Eisley Fall I

Eisley's Nana and Grandpa came to visit in September and we went fruit picking. It was a beautiful day, filled with yummy fresh fruit, laughter, good conversations, and breathtaking nature. Who could pass up a cute baby in an apple orchard--so impromptu photo shoot it was!

Dear Eisley...Twelve Months.

Dear Eisley,

My little bitty love...how are you already 12 months old. This year went by so fast but at times so very slow. You are changing and growing so quickly I feel like I need to enjoy you every second, because they pass by so fast.

You are starting to show some of your personality and your humor, you are a funny one. Your new "trick" is fake sneezing. It's so cute, you do you fake sneeze then look at us and laugh. You also started saying "Ahhh" after you take a sip of a drink, or when you see someone taking a sip of a drink. You love being hung upside down and swung around and being thrown on the bed. You make so many more faces and noises too, your new one is making duck-lips, and then sniffing you upper lip...I have no idea how you came up with this, but think it is hilarious and will do it all the time. You also try to make whistling sounds, sometimes you get pretty close!  Laughing is a daily occurrence, and most everything is making you laugh. It is the sweetest sound, I honestly could listen to your little chuckles all day!

Your biggest belly laughs come from the kitties, anything they do is funny to you, and you are constantly trying to get them to play with you but they are not interested in the least. Sadly we had to say goodbye to one of our kitties. This was so heartbreaking for your Mama and Papa. I was looking forward to the relationship you two would have when you got a little older, he was always so playful and I just new you two would be pals. I am so sad you will never get to really know him. Even though it was sad, I just know you are going to be a cat person. Whenever you see a cat, or really any animal, you meow at them, it is so funny to see you pointing at birds or fish and meowing at them. We can ask you 'what does the kitty say?' and you will meow back at us. Its amazing to see you learn and engage with us more.

You are interacting so much more with everyone, you wave bye and hi all the time now, and even say it sometimes. You blow kisses and can give big slimy open mouth kisses when we ask you. The stage you are in right now is so fun, we can play games, be silly, or just be lazy and cuddle. As much as it is fun, it is also hard. You are into EVERYTHING, and I know when you learn to walk, which will be in no time at all (you have taken a few steps here and there) you will be into things even MORE. I have realized I really need to step up the child proofing because you are a smart girl and quickly figure out how to get into things.

We started sleep training this month. Brian and I decided that we didn't want to do the cry it out method, so we got a bunch of books from the library, I guess a lot of parents struggle with non-sleeping babes as there were a TON of baby sleep books to choose from. We decided to go with the sleep lady's shuffle, and it worked! The 2nd night you slept through the night in your own room, that felt good, and this ended up not being a fluke, you continued to sleep through the night in your own bed. There are so many things I love about co-sleeping, but it could never beat a whole night of UN-interrupted sleep! So thanks for that Eisley. I also think the night time sleep got better because your day time sleep got better. We took you out of daycare and you started staying with a Mom and her two kids during the day, I could tell right away that you felt so much better there. So far it is working out great and you are having so much fun.

I hope you will look back on this first year of your life, and know that we thought a lot about the choices we made for you, struggled to figure out life with you in it, made mistakes, had fun, made lifetime memories, experienced new things, cried together, laughed together, but most importantly we loved you fiercely.

Love,
Mama and Papa

Crown headband by little blue olive

Dear Eisley...Eleven Months

 

Dear Eisley,

Your sweet and spicy personality is coming out more and more. I love the snuggles and kisses I get from you, and just have to laugh inside when you get so angry at your body when it doesn't do what you want. You are so determined, smart, funny, and loving. This month was so fun with you! 

Your new party trick this month is standing up on your own. One day I just looked over at you and you were standing up in the middle of the room not holding on to anything. It was so crazy! you were so pleased with yourself, and had a big goofy grin on your face. Since then you have done this almost daily. I keep thinking you will be walking in no time, but so far your only confident in your walking when you are hold our hands. You are pretty steady, strong, and have great balance, you just haven't decided to walk on your own yet. People keep telling me to count my blessings and enjoy this non-walking stage while I can, but I really can't wait to see you accomplish this milestone. 

 

Speaking of moving...Girl you've got some dance moves. It is so cute to watch your face light up when you hear music, and then you start swaying your body and bouncing up and down. I love it! You have truly showed an affinity for music, whether playing it with your shakers and toy piano, or listing to it, which is a good thing because we have music on a lot in this house! So far you really like bluegrass, dub-step, and reggae, an eclectic taste like your Mama and Papa. Along with dancing to music, you love to "sing" along too. You are making so many more sounds these days, and you talk constantly. This is a good and bad thing, it is so cute to see you discover the sounds you can make, but I don't like this new scream you have developed, especially because you seem to only do it in the car.

Some sounds are starting to sound more like words. You are really great at saying Uh-oh--you love throwing food, and your cup down just so you can look up at us and say Uh-oh. Papa also taught you how to howl like a wolf. You love playing with him, and now sometimes when you see him you just howl at him, you're a very funny girl. 

This month you seem to be less clingy and nervous around new people. You have started playing on your own--even more so that I re-arranged and simplified all you toys and play areas. It is amazing to hear you talking and playing on your own while I am preparing a meal in the kitchen, it seems like not that long ago I had to be holding you at all times. I do have to make sure I keep the bathroom door closed, because your new favorite game is sneaking in there to eat the toilet paper. We feed you all these nice meals, and you would rather eat cheerios of the floor and any paper you can get your hands on. Overall, though, you are a great eater--and you got two new teeth to help with that. That makes a total of 7 teeth, 4 up top and 3 on the bottom. 

This was another fun month full of fun adventures and great memories. Including making the 10 hour drive to Reno, camping, swimming in Lake Tahoe, starting sleep training (again), eating your first Cannoli, and lots of trips to the park to play on the swing set. I love watching you grow, my funny little girl.

Eisley Summer III

Getting to this camping trip was hard. It started out feeling rushed, un-welcomed (on my part) and stressful. After just a few minutes in the great outdoors I could feel my anxieties lifting. The fresh air, the seclusion from concrete, the warm sunshine--all filled my soul and changed my spirits. I think it changed all of us. 

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.