It Won't Be Like This For Long...

So, I heard this song by Darius Rucker on the radio today right after I dropped Elena off at the babysitter's for the afternoon while I made my way to Jefferson City to tutor.  I must admit, I listened, sang, and hung onto EVERY word like I never have before...I have always thought this was a sweet song, but boy, when you have a baby girl of your own, it makes this song just that much more real.  I had to just post the video I found to remind all of us how quickly time passes and what a wonderful ride life truly is.  What a beautiful song...

Summer Days...

On this quiet Saturday morning, I sit here with the window open and warm breeze coming through.  Elena is asleep for her morning nap, which has been her routine now for a few weeks.  It is extremely comforting knowing that she has found a schedule that works for her little body.  Mom is happy too ;)  As Elena and I went out this morning for our usual mile walk around our neighborhood, I couldn't help but remind myself how bittersweet all of this is...the summer life...Being able to wake up everyday to Elena as my alarm clock...not a radio.  Being able to go out for a walk and talk with my girl has been one of the most wonderful parts of my day.  Being able to get her on a schedule that keeps her happy and healthy is a goal that has been met...for now ;)  All of the little things that happen during our day makes me realize how awesome it has been to stay home with Elena.  It does sadden me to know that this will only be able to happen for just about 7 more weeks, but I try not to dwell on that.  It just makes me realize how much I cherish the here and now.  I know when it comes time to head back to school, I will be VERY excited.  I love my job. I know Elena loves being out with the kids at the babysitter's too.  But, nothing is better than the bonding we have been able to do over this last month that I've been able to stay home with her.  For some reason I feel like she has officially become a real person now, not just a newborn that eats, sleeps, and poops her way through each day.  Sure she still does all of these things, but SO much more.  Maybe this is why I think it will be even tougher for me to get back into the routines of regular life once it's time for school again compared to when I went back after maternity leave.  Who knows.  When the time comes, I will suck it up and remember that Elena is growing and isn't stopping anytime soon.  This means I keep on going and growing as well as a parent. This journey as parents so far can't be summed up in a better word than this one: love.  It almost brings me to tears sometimes when I think about how much I love this girl.  Juan and I marvel at her everyday and just hope we are doing everything right...even though we know there is no way we can.  Elena, we love you to the moon and back.

Here are some pictures from the last week or so...and a new video of Elena trying peas for the first time...as you have been able to tell from the summer pics over the last few weeks, she likes to hang out in her diaper a lot. Shirt is optional for now. ;)  Enjoy!

 She is scooting everywhere!

 Homer is loving the air conditioning!!  LOVE HIM!!!

 Just walkin' around

 Enjoying the water bottle.

 Hmmm...how does this thing work? ;)

 And, I'll have a glass of mom's cheap wine, please.

Attempting to get on her knees...then she quickly fell to her belly...she's almost there!!

Happy Father's Day!!

Yesterday we celebrated Father's Day with our new little family we have this year.  What a great day it was.  Juan got some great food and was able to rest and relax most of the day before heading back for another week of summer school!  Juan's mom and dad came by to see us for awhile and give Juan a present he's been needing for a long time...new razor heads for his electric razor!!  They can be super expensive, so Juan just wanted something he will be able to use for months and months to come.  Elena and I gave him some of his favorite little things...Avengers poster, a framed picture that Elena made just for him, Uncrustables, and a few other little things to brighten daddy's day.  All in all, it's been an amazing month of celebrating mom and dad.  Just a few weeks left and the Diaz Family has a month at home all together.  Ahhh, the perks of being a teaching family.  We may not be the richest on earth, but we are definitely some of the happiest!! 
Elena and I have been staying busy while home this month.  I must admit, even though this month is half way over, it is still difficult to believe that I have been home during June.  Usually this is my busiest month of the year tutoring children almost everyday while teaching summer school as well.  My how things change!!  It has truly been the experience of a lifetime to be home with my little one.  She will never be this little ever again and being able to cherish each day with her is the greatest gift.  Juan and I talk all the time about how much we miss our little newborn.  We look back on those first few weeks/months and what a blur.  Looking at pictures/videos of Elena from the beginning just makes our hearts melt.  She is an unbelievable gift God has given us and each day we are thankful for her health and being able to provide for her. We are now moving into a VERY fun stage with Elena.  She will be 7 months old in a little over a week and we have a mover on our hands!  She scoots around everywhere and prefers to scoot right up to the area in front of our fireplace.  I will have to quickly teach her the word NO soon because she will hurt herself if she bumps her head on that stone!!  I know it will happen at some point or another, but for now, I'd like to keep her away from that area!! 
Elena is eating lots of baby food now too.  She has LOVED every fruit, vegetable, and chicken that we have given her. Sweet potatoes, carrots, sweet potato chicken, vegetable chicken, and applesauce have all been good foods to start with.  We will be starting some green vegetables in the days to come.  I have even mashed up bananas in her cereal in the mornings and she has liked that too.  Elena is still taking several bottles throughout the day, so hopefully she will start plumping up soon.  I know this girl likes to eat, now we just have to make sure she is getting enough!!  I have also given Elena a sippy cup to play around with.  I put just a little bit of water in it to see if she can learn how to use the cup.  It's taken several tries, but today she actually finished all of the water I put in it.  I fill it up 1/4 of the way and just let her go.  I know she prefers her bottle since that's what she knows, but we want the transition to real cups to be easier down the road.
Besides food, Elena has been busy just playing here at home with her toys, in the pool, and laughing at her pets, taking good naps, and sleeping through the night in her crib all by herself.  We even made it down to Jefferson City last week to spend a morning at the park with some friends...pictures below!  It's been a terrific June and I know the weeks are just going to get better and better!!

