Eliza's {belated} 1/2 Birthday

She's actually over 7 months by now, so I'm a little behind.  Regardless, we have a beautiful, healthy little girl who could not be any sweeter.  She's 28 inches long and 17.3 lbs, which puts her at the 97% for height and 55% for weight.

She's mastered sitting unsupported, and in the past week, she has started to reach forward for objects just out of her reach.  I have found her several times laying on the floor on her tummy mad that she face-planted.  I'll enjoy having a stationary baby for now as I'm sure she'll be crawling before we know it.

She's tried several foods now...rice cereal, sweet potatoes, carrots, pears, and apricots.  Although she initially makes a disgusted face every time, she hasn't refused to eat anything yet.

Of course, she still puts everything she can get her hands on into her mouth.  This makes Maddie mad sometimes when Eliza is trying to eat her toys, but then I tell her that's what babies do, so she laughs and says "silly bean!"

 

Pushing Eliza down the slide at the park (with me holding her of course)

 #bestfriends

Babies and Bailey

Since Eliza can sit on her own now, we spent lots of time playing on the floor.  Maddie's new favorite thing is having tea parties, so we have lots of those in particular.

We've been letting the dogs upstairs more as Maddie LOVES playing with them.  Allie is usually the lucky winner that gets to come up because she is so laid back.  Lately, Maddie has been keeping it more fair and requesting the other puppies.  Inevitably, here's what happens when Bailey is around.  First, sniffing the baby...

Then she moves in to steal a toy...

We tell her to drop it, so she does.  However, since she then doesn't have anything in her mouth, she immediately starts licking...

Before I can yell at her, she is already licking little Eliza's face (although Eliza was actually laughing at this point)...

We yell at Bailey to stop licking, so she immediately steals another toy...

Such an ornery spaz of a dog...but we love her.  Maddie loves being a big sister.

Eliza loves watching everything going on and taking in the world around her.

Lindsay and Philip's Wedding

Here are a few pictures from Lindsay and Philip's Wedding last Saturday...

Maddie (the flower girl) and Daddy before the ceremony.  I had no idea if she was going to actually walk down the aisle, but she (and Philip's nephew Tristan) did a fantastic job.  She also sat perfectly during the entire 65 minute ceremony.

Eliza was absolutely fantastic throughout all the weekend festivities.  She got passed around among all kinds of people (since everyone wanted to hold her), and she was happy nearly the entire time.

 Daddy working on fist bumping with Maddie at the reception...

 Checking out Nana's corsage (check out her fabulous red shoes)...

 Maddie and Uncle Michael...

 Two pretty little girls with Mommy...

This might be the sweetest picture of all.  She was pretty worn out at this point but still not fussy.

I'm sure there will be more pictures to come, but I wanted to get a few of my favorites up!

Upgraded

Until this weekend, Madeline was still sleeping in the crib in her room, and Eliza slept in the pack & play in our room.  Maddie has never attempted to climb out of the crib, and we weren't in a big rush to get her a big bed.  However, Eliza likes to sleep completely stretched out (as seen below), so we decided it was time to upgrade both girls' beds.

We painted and decorated Eliza's room before she was born, but it had been empty as far as furniture goes.  We moved the crib, changing table, and glider from Maddie's room into the Dr. Seuss themed nursery for Eliza...

 We were planning on giving Maddie a twin size bed, but when we found a fantastic deal on this double size bed frame, we couldn't pass it up...

 This bed is as wide as the crib is long, so there is more than twice as much room in it.  Maddie looks tiny sleeping in it, but there is more than enough room for Gigi the giant giraffe and all her other friends.  Although there are two closets in her room, we went ahead and put a dresser in there since it's a large room and there was tons of space once we moved all the other furniture into Eliza's room...

Bed time hasn't gone quite as smoothly the past few nights since Maddie can simply get herself out of bed, but we're getting a routine in place.  Fortunately, she didn't have any problems giving the crib to Eliza and getting a big girl bed.  I got her Dora sheets, so she is pretty excited about those as well.  Little Miss Eliza (who never wakes up at night) woke up at 4 AM the first two nights she slept in the crib.  Last night, Eliza slept all night, but Maddie woke up around 2 AM (which is very rare for her).  Hopefully, everyone in our house can get a full night of sleep soon.

4 Month Stats

Eliza finally had her 4 month check-up this morning.  Overall, she's a very happy and healthy baby girl, and she's doing great developmentally.  She's 26 3/4 inches, which puts her at the 95% for height, and she weighs 15 lbs 4 oz, which is the 20%.  Those stats certainly explain why her 6 month clothes are very wide on her, but we can hardly snap them because she's so long :)

Sitting in the Bumbo helping mommy cook...

She is still doing amazing at sleeping (to bed at 10 PM and sleeps until 7).  She's turned into a little slobber monster in the last couple of weeks, so I keep feeling for some teeth but nothing yet.  I gave her a cold teething ring for the first time last night, and she was pretty fascinated with that.

In case you're wondering, Madeline was 27 1/4 inches and 15 lbs 11 oz at 4 months.

4 months old

Our little Eliza turned 4 months old last week.  I had to reschedule her 4 month check-up, so I'll have to post her stats at a later day.  She is the sweetest, happiest, and most easy going baby I could ever imagine.  She goes to bed around 10 PM and sleeps until 7 AM.  Literally, I have only been up with her 1 night in the past 6+ weeks.  It's unbelievable (and wonderful!)  

 She's starting to recognize faces, so she will give a big smile to people she knows (or almost anyone that smiles at her).

 Here she is with Aunt Abbey on Abbey's birthday...

 Tummy time!

 Madeline absolutely LOVES her baby sister.  The other day, she was reading with daddy on the couch while Eliza and I played on the floor.  Maddie decided that she wanted to read to Eliza, so she brought her book over and laid down on the floor next to her.  Of course, Gigi (the giant stuffed giraffe) had to partake in story time as well...

Eliza constantly watches Maddie and smiles at her all the time.  We are very lucky to have such wonderful little girls.

Eliza's Pictures

In spite of Eliza not being the most coperative, the photographer was able to get some fantastic pictures of her.  These first two that really show off her big blue eyes are my favorite...

 

 

 

The individual shots of both girls turned out great.  Trying to get a picture of the two of them was the biggest challenge of all.  Eliza screaming most of the time combined with the fact that Madeline can't really hold her that well made for quite an ordeal.  After a number of attempts, I was really hoping she was able to get two (literally, just two) pictures of the two of them that were decent.  As it turned out, we ended up with three, and you can really only tell that Eliza was incredibly not happy in one of them...