Month 10.

Today Lena is ten months old.  So old!  Cutting all sorts of teeth, saying all sorts of "words", climbing all sorts of things, eating all sorts of foods, and being all sorts of cute.  She is seeming more and more "toddler" and less and less "baby" lately.  I guess it's only a matter of time anyway.

The video below is from yesterday.  It documents how Lena spends most of her mornings, standing at the front door babbling away to many a passerby.  And then when she gets tired of that she goes and torments the poor dog, but that is not documented below for your viewing pleasure today.

curls & earings

So.  It was really hot and humid this week.  and when it's humid Lena's hair does crazy things.  Observe:

SO CURLY!!  

and yesterday we got her ears pierced.  

look at these cheeks!!!!!

 

and I'm super-tired.  Sleeping has gotten SO much better lately.  Incredibly better.  However Lena has been getting up early the past few mornings.  like 5:15am early.  and so I'm tired.

good night

:-) 

new stuff

 

 Ah yes, this is Lena hanging out on the front porch doing her funny little head wiggle.  We think it means "I like this" but really, there's no way of knowing if we're correct at this point... whatever it is it definitely has a positive connotation.

Anyway,

Here's one of my new favorite pictures.  Lena in an Easter dress (thanks Janine, fits perfectly!)  I can't get over her face in it... too funny.

 Here is Lena's new warm weather fascination.  Standing at the screen door watching the cars, people, stray cats, whatever go by.  She LOVES it.

 And now the shameless promotion.  So I made the entire outfit she is wearing in this picture below (minus the onesie but plus the SHOES!!) and also the red & gray checkered shirt she models in the video and the picture above.

So yes, Lena is pretty much my living doll and she has to wear what I make for her.  It's fun!  the pic above is a long tunic-shirt with a jean skirt and some little slip on shoes :-)

If I can ever get it together enough at some point I might sell some stuff on etsy, but we'll see.  

anyway, that's the latest.  All is well.  Spring has come at last.

An update, 2 pics, & a video

So remember last time when I wrote that Lena was screaming her head off when we'd try to get her to take naps or go to bed?  Well, that was because Mike and I were inadvertently starving her.  Oops.  Poor little baby.  How were we to know????  After a few days of screaming this little discovery was made one afternoon when I had Mike feed her solids before I got home to nurse.  I left a 4oz jar of baby food with the statement "She might not eat the whole thing"... yea.  She did indeed eat the whole thing.  And an entire half of avocado.  And 2 man-sized handfuls of cheerios.  And then she nursed for 15 minutes.  and that afternoon went down for her nap without a peep.  And now we feed her lots of food and in return she goes to sleep like a sane human being.  Victory!...?

Anyway, here are 2 pictures of her showing off her curly hair.   This is what 1 day of humidity did to it!

 

And here's a video of her and patch battling it out over a bone.  Guess who wins.

Lena's Musical Prowess

Looks like Lena found a new hobby.  We might have to ask Aunt Sheryl to coach her a bit though.  In the words of the American Idol judges, she may be a bit "pitchy"...  

Do they give points for enthusiasm?

oh, and sorry it's sideways... you know, the whole rotating thing it virtually un-do-able... 

a week or so behind...

We finally got Lena a high chair... there's a story as to why we decided it was time, but it's not one that's fit for blogging... Let's just say this should prevent any additional heart attacks for Mike and I...

Anyway, here is a picture of her favorite part of said high chair... the box!

And since my last post, Lena has grown considerably.  She changes so fast these days it seems that as soon as I get used to her doing one thing she changes it and does something new.  Like climbing the stairs.  About 4 minutes after I posted that she was climbing "1 or 2 steps" she decided to take on the whole flight at once.  Why not?  (see video documentary below)  Also, her sleep patterns and nap patterns are in a constant state of change.  For awhile now she's been sleeping great at night (thank goodness) but recently she's started screaming BLOODY MURDER when we put her down for naps or bedtime.  We're talking such screams that I think she being tortured.  Is she being tortured?  You decide.  The first few times this happened I went back in her room to save her from what surely must have been unimaginable physical anguish only to find her standing up, eyes glued on the door, banging her little hand on the crib railing, erupting into all smiles the second I walked in.  Hmm. "I WILL NOT go to sleep", anyone?   I've since learned that 5-10 minutes of such screaming will result in a peaceful sleeper and an approximate hour-and-a-half nap.  Awesome.  I've also put a few books in the crib to distract her from what clearly must be nap-induced-insanity.

Anyway, on to some multimedia gold.  Stair-climbing, big jumps, and saying "Bbbbbb".  Enjoy.

until next time...

cruisin' for a bruisin'

I once heard someone utter the profundity, "Little babies are programed to self-destruct."  How true.  At under 8 months of age, Lena is a menace to herself.  Allow me to explain:

1) Her three favorite toys are, electrical wires (especially those that are plugged in to outlets), The Patch's bones (especially those he is actively chewing), and clothes hangers (especially those which Patch has chewed into sharp plastic points)

2) EVERYTHING (and I mean everything) goes into her mouth 0.0023 seconds after she gets her hands on it

3)  She tries to climb the stairs (I remove her after stair 1 or 2 but inevitably she goes right back)

4) "Baby proof" seems to not apply in her case (lids, outlets, baby gates, climbing out of the infant seat when we're paying slightly less attention than we should be...)

5)  She is mobile (crawling, cruising, climbing) so she falls all the live long day.  Yesterday she sported a slight black eye (not kidding) from an encounter with our wooden bed frame.

I could go on, but I imagine you see my point.   Lena is a maniac, albeit a cute maniac, but a maniac nonetheless.  Here are some videos and pictures of her saying things, going places, eating things, and basically just being the cute little crazy girl that she is.

Wearing Uncle Dave's cool hat

 

Lena's "alien voice"... don't really know where she picked this one up....

Just chatting and eating Cheerios

Cruisin' around

And she'll be 8 months old on the 15th!