Six Months Old!

Wow, Ildri's already at half a year!  Amazing.

• She is still quite the talker and smiles and laughs more often.
  
• She is over twenty pounds already, so we're getting quite a workout carrying her around!  She's in the 95th percentile for height, and 97th for weight.
  
• She has tried sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, bananas and rice cereal.  Carrots are by far her favorite.
  
• She is getting really good at sitting on her own.  We recently got her some stacking cups, and she spends a lot of time tasting them and throwing them around.
  
• She LOVES to be sung to, and loves books that have mommy and daddy make funny noises, such as "Mr. Brown can Moo".

Food!

Ildri just started on solids.  We had her on rice cereal for several days, and we've recently graduated to bananas.  She absolutely loves the bananas, and we can't wait to add new foods to her list.

Idlri the Great Pumpkin

It was our first family Halloween in Iowa, and I expected to have a lot of trick-or-treaters.  We never got more than a couple in Chicago, and we were kind of excited to see a lot of kids dressed up this year.  We got a lot of candy, and dressed Ildri up in her pumpkin costume (thanks Grandma Barb!).  And, nothing.  We ended up with one group of non-costumed teens around 9:30 PM and a lot of leftover candy.  At least we got a lot of cute pictures!

Daddy's Birthday

November 6th was Daddy's birthday, so Ildri helped me make a cake.  We decided on a banana cake with cream cheese frosting.  We halved the recipe (we didn't want an entire cake sitting around) and make little individual cakes in ramekins.  I was a little worried that the cake would taste like banana bread, but I was wrong.  It was a lovely cake, and a lovely little celebration.

Hats!

I've recently taken my sewing foray into the land of hats.  I have now completed 3 hats, including one with earflaps, and one with cat ears.  I still need to take pictures of her in the other two hats I made, but I have pictures of her in a winter hat for the first time (I didn't make the pink one), and in my first attempt at making a hat (the blue one).  It's quite obvious that I had some issues with fitting her tiny head, but the new hats are working out much better!

Finally, New Pictures!

Okay, it's been a while.  But I've had a nasty cold, which Ildri finally caught from me, so there's been a lot of sniffling, sneezing and coughing in the Weaver household lately.  Besides that, Ildri and I have been enjoying all of the days that bring us good weather by taking long walks and hanging out on the porch, blowing bubbles and watching the wind rattle the leaves.

Ildri has been fascinated by our mouths and her mouth lately, and does a lot of grabbing and exploring of this orifice when she has the chance and proximity.  She also loves it when we blow "raspberries", and is trying to perfect the skill herself.  Every morning this week when I've gone in to wish her good morning, she responds back with a smile, followed by her little sputters. 

Ildri is Four Months Old!!

It's fall, and Ildri is four months old.  We can't believe how much she's growing.  Here's what's new:

• She can roll over from front to back, and back to front.  It truly shocked me when she did this for the first time!
  
• When she's on her belly, she likes to push herself forward - not crawling or creeping yet, but she's getting a handle on movement.
  
• She just got a Jumperoo!  She loves to rock from side to side in it (don't worry, video is coming). 
  
• She's almost on a consistent nap and nighttime sleep schedule.
  
• She's still the love of our lives!
  

Mmm...feet

Recently, Ildri realized that she could get her feet in her mouth.  It appears that she could pursue this activity for hours, if we would let her.  It's hard to catch the toe-chewing on camera, but you get the idea.

Ildri Loves Her Bath

Our daughter is in love with her nightly bath.  She has a set of four rubber duckies, and she enjoys kicking them and sucking on them.  David usually does the bath, but Mom is always there to watch - I can't resist!

Ildri and her Daddy

Ildri's Great-Grandfather

Ildri's Great-Grandfather, John, passed away on September 13th.  I have always looked to him as a shining example of how one should live their life.  I could go on and on about my Grandfather, but I will try to be brief.  I would just like to point out some of Grandpa's qualities that I hope to have as a parent.

• He always made me feel important, no matter how young I was.  Every one's voice was always given equal weight at my Grandparent's home.
  
• He loved his wife, Jane, so dearly and made that clear to her and everyone else.  I have long admired their marriage and hope that I can always treat my spouse with the same adoration and respect that Grandpa and Grandma treated one another with.
  
• He made his family his first priority.  
• He spoke with honesty and sentimentality.  He had conviction behind all his words.
• He had passion for life - not only his own, but for each person he encountered.  I think this is why he made such an impression on people.  He truly cared about his fellow man.

