...one year...

Dear Laci,

Today you turned one year old.  We had pancakes for breakfast with Daddy, complete with a candle, but I didn't light it because I was afraid you might burn yourself.  The picture above sums up your little personality these days so well.  You're just a busy little bee buzzing from one disaster to the next.  You are so eager to explore this crazy world we all live in, and so very proud of yourself whenever you figure something out.  Even if that something is removing every single wipe from the dispenser one at a time...

...while watching Sesame Street.  Ahh, my little multi-tasker.  I'm so proud of you. 

You are fearless - far too brave for your own good sometimes.  You are starting to voice your opinions more dramatically, including throwing yourself down on the floor crying and stomping your feet.  I try my best not to laugh at you, but you are so darn cute I can't help it.  Someday you'll understand why you're not supposed to eat dog food and flowers, why you shouldn't climb up things when you can't get down, and why I say "no" to you so many times everyday.

You still like to be carried around sometimes, which I love, except you are getting heavier every day.  Your little chubby legs are leaning out with all the walking, and now running, that you do.  You are rarely still these days.  You have six teeth now and you like to use them on anything and everything, from food to toys to toes.  You are a true animal lover even though the animals haven't exactly learned to love you back.  You get that from me.  You like to wake up very, very, slooooooooooooowly, you get that from your dad.

You have brightened our home with your smiles and giggles.  I'd rather watch your crazy antics than any show on TV.  You have taught me that I need to work on my patience, and that I can survive on very minimal amounts of sleep.  You have also taught me that all the sacrifices of being a parent are rewarded tenfold when I see your sweet face.  This first year has been a whirlwind of emotions and learning for me, I can't believe how quickly it has passed.  I'm so looking forward to watching you grow up, just please try not to grow up too fast.

I love you with all my heart,
Mommy
xoxoxo

...eleven months...

Eleven months olds, walking like a champ (almost), and learning what summer is really about: 
...dripping watermelon juice everywhere
...drinking from hoses
...walking barefoot in the grass
...playing in the water
...and being half naked most of the time

She's learned to wave, although she likes to pretend she doesn't know how when I ask her to perform on cue.  Nothing new there.
She loves baby dolls.  She pats, hugges, kisses, and rocks her babies.  Then she bites them.
She loves animals - stuffed ones and real ones - and treats them both with the same level of over-enthusiastic afffection.
She doesn't crawl anymore at all, she much prefers to walk or be carried.
She has begun directing us to where she wants to go when we carry her.  So bossy.
She tries to run, even though she hasn't mastered walking yet, which has resulted in a never-ending series of bruises on her face.
She makes up for her lack of vocabulary with the volume of her voice.
She's still not a big eater, although she always has room for Cheerios.
Only three teeth still - I'm enjoying the mostly toothless grin while it lasts.
She loves music and dances anytime she hears any.
She's very independent at times, and at other times, she still needs her mama. Thank goodness for that.
She's a doll, a joy, a beautiful, smart, amazing little person.
I feel so lucky to be her mama.

...ten months...

Laci is ten months old today.

Where is the time going?  

I can't believe she is so close to being a year old.

She took another step for her Auntie Beth today.

Why didn't time pass this quickly when I was little?

For my mom, I'm sure it did.

Yesterday, Laci and I sat on the picnic table in the yard,

ate graham crackers,

and watched the cars drive by. 

She loves to watch cars, especially the loud ones.

She loves grahams crackers and can make a royal mess with them.

She wanted the whole cracker,

not cracker pieces,

and for once, she didn't choke herself on giant chunks of food.

She didn't want her picture taken.

She was spinning around in circles on her butt to avoid me, a new skill she practices often.

Mostly in the bathtub, but also when she thinks she has something awesome that no one else should have.

Such as, a graham cracker.

I was having problems focusing the camera.

Partially because my subject would

Not. Hold. Still.

But also because there was a giant smear of gooey graham cracker across the lens,

which I didn't find until later when I put my lens cap back on.

Graham crackers are awesome.

I know she won't remember this day.

But I will.

Because graham crackers are awesome

(especially with cream cheese).

And because I wrote it down.

Blogs are awesome too.

...nine months...

