A busy day

Stasa had a busy day today; it started at 5:30 AM. She got up to eat and then took a quick nap and was back up at 7:30 AM. She then spent the rest of her day eating (yogurt for breakfast, green beans & applesauce for lunch and zucchini oatmeal for dinner), napping and playing. We took her to the park for some outside time, too.

"I'm not too sure of this. Are you sure this is fun?"

"Oh, wait. I DO like this! HIGHER!"

"Who's that kid? He's swinging higher than me!"

"Wood chips look so tasty...mmm, wait, mom, why do you keep taking them away?"

"Look at me! I'm coming to get you!"


"I'm a big girl, see? I can climb steps."

"Phew, those steps wore me out."

Crawling in the grass without freaking out:


A new way to contain Stasa while we cook:

32 Weeks Old

Stasa the Shark now has 5 teeth with another one poking through. I have a dental cleaning scheduled on Tuesday and am going to take her with me to see if everything's coming in okay. And I think the teething is causing her to refuse solids. She doesn't want to open her mouth for anything. The only way she'll eat solids right now is if I let her "hold" and "drink" from the bowl.

She's so fast now, too. Just this morning I turned for a second to pick up my coffee and she was already up a stair. I've been letting her climb them (with me behind her, of course) and crawl everywhere in the hopes that she wears herself out.

In solids news, we bought some new foods to try: peaches, plums, zucchini, yelllow squash, nectarines and we picked some pears from our tree. We also got some oatmeal to "spice" up breakfast, but I need to work on the flavoring - it's so bland. I think next time I'll mix some applesauce and cinnamon in it.

"New" toys

Stasa's new toy: the door stop


Chasing after her very favorite toy, the cat


Determined to get to her second favorite toy, my laptop


The wrong way to play with a bouncer

Sneaky baby

Stasa likes to help "clean" the table.

At the park with Henry

Stasa and I met up with Amy and Henry at their house after work for a quick park playdate. We strolled over to the park and let the babes swing for a bit. Henry was so alert and observant and was checking out Stasa while we walked. Stasa, of course, was in her own little world. They both like swinging and Henry treated us to some excellent belly laughs. We'll definitely be doing this again.

Stasa's ready to swing

Henry's a master swinger

"Eh! Eh! Eh! I need attention!"

"What's wrong with her?"

Swingin' babies


See? He LOVES the swings!

Some pictures from today

Stasa was not in the mood for picture time today.


Nom nom nom, mirrors are so tasty.


"Hey, mom, c'mon, let's go upstairs!"

"Ah-bah-bah"

She speaks! Well, in her own Stasa language. Luckily I'm bilingual and can tell you she's saying "Hey, mom, please get your big legs out of my way. And hand me the remote."

31 Weeks Old

It is becoming way too hard to take these weekly pictures. I should have taken them on the ground since all she wants to do is launch herself off of the couch. Stasa cruises so fast now that we've cleared off every surface, otherwise everything is ripped to shreds before we can get to her. She is now saying "ah-bah-bah" all of the time and I swore I heard a "dada" in there today, but couldn't be sure.

We tried cottage cheese mixed with banana and applesauce for dinner, but she was not a fan at all. We'll try again each day since I think she's just not used to the texture of the cheese.

Yesterday was the first time we left Stasa with someone other than daycare. She stayed with Aunt Peggy while we went to the Redskins game for the night. We left her with a couple of bottles, a solid dinner and a water bottle. She did great! Aunt Peggy said she was a piece of cake and passed out by 7:30 PM. I think all of the growing she's been doing lately is catching up with her.

Plus her 5th tooth has finally made it's debut. She really is part shark.

Getting into even more trouble

Playing with a spoon


The new way to use a DVD player


Look what trouble can do

Getting into trouble

Stasa is now able to climb up this step to our landing. Which means she's able to get into more things.

"Whatcha doin', Stasa?"

"Who me? Nothing." ::bats eyelashes::

Look at the chompers! There are 2 more coming in.

This is how she "plays" with most of her toys. Look at her furry hairs.


