The Good, the Bad, and the Cute

Eating sweet potatoes: good habit.














Craning neck as far as possible in order to watch TV: bad habit.



















Enjoying the great outdoors: good habit.














Letting baby completely fend for herself: bad habit.














Making sure baby has enough time to really kick back and relax: good habit.



















Babies + computers: bad habit.














Encouraging baby's natural dance talent: good habit.














Letting baby eat whatever she can grab: bad habit.















Yikes, ending with a bad habit. Note sure what that says about us.

Separation Anxiety

Daphne seems to be going through a stage. That, or I am just raising a very needy baby with severe attachment issues.

Today we wanted to get some stuff done in the yard. I took out several of Daphne's blankets, made her a cozy spot in the shade, gave her a toy, and figured she'd entertain herself for at least half an hour.

Nope...anytime I was out of sight (not hard to do when your weeds rival trees for height) she started crying her "I am so heartbreakingly sad, please save me and shower me with thousands of kisses" cry. It's the cry that makes you want to drop anything you're doing and, yes, shower her with thousands of kisses.














I really try not to run to her every time she cries. I talk to her from across the room, letting her know she's not been forgotten. Or I give her tummy a quick pat and continue on with what I'm doing. Or I give her a new toy to distract her. Or I pick her up because she's just so darn cute that I can't help it.

But back to our yard work endeavor...She would cry her little cry, and then when I would go check on her, she would start smiling and laughing. David said she's training me.

In the last week or so, she's been wanting only me to feed her. Only me to put her to bed. Cries when I leave. Is happy when I come back. It's a little out of control, and really weird that it started happening out of the blue.

I think it's making David kind of sad, but I tell him that it won't be long before she realizes that he is the fun one, and then she'll only want him.

Secretly it makes me very happy that right now I'm her #1. Even if the showering her with thousands of kisses all day is keeping me from getting anything else done.

Sneak Peak

We got Daphne's pictures take the other day. Our friend Amy was our NILMDTS photographer who was at the hospital for Daphne's birth. Now she's captured Daphne in her charming 6 month state.

This is where you can see a sneak peak picture of our Little Miss D.

And of course, I can highly recommend Amy for any of your photographing needs.

This is A Big One

Half birthday. Halfway between being born and being one year old. Six months old.

Anyway you spin it, it seems like such a big milestone to me.

We started off the day at Daphne's 6 month well baby check up. I love that in the After Visit Summary they give the baby's height in feet, not inches. Daphne is officially 1 ft 10 1/2 in. And I think she weighs 13.12lbs. We had a wonderful almost 3 weeks of no Daphne doctor appointments, but we're jumping right back into the groove with 3 for her this week and 3 for David.















Later she had her first taste of sweet potatoes. As soon as we sat her down she knew what was coming and got that "are you kidding me?" look before the food was even on the spoon (smart baby). But as soon as the food was in her mouth she was fine. I'm sure she liked them, as there was smiling going on in between bites. If smiles aren't proof that there was happiness and joy in eating those sweet potatoes, then I don't know what is. I'm so glad she liked them since sweet potatoes have to be the easiest of all baby foods to make.
















We finished off the day by going on a birthday celebration trip to Daphne's favorite hang out, Starbucks. David and I took a trip down memory lane and discussed our favorite/most vivid memories of the day Daphne was born.

I remember right after she was born when the doctor asked David to tell us if it was a boy or a girl. David hesitated, which made me very concerned. Not being able to tell our baby's gender was not something I had prepared myself for. (He explained later that he was so overwhelmed by how unattractive she was with her squished head that it briefly distracted him.) I also remember finally going to bed around 6:30AM, but then waking up at 8:00 ready to go visit her in the NICU. I couldn't wait to go spend the day getting to know her.

David's favorite memory was when all the medical staff were finished working, and he finally got a chance to get close to her. She grabbed tightly to his finger, proving that her fingers were working just fine. He was also very happy when her head started shifting to a more aesthetically pleasing shape.














We didn't get a family picture taken on Daphne's real birthday. Today was a good day to make up for that.
















Happy 6 month birthday, little baby. I'd give you a cake if I could.

Bananas, Part II

Are you serious?! We're doing this again??




















But I really don't want to!




















Seriously, people, I really just like my milk. It does a body good, remember?




















If I let it just fall out of my mouth, does that count as eating it?














I guess it's not as bad as it could be. I'm actually very brave and pretty into trying new things. Maybe I'll even admit that I really, truly, do like bananas.

Maybe tomorrow I can dive into that huge pile of baby food that my mom spent hours making for me. Or maybe I can do what my dad thinks would be good and just go straight to the bacon and pork chops.

Hmmm. Hard choice.

Untitled

There's a daddy and a daughter who've been perfectly matched.
















Her trust. His comfort.















Her adoration. His love.















But there are some things that can't completely be expressed with words.




















You just see it and you know.

There's a daddy and a daughter who've been perfectly matched.

You Know Your Baby is Growing Up When...

...She gets to have her first taste of real food.

First I gave her a spoon to play with, which she thought was a great chew toy.















Then it was time for the good stuff: mashed banana mixed with milk. Banana soup, if you will.

She accepted it cautiously.
















Turned her nose up.















Gagged.















Then was fine.

We did this several more times before calling it quits because I think it would be sad if she developed a fear of spoons because this experience.

