30 Weeks, or 7 Months

Dear Jorie,

I'm a little early on the 7 months thing, but that will be happening on Friday, so I figure I'm safe saying it now. I can't believe your 30 weeks old. This week you've been working on getting yourself to a sitting position, even though you can't manage it yet. You love sitting up and will play for a long time with your toys sitting in your crib. You are actually playing with your toys now, moving them around and manipulating them. 

Your other new trick this week involves vocalizing. You've been working on that B sound a lot! You babble all the time now, to your toys, to us, to yourself. And I swear when you're in your crib and you get upset you're yelling "Maaaaaaa!"

This week we started you on mashed bananas. So far your list of foods includes: Oatmeal, Pured Apples, Pured Pears, Pured Peas, Pured Carrots, Blended Avocado, Yogurt, Banana and Rice puffs. We also feed you this Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal from Earth's B.est that has raisins in it, so I guess I should add blended raisins in that list. 

Your favorite food is Pears, although the Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal comes in second I'd say. We blend either the Apples or Pears in with the Yogurt often to get you to eat it. 

When we feed you the rice puffs, we just dump a bunch on the tray and let you play with them and try to put them in your mouth. It's so cute watching you try to pick up the puffs and put them in your mouth. I'd say you get one out of every five, but if we're quick about catching the ones you drop, eventually you get them all. You have so much fun eating them too! 

We started using the high chair to feed you, it's much easier on both us and you I think. You really seem to enjoy sitting up high and having the big tray to play with things on. Also, I got a bunch of baby food recipe books for Christmas, so soon enough I'll be whipping up stuff that's a little more complicated than blended fruit!

This past week you got to meet Rose for the first time. She and her parents and grandparents were over at my parents for dinner on Saturday. I've known Rose since she was just born, and her mother since she was just born. Rose is 20 months old now, and it was amazing to see her interact with you. She was so gentle with you, giving you hugs and patting your head. She looks so big next to you, just like you looked so big next to Wesley.

Your grandparents got you a jumper a while ago, and I keep forgetting to mention it! You absolutely love it. When we put you in it you laugh and then bounce around like crazy! You also really love all the toys attached to it, one of which you bang against the side and then laugh at the noise it makes. We've even pulled out the wooden spoon and tupper.ware over there and let you bang on it. You were enjoying that until you figured out you could chew on the spoon, then you forgot all about banging your "drum."

Speaking of chewing, you're still working on that first tooth! I can't believe it hasn't shown up yet with all the chewing and drooling you do. At least we've found a bunch of teethers that you like now, so when your gums start to hurt we can whip those out for you.

We gave you your first bath in the baby bathtub without the infant sling on it. Other than being really cold (you get cold very easily!) you seemed to enjoy the bath a lot better now that you can splash and play with bath toys. I'm hoping that in the future we can figure out a way to keep you from getting so cold while you're in the bathtub, since that seems to be our biggest problem with bath time right now.

I didn't post your measurements from your 6 month exam, because your father took you, and I keep forgetting to copy them down here. I'll make sure to do it soon, and add it in at the bottom of this letter. 

The doctor did say you were still underweight though, so we've been stuffing you full of food when we feed you. We basically just keep offering you food until you either stop wanting to eat, or you start spitting up. You eat SO much food! Your father thinks it's close to a pound of food, but I think he's exaggerating. I do know that it's close to 14 oz usually, so I guess that's almost a pound.

I love you so much Baby Girl!


 

29 Weeks!

Dear Jorie,

This week you have begun to sit unassisted for long periods of time. In fact you prefer to be sitting up, and often get frustrated is you fall over, since you can't sit yourself up yet. This week went by in such a blur. Your cousin Wesley was born very late Thursday night. We met him Friday after work. You did not seem impressed with Mr. Wesley, although you were enthralled with your Aunt Becky's Brother, Andy. 

Saturday we had brunch with a couple of our friends who hadn't met you yet, you were again a star, although you started showing the Stranger-danger that's been popping up now and then.

Sunday was brunch again, this time with Trevor, who brought you your very own Paddington Bear! He was really pleased to meet you, and even agreed to hold you for a bit.

Monday was New Years eve, and Your Father and I packed you up and spent the evening over at my parents. You slept right through the ball drop, but you did let Vicky hold you for a while before you insisted on going back to mommy.

I was kind of hoping you'd skip the whole attachment thing, but in a way it makes me feel good that even though I'm working a full work week, and so not around you as much as I'd like, you still know I'm mommy, and you still want to be held by me.

I love you Jorie Bear. 

Wesley Ross!

You have a new cousin! Wesley Ross was born last night at 11:57 pm. He weight 8 lbs. 5 oz. I cant wait for you to meet him!

28 Weeks!

Dear Jorie,

This week was certainly busy! With Christmas this past Tuesday, you kept mom and dad hopping! We took you to go see Santa on Saturday morning. You seemed a little overwhelmed by the experience. You didn't cry at all, but you wouldn't smile for the camera either. Of course you charmed everyone while we were there, Santa even was reluctant to hand you back! 

