.
2) She can pull up on almost anything and she will let go other things and stand unassisted BRIEFLY. She does not like to hold our hands and walk but she will push her walker and go around. She is not trying to walk otherwise. I'll keep wishing.
3) She says "hi" "bye" "daddy" "mommy" "yeah" "that" and has been saying these things for several months. Tonight she added "BABY" to the mix. David and I both were totally excited when she did this.
4) She is a major thumb sucker still. I'll keep hoping she will give it up as easily as she picked it up. One momma can dream right?
5) She still loves books. Easily one of her most favorite "toys" in her field of toys. She looks thru them as though she is reading them and knows if it is up side down and will flip it over to be right side up.
6) She is a VERY social baby. She loves to be out and about seeing people and things. She also enjoys daycare from what we can tell and never seems to have any issues with us dropping her off.
7) She eats table foods very well. Girlfriend can eat. I would be lying if I said I don't miss the days/simplicity of knowing she will get an 8-ounce bottle every four hours simply because it was easy and I never had to plan what she needed to eat but I do love watching her chow down on some food like a 16 year old boy. She can PUT SOME FOOD DOWN. Where does it go??
8) She still sleeps super well at night, aside from this diaper rash and teething stage which is usually up once around 2 for a diaper change and snuggles for 10 minutes before going back to bed.
9) She loves to "dance" and nod her whole body yes.
10) January 12,2012 we made her a forward facing baby. Doctor gave us the OK to if we wanted to and we are more than ready considering Riley was starting to get really mad with being backwards facing. There where times when she would SCREAM on the top of her lungs because she could hear us but not see us. She is way more happy being able to see what is going on in the world.11) She has wonderful object permanence. Meaning if she cannot see it or feel it, she knows it does in-fact still exist. I do miss the days of when I could hide things from her and she would think it was gone. Now she just crawls to where ever I hid it and gets it out.
12) She likes to give kisses....To pictures and things. She will not give us kisses nearly as often as she kisses magazines and pictures. It is so funny when she does this.
13) Bath time is still a favorite. She is not 100% in the BIG girl bath but we place her inflatable bath inside the bathtub. She loves it.
14) She is in a wide range of clothing. She wears 12-18 months really well in Gymboree or Crazy 8. Some of her 6 months clothes STILL fit. So clearly 9 Months are too still an option. The other day we put her 6-12 months jammies on her and while the legs are a tad bit short she fits into those too. I am learning that clothes makers make you think they will only fit for short periods of time but my baby has gotten GREAT use out of MANY of her clothes. Makes me a happy momma.
15) She started her own thing which we called baby yoga. It's pictured above. She takes any pillow and will stand on her head and at times lift her arms up while doing that. She is so super silly.
16) She started loving jackets in the last couple days. She will crawl around the house until she finds one and wants us to put it on. She will cry until we do so.
17) Sneezes scare the bejesus out of her. I can't say I blame her.
18) She is loves to look at her self in any mirror. Or loves to look at pictures of herself or other babies. She really loves to watch herself cry. Weird I know. If she has bows in her hair when she looks at herself in the mirror she tends to pull them out.
19) She still continues to be the light of mine and David's life. We think she is so funny. Just last night we were sitting on the floor in the kitchen with her because that's what she wanted us to do. We will do anything for this child at the drop of a hat.
20)And last but not least, February 9th, 2013 was her VERY first day without a single bottle. We decided to go ahead and take her off completely. It was a rough bedtime routine but we are one day behind us on being bottle free. I am pretty excited to not have to wash bottles anymore. It will probably be a long road ahead but I am excited to see a bottle-less future.
Riley and I had several issues with the whole breast-feeding thing and being the well informed first time mom on complications of stress and exhaustion that I was/am, I was NOT going to stress out about it nor was I going to become postpartum-ly (is that a word? If not I just made it up) depressed over it. My supply would not come in, no matter how much I tried and I had a screaming baby who was STARVING for food and was so frusterated with nothing coming out. I later felt my whole supply come in at about 1.5 weeks but by that time David, Riley and I all had a wonderful schedule with formula and may I mention it was FOUR hours. So we only woke up TWICE in a night. Once at 12 and once at 4. Never steered off of that schedule. NOT EVEN ONCE. By 4 WEEKS she was attempting to skip the 4 am bottle. Worried first time mom I continued to wake her up for 2 more weeks until several moms told me I was CRAZY. So we stopped that shortly after 6 weeks and never looked back. at 7 WEEKS OLD, she was sleeping from 12am until 6 or 7. Seemed wonderful enough for David and me. So we kissed that breast-feeding thing good bye and bottle fed my baby. I think she turned out alright. If you don't think so, take your judgemental thoughts else where. Thank you, as I step off my soap box.
If you made it all the way through that, more power to you. Thanks for reading and stopping by. Hugs and big wet kisses when you can get one from Riley.
XOXO
The Lyman Clan
I just found your blog and loved reading about your adorable baby girl - she's just lovely! Congratulations on having such a beautiful family!
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