InstaFriday 6.8.12

InstaFriday time!

The theme of this week has been "just be good enough." It's been a less than stellar week on the parenting front; I feel like I'm mucking my way through it, but I'm trying to find ways to enjoy my time with Cora.

Cora had her 6 month check up this week, and she's really tall. So tall, in fact, that she's just about out grown her infant car seat. So, it's on to the convertible car seat. I will miss the portability of the infant seat, but I will absolutely not miss lugging it up the three flights of stairs to our apartment.

This was my laundry pile this week. Ouch. It all got folded...eventually. Don't worry, there's more that I'm currently ignoring.

I had a little bit of childhood for lunch this week. It was part comfort food and part scraping the bottom of the fridge.

Cora are Olive are becoming more and more interested in each other lately. Olive even beats out the iPhone on Cora's interest meter!

And major props to Bay Street for catching on to Family Parking. I'll be back! I find it funny that this was commonplace in South Africa when I studied abroad there in college and the good ol' US of A is just getting around to this. One up for the RSA!

Oh, and this face. It almost makes me forget about the wicked sleep regression we're going through right now. Almost.

Tired, tired, tired mom, and a baby who refuses to nap. It's a good thing she's an awesome cuddler, because otherwise...

 

Solid food eating is still slow-going around here. I'm beginning to think that Cora doesn't care for my cooking! I broke down and got some rice cereal to play with the consistency of stuff, and I threw in a packet of mangos also. I don't know if it was the timing of the meal or what, but she ate and liked both. Stinker!

And lo, and behold! The first picture of the teeth! I finally tricked her into showing them off to the camera phone. They are the cutest little teeth that I ever did see, but I'm not a fan of the new biting while nursing skill. It's not pleasant.
 

We got out one night this week with the Trautmans to check out the food trucks that congregate right down the street where the Farmer's Market is on Saturdays. They are going to be there every Thursday night for the summer, which is tons of fun. Hopefully it will grow to be a bit bigger than just two trucks though, my gluten free options are slightly limited!

Andrea made a flower necklace, and Cora played in the grass while we ate dinner in the park. It was delightful, and it's so nice to have Dave and Andrea so close. They love on Cora and it melts my heart.

Stu and I have this anniversary tradition of drinking champagne out of our wedding flutes and looking at our wedding pictures. It's so fun to look at the pictures and relive the memories! Normally we do it on our anniversary, but it didn't work out until last night. Gotta spread out the revelry, right?

Right now I'm thankful for a sleeping baby so I can have a moment to collect myself. Stu's parents are in town this week to help Keith and Lindsey (Stu's brother and new wife) move their stuff into a storage unit before he begins his PhD program at UC Berkeley in the fall. So, in addition to officially doing away with the night time swaddle and (hopefully!) breaking the nursing to sleep association, we'll be having a lot of family time this weekend before heading down to southern CA again for a wedding mid-week.

Morning snack

Happy Friday! Here's to a new week and to letting good enough be good enough!

6 Month Checkup

At Cora's six month checkup she weighed in at 19lbs 3oz, and measured 28 and 3/4 inches long. She's 90th percentile in weight, 97th+ percentile in height, and 100% awesome. She's really long and consistent with her weight!

She's right on track developmentally, and she did well with the shots. The pediatrician was impressed with her core strength and coordination. 

She does do pilates regularly. 

6 Months Old!

Cordelia,

You are 6 months old today! It's totally crazy that you've been in our lives for half a year. It feels like you just got here yesterday, but you've been here forever at the same time. I don't know quite how to explain it, but I've heard other people try. Maybe someday we'll find words that adequately describe how time can pass both quickly and slowly.

Watch me grow! 1,2,3,4,5, and 6!

This month, you had plenty of new adventures. You got your first haircut, grew two new teeth, became an independent sitter, and started eating solid foods. It's crazy to think that you did all of that in one month, and now that I look at all of those changes it's no wonder your sleep patterns have been a little wonky.

This month, you went from sleeping 10 hours straight at night to waking up about 6 or 7 times, and every hour between 12 and 5. In retrospect, you were in a bit of pain and I wish we had caught on that you were teething. We probably would have given you a bit of tylenol earlier. Rookie parents here, sorry! I'm sure that won't be the last rookie mistake we make with you. Now that you cut those two teeth you're back to sleeping well, but I you're up at least two times now. I think you got used to this night time feeding. Oh well! You go down for the night at 8:30, wake up at 10:30 to nurse, and again at 1 or 2 for a snack/ comfort nurse. You're up for the day around 7:00-7:30, and you still take three naps, but your morning one is pretty key for making our day good.

This month, you had sweet potatoes, avocado, and banana. You were really into the sweet potatoes for a couple of feedings, but haven't been interested since. The avocados and bananas were a total bust, so I'm beginning to wonder if you're more content nursing and want to hold off on the solids. We'll keep introducing new flavors, but we're not going to force you to eat just yet!

