Nadia's Bunny

This bunny was in our backyard this week. We said it was Nadia's Easter Bunny.

Eating peas! They are yummy but this was our messiest real food venture yet. She had peas in every neck fold when we were done!

Playing with Granddaddy. She also gave him kisses! She opens her mouth and presses her lips up against your cheek. There's no sound yet, but it's definitely an intentional move she makes! So sweet.

Playing with Nana with the cool new animals in the tree toy. She likes to pull all of the animals out of their holes and "eat" them.

Nana and Granddaddy came to celebrate my birthday and kept Nadia Saturday morning while I was at the Easter Eggstravaganza and Andy was at March Missions Madness.

Sitting up!

Check out this big girl sitting up all by herself!

Look at that confidence!

The latest way to eat a paci - backwards/sideways/any way but the right way! Her latest game is to spit out the paci so that she has to find it, pick it back up and put it back in her mouth some way other than intended. While this is cute in the daytime, it is a cause of frustration in the night because she still thinks it's time to play. Since it's so fun to take out of her mouth and throw somewhere, she will, but then it's lost in the bed and she needs our rescue to get it back.

Spring time is here! Our trees are in full bloom.

5 Months!

Nadia in her new walker. She loves it...

Unfortunately she can't quite touch in it yet! She uses one at church where she can go all the way down the hall by herself, so I thought we should have one at home. It never crossed my mind that this one wouldn't go low enough for her to use... we'll need a couple more inches before she's walking herself all over the house!

Playing with Uncle Jordan.

Snoozing with Daddy. Nadia has been having a growth spurt involving lots of through the night feedings. Saturday morning she woke up at 6 AM, ate and was ready to be up to play. Andy was so good to get up with her and let me sleep a little longer. By the time I got up at 7:45, this is how I found them... both sound asleep on the couch.

It was gorgeous Friday, so we went for a walk to our neighborhood pond and fed the ducks for the first time. Nadia watched their every move.

This was one of the few moments she was actually in the stroller on our walk. Why sit in the stroller when mom or dad will carry you??? There are much better views from in their arms than in this seat!

Gamma, Poppa and Auntie Steph came to visit Thursday. Aunt Steph played ball with Nadia and she loved it!

Ticklish toes!

Thursday I was cleaning the house and Nadia wanted no part of playing by herself, so I decided to try the BabyBjorn. She loved it! She helped me sweep, mop, vaccuum, make beds, sort laundry and after all that was so tired, she fell sound asleep! All that cleaning will really wear a girl out!

5 Months with Buster Bear! This picture was taken on St. Patrick's day - she had to wear her green to avoid being pinched!

First taste of carrots - she liked them more than this picture implies. She ate the whole portion like she'd been eating them forever.

Here is my homemade baby food freezing in ice cube trays - Tuesday night I made carrots, green peas, acorn and yellow squash. We're set for a few weeks with lots of new eats!

While I was making all that baby food I also decided to make homemade yeast cinnamon rolls with a recipe I found on a blog. They were tons of work and a total flop. The only thing I can suppose is that using skim milk instead of whole really made a big difference? Such a disappointment!

Nadia lounging in her whale bathrobe!

It's been a great, busy week! Nadia is talking more than ever and loves to squeal. No more quiet restaurants for us for a while. She sang through the entire meal we had at Chili's this week. She's sitting up much more steadily on her own and rolling over to get whatever toy she wants on her playmat. She can drink from a glass, out of a water bottle and through a straw. She always wants to help us guide the spoon to her mouth when she eats. She is inquisitive about everything she sees and wants to touch and feel and taste everything. She's become very interested in our noses, mouths, eyes, ears and hair. She can find and put her paci back in her mouth by herself, most of the time. Her giggle is the sweetest sound we've ever heard.

Nadia's New Outfits

I made this little pink shirt. It's a little big but will be a perfect fit this summer. This is a summer dress that ties on one side. That's all so far but more to come!

