Eisley Summer II

This is from two months ago, I made her a fairy crown of flowers.

Dear Eisley...Ten Months

Dear Eisley,

Another month has past, and now you are in the double digits just a couple months shy of the big ONE. This month has been so very fun. Luckily we haven't been very sick, and you have handled teething pretty well. Your top two teeth popped trough this month, making that a total of 4! Now your ready for some corn on the cob.

You still show an avid interest in animals, and especially the kitties. You love to hear them meow and you make a "meow" like sound back at them. We have been trying to teach you gentle pets, but you get so excited and grab big fist fulls of hair and then try your hardest to chew on their ear. For the most part they steer clear of you when they can. I hope one day you can come to a mutual agreement to love each other.

One thing that has changed for the better is how much more cuddly you are these days. Often when I pick you up you will snuggle your little head into my neck. When you are tired you will rest your head on my shoulder. You will lightly pat my arms, or run your hands through my hair. It's so great to cuddle you, even if it took 10 months for you to cuddle me. I have noticed that you cuddle in extra tight when people come up to talk to you, they could be strangers or family. You have started the "stranger danger" phase and you only feel safe with Mama and Papa. We let you take it slow when getting to know new people, and eventually all your worries fade away and your having fun with all those around you.

 You have been playing more on your own lately, you love "reading" books. You will open them up, flip through the pages, and make sounds like you are reading. This little game will occupy you for a very long time, and I like that because that means I can fix dinner....well, I use the term "fix" lightly. Some other toys you are enjoying these days are your stacking blocks, little wooden shapes, your sensory table (when it is filled with water) and your links.  It is amazing to watch you play, you love to figure out how things work, manipulate them, turn them over in your hands, see how they sound when banged on something. It is almost like I can see you brain working as you play!

You are so busy these days. You are crawling like a champ, super fast and all over the place. When you are trying to go fast, you do this funny thing were you SLAM you hands down hard on the floor. You have also started "cruising" or walking around while holding onto furniture. Sometimes you will even push our dining room chairs around to walk from one end of the room to the other, I feel like I am constantly moving a chair out of my way. Your new funny skill is putting a toy in mouth and then crawling or cruising around with it, you look like a little puppy dog.

You're still pretty much co-sleeping with us. And for now that is working, but as you get more mobile and floppy when your sleeping I can see us getting tired of this arrangement. We did a lot of fun things this month too, all the Bowman's came to visit for the 4th of July, and you were a champ going to the coast, out to dinner, playing with your cousins, it was so much fun. One of the more memorable things that happened was going to the band Eisley's concert and we got to meet some of them and their babies!  I got you some sound canceling headphones so you could be with us during the concert, but it was way to hot, sweaty and loud, so you hung out with your MoMo and Gandaddy while we rocked out!

We are still calling you Nugs, and Bug--I think they have officially stuck as your nicknames. These pictures were so hard to get, like last month, because you just wanted to move around so much. However, it is amazing to see you learn and accomplish new things, I am always amazed.

Eisley Summer I

Last month we took Eisley on her first camping trip. We found a spot in the beautiful Oregon forest, along the Mckenzie river away from everyone else. She ate dirt and pieces of bark, crawled on the mossy ground, hiked around with us in the backpack, and enjoyed some awesome camp food made by her Papa. The background was so breathtaking that we found lots of opportunities to photograph our little one. This is one of three posts. 

Dear Eisley...Nine Months

Dear Eisley,

This month was busy, exciting, hard, and fun! You crossed so many things off your milestone list, you are a completely different little baby. It is crazy how I can be equally excited and sad to see you grow and learn new things. The sadness is loosing the small baby I had, and excited feeling is learning about the big girl I am gaining!

We got to take your third airplane trip. We visited your Aunt Anna and your Gruncle in Salt Lake City, UT. It was during this trip that you started crawling! It was so cool to share this milestone with family watching. and it only took a few days for you to fully get a hang of it. You are now officially a mobile babe! This means you are no longer content to hang out in your pack in play or your jumper, now that you know how to crawl, it's all you want to do! You quickly moved onto cruising, or using the furniture to walk around with. You are now into everything and we had to really baby proof things around the house. You never stop moving these days. Even when we are trying to get you to sleep, you're crawling around in your crib, you love to practice your new skills at bedtime...which can be a little frustrating at times.

Speaking of sleep...I miss it! This month it seems like you just forgot how to sleep. You no longer go down easy for naps and bedtime, you stopped sleeping through the night and your naps are way shorter! Some of this can be blamed on you getting your first two teeth, or your battle with some bad colds and ear infections. We think the other reason is due to some separation anxiety. You are no longer this engaging baby that loves everyone, you notice "strangers" and you snuggle in close to me or dad when you see other people trying to interact with you.So at nighttime, you no longer like sleeping by yourself--which means that most nights you end up in our bed. We will deal with this new habit soon, for now we let you snuggle up and snore away with us.

You have all this new use of your hands! You can sign "all done" and "more". You were able to sign "all done" last month, but I think it finally clicked with you that the hand motion means something. Another fun thing you figured out is how to clap. When you first did it you looked at your hands like "how did they make that noise!" it is so fun to watch you learn and discover what things your body can do. You can also use your hands to wave Hello and Goodbye, but you are still pretty picky about who you wave to.

It seems to me that you are a very passionate. When you are happy you laugh and squeal with delight, you let us know that you're happy! When you are frustrated you grunt, cry, and yell out, you let us know you don't like something. You like what you like! When something you don't want is in your pathway, weather it is a toy on the floor or food on your tray--you throw it as far you can out of your way. However, with food, you have been eating like a champ this month! Three solid meals a day. I've pretty much given up trying to spoon feed you anything because your are too independent for that, you just feed yourself which is messy but I just feed you naked and give you a couple baths a days.

You make lots of other great sounds these days. Whenever you hear people laugh, you start laughing. It's really cute...you look around like, "whats funny guys". you also have this hilarious  fake laugh you do sometimes, along with a fake cough. More importantly than new noises, is the words you are saying. Your first word was Mama, but you also say Papa, Kitty, and Hi. It made my heart so happy to hear you call me Mama, but when you were so sick, you just kept looking at me and saying Mama in this pathetic whiny voice, and that broke my heart because I couldn't make you better

The photo's this month were much harder to capture because of how active and mobile you are. People are saying you look a lot like your Papa these days. I just think you look like my sweet Eisley girl, and I love you.

headband by: RollyPollyBowtique

Eisley Adventures II

These are the wonderful adventures Eisley has been on since April. We saw cherry blossom trees in bloom, went carp fishing, explored Seattle, visited Utah, spent some time at the Oregon coast, went to Yakima, Wa, and even had an adventure in the back yard!