Happy 11 Month Birthday Alejandra!

Swinging with my new shades...they didn't stay on my face for too long!

Nobody puts baby in the corner!

Giddy up Dada!

Nice flowers Mama

I like to try all the slides at Nike Park, this is the baby slide

Trying the big red slide

hanging with the big kids

trying the medium red slide

chillin on the curb

chatting away

checking out the sawdust, grass, twigs, leaves

cool, more people to gawk at

looking at Dada

with Tia Jamie on Nate's b-day

swinging is still my fav!

This past month Alejandra has been on the move! Not forward crawling, some backward crawling and lots of walking holding onto hands. She could walk and walk and walk. Usually the person assisting her tires out before she does - hard on the back! And she takes these giant steps, like she's stepping over boulders with each step. It's pretty funny. Her balance is getting a little better. She can stand alone for a second (when she doesn't realize you've let go). She also likes to stand up against the sofa and do (eat) her puzzle. That keeps her busy for a good 15 minutes while we get dinner ready.

Speaking of eating, we started with some finger foods even though she didn't have front upper teeth to match her lowers (makes chewing a little challenging). But we tried O's cereal, cheese pieces, banana, watermelon, papaya (too slippery) and egg yolk (she likes this now). And now her front, upper, left tooth has poked through. It turns out her Dracula teeth are only the 2nd ones over (not cuspids). It looks like her front teeth are going to be nice and big (like mom's).

Alejandra has been quite the chatter box. Sounds like she's trying to say lots of things, but the only things we can sort of pick out are "Dada", "uh-oh", something like "Mama" and I swear I thought I hear her say "dat out" or "out", which is interesting since hears Spanish about 2/3 of the time. Must be from my family. She's also a noisy little girl (Gabriel says, like her mom). She always gets excited about a trip to TJs, but this last time she was yelling at the top of her lungs. Beyond cute/funny, just noisy. We were definitely making a scene.

We go to the park pretty often now that the weather has been nicer, her Papa takes her on their morning walks during the week and Tia Jamie takes her on Wednesday afternoons. Swinging seems to be her favorite, but there's only one baby swing at the park and it's popular. So she also likes to try out all the different slides. Right up there with swinging, people/kid watching is another favorite activity when at the park. She's a nosy little girl. Today at the park another little girl (toddler, a little older) was having a melt down, and Alejandra was watching the whole thing smiling and laughing, very amused by the spectacle. Then she went down the slide to get a closer look (like in her face) and just sat there watching with a little smile on her face. She has a good sense of humor. It's the little things she finds funny. I can look at her sideways and that will send her into fits of giggles.

In one short month we'll be celebrating Alejandra's first full year of life - crazy! Gabriel's mom and sister Kury will be flying up from Mexico to celebrate with us, but we'll probably just do a family celebration. I very momentarily thought about putting on a birthday bash at the park, with friends, but then was reading that a big party is more for the parents than the kids and they can find it overwhelming at the time (and won't remember it later). So, small family gathering it will be!

Happy 10 Month Birthday Alejandra!

All dressed up for Easter!

Just standing around, reading my book.

woo hoo! I'm 10 months old today!

clap, clap, clap, hurray for me!

que paso?

backwards crawling at Tia Jamie's

hola mama!

I could stand here all day

Today marks 10 months of life for this Señorita. With each month that passes, we can hardly believe how time flies. In just 2 short months we'll be celebrating her first birthday. Over the past month, 2 upper teeth came in, but not the 2 middle ones. The two cuspids came in (over 2 from middle) on either side. She's got nothing in the middle and those are the pointy teeth, so we call her Dracula! True to her nickname, when she's teething she likes to gnaw on your shoulder or neck. Ouch!

We finished up her series of 5 swim lessons, which was lots of fun. But since then we've also been enjoying our lazy Saturday mornings...as lazy as one can being with first wake up call at around 5am. After her early morning milk, Ale likes to snuggle up for a little nap with mom and dad, so we sort of get to sleep in until 7am or so. I'm trying to keep nursing until the 1 year mark - only 2 months to go. But I can tell my milk supply is down with less demand - Ale certainly gets plenty to eat in the solids department.

Speaking of, Ale eats pretty much anything and everything, but we found 2 things so far that she didn't like: salmon and egg yolk. Bummer - both so healthy and yummy. I think both of those are more of a texture thing. So we will try it again in a little while and maybe I'll try a better recipe. Oh yeah, and avocado seems to cause a little skin reaction in her, so the pediatrician advised waiting until after 1 year to try it again. I hope she can eventually eat it since it's also one of our favs and a staple in our household! We also introduced finger food recently (cheerios, cheese), which makes me really nervous because of her lack of teeth. But she's does pretty well with it and I think the food melts in her mouth before it could become a choking hazard.

