September and October

September

September was actually a quieter month. Elizabeth has now 8 teeth and her eyes are pretty much chocolaty brown with the occasional hazel day. She had her sixth month check up. Got more shots yippee. She weighed 20 lbs and was 27 inches long. She is continuing to grow one pound and one inch per month.


She is scooting a little more sideways, so she does a circle real good. She sits and plays very contently. One day she surprised me as I put her down sitting on her blanket and walked away. A few minutes later, if that, I looked back and she was off her blanket two feet away but still sitting. I scratched my head and chuckled as I swore I put her on the blanket. I watched and sure enough she would lean forward and end up scooting on her bottom. She loves putting toys in her mouth and just sit there. If it is not a toy it is her toes.

We are giving her solids at dinner time. So far, she likes peas and pumpkin the best, other than fruit which is always yummy.

We went on the steam train again with Hazel and Derek from Niles to Sunol. It was a fun trip. It was a gorgeous day. Elizabeth found Derek's beard for the first time. Finally, it is not just my hair she pulls.



Out in my new stroller! I am just getting so big!



October

October was a busier month as we had my good friend Melissa's wedding, friends from Germany visit, and Halloween. Elizabeth grew up a bit this month. By the end of the month she was scooting not only side to side but backwards. Only difficulty with that is that she would hit a wall and get frustrated since she hasn't learned to go forward. Crawling is on the horizon. By the end of the month she was also using fine motor skills to pick up cheerios. And my favorite moment is watching her try to grab her shadow. She also learned to wave. It is fun to see her say hi to any person that walks by. My social girl!


To start off the month, we went to Melissa and Aron's rehearsal. The night before was the bachelorette. Us girls went out without kids to a progressive evening, where we ate appetizers at a wine bar, then went to a restaurant for dinner, and a yogurt place for dessert afterwards. It was a lot of fun. Great to have a night away from Elizabeth and be with a group of girl friends celebrating Melissa. The rehearsal went well. Chris and Elizabeth joined up with us for the barbeque lunch afterwards. We had a good time. It is fun to see Melissa smile so much.


Chris, Elizabeth and I went to Filoli. It was a gorgeous day. We had a relaxing time there. If Elizabeth is not sitting straight up in her stroller with the best posture ever, she is doing this slouch with the leg over the side hanging loose.


The next weekend was Melissa and Aron's wedding. It was beautiful and a lot of fun. Chris and I sent Elizabeth home with my parents once music for dancing started, allowing us some time to dance and have some freedom. We took advantage of it. It was a blast. We got back really late and was totally wiped out the next day but it was totally worth it. Elizabeth and I even woke up with colds to top it all off, which we passed on to Chris and Hazel. Heehee.


Friends from Germany, Alex and Laszlo, came to San Jose for a conference on that Saturday. They stayed at our place for the night. We went to Big Basin for a hike and Santa Cruz for the beach on Sunday. It was a lot of fun and wonderful to catch up on life. It made us miss Germany. Glad to see we made some good friends over there.


I found out Elizabeth loves the swing at the park that is around the corner. One sunny afternoon we had fun at the park. We went again with Chris when I took this picture. I love warm weather in October!


We went on a hike with Hazel and Derek near their house. It was a very hot day, in the 80s. There were some great views of the bay area. Caught a picture of Elizabeth and Hazel waving to each other.


Halloween. Well, it came up fast. I didn't even get decorations out this year, not a one. Chris ended up going to Bruno, Czech Republic for a week for work. On the Sunday, Elizabeth and I went to my sister's pumpkin carving Halloween dinner. I made a homemade pumpkin pie and cupcakes for the event. Elizabeth got the left over pumpkin puree for the next few dinners. She really likes squash. Carving the pumpkins was fun. Elizabeth dug her hand in the pumpkin and wondered what?? She instantly put a seed in her mouth of course. Her cousins Katelyn and Vanessa designed and carved her pumpkin for her. She had a great time playing with all her cousins' toys. She even got to eat cheerios for the first time. She did really well at using her fingers to pick them up.


