Every Day Ayla - Month 8 (a few days late)

As I was going through the pictures for this month's every day collage, I noticed that too many of them were blurry. It wasn't intentional, but it does represent our month of traveling through 11 cities in three states and that she never stops moving because now

She's crawling!!

There, that's about it for this month's update. (Ha ha!) (But seriously..)

While we were in Tulsa last month, my sister-in-law, Victoria (Solo's mom), showed Ayla how to get from rocking on all fours to sitting position. The day after that she was doing it like a pro, and the day after that she was crawling. Like it was no big deal. She likes being mobile, and is already starting to try to pull up! 

She's doing great with self-feeding, having expanded her repertoire to seasoned or flavored food (veggies pulled out of curry, lo mein, sandwiches, whatever I'm eating). To my absolute delight, she LOVES hummus and guacamole. It's a little hard for her to eat since she wants to feed herself and doesn't know how to use a spoon yet, but we get it in there! 

I got her a sippy cup, but she pushed it out of the way in preference for my water bottle, so we went straight to using a straw. She has her own "water bottle" now.

Last month, we started using cloth diapers, G Diapers, to be exact. I really like them. I'm not sure what Ayla thinks of them, just that she thinks every time she's getting her diaper changed is a chance to twist herself into unimaginable contortions and test mommy's patience!

As babies tend to do, she changes and develops new and better skills every day. I'm sure she's changed even while I've been typing this!

Here are her every day pictures for her eighth month:

PS. Have you seen Solo's video yet? Want to watch it again?

Even a hero needs help sometimes

First, hello!

How have you all been?

I know it's been a little quiet around here, but that's mostly because I haven't been in much of a quiet setting lately. Ayla and I have been on a whirlwind tour of Texas, Oklahoma and now California. So far, we've been with all of her grandparents, cousins, uncles and all but one of her aunts.

(I know, I owe you tons of pictures.)

It's actually one of those cousins I'm thinking about today. If you've been here a while, you know all about Solomon. He's my brother's current youngest son and is turning 4 next week. 

You know what? Written words aren't going to suffice here. Would you take a few minutes and watch this video?

Just a little bit about his special school. The Little Light House provides him and his friends a completely specialized education worth about $30,000 a year for exactly no cost to their families. They are able to do this because of generous donors, since they receive no funding from the government.

Their big fundraiser of the year is coming up on Sept 24, and we all get to participate! Exciting, right?

So, here's what you do:
1) Watch the video (again)
2) Go to Solomon's page and sponsor him
3) Share the video

Last year's video got more than 5,500 views and we blew their fundraising goal out of the water.

Are you ready to do it again? If you don't have any money, that's ok. You can still help by forwarding this blog or just the video on to everyone you know. Thanks!

Every Day Ayla - Month 7

(You saw this coming, with all the seven related posts I was doing, right?) (and also because you knew today is the 12?)

I know we used the blue flower in last month's pics, too, but it just went so well with her outfit today!

My little girl continues to be a delight, and is slowly upping the ratio of challenge to fun, but it's all good. Just when I think I know what I'm doing, she changes things up, so I'm trying to learn to just roll with it.

Her current skills are getting up on all fours and rocking, easily rolling over both ways, scooting backwards on purpose, and sitting without props. I even found her sitting in her crib one day, which means she got that way by herself, but she hasn't repeated the trick yet.

The self-feeding is going well. Cucumbers seem to be her favorite right now, as well as any sweet fruit, although I have given her sweet potatoes, red potatoes, avocados and green beans which she has tolerated.

She mostly just plays with the food, but she manages to get some of everything in her mouth and, eh hem, um, evidence suggests that it's making it through her system. I'm more or less following the guidelines here for a timeline of introducing different foods to her. She's still nursing 5 times a day, and tracking right along with the 50th percentile for her age for weight and height, so I'm not too concerned about her actually eating food yet.

She has discovered that she can make noise by banging things together, so she's added that to what she does to almost everything as well as still putting it in her mouth. I haven't seen any teeth yet, but she seems to be working hard on it every day.

She's still very social, and seems to especially like big kids and men. I have started putting her in the nursery at church and they love her there. We also have moved her "up" to a rear-facing convertible car seat, which has been 99% fuss-proof. I'm just wondering why I didn't do this sooner!

Oh, and if you saw the video I posted a few days ago you already know this, but the absolute best thing right now is the kisses! She both initiates and complies to requests for kisses, which are all open mouth and drooly, but wonderful and sweet! I'm sure baby saliva is good for the complexion, right?

