On the move!

Hello friends! At long last, sweet Stella is crawling. I may try to put a video of her second crawl on YouTube, but I need to figure out how to truncate it before I do it. We missed the first crawl on video, but did get to share it in person with Nate's aunt and uncle at their house in Houston. She had a captive audience!

She crawled for the first time on Saturday, and by Monday morning she was basically proficient. She is on the go, people! It seems like she waited to crawl until she knew she could master it. This is definitely Nate's child...if you are going to do something, might as well be awesome at it. ;)

I am just loving this new phase! It captivates me to get to know her in this new way. I finally get to see what really interests her (colors, textures, objects) instead of what interests her among the limited options I lay out in front of her. Plus, is there anything sweeter in this world than a baby crawling over of their own will and reaching out to you? Talk about melting my heart!

She likes to follow the dogs, and I think she's pretty proud of herself when she catches them. One of the first crawling shenanigans was yesterday when she followed Saul into the laundry room and then dumped out his bucket of water.

Here she is with her partner in crime.





Let the crawling games begin!

8 Glorious Months

Stella is 8 months old today, and I just really feel like celebrating!  I realize how fortunate I am that I have so very much enjoyed every day and every phase of her life, but the last few weeks have just been so very fun.  I love it.  I love being with her and being her mom so much.  I am so thankful that I get to spend my days with her, and that my sweet Nate is so amazingly supportive of me being here.

Here is our sweet princess.  She was 22 pounds last week at Nate's office!  She loves to eat, and gets excited about nursing or when she sees me preparing her food.  I make most of what she eats at home, and she has liked everything I have ever made.  I would say her favorite is blueberry applesauce.  Great taste, no?  We split a banana most mornings, and she loves bananas too.  She has only ever distinctly not liked and not wanted to eat one thing - yellow squash with potatoes (store bought).  I couldn't blame her. 

We took a few pictures outside today.  My spring fever is kickin' in big time y'all!  My girl loves to be outside, and we had a great time together sitting out in the yard today.  She also enjoys all sorts of toys, and just started yesterday actually tipping the toy basket in the living room on end and taking them all out to survey.  It was just way too cute to watch her do that.  She looked like such a big girl!  She loves the dogs too, and that just makes my heart so happy.  She watches them as they come and go, and laughs and laughs when they lick her hands.  She is not afraid of them at all, and I can see how she is beginning to mimic the way I pet them.  The dogs are sweet to her and observe her need for space and gentleness.  We are a happy pack. 

We have also been in a great routine over the last few weeks, about since we got back home after the first of the year.  We thrive on routine.  She has been having more regular bedtime (between 7-8 PM)  and naps, and typically sleeps about 10-11 hours at night.  Such a blessing!  It gives Nate and I a little time to ourselves in the evening after she goes to sleep.  She takes usually 2, but sometimes 3 short naps during the day.  She has a very distinct  naptime "tell."  When she starts rubbing those eyes, she needs to go lie down. 

We still haven't seen any crawling motions yet, but she is starting to be willing to flop on her tummy to reach out for something she wants.  She does a good job pushing up (upward dog) when she is on her tummy, and sometimes she will wiggle backward a little bit.  She is in no big rush to to anywhere though.  That's okay by me.  She's got the rest of her life to go-go-go.  It is an act of personal discipline for me to not rush her, and this is one area in which I am practicing enjoying and observing and not hurrying. 

I love seeing her sense of humor, and how she loves to laugh.  One of the best things is the expression on her face when she knows that she is being funny.  I laugh at her a lot, so I get to see that face a lot.  Winner, winner!  She also has a great nose crinkling grin.  It is just so precious.  Keeps me busy trying to think of things to do to make her smile and laugh. 

We'll close with this one for now.  We love you so much sweet girl.  You are a treasure to us, and I thank the Lord every single day for trusting us with special you. 

We ran away!

Hello from San Antonio! We spontaneously ran away on Friday, and have had a lovely little get away. Here's Stella excited about the trip in our hotel room. She did have to point out that she was dubious about the authenticity of this chair, as she is unaware of such a thing as a red zebra. I mean, she is Nate's daughter afterall.




It is misting this morning, but we had to get a couple Riverwalk shots with Missy Stella, as my mom calls her.







The Hotel Contessa was really nice! Last night was perfect on the river too.

This morning we went to Lulu's to check out the Man vs Food-worthy cinnamon rolls. They really were as ginormous as Adam Richman promised, and good, but not as good as my dad's. Stella didn't finish hers. :)




Here's a little Becca lore from the archives....

We drove by the house my parents built when we lived down here. Below is a picture. I lived here when I was in 6th and 7th grades. It was fun to see how much things have changed in the area, and I realized that because of the way I grew up military that I have very few places that I ever go back to and can see the passage of time like that. It was sweet to walk down memory lane and share some of those fun memories with Nate.




I love Brenham for Brenham, but I also love how you can sneak off to the big city so easily.

Adios from San Antonio!

Belly flops!

Miss Stella has finally decided that maybe a little tummy time here and there isn't so bad. This week, she is belly flopping in the direction of things she wants. This is basically our first sign of any locomotion, and a definite change from her staunch avoid the tummy at all times stance!

