Avocado

We gave emily some avocado slices and she loved it. It was super messy but really fun. She is mastering the skill of feeding herself yogurt bites and puffs and seems to really enjoy BLW so far! And I uploaded a video to share of her feeding herself. She's doing great!

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Nomming on some nanners

We gave Em a quarter of a banana to try the other night. I cut off part of the peel, but left the bottom half so she had something to grab onto without mashing up the banana to bad. She got a few good bites and seemed to really like exploring the texture with her hands. We expect a mess and are ok with her "playing" with her food for now. She is getting better at the pincer grip and has managed to get a few puff and yogurt bites in her mouth without assistance. Tonight we are going to try some slices of avocado.

Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming

Here are some pictures of my water monkey.


I love this one, its like they are in their own private moment.

She was a natural swimmer. She wanted to be on her belly kicking away with her face in the water.

Miss Independant swimming away

She loved swimming with her Daddy on Father's day! This is the pose that she does right before she pulls her hips off the ground and topples over.
I have a MILLION pictures of her with this face. It is hysterical. This is her happy face!
Looks like we will be spending a lot of time pool side this summer! Em loved the water!

Shh...Don't tell

I totally scanned Em's class pics to share. That is what they get for letting me "borrow" copies till Friday. As a disclaimer, we are going to purchase one of the sets, but they are all to cute not to share.

Here is her class. Everyone is here except for Asa. The girl on the far right and Asa are moving to the one year old room this next month though. I love how Emmy knows how to pose with friends in pictures. She has the sorority pose in the making.

This is the one we are picking. They asked if they could put pig tails in and I said sure, but they don't normally wet them down like this. Usually they are an adorable mess of fly away piggies, but she still looks pretty cute. Enjoy and seriously don't tell!Here are the rest. She looks silly in this one and horrified in the other one.

Baby led weaning, teething and the beginning of crawling

This is something that I have been researching for a while and as the name alludes, it basically puts feeding solids in the baby's hands, literally. No it does not mean that we are weaning her completely off of breastmilk. Breastmilk is supposed to be her primary source of nutrition till after her first birthday. Food is for fun until one! But it lets Emily have control of what she eats and how much she chooses to eat. Looking back I gave our pedi the weird side eye when she said that there are some babies who are just not big on baby food and at her six month appointment she told us to give Emily what we were eating if she showed interest in it, with in reason. Just to chop it up till it more manageable pieces and let her go to town. We are going to do this in combination of feeding pureed fruits, veggies and oatmeal while she is at daycare. It is so weird because she does AWESOME eating all her food at daycare, but when she gets home, she wants to eat like we eat. None of that mush. It could be because she isn't ready for a full meal at night, so we are putting the ball in her court and letting her feed herself till she is done.

So here are the basics of BLW. I will keep you up to date of how it is working out as we go along. We will give Emily pieces of soft fruits and veggies, no skinnier and no shorter than my index finger. This includes steamed green bean sticks, sweet potato, broccoli, squash, soft melons, bananas, strawberries, avocado etc. Basically anything she can mash with her mouth. The big concern with this and the question I have gotten from most people I have told, is "aren't you scared that she is going to choke?" And my answer is, yes I was at first and then I educated myself. I learned that a baby's gag reflex is closer to the front of their mouth when the are babies and when they are slowly more capable of mashing up firmer foods, it will move back till it is where ours is as adults. I also learned that if you let baby feed themselves they are less likely to bite of more than they can chew per se. You are not supposed to feed the baby. You let them feed themselves and trust me, it is messy, but Emmy LOVES it! She looks like she is having fun eating and that is what is important for now. She will be supervised at all times (duh!), so we aren't worried. You can still give the baby purees and cereal, you just load it on a spoon for them and show them how to feed themselves. In the beginning, it is all about the baby learning about different textures and flavors, and you're not supposed to be so concerned with how much they actually take in. Eventually they learn to feed themselves more efficiently. It is not something that you start till after the baby is over 6 months old. And research has shown that this isn't a "new" thing. That when we were babies, our parents started feeding us solids much earlier that the AAP currently recommends, so by the time we hit 6 or 7 months we were likely eating more finger type foods. It is actually really interesting and hopefully something that will work for us. Emily is very independent, so we think she is going to love it. So far she has fed herself puffs, watermelon, strawberries, banana and even chicken. You should really google it. There are some amazing videos out there. I used this site as a big resource. http://baby-led.rhgdsrv.co.uk/. It seems to be huge in Europe because a lot of the videos have people with British accents. Again, we are still sending purees and cereal to daycare, because she does really well during the day, but night time is fun time for the Ziegler's! Splat mats for all!

