Growing Girl

Finley has reached many baby milestones over the past month.  A few weeks ago we officially moved her to her own bed and she has done really good.  It took a few nights for me to get use to her not being right beside me.  She slept fine, even the very first night, but I worried about her even though her bed is literally fifteen feet from our bed.

A couple weeks after the bed transition, she had a growth spurt.  She woke up every single week night between 2:00-4:00am ready to eat!!  Thankfully Wes took some of those shifts.  I really don't see how people do it without a supportive spouse.  It gives me an entirely new appreciation for single parents!!

Around the first of the month, we started her on rice cereal and she has since tried sweet potatoes, which she really likes.  Even after 3 weeks, feeding her is still a very messy nightly event and it has made for some explosive diapers in the days following!!  See below our first attempt at feeding her solids.

She is mimicking all kinds of sounds now days.  Her latest sound is clicking of her tongue.  I have been doing this to her for months.   It was just like she woke up one day and decided she was going to click back.  Of course we think it is the cutest thing ever.

I haven't captured the tongue clicking on video, so this spit bubble picture will have to do.

This past weekend, she officially cut her first tooth!!  She occasionally sticks my fingers in her mouth and much to my surprise she chomped down on my finger with her sharp little tooth.  A couple days later, she tested it out on me while nursing.  My natural instinct of course was to yell which scared the mess out of her.

We are looking forward to Christmas, although Finley will think of it as just another day.  I've only bought her one gift and not sure that I will get much more than that.  I just really don't see the point at this age and I practically bring her home a new outfit or toy almost every week as it is.  We are going to stay at home this holiday and Gram is coming up to join us in the festivities!!  Hopefully we'll make the rounds to see everyone again sometime soon!!

Giving Thanks

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend!  We got to see so many friends and family!  We saw Gram & Pop Pop, Uncle Marty, Aunt Karrie and Cousins Grant & Griffin, Gary, Grandma Phyllis, Cousins Greg and Diana, Great Aunt Janice, Grandpa George, Freddie Joe, Uncle JJ and soon to be Aunt Russlyn!!  :)  Justin proposed to Russlyn the night before Thanksgiving.  Congrats to you both!!

Uncle JJ, Russyln & little bit

We traveled to Hope, Magnolia, North Little Rock and back home.  Once again, Finley was a great traveler and she did really good.  We are so thankful that Finley puts up with us and our nonstop lives!!  We loaded and unloaded 2 dogs, play yard, swing, exersaucer, boppy and many more of Fin's belongings at each location.  You would think that there would be plenty of room in Wes's vehicle, but we managed to find a way to fill every cubic inch of it.  At one point we had a deer in an ice chest in the back with the dogs and a large cpu with a Reese's pie on top of that in my lap for part of our travels!  Just call us the Griswolds!!

Finley and Wes asleep in Grant's bed

Reading the paper at Grandpa George's house

I didn't manage to capture everyone in pictures but below are some that I did get.  Also included, is a video of Gram and Finley playing with her kitty toy.  We are so thankful for Finley and our family and friends.

Laughing at Gram

Finley and Di

Finley with Greg

The crew with Great Aunt Janice

The boys with Grandma Phyllis

Love this bunch!!

Finley checking out Aunt Karrie

Child Abuse

Over the last couple of weeks, Finley has suffered for brief moments at the hands of her mother.  :(  I don't like even admitting these incidents, but I'm trying to make her spend more time on her stomach because the doctor even suggested that I do so.  She still isn't really fond of "tummy time", but she is getting more accepting of it.  She rolls from her back to her tummy really good, but still hasn't figured out how to get back over, so when she starts fussing instead of running over to help her flip back over I've been trying to let her figure things out on her own.  One night I was home by myself with her and I was in the kitchen cooking when she started her tummy fussing.  I never looked over at her, but I was talking to her from across the room telling her she was going to have to practice getting back over.  She finally fussed for as long as I could stand it, and I went over and picked her up.  I felt awful because she had been laying in a HUGE puddle of spit up!!  I felt horrible because I was actually looking for a camera!!  I couldn't find one fast enough and felt so guilty that I was even laughing, so I washed her up immediately without getting a photo.  It was all over her face, in her ears, hair, and eyes.  I had to actually scrub it out of her little eye lashes.

The following week she and I were at home by ourselves again, and I decided her fingernails had to be cut.  In the past I usually take her out on the back deck and she is distracted by the trees and various other things, and she allows me to cut them with little resistance.  It was freezing and dark outside so that wasn't an option.  I turned on a cartoon thinking that might would help, which it did briefly, but then she got really squirmy.  I should have stopped there!!  I made it to the last fingernail, which was her right thumb, and I cut what felt like half of her thumb off!!  She looked up at me with a big frown and started crying.  I did what I thought I would never do, and immediately sucked the blood off of her thumb.  I know, gross.  I then ran it under cool water and wrapped a paper towel around it.  She only cried briefly but I felt AWFUL!!  I thought I had gotten the bleeding stopped, so I put her in her exersaucer and looked over moments later to find it all splatter painted with blood.  I wrapped it back up and held pressure on it, and after about 30 minutes, I finally got it to stop bleeding.

This outfit was child abuse.

Nothing tops this last incident, to date that is!!  I wanted to try out Finley's new high chair that the Stoners got for her.  It is this really cool kind that attaches to a table or bar surface and the baby is supposed to sit in it as it cantilevers from the hard surface.  Sounds like a cool thing, but it is actually kind of scary just looking at it.  I put it together and secured it safely on the kitchen bar and placed Finley in it.  Right away she really liked it, and I was quite proud of my assembly skills.  I know you are all worried that she fell to the floor, so I'll go ahead and relieve you of that thought!!  The chair stayed safely attached, but I wanted to add her tray in front of her so she would have a play surface for me to sit a few toys on.  It appeared that it somewhat slid from the front and snapped in place as you pushed it back towards the seat.  Not the case at all!!  I firmly slide it from the front towards Finley and hit her square in the bridge of her nose with the tray.  It took her breath away and was followed by a horrendous whaling of tears!!  She let out one of the same type of cries, that I can't stand, similar to when she gets shots!!  I yanked her out of the chair and held her for probably 15 minutes apologizing more times that I could even count.  Her nose was a little bruised, but luckily it didn't cause two black eyes or anything like what I feared.  I watched her closely throughout the night in fear that I had caused a concussion, but she was just fine.  I, on the other hand, felt like the worse mother ever!!

Loving her new high chair

I know that she will not remember any of these incidents and that there will be many more bumps and bruises throughout her life, probably even broken bones and stitches, if she plays near as rough as we all did as kids.  I'd just like to NOT be the one that inflicts the pain upon her!!  She sometimes wakes up at night as if she is having a nightmare, and I use to just blame it on her shots.  Now I know it is probably nightmares over the pain that I have accidentally inflicted upon her!!  :(

Getting tickled at dad

In  her kitty cat hat

With her new penguin toy