Teething, Ouch!

Natasha probably started showing signs of teething at around 3 months old. She'd have night sweats, diarrhea, and a diaper rash, all of which lasted for a few days and then went away. For months and months I waiting for these teeth to show up, but none did.

Then, while we were on vacation last month, no signs of teething for weeks, I happen to see into her mouth and notice five teeth sprouting through. She had 3 on the top and the front bottom two. They did not seem to bother her at all, so I thought, wow that was relatively easy.

Karma has now come back to bite me in the ass for that remark. My little 'angel' spent the entire day cranky and crying and from what I can only guess as teething. She has had a diaper rash for a couple of days, but I do not feel or see any new teeth breaking through.

She's miserable, which means I'm miserable. My only consolation today was that she slept from 10am-1:45pm. Those were the only hours she was not crying, the rest of the time, tears and crankiness. I hope the tooth breaks through soon.

Bear - Four Months Short of a Year.

I'm almost overwhelmed with this feeling of "O.M.G my little girl is growing up!" The thought has crossed my mind over the last few days, something I was not really thinking/concentrating on too heavily until I took this photo and then took more then the usual glance at the earlier ones in the series. In Eight months my little girl has;

- Went from having 0 head control to holding it on her own
- Sitting up on un-assisted
- Rolling over
- Trying to pull herself up
- sprouting 6 teeth (4 uppers, 2 lowers)
- developed the sweetest little giggle/laugh
- eating solids
- Grew from her birth weight/height of 7lbs 11oz/21.5" to 20lbs, 27"

I hate to say it, as tired as it is, but it's totally true, she is growing up so fast I almost feel like I'm starting to miss things, it's all happening so quickly!

You can see her other Bear photos Here It goes to month 5 only, but I'll add all of them on the final entry to this series. :0)

Rolling over!

I was laying on our bed tonight, cooling off under the ceiling fan from our walk at the zoo when Tash rolled over! (front to back) I figured it was just a fluke, so I flipped her back to her tummy, because really, she must have had some leverage right? My little girl was not going to roll over, I had already decided at 8 months old she was going to go right from sitting to walking and skip this whole rolling over/crawling business.

I turned her back to her tummy 2 more times before calling Owen to come in the room, and thankfully she did it again. The look on Owen's face, he was soo proud! He always seems to miss her milestones bc he's at work or such. I think part of him does not believe she does anything since she never seems to repeat it once she does it.

I've tried a few times since to get a photo, or a video or something, but I think we played her out with 4 in a row, so I guess I'll have to wait. :0)

The Zoo!

Owen and I decided to spend the day together as a family, so even though it was terribly hot out, we head off for some fun at the zoo. Natasha really does not get the whole concept yet, but it's a nice walk, and we got out of the house for some family time, which we have been lacking lately.

An afternoon at Stanley Park.

I was going to post some zoo photos this week, but unfortunately I lost them all. :0( My memory card went bad, or so my husband says, and I can't retrieve any of the photos off of it. Luckily, they were only zoo pictures, as I'd recently uploaded pics off of it. I'm going to the Zoo again on Thursday, so I plan to take more again, and hopefully a couple of Tash and I. (again)

Anywho, Tash and I went to Stanley Park yesterday to meet up with some of our friends. It was a beautiful afternoon, with a nice breeze to keep us all cool. Sitting there looking at all the babies I can't believe how much they've all grown, and how soon, a few of us will be returning to work. :0(

Sweet Sleep

The sleep habits of my daughter are not something I usually care to talk about. One of the main reasons is that I'm tired of hearing the same reactions each time I tell them that my daughter sleeps through the night. I always get one of two answers;

Oh well she must be formula fed, that is probably the reason she is sleeping through the night. if you breastfed her, you'd be getting up several times a night still.

or the ever popular;

You better enjoy it while it lasts, my child slept through the night too, then, at 6 months old suddenly started getting up 4xs a night! Just you wait.

Regardless of the fact of how long she has been sleeping through the night, or the fact that she continues to do so at nearly 8 months old, we still have evenings/nights when she will wake up. Last night was the perfect example of that. We started her bedtime routine, of which we've been consistent about since she was 8 weeks old, and had her in bed by 9pm. She fell asleep at 9:30pm only to wake up at 10pm from what I think was a bad dream.

I went into her room, she was shaking, crying really hard and when I lifted her out of her crib she latched onto me. I rocked for a bit in the glider hoping to calm her and put her back to bed soon, but it took me 2 hrs to get her settled and back to sleep. She then woke up 3 more times for 10-15 mins and was up for the day at 7:30am.

