Just another Friday

Sandy, Jed, Dane and Leyla came over to visit for the day.

We just hung out,

ate food,

played with babies,

and did this,

and this,

oh yeah, and this!

It was pretty funny to watch them attempt this many times before it actually worked. And it was hard to get a picture of it, where I could tell what was going on, and get everyone in the picture. Unfortunately, Ben was cut out of the picture. He is actually crouched down right behind connor, but got blocked out by Jed. And that is Dane at the bottom of the whole mess.

5 and 6 months

Right before Christmas Bella turned 5 months, and the pictures are just making their appearance today...oops. Better late than never I guess.

This weekend celebrated her half birthday. Wow I can't believe it was 6 months ago already. But the last few weeks she's grown up so much more I find myself wondering where my little baby went. She's getting quite the personality. It's so fun to watch her grow.

She's definitly got a preference for her momma and won't let anyone else put her to sleep. Which makes it hard for me to leave her. But thats ok, I don't mind taking her with me. She's also been pretty spoiled bt taking her naps with me (because I enjoy it just as much), but last week I finally started laying her down for naptime. Sometimes she does ok, other times she wakes up as I'm walking to her bed. We've got a long way to go before naptime is figured out, but until then, I'll savor up the snuggle time we get.


She has also learned a few new tricks too. When she's laying on her tummy bshe scoots backwards all over the floor. (I'm not ready for her to be mobile yet so I think I'll just confine her to my lap, hip, or her saucer ;)

She's also learned how to sit up by herself. The other day I thought I'd see how she would do andsure enough she was sitting up by herself.

We haven't started any foods yet, but I'm thinking sometime this week we might. She can't wait to get food, she trys to eat everything I have. She loves to drink water out of my cup, and loves to try to drink from a straw.

She really is such a good baby. She rarely crys. When she is hungry she just sucks her thunb and snuggles up to me, it's so sweet.

I think Bella is now up to 17 pounds, and I have no idea how long she is, but will find out the true measurements at her check up (which I still need to schedule).

Bella still loves to watch Connor's every move. She just giggles at him all day. And he loves to do whatever he can to get her to laugh at him. But he still needs to learn that the face is not a ticklish spot. He always tries to tickle her on her head or her cheeks and then doesn't get why she doesn't giggle at that.



Now if you have a weak stomach you may not want to look at the next picture. I didn't even realize I had caught it in a picture. But since I did, I thought I'd give you a little glimpse of what dealing with a baby with reflux is like.

I feed her she does this. You lay her on her tummy she does this. You lay her on her back she chokes on this. She bounces in her saucer and she does this. But here's the weird part. She started taking zantac when she was a week old after she was vomiting all day long, and having a hard time breathing at night when she was sleeping.

So after a month of being on zantac, I stopped using it and she was fine. She just had what I considered normal baby spit up. But about a week after being off it, she got really congested, had a hard time breathing out her nose, and she was getting wheezy. So I asked the doctor and and she said it was probably once again from the reflux. Apparantly if the refluxed tummy contents reach the throat it creates a slight degree of swelling and irritation that results in a noisy, congested breathing. So back on the zantac she went. Every month I continue to take her off it thinking she doesn't need it anymore, and everytime I do, she gets congested again so I start giving it to her again. But the last few times she started spitting up while on the zantac. So here's our choice right now, keep her on the zantac and she spits up like crazy all day long, or take her off it and she doesn't spit up but she has a hard time breathing. Obviously not a hard decision to make, but it's one that really doesn't make sense. She shouldn't be spitting up like that when on zantac. So we'll have to see what the dr thinks at her check up this week.

Babywearing

The best purchase I made as far as baby gear goes is most definitely The Moby Wrap. I cannot say enough good things about it. When Bella was a newborn, I could wrap her up in it and it honestly felt like she was just holding on to me. Unlike all the other baby carriers I've tried, this one doesn't hurt the back at all, or the shoulders, and there are so many different ways to use it. Now that she is getting bigger we tried out a different hold, and Ben even got to try it out. She loves just hanging out close to mommy or daddy.