As for movement, she's still not too interested in moving around. She's content to sit and play, or roll around. She recently started backwards crawling a little bit. She enjoys standing, supported against furniture or my leg and holding hands and also walking with support. But I've heard how important crawling is to overall development, so hopefully there's still a chance she'll pick up some forward crawling before moving on to walking. Plus, it's just so dang cute!

In the communication department, she's added a few sounds to her vocabulary. "dadadada" is a favorite, for pretty much everything. There's also "bababababa" and "nyanyanyanya", which Gabriel thinks is "mama" (I'm not convinced). She's also developed a little more of a hand wave and does it at the appropriate time. She likes to clap her hands too when she's happy/pleased/proud.

All exciting developments! I'm not sure what the next month will bring, probably a couple more teeth and maybe more movement if the Princesa decides to motivate!

Happy 9 Month Birthday Alejandra!

We both are enjoying Alejandra back floating in first swim class!

She took her first swim class VERY seriously!

studying the ceiling

3rd class was with daddy in the pool

Alejandra has more fun with each class! We like swim class too!

Alejandra was hamming it up at her first "play date"

woo hoo! silly girl!

Holy smokes! How have 9 months gone by already?! We can hardly believe it, and yet we see all the changes in Alejandra happening before our eyes. This past month her teeth finely poked through! First her lower left, then lower right (they are about half way in now) and just yesterday her upper left broke through (which could explain the 1.30-2.30am crying period that night...unusual these days). We just took her to her 9 month appointment yesterday. We were so sure she was well over 20 pounds by now, since she feels pretty solid, especially after carrying her around a while! She weighs nearly 20lbs, at 19lbs, 14oz. (9kg) - that's the75th percentile. She's 28" (71cm) tall - that's the 70th percentile and her head is now 46cm (90%). Remember, I had mentioned that her head had a flat spot because of her position in utero and her favoring her right side? Now that she's got good range of motion (both sides) in her neck and she's a tummy sleeper, her head has had a chance to round out and I think that contributed to the jump in head circumference. Or it could just be she's big brained :-)

Alejandra still hasn't shown much interest in crawling. I ask the pediatrician about this and based on her push ups during tummy time (Alejandra was showing off), she definitely has the strength to crawl, she just doesn't want to! The Dr. said there's 2 kinds of kids, the "movers and shakers" who want to move and get into everything and the "princess", who are content with their environment, especially when they eventually get what they want anyway. She added, she probably won't be the kid who takes your car out at 15, but she might not fold the clothes the first time you ask her. We often refer to our baby girl as "la princesa"...and now we know why! While Alejandra was showing off her skills, she was also smiling and laughing at anyone in the Dr. office who would look at her. The pediatrician also called her the "social butterfly". It's true, she loves looking at people and places...even a trip to Trader Joe's is super exciting. And she really enjoyed our first "play date" with lots of babies and moms to look at...or rather look at her! So there we have it, Alejandra our princess, social butterfly. Can you imagine the teenage years??

The other big thing going on is our tot-parent swim class we started this month. Alejandra loves her bath, so we thought she'd really enjoy swimming in the pool. The first class she was very serious (not like her). No tears, but no smiles/laughter either. Just serious swimming business. I will say that I screwed up and somehow put us in the 2nd level class, so all the kids were around 3...a little advanced for us! The second class we were in the right class with fellow babies and a lot more singing and playing. She cracked a few smiles and actually enjoyed kicking her feet and floating. The 3rd class, Gabriel got in the water with her and they both had fun! So far she's been great about getting water on her face and in her ears - no issues there.  Only 2 more classes to go, but we hope by starting early that she'll be excited about getting in the water this summer.



on her 9 month birthday at Tia Jamie's house! you can see those 2 lower teeth!

So we're in the 10th month now! Not sure if this month will bring any movement (crawling/scooting/walking?) from this little princesa!

Happy 8 month birthday Alejandra!

Hanging at Tia Jamie's house. Like my funky look?

funny bunny!

hello mommy! super close up!

feeling pretty good after my milk and a cat nap!

all grown up, with bangs, jeans and my Nike shirt!

February 20 marks 8 months of life for miss Alejandra. After lots of teething a month ago, everything sort of came to a halt and she still has no teeth poking through yet.  I can feel both upper and lower front teeth right there when she is gnawing on my finger. Anyway, the teething and drooling has kicked into high gear again just this week, so maybe this will be the month her teeth make an appearance. Although, I've heard from plenty of moms who say their kids didn't get any teeth until 10-12 months!

We finally broke down and cut her hair. It was her long, dark (black) newborn hair that was starting to hang in her eyes. She heard bangs were all the rage this season, so she's rockin' them now. I think it makes her look older with more hair and bangs. Although her main style is still bed head!

