What we have been up to lately...

Sorry I haven't written in awhile! We've been really busy lately as summer ends and work it beginning to rear its ugly head. The Reynolds family has had something going on every weekend almost the whole summer, and then I'm filling my week with play dates and back-burner chores. So far, this is some of what we've been up to...and there's more to come :)

Bouncing baby girl: Elliot has always had strong legs, and I thought maybe a jumper/bouncy chair would be a good purchase. We went over to our friends Rachel & Michael's house for Rachel's birthday, and Elliot got to try out Wilson's (their 2 year old) retired bouncy chair. She loved it! Sweet Rachel is letting us borrow theirs so we don't have to buy one! Right now Elliot doesn't bounce too much, she just enjoys watching everything from up higher and playing with the musical attached toys. She hasn't connected yet that she is making the chair move.
Here is a picture of Elliot, Tim, and Micheal minding their home bar and her new chair.

Solids foods: Why did we ever doubt that she would be a good eater? She is OUR child after all, and we know how to eat. Elliot loves fruits and veggies! She has had avocados, bananas (her fav), carrots, peas, and sweet potatoes. (Please note that peas have a lot of fiber so they make babies gassy, so don't serve them a helping of just peas, we found out the hard way). Elliot is our baby bird who now knows to open her mouth even before the spoon is in sight, and eats 1/2 cup of solid food before she goes to bed. Brinkley, our dog, has also discovered that hanging around Elliot during dinner time is a fruitful endeavor. Although he often gets in the way and distracts Elliot, he has proven himself as a good washer. Here are some pictures of Elliot eating carrots.

Here are some recent photos of her experience with peas...it took a couple days for her to get used to them.

Crying it out: I know you didn't hear it here first, but "crying it out" SUCKS! It took baby girl almost 2 hours to fall asleep the first night. Tim and I tried to play a game of Scrabble, but I couldn't even come up with CAT, I was so frazzled. Since then it has been better. Now it takes her about half an hour to fall asleep, with full lung screams the whole time. Then she sleeps until about 5am. I hoping she can stretch it till 6 am and then we'll be really for when I go back to work. The best part of this whole thing is that she doesn't remember how awful her parents were the night before! So sweet Elliot greets us with smiles and gladly joins us in bed to grab a few more winks :)

A whole new world...of food

At Elliot's 4 month well checkup, the Dr suggested that we start introducing solids in her diet to boost her weight and extend her nightime sleeping. We were thrilled, especially Tim! Now Daddy could have a role in feeding! When I was pregnant, we decided when the time came we would make our own baby food. I had read some good articles and blogs about homemade baby food and decided it was for us. Here are the following reasons why(in no particular order):

• It's fun!
• It's way cheaper. 2 bananas made 8 servings which cost 78 cents. Gerber's 2 pk of bananas cost $1.20.
• It's healthier. You control how the food is made so you can make sure the peak nutrients are in each serving. Prepackaged foods are factory made and assembled quickly so some nutrients are lost. Also, prepacked food is made to stay on the shelves and in your home for awhile, which means they are packed with preservatives and unnecessary additives.
  
• It tastes better! Have you ever tried some of those baby foods? Yuck! If it doesn't taste good to me, why would I serve it to her?

There are more reasons why we are making her baby food, but I'll get off my soap box now :) So that night I made rice cereal (rice, water, breast milk) and Tim and I did the age old dance called "getting the food in the baby's mouth." She liked the spoon, but not what was on it. So we skipped rice cereal (there is no nutritional reason to start with it and it made her constipated) and moved onto avocados. These were a hit! Tim and I enjoyed yummy guacamole, while Elliot ate up all her pureed avocado. The next food introduction was bananas. I had a feeling she would love it since it was sweet. Well she didn't disappoint! Elliot became a baby bird dutifully opening her mouth and squealing for more. Here is a picture of when we finished:
I think our next food adventure will be peas. Since she loves the sweeter foods (don't we all), I'll save those for later to make sure she develops a pallet for veggies.

4 Months Old!

Last Friday, Elliot turned 4 months old! She is growing and developing so fast that we can't believe it! But I guess I say that every month :) She is still long and lean at 11 lbs 14 oz and 24.75 in long. Elliot is the tallest 4 month old in the New Moms Group we go to. She is starting to take a regular nap in her swing. Now it's no secret that my child doesn't like to sleep. Since day one she's always been alert and wants to be a part of it all. So this regular nap is a BIG step, and now you can rejoice with me. Elliot entertains herself with her little gym, taggie blanket, and rattles. This preoccupation sometimes extends to the car, which makes trips more bearable! She giggles and smiles at other people now, especially babies. Her favorite baby is the one who lives in the mirror and enjoys talking to her often :) Elliot is still a big wiggle worm and uses that energy on rolling side to side and front to back.

The USB drive that holds my pictures is acting up, so I don't have the outakes of her 4 month pictures. But hopefully I'll have those up soon. In the mean time, here are links to two videos. They are both about 5 minutes long, so I understand if you don't watch the whole thing. They are posted on YouTube, but under a security setting. So copy and paste the link into your browser to access them, if you just search for them it won't work.

Elliot's baptism video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUg6cI5nbLc

Elliot trying rice cereal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxSh7n-KPQY