Well, that's about it. Here's my girl!

7 things to do when you're feeling wobbly

1) Cry

2) Write down a few things you're thankful for

3) Pray for (or think about) someone else going through a hard time

4) Do something for someone else

5) Read the news to widen your view of the world

6) Read something old (the Bible, poetry) to deepen your view of time

7) Smile

7 things Ayla will thank me for

reading/watching/listening to. (that's the full title, but it seemed too long to put in the title box.)

Here are a few things (in no particular order) I've found online that I do believe help or have helped me to be an awesome mom (so far):

Hilarious mommy blog 

http://www.rantsfrommommyland.com/

This blog is like the blog-world version of chips and salsa for me. In other words, I can’t get enough of it! The two moms who write it are witty, sarcastic as all get out, a little irreverent and champions for everything you wish you could say, but they just say it better.

Awesome mommy podcast

http://threemomsandapodcast.podbean.com/ (or find them on iTunes)

These three moms from Tulsa have a wealth of knowledge, advice and humor that obviously have served them well as they raise a total of 10 kids from 3 different countries. The podcasts run a little long, usually about an hour, but I find myself literally laughing out loud and talking back to them, as if they can hear me ‘cause we’re all just sitting around having coffee! They also have a Facebook fan page, so you can join that and discuss to your heart’s content!

Totally addicting sales website/email

www.babysteals.com

Unlike the plethora of sales and brands on Zulily, this site offers just two deals a day, at 9am and 9pm MDT. They only send out an email for the 9am deal, so as not to crowd your inbox. I have liked them on Facebook, too, so I see the evening deal as soon as they post it. This is where I get the adorable Baby Legs leg warmers everyone compliments Ayla on. All the goods are handled through Google checkout, so it’s really easy to order, even from my mobile browser and they usually ship it out that day. (I mean, FOUR Aden+Anais swaddle blankets for $27.99? Come on!!)

Inspiring, influential pieces:

Sarah Kay’s “If I should have a daughter”

http://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_kay_if_i_should_have_a_daughter.html

This TED talk was sent to me by my wonderful mother-in-law. The whole video is just over 18 minutes long, and it’s all good, but the title poem is in the first 3:41 minutes. I could watch it over and over! (and have, actually!)

Tina Fey’s “Prayer for My Daughter”

 http://www.parents.com/blogs/goodyblog/2011/05/tina-feys-a-mothers-prayer-for-her-daughter/

Do I really need to explain why this is one of my favorites? Most of the websites which posted it say it is from her book, Bossypants, but since I haven’t read the book yet (sorry, BFF, I’ve been a bit busy!) I can’t verify that. There are a few PG-13ish words in it, so don’t read it out loud to your parroting children.

Ann VosKamp’s “a prayer for a daughter”

http://www.aholyexperience.com/2011/08/a-prayer-for-a-daughter

I’ve posted about her before, but she’s just that good, I had to use her again!

Lacey Keigley’s view on big families

http://www.soeveryday.com/2010/11/08/big-benefits/

I don’t think I’ve mentioned Lacey's blog yet, but she’s one of my favorites. Her family of six kids is a mix of adopted and birthed children. This post resonates with me, partly because I always wanted to have a ton of kids and partly because even if I don’t, I want to raise the ones I get with the essential lesson she writes about here.

 And, you're welcome, baby girl, you're welcome! 

Modeling the Baby Legs, mastering the pop-up animals

PS. Happy Birthday to my niece Princess Avrah, who has been blazing the way for princesses in our family for five years! I love you! (Blog her mommy wrote for her today) (Blog I wrote for her two years ago)

My 7 Celebrity BFFs

There's a scene in in the movie, Notting Hill, where Hugh Grant's character's sister meet's Julia Roberts' character (a movie star named Anna) and gushes over her saying something like, "I've always felt that we would be best friends if we ever got to know each other."

I can totally relate! Y'all know how awesome I am at actually meeting celebrities, but I still suffer the delusions that I would actually be friends with some of them if we ever had the chance to get to know each other.

Here are my top 7 (in no particular order):

Julia, of course

Tina Fey

Amy Poehler

Ellen DeGeneres

Pink

Jennifer Garner

Christina Applegate

How about you? Have you ever thought about this, even? Do I totally have too much time on my hands?

Just try not to smile

She was blowing raspberries and squealing at the curtain until I turned the camera on her. Can a baby be vain? Let's just call it strong self esteem!
(And I just love the way she kisses me now, which you can briefly see!)