Alejandra has been sleeping pretty well most nights. She's usually asleep by 7pm and sleeps straight until 5am. That gives me a couple hours to work in the evening and I still usually get 7 hours of sleep. Makes a big difference when they are consecutive hours too! Although lately with the teething, sleep has been less regular. We've had a couple of 3am wake up calls a night or two.

She's becoming a little more independent now and will sit and play on the floor by herself for a good 10 minutes (baby steps) as long as we're in sight (making dinner, cleaning up, etc.). If I need to grab a shower and am home alone with her, I can put her in her little tub (fully clothed, no water) with her bath toys, facing the shower and I can usually make it through my shower and get ready (also about 10-15 minutes, low maintenance mama).

Alejandra hasn't shown much interest in crawling. She likes to stand (supported), so sometimes I think she might skip crawling all together and just get up and start walking some day! I also think she's been trying to wave. She kind of has her hand backwards, but it looks like a wave and at the appropriate time. She's been talking/babbling lots - I can't wait for the day when I can understand something she says. All in good time I suppose. Which reminds me, I did take a baby sign language class...

Next month we are looking forward to swimming lessons! I think I'm more excited than Alejandra. She loves her baths and splashing in the water, so I'm hoping the tot swim lessons will be a big hit. I ordered the cutest little swim suits. Next weekend we start, so there should be pics and stories to follow.

Happy 7 month birthday Alejandra!

sitting by myself

look at my snowsuit!

in my party dress post baptism

enjoying my bath

baptism

woo hoo! I love toes and baths!

January 20 marks 7 months of life for Alejandra Jill. A lot happened in the last month. She learned to sit by herself and fall asleep by herself (sleep trained!).  She has been teething and we think the top two teeth are ready to poke through any day now. In the mean time, that makes for some rough nights every now and then when they are really bothering her.

 

She continues to be a great eater! I don't think there's any food she's tried that she doesn't like. She'll sometimes scrunch up her nose with a "yucky" look at the first bite of something new, but then likes it and eats it all. We have expanded her diet to include carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoe, broccoli, sweet peas, oatmeal, peaches, pears, bananas, applesauce, avocado and yogurt. We've tried mixing foods (peach, banana and oatmeal) and she likes that too. With all this variety, she is still eyeing our plates to see what else she can eat. Hopefully she'll continue to be a non picky eater!

 

We made the LONG trip to Mexico to spend Christmas with Gabriel's family. I will say it was much more challenging than our trip to Kansas at 3 months old. She's much more opinionated now and with no direct flights and a 5 hour lay over, it was just a big journey. She did good on 3 of 4 flights, but on our last flight home we were *that* family with the screaming child. We finally got up to pace the aisle and the galley and that seemed to distract her enough to get us through the flight. Our one casualty was a lost baby blanket (a favorite) left somewhere along the return trip.

 

Alejandra got to meet much of her extended family in Mexico for the first time, which was fun. Two of her great aunts traveled overnight from another part of Mexico to meet her. We also had her baptized on Christmas day in the same church and with the same priest who married us. She did really well during the ceremony and only fussed a little when he put the water on her head.

 

We were happy to be back home and rest for a couple days before heading back to work in January. This month we are looking forward to more movement (crawling?), more food and some new teeth!

Alejandra 6 Months!

Our first date night in 6 months, thanks to Grandma Pam and Papa for watching Alejandra!

My 6 month birthday party...or was that Papa's 66th birthday party that I hijacked?

My first Christmas tree

This swim suit with floaties was tough to get on and even tougher to get off when wet!

Practicing floating in the tub. Thinking about swim lessons...

What is this squishy stuff on my hand?? Just clay for a patty print.

Just chillin in tummy time in my new outfit - thanks Morgan!

We can hardly believe that Alejandra is 6 months old already. Before we know it she'll  be walking and talking! She now weighs 17 pounds 3 ounces (7.8kg) and is 26 inches (66cm) tall, which are both in the 75% (same as last month). Her head is 43cm in circumference, which is 70%. She has been practicing sitting up by herself, which sometimes she'll do for quite a while and other times she just topples over. A work in progress! She can now roll from back to tummy and has taken to sleeping on her tummy about half the time. The first time we saw her tummy sleeping on the monitor, we both freaked, thinking she would suffocate. We went in to put her back on her back, and she promptly rolled back over. This happened about 3 times, then we decided to leave her put and she slept that way all night. We started sleep training recently. We had tried a kinder, gentler, no tears  method, which didn't work well on this little girl with a strong personality. So we had to go with the Ferber cry it out method. The first  night she cried for an hour, but then slept for 10 hours straight! The second night she cried for 15 minutes and slept for 10.5 hours. Only one night has she awakened crying (from 3am-4am, it sucked), otherwise she's been good at night. Not so much for naps just yet. She usually cries for an hour, then gets rescued. The past couple days she's napped maybe 40 minutes after some crying. Hopefully she'll be a good napper soon too!

