Ten Months Old - A Month of Firsts!

This month you have had so many "firsts", I can hardly recount them all. But since this is the only baby book you have, I'm going to try!


You had your first ice cream...



Your first bowl of Spaghettios...



Your first ride in a park swing...



On your first St. Patrick's Day...


You have started loving to be standing all the time...



You have started cruising...



AND on your 10 month birthday, we treated you to your first (and hopefully last) set of tubes! You were very curious about your new surroundings...


and so brave...



and pretty cheerful!



You did great with your tubes, and perked up pretty quickly after you woke up. The rest of the day was tough because you seemed to have a very sore throat, and you cried most of the day, so we gave you a couple of Easter presents early, which you enjoyed.
Also this month, you have really kept us on our toes with your ever-increasing mobility, and your quick little fingers that put items in your mouth before we even notice you have something in your hands. I have pulled the following items out of your mouth this month: a piece of yarn, countless fuzz balls and wads of paper, handfuls of grass, a dandelion, pebbles, seeds, dog food, and one big, round, hard walnut shell. Who knows what you managed to swallow before I dug it out. You are definitely curious and busy, and know no fear. I have a feeling the next few months are going to be more busy, and more fun!! Love you sooo much Lila!

Sooo big, Sooo fast!

Lila, I can hardly stand it! You are getting so big, so fast. Lots of new things going on in the Wassif household. While my heart is breaking as you move on from the sweet baby towards your one-year-old self, the new things you are doing are so much fun and so exciting. I have a hard time packing up your clothes and putting them in the attic (though that is slow going, since at almost 9 months, you still wear a lot of 6month things). But it has been fun to get out new things, like sippy cups and big girl carseat (goodbye, good riddance bucket seat!). A couple of fun new things these days...
You are still pretty reluctant to crawl/creep. You are starting to get pretty frustrated when your toys are out of reach, and you are figuring out that you can move your body on your own...but no actual forward independent movement yet. You still don't love your belly which doesn't help. For months, you have been rolling onto your back once you are done with your belly, and this past weekend you learned how to get from all fours to sitting by yourself. This really pleases you. You are pulling up more, and love standing. So who knows, maybe you'll move right to cruising!
Some new things you did today...
We have started some self-feeding with you, which is really fun, though really messy, and takes forever, so lunch on the weekends when you are not starving is a good time to practice. Today, you went for it up to your elbows in mashed up bananas and kiwi, and actually got a fair amount into your mouth. You were pretty proud of yourself. Today was a landmark day because for the first time, you fed Sage a fistful of food from your hand. And Sage has now learned where to camp out during your mealtimes.
You also have a LOVE for veggie chips, which Daddy gives you. Today, you munched on about half of the chip, and then couldn't get to the rest that was mashed up in your fist. When I tried to take the chip to move it up in your hand so you could get another bite, you LOST it. You started shaking in anger, then did that silent scream where you hold your breath right before you let loose...and held it for so long you actually turned purple. I have never seen anything like it, and your Daddy and I hung our heads, seeing our futures flash before our eyes. Anyway, you calmed down quickly with a shiny big MumMum in your hand, which you ate like a champ.
Another new thing we have noticed is more purposeful play. It is fun to watch you explore, and do more with your toys then look at them and shove them in your mouth! Today, I sat you down with your big cloth bin full of toys, and two small boxes with your favorite toys in them, jar lids and uno cards. Within less than ten minutes, every single toy was out of their containers. You have a thing about "taking things out", dumping, spilling right now. No interest in putting things back in, unfortunately, Mommy has to clean up by herself. Can't to see what new things you do tomorrow!

We started out surrounding you with your bins of toys...



You tipped...



And dug...




And Done!

Eight is Great!

Happy Eighth Lila!

