Scioto Mile

Look closely - you can see her upper teeth in this picture!!

At the fountains

Sitting by the Scioto River as the sun sets.

Every evening there is a fountain show choreographed to classical music with fog and shooting water.

Walking home with the city lights reflected in the river.

Friday night David, Eliana, and I took a walk down High Street to the Scioto Mile.  We grabbed some ice cream at Jeni's (we tested out the latest flavors: sweet roasted corn with raspberries [too weird, not good] and Claudio Cantaloupe [very yummy]) then went to the fountains.  There were so many kids running in the fountains and they were having a blast!  I can't wait for when Eliana is a little older and she will be able to run through them too!  It was a beautiful night and I loved walking along the river with all the lights.  I think this might be the best part of Columbus.  

Teething again

For about a week Eliana has been waking up in the middle of the night and crying for hours.  She has been hard to put to bed, then wakes up an hour or two later crying, gets rocked to sleep, and then wakes up in the middle of the night crying for hours.  I have been going crazy trying to get her to sleep.  She'd be crying, I was crying.  It was awful!  Then, as I head off to work at 7:30 in the morning, she will be sleeping so peacefully and I would think, "That stinker, she stays up all night and then just wants to sleep in in the morning."  I kept picturing the nights when she was three and four months old when she would sleep from 11pm to 7am.  What happened to that baby?  Why is she such a terrible sleeper now?  Why does she torture me every night?

On Sunday evening, David and I played soccer with some friends.  We all took turns sitting out and watching Eliana on the sidelines.  One of our friends Rachel sat and played with Eliana for a while, then she asked me, "Is she getting a tooth on the top?"  I didn't think so but on closer inspection, I saw she did in fact have a top tooth poking through.  Then today I saw that she not only had one tooth coming in, but four!  Four teeth all at once!  No wonder she has been crying so much.  That has to be painful.  Now I feel bad for ever getting mad at her for crying so much during the night.  I also have hope that she might start sleeping better soon. 

By the time David was 8 months old, he had 8 teeth.  According to the Mayo Clinic, the average baby has 8 teeth by 12 months.  Just this past weekend I was telling David's parents that it looked like she wouldn't be keeping up with her daddy and have 8 by 8 months.  Looks like she is back in the race!  She will definitely have 6.  Eight months is still three weeks away!

What we've been eating lately

Our first attempt at finger foods.  Eliana is eating watermelon.

Eating might be a generous phrase.  She pretty much held the watermelon and then smashed it in her fingers.

"Should I eat this or just push it around?"

Watermelon face.

 

 

 

Eventually I took over and started putting the watermelon in her mouth.  She actually ate it then and seemed to like it!  Next step is to figure out how to transfer it to her mouth herself.

My first attempt at make baby food = broccoli puree. Yum!

Eliana has been eating purees for a little while now, but she has mostly been getting jar baby food.  But the past few days we have tried out a few homemade solids.  First I gave her watermelon cut into tiny pieces.  She did pretty well with it as long as I feed it to her.  Then I made our first puree.  David and I had steamed broccoli with dinner, so I just took a few pieces and put them in my mini food processor and made some for Eliana.  It wasn't until after we started feeding her that David questioned me, "Should we be feeding her broccoli?  Isn't it supposed to cause gas or something?"  Uh oh, I totally didn't think of that.  Chalk it up to being first time parents.  She of course liked the taste.  I guess we will just see how she does!

A morning at the park

Purdue baby getting ready to go out

Watching the other baby on the swings - Eliana cried when I tried putting her in the swing but she liked watching the other little boy swing from the safety of her blanket.

This rattle is awesome!

Park time is over - someone is ready for a nap.

What we do for fun: go for stroller rides, sit on the blanket at the park and watch other babies, read books, go to the library and play with toys then read more books, come home and play with day.  All in a day of the life of Eliana.

Ohio State Fair

Checking out the goats

Michael is feeding the water buffalo.

That one licked her foot!  She didn't exactly like it.

If you look closely, that sign says Jim and Helen and Family - what a coincidence!

Eliana won a doggie at the fair.

Chocolate Covered Bacon (aka Muddy Pigs)

Root Beer Float

Someone is worn out!

Last Thursday David, Eliana and I went to the Ohio State Fair along with my brother Michael.  Coming from Indiana, I had pretty high standards for the State Fair.  I've always loved going and often went multiple times a year.  Well, Ohio, your State Fair just can't compete with Indiana.  The Ohio State Fair was nice, but much much smaller than Indiana's.  Definitely no need for a second visit.  But I must admit, it did have a really nice petting zoo with some interesting animals (crazy long legged rabbits, water buffalo, camels, even a kangaroo).  

It is kinda crazy to think that this is the very first time Eliana has been to a petting zoo and seen a goat or touched one.  Can you remember the first time you petted a goat?  Probably not.  Before this, she had no idea goats even existed.  What an adventure every day must be for her.  It's the same for grass.  The first time her feet touched grass, she started to cry.  I wasn't thinking much about it, and on a nice day I just set her in the grass to play.  She immediately started crying and wanted to be picked up.  I realized she had no idea what grass was or what she was feeling.  Being born in the winter, she had only been on the floor or carpet before.  We have sat her in the grass a few more times since then and she is getting used to it.  But even grass is a new and scary experience for her.  Eliana really opens my eyes up to what an amazing world we live in.  How much I take for granted every day!

7 months old!

Sitting up and playing with her favorite toy (the coffee can).

These bear pictures are getting a little harder to take.

Of course, she had to take a bite out of the bear.

By my own estimates, at 7 months, Eliana weighs 18.5lbs and is 27.5in long.  I wonder how accurate a bathroom scale is for a baby sitting on it?  What's Eliana up to?  Let's see... She sits up all the time.  She can scoot backwards when she is on her tummy (but doesn't even act interested in trying to crawl forward).  She loves stroller rides and her letter links toys.  She hates grass and hates having the sun in her eyes.  Everything goes in her month and so far the only food I have found that she doesn't like is refried beans (We ate them for dinner last night and Eliana seemed interested, so I tried them out.  She was interested right up until she tasted them).  Eliana is really good at picking things up and has a pretty strong grip (she held onto a 1lb bag of peas without difficulty!).  She is very good at unfolding laundry but not so good at putting it back.  She likes bath time, especially eating her washcloth.  And she loves to play outside on a blanket. 

On her 7th month birthday, we went to the Ohio State Fair.  However, I can't find my camera right now, so I will have to post those pics once it is located.

I'm full swing into my job now working part time at the Infusion Clinic at Nationwide Children's hospital.  I really like the nurses and aids that I am working with.  They are all very experienced and have been working in the clinic for a long time.  In fact, they had to write a new orientation manual for me because they couldn't find one from the last time someone was a new hire.  For most of the nurses I am working with, I am the age of their children and they have grandkids Eliana's age (or older)!

David is done with his ICU rotation, and is now doing outpatient clinic along with the GI clinic.  Although the clinic has slightly less hours than the ICU, David so far doesn't like it as much.  The clinic is a lot of paperwork and less actual patient care.  But I am excited because he has three out of four weekends off so I will actually get to see him!  I tried to get David to write a guest post on the blog about how his new job is, but he didn't seem interested.  So, sorry for all you readers out there, you will have to just take my summary of things for David.

Everyone is getting up now.  I'm off to make omelets and waffles.  Hopefully later you can see some pics of Eliana at the petting zoo at the fair!