Baby's First Steps!!!!!

Alyssa has been taking a few steps and then falling for the last week or so. Then, yesterday, she up and walked all the way across the living room. I guess she finally got over her fears and went for it. Now, all she wants to do is walk. All the time. And she's been practicing her all-out flailing temper tantrums when she doesn't get her way.

So we got some of her walking and playing on video tonight, and here it is. The video camera is finally being used for its true purpose! Stay tuned, there will be more walking videos to come, I'm sure.

I Miss That Baby!

You know, the one who used to sleep all the time, stayed in 1 spot for what seemed like hours on end, and was content to just lay in my arms. This "new" baby is the busiest thing I've ever seen! If I could bottle her energy, I'd be a billionaire!

Alyssa is now a crawling machine and is starting to walk. Sometimes she gets crawling so fast her arms and legs can't keep up and she nose-dives into the floor. It's pretty hilarious. She can walk around as long as she's holding on to something, and has started to stand on her own for brief periods (as long as she doesn't realize she isn't holding on).

She's learned how cabinets and drawers work, so we've finally finished baby-proofing the cabinets in the kitchen.

In other news, I've started my second year of teaching high school science. I've been able to work full-time this year, which is great for the extra pay, but bad for my quickly diminishing amount of leisure time. I'm still working on getting organized and my classroom is a mess, but I'm pretty happy with how my classes are going so far.

Mike has transferred sites to be a roving behavior support assistant, going to various schools around the district to work with the students with the most severe behavior problems. He's also working part-time as a real estate agent. He got a lead today to list a 5 million dollar house and has a meeting with the owner next week. Woo hoo!

Busy with a Capital "B"

For me life of me, I couldn't figure out why I've been so busy this summer. Sure, I have a double load for summer school (teaching chemistry and physics at the same time - ha!), but I'm still working fewer hours than the normal year. I haven't gotten much done from my lengthy summer to-do list either. So what the heck have I been doing?! Oh, that's right, chasing a crawler around the house. I never realized how much more time Alyssa takes up now. And I have a feeling it'll only get worse as she gets even more mobile.

Not only have I been busy, but Alyssa's been busy too. She got quite chunky over the first 5 or so months of her life. But since she's crawling around like crazy and starting to pull herself up to stand, she's been working hard and burning off her baby fat like mad. A couple of months ago, she couldn't get her toes in her mouth because her tummy was too big, but she doesn't have a problem with that now.

The Military Crawl

Alyssa is now crawling. Man, I'm not ready for this. She's 7 1/2 months old already. Time flies when you're insanely busy and having fun.

Alyssa started pushing herself around with her right foot and left shoulder a couple of weeks ago. I called this her military crawl: tummy on the ground, low and slow. But in the last week, she's become proficient at crawling on her knees, which has greatly increased her speed and maneuverability. So in response, I've been madly baby-proofing the house for the last week, because if she wants something then she just goes and gets it. I'm about halfway done and so happy to be decluttering my life. It's amazing how much crap you acquire when you live in one place for several years. I've been meaning to make a huge give-away pile for at least two years, and now I'm finally getting it done. Check out the Salvation Army store in PB for some cool stuff.

One of Alyssa's new favorite activities is trying to follow mommy or daddy around the house. She isn't that fast yet, but she loves when we stop so she can catch up. She also loves tootling around the kitchen while we're cooking dinner trying to catch us. She also, also loves going for walks in her stroller. We went to the county fair a few times last month and she refused to take naps because there was too much to look at while we were walking around.

Other amazing (at least to me) developmental feats she's recently mastered include pushing herself to sit up from laying down on the floor and pulling herself into the standing position. We predict that she'll be walking in no time, which we're REALLY not ready for. But, then again, I thought she would be crawling at least a month ago, so don't bet on my predictions.

One thing we need to get better at is getting her to sleep through the night. She started sleeping through the night a couple of months ago, but then she started teething and it was all over. I'm thinking it's time to start letting her cry it out so she learns to put herself back to sleep at night. She's been getting up every couple of hours and needing to be held and given a bottle before she'll go back to sleep. We're exhausted and need a good night's sleep. Bad. Any suggestions from experienced mommies and daddies???