In other news, Em has a tooth starting to poke through the her gums and the other lower one seems to be pretty close behind. And ::knocks on wood:: she has been in surprisingly good spirits. It hasn't really seemed to bother her. This is where the BLW is also coming in handy. I think nomming on the softer solid foods feels good on her gums.

Also, right after I posted the video last week Em has been teasing us by pulling herself almost to her hands and knees. She sits in a yoga pose and kinda pulls her body forward bringing her hips off the ground a bit before toppling over. She also is rolling like a mad woman. She used to really only roll one way, and now she rolls every which way. She is going to be trouble when she is mobile! Ha!

Ok, so really, check bag tomorrow if you want to the cuteness that is Emily in a bathing suit and pictures of her nomming on a hunk of banana for dinner.

Dad's Day

A couple days late...Sunday was Zig's first Father's day and it was really uneventful. Lets back up a bit. My highschool reunion was the night before and my mom graciously volunteered to watch Em overnight. This was Em's first overnight stay away from mom and dad and she did great! Now since we didn't have to worry about keeping my up before we came home, it was kind of a late night. Needless to say we both woke up with headaches. We didn't have major plans anyway. It was just important to us that we spent the day together as a family.

In the morning, we went to breakfast with Poppy and Dad. Emily did great all through breakfast! We were there for a little over an hour and a half becuase it was busy, but Emily just sat in her chair and entertained us with her baby squeals. For the rest of the afternoon we bummed around my mom's house snuggling with Emmy when she wasn't napping and taking naps ourselves. Later that evening my mom had Larry and his family over, and Robert came over as well since JoAnn is still in Dallas snuggling up with Olivia. Zig took Emily swimming in the pool. She had such a great time! She is a little water baby that is for sure. I will post some pictures of her in her suit. She is too freaking cute! My big girl!

Overall it was a relaxing day. I felt bad that I had a hang over on Zig's first Dad's day, well that we both did, but honestly we should celebrate what an amazing father Zig is everyday. I fall more in love with him everyday. Emily thinks her dad hung the moon and so do I. He loves us both unconditionally and would do anything to make sure his girls are happy. We love him so so much and hope he knows everyday how special he is to us. You rock Babe!

On another note, my reunion was so much fun. We had a blast getting to see everyone. There were people that I was great friends with all those years ago, that unfortunately I lost touch with. It was awesome to see them all again and to catch up!

PS tomorrow I will post a bunch of pictures of our little miss. She has changed so much in the last few weeks. Check back soon!

Videos

For a record number of posts, here are some videos! That's what I get for not posting in over a week! Nothing super interesting, but the kid cracks me up!



Here is one of her making the face I was telling you about when she eats. Now she does it all the time just to get attention

And here is one of her showing her new face. She just started doing this last week. It's funny. She is basically mimicing the face that all us adults give her when we are trying to get her to smile. She's a little ham!

Water Baby

3 posts in one day! Oh my! Daycare actually just sent me this pic and I thought it was cute. Look how unamused little Norah is next to Em. Emmy loves the water, thats for sure. My mom's pools is being opened as we speak and I can't wait to take Emmy for little dips in the pool on a nice hot day. :)

Homemade baby food

Emily is officially eating 2 solid meals a day. Well, we attempt to feed her 2 solid meals a day and she usually will eat at least half of it. I have a picky kid guys. Seriously. She does this new thing where if she is full and I try and feed her more, she will scrunch up her nose and breathe in and out really fast. It is hysterical. I can't keep from laughing every time she does, which has resulted in her doing it all the time just to get our attention. Silly little girl!

