Nov 5, 2006

Fall is here and the weather feels great. Soleil enjoys our walks around the block with the pups. She leans back in her stroller and just takes it all in. We recently attended a picnic to celebrate the 2,000th birth and the birth center where Soleil was born. It was neat seeing all the different ages of children that were born there. We took some pics, they are below. For Halloween Sol was a kitty since she enjoys cats so much. They are always very fascinating to her and she has many conversations with them. She also enjoys their kibble...hence she is no longer a vegetarian.

Soleil is now VERY mobile. Not yet quite walking, but she crawls around and over everything and pulls herself up on anything she can including Mommy, Daddy, and the dogs. She seems to be thinning out a little due to all the exercise she gets. She still likes breastmilk, but mostly from the source. She hardly drinks any from a bottle anymore at daycare. She is also more vocal too. We swear we BOTH heard "Sausage" this morning. Her favorite breakfast is the Morningstar Farms veggie sausages. Last night we saw her start playing peek-a-boo with herself and Mommy's scarf. She thought she was quite funny!

We are looking forward to introducing her to her extended family up in New York in two weeks. Not sure if I should look forward to her first plane ride or not yet... I am worried about her fussing on the plane. I know I shouldn't since she is always such a good baby.

Soleil has had some fall weather yuckies this month. She has almost a constant runny nose and she started barking like a seal about a week ago. She got some kind of virus that affected her vocal chords and it got bad at night when she would wake up crying. We are lucky that she hasn't developed a cough though.

Back to the grind, er, work

Well we are back in the thick of things. I have been back to work a few weeks now. I am enjoying the change to Theatre Arts. The students love the class and I bask in their energy. The days seem longer but my work is easier this year once the kids leave for the day. There isn't as much planning since I see every class in the school...I don't have to write lesson plans as much. I DO miss spending my days with Soleil though. She is growing like a weed. She already has 6 teeth; four on top and two on the bottom. She is crawling everywhere and very quickly! She likes to stand up and play with things on the coffee table (or pull them all down). She is really quick on the potty too. She usually goes right when I set her on it. I am home from school today (and yesterday) because she woke up with a high fever. It finally broke last night and she got really cold, but she was back to her normal (or abnormal) self today. Nana and Mawmaw are coming for a visit tomorrow. I am excited for them to see Soleil in her own environment. Hopefully that will help her warm up to them quicker than when we went out to Alabama to visit them. We are disappointed that Pawpaw can't come visit, but he is busy with things back home. Soleil might also meet her uncle Kevin this weekend. He might be trucking by Dallas! That would be neat since the only one on my side of the family that has met her so far is my dad.

Soleil has a few words. She can say Da-Da, Ma-Ma, bye-bye key-cah(kitty cat), ma(mas) bah (ball) and a few more but not really on cue. She tried to copy the sign language for bird today. It was really cute.

Here are some pics!

Summer is ending :( 7.5 mos

Well...I return to work next Wednesday. I will be teaching bilingual Theater Arts. I am excited about the new class, but sad that I won't be spending so much time with Soleil. We had a wonderful summer...classes with friends, visiting family in Alabama, having lunch with Daddy, watering the plants outside, and spending time together. Soleil has learned so much this summer too. She uses the potty, goes under water, eats solids and can actually get them into her mouth herself, crawls (albeit backwards at the moment), pulls herself up to stand, claps her hands, babbles, makes raspberries, and wrinkles her nose up and laughs like mommy. She has become very attached to me which will be hard for both of us when she goes back to staying with Leslie. Here are a couple of pics from Alabama, a pic of Robbie with his dad and brother, and some of Soleil and her cousin Aric.

Summertime 6.5 months

We are still thoroughly enjoying our summer! We finished our baby signs class last week. We were busy this past week taking the cats to the vet. Both males had infections. Ace in the elbow and Echo in the chest. They like being outside but they get in fights with a neighborhood cat and cost us lots of vet bills!

We started "catching" Soleil's pees in the potty. I heard about Diaper Free baby hygiene and bought the book. Check it out: www.diaperfreebaby.org We still use diapers (albeit cloth now) but have tuned in a little more to Soleil's pee schedule. She has about 3 wet diapers a day now that we don't "catch". She has her own little BabyBjorn potty and it sees lots of use. It isn't toilet training, but just a natural thing that moms do in most non-western countries that do not use diapers. She now knows what we want when we tell her "PSSSS". Daddy even caught a poo!

Soleil also had a model shoot for the Army and Airforce Exchance Service: www.aafes.com She sported a little pink onsie with white polka-dots and got $40 for her college fund! They are supposed to be sending me a proof of the pic to keep but if you know anyone in the service that can pull up the sale flyer on their website, let me know! Her flyer will be the 38th week one. We are hoping her agency will call us a couple more times before I have to go back to work.

We get to go out to Alabama to spend time with Robbie's family next weekend. We are having a big BBQ with all of Robbie's friends and family from home too. Soleil will finally get to meet everyone. We are wondering how she will do on a 10 hour car ride. Heck, we are wondering how Robbie and I will do since Damon will be along for the 10 hour ride! Not sure if you are reading this Damon. :)