We put her to bed, waited for her to fall asleep, and suddenly a little head appeared over the railing. She learned how to stand up by herself, and we are all in trouble!!
We had a terrific Christmas. She didn't care much for opening presents, but she enjoyed the toys and all the festivities. It was a wonderful holiday, and we are all so blessed!!
I have gotten video-happy now that the videos are uploading again! In these two, you will see Bethie learning how to make music, and feeding herself some toast. :-)
We got the videos to work, so here is the video of Bethie's first visit to Santa! It's not the most exciting, but he did try to tickle her to get her to laugh. She never did, but she didn't cry, either. She is so even-tempered!
I love this one! Bethie has these Baby Einstein blocks, one of which has vibrations when you pull the string. Well, she can't grab the string yet to pull it, but she is so resourceful . . .
Bethie is no longer a little baby. She is moving way too fast towards little girl in my opinion, but we are enjoying each new stage and accomplishment. She now has her four front top teeth and the two middle on the bottom, and here is a video of her newest trick: scooting! It is not quite crawling, but that won't be far off. Every time she is on her belly she rocks onto her knees, so expect to see some crawling soon. She is such a joy and a blessing!
In other news, I decided to do a good deed, and I donated my hair to Locks of Love. They cut off more than 10 inches, and it is VERY short. I like it, but I do miss the long hair. I really felt called to do this, though, so hopefully a child will get some use out of my mane!
While there are no new milestones (wait, did I tell you about the three teeth and that Bethie can sit up by herself now?!), we get to see this happy, joyful baby every day. She is so much fun, and such a good-tempered, smiley little girl. I just thank God every day for her!
Here's a picture of Bethie's first tooth! She has two on the top that are still too small to photograph, but they are not the middle two. They are the outer two, so she looks like a vampire. :-) She is also getting a second one on the bottom next to the first one. My little girl is growing up so fast!
I know you've seen Bethie in her jumper, but it is her absolute favorite place to be these days. As you can see, she can jump even higher now, and is even more animated than she was before. She will happily play in there for an hour or more, which means that Jeff and I get to have dinner at the same time, and actually finish our meal! She is so funny to watch, though, that we forget to eat half the time.
I don't know if you can tell from the video, but she is wearing her Halloween outfit. There is a pirate skull on her shirt, and little skulls on her pants. I never would have thought I'd dress my daughter in skulls, but she is awfully cute!
Every year for my birthday, I have wished for a baby, and this year my wish has come true. I had the best birthday, and Jeff bought a cake with Bethie's picture on it. It said, "Happy Birthday, Mommy", and it made me cry. God is good!Although you can't tell from this video I just shot, Bethie has her first cold. She is congested and feverish, but a cool washcloth and some baby Tylenol have done wonders for her disposition. She's been in daycare for three weeks now, so I'm pretty sure that I brought the cold home to her myself. Being in the classroom all day exposes me to all kinds of germs, so it's no surprise, but it is still hard to see your baby be unhappy. She's fine, though, and thoroughly enjoying her Jumperoo!
She has gotten so tall that she is now in 12 - 18 month clothes, and she won't even be six months old til Monday! It is sad for me to say goodbye to the onesies and the footy pajamas, but it is absolutely amazing to watch Bethie grow. She tries to sit up all the time now, so that's right around the corner, and her new sound is "mmm", so maybe we'll hear a "mama" before too long. :-)
Bethie loves taking her baths, so here's a video for your viewing pleasure! She lays in the water and splashes all over, and it is very cute. If I'd have gotten in the bathroom early enough you'd have seen her giggling, but I missed that. Enjoy!
She obviously didn't get them from me, but Bethie has L O N G legs. She's in 12 month clothes already!! I had a load of her clothes in the wash when it was her bedtime, and I didn't have a single pair of pajamas that fit. I swear, they fit her last week, but not now! So, I dug through our "12 - 18 Month" drawer, and there was a pair of pajamas just waiting for me. I can't remember who sent them, but I know they came in a box with lots of other clothes. The thing is, we were lucky enough to get LOTS of boxes of clothes, so I can't even thank you properly. However, if you are the ones who sent us the great PJs - they're long john material - thank you, very much!! We went and bought her some 12 month clothes today, and Bethie is only 5-1/2 months old. Again, she didn't get that from me!
The video is of Bethie playing with Arnie, our Chihuahua. They love each other, and so far Bethie has not played too roughly with him. I do have to watch them though, because if he is crabby, he will growl at her when she grabs at him. It is amazing how much that silly dog loves Bethie, though. He has taken to laying on the back of the couch (something he never did before she came) so that he can see into her crib when she's sleeping. If he can't see her, he gets upset! He is definitely a part of the family. :-)
Elizabeth has a new trick, so since I'm sure you're all tired of seeing her make "yuck!" faces at food (my brother swears I make the same faces when I taste something I don't like), here's a video of what she has learned how to do!
