More cuteness.

I let Peanut play with the spoon when she was done eating and here is what she did.

That same night she was being adorable, as always and then we turned around and....

she did this. Silly girl :)

We met, for what will hopefully be the last time, with the Birth to 3 program. As expected, Peanut does not qualify for services except for speech therapy. We at this time have turned it down as we feel like she is still catching up and will catch up in time. We talked with the Early Intervention Teacher and even she was not that concerned about the delay in Peanut's speech. This was reassuring and helped us with our decision to not pursue speech therapy at this point. We can always call them back if we need to. They left us with some great info and some handouts on speech activities we can do with Peanut.

We were thrilled with all the help they already given us and even though we don't really qualify for services, I am glad we called. I would highly recommend any parent calling their Birth to 3 or Early Intervention program if you have any questions at all about your child's development. It is such a great resource.

Peanut is 7 months old!

I can't even believe it. Peanut is 7 months old and the joy of my life. Here are 7 of the 100's of things I love about Peanut.

1) The way she smiles up at me in the mornings when I go to get her out of her crib.

2) The way she will spontaneously start laughing and at what we have no idea.

3) The way she tries to shove all of her fingers in her mouth.

4) The way she snuggled in and fell asleep while I was wearing her in the Ergo.

5) The way she 'talks' to her toys.

6) Just how truly sweet, amazing, strong willed and independent she is.

7) Just how perfectly she fits in our family. Truly a gift from God.

Love you always and forever Peanut. Pictures will come maybe tomorrow, I think teething got the best of Peanut and her mood today...

Peanut's first baseball game

Well the day arrived. It was time for Peanut's first Brewer's game. As you can see below she was super excited and dressed for the game.

See, she can't wait to get there :)

And here she is just before the game started taking everything in.

Here is how she spent most of her time at the game, strapped to me in the Ergo. And yes that is a beer in my hand :) You can't go to a Brewer's game and not have a Miller Lite :)

This nice girl behind us took our picture. Our first family outing to Miller Park.

So truth, how did she do? GREAT! We fed her in the car before we entered the stadium and I was prepared with 2 additional bottles if need be. She was on our laps for the pre-game and the 1st inning. By the end of the 1st she was a little overwhelmed so we strapped her in the Ergo and Peanut and I took a walk around Miller Park for 2 innings.

We returned to our seats in the middle of the 4th inning and that is where we stayed. We kept her strapped in the Ergo and she did better than expected given this was a) her first baseball game and b) her first time being in the Ergo for more than 15 minutes. She was totally enamored with this guy behind us and just stared and smiled at him.

She started to get sleepy and hungry so we made up her bottle and fed her while wearing her. Challenging but it worked. She drank about half of her bottle and then fell asleep. We had talked about leaving after the 7th if she didn't fall asleep but she did. She woke up a little later and finished her bottle and then was down for the count. A guy in front of us said we were truly blessed with the best baby and he couldn't get over how good she was.

We did wind up leaving in the 9th inning just before all the good stuff happened but overall it was a great experience. Peanut was a rockstar for sure and she made some new friends :) Will she go to the next game with us...we shall see. Peanut far surpassed any expectations I had and I even got to watch a little baseball.

The screaming phase...

Well it happened, sweet little Peanut has learned how to scream and scream loudly and VERY high pitched. No she isn't screaming because she is upset or screaming while crying; she is screaming to scream and if you look at her she smiles.

Sometimes it is hard to not laugh at her while she is doing and other times I cringe and hurry out of the coffee shop, restaurant, etc. I have been warned that this phase of little girls last FOREVER.

She spent 50 minutes this morning in her crib giggling, squealing and then screaming instead of napping. She finally fell asleep. What did I do? I took a shower, started some laundry and now I am blogging.

We are gearing up for the weekend as we are taking Peanut to her first Brewers game. I am prepared for it to be challenging and we have agreed that if things go downhill we will leave early. The game starts at 6:05 so schedule wise it works to feed her either before we leave here or in the car once we get there and then she will get her bottle between 7:30-8pm and hopefully fall asleep in the Ergo. I am not worried about the first 2 hours or so that we are there it is after that that may get challenging and boring for Peanut. We will take pictures for sure :)

Well apparently nap time is over as I hear Peanut and guess what she is SCREAMING oh and then laughing :)

Peanut Pictures

Couldn't resist the cuteness. Here is my beginning attempts at finger coils and Peanut with her two favorite things, her finger and a cloth diaper.

Look she puts toys in her mouth!!! She wouldn't do this weeks ago :)

She hated the Exersaucer when she first got home and now she loves it.

And here is Peanut and her favorite pug, Sebastian.

Peanut is the sweetest little girl and such a joy!

In other news, we had Badger in to the vet today. He has what appears to be a collection of fat cells under his rib cage. It is rather large so we thought it was a tumor but the vet doesn't think so. Either way we have scheduled Badger for a dental cleaning and while he is under they will remove this and a skin tag on his face. Sigh of relief that our vet isn't too worried about little Badger because we sure were.

Good news :)

We got the report today from the Birth to 3 program. I have been anxiously awaiting this and it came with great news!

To quote:

"Peanut is developing within expected ranges in the areas of gross motor, fine motor, cognitive, social-emotional, and self help skills"

Go Peanut go. She is right on track and within averages based on other children her age. She is most behind in communication but the evaluators felt she was doing really well considering she has only been hearing English regularly for a month.

The evaluators are coming back at the end of the month to discuss their report and the game plan. It doesn't appear that Peanut qualifies for services except maybe speech therapy. Peanut is VERY vocal yet not making sounds like 'ba, da, ga, etc'. Those I don't doubt will come in time. We read to her every day so that will help.

A huge sigh of relief has been let out here. I am glad baby girl is doing well and I can take some things off of my worry list. What a great way to start the weekend.

Mini update and some more pictures :)

So I couldn't resist posting some more cute pics of Miss Peanut! Here she is just after eating and playing with a cool toy borrowed from a great friend--thanks Kerry(and Lilly).

I managed to get Peanut to smile while petting Sebastian. She just loves him and her loves her. He is so patient since she isn't the gentlest of petters. As you can see Badger moved as far away as possible. We don't push it with him. We let him dictate what he can handle from her.

Ok--guilty took a picture of her sleeping because it is just too cute. No worries though she didn't even flinch and I took 3 pictures with flash. :)

As for the mini update, we have an appointment for Peanut on July 2nd at the Feeding Clinic. The therapist is staying late so she can see her. We are so grateful. That said we adjusted Peanut's feeding schedule and things have been better. She still coughs but using the Playtex bottles with the drop in liners has really helped. At this point we are still concerned about her coughing so we are going to go through with the appointment just to make sure. It could be she is just bored with the bottle, not coordinated enough, drooling too much because of teething or an attention getter. Those are still on the table as possibilities.

Additionally, did you notice how well Miss Peanut was sitting on the couch next to the dogs??? We think she is getting closer and closer to sitting up. She will sit up by herself on the couch, her changing table and with her back up against something for a little while. She has started to use her hands to maintain balance and adjust herself when she starts to tip over. Not always but sometimes. Big improvement! I even got her to lay on her side and roll over to her stomach today. We did it twice. Usually she throws a fit when you put her on her side. I stopped after twice since that went so well. The Birth to 3 therapist suggested we do this so we try a few times throughout the day when she is in a good mood.

So things are going well right now with the food issues and Peanut is just such a joy. We love her more and more every day.