As she sat there rubbing her 8 month belly and blowing smoke in the faces of her other children I had to bite my tongue. If you want to smoke, that is your choice, but DON’T do it while you are pregnant! ARGH!
She is so happy to taste a new food.
Fast forward 5 years when she gets into mama’s lipstick (not that I own any).
Apparently self feeding builds confidence. Mostly it makes a mess, but its fun to watch her determination. 
Before the Grandmas call the Nutrition Police, no-it’s not really chocolate. It’s actually her first taste of prunes. Which are almost as delicious as chocolate, right? Well, she sure thought so (and my grandpa probably agrees)!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUZ58SslQaA]
On a lighter note…
Brian and I were laying in bed this morning when I heard a strange noise. I listened for a minute, wondering what on earth it was. We don’t have any pets and I know Finley is swaddled like Houdini in her crib. Finally I got out of bed and followed the noise. It turns out that Finley had wriggled out of her swaddle and was batting at her rain forest player trying to turn it on. She gave me a huge smile, and looked at me like “why isn’t this thing playing?”
Finley is getting her pictures taken next weekend so we had a little photo shoot to see which outfits looked good. Check out more pics in the album…
My favorite-
Well, Finley’s sleep issue has not resolved itself so we have decided to be proactive about it. I spent all day yesterday reading up on various sleep training approaches. Basically there is the CIO (cry it out) method and the AP (attachment parenting method-always respond to babies cries). Brian and I sat down last evening as if we were at a business meeting and went over all the current sleep research. We decided to take a middle of the road approach. Because we know how things can change during sleep deprivation we outlined our strategy in specific detail.
1) I am not allowed to be present-she can’t hear me, smell me, or see me (yay for me, bad news for brian)
2) Brian will let her cry for 5 minutes before responding to her
3) He will give her the binki and blanket to soothe her
4) He will pat her bum
5) He will pick her up and bounce/sway her
6) When crying has totaled 30 minutes he will give her a bottle and try again at the next wakening
Everything went according to plan the first time she woke up. She cried. I covered my ears with two pillows and the comforter. I cried. He ended up having to feed her. No big deal. We knew this was going to take time. When she woke up the second time, the plan went out the window. I heard her cry and then I heard Brian feeding her. What happened to steps 1-5? All the sudden he began quoting AP research! Was he looking for the easy way out or did her crying really get to him? Maybe both, but I don’t think he’s a tough as he thinks he is!
http://www.youtube.com/get_player
#1-excuse my baby voice
#2-check out the mysterious laceration near her eye
Every now and then I look back through the photos from Finley’s birth. I tear up every time because a) I can’t believe how much I love her, and b) it seems like time is going SOOO fast. Yesterday Finley turned 6 months old!!! She got another round of shots and did great with them-cried for a few seconds and then smiled at the nurses. It turns out that the “diet” she went on last week resulted in her losing a little weight, but the doctor wasn’t worried because she is eating more and having wet diapers again! So here’s her stats:
Height: 27.5 inches-97th %
Weight: 16.9 lbs-64th %
Head: I forget, but its the 75th %
The crinkly paper entertained her during the wait.
She’s had enough kisses from mama.
Six month olds don’t lay down for checkups anymore!
Napping in the sunshine with Mimi.
I love her little sun outfit!
Ruffles on the bum make any outfit cute!
First flowers to bloom this year.
me, jessika (the fairy), ally, and sandra
mom, jessika, larry, and maya
sisters in matching coats-how embarrassing
the fam