Baby words

Well, there has been lots of baby babble over in the O home.  For months and months, this child will carry on a conversation with you for ten minutes straight.  Granted, you have no idea what she's saying, but it so dang adorable. 

Now, real words have happened.  She looked right at me and called me, "Momma," while we were in Gatlinburg in November.  That really was her first word.  Since then, I've only gotten her to say it a couple of times.  She's said, "Dada," but not really to Aaron.  The funny thing is over the last few days we think she's calling him Aaron.  It sounds just like it.  I don't call him Aaron usually, so I'm assuming, if it's really what she's saying, it must be from his parents and family being over during the holidays.  She looked right at him yesterday when he walked into the bonus room and said, "Aaron," all excited.  I'm working on getting her to say daddy or dada because Aaron really doesn't like her calling him by his name. 

The best words came on Christmas Eve.  My mom and her evil  boyfriend were leaving our house.  My mom was waving and saying, "bye, bye," to Nola.  Nola raised her hand, which we've been working on waving, waved and said, "bye, bye."  At first, we all didn't think she really said it, then she waved and said it again.  It was amazing.  I'm telling you there is no better feeling than seeing your child learn something new.  Also that day, when handing her a doll, she said, "baby."  Plain as day.  She's said both since then, more so than momma or dada or Aaron.  Leave it to our child to be different and say other things besides our names.

While writing this post, it made me think of one of my most vivid memories when my sister was little.  I'm pretty sure it was on Christmas Eve.  We lived in a little trailer and I was probably 4 or 4 1/2 years old and my sister was probably 1 or 1 1/2 years old.  We were sitting at the little kitchen table and in the midst of looking for Ruldolph's nose and lights that were moving in the sky (duh! Santa's sleigh), I remember pointing to things trying to get her to say them.  Most of them, she would say.  It was so exciting when she repeated, "Tree, bush, star, etc."

It's funny because I have lots of memories from that time in my life.  I don't know why some ages stick out more in your mind than others.  I hope when I look back on this time I remember how exciting Nola's first words were.  I hope I remember that tiny hand going in the air and waving backwards, while saying, "bye, bye," and that it happened during the most magical time of the year.

Hello, food. Goodbye, good smelling poop.

Yes, that's right, Nola is eating food now.  She's been eating organic brown rice cereal.  That child loves it.  Seriously, it's like she was starving.  I bought the things to make her some sweet potato food, prune and apple, and some zucchini and potato baby food.  I may not have stuck with the whole cloth diaper thing, but I'm making her food dang it!  Here are some pics of her enjoying her first meal.

Big girl in her high chair for the first time.

Hmm, food.

Unsure about this whole food thing.

She loved it!

Nola's world: month 4

I am doing horribly about updating Nola's baby book.  I decided that this month I would document it here, so I don't forget anything before I get around to writing it all down. 

Nola just turned 5 months yesterday.  Seriously.  She's almost half a year old.  How did that happen?  I'm not biased or anything, but she is absolutely adorable and a (sometimes evil) little genius.  Here are some things that rocked her world over the last month.

What she's doing:

• Giving kisses.  So stinkin' cute.  I love the open mouthed, slobbery kisses, so much cuter than my ex-boyfriend, but that's a different story.
• Dropping toys on purpose.  She thinks it's funny.  I find it quite annoying.  On more than one occasion, we've been those parents that are frantically walking around a store looking for her dropped favorite toys. 
• Laughing at being tickled.  Being tickled used to give her this surprised wide-eye look that immediately went into a cry.  Now, she gets it and thinks it's hilarious.  Her laugh can change an entire day for me.
• Hating shoes.  She'll come around.  She tries her best to kick those things off and she gets mad!  In the back seat on the way to meet my friend (Shout out to Esther!) for lunch and shopping, I could hear her rubbing her little moccasins together (Yes, she has moccasins.  I die.) trying to get them off.  She's ridiculous.
• Smiling at clothes.  I know which ones to buy because her face lights up.  Mr. O's wallet is in trouble.  Two girls that love to shop.  She's my little partner in crime.
• Finally, enjoying her baths.  She just discovered with the help of her momma that she can splash.  It's really cute now.  I'm sure it won't be so cute when she's like one.
• Sleeping on her belly.  We finally feel comfortable letting her do this because she can turn her head.  She sleeps so much better than before. 
• Sitting up with help.  She will sit up for like 10 seconds and then fall.  I've been working with her.
• Rolling from her stomach to back.  She's only done it twice, but we "practice" it a lot.
• Still sleeping in our room.  I know, I know, we need to move her to her room, but I just can't yet.
• Loving some books.  We've started reading at least two stories at night before she goes to bed.
• Chewing on her hands and everything else that gets close to her mouth.  I don't think she's teething, but she constantly chews on things.  A few weeks ago I was looking in the rear view mirror and her head was down.  I realized that she was chewing on the chest strap of her car seat.  Strange little thing that one.
• Grabbing her feet.