I made Emily some fresh homemade baby food and it's pretty safe to say she hates about 75% of it. I made fresh peaches, sweet potatoes, green beans and carrots. She doesn't seem to mind the peaches and sometimes sweet potatoes, but despises the carrots and green beans. Really that means she likes 50% of it, but I still say 75, because she really only tolerates it, doesn't really like it. And by despises, I mean she gags/dry heaves on every bite of the green beans and carrots. :( She loves her cereal though.


We have found that we can get more solids in her if we feed her earlier in the evening, so we are working on a more solid feeding schedule overall. Stretching out the time between bottles is helping her drink more at one sitting instead of battling to try and get her to finish at least a few ounces. This sounds like common sense people, but this kid would seriously go HOURS without a bottle if I let her. She really only likes to eat at night taking 6-7 oz as opposed to 3-4 during the day.


Anyway, yes, I made her some food. Just got fresh ingredients and my friend Jess let me borrow her Beaba Babycook to whip up some meals. This thing is great, but not something I would have bought myself because it has a pretty hefty price tag for what it is. A simple steamer and blender/food processor will do the trick. But it was nice and convenient to do it all in one machine. I have been using http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/ for recipe ideas. I find it has a ton of information on food combinations and age appropriate foods.


Sorry this picture is kind of grainy. It's from my phone. Anyway, I just pureed each fruit/vegetable and spooned it into an ice cube tray. I have 2 different kinds. The one above, which is more like 2.5oz servings and a regular cube tray that is more like a 1 oz serving. I use the little cube for daycare and then the bigger ones on the weekend. Anyway, once they are frozen I popped them out of the tray and into a freezer bag. Most things keep for up to 3 months. Overall it was super easy and really didn't take that long. I will continue to make her purees till she is ready for bigger chunks of food. Plus it is a lot cheaper. I don't feel as bad tossing out what she hasn't finished like I did when she was sampling different jarred purees. It maybe cost $5 to make her about a month worth of food. Big improvement from $.89+ a jar. We will have to see if I have to stomach to make her meats though. Pureed meat sounds sick.

Baby Olivia and a hodge podge of other things

Yesterday our baby niece made her appearance in the world. We are so happy for the Kaase family. Olivia Danielle born at 7:48/9 (I received two messages with different times :) ) weighing 7lbs 10 oz and 19 inches long. What a perfectly sized baby! We are so excited to meet her. It took everything in us to not jump on a plane and head to Dallas, but ultimately we want to wait to go out till everyone is all settled in and when we can all spend time at home as a family. It is amazing how you can already love something so much and you haven't even met them yet. That is definitely how we feel about Olivia. Each of my nieces and nephews will have a place in my heart with unconditional love. Christmas' and other holidays are going to be so much fun from here on out! Here are the only picture I have so far that shows her face. ::cough cough, someone needs to send this anxious lady some more pics!::

On Saturday Zig went to help my brother install a window air conditioner before he moved into his new room at the Sigma Chi house, so Rebecca, Em and I took that opportunity to go for a walk around the duck pond. Rebecca and I had some delicious Golden Pride, while Em munched on a Mum Mum and we enjoyed watching the ducks swim around the pond.

We are bad parents, judge away, but we usually always have a tv on as background noise when we get home from work. This will likely phase out once Em becomes more mobile because I am sure we will be busy chasing her around the house all night long. For now, we play with her on the floor and there's always something on in the background. Usually about once a week we let Em watch a Baby Einstein video. I move her highchair in the living room and she just hangs out for the next 30 mins allowing me to get stuff done around the house. It is fully entertaining to her. She loves them.

Lastly, check out my strawberries from our garden!

All our veggies are doing so good! We have been eating fresh lettuce on our sandwiches and I even whipped up a batch of pesto from the basil we are growing. We even have a baby bell pepper growing, tons of strawberries and tomatoes, and even a couple blossoms on our cucumber and zucchini plants. It is so much fun to watch everything grow!

