4 months, almost five.

Ada had her 4 month pediatrician visit today. She passed with flying colors, and when the Dr. walked in the door she said "She's sitting?! That's two more months from now!" Then we all watched and laughed as she tore and chewed and otherwise destroyed the sterile paper on the exam table. She's apparently as much of a genius as we hoped and she is well ahead with her strength and gross motor skills, her eyesight and focus is great, her flat spot is slowly rounding out, and she had her 2nd DTaP (diphtheria tetanus and pertussis) vaccine today. (Um also, she's in bed and I'm drinking a mimosa as I write this, so sorry for any slurred speech.) Her weight gain, head size and height are all in the 75th percentile, but I'm guessing that is based on 4 month statistics, and she is actually closer to 5 months, so she is probably closer to mid-range.

She is so much fun, and so happy all the time, I just look at her and listen to her babbling and I start crying. I just adore watching her learn and grow. Today I took her to work with me so I could help out when someone called in sick. I have been avoiding taking her there, because she doesn't nap as much and demands more of my attention, so I can't get anything done. Today I tossed her in the Ergo carrier on my back and she was so amazing!

She ended up falling asleep back there and I was able to work for a good couple of hours. Loving that carrier so much! I dragged the co-sleeper (which I have at work for her to sleep in) out into the kitchen for awhile and she sat in there and played with toys for a solid hour as well. She also sat in the bumbo seat for a bit, but she isn't loving it as much now that she can sit up on her own. I was wrapping cookies and had some sitting too close to her and when I looked over I saw this:

Then Josh came and picked us up and we went to the pediatrician. (the pediatrician said: cut back on the cookies porky!) After that we grabbed lunch/dinner, and she chewed on and tore up some newspaper while we ate. All those toys that she has, and all she wants is paper!

We had a great time in Austin seeing everyone, and Julie is doing so great. We loved her nursery (especially the glider, jealous!) and had so much fun eating mexican food, having sno-cones and going to the Baby Earth store. Not to mention the baby shower! Ada loved everyone, and got a bath from Gram, took a serious nap on Aunt Ali, held out her arms to be picked up by her cousin Grace, played with her 2nd cousin Tripp, and had lots of laughs with Grandpa. And she loves Julie so much, (We wonder if it's because we look and sound so much alike?) she spent lots of time sitting on her pregnant belly. Julie's babe even kicked her a few times.

Sorry jules, I know you won't love this picture, but I like that Ada is going for the cake. Or the bib? I'm not sure. You really look more adorable than this in real life. 

It was a long day, and my mimosa has made me sleepy, so goodnight! Talk to you guys soon!

Where have the days gone?

Videos! Ada is amazing us every day. She's sitting and playing with toys, she's making all sorts of noises and raspberries, and she is just so generally happy; we love it! Sometimes it's hard to get over what a perfect baby she is. She's taking the bottle with no problems now, and she's even back to the pacifier. She sleeps all night, she wakes up smiling, and she eats like a champ. She had her first vaccine a few days ago and barely cried. I cried more than she did!
Here are a couple videos from the last two weeks - watching the playing with toys one now, I can't believe how much better she is at sitting just a week later. And the babbling one, she of course was babbling up a storm until I pulled out the camera.

Video Bonanza

We had a fun weekend with Krystal and Brian here, and they brought the heat with them, so it was nice and summery. I took a few videos of Ada, and I was going to put them up one at a time, you know, to build excitement, but do I really have time for that? No. So here they all are, at once! Oh, and I didn't get a video of it yet, but she's finally starting to work on rolling over! She can make it from her back to her side, but I don't think that she's realized she can go further than that.

This one is short. We tried putting her in the Johnny Jump Up my mom sent. She's still too small for it, but she loved it. She immediately started gnawing on the side, and didn't stop until we pulled her out.

This one is kind of loud (Josh was vacuuming in the background) so you might want to turn your volume down. You can see how much more dextrous she's getting with her hands - I can see progress every day. She's very serious about chewing on that block.

This one is the best! It's a bummer it's so blurry, but we caught her laughing on camera! We hope to get more and more of this, we love it so much when she laughs. It's adorable! She's turning into more and more of a little person and it's just so amazing to see her personality develop.

3 months and 1 week

Today is Gram and Grandpa Higgins' Birthday! Yup, both of them. Just for them, a video. It's not super exciting, but she makes a bunch of noise, and there is a bit of drool as well.

She's slowly starting to move her head and respond to noises, you can see it in the video when I say her name. She follows us around with her eyes and her whole head now. I feel like she always knows where I'm at in a room. She's also getting much more dextrous with her hands (and feet actually); she's starting to grab everything, like my hair, and toys and the burp cloth. Still no sign of rolling over, but she's getting really good at tummy time.

12 Weeks!

Blogging is feeling a little overwhelming to me lately. I'm finding it hard to figure out how to best make use of the few minutes I have free here and there. Nap time is when I run around the house as fast as I can picking up blankets and bibs and toys and shoes and throwing dishes in the sink and moving diapers from the washer to the dryer. As soon as I finally sit down for a second (or put a bite of food in my mouth) I hear chirps from the baby monitor. It's pretty hard to be mad at her when I open the door to her room and she is wide eyed and smiling at me.
She's changing amazingly fast, I swear she gets bigger every night and looks different in the morning. She's still sleeping 8-9 hours a night, and generally sleeps another couple hours after eating, so usually about 12 hours total. It's kind of amazing, I'm sleeping too much if I go to bed when she does!

The big news for her right now is teeth. She's teething already, which means lots of drool and general fussiness. I can see one (or maybe 2?) little tooth under her lower gums. She's spending a lot of time chewing on her lower lip and on her hand and anything else she can get in her mouth. She is working so hard on getting the toy in her hand to make it to her mouth, but she hasn't quite got it yet. We think her vision is changing as well, she has been startling at some of our movements, maybe because she is starting to have more depth perception?

She isn't showing a single hint of rolling over, which isn't all bad since that means she might roll off things, like her favorite spot, the changing table. I'm happy to put that off as long as possible. Tummy time is going better though, and her head and neck control is getting better every day. She just wants to sit up and see what's going on constantly.

Our trip to Austin was so much fun, but I'm going to have to try to write another post about the flights and the trip. Josh is out of town tonight and Ada's asleep for the night so I'm going to go read my book for a bit and enjoy some quiet time. Also, I'm not adding any photos to this one since I put them all up on flickr a week ago!

Quick blurry video

Mom's been wanting another video, so I'm posting this one before I leave for Austin for the week. Can't wait to see Julie and her pregnant belly, and Ali and Grace are coming down to meet Ada. I wish this wasn't blurry, but you get to hear her voice a little - she's been working on using it more and more - and some smiles too.
I'll take lots of pictures and some video in Austin, I'll put up a bunch when I'm back.

Baby Shower Video

My wonderful friend and employee Jeff made a video at our baby shower and edited it all together and put it to music and it's so nice! Such a great thing for us to have so we can remember.

Lisa & Josh's baby shower from Because We Must on Vimeo.