My baby girl is nine months old today.  She has now been out of womb for as long as she was in, which seemed significant until I wrote it.  Anyhow, she is growing and learning and amusing me and driving me crazy all at the same time.  She pulls herself up on anything and everything, sturdy or not, which makes for some precarious balancing moments and a few crashes here and there.  She especially loves to pull herself up on my legs, making any task that requires me to stand extra challenging.  Dishes and cooking have required new strategies as of late.  She cruises around the house using the furniture and walls for support, and sometimes she forgets that she really can't walk yet.  She just lets go and expects me to catch her, never mind that I'm on the other side of the room.  She actually can stand on her own for a few seconds before plopping down on her butt or diving for my arms for support.  It is so cute to watch her realize she can stand on her own - she looks really proud for a second, that is, until she realizes she's about to fall.  Then, terror!

She isn't a big eater, which surprises me.  She's only recently begun eating food again - she went on "strike" for about a month.  Must get that from her father.  No person in my family ever has a problem with consuming enough food.  Her chunky thighs and butt reassure me that she is certainly getting enough nourishment.  Lately, she is enjoying eating again, but only if she can put the food in her mouth herself.  Seriously, she refuses to eat from a spoon or fork, baby or regular, but if it's a chunk she can grab and put in her own mouth, then she'll gobble it up.  Cheerios are a definite favorite, along with peas and corn (which make for interesting diapers), carrots, pears, and french toast.  Actually, she gobbles anything she can grab, food or otherwise, though I doubt the gobbling is hunger-induced.  The other night she discovered dog food comes in nuggets just right for her little fingers and she is constantly finding things in the carpet that remind me I need to vacuum more often.

She babbles and yells a ton.  Seriously, the girl has some vocal cords.  Good to know she got something from me - lack of an "inside" voice.  She still loves her animals, they can always bring a smile to her face.  I'm pretty sure her first word will be "doggie" or "kitty" or maybe even "woof".  I'm really working on "mama" but so far all I can decipher is "Yay Yay Yay" repeated over and over while wildly shaking her head from side to side.  Weird, but cute and funny to watch.  She probably gets the "weird" from me too.

We love our sweet girl so much (obviously).  Who wouldn't?  I catch myself rocking her a little longer lately after she has fallen asleep, just to look at her sweet little face and watch her breathe and smell her sweet babyness.  I know it will be gone too soon.

...eight months...

Our sweet little girl is getting so big

and we see more of her LOUD little personality everyday.

She's a busy little thing,

spending most of her days exploring our humble abode,

and chasing her favorite pet, Holmes the cat.

Her exploration has resulted in no less than

four bonks to the head in the last couple of weeks,

and a couple of little kitty scratches,

but no permanent damage done.

She is a bit dramatic and can turn on the water works at the drop of a hat.

But she is a sweetie too,

giving me slobbery open mouth kisses whenever I can bribe them out of her.

Some days I wish I could push the pause button on life for a little bit

just to enjoy how tiny and fresh she still is.

...seven months...

Seven things about Laci at seven months:

1.  She slobbers a lot. 

You would think I would wipe it away before taking a picture.

But, no.

2.  She likes to open her mouth really wide.

Looks like she's yelling.

She's not.

She's totally silent.

3.  She likes her fingers a lot.

Apparently they must taste good.

4.  She thinks this is a thumb protector, not a pacifier.

Hey, it works.

5.  She can blow raspberries, and she does so regularly.

More slobber.

6.  Sometimes she looks a little "special."

Notice the stream of drool from her mouth.

7.  I think she secretly believes she can walk.

But of course, she can't.

...six months...

At Zero and a Half, Laci is getting so big.

At least compared to how tiny she was six months ago.

She has decided to only roll over when she is really mad,

and for now, has given up trying to scoot.

I'm OK with this as it means I don't have to worry about chasing her...yet.
Although, just as I type this,
I see her pushing her little tush up in the air with her feet on the ground.
Maybe she thinks she'd rather walk like a dog
than crawl like a baby.

She loves bouncing in the jumperoo.

Bouncing induces happy yelling.

Happy yelling gets pretty loud sometimes

(she really is a Silva).

She has been practicing sitting up on her own,

definitely more my idea than hers.
She's not very good at it.
I enjoy watching her fall back to the ground in slow motion.
Mean, I know, but I get my laughs where I can these days.
Plus, she doesn't seem to mind.

She is still a slobbering, chewing, biting mess without any teeth.

I thought for sure we'd see something coming through by now, but still nothing.

They say by six months the whole eye color issue should be cleared up.
Well, we are about as clear as mud about her eye color.
They get lighter everyday.
The consensus as this point is they are greenish-gray, with just a hint of brown.

She likes to eat, squash is her favorite so far.

She has super squishy thighs, which I love to squeeze.