I went  back to work this past month and that was hard on both Alejandra and I. Although she was with my family, she cried and fussed the majority of the time I was gone, just waiting for me to return. I only did 4 hour days in the office that first week and it was rough. But after about a week, she seemed to get the hang of it and figured out that I always came back for her! Now she is doing great with Grandma and Papa 3 days a week and Tia Jamie on Wednesdays.

We also introduced solids this month (kind of a big month in our household) and Alejandra loved it! She's a great eater (just like her parents)! We tried butternut squash, carrots, sweet potato, apple sauce, banana, oatmeal and pear. She loves it all! I think we had a little system overload and she got a little backed up, but happy to report everything is regular now! At the pediatrician's suggestion, I tried giving her just a  bottle with a little water during solids mealtime and to my surprise she likes drinking water too! I guess she'll  be like her mommy and carry her water  bottle around! We might try something like broccoli, hopefully she'll still be enthusiastic about eating as we  branch out. They say that  babies like familiar food and they'll recognize flavors mom ate while pregnant (from the amniotic fluid) and in the breast milk, so maybe she'll like spicy food too!

She's been making great progress on her neck tightness and is now much stronger on her left side, with greater range of motion. The therapist was happy with how she's doing. We're going to keep up the stretching and strengthening exercises and maybe check in one more time in a month or so, but I'm really glad this was a fixable condition and she won't have a head tilt the rest of her life!

Well, we are getting ready to visit Gabriel's family. That will be a big trip,  but we are looking forward to seeing all of his family. It's a big family, so we just hope that Alejandra doesn't get too overwhelmed. She does seem to have a little stranger anxiety sometimes. Wish us luck on the big trip!

Alejandra 5 Months!

lots of smiles and laughs

she's an eager eater



she loves to jump in her jumperoo

sitting supported like a big girl

she enjoys her stroller now

November 20 marked Alejandra's 5 month birthday. It took me a bit to get this posted with all the Thanksgiving happenings and visits (very fun, but very busy!). This past month Alejandra has been practicing sitting (supported) and standing up while holding on. She really likes jumping in her jumperoo, which is oftern accompanied by squels of laughter. We like the jumperoo too because it usually gives us a moment to make dinner or eat dinner.

I was planning to wait until 5 months to start her on solids, but she was just voracious, so we started a little early at 4.5 months and now she's got it down and likes to eat! So far she's tried rice cereal, butternut squash, carrots and avacado and seems to like it all, but I think carrots are her favorite. We plan to introduce some fruit next.

At Alejandra's 4 month appointment, the pediatrician diagnosed her with torticollis which means "twisted neck". She was transverse in utero, laying on her left side, which cramped up those muscles on the left side of her neck. We had noticed that her left ear was a little bent and that she preferred looking to the right. Because of her torticollis, her neck muscles on the left side were really tight and also weaker. And because she was almost always looking to her right while sleeping, she developed a flat spot on the right side of her head. So the pediatrician referred us to a children's physical therapist who we've been seeing once a week to work on neck muscle flexability and strengthening. We've amped up our tummy time, striving to do as many times as we diaper change (and that's a lot!) because it's the frequency and not the not the duration that matters as much. The tummy time helps work her overall back and core strength and the therapist swore she'd grow to like it and amazingly she has! We've added in some rolling over exercises and neck stretches (tilting the head to the right), along with trying to put her down to sleep looking to her left (which never lasts long). She's been making good progress and while she still favors her right side, she'll turn to the left and can sleep that way too. Her head shape will take a little longer to correct, but should continue to improve as she gets older and stronger. Hopefully we'll been done with the therapy by year end.

braving the rain for the Christmas parade in Seattle - the kids loved it!



Snoqualmie Falls with the cousins and Aunt Marilyn



wine tasting with the fam

Cousin Carrie with her son Brendan and Alejandra

Our cousins and aunts came in from Missouri to celebrate Thanksgiving with us and that was fun! It was the first time we've had a big celebration with extended family. My cousin Carrie has a son about a year older than Alejandra. She had fun watching him run around and he was super interested in the "baybay". The weather was typical for a Seattle November (cold and rainy), but we still managed to get out a bit to see the Christmas parade downtown, do some wine tasting and Snoqualmie Falls (which were massive after so much rain).

Now that they are heading out, it's time for me to face the reality of heading back to work after maternity leave. Yes, tomorrow I'm officially back, but probably won't head into the office until Wednesday and will try to transition back with short days. I'm thinking this will help ease the change. We've been practicing having Alejandra stay with my parents or sister for an hour or two for many weeks now and so far Alejandra still isn't sold on the idea of not having mom or dad around. I think it might be a rough start for all of us, but hopefully everyone will adjust quickly to the new routine. Fingers crossed! Wish us luck!

Here's a couple links to videos: Alejandra laughing and Alejandra jumping