Tulip Festival and First Barbeque of the Season

Sweet Pea,

This weekend Papa and I took you to the Tulip Festival up in Skagit Valley. Saturday was a beautiful day, sunny and warm. We timed the drives to coincide with your naps so you would sleep in the car and this plan worked perfectly! You slept the whole way there and back. When we got there we went to Roozengaard to check out all the different kinds of tulips. I liked a lot of the pink varieties the best. We also had a little picnic (of fudge and funnel cake!) in the grass. We wished we had brought a blanket because I think you would have loved rolling around in the sun. Of course, we spent a lot of time taking pictures of you in the tulips:







You and Papa had a lot of fun:



Next we drove around looking at the beautiful fields of tulips. And taking more pictures:





When we got home Ben, Tammy and Hannah came over and we had our first barbeque of the season! Ben helped Papa get out all of the patio furniture that had been away for the winter and then we made turkey sausages and veggie skewers. Yum. It was very fun although quite different from our barbeques pre-baby: one of us was often wandering off to change a stinky diaper, try and put a baby to sleep, try and quiet a fussy baby etc. And rather than playing games all night (Ben would have wanted to play Blockus, which Tammy likely would have won and I would have wanted to play Dominoes and your Papa would have made cocky comments the whole time) it was an early evening because you and Hannah needed to go to bed. But, we had a great time and you and Hannah enjoyed playing:





Hopefully we'll have many more barbeques this summer!

Love you baby girl,
Mommy

Some Other Firsts

Sweet Pea,
You have been growing and changing so much lately. I can't believe what a big girl you are becoming. Here are a few of the new things you are doing:

*Scooting: Every time I put you down on your back you immediately roll over onto your tummy and try to go forward. You push yourself up on your arms, reach out with your hands, grab onto the blanket and try to pull yourself forward. Sometimes you even move into a semi crawling position and push yourself forward with your feet. Yesterday you scooted backwards too! Oh, and you can turn 360 degrees around a blanket, searching for the toy you want. I'm very curious how long it will be before you are crawling. Here is a picture of you scooting around your play area:



*Eating: I've started making your rice cereal a bit thicker and putting it in a bowl. The first day you'd spit out the spoon and most of the cereal would end up on your face. By the third day you knew to lean forward and open your mouth for the spoon. It is so cute to see your little mouth open up so eagerly! I spend most of the time that I am feeding you laughing. Also, nursing has been getting a bit more difficult because you are VERY interested in all the things going on around us. It is hard for you to concentrate on eating so you're doing a lot of pulling off, looking around, looking at me, smiling and then nursing some more. Oh, and one other cute thing that you're doing while nursing is putting one hand on your head and grabbing onto my arm/shirt with the other and opening and closing your hands over and over, exploring what it is you are feeling. You are facsinated with texture. Here are some pictures of you eating rice cereal. The first is Papa feeding it to you in a bottle and the second is me feeding you with a spoon:





*Talking: You are making all kinds of crazy sounds: screeches, giggles, gurgles, grunts, squeals. You love to talk to me and Papa, to your toys, to Apple and the cats, even to the couch. I love hearing all the strange sounds you are making these days, I'm never quite sure what I'm going to hear!

*Sleeping: You have been sleeping better and better lately (although I'm afraid that by writing this I will jinx it and you will be up all night tonight!). Last night, you slept straight through the night, not waking until 7:30 this morning. I definitely have noticed that Papa and I are getting a bit more sleep lately, which feels great! Your naps are still somewhat sporadic. Right now you are in the middle of a very long nap (1 hour 45 minutes so far...), but a few days ago you were only interested in taking 20 minute naps. I'm hoping that the naps get more regular so I can plan our days a bit more. But I'm very happy with your night sleeping!