Monday night, Elizabeth and I went over to Hazel and Derek's to go trick-o-treating and have dinner with them. We went to a few houses around their house. They had quite a number of kids, around 50-60! I was amazed. We got rid of all the candy plus all the candy Elizabeth collected. It was a lot of fun. Since I had a black dress from Melissa's wedding, with sparkly tights and purple shoes, I thought to do something with it for Halloween. I saw in Safeway a witches hat on a headband that was black with sequences and a purple ribbon. It was perfect. She became a witch for Halloween. I was mommy witch with baby witch. It was a fun Halloween. Sorry Chris missed it.

June, July, August Oh My!

It has been a crazy, fun filled, action packed, and growing summer. No wonder it is already August and I haven't updated our blog.

June

Elizabeth worked on finding her hands and feet. She focused so hard to get those funny things with sticks called hands to grab hold of her toys and bring them to her mouth. By the end of the month she was an expert at it. She also couldn't figure out how to find that thumb she used to find occasionally, so instead stuck all four fingers straight into the mouth instead. She loved staring at patterned shirts of mommy's or even her own. And what are those things called feet? She would stare at them but grabbing them came later in the summer. She loves her Mr. Giraffe, a rattle that has always made her smile even to today. She is improving holding her head up while on her tummy. She also has found her voice and loves it. Her squeal and squeak was fun to hear until she learned she can do it really loud. She learned that she can, while on her back, push her feet off the ground and scoot backwards. She would end up feet away but then get upset that she now is feet away from her toys and want to get back. At times she made a complete circle scooting backwards on her back the whole way. She stopped this scooting after a couple weeks of it. And of course, she has grown a lot. I measured her on the 7th and she was 24 3/4 inches and on the 20th and she was 25 1/4 inches.

We started off June with a trip to Las Vegas. Chris had a conference from Tuesday through Friday, so we went there from Sunday thru Friday giving us a couple days to explore. Elizabeth's first trip on the plane. She was great on the trip over. She nursed to sleep on the tarmac and slept the whole way up and down. It was perfect timing. On Sunday we met up with Nikki, a close family friend. It was great to see her. We went to Springs Preserve; an ecology and natural history museum run by the county water district. It showed visually and hands on how Las Vegas came to be what it is today. It was very impressive and I definitely recommend going if you are ever in Las Vegas. It gave a lot of information in a fun and well dramatic way that is great for kids and adults. We enjoyed dinner with Nikki and celebrated her birthday. On Monday, we went to Hoover Dam which Chris enjoyed a lot. On Tuesday, we hung out at the pool and Elizabeth had her first swim. We went to the introduction banquet, where they even had Elvis come and sing. Elizabeth did very well. On Wednesday, Elizabeth and I met up Deanna, a friend of mine from childhood that I haven't seen in a long time. She has a baby girl that is only 1 1/2 months older than Elizabeth. It was fun to put them together. On Thursday, Elizabeth and I had a relaxing day at the hotel. We went out to dinner on the strip with Tomas, Lisa, and their baby Nicola. Elizabeth had a little melt down at dinner but moments after, she crashed and the three of us walked around the strip with her asleep in her carrier. It is quite a place. Our trip home Friday was a little more challenging as we flew at her bedtime. She struggled to fall asleep and fussed a bit, but overall it wasn't that bad. We hope she gets used to it as we are trying to keep traveling as much as we can.

When we got back, Derek and Hazel came into town with their first load of stuff for the move over. My parents, my sister's family, Derek and Hazel, and Chris & I (& Elizabeth) went to a Giants baseball game. It was a lot of fun. At the end of June, Chris' long time friend Ian and his girlfriend Courtney visited us from Arkansas. It was fun to see them and explore San Francisco, Half Moon Bay, and Napa with them. Yes, Elizabeth had her first wine tasting trip. Starting them young!