So this isn't exactly what it's suppose to look like, (shes supposed to be in the front), but Ben thought he could use his arms better when he pushed her to the back (and away from the stove)

But if anybody out there is having a baby or has one, I would highly recommend this type of carrier (there's also a hold that you can do for carrying a toddler on your back!) The only downfall is the wrap is very long, so it does take some practice to figure out how to wrap it on, but once you got a feel for it, it is pretty simple!

And another pic of my cuties taking a bath last night.

A couple of cuties

Connor can't wait for the day that Bella is big enough to sleep in his room with him. He's got all kinds of plans already for the days when they can "camp out" in his room.

He says, "Mom, I'll sleep on the top bunk and Bella can sleep on the bottom. I'm bigger so I'll be on top so that she doesn't fall out. But sometimes we can both just sleep on the bottom together." And this goes on and on....

So every night when I put him to bed I let her lay in bed with him for a few minutes and he just eats it up. Lovin every second she is in bed with him. It's too cute!

And this is a pretty usual sight at about 9:00 at our house.

quick christmas recap

The holidays have come and gone....so fast! The week of christmas I took the kids to ben's moms place to hand out and to get there before the snow came. (Let's just say, at the time, Bella hated being in the car, and screamed from turtle lake to ladysmith, which is the better portion on a 3 hr drive!) Everybody else made the journey the day before christmas eve. We spent the time playing games, hanging out, and actively checking the computer for updates on the weather/snow storm. Our plan was, as always, to head home christmas eve night, after church. (I have a rule that no matter what, I always want to wake up in my house christmas morning.) So after checking the weather, seeing how bad it sounded, we decided to make our way home in the early afternoon. Mainly to avoid driving in the dark. Well, it's a good thing we left when we did, the drive home was nasty. I sat in the back to entertain Bella and try to avoid the screaming. I was so nervous the whole drive, I tried knitting a hat, and well, after starting over numerous times, decided that was not going to happen. But finally we get a mile from our house.... on our way up a hill...and we stop....can't make it up the hill. I'm telling Ben to turn around and go the other way, and he keeps pushing it saying we can make it. I eventually won, we turned around and finally made it home. Here are some pics from our time at Jed and Sandys.

Then Christmas morning, the kids must have been good enough during the year because Santa came and left them each a present and filled their stockings. Bella got a new pink glow worm, that really calms her down when she is tired and doesn't want to give in. And Connor got a transformer.

After they opened all their presents we once again, set out to battle the roads to get to my mom and dads place. We decided to take the truck (thankfully!) and Ben built a snowman in the bed of the truck (he said it was for weight in the back). I'm really bummed that I didn't get a picture of it. But believe me everyone in the town of New Richmond took a picture of it. (It was very reminiscent of the day we took a picture of tiny car and gigantic tree on top!) On the way to NR, we almost went in the ditch multiple times. I had 3 heart attacks on the drive there. As we pulled into NR, I realized we had no diapers, called my mom and we had used all the ones I kept there also. So the roads are pure ice, it's christmas day, stores are all closed and we have no diapers for our baby. We decided to try a gas station, see if luck was on our side, sure enough, it was. We finally made it there and guess what else I forgot...my camera. So no pics from christmas at my moms this year....bummer! (more to come on the diaper situation later)

Anyways, it was a great holiday spent with family. I hope all of you had great holidays as well! (I really thought this post was going to be quick, guess not:)

Stay Tuned

Stay tuned for multiple posts in the upcoming week (already scheduled). I've been busy/lazy :) (Wish I could say more busy.) But once I get caught up on the last month, we should be good to go again. Until then........I leave you with this oldie of Connor. I believe it is right after eating his cake for his first birthday. Where does the time go???? And yes he's peeing in the tub. Too Cute!