She wears her sunglasses at night

This was one of the MANY things Aunt Koley brought for Em when she came to visit for the weekend. Aunt Koley and Chris are going to be in town for the weekend for a wedding and Em is super pumped to spend time with them. She got the biggest smile on her face when Aunt Koley came in last night. I know Em, she is one entertaining lady! Anyway, she pretty much outfitted Em in a complete summer wardrobe. We are talking about 14 outfits y'all. And SUPER cute. We have dresses, shorts, and jean overalls, tiny tank tops and itty bitty skirts. I love it. She bought a size up because Emmy is almost out of her 3-6 month clothes. I am thinking they are going to fit nicely in about a month or so and should last us through September! Woohoo! We are so excited!

6 month pictures!

Hanging in her robe after a nice bath!

Chillin' in our sweet grass with Dad.

Apparently there is something wrong with my eyes. You will notice a trend that all my pictures are off center...What's up with that! Don't judge people.
I love this cheesy little grin!

Playing on the floor with Mom!

She looks exactly like Nicole in this picture. It's crazy!

That silly Daddy! He's a riot! Yeah, I know...I was going for an artistic camera angle. bwahahah!

Getting some lovin' from Austin! My best friends Cissy and her son Austin, and Becky and her two adorable girls Aspyn and Presley came to visit last week. We had so much fun with kids everywhere. It's amazing how much we have all grown up. I love sharing in their lives and love the kids more than the world! What a great group of people and there was nothing but laughter the whole afternoon.

The aftermath of Austin kissesShe gets this look from me. It's my classic machu meechu face. I used to tell grandpa all the time "machu meechu," which in my own made up language meant "I'm mad at you." and then I would give him this face.

Hehe...She looks so devious in this one. The million faces of Emily.

Hanging in the sun with Mommy.

6 months

Be forewarned. This is a picture less post. I meant to grab the memory card out of the camera on my way to work, but forgot. I promise to get them up tonight or tomorrow morning. So Em is officially a half year old! I think that was the quickest 6 months ever. She continues to change and amaze us every day. My poor little ladybug had her 6 month well check this morning along with shots. :( Here is what she is up to.

*She weighs 15lbs 6 oz and is 25 3/4 inches long. She is in the 25-50 percentile for weight and 50th for height.
*She can officially sit for long periods of time unassisted.
*She reaches and grabs for everything. She loves to touch our faces, pull our ears, and especially give us fish hooks with her tiny, yet strong little fingers.
*She loves to stand up.
*Her toes are little pinching weapons. If you have her standing on your lap, expect a few toe pinches on your thighs.
*She is a constant chatter box. She says Dada ALL.DAY.LONG. I get it kid. You think your dada rocks. PS so do I :)
*She eats two solid meals a day. 2tbs cereal for lunch with 1 tbs of a fruit/veggie and 2 tbs at night with a veggie.
*She drinks about 25oz of milk a day. One day she cut back dramatically on her bottles and we can't get any more than 25oz in her a day. The doc said that was fine, just to keep an eye on her growth and that she would really like to see her triple her birth weight by a year. That means she has to gain about 5 1/2 pounds in the next six months. The doc just said to continue to push the solids and see how she does. She may just want to eat like the grown ups a little earlier and as long as she was eating not to worry
*She loves to sit on a blanket in the living room and play with her toys.
*She thinks her jumperoo is the best invention evah! She loves to jump up and down and looks like a little river dancer when she does it.
*She is mostly sleeping through the night. We have a few nights here and there where we have to go in for a few minutes to console her, but it's usually right back down till morning.
*She still sleeps swaddled, but not for long. We are going to have to break it this week, because she started to roll over in her sleep. I woke up on Sunday morning and she was sound asleep on her belly. We only swaddle one arm, so she could lift up her head if she wanted and I am pretty sure she would cry otherwise, but its just not worth the risk. Wish us luck!
*No sign of crawling yet. She just rolls where ever she wants to go. She never stays on her tummy for too long, and will promptly roll to her back if you put her on her stomach.
*She is an amazing napper. She usually takes 2 hour long naps in the am and a a 2 hour nap in the late afternoon.
*She smiles constantly

We were really truly blessed to have such an amazing little girl. She brings so much joy to our lives. We are forever changed and I wouldn't have it any other way. We love her so so much. It has been an amazing 6 months and we are loving life.