Bath time

Here we have two of Raelyn’s favorite things: bath time & reading.

At the end of this bath we thought we would capture some of her crazy splashing and instead she took us by surprise…

Crawler

8 Months

This monthly update is just a tad behind schedule. It’s more like an 8 1/2 month post.

(Raelyn, if you are reading this I certainly hope you have forgiven me by now for posting late. Sometimes life gets in the way and we can’t do the things we really want. Sometimes we’re just late.)

 

Isn’t she beautiful? I may be a tiny bit biased but I could stare into that face for hours and hours! Raelyn and I spend some quality moments together and her new “thing” is to grab my cheeks and give me “kisses”. She puts her slobbery open mouth onto my check and it’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever experienced. And then… she “kisses” my nose. It cracks me up every time! Well, maybe not the time she bit my nose. ;)

Raelyn is becoming curious and has started exploring. Now that she’s moving around she’s interested in knobs, handles, baskets, cords, and the list goes on and on.

She has a new laugh too. It’s more of a belly laugh than a baby giggle. She finds it completely hilarious when she’s on the changing dresser naked and tries flipping onto her belly. She also gives a hearty laugh when she sees Sheba.

Raelyn continues to try new foods and loves them all! She let’s me know if she’s not done yet and tonight she finished two whole jars of food (8 oz) in one sitting!

If we asked her, I think she would admit that she is in a holding stage right now. When I put her down to play she immediately gives me a loud cry and puts her arms up. Sometimes I pick her back up and other times I give her a few toys and tell her mommy will be right back.

I don’t think that Raelyn will ever have to wonder how much we love her. But just for good measure… Raelyn we love you soooo much!

One Year with Crohn’s

some foods he can't eat
he once loved and treasured sweets
anniversary

I’m not a poem writer, but I can do a cheesy 5, 7, 5. ;)

Feel free to submit your own haiku for laughs.

Where did Raelyn go?

As Raelyn is figuring out how to crawl about we’ve been finding her in the most peculiar situations. A few days ago, we went to her room to find her like this:

She must like it under her crib because we found her there again a few days later:

 

These are just a few places I found her just yesterday:

 

She hasn’t figured out how to crawl forward yet so she’s been backing herself into these spaces. So funny!

Spotted Baby

Our healthy streak has come to an end. And to think I had almost "knocked on wood". ;)  She's still a very happy baby regardless of the strep throat & rash diagnosis.

 Fuzzy pictures compliments of my iphone camera. 

We'll start over in 9 days and hopefully we'll have an even longer healthy streak next time.

7 Months

We won’t have another well-visit until 9 months, but a week or so before Raelyn turned 7 months she was 17lb 2oz.

At 7 months, Raelyn continues to be such a happy baby! During the past month she has taken an interest in learning to crawl. A few times she has done log rolls to move across the room. She’s also mastering the “worm crawl” and the “army crawl”. We know she’ll be mobile very soon. I guess it’s time to really baby-proof the house! ;)

Raelyn has also been practicing the art of drinking from a sippy cup. She was able to figure out the hold very quickly. She’ll take a few sips of water but mostly she likes to chew on the spout.

She continues to try new foods and enjoys most of them. This month we’ve added green beans & rice, oatmeal/peach/banana, winter squash, and whole milk yogurt with peaches to the rotation.

Raelyn is quite active. She loves to sit and play with all of her toys. She has started grabbing a toy with one hand and then passes it back and forth from hand to hand. It’s so cute as she watches the toy intently move from left to right, right to left.

She tried out sleeping on her tummy a few nights but quickly realized that she likes side sleeping the best. Just like her mommy. ;)

Raelyn and Sheba get along very well. Raelyn enjoys grabbing Sheba’s soft fur and patting her nose. Sheba is very patient as we remind Raelyn often, “Gentle.” There is quite a size difference, but Sheba already knows that Raelyn is the boss. ;)

Mark and I have enjoyed another exciting month of parenthood.

Raelyn, we love you!

Addicted

Photo taken July 21, 2010

I've decided that I'm addicted.

I absolutely cannot get enough of this baby girl. I want to kiss her all over, slather her with butter, and then bite her cheeks off. I don't ever want to put her down and I'm continually trying to breathe in all of her sweet baby goodness.

Maybe it's the chubby rolls, maybe it's her happy nature, maybe it's the smiling and laughing. Whatever it is, I am enjoying her so ridiculously much. I want to spend every waking moment with her.

