Friday - Our Week In Fabulous Photos

A few photos of our week...

We sat outside

had naked naps

Went for lots of walks with Leaf

had some more naps, pantless

more walks...

ate some yummy food

smiled

took far too many pictures with Mommy

Visited my little buddy Kinsley

got so grown up that I can hold my own bottle

Hung out with cousin Colton

played outside some more

gave Leaf a bath with the hose

watched Leaf play fetch

watched Leaf have a "swim" after playing fetch

Played with Leaf in the grass

played in the grass, sitting up like a big girl

more pictures with Mommy

ate my toys

What We Did Wednesday

First thing this morning, we tried out oatmeal baby cereal…

Palmer patiently waiting for breakfast

And this is how well it went over…

"Mommy, I don't like this"

Then we mixed in some bananas, and Palmer liked that much better. I guess the key is to not eat it plain! Maybe tomorrow we can try some pears or apples with it, see how that goes.

Earlier today, I saw a posting on Facebook about a lady who was collecting donations for flood victims; a trailer company in Lethbridge is lending her a trailer to collect donations in and take up to the High River/Calgary areas to help out those who lost everything in the floods that devastated much of Southern Alberta last week.

http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4d7a63784d544d304d54593d0d0a&blogview=true&campaign=blog_playback_link&partner=smilebox

The trailer that will be used for donations

We had a bag full of clothes and such in the garage that I had planned on taking to donate somewhere in town (I had been too lazy to load it up in the escape and take it anywhere…but now I had the perfect reason).  A couple weeks ago I had also gone through some of the clothes people had so kindly given to us for Palmer (they were all still sitting in a pile on the floor in her room), so we packed those up too, along with some non-perishable food items, various toiletries that we had collected (stole?) from hotel rooms in the past, like shampoos, soaps, etc, a fleece blanket, face cloths and a couple towels (these were not stolen from the hotels, don’t worry).  When Palmer and I went to the house to drop it all off, it looked like there was already a good amount of donated items. I saw everything from clothes, to children’s toys, to a bassinet, food, winter jackets, books. The lady just posted the information this morning, and already today had all this stuff sitting in front of her house.  I meant to take a picture, but forgot.

Our donated items

I saw businesses advertising on Facebook to help Alberta flood victims; everything from a local yoga studio having free classes all day and accepting donations instead to give to Red Cross, Photographers offering those individuals who had pictures done with them free copies of their pictures and free sessions to make new memories, grocery stores shipping up truck loads of bottled water to High River and other affected areas, along with dozens of individuals donating what they could to help!

 It’s really great to see how much people are willing to help when people are in need, because once these people are allowed back to what is left of their homes, a lot of them are going to need everything.

A Letter to Palmer I

My Dear Baby Palmer,

You surprised us all when you decided to show up a month early! I was a little worried at first; just hoping you’d be healthy. You showed us all how strong you were right from the beginning. I know you will carry this strength with you as you grow into a young woman, just as I’m sure you will continue to surprise us just as you did the day you were born. And, like the day you were born, you will likely do things on your own timeline. 

I am not here to dictate your life. I will be at your side to help you through whatever life may bring you.  I will be a shoulder to cry on during the sad and difficult times. I will laugh with you during the happy times. I promise I will support you in whatever decisions you make in life, because it is your journey to be had. Whatever you choose to do and wherever you may choose to go, I will hold your hand and I will walk with you. I want so many things for you. I know you will have those and so much more.

I will love you unconditionally.

 

Right now you are 5 months old and the happiest little girl I have ever met. I hope you always stay this happy. Don’t settle for anything less than extraordinary because you are extraordinary. No matter how old you are, or how grown up you get; you will always be my little girl.

I love you, Palmer.

Love Mommy

Palmer, The Food-Eating Machine!

So far, food has been a hit with Palmer! Bananas? Awesome! Sweet Potatoes? Give me some more!  Watermelon! Delicious! Avocado? I make a funny face, but I still wanna put it in my mouth!

This is my avocado face



oh, so yummy mommy....

