Just Write

Fiona wanted to help fold laundry last night. Instead, we used the clothes basket as a race car. It’s the closest thing to Nascar you will ever find in our household.

Prior to our vacation, we made a visit to Springfield, IL to see my parents and spend some time with my grandparents, as well as make an appearance at the Stapleton 2010 Family Reunion. It was only an appearance because of the heat, and the fact that Fiona (nor I) do well in the heat.

While there, I took an opportunity to get a few videos of Fiona, who’s nearing 11 months old, and closing in on her first birthday. As usual, plenty of pictures are included as well. Enjoy.

Fiona is So Big

Brushing Her Teeth, and Hanging with Grandpa

Time Well Spent

2010 Stapleton Family Reunion

A few weeks ago, we purchased a little blue blowup pool for Fiona.  This past weekend, it was put into service for the first time.  While the water was a little cold for Fiona’s taste at first, she eventually became use to the temp and turned out to love the water.  I can’t say that we were shocked because she absolutely loves bath time, but she really loves her first pool, especially when sharing it with one of her favorite toys, a Kai-Lan bath toy.

We’ll have a video of the event on YouTube soon, and you can now check out our Fiona’s First Pool Flickr set:

With Fiona sitting on the counter in front of him, Grandpa G touched Fi’s nose, made the beep sound, and repeated the process a few times.  After a few beeps, he held his finger a few inches away from Fi’s nose, and then she did the unexpected.  She leaned her nose into his finger so he would beep again.  Much to Fi’s satisfaction, Grandpa G beeped and Fi’s smile was a mile wide.

For my first blog post from the Wordpress iPad app, I feel the need to mention that we noticed tooth number four poking through today. It’s just barely sticking out of the gum, but is definitely visible. The little one is growing so fast, and we love her oh so much. Now it’s time to get back to work.

As of the 10th of April, Fiona is 7 months old. Just today, we noticed her third tooth popping through her top gum. She’s sitting up for long periods at a time and reaches for and grabs pretty much anything and everything. I almost forgot about the talking/growling. It’s quite possibly the cutesy thing ever.

These first 7 months have gone so fast. We’re just doing our best to enjoy every minute.

Lately we’ve been working on improving our bedtime routine for Fiona in an attempt to get her to consistently put herself to sleep, as opposed to her falling asleep on Amy’s lap and then us laying her down in her crib.  Tonight was very much like every other night we’ve tried this routine, with Fi fussing when we lay her down as though we were leaving her, never to return.  After a few minutes of fussing, there was complete silence.  Like I typically do, I went in to check on her, only to find that she was so upset this time, she had flipped herself onto her stomach, still sound asleep.  She’s never done that in bed before, or at the very least, she’s never done so without flipping back over before we could find her on her stomach.

Side note -she’s not quite sitting up on her own yet, but when helped up into a sitting position, she can for minutes at a time without assistance.  Every day is something new.  Even the smallest things are special.

Yesterday, when dropping Fiona off at my in-laws before work, I had a first with Fiona that will be hard to top.  Our little girl has been reaching and grabbing for people and objects for some time now.  She’s reached out a hand to grab my nose on multiple occasions, but never before had she done what she did yesterday.  

I handed Fiona to her grandma and she turned her head back to look at me like she always does.  But this time, it was a little different.  She looked at me for a few moments, and then reached both hands out to me as if asking me to hold her.   If you think that didn’t make going to work difficult, you’ve got another thing coming.

What does today have in store for us?

The picture above was taken this past weekend, while Fiona was still a 5-month old.  Today marks 6 months since our little Fiona was born.  I can’t believe it’s been 6 months already.  It’s pretty common to hear that time flies when you have children, but for me, this cements that concept.  The time really has flown.

It seems like only yesterday, we arrived home from the hospital, unsure of how to care for an infant.  Now we confidently identify the reason for Fiona’s cries and relish every single smile and laugh.  Every day seems to bring something new, another first to add to the list.

What do the next 6 months have in store for us?  Will she sit up completely on her own?  Will she start crawling or possibly even walking?  Will she utter her first words?  What will those first words be?  How many more teeth will come in?  Will she start feeding herself?  I can’t wait to find out, but would love it to seem like 6 months, and not merely weeks.  I want to enjoy every second of it.

Fiona is a teething machine.  It was only last Wednesday that we noticed the first tooth peeking through her bottom gum. This morning we received a call from Fi’s grandma informing us that my suspicions about a second tooth were correct. The second tooth broke through the gumline and is showing to the world whenever Fi flashes her beautiful smile.  Being a dad gets better every day.