an acquired taste

this is random, but for those who know me well, you know that i have never liked coffee. and you also know that my husband is a coffee lover/addict/etc. he seriously loves the stuff. coffee and cereal - his two all time favorites; and i don't like or partake in either...

...until this week. i decided after Sierra was born that i wanted to learn to like coffee. yes, learn...to teach myself to like it. i have always said that if i didn't like it, why force myself to acquire a taste for it? well, with a baby in our lives i see a very long road of early mornings ahead of me and think that coffee may help me conquer those a little better.

so my journey has started. 3 mornings this week. kyle is helping me "doctor" them with some milk, flavor and sweetness. so far so good. i actually liked it the first two days! today, not so much but i'm still experimenting with proportions.

anyway, just wanted to document this big step. kyle never thought the day would come...and neither did i (ha!).

ok, that's enough on that topic. i can't believe i just posted about coffee. who am i?!?!!

this little piggy...

Sierra has been reaching for her feet for awhile and now can not only reach them, but also grab them and put them in her mouth! It's really funny to watch and amazing how she can just fold her body like that! (especially with the size of that belly and those thighs!)

About a week ago when she first got her right foot to her mouth the first thing she did was lick her big toe...ha! It was hilarious - she just kept licking it, trying to figure out what it was. I guess she liked it enough to proceed to sucking on it :)

As soon as you lay her on her back her legs immediately go straight up into the air...and then the arms go out and grab her feet. Also when she's sitting she leans forward to grab them (remember being tested in Elementary school on how far we could stretch to touch our toes?!)...and she has recently taken interest in my toes too!

Quite a few times now when I have gone in to get her after a nap, I find her socks off...and sometimes in her mouth!

...mouth open...ready to chomp...

she is soooo fun :)

Mayfield Park

we love this park and always have. kyle and i used to go there a lot while we were dating when the weather was nice. we'd grab some coffee (and tea) and sit at the park. it's so peaceful and beautiful. the park is full of: ponds with fishies, gardens (taken care of by locals), stone structures and arches...and peacocks! they roam the grounds, hang out high in the trees and fly between the branches...oh and make their squawking sounds, kind of like a car horn - i previously had no idea that peacocks even made sounds but turns out they are very loud!

celebrating the gorgeous day and Sierra's 5th monday birthday, on saturday we took a trip to Mayfield Park. we went in the evening when she is usually a bit fussy so it was hard work to try to get smiles, but she was a trooper and we did get some cute pictures :)

surviving the chaos of...

...the church nursery!

WOW.

so today was the first time we left Sierra at the church nursery. to be honest, we haven't gone to church all that many times since she was born and when we have, we've taken her in with us in her car seat and she has napped. well, she doesn't nap so well in public anymore because she's sooo curious.

things looked so calm and wonderful as we dropped her off in the baby room - one little boy sleeping in the pack n play, one little girl playing on the mat and another napping in her car seat. the 3 volunteers were just sitting back watching, so relaxed. the room was quiet and all was well. we handed Sierra off and she didn't cry! (that in itself was an answered prayer) it couldn't have gone better.

we got through the whole class and hadn't heard from the nursery! so i guess when we showed up i expected to see the same peaceful, calm scene that we had left. oh, contraire! what we saw stopped us in our tracks and i think we just stared with dropped jaws for a good minute before even locating Sierra.

baby chaos. total chaos. one guy volunteer on a rocking chair with two screaming babies on his lap, two volunteers on the floor feeding baby food to two babies - one turned out to be holding Sierra on her lap at the same time as spoon feeding a baby sitting in front of her (and with as squirmy and grabby as Sierra is, i have NO idea how she managed to do that!), one girl walking around the room trying to put a fussy baby to sleep, one baby playing alone on the play mat, one just laying there, one sleeping in her car seat, etc, etc. all the caretakers were different than the ones who were there when we dropped Sierra off and there were probably 3 too few workers for that many babies. yes, it was chaos...but YES, Sierra survived...and seemed happy about it!

for all you nursery volunteers out there...THANK YOU! whoever you are, thank you thank you. that is not an easy job!

...upon returning home we discovered they fed Sierra the "emergency" bottle from her bag. she shouldn't have been hungry while she was there, so we're guessing she must have been crying at some point for them to have dug out the bottle and fed it to her. and knowing how much she loves food, that might explain the happy state we found her in :)

so one nap less and one bottle more, she made it out in one piece...smiling! i guess in the world of baby nurseries we call that a success :)

a follow up to the last post...


ha, she hasn't quite learned the "sneeze in your arm/elbow" technique yet...and we wonder why all 3 of us ended up sick?!

on the mend

after a week and a half of battling illness at our house (all 3 of us), i think we have finally turned the corner and are all on the mend...and we are ever more thankful for healthy days!!!

here's a picture of our sweet baby one of the nights she didn't feel well:

she was a trooper...and was sooo cute even when sick! it was sad to see her not feeling well and we are glad to have all her smiles and giggles back in full swing :)

and here's one from today...feeling better (and currently talking to herself in her crib during her "nap" as i type this):

so much to say

Sierra is experimenting every day with new sounds that she can make with her tongue and mouth - it's super cute! Although she still grunts when she is frustrated or mad, most of the grunting has now turned into happier noises! (the grunts were pretty funny, but I was beginning to get worried she may grunt her way through adolescence!!)

Last week she was into the shrieking - very very high pitched shrieking. One morning when she and Kyle were playing downstairs, I woke up to sounds that sounded like cats playing in our house!

This week the new fad is blowing rasperries and spit bubbles! It is hilarious and she can entertain herself for a long time! At the same time as she is playing with her spit (or milk) and spraying anyone who is close by, she is practicing her "agoo"s and "gee"s. It is so fun to have these coos and baby talk fill our house :)

...and I see the days of constant bib wearing in our very near future

I'll have to get some video uploaded soon - she's too cute for words :)

she loves to stare at the camera, so it's hard to get a smile when the camera comes out

she loooooooves her Daddy! again, no smile because of the camera, but I promise you that just before I pulled it out she was smiling, talking and blowing raspberries and having a blast!