We have been lucky with Palmer so far in introducing solids! Hopefully she will take after mommy and enjoys most foods and not like picky Daddy! ;)  She only get a very small amount of “real” food each day, maybe about a table spoon worth twice a day, but from what I can tell, she loves it! And making baby food couldn’t be easier! We use the Baby Bullet and poof – baby food!

Before sweet potatoes



After sweet potatoes

Goofing around

 





The "I'm still not sure about avocado's" picture



The watermelon, she loved. We let her hold the rind with a little bit of the melon left and she was sucking away at it, giggling and drooling all over! Too cute! I'm glad we decided to introduce solids when we did! This little munchkin is enjoying it too much to have waited another month :)  I think on Tuesday, we will introduce the baby cereal, see how she does with that. I'm sure she'll be a little superstar!

Swimming, Swimming, In My Swimming Pool...

Finally, we had some nice, non-rainy weather and Palmer got to enjoy her new pool from Gram and Gramp Lowe. We had been using it the past couple days as just a sun-blocker but today it was finally warm enough to fill it up with some water and wade in it! Of course, Leaf thought it was for him and wanted to drink all the water!

It actually has a little spray part so you can hook the hose up into it, but I think we will wait until Palmer is sitting up better in it before we start to use that! Now we just need some more sunny days and Palmer can have a pool party with her little baby friends! 

5 Months: Palmer's life

Today marks Palmer’s 5 month “birthday.” I honestly cannot believe how fast the time has gone! I didn’t believe people when they said their babies grew up way too fast until Palmer came along!Its like a blink of an eye, and there goes a whole day! 

5 months old!

Sleep:

Palmer continues to be a great sleeper! We still have our bedtime routine that we try to do every night. Palmer is usually sleeping by 8 or 8:30pm and stays sleeping until 7am, sometimes 9:00am if we are lucky, although I really can’t complain about a 10-13 hour sleep! (Although I say that for every other night - last night she was up at 4am wanting to play). We are getting better at getting a good solid nap twice a day, usually one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Some days are better than others, but when she sleeps so long at night, I’m ok with no naps once in awhile!

New Skills and Developments:

1.     Palmer is still grabbing her toes and now she likes to suck on them!! I’ll go in her room in the morning and her sleeper foot is soaking wet because she has been sucking away at her feet!

2.     Rolling over back to front! She is getting so good at it! Her only problem now is that she rolls onto her tummy and gets frustrated that she can’t get back (except, she really does know how!)

3.     As of yesterday, Palmer can sit up by herself! I think it had a little bit to do with the CST! The therapist told us not to be surprised if she starts to sit up in a couple days and look stronger. Her whole 30 minutes of therapy on Monday was “untwisting” the cerebrospinal fluid and loosening all the tight spots in her neck and back! I didn’t think it would help a much as it did! I didn’t expect her to be sitting up for another month or so!

Watching "Intervention" haha 

4.     GIGGLES! We got our first real giggles this month too! Not yet a full out belly laugh, but it still an amazing sound to hear!

5.     Even just in the past week, I have noticed she has become so much more vocal. She makes these cute little squeals when she’s happy and is blabbering away more often now! Too cute!

6.  I have noticed her hand-eye coordination improving a lot over this past week too! She is now reaching for things a lot more and actually getting a hold of them!

Palmer’s Favorites:

1.     Palmer loves listening to music and when we sing! She has always settled when we turn music on, but now when I sing, she always gets big smiles! Good thing she doesn’t realize how bad my singing voice is yet!

2.     Her favorite toys are still ones that she can put in her mouth or ones that light up and play music, but at the same time, she is so content just lying on the floor playing with her feet!

3.     Bath time! Palmer LOVES LOVES having a bath. She kicks and splashes the entire time!  We get lots of high-pitched squeals and laugh in the tub too!

Our thoughts:

Rewards: Obviously a big one is seeing how much she is developing! I can’t believe she is eating bananas and sitting up already! I don’t know where all the time has gone! In one way, it’s so great to see her changing so much, but on the other hand, I want time to slow down just a little bit so we can have a little more time with our baby before she’s not a baby anymore!

Struggles: One that I am struggling with is if she can’t see you, she lets you know she’s not happy. As soon as you come in the room again, she’s completely fine! Some days I can’t even put her down to brush my teeth – hence, the baby in the laundry basket!