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

6 months

Dear Ayla,

I cant believe that it has been six months since I first held you in my arms. In some ways it has gone so fast, and in others its seems like you have always been a part of our family.

This has been a super fun month! You are becoming more aware of the things around you and and take great interest in figuring out what they are! You love going out and meeting new people and giving them a HUGE toothless grin! You have also experienced some cool things and had many new firsts!

6 month stats

Weight: 11 lbs 13oz
Length: 23.5"

On March 8, you went to your first Whitecaps game and you were a champ!!! Even though onesies don't come in your size (12 month is the smallest), you still rocked it! First you were fascinated with all the tall buildings downtown. Then, you loved looking at everything at the game and couldn't stop looking at all the sights! You got a bit hot in the ergo, but once we took you out your totally enjoyed yourself!! You didn't even mind wearing the earmuffs. 

March 10th we were to Erika's to celebrate Jillian's birthday. You were not in the partying mood so we didn't stay too long. You did like your 30 seconds in the ball pit! You decided that it was nap time after your lunchtime meal!

After a visit to Dr. Larraine, she decided to send your for some tests at Children's as you are not gaining weight very quickly. While mom and dad are not worried, we just wanted to make sure that everything was ok! Again, you were a champ! You had to do a sweat test, which required you to be hot for 30 minutes (you hated that), do bloodwork (you hated that too) and do a stool and urine sample. Everything came back all good :). After the traumatic tests, you went for dinner at Saba and Safta's and behaved as if nothing particularly interesting happened that day. 

We went to Liliana's for a party on St. Paddy's day and we did a handprint art project. You were not the biggest fan of this, but you tolerated it! You also decided that after week of trying that this was the day you were going to roll from your back to your tummy!!! Yeah!!! 

This month mommy has decided to go back to working out so you have been going to childminding a few times a week at the Y. Your first day there was SUPER exciting as there were 2 fire drills. Like always, you took it all in stride and hung out with mommy while we waited for the fire dept to come and fix it.

You are SUPER strong and are able to stand by yourself when holding onto something like the coffee table. This is a very impressive skill for someone your age! Here are pictures of you doing this for the first time on March 23 (24 weeks old).

You also sat up for the first time on March 23. When you sit or stand you like to launch yourself backwards so mommy and daddy have to be very aware of you so that you don't bonk your head!

Sitting comes with its fair shares of bumps and bruises. Her is my favourite "outtake" from you learning how to sit. 

We have been walking as much as we can with Kim and Kate - sometimes in the stroller and sometimes in the ergo. On March 27 while we were waiting for them at the park, mommy decided to put you in the swing at the park. At first you were unsure, but by the end I think you liked it!

March 30th was Daddy;s birthday and you had a rough night! The night before his birthday you woke up at 3:30 and were super fussy. I fed you and you had a HUGE poop! Then you cried for almost 3 hours :( We gave you Tylenol to help you feel better, but you just threw that up. We think you may have picked up a small bug, but it seemed to pass quickly as after your morning nap you woke up happy and smiley! We were going to give you cereal for the first time, but decided against it because of the bug...tomorrow :)


The morning on March 31, you tried cereal for the first time. You are not quite big enough for your high chair, so you sat in the bumbo on the table. We gave you rice cereal and you were a little unsure and first. You at some (we think), but most of it ended up on your bib. You loved trying to eat the bib!

You have also tried (and liked) yam, avocado and pancakes. The pancakes were your choice! Daddy made them for breakfast one day and you were staring at them, so we gave you some! From day 1, you liked feeding yourself. At first I had to put the food in your hand, but now you can grab it from your tray!You always have such a serious look on your face while eating...its serious business this food stuff!

This month you have also become a lot more vocal. You are constantly making sounds, laughs, coos and blowing raspberries. It is so cute to see you interacting with us and other people.

On April 3 (just before you turned 6 months) we went to see Aly (of Alybaby photography) for more pictures. You were determined to not sit for very long on your own that day - but you stood for long time!

 Look at all your crazy faces this month - you sure do have personality!!!

 

You have come a long way in 6 months and I cant wait to see what the next months bring for you! 

Love you tons my little peanut! 

Mommy