9 months

Dear Ayla,

This past month has been the most fun one yet...you are learning and growing so fast and now that you are moving, we are in BIG trouble! This month you went from attempting to move, to rolling everywhere, to pushing up on your knees, to crawling and pulling up on EVERYTHING and cruising. Its amazing to watch!The "funniest" part is because you are so small still, you don't look like you should be able to do what you can do! You are still mostly in 0-3 clothes and size 1 diapers :) You are so social and LOVE to be around people, as long as mom or dad are there too! You give the best smiles and people stop us all the time to tell us how cute you are and how lucky we are to have you, and they are right....we are so lucky!

Stats:

Weight: 13 lbs 8 oz
Height: 25.5"

While you have been able to pull up on your learning table for a while (since before 8 months), this month you have learned how to pull to stand on LOTS of other, sometimes not safe things, like the stroller, the bath, the change table, the cat, the door and the entertainment system. You love your new found freedom! Daddy and I have to watch you even more closely now and it seems like the more dangerous the object, the more you want to stand at it! 

On June 10th, you figured out a key "piece of the puzzle" by learning how to go from hand and knees to sitting. You are now super fast at this!

On June 13th, you became "officially mobile" by rolling over and over again. For a few days, this was your go to method of moving.

On June 16, you took your first tentative crawling steps and mommy caught them on film by having you crawl towards yourself on her phone :)

While you aren't walking on all fours, you love to get into a "bear" position. Here is one of the first times you did it on June 18.

10 days later (June 26), you were a master crawler who was ALL over the place! You like to explore under tables/desks and go from the play area in the living room to the one by the window. You also enjoy chasing the cats, but I dont think they like it as much!

You are also able to crawl to your walker, pull yourself up and walk around the kitchen a bit! You are amazing!

You are still a great eater and are willing to try new things (at least once). This month some of your new foods include - chicken soup, lamb, yogurt, ice cream, papaya, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, watermelon, cauliflower, green bean, ravioli, falafel, pita and rice. You are now eating 3 "solids" meals almost every day. You really enjoying eating with mom and dad, you insist on feeding yourself and you are also now drinking water from a sippy cup!!!

On June 15th, we celebrated Daddy's first Father's Day. You gave him a super cute card, a drill and LOTS of hugs and kisses all day! Your daddy is wonderful and amazing with you and you love him soooo much!!! We went to the park and you had a great time swinging and sliding with your daddy!

You are such a daredevil! You like the thrill of dangerous things! You love being upside down, tossed around, flipped and up high on mom or dads shoulders. Here are some pics from this month that show that!!

On July 1st, you celebrated your first Canada Day! It was really hot that day, so we waited until the late afternoon to go to the beach with Shaun, Sarah and Sophia. It was your first time at the beach and you loved every second of it! You were so happy there and enjoyed checking everything out and experiencing lots of firsts! You really enjoyed sitting in the water, splashing and playing with the mud! Mommy tried her best to keep you from eating it, but you are fast! It was a great day, and you only got sick once...because you ate too much of mom's ice cream!!! You lasted until almost 8:00, then it was bed tome. Hopefully next year you will be able to see the fire works.

We went to visit Mary's house and since she is packing, you found a favourite new toy...a box!!! You had so much fun playing in the box, hiding in the box, peeking out!

In the last few days you have started to wave a lot and it even sounds like you are saying "hi", I will have get a video of it for next month!

You have been watching a lot of soccer this month as the World Cup has been on. On July 5th, we took you to your first night Whitecaps game. We were worried about how you would do as the game started at 7:00, but you were a champ!! You were making friends with everyone around us, waving at people and smiling the whole time. You even made it through the whole game, but had a meltdown and then crashed on the way home!

Here are some pics of some friends that you saw this month. You also had a playdate with Aislin and we didnt get a pic of you and Asher at the soccer game :(

 Here a few of favourite random pics from the month!

8 months

Dear Ayla,

Wow...these past 8 months have just flown by! You have learned so much and continue to learn and grow everyday. It is so much fun! You make you dad and I laugh and smile everyday with your cheery disposition. You are starting to giggle at lots of things, especially when you play peek-a-boo and get a little scared!

Stats:

Weight: 13lbs 4 oz
Height: 25.4"

Just for fun - mommy took picture of you in some of the outfits that your cousin Sophia once wore.

Here are pics of you in the same onesie that Sophia was wearing in the hospital and in an outfit that she wore at around 3-4 weeks :) You are my peanut!!!

On May 5th, we went to Lyla's house for a Cinco de Mayo party. Lots of your friends from babytime were there so it was great to catch up with them! Here you are with Kate and Riley.

The following weekend (May 10-12) we took you for your first vacation. We drove 5 hours to Osoyoos for Mother's day weekend. You experienced lots of first that weekend. First time "driving a car", seeing a river, touching a lake,  swimming outdoors and your first time sleeping in a different crib. You LOVED the stops that we made at Manning Park to see all the nature around you. You and daddy planned a great Mother's day for me including a massage!

May 17th, we took you to your first symphony! It was small, only 4 instruments, but you really enjoyed listening to all the music and seeing the people on stage.