Busy, Busy, Busy

The last few weeks have flown by without much free time. Highlights include:

• Alyssa turned 6 months old
• Mike turned 30 (wow, he's old!!!)
• We had 2 different sets of family in town back-to-back
• Our first mother's and father's days
• I finished my first year of teaching

This is what the summer has in store for us:

• I will be teaching summer school
• I will spend a couple of weeks working to develop curriculum for my school
• Mike will be developing his real estate business
• Mike and I will take turns babysitting (no more daycare for Alyssa until the fall)
• Alyssa will learn to crawl (she'll be doing this any day now)
• We'll be going to Utah to visit family and friends (and hopefully leaving Alyssa with Mike's parents so we can spend a few days in Jackson for our anniversary)
• Mike and I will celebrate our 5th anniversary

We're excited, but we're already tired thinking of everything we have to get done in the next few weeks.

Baby's First Ponytail and Other Tales

Alyssa finally has enough hair for a ponytail. Well, sort of. If you can even see it, it's only about 5 hairs. Her Aunty Pam fixed up her hair the other day and sent me this picture while I was at work. I showed it to a bunch of my fellow teachers and they loved it.

Alyssa now has FOUR teeth coming in at the same time - three in the front on the bottom and a molar on the bottom. No wonder she's always cranky and drooling like a waterfall. We go through multiple outfits every day because each one gets soaked in no time flat, even when she's wearing a bib. We're careful to keep our fingers out of her mouth because she sometimes draws blood with her super-sharp teeth.

She's also talking up a storm. She's got a ton of syllables down, but the funniest ones are that she says "da da da da" when she's happy and "ma ma ma ma" when she's mad. I don't know if I like that, but I have a feeling that I'll be the one doing the discipline, so maybe it's appropriate.

We think she's going to be crawling any day now. She can sit up on her own, and when she sits on my lap, she climbs all over me. She can roll all over the floor and scoot herself around on her bum when she's sitting. We've also considered the fact that she may just skip crawling all together and go straight to walking. She's starting to pull herself up on furniture, but her legs aren't stable enough to hold her without help.

We only have two more weeks of school left!!!!!!! Yep, I survived my first year in the classroom (well, 3/4 of a year). I'm happy with what I've been able to accomplish, but I know I have a lot more work to do. I'm still getting really good feedback from my principal and department chair, and I've been told I'll be full-time next year, so I'm happy with that. I love what I do, but I'm definitely ready for summer break. I will be teaching summer school, but it's only four hours, so it will be like a vacation. I'll have two weeks off in August, and that will be more than enough time for me. I'm the kind of person who has to be stressed and have a long to-do list to be happy, so teaching is perfect for me.

Moving On Up...

I packed up all the size 6-9 month clothes tonight and brought out all the size 9-12 month clothes - our baby girl is growing like a weed! I saved a few size 6-9 month outfits that still fit, but their days are numbered. We'll need to go shopping to fill in the holes in the size 9-12 month wardrobe, so that will be fun. Because of the awesome generosity of family and friends, we haven't had to buy much, and that has been a huge blessing - diapers and formula are expensive!

We started soft foods this week. Alyssa loves her fruit and sweet potatoes, but she's not such a fan of green vegetables like peas. I have to admit the peas smell weird, so I can't blame her for not liking them. The flavor or texture actually prompted her gag reflex at one point and it made me laugh so hard that I couldn't force one more bite of them down her throat. Alyssa is sleeping much better since she's been eating foods at dinnertime. Most nights, she'll sleep until 5:00 without wanting to eat - a good 7-8 hours! It's heaven!

I got the adoption papers filed with the court this week. Now we're working with LDS Family Services to get the home study done. As soon as that's done, we can get a court date and get everything finalized. We still have at least several months more to wait, but it's worth it. Alyssa makes our lives so much better. Her smile and laugh melt our hearts and make the world a better place.