Happy 4th of July!

We had a fabulous 4th!  Our I ♥ America celebration kicked off a little early with the Rockies game on Saturday that was followed by an amazing fireworks display.  With the scary dry conditions here, most of the fireworks shows around the city were cancelled but we were lucky that we had planned for this one.  Fireworks still get a mixed reaction of both terror and excitement for Roo, she loves the amazing bursts of color but absolutely hates the boom that accompanies them so she watched the show from Bunky Ryan's lap with her ears plugged.  I was pretty sure that for her first fireworks experience, Piper might be a little freaked out too, but to my surprise she seemed to just be in awe of all the bright bursts.

We spent the first part of our 4th with friends and neighbors at the 1st Annual Pond 4th of July Celebration.  The festivities included a firetruck led bike parade, firetruck tours, a potato cannon and swimming.  Riley added lots of 4th of July flare to her bike and we red, white and blued up Piper's ride too, then paraded with our friends through the neighborhood, down the bike path and ended up at the playground and pool.  We love this neighborhood and the close community of people that live here, this was such a fun celebration!

Piper slept through most of the ride, but I promise that she was not as uncomfortable as she looks.

Piper decided that frozen Otterpops make great teethers and was blissfully unaware of the sugary concoction she was missing out on beneath the plastic.

Riley and Morgan watched the potato cannon from a safe distance...with ears plugged.

After our fun morning with friends, we spent the rest of the day playing in the pool at Gigi and Pop's.

Piper has a new facial expression that we have nicknamed her "cheese face".  She has caught on to the fact that we all find this cheesyness pretty hilarious and she is more than willing to show it off.

There was also plenty of bbq, homemade ice cream and my patriotic cherry pies...a perfect holiday!

7 Months!

Happy 7 Months to Piper today!

Our little miss is seeing the world in a whole new way this month...right side up!  She has totally mastered the art of balancing on her bum and will not accept laying down for any reason other than to nurse or sleep. 

When she does lay down to rest, she has made some amazing improvements in her nighttime sleep.  Piper has always been a pretty good napper and has had pretty predictable sleepy times, but her short stretches at night were leaving us both a little tired in the morning.  This past month, she has been spending most of the night in her crib and for the first time...she slept through the night!!!! Hooray!  She will usually go about 6 hours straight which is perfect as far as I'm concerned and she even slept a full 10.5 hours one night.  It was like a dream come true! 

We've had our first run at solids this month and she has been gobbling up new things with gusto! I got a new Beaba babycook for Christmas and I have been putting to use making some yummy purees for my budding little foodie to try.  Sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, bananas, apricots and mango have all been big hits and she has also warming up to apples, peas and avocados..judging by the faces she makes, she is probably not going to be the guac fan that Riley was but we'll keep trying.  We had high hopes that the adding solids might be the springboard that Pipey needed to help her pack on a few extra ounces and I am even adding olive oil or heavy cream to nearly every fruit and veggie that passes her lips just to give her food a little extra calorie oomph.  At her weight check this week, our little peanut weighed in at 10lbs 11oz, which is up only 3 ounces from her 6 month check-up.  This is by far her smallest monthly gain and it's leaving us a little bit concerned that might be something more to her petiteness.  For now we are trying some supplementation and will go back for another weight check next week. 

Every month we get to see a little bit more of our little girl's personality. At 7 months, Piper is a happy and smiley little mama's girl.  She has two very prominent bottom teeth now that she loves to show off and just to make sure that I know that they are there, she likes to teethe on my shoulders.  I'm hoping that biting isn't her thing for too much longer.  We hear a lot more of what she has to say this month as she has found her voice and she uses is to scream!  Not usually an unhappy kind, just a very high pitched and enthusiastic, "are you paying attention to me!!!!" kind of screaming.  It may be the start of some competition between siblings as she attempts to out loud her big sis, not always an easy thing to do.

In continuing with the loud theme...her favorite toys are now the ones that make noise.  She loves to bang on  her piano, shake rattles and has discovered that she can make a cool sound by slapping her hand against the glass bathroom sink while mommy does her make-up.  Piper loves to play peek-a-boo and is great listener when we read stories with Riley.  She has also started liking to look at board books and particularly loves looking at and giving kisses to pictures of other babies. Singing is always a big hit and she loves any song that involves animation and gestures.  Our water baby and is so happy to play in the water this summer and is getting plenty of time slashing in the pool.

We can't believe how much our baby is growing and I am excited for the changes that each month brings.  For now I am savoring this time where she is pretty stationary,  it won't be too much longer before she ditches the rolling and scooting on her bum in exchange for actual crawling to get where she wants to go and when Roo was starting to move our house wasn't full of tiny princess tiaras and barbie shoes.  Babyproofing here we come again!