You are doing VERY well with eating and you now eat solids 2x/day, usually lunch and dinner. Broccoli is your favourite food (we have to give it to you last so you eat other things), you have tried cucumber, peanut butter, asparagus, turkey sausage, potato, peas, lentils, steak, mushrooms, yogurt and cauliflower this month. You insist on feeding yourself, even foods that require a spoon. Mommy can give you the spoon with food on it, but you HAVE to do it...there is no feeding you!

This month we also started a sign language class that mommy won on Facebook. We have enjoyed the classes so far and practicing our meal and bedtime signs. Thank you to Amanda at Tiny Talking Hands for the opportunity to learn with you and Beebo. As well as sign language, we are continuing our music class. You have now figured out how to shake the instruments and make your own music :)

The biggest change this month has to be much more mobile you want to be! You constantly want to be standing and walking and it seems like you want to skip crawling all together. You have learned how to push from your tummy to knees and then rock, you can go from knees/hand to sitting, from siting to tummy and you are working hard on trying to pull yourself up on things (even in the bath tub..yikes!) You have managed to take a few steps around your activity table and love walking with mommy or daddy whenever you can. You are super strong and even started doing handstand by pushing up against mom's feet!

You are also becoming more vocal and saying aba, ba, ba a lot and with a loud voice. You are even starting to have "conversations" with your friend Kate...its so cute!

Here is how you have grown this month!

Love you Gator!

Mama

7 months

Dear Ayla,

You are such a joy to be around. You smile is infectious and you are so curious about trying new things. Everyone who meets you comments on how happy you are and how you have the best smile! You love looking around at all the new things to see and if there is a person to make eye contact and engage with, you are right there smiling at them!

Stats:

Weight: 12 lbs 12oz
Height: 24.3"

We are continuing to try you on new foods. You are really good at getting the food into your mouth, but the swallowing part is still a bit tricky, but it's getting better every meal.

This month you have tried: yam, chicken, avocado, pancake, carrot, matzah ball, egg, butternut squash, broccoli and zucchini. So far, broccoli seems to be your favourite food!

We had our last day of babytime on April 8. It was sad to leave this great group of moms and babies, but we have made many new friends there and we will be keeping in touch with them! The nurses at health unit have been an amazing support group for us and we will miss them, but we will stop in to get weighed once in a while!

On April 10th, you decided that you didn't want to sleep in our room anymore. While mommy wasn't quite ready for you to move into your own room, you had other ideas! You went to bed at 8:30 and around 10:30 you woke up so I fed you. You went back down, but only for a few minutes before you screamed again, so I picked you up, got you settled and put you back down. Again, you woke up screaming. This went on until almost midnight with both mommy and daddy trying to settle you. Finally at just before midnight, mommy decided to try putting you in your own room in your crib and you went right to sleep and slept for 5 hrs! I guess you knew what you wanted! You have been sleeping very well in there since.

We went to Strong Start at mommy's school for the first time on April 11. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it was fun. We met some new friends, played with toys even did circle time where we sang songs and heard a story. We will hopefully be going there a lot!

You are doing really well at sitting up. I can leave you sitting now and you will sit for a good 5-10 minutes playing with your toys. Your core is super strong and you are not falling backwards as often as you were. These photos were taken April 7,10 and 14th.

For as little as you are, you are super strong. You can stand at your activity table for several minutes without falling and you can "walk" several steps with help. IF you  re standing and we let go of you, you can balance on your own for a second or too! You also LOVE being in your jolly jumper!

You LOVE to be tossed around by your daddy and I. We bounce you on the mattress, throw you in the air and flip you around. You are always full of smiles and giggles when we do these things. You also enjoy taking daddy's glasses off his face. It is the first thing you do when you see him in the evening, after giving him a HUGE smile!

We try and take you to the park as often as we can. You enjoy being on the swings and April 15th you had your first slide. Daddy took you down and mommy waited at the bottom and took a video. The first one was a success!

The second tome, mommy had you at the bottom on the slide and thought she was taking a picture, but it was actually on video. You laughed and wiggled yourself off! Its the funniest video! Luckily the slide isn't very high and you didn't "fall" too far!

We started taking a music class and you enjoy going there! When Miss Kelly starts playing any instrument, you are so focused on what she is doing. You haven't quite figured out how to "play" your instruments, but you love eating them! Lots of your friends also go to music - Jillian, Kate and Landon are all there. 

On April 16th, we took you to Sears for some more 6 month photos - mommy is a little photo crazy! Here are some of my favs!

On April 21, you rode in the shopping cart like a "big girl" for the first time. You are so fascinated by all the things to see there. Everyone who sees you in there comments on how well you sit and that you cant be big enough to be doing that!

On May 3, me you and daddy went to an art class. Its a good thing daddy was there because otherwise the art work wouldn't have been as good as it is! We decided to make an aylagator and used your hands and feet for the hands and feet and your toes for the scales.

May 5 we went to a Cinco de Mayo party at Lyla's place. It was great to catch up with some of our friends from baby time. Here is a picture of you, Riley and Kate.

You still enjoy your bedtime routine of bath, naked story time, diaper, saying good night to the baby in the window (mirror) and then a feed. You love hearing the same stories over and over again and are even starting to turn the pages. After your routine you usually go down very easily at around 8 and sleep for about 12 hours, with 2 feeds in there.

Here are your weekly pics from this month. You have such a different expression in each picture!

I am just loving watching you grow, explore and learn new skills. You are an amazing child and I am so lucky that you are mine!!!

Love you Gator!

Mama