Honestly, I would love to have a thousand babies.

Yum…. Carrots!

Raelyn tried carrots for the first time tonight. I would say this is another successful vegetable attempt. We’ll just keep those veggies coming. :)

6 Months

Raelyn's stats at 6 months:

• Weight: 16 lbs (52%)
• Height: 26 inches (61%)
• Head Circumference: 16 in (8%)

Raelyn is officially 1/2 of a year old! I’m not sure any other 6 month period in my life has flown by as quickly as this one.

She’s eating more variety of baby foods. So far she’s tried sweet potatoes, peas, squash, pears, apples and bananas. Raelyn has loved them all except bananas. I thought all babies loved bananas. Oh well, I’m happy she’s enjoying all those veggies. :)

Raelyn loves to play and keeps herself actively engaged with her toys as long as she’s awake. We’ve introduced a few new toys in recent weeks and the first thing she checks out is to see if it’s chewable.

She is sitting unassisted for long periods. Raelyn has great balance and is happy to sit on the floor as long as she has a few toys within reach.

Raelyn and Sheba are forming a friendship. Up until this past month, they’ve mostly ignored one another. One day Raelyn reached out for Sheba and from there a bond has been formed! She loves to pet her big furry dog.

I think her daddy’s favorite milestone is that she can now grab her foot and chew on her big toe. There is just something so cute about a baby with her toe in her mouth. I told her to enjoy it while she can because that flexibility won’t last! ;)

Oh how we love our Raelyn Grace! I’m not sure how it’s possible but we love her more and more each day. She makes it easy as she flashes us that big, beautiful smile!

(You know you want to reach into that photo and pinch those cheeks.)

First Swim

She wasn’t sure at first…

Then she took to it like, well, a fish to water…

Red, White, and rrrROAR

We had a Happy 4th of July and hope that you all did too! We spent much of the day relaxing, eating good food, and hanging out.

Raelyn and Rachelle had plenty of playtime! Rachelle enjoyed showing “Baby Ar Rar Rar” many of her baby toys and how to properly play with them. Raelyn mostly enjoyed testing out how chewable they were. ;)

And here is a sample of Raelyn’s favorite sound. She roar’s all.the.time. Her daycare teacher’s have even commented that they have never had another baby roar like Raelyn does. LOL!

Shopping Pals

Saturday afternoon, Raelyn and I met Avery and Aunt Jenny at the mall for some shopping. I thought it would be fun for Avery to pick out a new outfit for herself since she’s starting kindergarten next month. And hey, since we were there why not let her pick out an outfit for Raelyn too!

We walk into Crazy 8 and I ask Avery what she wants to pick out first. She smiles and tells me a dress for Raelyn. We walk to the back and she spots several dresses she likes. Avery’s first pick yelled pink out to her. Then she spotted a headband and wanted a dress to match it for Raelyn. Ok cool, we ended up with this dress in size 6-12 months for Raelyn.

Now it’s time to find a dress for Avery. We walk to the front of the store. All the dresses up front were long and peasanty and not at all right for a pretty little blonde kindergartener! I remembered that a few of the dresses in the back went up to size “5yr” so we attempted to go back and find something more appropriate for Avery. Guess what her first pick was? Yep, the one that yelled pink. I could sense that Jenny was hoping for something a little less loud so tried suggesting a few others. Two were vetoed immediately by my precious 5 year old niece. Then she spotted a cool straw hat. Ok, we can work with this. There were a few options that would match the hat and then I noticed that the same dress she picked out for Raelyn would match and asked if she would want to have a matching dress. Seriously, I wasn’t sure if this would be cool or really not cool. Well, I’m not sure I’ve ever said anything to her before to make her eyes widen and face light up this way. She was ALL IN for matching with her baby cousin!

After our shopping trip, we walked out to the wishing fountain and Avery threw in a penny for herself and one for Raelyn. She looked at me before throwing in Raelyn’s and said, “You know, we don’t tell our wishes.” One second pause. “I’m wishing a unicorn for Raelyn!”

I love how much Avery ADORES Raelyn!

Good clean fun

I’ve been thrown-up on so many times this week, I needed a small reminder of cleaner days. ;)  It’s just another one of those mom milestones.

Happy 1st Father’s Day, Mark!

We love you.

Happy 1st Father's Day, Mark! from Stephanie Repko on Vimeo.