What she's loving:

• Sophie the giraffe.
• Gina the Giraffe from Great Britain.
• When we talk in accents with her toys.  Yes, all of her toys are from different countries.  We are dorks, but it gets lots of smiles.
• Little kids.  She loves some little people!  When I drop her off at daycare, I'm standing in the doorway waving bye and she's smiling at all the little kids and not paying a bit attention to me.  This makes me so happy.  It's easier to drop her off with those smiles.  She especially loves Hayden, who now calls me his aunt-mom, and Brice.
• Mirrors.  That child lights up when she sees herself.  That, along with everyone in the world telling her she's beautiful, I tell her all the time that it's good to be cute, but it's even better to be smart, nice to people and a good girl.
• Bath time and splashing.
• Shopping with me.
• Talking in her baby language.  Melt my heart.  If only, we knew what she was saying.
• Being outside.  This girl is an outside kind of girl.  She can't stop looking at everything.
• Her nana and my sister.  She loves both of them. My sister makes her laugh so hard.  That's because she acts like she's five years old.
• Sophie.  As in, our dog.  She is now okay with touching her too. 

Things she's not loving:

• Sleeping.  She hates naps and going to sleep.
• Being confined for too long.  She loves her car seat, stroller, and bumbo for about 30 minutes and then she wants to move around.
• Being sick.  She had her first cold last week.  It was pitiful.  I hated it more than her, but she was fussy and clingy all week.  She's all better now.
• Her swing.  I know, she used to love it!  Now, she gets mad because she starts falling asleep pretty quickly in it. 
• Diaper changes and when her diaper is wet/dirty.  Yes, these contradict each other.  She cries when it's dirty and then cries again when you lay her down to change her. 
• The snot sucking thingy.  This was horrible.  She screamed like I was killing her, but then she was able to breathe, so worth it in the end.
• When her mom cuts her with the nail clippers.  Yes, I did this.  I cried harder than her.  We were both hysterical.  Did I mention it bleed for 45 minutes?  I thought for sure we were going to have to go to a walk in clinic.  Did I also mention that Aaron had to go get a first aid kit because we didn't have one?  Nurse fail.  Mom fail.  Overall fail.
• Having her picture taken.  Let's face it, the camera is constantly in her face.  I think it's the flash more than anything that gets on her nerves.  I'm sure she knows what it feels like to be stalked by paparazzi.  Paparazzi of one, right here.

Nicknames:

• Nola girl.  Monkey.  Love Bug.  Sweet or baby girl.  Nolie Poly.  Angry bird.

Cuteness overload:

 

three.months.old

Nola Gray is three months old!  It's hard to believe that I've been home that long.  My return to work is looming around the corner, three weeks from yesterday to be exact.  That makes me sad.  I'm going to savor every moment until then. 

Here are some things that are going on in Nola's world right now.

• Until the last two nights for almost two weeks, she's been sleeping 5-7 hours at night, beginning somewhere between 10:00-11:30.  The last two nights have been rough. I think she must be going through a growth spurt because she wants to nurse more during the day too.
• She laughed out loud last week.  It was the most awesome thing ever!   Of course, it was Mr. O that got her to do it.  It was great because we were at my nephew's birthday party, so my family got to hear it too.  We scared her because we all screamed out in delight and she looked at us like we were crazy. 
• She's been napping about 2-3 hrs in the morning, except this morning *sigh* and then takes two shorter naps in the afternoon/evening.  I've been working hard to get a schedule down before I go back to work.
• She's holding toys now.  It's cute.  She doesn't want to let them go.  Her favorite is a toy cell phone that my mom got her. 
• She started pulling hair yesterday.  Luckily, it was her own.  She had a death grip on it though. I had to pry her hand away.  Can't wait until it's my own hair, which reminds me, I need to cut all my hair off and watch out when I wear earrings.
• Bath time is getting better.  She hated it at first.  I even got a few smiles from her in the last bath. 
• I've started packing away clothes.  How sad is that?  Newborns and some of her smaller 0-3 months are too small now. 
• I took her measurements this morning and got just shy of 24 inches in height, a little over 15 inches for head circumference, and 13.5 pounds in weight.  FYI, she's tall, average weight, and has a small head with an extremely large brain.  :)
• She no longer takes a paci.  Yep, she just wants me to pacifier her.  That is frustrating.  I guess I should be grateful that I won't have to break paci habits later.
• She is talking a lot.  Baby babble is adorable.  It's funny because she'll get louder and louder, like why can't you understand what I'm saying.  
• She's a momma's girl right now.  We'll see if that changes when I go back to work.  Right now, she's all about me, which is so great and exhausting at the same time.
• Her eyes are still blue.  We know they are going to be lighter because they lightened, but whether they'll be blue, green, hazel or light brown is still up in the air.  My mom said my eyes stayed blue until I was two and then went hazel.  I hope we don't have to wait that long to find out her true color.
• She finally likes her play gym/mat.  Thank you, Misty!  She'll talk her baby babble and kick her legs and arms for around 15 minutes or so before getting restless.  She also will grab one of the toys that hang down and just lay there holding it. 
• She's absolutely adorable.  See below.