First Tooth! (And, 2nd tooth)

Ariella cut her first tooth overnight on Halloween night! It was the bottom front left tooth. It was quite exciting to see her 1st tooth. It's still only about 1/4-1/3 of the way in, though. I didn't realize it would take so long to come in. And, now she has a 2nd tooth (the bottom front right tooth) that just broke the surface over the weekend. My little girl is growing up. So far no problems with nursing (yay).

Halloween!!!

Here are some pics from Halloween. Originally, she was going to be a strawberry for Halloween night (since it's a warm costume), but then I needed a cooler (temperature-wise) costume for a daytime birthday party with a Halloween theme (enter the Sleeping Beauty costume). I'm glad I got pics of her as the strawberry earlier, because on Halloween night when I went to put her strawberry costume on, the zipper came right off in my hand! Oops. So, she was Sleeping Beauty for Halloween trick or treating (and, no, she didn't eat the Nestle Crunch bar - lol). I dressed up, too, as a spider queen thing. Originally, my dress had 2 shoulder straps, but along the way trick or treating, the strap on one side broke. It was definitely the year for Halloween costume malfunctions. At least my costume worked well with only one strap. We had a lot of fun, though. All of the neighbors just fawned over Ariella. And, we even went through a "haunted garage" that a neighbor had set up. She had a lot of fun - not scared at all! :-)

Trip to Louisiana

Ariella had her first road trip during the last week of October! We went down to Louisiana so that she could meet a bunch of our relatives for the first time (and so that we could attend my neices' Halloween-themed birthday party).

I was concerned about the drive (especially since I breastfeed), but Ariella was a gem. She nursed several times when we stopped for gas/food, and we fed her solids while in the car.

We were able to see quite a few sets of relatives on both sides of the family. We also were able to go to the park with my brother and his kids, and the birthday party was a lot of fun! I even took Ariella on this gigantic blow up slide that they had rented. She had so much fun.

Here are a few of the pictures from the trip:

1st Official Swimming Lesson

Ariella had her 1st "official" swimming lesson on Saturday. We had a lot of fun. She was the only baby that had done any kind of underwater swimming before. There were 8 babies in the class, all right around her age, give or take a few months.

We started in the very shallow part (maybe 1 1/2 feet deep) of the pool and played with toys for a while. And, we got to know the other moms and babies. Then, we sat in a single line and had the babies practice kicking and then "scoops" (scooping water with their hands). Ariella was quite good at both.

Then, we went into the deeper water (maybe 4 feet deep?) and went around this pathway that looped around. The first time, we just went through however we wanted. The second time, we went through with the babies on their backs. Ariella was amazingly comfortable on her back. A lot of times at home, she didn't necessarily like being on her back in the water. And, then the 3rd time they were supposed to be on their tummy going around. These 3 loops were the perfect time for Ariella to get to do her underwater swims. So, that worked out well.

After that, we stood the babies up at the side of the pool and had them "jump" in. So, this was another good place for Ariella to practice going underwater. I think most of the babies didn't go underwater at all. Then, we made our way to the "vortex", which was a circle area of the pool. We all made a big circle and sang "Wheels on the bus" while we did motions with the babies. And, then we sang "Ring around the rosie" while moving with the babies. Next, we took the babies up to this twisty water slide. I was wondering how that would work because if I sat Ariella up and sent her down, she would surely hit her head. So, I just laid her on her back, and that seemed to work. The instructor caught her at the bottom, while I came around to get her. She was slobbering all over the instructor's shoulder when I got there - hehe. And, then she grabbed the instructor's necklace when I went to pick her up. Lol!

After that, we had the babies blow bubbles in the water. I wasn't sure how that was going to go, since we had never practiced anything like that. So, I put Ariella's face in, and she blew major bubbles! (This impressed the instructor a lot. Actually, the instructor was pretty much amazed with everything she could do - her kicks, scoops, blowing bubbles, and underwater swims. I guess most babies come in with no swimming experience.) Then, we played with toys in the shallow part again and socialized until the time was up.

All in all I think this will be a wonderful way to keep up her swimming progress. I'm not sure that she'll really "learn" much swimming in this class. But, she'll get to practice everything we learned over the summer. And, she'll get to socialize with the other babies (which is very important). And, we'll both get to have fun. Oh, and the pictures here are from the pathway where we did the 3 loops.

Parents As Teachers Visit

We had the Parents As Teachers program visit last night. The lady did Ariella's vision and hearing screening, which both came back fine. We talked about how Ariella has been doing. It sounds like she's doing great, even though she's not crawling yet. The lady played some games with her and gave us some suggestions for things to do.

We're supposed to put toys just out of reach to encourage her crawling/moving. We're also supposed to let Ariella practice with the sippy cup each day (I think Tyree's mom has just been holding it for her to drink from). And, we can play peek-a-boo games to teach object permanence. Singing and rhyming are good, too.

She said that Ariella is hitting the age where separation anxiety might come about pretty soon. And, she should be saying mama, dada soon. And, a goal for her is to get from tummy to sitting on her own. So, she'll be having lots of new things in the near future.

The lady also game us a pamphlet with some instructional sessions that they have. And, there's also going to be a Christmas social in December that looks like fun. There aren't nearly as many sessions as last year (budget cuts), but there are still some things. I'm glad the program was continued. We'll see her next in January!

Fall and Halloween Pics!

8 Months Old!

Ariella has hit the 8 month old mark! Here are some of her latest firsts:
- Sitting unsupported
- Monkey slap (clapping both of her hands onto her belly at the same time - looks like a monkey)
- Clapping (although still fairly sporadic)
- Standing (while holding onto something, has to be put into the standing position, though, she cannot pull up to standing yet)
-Lots of new foods - green beans, beef, pumpkin, green peas, peaches, chicken, gerber puffs (even showed the pincer grasp - but she hasn't self-fed yet)
-Sleeping longer, sleeps until 5-6am most nights