Again, I could continue on for pages with my admirations for my Grandpa.  But I'll leave it at those observations above, and a promise that Ildri will hear Dr. Seuss's "Happy Birthday To You" at each birthday.  And whenever she wants to hear it.  And I will do my best to follow his example in a passion for life so that I might share that joy with my daughter.

Babbling Baby

Ildri is really working on her vocalizations.  She's becoming quite a little talker, just like Mom and Dad.

Rolling Over

She's working really hard on rolling over onto her stomach.  Problem is, she has no idea how to return to her back.  It's fun to watch, though!

Working Out Not Working Out

In my quest to lose the baby weight, I purchased a dvd that shows you how to work out using your baby as a weight.  Sounded fun!

Four weeks after buying it, I finally got around to trying it out this morning.  Things were going well - Ildri loved the parts where she got pushed up high above my head and gave me lots of smiles.  I got down on the floor with the baby sitting on my belly for pelvic tilts and was the lucky recipient of what Dave has dubbed "the white tidal wave" of baby spit-up.  

New outfits for all!  Next time I'll have to give her more than an hour post-feed before swinging her around.

Ildri is Three Months Old!

Our little girl is now three months old!  It's quite amazing.  She's growing like a weed and we see new changes everyday.  In fact, she rolled over onto her stomach for the first time today.  Unfortunately, she couldn't return to her back and got pretty angry, but she'll learn that move eventually.

David and I have both found activities that get Ildri to laugh: I sing to her (mostly early Beatles songs and "Old MacDonald" - she loves the cow and the dog sounds) and Dave plays "driving the car", which involves Ildri sitting on his knee, a lot of jiggling and "vroom vroom" noises.  She loves it.

Our roly-poly girl got a little infection in her underarm folds, so we've had to swaddle her with one arm outside the blanket (see picture).  We feel terrible for her, but it looks kind of cute.  Now Ildri gets armpit and neck fold baths twice daily.  I tell her that I'm taking her to the Baby Salon and sit her in a Bumbo seat in front of the bathroom mirror.  She doesn't enjoy the bathing ritual, but she likes looking at the baby in the mirror.

Ildri is finally sleeping in her own room.  Last night was the first full night that she was all by herself in her new crib.  We've been trying to get her to sleep there at nights, but she misses our room.  But since she's hit the weight limit for the bassinet part of the Pack 'n' Play in our bedroom, we had to transition her to a big crib.  I think I miss her presence more than she misses us (sigh).

Man, we're lucky parents.  I can't wait to see what she does tomorrow!

More Sewing

I finished a new project today - a taggies blanket!  This was easy and fun and the results were great (much better than the chiraffen).  And the best part: Ildri loves it!  I took her to Target after completing the blanket and she never stopped playing with it the entire time.  Good thing I bought enough fabric to make two!

Time with the Grandparents in Ames

While Dave was in Arkansas for work, Ildri and I got to stay with her Grandpa Bill and Grandma Barb in Ames.  We had a great time.  Ildri got to spend some time with Uncle Erik before he left for California.  We also got to show Uncle Khyle and Aunt Kirstin what life is like with a baby, just to break them in a bit (I can't wait for my nephew!).  Unfortunately, I didn't take too many pictures, but there's a great one of Grandpa Bill reading to Ildri for the first time.  We can't wait for more time with the family.

Sewing

Now that I'm home with Ildri (for the time being), I have needed to find a creative outlet of sorts.  So we got a sewing machine and a book on sewing for children.  I haven't been near a sewing machine since high school home economics, which was way too long ago.  But the projects in the book are pretty simple and straightforward, so I'm not doing too much sweating in trying to accomplish these creations.  My first finished project (seen above): a soft rattle.  Dave calls it a chicken, but I think it looks more like a cross between a chicken and a giraffe (a chiraffen?)  We'll see if it passes the Ildri chewing test!

Ildri is Two Months Old!

Our beautiful Ildri is now two months old. 

New developments:

She is about thirteen pounds and almost 25 inches.  Yep, she's a chunker.

She tracks movement very well and has fallen in love with her toy peacock.  

She finds her hand delicious.

Sleeping at night can go for up to seven miraculous hours. 

She is an expert bubble maker and a proficient drooler.

Enjoy the pictures!  I caught a good smile and some great tummy time.