Running a little behind this month, but you know as well as I do that it is because we have been sooo busy! This has been such a fun month with you! You are growing bigger each day, learning more each day, and you seem so delighted to explore and spend time with mommy and daddy. Your stranger anxiety has finally reared its ugly head, though you aren't too bad. As long as I can slip away without you noticing, you usually do okay, especially in familiar environments like daycare and church. The second you notice me though, it is all over. Every day when I pick you up from daycare, I try to get as much packed up as possible before you notice me. When you do see me, you excitedly squeal for about 10 seconds until you begin to screech. The beginning of January finally brought the end to your months long ear infection, just before we resorted to injections of antibiotics (whew!). The good news is you drained the fluid on your own, so we are avoiding the ENT for now...we are going back to the doctor this afternoon however for another suspected infection, so we'll see if we make it safely through the winter.
You continue to be a great night sleeper. You usually are asleep by 6-6:30pm on the weekdays. Lately you have waken between 5-6am and I can often nurse you then put you back to bed for another hour or so (on good days!). Weekends, you have been catching up on the lack of sleep you get during the day at daycare. You nap great, and then can stay up a little longer. Mommy and Daddy are starting to reintroduce ourselves to our social lives!
No teeth yet! You continue to love trying new foods. You are still clumsy with feeding yourself cheerios or puffs...usually its an accident if you get it in your mouth. You do love feeding yourself mum mums though. Sippy cup is touch and go. You get the concept, but don't really care to have any. You seem to be less interested in your bottles lately...you hardly ever finish one in one shot. You are making up for it by increasing your solids for all three meals per day.
You are still more or less immobile (which is nice for Mommy getting things done around the house). You can get from sitting to your belly, though you get mad when that happens. You do much better on your belly, sometimes rocking, and a few attempts at army crawling. You stay on your tummy much longer now before eventually rolling onto your back and sticking your feet in your mouth. You can pull up from sitting if everything is in the right place, and you love standing at your table (with Mommy sitting behind to catch you when you plop down).
You are becoming so much more vocal! This month you starting saying dadada, bababa, and uh oh, which is very funny. You wave, you fake cough, and you cheese a huge grin (full of gums!). You are so much fun to be around. Your favorite toys are sophie, your lantern, your bath toy sea animals, baby food jar lids, paper, and you LOVE to JUMP!! Lila, you have made us sooo happy, and we have loved this month with you :)

Lila's Food

I have been making Lila's baby food since she started solids at about 5 1/2 months. She has had a few jars, when we are traveling, or for the few items that it is more financially reasonable to buy rather than make, but for the most part, Lila has had homemade food. I love making it, it makes financial sense, and it is great knowing exactly what she is eating...organic fresh or frozen fruits and veggies, organic rice cereal and oatmeal, breastmilk and formula. Doesn't get much simpler than that! Lila truly loves the bright colors of her food, and hasn't rejected anything yet. Joe and I have started a tradition of a stay at home "date night" making baby food over a bottle of wine. We tend to make about three weeks worth at a time, since that is how many containers we have. Since there are no preservatives, we have to just thaw out what we need the night before. It has worked for us so far, and hoping to keep it up until Lila is eating food with us!

Happy eating!


Sage gobbled up the frozen cubes of butternut squash, but completely ignored the peas...




Ice cube tray full of delicious snacks...we like to drop one "ice cube" into a bowl of warm oatmeal for breakfast!




Fresh apricots...




Pureed apricots...




Broccoli in the steamer, a new one for Lila this week!




Carrots for Lila, carrot for Mommy!




Scooping the kiwi out of its peel




Jars for Lila, bottle for Mommy and Daddy!




Happy peas!




Three weeks worth of delicious food for Lila!

Seven Months Old!