You got to have a white Christmas on your first Christmas! We haven't taken you out in the snow yet, but Your father did bring a little snow ball inside for you to play with. You seemed intrigued, and were upset that we wouldn't let you eat it.

Speaking of Christmas, you made out like a bandit! You got tons of new books, clothes and toys from everyone! We're going to have to figure out a way to store all this new stuff now! Your Aunt Becky even got a shelf for your room, so I'll be able to start at least trying to get your room organized. 
 

After I have a chance to go back through everything, I'll make a list of all of the things you got this Christmas, just so I can look back on the list and be amazed. You even got a bag full of clothes from Dotty, a good friend of your Great-Grandma Ross.

Your father and I were very surprised and touched by the Ornament that you made for us (with help from your Grandma and Grandpa O!) It has a picture of you and your hand prints along with the date, your name and "Baby's first Christmas."  

Your father and I didn't buy you too many things this year, since we knew everyone else was going to shower you with gifts. We figured we'd save it up for when you'll actually enjoy opening the presents. We did however get you a couple of toys, which we had you "open" mostly at Grandma and Grandpa O's. 

Your Uncle Chris and his Girlfriend Kim were there for Christmas this year. They both had a great time playing with you, and you were nice enough not to scream at your Uncle Chris this time! 

You're getting really good at jumping in the jumper now, and you spent most of Christmas Eve happily bouncing and spinning some of the toys. It's amazing to watch you jumping up and down and laughing.  Your father got some video of you going crazy in the jumper. I can't believe how quickly you're growing!

You've started to babble a lot lately. You like to "talk" to us and get a kick out of it when we talk back. You're also standing unsupported, although we have to stand you up first. You still aren't crawling, but you do roll around to get where you want to go. 

Your food repertoire keeps growing. This week we're starting Avocado! On Christmas we sprung for some fancy blended organic baby foods, so you got a nice change up from Mommy's bland one food blends. We also mixed some pears into your oatmeal when we fed it to you, and you really seemed to enjoy that. I did get a couple baby food cook books for Christmas, so you can look forward to some awesome new foods soon!

I love you so much baby girl, Merry Christmas!
 

27 Weeks!

Dear Jorie,

So much has happened this week. So much to think about and so much that you'll never know. Some horrible things happened this week, things I hope you never have to understand. It's made me appreciate you so much more, made me so much more grateful to have you in our lives.

On a sunnier note, we had your Uncle and Aunt take pictures of you for Christmas. We had a great time getting you to smile for the camera. You seemed to have a good time playing with the Christmas bulbs and rolling around on the fuzzy blanket.The pictures turned out really good. I'm glad we took the time to have them done. Even if your father and I haven't gotten it together enough to use them for Christmas cards, It'll be great to have these when you're not such a tiny munchkin anymore.

This week we started you on peas, and let me tell you, you are not a fan. We've gotten the strongest reaction yet out of you with these. When I try to feed them to you, you make a horrible face, clamp your mouth shut and turn your head away. I've managed to get maybe a spoonful into your mouth total over the past two days. We'll keep trying, hopefully you'll warm up to them like you did with the carrots.

We have our Christmas tree up and lights on it, but we haven't decorated it yet. I can't believe next week is your first Christmas. I can't believe you're six months old. Time is passing so fast. Last night, while I was up for the second time rocking you back to sleep I realized that as hard as the nights are when you don't sleep, I wouldn't trade them for anything. I know that some day, way too soon, I won't be rocking you back to sleep anymore. 

I love you baby girl.

26 Weeks!

Dear Jorie,

It's been another busy week for us baby girl! You started eating Carrots, which I think you still are not a big fan of, and Apples, which you absolutely love. You continue to move around with more purpose, rolling to get to something you want, grasping things easily and you're working on getting yourself up into a sitting position.

Last friday we went to a craft show at the Community Space, so you got to see Lisa and Ezra again! Everyone loved you, as usual, and you were an absolute darling while we were there.

You've had some rough nights lately baby girl, getting really fussy around 6 or 7 at night, but for the most part, you're still sleeping through the night (although you do wake up around 6:30, which is a tad early for my taste!)

We started putting you to sleep in the crib this week, which was a big move for me and your father. You didn't seem to care that much! We also got the baby monitor set up, so we can put you to sleep at a consistent time, even if me and your father are not quite ready for sleep.

On Saturday we went with your Grandparents and got them a Christmas tree and decided to get us a small one. We got a very small tree, it's maybe four feet tall. You were very well behaved (and very cute in your Santa hat) but you seemed unimpressed by the trip. Our tree is up now in our bedroom, but not decorated. The next step is to get some lights and maybe some ornaments on it. Maybe you'll be a bit more impressed with it then!

You've also been playing a lot of Peekaboo with us lately! You'll pull your blanket up to cover your face and hold it there until we say "Where's Jorie?" then you'll pull it down and laugh as we say "There she is!"

I love you so much Jorie Bear. These days are going by so fast!

6 months old today!

Happy 6 month birthday baby girl!

We love you so much!