6 months old

Annika had her 6 month check-up today.  This is such a great age!  6 monthers are a happy, social bunch.  Annika is doing so well and it's nice to be reassured that she is healthy and on-target developmentally. We don't have a good scale at home, so I'm never quite sure what she will weigh in as.

6 month stats

Weight:  15 lb 2 oz (30th percentile)

Height:  26.5 in. (75th percentile.

Favorite toy:  Sophie Giraffe, her toes, toy keys, a cloth book with crinkle paper, anything that makes noises

Favorite foods: still prefers milk above all else but has now tried avocado, cereal, and sweet potato

Favorite Book:  Mama, do you love me?, Jamberry

Favorite game:  Peek-a-boo

New skills:  Rolling from her back to her tummy
Looking forward to most:  Her daddy coming home in less than 3 weeks!

I tried several times to get a good picture for the month.  This is becoming a tricky one-person job.  She is so active and quick that I had trouble getting a good shot, as will become apparent through these pictures.  I wish I would have had the sticker on her while I was testing the lighting because this is the only time she really would look at the camera for more than the briefest of seconds.

 Once the sticker was in place, I had the hardest time getting her to look up.  Then when I did, she would grab the piglet and block the view of the sticker.

Then I would have to act fast and catch her before she grabbed her toes and could go head first off of the chair.

I tried to reposition her and this is what I got..........I did not put her legs this way :)

This is where I gave up and decided to save the sticker so that it can be used again sometime(they're on loan) on another onesie.  She has a couple of bandaids on her leg from her immunizations this morning.

Something in the Water?

Our weekend was full of visits with friends.  A good friend from Juneau, AK was in the area on a last-minute trip and was able to stop by and see us.  I met Jess through a mutual friend in Anchorage about 7 years ago.  We've had some experiences over the years, some more fun than others, but always an adventure.  My first time visiting Jess in Juneau was on a layover between Seattle and Anchorage.  I had about 8 hours between my flights and Jess picked me up from the airport.  We drove out to see a big glacier and walked around downtown.  When I moved down to Seattle from Anchorage, another friend Brooke and I drove to Haines, left my car, and walked onto a ferry to Juneau.  We wanted to visit Jess, see Juneau, and to celebrate her 30th birthday.  Due to the ferry schedule, we had to stay a certain number of days before being able to ride the ferry back.  During that time was a Fools Run at Midnight 5k for which people dress up.  Who did I dress up as?  Sporty Sarah Palin!  This is back when she had only been governor of AK for a little while and I mostly knew her as the sister of a former co-worker.  Little did I know that I was dressing up as someone that the whole country would soon be familiar with.  I should track down those pictures.......  Anyway, the last adventure I had with Jess was working at a Girl Scout camp in Juneau.  Kyle, Brooke, and I were the cooks for about 100 kids and adults for a week.  Let me just say that it was not the camp experience that I was fondly remembering when I said that I would volunteer.  We turned a crazy situation into a memorable week.  It was great to see Jess again and introduce her to Annika!  By the way, if you ever hear that I am spending a month rafting down the Grand Canyon, this is who I will be with :)

Our next visit with friends was at a "Baby Sprinkle" for a friend who had a baby boy about 7 weeks ago.  This group of women met for a brunch last Oct. shortly before Annika was born.  At that time 6 of the 8 women there were pregnant.  That's a whole lot of hormones!  Now 5 of 6 of those babies have arrived and more babies are on the way!  We were joking about something being in the water around here.  We had to get picture of all the ladies and all the babies.

 A whole lotta new moms in the room.

 Annika looks huge compared to her newborn friends.  The youngest on the end was not quite 2 weeks old.  The second one in from the right was born 5 weeks early and was originally due today.  She's doing great!  On Annika's left is the sole boy so far in the group and he comfortably slept through all of the pictures, smart boy.

 Following the baby gathering, Annika and I drove to Dash Point State Park to meet my brother- and sister-in-law.  Right after these pictures my camera battery died.  This cute hat was a gift Annika received at the shower.

After the beach, we drove down to DuPont to have dinner with my brother, sister-in-law, and kids.  Annika is always entertained by her bigger cousins.  We love being close enough to see the for the evening.  The weather was pretty mild, so we went for a walk around the neighborhood after dinner.  Brenda introduced me to the best indoor S'mores :)  By the end of the weekend we were pretty tired but feeling happy to have seen so many friends.

First Food

If you could go back and choose what your very first taste of food would be, what would you pick?  I found myself pondering about this topic, as Annika is now old enough for adding foods to her diet.  Some babies start foods as early as 4 months but from what I've read, it's good to wait until close to 6 months.  Already I can tell that Annika's milestones will be bittersweet for me.  It's fun and exciting for her to be doing all of these "firsts" but it also means that she's growing quickly.  I was a little sad thinking that she wouldn't just be having my milk as her sole source of nutrition anymore.  Back to the question, though.  What to start with?  Lots of people pick a rice cereal to start, which is fine, but I didn't want to start there.  This would be her first food ever and I wanted it to be something delicious :)  There's plenty of time for cereals.  There is also a list of Stage One foods for babies who are just starting out.   For Annika's first food, I chose an avocado.  Avocados, in case you're wondering, are a fantastic food for babies.  In order to get ready for the big occasion, I needed to get a few things.  We had not yet purchased a highchair or baby-sized spoons.  

 Instead of a big highchair, I opted for the easy booster-chair version.  This chair can be hooked on to any chair and will very easy to travel with this summer.  Annika practiced in the chair as soon as I brought it home from Target last Friday.  It was a pretty exciting Friday night :)

On Saturday morning I prepped the avocado into a soupy-like concoction and got everything set up.  Kyle joined us by skype from Norway so that he could be a witness to this occasion.