Lila! When did you get to be 7 months old?? This has been a great month! Since we buckled down on sleeping, life has been great for you and for us. You go to bed between 5:30 and 7pm, depending on your last nap, and you stay in your crib until at least 6am. If you wake up before 6 and don't fall back to sleep on your own after a few minutes, I nurse you and put you back down, and you go back to sleep for a bit. I put you down awake now, and you fall to sleep on your own, which is such a great improvement! I now realized that you were sleep deprived before, and with all this sleep at night, and these great naps (at least on the weekend), you are such a happy, playful baby. You still have bad nap days at daycare, but I have learned to let go of that since I can't control it, and we just have a super early bedtime those nights. You have had a pesky ear infection since Thanksgiving that we can't get rid of, but you don't seem to run very high fevers, and it rarely seems to bother you...we only know it is back when you start playing with your ears. We are on our third antibiotic however. Hopefully, this ends soon. We are also trying to get you to eat as well as possible, since you are now in only the 10th percentile for weight. Unfortunately, these antibiotics seem to affect your appetite, so that is something we continue to work on...you are not always interested in finishing your bottles. You still hate belly time, and still no teeth. But you sit and play like such a big girl, you sometimes play on your knees, pulling up to sit up on your knees, and you LOVE to jump! You love any bouncy jumper, and you just jump and jump and laugh and laugh. Whenever I pick you up from daycare, if you are in one of them, you jump so hard with such a huge smile when you see me. It makes me so happy. You like lots of different foods - peas, green beans, avocados, zucchinis, bananas, apples, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots...you will try and eat anything we give you so far. I hope you continue to eat such variety! We had a great Christmas with our family in Ohio. You slept through the first part of Christmas morning, as it was naptime, but then you loved playing with all the wrapping paper. You and Margaret played together so well since you are now interested in each other and each other's toys. We love watching you two growing up together. This was also a great month because Daddy had Christmas break during much of it, and therefore you got LOTS of Daddy time! You stayed home from daycare several days over his break, and played with Daddy all day. It was a great break for Mommy too, and we are all rested and energized to start the new year. Can't wait for the next month with you, Lila, but let's slow down a little!! Love you!

Ups and Downs

We have learned, from the beginning, there are ups and downs to this whole parenting thing. It seems like as soon as you figure out one pattern, one trick, one "sure thing"...she up and changes on us. Whether it be sleeping or eating or playing - she keeps us on our toes. Luckily, the downs are not too terrible, and don't last too long, and the ups are amazing!! This last 4-5 weeks has had quite a few downs. Lila's sleep got to its all time worst. She was back to taking sometimes hours to go down at night, waking many times at night wanting to nurse, or play, or just cry. Up early, not napping hardly at all. She was at times going a full day of school napping less than an hour total, then awake for 2 hours or so in the middle of the night, not to mention a late bedtime and early morning. This baby was getting far far less sleep than she should have, which of course was leading to fussiness and crankiness. On top of that (or perhaps causing that), Lila was sick over Thanksgiving with an ear infection and upper respiratory infection, leading to an antibiotic...which apparently didn't work. A couple of weeks later, at her regular 6 month check up, she had an ear infection in both ears, even though the antibiotic had just finished! So on to another, stronger antibiotic (which at least she will take this one without a screaming fit!). And, icing on the cake, it turns out she dropped from 37th percentile in weight at 4 months to 13th percentile at 6 months. Our little bean weighed 14lbs 5oz, gaining less than a pound in two months. So of course, guilt ensues...
However, the ups have come finally! We have had a great 10 days! After desperation, and the cliff notes version of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Kids (or whatever it is called - I am now reading it more thoroughly), I put Lila in her crib on Monday night after two hours of attempting to get her to sleep...and I walked out of the room. She was fed, she was dry, she was warm, she was loved. She was also tired. 20 minutes later, Lila fell asleep and slept for the next 10 hours. The longest stretch of sleep she had had in months (also, it should be noted, the longest stretch of sleep I had gotten in months!!!). The following night, at bedtime, I nursed her, hugged and kissed her, and laid her in her crib and walked out of the room. 5 minutes later - asleep...for the next 12 hours. We have been on a roll ever since. One of the most important things I have learned is that sleep really does beget sleep. And as Lila still does not nap much at daycare (and I have no control over this), we go to bed very very early. Like sometimes at 5;30pm. And she has been sleeping until some time between 5:45 and 6:30am. And while our evening time together is cut very short (we are on a strict schedule of dinner, bath, book, nurse, bed) she is happy the whole time. And usually gives us some fun play time in the morning. Joe and I are like new people. We have gotten some good sleep, and so has Lila. This past weekend she napped for 4-5 hours between two naps both days. Good catch up after tiresome daycare. Clearly she is feeling better, and the sleep is helping as well. We also learned our lesson after the previous weekend, and when we wanted to go to a Christmas party on Friday night that started at 7, we got a babysitter. And on Sat night's Christmas party, Joe went and I stayed home and wrapped presents. There will be other parties in other years.
So now we are working on the eating thing. Lila has never had a huge appetite...she moved to eating every 3 hours before being 3 months old, and still doesn't have more than 5 oz at a time. In fact these days she sometimes goes 4 hours between bottles (though we're hoping her appetite might pick up once her antibiotics finish up). She is now eating solids twice a day, so that helps, and I mix cereal in when she will let me (not a big cereal fan!) to add some calories to her fruit and veggies. We go back for a checkup in a couple of weeks to check her ears, and her weight to see if we need to go any further than offering food often. Hopefully she will gain a little holiday weight =)
The other ups? Lila is sooo much fun these days! She sits up so well, playing, bending around, reaching for toys. Occasionally falls straight backwards if she is looking up at you, and sometimes falls on her face when reaching for a far away toy. Not interested in moving yet, but getting more motivated to reach for things she wants lately, so I think movement will come soon. No teeth yet, but we keep thinking they are coming. Lila loves Sage, and laughs and laughs when he is around. She likes to pet him and play with his collar. She loves jumping, loves musical toys, and loves playing with plastic spoons. She grabs for the spoon as soon as she is done eating dinner, and carries it around the rest of the night. We cannot wait to spend Christmas weekend with my family, and watch Lila and Margaret play together.
We are grateful to be in the "ups" right now, and know enough now not to take them for granted!!

