From Sunsets to Bluegrass: Week 24- Milestones on the Road of Life

This week was full of milestones! From sitting up to starting solids, our little girl continues to amaze us with how fast she is growing up!

Starting Solids
So Karis the past week and a half or so had been waking up repeatedly multiple times in the night (11ish and 5:30am ish) and eating a full feeding each time. I tried nursing her more often during the day, but it seemed like my supply just couldn't keep up with her demand, especially in the evenings. Thus, despite me wanting to wait till she was 6 months (starting earlier can lead to obesity), we tried out solids a little bit early.

Since we already had given her tastings of apple and pear and she seemed to take to the pear well, we decided to start with pear. An added bonus was that pear might help her tummy be more regular as well!

I am so thankful that Costco has been having these delicious, ripe and soft pears! We cut a fresh one, scooped out the flesh and mushed it up really well with a spoon. Amazingly, there was no battle over the spoon at all.

It has been a ton of fun feeding her and it always amazes me when the food disappears of the spoon.

She took to it so well, opening her mouth and not pushing (too much) food out with her tongue.She was definitely ready for solids!

After three days of pear, twice a day (about 1 slice each time) we moved on to rice cereal mixed with some water. She wasn't the biggest fan of the bland taste, so the current chef's special is poached pear al arroz, mushed pear mixed with rice cereal to thicken it up!

Bouncing Bliss
With much better head and now torso control I broke out a new toy, a jumper for Karis to try again. I gave it a go about two weeks ago with dismal results, she just slumped over onto the tray. This time she sat up nice and tall and by the end of the day was jumping around!

It has become her new favorite toy and she will sit in it happily (even as I write this post!) for a good 20-30 minutes squealing, bouncing and looking at me. I especially love how it doesn't take up a ton of room and just attached to the door frame. My only regret is that seeing her standing upright makes her look like a little girl and not my little baby. Between this and eating solids I'm feeling less and less needed which reminds me how fast she is growing independent! Next up, car driving ah!!

Sitting Solo
Karis continues to grow up too fast and also hit another milestone this week, sitting unsupported! She is definitely not the most stable so we still need to sit behind her to catch her when she gets too excited and flails backwards. She also has face planted a few times, but doesn't seem to mind so much! Thankfully, the huge cloth diaper bottom hasn't impeded her sense of balance.

Crib Engineering
After too many nights of multiple wakings where Karis will end up on her face, with a little creativity we have stemmed some of the issues by using the pillow wedges to keep her from rolling and elevated the top of her mattress with some of Greg's old textbooks so she won't scoot to the top of the crib outside the wedges and roll over. Most of the time it works, but now she is scooting to the bottom of the crib and rolling over on her face! We'll just have to keep tweaking the angle until she is better at rolling!

3/4 Turner
Despite all our practicing, Karis is still only a 3/4 turner. She can roll both ways from her back to her tummy, but can only roll over her right shoulder from her belly to her back. Alas, we still have some work to do!

My Little Cupcake
After a loooong hiatus from my PetitsCakes labors, I finally felt like I had time again to take on a special order. A friend and fellow small group member was getting married so I volunteered to take on wedding cupcakes for her. It was a Christmas themed wedding which made it fun and I was able to work on some royal icing skills which allowed me to make the holly leaves a couple weeks ahead of time.

With a total of 125 cupcakes it went pretty smoothly and I found that by planning ahead and making a baking schedule it was actually an easier project now that I'm home with Karis than it had been in the past while trying to work.