This month, you became a really confident sitter. We can put you down on a blanket with a basket of toys and you go nuts exploring. It's really fun that you're able to do that now. You started lunging forward when you want something, like my iPhone, my drink, or my dinner, so we have to be really careful about what you can reach when we hold you.

This month, you absolutely love books. You get so excited when we pull one out that you smile from ear to ear, gasp out of excitement, and start lunging forward for them. I don't think you discriminate about which book you like best right now, but we always end our bedtime routine with It's Time to Sleep, My Love, and that really calms you down.

Excited face!

This month, you became a lot more vocal about life in general. You have your Ma, Da, and Ba consonants, and you found your screeching voice. You love watching daddy drum at church, but you also like talking to yourself loudly, so those things are quickly becoming mutually exclusive.

This month, you also became aware of when we leave the room, and you're not super happy about it. It makes it a bit hard to get ready in the morning, shower, and do things like get dressed, but you kind of make up for it with how excited you get when we come back in the room. You seem surprised every time, you smile, and you do your silly excited panting.

This month, you started to snuggle more. You are so amazingly sweet, and you love to be close to daddy and I. You give wonderful, slobbery, open mouthed kisses and you snuggle in close for hugs. You are also quite ticklish! You get so red in the face holding in your giggles until you can't stand it anymore, and then you crack up laughing. We also have fun playing peek-a-boo with blankets and burp rags. You are becoming so interactive and fun!

First haircut!

This month, you are still sleeping swaddled despite our efforts. You like being wrapped up so tight! I think during the break in teething we're going to try and break the swaddle and the nursing to sleep habit. Fingers crossed that you catch on. You're solidly in 6-12 month clothes with the occasional long 3-6 month shirt, the middle setting on the cloth diapers, size 3 diapers when we use throw aways, and you are getting chubby arms and legs. You've always been long, but now you're chunking up a bit too and it's awesome!

This month, you grew a curl. It's amazing and I'm hoping you have curly hair like daddy!

Do you see my curl? 

Next month, I can't wait to see what you have in store for us. You're so strong, so I won't be surprised if you start moving soon, but feel free to wait as long as possible! We'll continue trying foods out on you, going on long walks, playing, and reading together. I'm excited to see how your little personality continues to develop and what new tricks you'll surprise us with next.

Thanks for being so awesome baby girl, we love you forever.

Happy half year!

InstaFriday 6.1.12

Happy Friday!

Follow me on instagram! (I'm sarahgregson)

InstaFriday is a way to share our week through phone pictures. Little moments make up This Family by the Bay's week, and weeks turn into months, and months turn into years. It's a lovely way to remember.

This weekend we headed to Mount Hermon in Santa Cruz to First Pres' All Church Conference (ACC). It was nice to get away for the weekend and to have some extended time with our friends. I was a bit lame and didn't take many pictures, but we had fun! Due to Cora's naps, I only made it to one big session, but Stu made it to most of them and was really challenged by the speaker. You'll have to ask him what it was about though, because the one session I made it to I was wondering how Cora was doing her first time in childcare. She did great, I just wasn't able to make that mental jump of being present for church. Oh well.

Napping on Friday was a disaster. She slept for one hour that day. We were both cranky.  Note: she's still in the swaddle. Breaking it is slow-going to say the least.

Cora was none too thrilled about being in the car again on the way to Santa Cruz, my heart broke a little. Those eyes are saying "Not again, mama! Not again!"

We went to Marianne's for ice cream (yum!) with John Yoo. It was lovely to catch up with him and get a Santa Cruz treat. I dreamt of their ice cream regularly while pregnant. And no, I never made Stu drive the 70 miles to get it, though he offered on many occasions. What a guy!

Self portrait

Waking up from a nap with JY

On Monday, Cora went on her very first BART ride. She was pretty exhausted, but she was a pretty big hit with the BART patrons. She's a pretty good friend-maker. 

Fast asleep

And aren't these two the cutest?

Blurry and dark. Oh well. 

And this one.

After a (very) sleepless night, I noticed on Thursday that Cora cut her second tooth! She rewarded us with a (semi) decent night sleep last night, but she's keeping her toofers under lock and key. See?

We went on a walk and saw some baby geese! I would be a much bigger fan of the geese if they didn't poop every where, but that's neither here nor there.

Thursday was also our 4th anniversary. We're going out on Saturday to celebrate, but we picked up some delicious take out and a bottle of wine to celebrate last night.

Cora "played" with Felix at Mother's Council today. And by played, I mean she stole his toys and ate them. It was cute to see them chat at each other though!

This week, we also started watching Downton Abbey and we love it so far! Possibly because one of the main characters names is Cora. Super fun.

And that's a wrap.

Have a lovely weekend!