Well, I either have a very picky eater, or Bethie is just going to make this face at every food. Since she likes squash, though, I think we just have a picky eater. I am picky as well, and I was hoping she wouldn't be. As you can see by her reaction, green beans are down there with bananas on her list of likes! As she eats more and more foods, we're going to try and reintroduce the ones she doesn't like to see if she is more accepting of them later on. For right now, she only likes the squash. She has been having a lot of gas lately, too, so we're taking a break from solids for a couple of days to see if that has anything to do with it. If she missed her squash today, she didn't say so!
We tried the bananas today, certain that Bethie would really enjoy them. Nope - not so much! As you can see, it looks like she ate a pickle! Jeff tasted them so we know they weren't bad and there's a year til the expiration date, so it is safe to say that our little Elizabeth is not a fan. We gave her some squash after that in case she was still hungry, because so far that's the only food she has liked. Even carrots weren't as bad as the bananas! We're going to try green beans next, and maybe some applesauce after that.
After three days, we can say with some assurance that Bethie does NOT like carrots. By the time the third day rolled around, she was turning her head away from the spoon. By then, we figured it wasn't her disliking the texture, but the actual food. This morning we had some squash, which as you can see, got a much better reaction. We're going to stick with squash for at least 3 days to watch for any adverse reactions, and then it's on to bananas!
Bethie started solid foods tonight, after I took a few days to enjoy the last of her babyhood. I know she's still a baby, but she's getting so big so fast! I love her new abilities though, and she is just so much fun at every stage. I truly never expected to laugh so much with her, or to be able to interact the way we do. She has her own expressions and reactions, and she really is coming into her own little personality. It's amazing to watch, and I am so grateful that I have had all this time at home with her. I start student teaching soon, and it is going to be SO difficult to leave her. However, I am just going to enjoy every day and every minute that we have. Hopefully you will be able to watch the video of Bethie taking her first-ever bites of food. It was carrots, in case you can't tell by the orange splotches all over her bib. :-)
I have been breastfeeding and bottle feeding Bethie since she was a week old, and I am determined to get her back on breast milk only. It started when she was losing weight and so we had to supplement with formula and pumped breast milk so that we could make sure she was eating enough. Now, she knows that the bottle is quicker than the breast, so when she gets hungry enough, she refuses to nurse and needs a bottle. Several people have told me to just make her take the breast, but I've tried that and I just can't bear for her to be hungry and crying. 
Time is just going by way too fast. Elizabeth will officially be 3 months old on Sunday. My baby isn't a baby anymore! She coos and grins at us and is trying to figure out how to laugh. She almost has it but she can't make the separate sounds, so we hear "Ahhhhhhhhh!" when she thinks something is funny. She likes to stick out her tongue now, too, which makes us laugh. She truly is a little burst of sunshine.
This is why Elizabeth was named after a Disney princess. She looks about to break into song while the woodland animals flutter happily around her. She just breaks my heart!
Bethie survived her shots, although we did have a pretty long, fussy week. I think more may have been going on than just the shots, as she was very clingy all week and I could hardly put her down. I read about something called "Wonder Weeks" in which babies at this age start making rapid strides in development, but it is confusing for them and so they become fussy and clingy. That pretty much summed up our week, but it could have also been a growth spurt or a little cold, or a thousand other things. In any case, she is much happier this week, and able to amuse herself for short periods of time so that I can get things done around here.
Poor Bethie had to have her first round of baby shots today. It wouldn't have been so bad for her except that we ended up waiting so long for the doctor and then the shot tech. The nurse had me undress Bethie, we waited a good 20 - 30 minutes for the doctor, and then we had to wait another 15 minutes or so for the tech. Since we had waited in the waiting room for a good while before all of this, by the time the tech was ready for her, Bethie was cold, wet, and hungry. Add to that the utter injustice of having to have three shots and an oral vaccine, and she was not a happy little girl. We had to wait after the shots to see if she would have any reactions, so I got her changed, dressed, and wrapped in a warm blanket before I nursed her. By the time we got the okay to leave, Bethie was sound asleep. I have been giving her baby Tylenol every 4 hours so she has been sleeping for much of the day, but she cries if you touch her thighs so I know they hurt. We're going to try warm compresses when she wakes up to see if that helps, hopefully she will feel much better tomorrow.
I am sure it will come as no surprise to hear that I have been fighting tears all day. First, I am celebrating a holiday that I never thought would be mine to celebrate, and second, Jeff and Bethie have been wonderful and making me feel very special.
I know that I am far from the only person worried about this swine flu, but all I can think about it how Elizabeth's immune system is not strong yet, and what could happen to her if she contracted it. I am not taking her out of the house at all if I can help it, so thankfully I don't have to work. We won't even be going to church on Sunday, because I cannot take chances with my baby. We have one confirmed case of the flu in our county - Tarrant - and the Fort Worth ISD has closed down 140 schools til at least May 8. We are only 15 minutes from Fort Worth, so that sealed my decision to keep Bethie at home. Hopefully you are all still safe, and are taking all necessary safety precautions, as we don't want to lose any of you!
Bethie smiles frequently, but I can never capture it in a picture. Last night, though, I got a terrific picture, and it was her best smile yet. I just had to post it!
