I think this was the day before yesterday. What she is carrying around is what’s left of an ENTIRE pickle Tony gave her to chew on. Which she ate right up. The joys of teething have been titillating us all as of late. If you don’t usually watch the videos, take a few minutes for this one. Ali really is such a doll and TURN YOUR SOUND UP. Because she has a sweet voice too.

Gotta make this short and sweet. Ummmmm, we went to Portland late Sunday morning. Randomly a day early as seems to have become our style. Hit up Costco there, picked up our easter pics, had lunch with Nana and Grandpa, got my first root canal (which was supposed to be just a consult!), there proceeded to eat delicious spare ribs my Grandma made for dinner less than thirty minutes later.

Today both Tony and I have cleanings in the afternoon. He is working in town all day today and Ali is napping but the construction is really loud so I don’t know for how long.

Ali riding on a Radio Flyer bike my Grandma had for her.

And eating applesauce last night.

Isn’t that kind of how we all feel? Ali has been broadening her foods on an almost hourly basis it seems. Probably the top of her list is strawberries, anything crunchy (Baby Mum-mums, or Gerbers puffed sweet potatos and corn), and bananas. She also eats a lot of grapes, apples, and yams. Today she was loving grapefruit too. Yesterday while I made Tony a sandwich forlucnh Ali tried cheese and a little bit of turkey. She eats pickles and tomatoes pretty regularly. She also tried dry spinach and liked that too. Also, avacado and the other night she was LOVING some frozen berries I was eating with a little cool whip. Not suprisingly she has a very definite sweet tooth. And that brings me to this video of her trying her first bit of brownie. I think this was Wednesday night? Maybe Tuesday…

Dinner on Friday night. Ali’s first time having juice. Actually, at this point only, she liked it a bit too much! Includes us working on the signing of "more" and a shout out to Shayla, our other favorite little girl. Oh, and Pup-pup. Seriously though, I hate hearing my own voice on recordings. ESPECIALLY the slightly higher pitched baby-talk voice. Gag me.

This was at my parents’ house weekend before last.

Last night. Took about half hour to get her to fall asleep. Woke up 30-45 minutes later. Another thirty or so minutes. Woke up again before midnight. Finally took her down with us about one. Then woke up this morning at, like, 6:20! Ugh. But, was very grouchy and tired right after nine so off to the crib she went. Fell asleep in fifteen minutes and has been out for halfan hour. And just awoke!!

Also, found tooth number five this morning. Surprisingly, on the bottom.

This one is a little long. I seem to struggle when where/when to end videos. Never wanting to miss something great. Ummmm, ignore the bickering of the parents at the beginning

New food is so much fun for babies. And their parents. Except when the time comes to clean them up! This picture involves some baby biscuit thing. Ali also got some sweet potato puff,s corn puffs and some stage three foods, which include meats and chunks. Yummy?

Warning: Non food friendly image below.

This morning Ali pooped in the toilet. She’s been peeing for months now, though we’ve slacked a lot of putting her on it. Then, as if to somehow prove it wasn’t a fluke, she did it again in the afternoon. both times almost immediately after having been put on. This whole thing is really more Tony’s deal than my own, but he is too busy to post. He is SO PROUD of his tiny pooper.

Yesterday I finally was able to pick up the crackers Kari recommended. Baby Mum-mums and Ali absolutely loves them, just as we knew she would. The way this kid has been interested in food, especially crunchy things like popcorn and even carrots, there was no question she had been just waiting to sink all four of her teeth into something. I tried a bit and they are really good too. Definitely a step up from rice cereal. Though the girl has been trying a lot of stuff lately. Tiny peices of pickle, grape, apple, pancake, pineapple. Mostly she just likes to pick them up and drop them down her front.

Today was another beautiful day at the coast so we decided to let Ali get out and get real dirty. She getting so mobile, which is such a trip but also so scary and stressful. It seems like every time I leave her for a second there’s a bump and a scream…today there has been more than I can count. Once she awoke from a nap on the trundle in her room and crawled right off the bed. *sigh* I’m not sure how to avoid that since she won’t sleep in her crib and now SCREAMS everytime she’s even close to being put in it (she used to like to play in there) since we spent a couple nights trying to get her to fall asleep in there. Last night though I did get her to fall asleep kind of "on her own." I laid in the bed in her room with her but didn’t interact with her or anything, no nursing or singing and I would close my eyes whenever she looked at me, until eventually she fell asleep. It took over an hour but other than that the hardest part was not laughing when she was being so cute and razzing on my arm or "singing" or whatever she was doing. Of course she woke up less than an hour later and I just took her down to our bed, but it was something. Anyway, she’s smacked her head so many times today I’m watching her pupils because I’m worried about a concussion of something. At least she had a very good time scrambling around in the sand.

As promised, videos. I’ll give brief descriptions and let Ashley throw down some serious commentary…

Playing around, razzing, exploring her mouth…

Very excited about being able to stand. Trying to get at some newspapers I think.

Feedings at seven months: trying to do it all herself, enjoying the interactivity.

Mommy trying to elicit some on-camera crawling action.

Watching Elmo and playing with mommy and the remote. The media studies graduate in me is very nervous about all this…

This one not only has the best angle of crawling, but also has the least vomit-inducing camera movements and the admission that mommy is being mean in order to capture crawling on video.

Finally she gets her hands on those perplexing refrigerator magnets! Bonus features include Ashley singing and a cliff-hanger ending.

Lately Ali has been pooping only when left alone. It’s so funny because when she was very little it was like she needed help to poop and was partial to pooping with Tony. Now it’s like she waits until we leave the room or put het in her crib. We joke that she’s decided she wants privacy already. 

I want to ask the parents out there about sitting up. How old were your kids when they began to do it and/or were proficient at it? Ali can sit up but kind of needs support or she topples over pretty quick. Right now she’s six-and-a-half months.

Just because I’m proud of this and keep forgetting to mention it, I made some awesome zucchini bread last week and am very happy there is a second loaf in the freezer for when the craving strikes. It was even healthy with more applesauce than oil, double the recommended zuchs and more whole wheat flour than white.

Thus far, bananas are her favorite. Though you wouldn’t guess that by looking at the amount that DIDN’T get in her mouth!

We were blessed to recieve a ton of clothes from a lady who works at the little store in town. This sweater and hat were two of many adorable items.