Then + Now

1 month old

6 months old

28 weeks old & more sick playtime

Our "little girl" is 28 weeks old today! She's finally able to fit into the cute little sleeper Aunt Kathy got her 3 days after she was born. Look at this cutie pie.

Playing her piano, she's practicing Mozart

"Hey, mom, look what I can do with the bouncer!"

Pulling up and watching TV

All sickies need rest

One of the ways she gets out of the bouncer now, she flips onto her face and then pushes off

Voila! Freedom!

Stasa's started showing a lot of interest in her pacifier now, but she's not interested in sucking it...she gnaws on it.

"You caught me."


"It's tasssssssssssty."

"Sometimes I like to chew it on the side."

"Other times I like to chew its side."

More videos

A new game called, Headbutt Mama


The new way she plays with her jumperoo


Her newest trick - pulling

Sick playtime

Just because we're sick doesn't mean we can't play. Here are some pictures from our afternoon playtime.

Stasa enjoying her bouncer (even though she baaaaaaaaaarely fits in it)

See why we don't leave her in the bouncer anymore?

All wrapped up

Influenza

First Tom had it. He slept for like 3 days straight. I thought Stasa and I were in the clear until she woke up Tuesday morning with a fever and congestion. A trip to the doctor confirmed that we both have the flu. It's fun times in the Merkel house now. Sleepy, achy mama trying to care for clingy, whiny Stasa. Here are some pictures from our morning, so you can feel bad for us.

Watching Baby Einstein

Relaxing with her lovey

"Come get meeeeeeeee, mama!"

Chasing chickens and jumping around

Chasing the dancing chicken


Having a blast in the jumperoo

More! More!

Stasa loves sweet potatoes so much she insists on helping me feed them to her. Here's the sequence of events:

"Hey, mom, get a move on! I'm hungry!"

"Yum, I'm ready!"

"Ugh, come one. Let me help!"

"Nom nom nom (or should I say oink, oink, oink)"

"Tasty. More!"

We gave Stasa some organic Yo Baby apple yogurt today and she loved it. I took a small taste and can see why - it's so much better than my low-fat crap. I also bought some organic Greek yogurt and am going to try giving her a bit of that to see if she likes it.

Top Central Incisor

What am I?

What's white, shiny and sticking out of Stasa's top gums?



Her first top central incisor.

27 weeks old

Lounging with her lovey while watching Baby Einstein World Animals

Official 27 week picture

She doesn't want to cooperate as much for the weekly pictures anymore. See?

Carrot Fail and Sweet Potato Success

We tried every form of carrots that we could think of: plain carrot puree, carrot puree with cinnamon, shredded raw carrots, oversteamed carrot sticks, slightly steamed carrot sticks...she refused to eat them all! I even tried hiding some in her apple shreds, but she was on to me.

I made a sweet potato puree last night and she loved it, but would only eat it straight out of the bowl. Barbarian.

Video of carrot fail:

Shots

Check out those awesome Garfield bandaids. Yes, I was jealous.

"Crawling" and demolition

Videos!

Crazy Uncy Matt

Family

All of Tom's family was in town this past week to celebrate his mom's and dad's birthdays. Here are a few pictures of the crowd.

Uncle Vinces playing with Stasa

Yia Yia and her grandbabies, Alex, Andreas, Mariah, Stasa and Luke

Yia Yia and Grandpops with the kids

Stasa, Yia Yia and Grandpops

The whole family (minus Tiffany)
Front row: Alex on Peter's lap, Luke and Stasa on Yia Yia's lap, Andreas and Mariah on Granpops' lap
Back row: Tom, Vince, me, Loula and Matt

Goofing off

26 weeks old, belated

Sorry for the belated weekly picture. It's getting increasingly more difficult to get her to sit still for these weekly pictures. See?

Mesh feeders are amazing

Stasa refused bananas no matter how we gave them to her and would only eat apples in slices. I didn't want to let her do that too often because of the choking hazard. We bought a couple of mesh feeders today and put a slice of avocado in it. She ate it so fast and was grunting for more. So I threw some banana in it to see what she would do. She LOVED it and ate every bite. Next on our food list:
sweet potato
carrots
peas
pears

Any other suggestions?

Bananas = FAIL

Stasa did not like bananas. At all. According to Tom she gave him the "what the hell is THIS?!" face after her first bite.

She does love Golden Delicious apples. I gave her a small slice to munch on and she went to town. I'll have to make some baby applesauce this weekend for her. Maybe we'll try sweet potatoes next week.

6 months old

Happy 1/2 birthday, Stasa!

Your 6 month stats:
weight: 16 lbs, 10 oz; 50th percentile
height: 26.5"; 50th percentile
head: 16.3", 25th percentile

Today you get to try banana puree for the first time for lunch. You already have 2 teeth and it feels like a couple are trying to come through your top gums, too. You've been rocking on all fours for a couple of weeks now and have figured out how to move your legs to get moving; you just can't quite move your arms yet to really start crawling. You've also recently started to go from all fours to side sitting.

A trip to the park

Stasa LOVES swinging!

Andreas climbing up

Alex climbing up

Alex and Matt exploring

Stasa loves her daddy

Andreas and Loula taking a break

Looking up to her big cousin