Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Five Months (and one week)


Our baby turned five months old last week. This past month has been so much fun. She really has started to become active and more aware of things. We get such a kick out of her.


A few week ago she was in a silly mood all weekend and kept Brian and I laughing. She developed a new laugh that sounds like "hee hee hee." All you would have to do is look at her and she would go "heee heee heee." It is funny how she develops news sounds all the time and all of sudden you realize that she stopped making one certain sound and is on to another. When she was only a few weeks old and would have her meltdowns she would make a mawaaa sound (its hard to type out.) Then she was on to "Mum." Everything was mum. Lately she has been grunting, especially when she is trapped in her car seat or bouncy seat. She also loves making raspberries sounds. She makes a funny face with it now. Through it all though, she has kept up with her squealing and yelling.


She likes playing with her toys and loves being read to. She can sit on my lap for the longest time while we look through her books. For Christmas we got a book with the correct versions of nursery rhymes and baby songs. This is a nice change from the "Hush little baby, don't you cry, Momma is going to buy you a Barbie Doll." I could pretty much only remember a mocking bird and a diamond ring and that was about it. I had to get creative in the things that momma was going to buy her.


Allison can be easily entertained by kisses. She loves getting kisses and tries to kiss you back. The other night when putting her to sleep, I was suddenly surprised when she had my nose in her mouth. She kept trying to eat my nose the rest of the night. So much for trying to get her to sleep because I was laughing so hard that I was crying and she was also laughing.


She is pretty much done with pacifiers already. She stopped taking it during the day a while back, and then didn't want it at night. She would sometimes take it at nap time but really doesn't even want that anymore. I think we will pack those up this week.


And since, I'm doing this blog in part for Allison when she gets older, I have to brag and talk about how we get so many compliments on how cute she is. She hear that she looks like the Gerber baby a lot. People also comments on her rosy cheeks. The other day when I brought her to the Meijer Gardens a volunteer said "You hear the term adorable baby, but really that is one adorable baby."


Besides rolling over, Allison also discovered her thumb. Luckily she doesn't seem too attached to it (well, besides it being attached to her hand.) Hopefully it doesn't turn into a bad habit. Right now she does it enough just to be cute.
We are looking forward to month five and all the milestones she will reach.
For some more pictures check out www.moreofallison.shutterfly.com
Password is allison.

Monday, December 31, 2007

Merry Christmas (Belated)


FOR MORE PICTURES - Cut and paste the following address: http://www.moreofallison.shutterfly.com/action/ password is allison (all lower case)

I can't believe we are going to take the tree down tomorrow. It makes me sad to think about it. I think Allison will miss the tree since we will lay her down in front of it and she watches the lights and touches the branches. This will probably be the last peaceful year in terms of having the tree up for the next few years (or at least a tree without a gate.)


Christmas was very good to us, although I feel like we didn't do a lot of Christmas related activities. I'm looking forward to when Allison is older and we can take her out to look at Christmas lights and such. At least I wasn't suffering from morning sickness like I was last year and I had more energy.


We kicked off the holiday season with the Veenstra Family party (Brian's extended family). Allison took one look at the crowd of people downstairs and started crying, so we spent most of the time upstairs and let people come to her. She did much better that way.


On December 16, we had my extended family party on my mom's side. This is something we used to do when we were children, so it is neat to see all of our children running around, frosting cookies and other things we did as kids. Allison was overwhelmed by all the commotion, so she pretty much stayed by our side during the evening.


On Christmas Eve we celebrated at Brian's family, so we went to my family the weekend prior. We just had snacks and opened a few presents. Allison received a cute book shelf with her name on it from her Aunt Keri, some Melissa and Doug puzzles from Aunt Lori, and a special ceramic Christmas tree that plays music and two outfits from Nana and Papa. Allison seemed to do a lot better at this gathering. She was a little fussy as it was nap time, however Nana and Papa and all of her aunts and cousins kept her occupied. I'm looking forward to seeing her with all of her cousins next year on Christmas Eve. I think she will be spoiled by the attention.


The drive back was fine until we got to Grand Rapids, when we got caught in a snow storm. Luckily we only had to deal with the bad driving conditions on 28th Street.


On Christmas Eve we went to Brian's family in the evening. Allison enjoyed hanging out with her cousin Marrah who always pays close attention to her. She received a glow worm, an outfit, and some days-of-the-week bibs from Grandma and Grandpa. She also received a See and Say, Stack and Roll Cups, Sit and Pound Arcade, and a Move and Crawl ball from her aunts and uncles.


On Christmas we celebrated with just us, together as a family. Allison slept in until 8:30 (thank you Allison.) We opened presents and had a big breakfast. Santa treated Allison to a muscial activity barnyard, a V-tech driver set, a motion ball, and a Winnie the Pooh book that talks. In her Cookie Monster stocking she found some bath toys, board books, and a container for her Cheerios when she can eat them. From mom and dad she received some special books that we can read to her at bedtime when she gets older, including Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little.


All the activities must have worn her out as she was in bed before 7 pm. I treated Brian to a special Christmas dinner of turkey, red-skinned mashed potoates, stuffing, and fresh green beans. I have to say myself that it was quite yummy.

Monday, December 17, 2007

No More Cookies?

Dear Cookie Monster,

Mom told me that you are starting to eat healthier now, things like carrots. I suppose that is a good thing, but I bet you miss your cookies. Maybe I will leave one in my stocking for you.

Love, Allison

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Dear Santa


Dear Santa,

It was nice meeting you yesterday. You are a very nice man. I like your red cheeks. I have been a very good girl so far (well don't ask Mom and Dad how I was from 3 weeks - 3 months old.) Lately I've been a pretty happy baby.

For Christmas I would like:
1) Veggies or fruit. This cereal stuff is getting pretty boring.
2) Some toys to play with. Mom is getting bored with my telephone and my fish that doesn't do anything.
3) The ability to sleep through the night on a regular basis (mom made me ask for this.)
4 ) World Peace (oops - this is what I'm going to ask for in a few years during my Miss Michigan pageant questionnaire).
Have a very Merry Christmas. Tell Rudolph I said hello.
Love,
Allison

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Patiently Waiting

Ever since Ozzie told Allison all about Christmas, she has been patiently waiting for Santa to come and put presents under the tree.








Monday, December 10, 2007

Holy Smokes - I rolled over!



On Wednesday, December 5, Allison rolled over for the first time. We had a feeling that it would be any day since she was rolling on her side. She just didn't know what to do after that. That morning, I placed her on the mat by the shower and thought to myself "watch-- she will roll over when I am in the shower and I will miss her first time." Sure enough, when I opened the shower curtain, there she was laying on her stomach, just looking around. I think I stood there for about 30 seconds with my jaw dropped open. I couldn't believe it.

Ever since then, she loves rolling over, however she isn't quite sure what to do when she is on her stomach. After a few minutes she gets frustrated and puts her face in the blanket and screams. So we roll her on her back and the process starts all over again.

She also discovered that Ozzie is soft and furry. She was laying next to the dog, when Brian saw her reach over and stroke his fur. She did it for a while. Luckily Brian got it on video camera so I could see it when I came home from work. I think Ozzie's days of peace and quiet are numbered. It won't be long before she is rolling into and over him.