All better now!

We went to visit Nana and Granddaddy for Nana's birthday last weekend. This was Nadia's first birthday party to attend. We let her taste a tiny bit of the icing.

Nadia doing a little independant reading.

Playing with Nana and Granddaddy

Nadia had a great time playing with all of the different toys and was so content to play with new things that she let me sew curtains for hours while we were there.

This would be normal dress if we lived in an Arab nation...

Uncle Jor came to visit a couple of weekends ago.

Nadia had her follow up appointment with the doctor today. He confirmed that she's all better and that it was RSV and a secondary infection (I'd miss understood that it was either one or the other). We're supposed to keep a close eye on her breathing and just be proactive about monitoring her exposure to potential allergens (strong perfumes, freshly cut grass, gasoline fumes, etc). He said her gum line has widened and flatened, so he predicts we'll have a tooth in the next 3-6 weeks. She now weighs 14 lbs 12 oz! She's back to sleeping well - 11 hours (8 then eating, then 3 more!)! Her latest love is a bouncing ball. It makes her giggle and squeal! We tried to capture it on video, but of course by the time we got the camera, she was over the most of her giggling.

We finally have an appointment with the neurosurgeon - but we're very frustrated that it's not until April 12, but we are glad to have an appointment and know that it's coming.

I made a puppet theater for our friend Ivy for her 4th birthday. Here's a picture of it in our doorway... I made Andy stick a puppet out for effect.

Maybe not RSV afterall

The pediatrician called tonight to check on her and said because she has recovered so well so quickly, perhaps it was just a secondary infection that we caught early on and that is reacting well to the antibiotics. He said to stop giving her the abuterol since she's stopped coughing for the most part. He's still amazed at what an amazing baby we have - but we've known all along!

Bows and RSV

We have enough hair now for a bow! Too cute!

Nadia is supposedly very sick with RSV, but if you didn't know it, you'd never guess. She's as happy and smiley as ever, playing and laughing, but with a cough and some congestion. Thursday she started coughing, but since she'd had a bit of a cold, I just thought it was draining down her throat and making her cough. Friday, the cough got a bit worse, but nothing serious. Saturday she was still coughing and now started being irritable and tugging at her left ear. I called the pediatrician to see what he'd say about it all but he didn't answer his phone. About 6 hours later when he got my message he called me back and wanted me to bring her to his house to be checked out immediately. We went to the pediatrians house and he checked her out in his living room to diagnose her with RSV and fluid in both ears. He started her on an antibiotic and abuterol right away with instructions for us to watch her closely. If she had any trouble breathing while coughing or if she started to cough up anything she'd eaten, he would want to admit her to the hospital. Well - she is great and never got anywhere near coughing that hard or anywhere near needing to go to the hospital. In fact, as he called us to check in every 3-4 hours all day yesterday, he couldn't believe how much she had improved so quickly. To help with her cough, we let her sleep in the swing Friday and Saturday night, but last night she slept the entire night in her bed without any problem. She still isn't supposed to be around other kids until next Saturday and she is occassionally coughing, but like I said, if you didn't know she was sick, you couldn't tell it today. So we get a fun day at home together to play and let her recooperate.

She now loves to drink out of a glass. If I'm holding her and get a drink, she will reach for my glass and persistantly keep reaching for it until I let her have a sip (only water). She does well not to spill! We also set up the pack and play and she has started to play independantly it in with me nearby. I think she likes it because she is high enough that she can still see me while I work.
I've finally started sewing for her. I've had all kinds of plans since before she was born of different projects, but it turned out things were busier with a baby than I expected! Now I'm finally getting to work on a few of those and will post pics as they get done.

I thought it would be a good idea to let Nadia go for a stroller ride facing outward (without the bucket seat) so that she could see everything as we went by. Oh how wrong I was! She spent the entire time trying to twist around backward so that she could see me and didn't look at a single thing on our trip. We're back to the bucket for a while longer for sure.