Ugh, one of her new favorite things to do...banging on the DVD player.

Kitty! She loves chasing the cat, but I can't feel too bad for the cat because she sticks right by Stasa's side, teasing her.

Bzzzz

Stasa the bee

Check out those wings. I know, I know, I can't stand the cuteness either.

A day at the fair

Stasa and I went to the Montgomery County Agriculture Fair today with Lauren & Audrey, Lesli & LuLu and Traci (Lesli's sister) & Garrett. It was freaking hot out, so we only stayed about an hour and then headed over to Lesli's house for some air conditioned play time.

Here's Stasa ready to go at the fair. She started fussing halfway through, so I unbuckled her and then let her ride in the bed of the stroller.

Lesli put out a platter with cheese, crackers, paper plates and napkins. Stasa got hold of a paper plate and napkin. The plate made the rounds with all of the babies. Here's Audrey taking her turn munching on the plate.

We tried getting a good shot of Garrett, but he wasn't too happy when we took his pacifier out.

Stasa was loving all of the ladies. She especially loved climbing on Lauren.

And of course all of the babies wanted the toys that weren't theirs. Lauren and I gave Audrey and Stasa their own toys, but they immediately swapped. Here's Stasa with one of Audrey's fun toys.

Getting a group picture is becoming harder now that the babies are more mobile. Here's the best shot I could get of the ladies.

And then they fell apart. Audrey was done with group time and LuLu took down Stasa.

Lu's got a career in the WWE.

Audrey's got a beautiful one-tooth smile.

Lu's gummy smile and pretty new earrings.


Garrett was puckering up for the ladies.

7 months old

One of the baptism invitation pictures I took. I'm going to send out the evite this weekend.

Check out those top teeth. She loves having her teeth and gums brushed after bathtime and hopefully that becomes a good habit.

We spent the day at Aunt Peggy's yesterday, playing cards and hanging out at the pool. I forgot my camera like a dummy, so I don't have any pictures of us in the pool. I did dunk her under and she didn't cry at all. She fussed a little when we first put her in her raft, but then relaxed and played with her hand toy.

Today we're heading up to Gaithersburg to go to a fair with our friends LuLu and Audrey. And then we're going back to LuLu's house so the babes can play and the moms can relax.

How you know it's time to lower the crib

Exhibit A.

30 weeks old

Happy 30 weeks, Stasa! She is now crawling all over the place and pulling up on everything. She gets this proud look on her face when she crawls over and pulls up to where we are sitting. She's also been getting into EVERYTHING. She pulls everything off of our coffee table and grabs at anything within her reach. Anyone want to have their house wrecked? We won't charge a thing!

How to change a baby on the move:

1. Lay the baby down and prepare to remove the dirty diaper.

2. Forget to hold down baby. Turn around and baby's on the loose.

3. Baby has escaped to her toys.

4. Retrieve baby and try to distract her with a sippy cup and quickly remove dirty diaper.

5. Baby ditches sippy cup for more exciting things, like her toys.

6. Retrieve baby AGAIN and finally manage to slap a clean diaper on. Baby makes a quick get-away.

Finally, here's a picture of Stasa wearing a pair of Tom's old pajamas. How cute is she? The pjs say "New Kid in Town".

Two new "games"

Now that she can crawl, one of her favorite new games (apart from headbutting mommy) is Chasing Kitty. The stupid cat taunts her by walking just outside of her grasp, so I feel like she (the cat) deserves the chasing.

Stasa's also interested in pulling up all of the time (as witnessed in the previous video) and now uses her Bumbo to take a knee stroll.

The Baby Pool

It was HOT HOT HOT today and since we were to lazy to drive to a real pool, we decided to play in Stasa's baby pool. I set it up on the deck and we both got in our swimsuits for some water fun.

I kept sticking the bath letters to her head; she was so focused on chewing the ones in her hands, she didn't even notice.

"Ahhhhhhh, relaxing Sunday."

I even squeezed my big butt into the pool with her. Don't we look pathetic?