life according to the diaz's: Back to reality!

School is officially in session and things are getting back to a regular routine around the Diaz home. Elena has been doing great at the babysitter's this week and we are excited that grandma is coming tomorrow to give mom and dad a morning off from getting baby girl ready to go...we just leave that for grandma! Ahhh, a few extra minutes of sleep in the morning...at least we hope! Elena will be 9 months old next week and we just cannot believe it. Before we know it we will be thinking about a first Halloween costume and first birthday...so many exciting memories awaiting us in the months to come. Elena is eating textured foods that abuela has made (pureed chicken soup, beef and noodles, and stews to name a few), and drinking bottles with no trouble at all and appears to be gaining some good weight. Her belly is getting plump and her little legs are starting to get some serious rolls :) Elena is just the cutest thing in the world. She is now able to feed herself some Gerber puffs and it's just so hilarious to watch her pick one up and get it into her mouth. Sometimes I will hold a puff thinking she will just take it out of my hand to eat it, but she just grabs my hand and pulls it towards her mouth so I can just put it in for her. Smart girl. We love just watching her "gum" the puffs until it's gone. Again, cutest thing in the world.
Elena is always on the go from the time she gets up in the morning to the time she falls asleep. She is crawling everywhere and cruising with little trouble. She continues to get into the dog bowls when we aren't looking and she enjoys trying to pull open cabinets that she shouldn't be into in the first place. Elena continues to find a love of books and stories. We read a lot in the evenings after she eats dinner. It's such a precious time. I hate that our evenings go by so fast, but our girl is SO tired by the time 7pm rolls around...she is asleep by 7:30pm without missing a beat and sleeps all night...Juan and I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful sleeper that loves sleep as much as we do. She is our sunshine in the mornings when she wakes up with a huge smile on her face and squeals of happiness to start a new day.
Below are some pictures from the last few weeks...we just continue to enjoy the "everyday life"...the simplicity of just being a family is was makes us so happy!