 Sweet Potatoes!!

 Elena with all her cousins!

 Grandpa and Elena

 Swings!

 Just scootin' around

 Wyatt was partied out..Elena and Porter going strong!

 Just waiting on mom to get in the pool!!

 I'll just read in the meantime.

 Hmmm...what could be behind this door?

 Happy Father's Day!!

 Love my daddy.

This is how our cat, Mittens spends his summer days.

We have a "scooter"!!

Elena has started to scoot.  She really wants to crawl, but hasn't quite got it figured out yet.  When there is a toy or a book out of reach that she wants, she has figured out how to scoot to get it.  I have a video of her this morning showing off her skills, but it won't upload for some reason...I will get it on here ASAP...maybe in another post.  Elena has been moving around in short scoot spurts for a few weeks, but it is becoming more and more evident with each passing day that her scoots are purposeful and longer.  Before I know it, she's going to be everywhere and we will have to keep an eye on her constantly.  Not that we don't already, but she will be getting into things that she shouldn't be very soon!
Elena also had a visit from our Parents As Teachers teacher this past week and she was evaluated for her 6 month assessment.  Elena is doing SO great. Her fine motor skills are above average...she is able to pick up a Cheerio or a Kix with her index finger and thumb.  I couldn't believe she could do it...that's another video I'll have to take soon.  She is so focused when trying to pick up those little pieces of cereal, but she can do it!  Her hearing and vision appears just fine and she reacts to sounds normally.  We need to keep talking to her constantly and get to to make more consonant sounds back to us.  We read lots of books everyday, but the more talking we do together, the better those sounds will get.
Elena is also falling into a schedule now.  It is really nice that she is falling into a routine already.  I hope it continues.  I wanted to put her schedule on here for my memory down the road...
7:00ish: wake up
7:30ish: bottle
7:45-9:30ish: exercise/play/read
9:30ish-11:30ish nap
11:30ish: wake up/nurse or bottle/cereal
12:00ish-2:30ish play/read/go outside/run errands with mom
2:30ish-4:30ish (not consistent at all): nap (sometimes 2 hours, sometimes 30 minutes)
4:30ish: play
5:00: Nurse/bottle
5:30ish-8:00ish: play/read/go outside/exercise
8:00ish: Cereal/bath/nurse/bed

 This is DEEE-licious!!

 Look...I can sit up in my little tub now!

 oops...lost my balance for a second!

 Out for a morning walk with mom...I'm still tired ;)

 mmmm...frozen hand tastes good on my gums!

 Homer enjoying our little pool tarp.

 This is where mom found me.

Here I go!

Well Baby Check Up!