July

This month, Elizabeth was a lot more active. She so wanted to move. She rolled over from her tummy to back for the first time this month. She did a loud yelp when she did it but saw our smiles and so she smiled back and gave her little laugh. It was cute. She is very strong. We got a jumper so she can use those legs she loves to bounce on. It was the best purchase ever! She loves it. However, her squeal got even louder, I think to combat the music that plays. She learned real quick that music plays when she jumps, and she never stops. She has fallen asleep in it more than once. In the middle of the month she had her 4 month check up. She was 25 1/2 inches long and weighed 17 pounds 8 ounces. By the end of the month she was sitting up on her own almost stable.

As for adventures; we went to Lake Tahoe for the fourth of July weekend with my whole family. My father bought a boat. We went out in it twice. The first time, Elizabeth was scared, holding onto her life jacket so tightly that her fingers went white. After a bit she relaxed and found that if mommy, daddy, grandma (whoever was holding her at that time) was okay, she was okay. She never left eye contact. It was cute. Yes, I know torment. But the second time we went out on the boat, she had no problem. A little nervous at first, but fell asleep quickly and was asleep the whole time we were moving. We went around Emerald Bay. It was a great time. We anchored the boat, had lunch, those who were brave swam a bit, and relaxed. It was a great weekend at Tahoe. Overall, we spent a day at the beach/boat, a day at the house, a day on the boat, and on the last day, Chris, Elizabeth and I went on a short hike. It was a great weekend with family time and a bit of time to ourselves.









The following weekend, Elizabeth and I went to my friend Melissa's bridal shower. There were quite a few kids there. It was fun to compare the developmental differences of the kids. The shower went well and Melissa was very happy and glowed.

Mid July, Hazel and Derek did their final move from Arkansas to their new home in Hayward. David and Shannon (Chris' brother and sister-in-law) came with them. They were a huge help with the 26 ft U-Haul towing a car, plus another car, 4 dogs and 2 cats. It was also great to have them here with the cleaning and unloading. Yes, we had 7 people, 4 dogs and 4 cats at our house for a week, but it worked out great. It wasn't all work. We went to San Francisco for a day and Napa for a day (Elizabeth's second wine tasting tour before she's even 6 months). Getting her well acquainted with wine. Hazel and Derek are now in their beautiful home, and we are enjoying having Gran and Grandad close by.

Elizabeth had a great time visiting with her friends.









August

So, she is sitting up on her own and holding her head completely up from being on her tummy, where is the rolling over or even scooting? She doesn't roll over any more ( she only did that a few times), her scoot on her back doesn't happen much anymore. She now will do a complete circle on her tummy but in the same spot, just turning her self. She is learning a different trick at a time. She loves sitting and is very straight now. But her most exciting (well exciting for her, not her mommy) is that she has 6 teeth and is working on number 7. All in a 2 week span she got 4 teeth. Now the weird part, she got them in a funky order. As you know she got her two front bottom teeth back at 2 1/2 months. If you number 1, 2, 3, and 4 the top teeth. She got 4 next, then 2, and then 3. Her bottom number 4 came after that. (Her 7th tooth came in three days later in September) She is an amazing teether. She found her thumb is a great chewing toy. Her drooling was tremendous, and had a couple cranky days here and there. Overall, she popped them out real fast and had not much of an issue about it. Now mommy is in pain. We started giving her solids slowly.

August highlights: Back in June I started back at work two days a week, bringing Elizabeth in with me. She isn't as easy as I'd hoped but we are managing. The end of July I decided to get my insurance license. So I took a three week course in the evenings. Elizabeth gave daddy a hard time but finally got used to it. It made for long days for both of us. But I finished the courses and passed my test. I am glad to be done with all the studying.

At the beginning of August, we had our family reunion at my uncle's place. It was great to see everyone. Mid August, we celebrated my grandmother's 90th birthday. She is amazing. I still bring Elizabeth to visit her almost every Tuesday.

