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!