A Visit From Grandma!

We had a great visit with Grandma Knoth this past week. She came all the way from Ohio to meet Fiona. As you can see from the pictures above, they became fast friends! It was great to have her here with us. She was able to really get to see Fiona's personality which doesn't come across in pictures. (It's hard to describe the way Fiona sniffs with excitement!) We know that Fiona will be so big and so changed when she sees her Grandma again. We were so happy that Grandma got to see her as a baby. Thanks for the visit Grandma!

Brian Rocks!

In a couple of weeks Fiona and I are going to start doing childcare. We have 3 friends coming part time. We are so excited to have them here to play with us. I knew that we needed a place for toys and I had this shelf in my head. Brian, being the cool guy that he is, was able to build exactly what I wanted! I picked a pretty bright blue color and voila, the toy shelf of my dreams!  I love it so much!  And I love Brian so much!  He even measured my baskets to make sure that they would fit the shelves.  My plan is to not exceed the toy shelf with toys! I'll rotate some things in and out but I'm going to try hard not to get toy overload... wish me luck in that!

Grubs Up!

Fiona has been doing great with her first foods these last few weeks. Here is a video of her enjoying one of her favorites... cucumber. Cucumber was also one of my favorites as a little girl!  She really does well with feeding herself. Sometimes we will dip her spoon in something like yogurt so she can feed herself with the spoon, but have primarily stuck with wedges of fruit or steamed veggies.  As soon as Papa gets a deer we'll give her some nice tender backstrap to try too! Our motto is "until she's one, its just for fun!" Her nutrition and "meals" (or should I say endless snacking!) still comes from breastmilk and the food is for exploring and learning about tastes and textures and how to chew and swallow. Its really great fun to watch her! Enjoy!

6 Months Old!

My two favorite people

first swing

Mama and her girl

A big fan of peaches!

I mean, a really big fan!

A little morning Johnny Jump Up action

Fiona is 6 months old today! I'm amazed how time has flown by. She's learning and growing so much these days. She's had so many new experiences in the last couple of weeks. She loves the swing. Uncle Dave first tried her in it at the campground and then she shared Margaret's swing back at the farm. We want to get a swing to hang in the garage for her. She is also having fun with the Johnny jump up! Brian and I want one in our size!  She's big into rolling and will often roll to get a toy but hasn't shown any signs of crawling soon (phew!).  

We are doing baby sign language with her too. I think she may have started signing milk when she is ready to nurse but its hard to say for sure.  We'll just keep signing things to her for now.  We have a handful of words that we sign when we say them for now:  milk, more (always a baby favorite!), eat, all done, change (for diaper change), water, and bed. It will be fun to watch her learn and use these signs!

Our biggest adventure these days is beginning solids! We are having so much fun watching her learn about food. She works so hard to pick it up and figure out which end to put in her mouth.  So far she has liked everything we've given her... except for avocado. Brian laughed so hard at the face she made when she first tasted it. The dogs are LOVING this new phase in her life as well and seem to be thinking this little person isn't so bad after all! (although Maia wouldn't eat the avocado either!)  This eating business is pretty cool stuff!  This is what she's had so far: watermelon, peach, nectarine, cucumber, banana, and avocado. Tonight she'll get to try some baked sweet potato (or is it a yam, I never really know!).