*Smiling: You pretty much smile all the time. Papa and I cannot believe what a happy baby you are! One of my favorite things is that when you wake up from a nap and I walk into your room to get you, you pust up onto your hands and give me the biggest, best smile. You seem so happy to see me, it just makes my day! Here is a picture of your big, gorgeous smile:



*Playing: You are interacting so much more with your toys. You particularly love the tags on your toys and will spend a lot of time trying to get the tags into your mouth. Also lately you've been looking for toys you drop on the floor. I read that this is a developmental stage, something about understanding where things go when they leave your immediate sight. You even try really hard to reach for your toys that fall on the floor!

*Walking: You love going on walks at Greenlake with our friends.



So, as you can see, you're doing many amazing, funny things lately. I think 5 months is such a great age - you keep getting cuter and cuter and more and more fun every day.

Love you baby girl,
Mommy

Your First Passover

Sweet Pea,
Last weekend we celebrated your first Passover with a Seder at Ben and Tammy's. All weekend Papa and I cooked - matzoh balls, veggie kugel, yummy salad. You loved watching us in the kitchen. We had such a great time getting ready together as a family. I hope that even though I am not Jewish I can teach you about the Passover traditions. I can't wait to make matzoh balls with you when you get older!
During the Seder you were very interested in (eating) the Haggadah. And you also kept trying to eat Mommy's matzah. It was a great night with good friends and delicious food. And you even got to stay up past your bedtime! Next year, maybe we'll have a Seder at our house and Auntie Amy and Grandma and Grandpa can celebrate with us.

Here are some pictures from the evening:

A Great Week

Sweet Pea,
We had a great week last week. You never got the flu so we were very happy about that. Also, you turned 5 months last Tuesday. I can't believe we have a five month old! It seems like just the other day that you were a newborn and we were bringing you home from the hospital...and now you're such a big girl! You have been sleeping really well lately, taking longer naps and putting yourself to sleep on your own most of the time. You've also been noticing Apple (the dog) lately. You love to try and grab her tail, ears or nose when she walks by you! Luckily, she is very patient with all of your grabbing!

We also started feeding you rice cereal last week. At first I gave it to you on a spoon but then switched to a bottle because with the spoon most of the cereal ended up on your face and clothes. You LOVE it! Every time you see me preparing the bottle you get very excited and start reaching for it with your cute little hands. You gulp it down in a matter of seconds! Such a change from a few months ago when you would scream in anger every time we attempted to give you a bottle. Here is a picture of you eating rice cereal with a spoon:



To top off our great week, on Saturday it was 70 degrees! Papa and I took you walking on the UW campus. It was so fun (and easy) to take you out without a jacket, hat, blanket etc. You loved the big fountain and the beautiful cherry blossom trees. When we got home we put your exercauser out on the front patio for you to play in while Papa and I did some gardening. You were so happy out there. Normally you get pretty fussy after 5:00 but you were totally content outside until after 6. I think we're all really looking forward to much time spent outside with you this summer! Here is a picture of you and Apple watching Papa prune the bushes:



That's all for now. Looking forward to another great week, and maybe feeding you some apples or carrots!

Love you baby girl,
Mommy

No Sick Days for Parents

Sweet Pea,
This week Papa and I both got really sick. Papa had the flu and I had some other crazy virus. Papa spent the first part of the week "quarantined" in the guest room and I was there the second part of the week. We also, on the advice of your pediatrician, have been wearing these silly masks over our nose/mouth whenever we are close to you and have been washing our hands almost constantly. We have been trying our best to avoid passing along the flu to you since it can be quite serious in infants. So far, so good...

The hardest part about being sick has been not being able to cuddle you as much as we want. I think you've also been a little confused by the masks because you can't see our facial expressions. Normally, you love to watch our mouths while we sing or talk to you and you react with big smiles. Papa and I have tried to compensate by using our voices, eyebrows and hands while talking to you, but it's not the same. I'm really looking forward to next week when we can take the masks off and cuddle with you all we want!



Luckily Auntie Amy has taken you out for some play dates this week and Grandma came into town today to help take care of you. Both of them have been able to love on you until Papa and I get better. We're very lucky to have such a great family! And you have been so patient with me and Papa and have been such a great sleeper this week. We are so lucky to have such a great baby!

Love you baby girl,
Mommy