Our Felicity: 7 months

Yesterday Dan commented that Felicity is now closer to a year than a newborn...I find myself taking in each and every moment trying to treasure these times in the deepest nooks of my heart. I read somewhere that gratitude is a way to hold on to moments just a little bit longer, a way to slow the hands of time. These days are full of so many thankful things...

This month Felicity's obsession with paper hit a whole new level. I was never so surprised when I found some under her little bum! I guess the girl is trying to tell us she needs more fiber in her diet :) Maybe this is why the avocado I tried feeding her didn't hold any appeal. I refuse to believe that our daughter could not like avocado so I've determined that she must not be ready for solids yet. We'll try again next month. Until then, paper will have to supplement her regular diet of MiLk.
Perhaps the biggest accomplishment of month seven was Felicity's week in the nursery while Dan and I were at a training. The training was in the same location so I was able to steal away to feed her when needed. After the first day Fliss did a stellar job. She cried most of the first day which broke my heart, but the rest of the week was much better. The nursery workers said they realized that she was OvErWheLmeD with all of the kids coming close and when they gave her some space she did much better. She's definitely not used to all kinds of kids in her space for a whole day so I'm so grateful they realized this and adjusted accordingly. By the middle of the week they were even able to get her to nap! I went up to feed her when she was sleeping and one of the college girls said, "Should I move her to the crib?". The kind woman who had been in charge of Felicity the previous day gave an emphatic, "Noooo!" Smart woman. She had Felicity figured out after one day: the girl does NOT transfer!
This month Felicity has started sitting up on her own. She's still a bit wobbly and prone to falling so we always stay close by. It's hard to believe, but she still has not rolled from her back to her stomach. We will taunt her with toys, mommy, and daddy, but she just won't do it. She will practically be on her stomach, and then she will just stop reaching.  One of our favorite things was putting her in the high chair while we were out this month. So cute! Of course she wound up with a pile of shredded napkins beneath her in no time!
Her days of sitting in the bumbo on the kitchen table are coming to an end as she has started flailing her arms in excitement on a regular basis. This newfound movement is making my little photo shoots a bit more challenging. For this month's she kept lifting the BlaNkiE in front of her face and moving so much that it was difficult to get a picture that wasn't blurry. Going to have to figure something out soon because I'm sure more motion is in store for us in the near future.
We had a lovely Mother's Day celebration a few days before the actual holiday. I awoke to pancakes that spelled mom (thank you Riems for the inspiration), and the best part was I got to sleep in while Dan and Fliss prepared the breakfast. They took me to one of my favorites, HoNeY, for lunch and we followed up with a trip to Graham's in Wheaton. But my absolute favorite part of Mother's Day was my card from Felicity. It was sitting on the table with a crumpled up piece of notebook paper stuck to it...meant to look like a flower from my girl who LoVeS paper, the girl I love so much, the girl who makes me a mommy.
On actual Mother's Day we had the privilege of dedicating our sweet girl at church. She did such a great job up front....no crying even though it was way past her nap time. Pastor Bill dedicated her and Auntie Rina said a beautiful prayer over her. We are so grateful to have a God who gives us wisdom and help on this journey of raising her, friends and family to encourage us in raising her for His glory, and to be entrusted with His beautiful creation, Felicity, everyday. The verse used at her dedication was Psalm 34:8:

Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. 

May the Lord be her refuge all the days of her life so that she might truly have FeLiCitY. We are so grateful to Him for another month with her. It's starting to feel like she has always been here and difficult to imagine what life was ever like without her...

Our Felicity: 6 Months

Happy Half Birthday Baby Girl! Six months ago we didn't have chewed up Birthday and playing cards, baby roars, gummy smiles, a toy around every corner, an automatic alarm clock, the words Woozle, Doozle, or Sasscratchewan in our vocabulary...We had no idea what was coming, and we never could have imagined this cute, funny but serious, lovely little Miss Fliss. She is truly the girl of our dreams, and we still find ourselves in disbelief that she's actually ours.
This month Felicity has definitely shown she has a mind of her own. She is ReAcHiNg for everything but mostly the one thing in front of her that she's not supposed to have! Funny how she seems to gravitate for anything but her toys. Her absolute favorite things to reach for right now are anything paper, tupperware, cell phones and Mommy.
The first time she reached for me it had been one of those days where nothing seemed to please the little darling. That night when Dan was changing her diaper she was crying so I went back to help. She arched her little back on the changing table and reached back with both hands coming right at me. Her sad little face and whimpers melted my heart. I will never forget it. I've never experienced anything quite like it, and it definitely ranks high on the top moments of my life. Seriously.
She is getting SO big. With April came Felicity's first time in the church nursery (you know it's bad when you go to get your baby and they're being paced outside the nursery...not crying, but pacing no less ;) KUDOS to the dedicated, loving nursery workers at BC ), first attempts at sitting up on her own, consistent sleep at night, full blown giggling, the return of her voice (instead of just moaning :) my favorite is Aye, yi, yi, yi, yi!), stranger danger and way less fussy time in the evening (woo-hoo).

April Anecdotes:

• Felicity took her first trip to her Great Grandpa Wayne and Grandma Betty's. Everyone likes to roast me because I have a history of sleeping A LOT when I go there. I guess I've just always found it to be peaceful. In fact, this time my cousin said, "Hey this is the longest I've ever seen you awake at Grandma's." Ha, ha! Oh how having a baby changes everything :) You can only imagine how pleased I was to find that Felicity had the best sleep of her little life at Grandma's. More than once I had to check if she was breathing. I guess she's just following in her mother's footsteps...or there's something in the water there!

• Paper Monster! This girl loves anything paper or paper producty. She practically chewed off the bunny ears on her first Easter card from Grandma Kathy. It was also the catalyst for her first FiT. The girl seriously cried when we took it away and stopped when we gave it back. Dan has lost a good portion of a deck of cards, and I find myself tearing off corners of every piece of paper in her presence to keep her from paper cuts. It would seem she delights in the sound, texture, and even taste of paper. One friend suggested she might be trying to tell us she needs more fiber in her diet as Felicity bit off a big chunk of the church bulletin. ;) 

•  Blow Out! This month Fliss set the record for her biggest on record yet. We were visiting Grandma Val, Grandpa Darrel, and other Baileys. I was holding her and all of a sudden I could tell something was going on if you know what I mean. I looked at her Uncle Ben and said, "I think she's making something special. I'll wait a few minutes to make sure she doesn't want to make it extra special." Oh man did she ever make it extra special. When I went to change her, I found that she was covered and so was I. Grandma Val took her onesie to the toilet to try to flush off the damage. She was showing me how it's done when WOOSH the onesie went straight down the toilet! As you can imagine we were dying with laughter!