Elena and I went to see Dr. Hagan this morning for her 6 month well baby check up.  Elena is doing great.  I was so pleased to hear that she is right on track for where she needs to be. She is weighing 15.4 lbs (45th percentile) these days and is 26.5 inches tall (75th percentile).  Dr. Hagan said she can be eating a little more everyday, which means we need to fit in one more extra bottle (6oz) each day to get her to about 30oz of formula/breastmilk. We will continue with iron supplement drops to keep her healthy too. She is getting a little bit of a belly, but Dr. Hagan said he'd like to see it fill out a little more :)  We also got the go ahead for any and all baby foods.  We are SO excited about this.  I am going to start out buying some at the store and maybe next week when I have a little more time I will study up on making some baby food here at home.  We cannot wait to see the awesome faces she will be making after introducing each food.  We were told to try one food for a few days to be sure it digests well in her body.  So far, this girl has had no trouble with any kind of food, so it will be very interesting to see which foods she ends up not liking.  What an adventure we have ahead of us now!!  Elena also got three shots today and she did cry this time right away when the nurse stuck her.  She got two shots in one thigh and one shot in the other.  The nurses at the office are so great, though, because they do the shots so fast and it's over...I'm so thankful for that.  Elena cried one of those cries where she didn't take a breath for a few seconds, but then she let out that big cry after that long breath and she was done.  No more crying since then.  I took the bandaids off when we got home and she went right to sleep in her crib for a nap.  I did have some shopping to do after the appointment, but baby nap and lunch comes first!!  Maybe we'll venture out this afternoon.  We do have a prescription to fill...
Elena has thrush.  I didn't even notice it, but when Dr. Hagan showed me in her mouth, it made total sense.  I guess I never thought much of it since it looks just like milk and after she eats is really the only time I study her mouth.  I feel around for teeth often and rub her gums to "brush" her mouth, but never noticed the thrush.  Elena also has had some diaper rash for awhile now and Dr. Hagan said that the rash and thrush can go hand in hand.  So, he gave us a prescription for meds in her mouth and diaper rash. Hopefully it will be gone in two weeks.  None of this has ever bothered Elena, so that's the great news.
All in all, Elena is growing to be a healthy, happy baby.  We go back to the doctor in 6 weeks to check Elena's weight and then we won't see Dr. Hagan until September for a 9 month check up.  I can't believe it!  What a great summer it's going to be full of happy changes for our baby girl!!

6 Months Old!

 Elena Elizabeth turned 6 months on May 30th!  I attempted to take some photos of her with her 6 month sticker on her onesie, but she was not a fan of having pictures taken the other day.  Now that she is aware of the things she wears and the sounds certain objects make, instead of just laying there with a scowl on her face before taking a picture, she had to make sure she played with the sticker on her onesie.  I admit, I was getting kind of annoyed that she wouldn't stop playing with it so I could get a good picture, but I suppose that is what 6 month olds do, right?  Geez, settle down mom...ha ha  I'm sure we'll have just as much fun at the end of June for the next round of monthly photos.  The hard part, honestly, is that these monthly pictures seem to come by too often.  Our little baby is growing...and too fast!!
Elena went to see the pediatric dermatologist this past week to check on her birthmark on her outer left thigh.  When she was born, it was just a red birthmark (I think it's called a hemangioma, but don't hold me to that), that was even with her skin.  Ever since birth, though, the mark has raised a little off of her skin.  So, to be sure nothing was wrong with it, our pediatrician wanted us to see the dermatologist just to make sure there were no other growths under the skin to worry about or the possibility of infection.  Everything turned out just fine and the dermatologist is not expecting to see us again anytime soon.  I was relieved to know Elena's mark is totally normal and may even go away after a year or two.  We go back to see our pediatrician this coming Wednesday for the 6 month well baby check up and more shots.  I'm hoping Elena does just as great with this round as she has done with all the others.  We've been SO fortunate to have such a healthy, happy baby so far.  We are truly blessed!
Last weekend was Elena's first Memorial Day weekend.  We were SO glad that it was hot out so we could go get our famous baby pool and fill it up for Elena's first swim.  I must admit, I got butterflies in my stomach when we were filling up the pool last week because I was just remembering how just one year ago we were doing the same thing and I was struggling to stay balanced on a raft in our little pool.  Now we have a baby girl to balance on her floaties.  It's amazing how much things can change in one short year...and make your life so much better. The water was SO cold getting in the pool the first time, but it felt great because it was so hot and sticky outside.  After getting Elena all dressed up for the pool, we got out there and took a dip.  At first, she really didn't know what to think.  She preferred to have me hold her while she held onto the sides of the pool and proceeded to "eat" the side of the pool.  At this point, everything new goes into her mouth, so why would the pool be any different, right?!  When I showed her how to splash a bit, that's when she got more comfortable in the water.  She even started splashing and giggling at herself.  It was so much fun.  Too bad it's just a little too chilly today for a dip in the pool.  I guess we've got all summer, though!!!  It still doesn't seem real to me that I don't have any school this summer. I get to stay home and be with this baby.  Wow.
Juan starts summer school on Monday and he is really excited about it.  It's going to be a fast month with lots of activities and we are looking forward to everything.  I'll post more later next week after Elena's six month appointment with how much she's grown and if we're ready to move onto REAL baby food!!  We are SO excited.  She continues to eat huge bowls of cereal now and taking 6 oz bottles with no problem.  We are ready for the good stuff.  I haven't decided yet if I'm going to make some home made baby food or buy some.  My gut tells me to do a little of both, especially since I'll be home more often now to do some of these "stay at home" mom activities.
Happy Summer Everyone!! 

Just watching a little Sesame Street.

 I'm busy, leave me alone. ;)

 Happy Memorial Day! This dress won't fit come July 4th!

 My new shades.

 It was a long day.

Ugh...pictures.  I'm SO done.