My Baby is Amazing

Don't we all think that about our babies?

Mine really is though.  (I know, I know, yours is too).  Sometimes I catch myself just smiling at her with little tears in my eyes, like I can't believe she's really mine, and I can't believe I (with the help of Chad, and God, of course) really created this awesome little miracle.  Yes, I am emotional.  It's part of being a woman, and it's part of being a mother. 

Lately I just find her becoming SO grown up.  Well, as far as babies go anyway.  She took off crawling so fast over the last week or so, and that has been so much fun.  She now plays this "chase me" game that I find hilarious.  Like if she sees us even looking in her direction, she gets this huge grin on her face, shrieks a little bit, and takes off crawling and shrieking in the other direction.  If you "chase" after her a little bit, she gets going even faster and she just laughs and laughs and loves it!  She plays this game with the dogs too, which is even funnier (more funny?)  The dogs just love her, and they are so good at letting her beat up on them.  I really think they like it when she starts pulling on their ears and their tail.  They play rough with each other, so I guess they think Lyla is "one of them." 

She has also started doing some really neat things, that in their small way, let me know that she is growing up.  For awhile we started playing this game where we grab the end of her pacifier from her mouth with our teeth (is that weird?), and she just laughs and we put it back in her mouth.  Now she takes it out of her own mouth and tries to put it in our mouths!  She has also started helping me clean up her toys, which I love!  She used to only empty toys out of their boxes; now she likes to empty them and then put them back where she found them.  Like if she empties her big bag of blocks, she then starts putting them back in the bag when I do.  She's gonna be a clean freak like her mama!  (Speaking of mama, she has been saying "mama" all the time lately.  I don't know when I can determine that she is actually saying it to mean "mom"?  She says it all the time when she is around me; today her babysitter said she didn't really her hear say it at all...but as soon as we got home, she said it all night...interesting...)

She isn't always helping me clean up though....more often than not, she is getting into EVERYTHING!  She makes one mess (which I let her do for awhile to keep her occupied if I am trying to make dinner or something), and when I go to clean up one mess, she is quickly on to the next one.  I get the house cleaned up before bed each night, and by the end of the day Hurricane Lyla has everything a disaster!

For Christmas, my parents got her this farm thing.  It's a pretty cool toy.  One part of it has a slot where you put chicken eggs in and they drop down into a basket.  She puts those in the basket and tries to put them in the slot they go in!  The other day she threw an egg in my direction, and I tossed it back at her; she realized this was fun and we played "catch" for awhile.  I have also caught her playing a similar game with this dogs!

She is really starting to mimic what we do.  We clap, she claps.  We stick out our tongue and spit (mature, I know), and she copies us.  (This is actually hilarious, she does this all day long lately.  She especially likes doing it when I try to feed her vegetables).  I do something with a toy (like put the egg in the slot) and she follows my lead.  Amazing, I tell you! 

I'm also trying to finally introduce table food.  I took it pretty slow on introducing solids; I'm not sure why some people are in such a hurry.  One look at her and you can tell that she was getting all she needed from breastmilk alone!  Tonight I gave her some spaghetti and she seemed to enjoy it, although I'm not sure how much got in her belly.

I home made most of her baby food, which I thought was so easy and also kind of fun.  It probably saved us a lot of money, too!  I liked knowing exactly what I was putting into her body.  I used the Wholesome Baby Foods website for tips, and it was really helpful! 

Oh, another thing--I am *thinking* about switching to cloth diapers, but I don't really know much about them.  I think it would be great to save money and use something more natural and chemical free on Lyla's cute little butt, and I also hear that they are great at preventing diaper blow outs.  We have been having those like once a day, and frankly, I am getting a little tired of cleaning poop out of Lyla's pretty clothes.  The thing that holds me back, is then I would just be cleaning poop out of her diapers--right?  If you cloth diaper, let me know why I should switch!