Thankfully there was no crying, just serious confusion on why we were doing this when plain old milk has always been more than sufficient.

Baby Stuff

We having nothing much to share, just some random photos of what Daphne's been up to the past few days.

David took this picture. I'm not sure what was going on, but doesn't it make you want to just grab her and give her a big hug??? I hate it when she looks sad. Or in this case, sad mixed with a tiny bit of freaked out.















She's always getting this teething ring tuck on her arm. David says it's because she's excited about one day wearing bracelets.















When Daphne becomes a famous musician and releases her first CD, I think this one should be a top candidate for the CD cover:

Welcome to the Crib

We made a list of things to get done while David is home this week. Simple things like "take a load to the Salvation Army," and "buy batteries for all the smoke alarms." Nothing too taxing, since David is lame and all.

Yesterday we finished hanging all the things that have just been piling up in Daphne's room. Her room up to this point has mostly been a place to stash her clothes and toys, not really a place of great beauty. Oh, we've hung a wall hanging here and there. Bought a hamper and some baskets. Otherwise, nada.

So David got out the tools and hung the rest of her stuff. Like these pictures that you can't see, but are photographs that David took when we were in Boston of the duckling statues from the book Make Way for Ducklings. This is one of my all time favorite children's books. I was so happy to have fulfilled a life long dream in visiting the Public Gardens, where this story was based.














Daphne helped by trying to eat a large pea and attacking her stuffed Lola dog.































These pictures are for all of you out-of-towners who need to know where Daphne lays her pretty little head. Except that she doesn't, because she still sleeps in her bassinet right next to me. Putting her in her own room to sleep makes me feel like I'm sending her off to Kindergarten or something. Too sad to think about. Anyways, to the rest of you, these photos might be very, very boring.





































































David is the amazing one who built all the shelving, including the little one that has Daphne's Easter dress hanging on it and the dark one with books in it, as well as put up the chair rail. He has talents.

It is such a good thing I had a girl, because I had all these wonderful purple items that needed a room to be displayed in. David doesn't want to live in a house decorated in various shades of lavender, so I am very happy to have one room where Daphne's favorite color can take over.

Mad Baby

Can you tell from this picture that Daphne was mad at me? I had her in the Ergo so that we could go outside, but I wanted her sun hat on her to -obviously- keep the sun out of her eyes. Apparently her head has grown by mammoth proportions in the past couple of weeks, because the hat fit really tightly. I was trying to pull it up, but it was stuck around her forehead. Pulling it up gave her a face lift of sorts. Daphne with a face lift is a very funny sight, but she didn't think it was as entertaining as I did. She's good at glaring.

And a David update for anyone who cares to know...he went to the doctor today and was told he can't go to work this week, but he does get to go to physical therapy. It's so exciting to have this mini-vacation time, except that David is actually injured and can't do anything wild and crazy. I think he's just sitting on the front porch waiting for Nate to bring him some T Bell.

Just kidding. Sort of.

'Take Your Daughter to Work' Day

Yes, it's true. David got in a traffic crash at work. It wasn't his fault; someone ran a red light and hit him. But he's OK. Just not moving much from the waist up.

He's taking a few days off on disability, but today he had to go in to fill out paperwork. Since he's currently not moving with the greatest of ease, driving a vehicle is not something he should be attempting. Therefore, I get to be his chauffeur. And since wherever I go, Daphne goes, we both went on a field trip to her dad's work.






























She mostly just liked playing with her toys.














Several of David's sergeants told him to not hurry back, because he doesn't want to get into some scuffle too soon and injure himself further. So let's all work together in convincing him that it's OK to take a few days off. Maybe even weeks. Ooh, how about years?

Sadly, the timing of all this meant we had to miss Aunt Erin's party for graduating from OSU. We found a three-pack of Beaver onesies at Fred Meyer's the other day that would look really good on Daphne, and would have looked especially good on her at the party. We didn't buy them because we were in a hurry.

Daphne wears 3-6 months, by the way.

She's on the Move

Today Daphne log-rolled across the living room floor. It was all very fast, and she didn't seem to realize she had just done something amazing.

Daphne's great aunt Chris (who does not want to be known as GAC, by the way) said Zachary used to do this fine trick also. Since Daphne seemed to just roll back and forth over one side, I thought we had some time before there would be considerable movement across the floor. But wow, babies learn new tricks quickly.

She enjoyed some tummy time today.















And back time.















And then we had to pause during dressing time to capture this hilarious moment:














Oh my, I just laugh and laugh when I look at the many pictures I took of her looking like this.

Lovin' It

We got a new camera today, thanks to our friend Dub who is a camera salesman extraordinaire.

This camera is super fancy and I LOVE it! So for your viewing pleasure, I have lots of beautiful new pictures of the Daph. I will not post all 82 of them.
















Daphne's really starting to enjoy our dogs. Today she smiled at Lola, and later laughed at the dogs as they were running around the yard. I like that I can say to Lola, "where's Daphne?" and Lola will run over and lick Daphne's face. It's like a natural immunization for the baby. She'll probably never have allergies.






























Here you can see what Daphne's cry looks like when she's hungry. She always opens her mouth nice and wide, just ready for you to stick the bottle in.















David wanted to take pictures of Daphne and I also, but I wasn't pretty today. Sorry.