This past Saturday was Cristiana's 6 month birthday. I can't believe it's already been 6 months since God allowed us to welcome her into this world. Where does the time go? These past 6 months have been an amazing roller coaster for our little family. All beginning with a crazy and unexpected birth experience, then the hardships and joys of breastfeeding, now she's got Acid reflux, she hates baths, then the doc saying she's not gaining enough weight, but wait, now he says she's just a petite little baby and she's OK, the sleepless nights that still go on today, oh oh.. she's not pooping everyday, phew..that's normal, her first smile, she loves baths, her first trip to the beach, her first laugh, oh..she's ticklish, OMG her gas is as strong as daddy's, her baptism, she's rolling over, she's just as talkative as mommy and daddy, she likes to suck on her toes, she's crazy (I wonder who she gets that from), yea..she's starting to tripod, SHE'S OUR PERFECT LITTLE GIFT FROM GOD!!!
This past weekend Jaime and I went on our 1st date alone since Cristiana was born 6 months ago. We went to watch Batman- The Dark Knight on IMAX and it was amazing. It was really nice being alone with Jaime, but since it was the 1st time I've left Cristiana ,I have to admit, that I was constantly looking at the time during the movie and wishing, though it was great, to hurry up. I constantly felt like I was missing something, almost like a limb. But now that the 1st time has happened, I'm sure it will get easier. My friend Toya was the guinea pig, who baby sat for us, and we can't thank her enough for being so wonderful! We LOVE you Toya!
Cristiana finally outgrew her bath pillow that we bought to make bathing her in the plastic tub much more comfortable. We attempted to use the plastic tub by itself but found it very difficult to hold her up, since she's still not sitting up on her own, and Cristiana did not seem to enjoy her position in the tub. We went ahead and purchased this inflatable duck tub that everyone raves about and we have been extremely happy with it. Cristiana can just lean back, relax and enjoy her bath. Mommy doesn't have to hold her up anymore and Cristiana can enjoy kicking and splashing. We LOVE it!
(Courtney, Jason, and Emma)
We finally put the spinning toy tray on Cristiana's little seat this weekend (we wanted to wait until she was comfortable in her chair and sitting very straight up in it). She LOVES playing with the toys on the tray, especially the one that spins. She can't spin the tray herself yet so we spin it for her so she can have time with all four toys. She does get a bit frustrated with the toys at times because the toys are stationary and she wants to rip them out of their holes and put them in her mouth like everything else.
Sadly, this past Wednesday was our last Mommy and Me. We've been going to mommy and me groups since she was about 4-5 weeks old. We've learned a lot and made some great new friends. What we'll miss the most though is spending that time together! I'll be going back to work in August and will unfortunately be having to leave Cristiana elsewhere. I thank God though that I'll only be going back part-time so we won't be apart for too many hours. I couldn't bear leaving her a full work day in the care of someone else:(. Thank you mommies and babies for all the fun times we've shared, hopefully we'll still be able to hang out every once in a while.
We are finally swaddle free!! Cristiana loved to be swaddled (it was the only way she slept in stretches longer than 2 hrs.) and just recently is finally sleeping without it (not through the night of course, I think that will only happen when she gets into high school, or something:)). Early on, Cristiana would escape from her swaddles but she definitely was not ready to be without one so we ended up needing to buy her The Miracle Blanket and it was definitely a miracle (no pun intended). There was no way of escaping out of it and it helped her sleep (again, not through the night, but for a 5-6 hr. stretch). I'm not sure if it's because she was 4 weeks early but it was a struggle to wean her off of it, and we started to worry because everything I read said that babies should not be swaddled past 4 months due to delays in motor skills development. We tried going cold turkey, it was awful. We got her back in and after a week or 2 we first removed her arms. Ahh, success. We left her like that for another 2 weeks and finally this week, we slipped her legs out. So far so good. We'll see how it goes for the rest of the week.
So I read somewhere the other day, that it's good to leave babies without a diaper for at least 10min. a day in order to reduce the chance of diaper rash as well as provide them the opportunity to feel different textures. Usually they only get to feel with their hands, and being diaper less gives them a full body experience. So, here's Crisitiana getting her diaper free time, on a towel of course (we always seem to go potty during this time), playing with her favorite tummy time activity.
Cristiana has been touching her feet now for over a month but this week she has been non stop grabbing and pulling them to her mouth (I guess her fists are no longer enough ;)). These new "toys" definitely make diaper changes interesting since she usually doesn't want to let go. I think she wants to practice her heel stretches and be a cheerleader like mommy.
We spent Cristiana's first 4th of July @ Lake Eola in downtown Orlando (well, only about 3 hrs. worth of the day). We didn't stay for the fireworks because Crisitana still gets startled by the crushing of a paper bag and we figuered fireworks would be way too much for her. We had a great time walking the park and sitting under a tree checking out the residents of Lake Eola (the ducks and swans).
Our precious angel was consecrated to the Lord and welcomed into the church community on June 15th 2008, which was also father's day, at Holy Family Catholic Church. It was a beautiful day shared with family and friends. We were so impressed with Cristiana's reaction to the holy water and with her mostly upbeat behavior throughout the entire ceremony. The only thing that drove her nuts was of course the dress. Haven't I mentioned before the fact that she HATES fluffy-non cotton dresses. Poor thing was trying to rip it off on several occasions (I don't blame her, it was also a little warm in the church that day). When we finally took it off, we tried to cool her off by dipping her feet into the baptismal pool...ohhh..she did not like that!
To see a slide show of the photos, click on the following link:
http://s248.photobucket.com/albums/gg196/jnmc25/Baptism/?action=view¤t=66142486.pbw
We would like to send a HUGE thank you to our friend Michael Santistevan for taking these beautiful pictures. Anyone in need of a wonderful photographer check out his website under our "Must see sites" section .