At the end of August, my mom had surgery to remove a cancerous lump in her breast. She is doing well and staying strong through this crazy time. Luckily she found it really early and the doctors are in high hopes that it will be fought.













So as you can tell our summer was full of life. With work, family activities, our own activities, and our wonderful growing happy girl, this summer has been a great jam packed adventure.


day 1 vs 2 1/2 months vs 5 months

May

It is hard to think she was only 2 months old....

May was a month of growth. At 1 month old she weighed 10 lbs 6 oz and was 22 inches long. Starting off May, on her 2 month birthday, she weighed 12 lbs 12 oz and was 23 1/2 inches long. She had another doctor visit mid May because my doctor was a little worried that she was already going 6 hours at night. I, on the other hand, was very happy! Needless to say, right after that appointment she went back to doing 3-4 hour intervals. And mid May, she weighed 13 lb 13 oz, gaining a whole pound in two weeks. Doctors worry too much! When it comes to her weight, Elizabeth has no problem. Now lets get back to doing those 6-7 hour stretches at night, please!

Chris had a business trip to Brno (right outside Prague) and London for a week. I was very jealous. I miss Europe. It was very different here without him, but Elizabeth and I had some quality mother and daughter time. We went to Savannah's birthday. She was fussy the whole time, unfortunately. I was really hoping she would sleep, but it was one of those awake days where she wants to sleep but just can't. My mother and us went to my grandmother Joan's for Mothers Day. We had a nice visit with my aunts and uncles that were there as well. Yes, we spent Mother's Day apart, but we talked on the phone and he gave me a very pretty porcelain figurine from Harras of a girl holding a cat with another cat sitting at her feet looking up.

On the Thursday that Chris flew home, we picked him up at the airport and went straight to Tahoe for another weekend there. It was quite cold. We had a picnic out on the vista viewpoint overlooking Emerald Bay. It was a beautiful day. We went on a hike another day. There was a cold breeze on our hike coming over Falling Lake, but it was just amazing. Saturday night it was supposed to snow and Sunday snow only about 1 to 2 inches, but when we woke up on Sunday morning there was already about 6 inches of snow on the ground and it was coming down hard. By noon the snow slowed down and we took off back home. Unfortunately, there was an accident on the freeway by Donner Pass and so the cars were not moving. It took us 6 hours to get home. Elizabeth handled it fine, but we were tired. Need a vacation day after a vacation.

I started bringing Elizabeth to her great-grandmother Joan's for a visit every Tuesday afternoon. She loves her visits with her GG. And I know GG loves seeing her. We go for a walk around her neighborhood and play.

She started to hold her head up on her tummy. She doesn't like being on her stomach much, but she is getting used to it. She is losing her hair and has a bald spot on the back of her head from squirming. She has a birth mark in her bald spot just to help make it obvious. She also found her thumb. It goes back and forth between pacifier and finger knuckles and thumb when she finds it. It is like she is searching for that thumb she knows she has but she is holding her thumb under her other fingers. I have found she likes her pacifier when she wants to go to sleep but her fingers just for fun when she is awake.

We had fun putting her in her Canadian outfit one day. Loved the pics I got. She is enjoying her cousins as well.

And for the most amazing thing this month; on Monday, two weeks before she turned 3 months, she started drooling. By that Friday, I stuck my finger in her mouth and found two bottom teeth! A week before she turned 3 months!! I couldn't believe, nor others who I told (mom). She didn't seem cranky, lucky us.

The end of May, we went to Luke's 1st birthday. We had a great time visiting and seeing the other babies that were there. There was a row of ages with a 3 week old, a 3 month old, a 7 month old, and a 1 year old. It is amazing to see the developmental ages all in one room.

The next day we took off for Las Vegas for a week. That will be in my next blog.



Elizabeth Day 1, vs 1 1/2 months, vs 2 1/2 months