Sunday, March 20, 2011

Such a happy little girl

Best sound EVER!!!


And this is my love nugget in her high chair. Smiling, as per uuusse.

Monday, March 14, 2011

HUGE Giveaway!!

Check out Baby Half Off for a HUGE giveaway!!

http://babyhalfoff.com/blog/

6 Months

6 Month Weight: 17 lbs 11 3/4 ounces
26.5" long

The last month just flew by. I was sitting here watching Aryn play this weekend and thinking about how fast the last 6 months went by. There were days where it seemed like everything was in slow motion - like that particular stage was NEVER going to end. Then it did, and ZOOM! we sped past 3 stages all at the same time. I am amazed every single day at what this kid is learning and experiencing and developing. She becomes more and more beautiful everyday, and I love watching her grow.

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Favourite things:

- Bath time is still an all-time favourite. She is remarkably smart. She kicks the water, knowing full well that the splashing makes the toys come towards her. Smartest kid ever? I think so!

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- Bauer. Still. This kid will be playing or talking or eating and BAM - Bauer makes a noise somewhere in the house and she is straining her neck to find him. Then she sees him and her eyes are focused on that dog - and NOTHING will take her attention away. She loves him. She pets him, and tries to play with him, we've given her treats to give to him, and he still hates that she has taken away the attention he used to get from us hahaha. It's hilarious.

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- Food. Ohh my, does this kid love food. I've been giving Aryn rice cereal for a little over a month now but we've upgraded to multigrain cereal, bananas, and sweet potatoes. Bananas are so far a big NO, unless it's mixed with the cereal. But sweet potatoes are a HUGE hit and she loves them. Tonight? We're trying carrots. I've decided to bypass peas since Ryan is so allergic to them, I'm scared she may be too.

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- Sleep. Aryn and sleep have a love/hate relationship. She loves naps - she'll sleep for an hour here, 2 hours there, and she can only stay up for about 2-2.5 hours at a time before needing a nap. But at night, she gets up at least twice, sometimes thrice, sometimes 18 times. It's exhausting. I've tried literally everything to get her to stay asleep. Last night I shut off the monitor and pretended I couldn't hear her. Sorry honey, but it had to be done. It was the first time you've ever stayed in bed from midnight-7am without me coming in to feed you. It was nice. I am hoping it becomes a new trend.

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- Walks. Aryn is becoming more fun on walks - she can sit there and look around, and actually stay awake for the greater part of the walk. I've realized at this stage that I really don't like her stroller. It leans too far back, but I don't want to buy her a new one. *sigh*

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- Aryn is now out of her bucket carseat and into a standard carseat. I found that she threw up way too much in the bucket (laying too far back, knees bent too far into stomach) and I've really fallen in love with the standard carseat. It's cowmooflage, and mommy LOVES it!!!!

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- Sitting Up!!!!! Today, on your 6-month birthday, you sat up without any help and not falling over after a few seconds. You sat up by yourself for a couple minutes and grabbed toys and grabbed at Bauer and didn't fall over!!! Mommy was sooooooo proud of you!! You did eventually fall over and fell flat on your face, but you just laughed and rolled onto your tummy to play. Augh Aryn, mommy LOVES YOU!!!

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What else.... you just make us laugh every single day!! Your new smile is where you squint your eyes and just give the biggest smile you can possibly give - it's friggen hilarious and I have taken about a billion photos of it so far!! You are hilarious and I'm learning everyday ways to make you laugh (which really isn't hard!)

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Mommy and daddy love you sooo much, Aryn!!! Happy 6 months!! We can't wait to see what joy you bring to our lives over the next 6 months!!!

xoxo

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Aryn's first cold

I have been seriously slacking in the blogging area of our life. It's been hard - I'm working whilst mothering and sometimes it just gets a bit overwhelming and the last thing I feel like doing is blogging at the end of the day! But, I am missing writing about so much of Aryn's life. She's a week shy of 6 months and I haven't blogged about her in almost a month!!

Bad mommy!!

The biggest thing lately is that Aryn got her first cold - and it just had to be croup! On Wednesday (March 2) Aryn was sooo cuddly and a bit lethargic - sleeping more than usual, not really wanting to eat her solids (she loooves rice cereal! Barley? Not so much!) but not enough to cause any kind of concern. I assumed she was teething.

Thursday she woke up in the morning and had a bit of a cough. Again, it's been -30C for about 8 months straight now (exaggeration?? Naahh) and again, I didn't think much of it. I put her down for a nap at about 11am and she woke up at 1pm sounding like a seal. It is amazing how fast croup sneaks up on you!

Because she was breathing so loud and it was obviously very painful, I rushed her to the hospital. Now, let me take a moment to express how much the Strathmore hospital SUCKS. First, the parking lot was full. I mean, cars were parked EVERYWHERE - on the grass, on the sidewalk, on top of a pile of snow - so I had to park on the street. It's -20C and I had to walk my very sick baby from a busy street all the way to the hospital. THEN, as you're getting to the front doors, there are huge "NO SMOKING" signs and I passed 3 PEOPLE smoking. I was so mad I made a loud comment about it, specifically "Wow, apparently you don't see the huge 'NO SMOKING' sign - unbelievable!". Inside, we had to wait a little over an hour to see a doctor. Yes, that is very good timing and I understand that - but when you have a sick infant and an old drunk lady who caused a car accident is being seen first - it's a bit frustrating.

But my fears were confirmed - Aryn had croup and there is not much they can do about it.

So I prepared myself for a very long night of being awake, standing in the garage, standing in the bathroom with steam, rocking, patting, and self medicating my baby girl. It was a LONG night. Aryn slept much of Friday - up for an hour, nap for 2 hours, up for an hour, etc. Unfortunately, her "up for an hour's" were tiring, as she just wanted to be cuddled and rocked, and her 2-hour naps were sporadic with coughing fits and crying fits.

My poor love nugget. I felt so useless!! I wanted to make you feel better and there's really nothing I can do other than cuddle you and pray for you.

I prayed a lot!

Friday night you slept a bit better - you woke up at 3am and your breathing was awful. I was pretty scared but after 10 minutes in the garage and then 5 minutes in a steamy bathroom, you were sounding a bit better. I kept waking up every hour or so to check on you and you slept straight to 7:30. Up for an hour and a half, then down for 2 hours.

It's now 1pm on Saturday and while you sound a *bit* better, I know you're still sick and I am hoping you get better soon!!!

Baby's first cold is not fun, but I feel like I'm pretty calm and not once did I overreact and think the end was near - which I always thought I'd be like when my baby got her first cold! haha!

Now the big question is: who is more of a big baby when they're sick? Aryn? Or... Ryan?!?!
hehehe