Tonight she threw us for another loop by going to bed at 7.30, waking at 9pm and then went back to sleep at 10pm. Hopefully she'll sleep through the night. I'm beat and would love it if she would sleep in tomorrow. ha!

Cooling Off

I finally feel that I am back on schedule (ok, that Tash is back on schedule after the time difference) and settled enough since returning that I can start scrapbooking again. Before I left I had finished up 3 pages and last night I finished 2 more that I'm rather proud of; (my pages look crooked but that is my photo taking not the pages)





I've made a deal with myself that I'm going to try and finish her one year album before her first Birthday. hah! I'm not really doing any of the pages in particular order, just picking photos that inspire me.

My other pages, so far;




I want to do a 2nd page to this one with some of the hospital photos (there are 5 of them total I'd like to put on the page), but I can't decide on a layout/design to match it. I also can't find anymore of that flower paper. grrr

Gene Simmon's Tongue

This is what Natasha does when we say "What does Gene Simmons do Tash?"







Ok, not really, she just does it randomly, but it's still super cute. hehe

O' Canada

I know, I'm many days late for posting this, but I'm going to anyway. :0P I took these for Natasha's scrapbook for her Canada Day page. :0)

First bruise and Vaxs.

My darling daughter has learned a new trick. When she no longer feels like sitting up, she will twist her body around, fall forward onto her belly, then move her hands out to arch up. She's showed some signs of wanting to crawl, but so far not much is happening.

Last week at my parents' house I had her on the loveseat while I sat at the table with mom going over my floor plan. We were mid-sentence when we heard this 'thump' and turned to see Tash on the floor crying and a huge goose egg forming on her head. Poor thing! A week later it's went from a purple/red colour to a nasty green/yellow but she seems fine. My mom told me it won't be her last, and that soon she'll be crying from scrapped knees. Still it was not really the best way to find out she had learned her 'new' trick.

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Owen took Tash for her 6 month vaxs tonight. (I've put my back out, so was not feeling up to going) She weighs in at 19lbs 10oz, and her height is 26.75". At her last apt. she was 16lbs 13oz, so she's gained 3lbs in 2 months and almost 1"! The nurse said her head is a bit bigger then 'average/normal', but she was not worried about it since it did not do a huge spike since the last visit, that it's so tiny it was barely worth mentioning. :0) She also slowed down a bit in the height percentile, she went from 93%ish to the low 50%. I'm not worried though. I do not really put much stock in these 'charts'.

Although, technically speaking, there is a lot wrong with this photo - lighting, shadows, I was not holding the camera straight (doh!) etc. I still love it. Can you believe this was taken in my mother's house? Yup, her walls are actually that yellow colour in the kitchen, dinning, living room. The chaise is located at the foot of her bed. I wonder if she would notice if I took it back with me to Calgary for my bedroom? hehe

This photo is from her front yard, it's taken her 5 summers to get everything planted and arranged to her liking. Of course the sun came out from behind a cloud, I would have preferred it stayed there until I got this shot. I could have avoided the shadows on her face and probably would not have blown out her shirt.



Edit: I was so anal about it being 'crooked' that I dug out my photoshop book tonight and found the tutorial I recalled on how to fix it. I've replaced the previous one with the new 'straight' one. :0)

Mr. Bear Month Seven (June 2007) .. Just a little late.

I'm a "few" days late in posting, but time stands still in photography right? :0) In the last month Natasha has learned to army crawl, roll over and is just bubbling with personality. I can't believe how much my little girl is growing up!

Splish Splash ~

I took these last week before Owen left. His mother bought this pool for Natasha and although she liked it at first, her smiles lasted about 5 mins before she started crying.







Evil evil pool! Surprising she did not like it, since she loves bath time and we've taken her to the 'big pool' at cardel place and she liked that.

Growth/Milestones.

Growth

1 day old - 21.5", 7lbs 11 oz
2 weeks old - 21.25", 8.15 lbs
1 month old - 22", 10lbs
2 months old - 24", 12lbs
4 months old - 24.75", 15lbs 13 oz
6 months old - 26", 17lbs 13 oz
7 months old - 19lbs 13 oz, 26.75"


Firsts
1.5 months old - First smile
2.5 months old - Lifted head/good head control
5.5 months old - first taste of rice cereal
6 months old - Sitting up unassisted
6.5 months old - Cut first tooth (rather 5 - bottom front two, top front one and the 2 beside it to the right)
6m 3w - First plane ride.
7m - first time rolling over and "army crawl".