Six Months Old!

Wow, Lila. This was such an exciting month! You are such a big girl. We had a lot of visitors this month, which was very fun. I think you liked having some new faces to look at, and you got a bit spoiled by being held all the time! You also got your first ear infection, resulting in your first antibiotic. The next morning, you got a really strange rash all over your belly, chest and arms which resulted in a visit to the pediatrician and then dermatologist. No one knew what it was, but definitely not an allergy, thank goodness, and it went away in a couple of days. It was brown and pigmented, and thankfully not itchy or scaly. Only missed one day of school for that one.
Perhaps it was all the visitors, and perhaps it was the sickness, and it definitely was the teething, but this was a terrible month for sleep! You were waking every two hours for a couple of weeks, and due to pure exhaustion, I nursed you back to sleep almost every time. (Time to dig in and do some sleep training I think!) You also had many nights of being wide awake for an hour or two in the wee hours of the night which made it very hard for Mommy and Daddy to get it together for work the next morning. A couple of nights before your 6mo birthday, things started to go a little better, and we also moved you into your own room now that all our visitors are gone. The first couple of nights we slept with you in your room, and you did pretty well. The first night with us in separate rooms, you slept through the night! You woke around midnight, but fussed yourself back to sleep without ever really crying in about 20 minutes. It was the best sleep I have had since you were born. It was amazing. You made up for it the next night, which was back to every 2 hours with a 2 hour play time from 2:30 - 4:30. Here's hoping we have fewer and fewer of those this month!
A few other major things this month...you are sitting up! You love sitting and playing, but you are also very excited about reaching for anything that catches your eye which makes you tip over at times. You also fall straight backwards every once in awhile, especially when you are excited, so we try to keep something soft behind you just in case! You are still not a big fan of the belly time, you just immediately flip to your back. So we'll see if the crawling ever comes =)
The week of Thanksgiving we started solid foods. You have had cereal, sweet potatoes, peas and green beans. Next on the agenda is carrots, squash, then we will move to some fruits. I am making your food right now, which is pretty easy and quick, and definitely cheap. We'll see how long it lasts =)
I am starting to stop coming to nurse you at lunchtime at work. You like enjoying your mealtime with coos and smiles and playing, which makes nursing you last longer than the amount of time I really have. It is also harder to predict when you eat, since we started solids. You had been eating 5 oz bottles every 3 hours. Lately, you have been eating 2-4 oz of solids per day in 1-2 meals, as well as 3.5 - 5 oz bottles every 3-4 oz. It seems like the amount you eat is a little on the low side, but you seem satisfied, and you are gaining weight, so I'm not worried.
We are so excited about this month - trying new foods, sitting and playing with new toys, sleeping in your own room, and of course Christmas. Can't believe it has been 6 months!!