Annika wasn't too certain what I was trying to do to her.

She thought the food was ok.

But the best part of the whole experience was that great spoon to chew on!

It was great that Kyle was able to be with us for this!  Since the avocado last weekend, we have tried a whole grain cereal and then sweet potato tonight.  So far, Annika hasn't been thrilled or really that interested in any of it.  She started making the disgusted face before I even got any food into her mouth tonight.  My luck, she's probably only going to want the most bland of all....the rice cereal that I think is a little gross.  We'll try that this weekend.  And so starts her food journey.............

Finally Spring?

We had a weekend of sun and it felt great to get outside!  Annika is big enough to sit forward-facing in the BOB stroller.  This was the first time that I ran without the carseat attachment and it was great!  It felt so much lighter and a lot more stable.  I think Annika really enjoyed being able to see where we were going.  I had a few toys attached to the stroller but she didn't seem to play with them for long.  It was a pleasure to be exercising in the sunshine.  I have had a bit of cabin fever lately with the weather.  Now that it's so light in the evenings, I want to be outside when we get home after work.  I'm still trying to figure out how to do that and still get Annika to bed at a decent time.  Luckily we have weekend afternoons to enjoy.

 All strapped in and ready to roll!

 Annika was sporting her baby-shades and Lake Placid hoodie from her honorary aunt Brooke :)

On Sunday afternoon, Annika and I met our friend Jody at her apartment in Seattle.  We utilized her wifi to skype with Kyle and then we headed to Golden Gardens.  This is my favorite beach access in Seattle.  I love the view and it's always fun to relax in the sand by the water.

 Having a tummy time chat with Jody.  Jody's friend Margaret joined us for the afternoon.

By the time I took the picture the view of the mountains was a little hazy, but they were still beautiful.

Weekend in Spokane

 Last weekend Annika and I traveled with some of my wonderful, long-time friends to Spokane to stay with another friend and her family.  The four of us last got together a few weeks before Annika was born in October.  It was really fun to be spending another few days together and for all the kids to meet.  Katie's son Ryan was the star of the weekend and we were able to see his first ever soccer game.  I have to say that it was pretty fun to see a bunch of 4 and 5 year old kids playing soccer.  It was a little strange to realize that we're now the parents at these sporting events.  A crazy shift from when we were the kids or our friends were the players. 

 The cheering section for Ryan and this is the only picture that Katie's adorable daughter Morgan was in....and she's not even looking.  Next time I will do a better job of getting a picture of her cute self.

 Looking pretty great for this being his first game ever.

 Mikaela's looking like a natural getting Annika to sleep. 

 We all know that the best part of doing sports when you're a kid is the snacks afterwards!

 Ryan did such a great job playing with Annika.  She loved it!

 My attempt at a 5 person self-portrait.

 Thanks to Katie's husband Scott for taking a picture of the four of us.  Next time, I promise to get a picture of him next time, too.

I can only imagine what kind of advice he might be giving her.

We considered going out on Saturday night for a drink or something and having Scott stay with all the kids but decided against it.  It was nice to sit at relax at their home and just enjoy our time together.  The weekend went too quickly but I'm sure we'll be back through Spokane again sometime this summer.

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful day celebrating Easter with family and friends!  I brought Annika to an early Mass this morning and she did a great job sitting through the service.  My mom and Steve were in town, so we joined my brother and his in-laws at their church in Olympia.  It was a beautiful weekend and a perfect afternoon for an egg hunt.  Annika had her first Easter basket and will be part of the egg hunt next year! 

 Beautiful, sunny Easter

 My mom with my niece Kayla.

 My brother Jonathan with Annika.

 Checking out the stuff in her basket.

 Deciding that the basket looks pretty tasty.

Worn out from all the fun :)

5 Months Old!

Annika's 5th month was filled with many firsts, some good and some not, but mostly good :)  There haven't been a whole lot of changes since her last blog update a couple of weeks ago.  I was late in doing the 4 month check-in, so her height and weight aren't very different.  Here's what she experienced for the first time this last month:

*Visiting the Olympic National Park and the Pacific Ocean.
*Going to the doctor because of an illness and not a well-baby check.  I  hadn't brought her to the "sick child" area of our pediatrician's office and now I appreciate even more that there are separate spaces.  Annika had a watery, goopy eye and we found out it was conjunctivitis.   The good news was that it was only in one eye and I hadn't caught it from her.  This was my first time taking a sick day to be with her.  She's better now but we've had some struggles getting the ointment into her eye.  Someone suggested swaddling her and that has been a great trick.  Also, she stays much more calm if I sing one of her favorite songs.
*Annika was caught sucking on her big toe during a diaper change :)  She's discovered her feet and loves to get her toes up to her mouth.
*One evening when I went to check on her, I saw that she had found the pacifier in her crib and put it in her own mouth.
*Saw a belly-dancing performance!  I think she liked the music.  We saw my former dance teacher perform at the Seattle Center last Sunday.  It's something that I miss and hope to get back into sometime soon.
*Started using the Ergo again, without the infant insert, and it's been great!  I also tried out a new wrap with the Moby and Annika enjoyed getting a ride around the house for a while.
*Annika is having a great time exploring the toys on the exersaucer.
*Sat in a big high chair and enjoyed an outside swing on one of our few sunny spring days.
*Last but not least, completed a 5k in the BOB.

 After I took this picture, I put a pillow under her feet and now she can move around to see the different toys.

 On our way to the belly dancing performance.

 This expression was quickly followed by an attempt to get the camera into her mouth :)