Song Lyrics:

Father and Daughter by Paul Simon
If you leap awake
In the mirror of a bad dream
And for a fraction of a second
You can't remember where you are
Just open your window
And follow your memory upstream
To the meadow in the mountain
Where we counted every falling star

I believe the light that shines on you
Will shine on you forever
And though I can't guarantee
There's nothing scary hiding under your bed
I’m gonna stand guard
Like a postcard of a Golden Retriever
And never leave till I leave you
With a sweet dream in your head

I'm gonna watch you shine
Gonna watch you grow
Gonna paint a sign
So you'll always know
As long as one and one is two
There could never be a father
Who loved his daughter more than I love you

Trust your intuition
It's just like going fishing
You cast your line
And hope you'll get a bite
But you don't need to waste your time
Worrying about the market place
Try to help the human race
Struggling to survive its harshest night

I'm gonna watch you shine
Gonna watch you grow
Gonna paint a sign
So you'll always know
As long as one and one is two
There could never be a father
Who loved his daughter more than I love you

I'm gonna watch you shine
Gonna watch you grow
Gonna paint a sign
So you'll always know
As long as one and one is two
There could never be a father
Who loved his daughter more than I love you

Mommy Home Remedy

At the end of the week, Raelyn showed signs of a diaper rash (red bottom).  They were smearing her with diaper cream at daycare to no avail. I remember reading somewhere that a 50/50 solution of water and apple cider vinegar can take care of diaper rash so I decided to try it. After two nights of squirting her bottom with the solution I’m happy to report she is rash free! 

And just because she’s cute & smiley…

Our Daycare

One small reason why we love our daycare:

Mark and Stephanie,
Good evening! As promised I am emailing you to update you on Raelyn's progress at school. I attached a picture of her playing in the exer-saucer with toys. She is doing very well with holding her head up, tummy time, and soon sitting by herself after some practice! Lately she has been eating all 8 oz of her bottle and seems very content afterwards. She is improving with eating cereal but still needs some practice every day.  She is developing her own personality which I enjoy so much throughout the day! I hope you enjoy her picture and she is improving so much every day! :)
Denise
Stars Lead Teacher

5 Months

Raelyn's unofficial stats at 5 months (we don’t have a well visit until 6 months):

• Weight: 15 lbs 8oz

I just can’t believe that next month we’ll be celebrating her “1/2 year” birthday! I’ll try not to get ahead of myself and plan to enjoy my 5 month old.

We started rice cereal several weeks ago and she has not been the biggest fan. She’s still trying to figure out what to do with her tongue so all the cereal doesn’t come back out. This last weekend I added some sweet potato baby food to the cereal and she seemed to like it a little more. I think she likes the sweet potatoes by themselves the best though.

Besides eating, we are also working on sitting. Once she masters this skill, I think we’ll notice less of a bald spot on the back of her head. :)

Raelyn loves playtime! She especially loves her exersaucer but is also interested in any toy that she can put in her mouth or that plays music. Raelyn will lay on her play mat and pull the flower that plays “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” over and over. Miss Denise, her daycare teacher, says that she does the same thing on the play mat at school. Maybe she’ll have a musical gift to share with the world one day! ;)

She is still a water baby. We have bath time every night before bed and she loves to sit in her tub and splash away. I often find myself toweling off because of the water hazard.

Raelyn is such a happy baby! She’s constantly smiling, giggling, and talking away. I’m going to go out on a limb now and guess that her first word will be “hi”. I may end up wrong, but just in case I’m not I wanted to get my guess in print.

I swear she gets cuter everyday! We are so blessed to call her daughter. We love you, Raelyn Grace!

Meet the Flattery side of the family

We traveled to Springfield, MO over Memorial Day weekend to introduce Raelyn to Mark’s extended family.

Raelyn met her Great Grandma:

 

And her Great Uncle Warren & Aunt Jean:

And her Great Uncle George & Aunt Esther:

And her Great Uncle Ron & Aunt Sharon, as well as Cousin Kris & Cousin Brooke:

Don’t forget Cousin Mark and his three sons Ethan, Luke & Seth:

We want to point out that Kris is already “kissing babies” as he practices for his future political campaign. (Raelyn won’t be swayed to the “other side” though, Kris!) ;)

We had a great visit and Raelyn was happy to finally meet the Flattery gang. Thanks for having us!