She's spotted her keys...here we go!



Reaching. Are you sure you don't want to just hand me those keys, mom?




Mid-set break.




I've got 'em! Yes!




And into the mouth they go...

Valen-teeny

I am having so much fun with Valentine's Day this year. Making cards, decorating, baking, dressing Stella in the most precious heart outfits every day. I am just loving it...and what's not to love? A holiday celebrating the wonderful gift of love that we get to experience.

I was thinking about our first married Valentine's Day yesterday. I was in my 4th year of pharmacy school and Nate was in his second year of residency. We were both on the same adult medicine service that month, except that I rounded with the day crew and he was on nights. So, we didn't see each other much that month. On Valentine's morning, I walked into the report room and there was a bouquet of flowers waiting for me that he had left in there before he went home to sleep. So sweet, and such a funny surprise. I was in a really good mood pre-rounding that morning! I knew he would be coming home to go to sleep, so when I left that morning, I had left him a Reese's heart (his favorite candy) on his pillow with a card. Later that day when I talked to him, I thanked him for the flowers and he thanked me for the card. I said something along the lines of, "Did you eat the chocolate before or after you went to sleep?" He said he never saw any chocolate. I told him that there had been chocolate at one point. After a little looking around he ended up finding the remnants of the package hidden in one of Farai's lurking spots. Happy Valentine's Day to her!

Hopefully, we will try to keep the canine-kind's chocolate consumption to a low level this year. Although, I have found Saul quite useful in cleaning up spilled candy pearls! Wishing you all a very happy day!

Happy 2011!

It's been a while friends, but I would like to say Happy 2011 to you all!




Believe it or not one of the few things that guarantee a fuss-fest from this sweet thing is seeing me in front of the computer. Screen radar I guess. Therefore my computer time has dwindled down dramatically. Whatcha gonna do? I'm hoping to work in some more blogging into our lives this year...we'll see how it goes!

Off to See the Wizard!

Near the end of September Nate, Stella, and I ventured north...to the Emerald City (and beyond!). Nate's extended family is mostly in Washington, and we had been planning on making a fall trip to show her off when Nate's maternal grandmother passed away. It was decided to have her memorial service and celebrate her life up in the mountains she loved near where she grew up. And so the trip was booked and off we went on our northwestern adventure!

The trip began with Stella's first airplane trip. My dad, the pilot, would have been so proud of her if he could have seen her just relax and enjoy the flight. She's a natural traveler, just like me. Why is this the caption under a naked baby picture? Well, it has to do with the shock to the system I received on the flight from the disposable diapers! We use cloth diapers at home, and I was just mentally unprepared for the switch while traveling. I have never had poo leak from a cloth diaper much less be expelled from one with great force! Needless to say, I was glad to be able to give her her very first sink bath in Great Aunt Sabra's kitchen when we arrived.

Here Stella is with her namesake, Great Grandma Pearl!

Stella enjoys her Uncle Jack tremendously. He is gonna be a great dad in a few months!

Dad was so excited to introduce the baby to one of his favorite places ever!  

Stella wrapped 3 generations of Simons men around her finger simultaneously!  Great grandpa was smitten with her, "she's a born winner!" and "that's one cute baby!" he exclaimed.  They cooed at each other for a little while...what a treasure to witness! 

I loved watching all the wonderful people in her life getting to love on her, including Great Aunt Lucy and Cousin Paloma!

Baby's first mountains!  Here we are near Snoqualmie Pass.  My outdoor-lovin' baby was in heaven.

 

This was at a cabin in the Cascades where Great Grandma Reynolds' memorial service was held.  It was a beautiful place to spend time together remembering how blessed we all are to have had such a wonderful woman in our lives.  Stella is enjoying getting to know Great Aunt Teresa in this picture.

Here are a couple of sweet baby and daddy moments I snuck up on while they were out on the deck enjoying the view.  Priceless.

Stella with two of her very favorite people - Mimi and Grandpa!  She is such a lucky girl to have such awesome grandparents.

Aunt Lael and Uncle Jack (and baby Nora - yay!!!) traveled back to Seattle with us via Chinook Pass.  I love that drive, and I loooove these two crazy kids.

Here we are...gorillas in the mist.

Lael finds a tree that's just her size! Then later, so does Stella!

We always like to prowl around the market when we are in town.   We enjoyed some delicious gelato which Lael is nicely modeling.  I have no recollection of what was actually being said...but I love this picture because it features a classic Jack-in-response-to-Lael face, equal parts surprise/delight/intrigue/confusion.  Hilarious. 

Here Stella sleeps through a street concert, vendors yelling, cars honking, gulls gulling (or whatever those terrifying birds do), a Breast Cancer 5K, and mommy laughing and moving around.  She is at one with the universe.

One last family dinner before heading back to Texas.  Stella enjoys some more bonding with Great Aunts Sabra, Tory (below...the infamous stink-eye!) and Leslie!  She has no shortage of awesome aunts, that is for sure. 

And I will close this post with a slightly blurry parting shot of the Oklahoma branch of the Simons clan (minus sleeping Stella) with Great Grandpa.