Speaking of squeezing, I am trying to teach her the word "soft."
The following "soft" phrases can be heard several times a day in our house:
"Be soft when you pet the dog
(don't grab her fur with all your might)."
"Be soft when you pet the kitty
(her tail is not your teether)."
"Be soft when you grab mommy's lips
(they really are attached to her face and cannot be removed not matter how hard you try)."
"Be soft when you touch mommy's hair
(it is also attached to mommy and it hurts really bad when you grab it and won't let go)."

She loves to pull things over her head -
blankets, toys, my shirt, whatever is available.
She thinks she's playing peek-a-boo,
except sometimes she can't figure out how to remove the item from her head.
When this happens,
she lays really still
with her arms and legs stiff as a board
until someone uncovers her.

She has started throwing things.
She mostly drops them on the floor,
but a few have made it quite a distance.
Much fun is had watching me pick them up time and time again.

She can be very loud and does not keep her opinions private.

We all know when something isn't going her way.

We have a new saying in our house,

"Toys that make us cry must go away."

This applies to many toys lately.

I'm not sure what it is about them that makes her cry,

but they do, so they go away for a while.

When all else fails, I give her a toy with tags on it.

The challenge of trying to grab the tags will keep her entertained for quite some time.

Her hair is filling in and I can't wait for it get to longer.

She has one little hair in the front that is about two inches long.

I love her ONE long hair.

I like to see how long it has gotten when it is soaking wet and stuck to her face.

I am hoping the other hairs catch up soon.

I wish I could say she is an easy baby and sleeping through the night,

but that would be a big fat lie.

I'll be honest, she is a challenging girl.

Sometimes I ask her, "What on earth is the problem now?"

But, of course, she can't answer me, except to keep crying,

and I just keep guessing until something quiets her.

She hates going to sleep.

Who can hate going to sleep?

I would LOVE to go to sleep.

She shuts her eyes alright,

but then arches her back and yells when the sleepies start taking over.

Really...is falling asleep so terrible?

Maybe she is afraid she'll miss something while she's napping.

I am thankful when the sleepies sneak up on her

and she goes to sleep before she knows she is tired.

Thank goodness for the happy moments,

the giggling and the deep belly laughs,

and the toothless slobbery smiles she shares with me about a million times a day.

Thank goodness for being able to be with her everyday,

watching her grow, explore, learn,

and become the little person she is supposed to be.

These things make all this motherhood nonsense make sense in my head.

She is so cute, smart, and sassy, I can't help but love her.

...five months...

Miss Laci is a whopping five months old today.  She is becoming quite a chunk.  We go to the doctor on Wednesday so we'll have an official weigh in.  She is so much fun to have around.  We love her and enjoy watching her change everyday.  Here are some things we know about Laci at five months:

...she loves her dogs and cats, and anyone else's dogs, cats, horses, hamsters, or other furry critter

...she wants to touch everything

...if she can touch something, then she wants to grab it

...if she can grab it, it must go in her mouth for sampling

...she especially loves to grab faces and frequently tries to remove your nose/lips from your face

...she makes the sweetest sounds when she is trying to remove your nose/lips

...she has also learned to growl, which is weird, but maybe not considering how many pets she has

...she has finally learned how to swallow her cereal and actually enjoys eating

...she still can't roll over, but has been getting very close lately

...she loves to go shopping, especially to Costco - so much to look at

...she loves her mommy, and daddy too, but especially mommy

She really is the sweetest little thing and we love her to pieces.

...four months...

Laci's personality is growing as quickly as she is.  It is so fun to watch her learn just a little bit everyday.  I wish there were someway that I could remember each moment we have together, but with my frequently failing memory I doubt that is possible.  So here is my best effort of the highlights of Laci's little life at four months old.

We have regular giggle sessions now, which we both think are hilarious.  She laughs at the stupidest things, which means I must be doing the stupidest things frequently.  She loves it when you sing to her.  Her favorites are Pat-a-Cake, the ABCs, and Twinkle, Twinkle.  She tries to "sing" along with you which is so sweet.  She especially likes to sing when she is beyond tired but doesn't want to fall asleep, which is usually several times a day.  She hates going to sleep and fights it as long as she can at nap time.  She has grown to love her bouncer chair, which allows me to cook and clean again, and even craft a little.  As long as there is some action for her to watch, she is happy.  We still don't know what color her eyes are going to be.  Everyone thinks they look brown in her pictures, but they really aren't.  I would describe them as dark grayish, greenish, hazelish.  They'll probably end up like her daddy's, which are also grayish, greenish, hazelish, but much lighter.  She loves to stand up and be tossed up in the air.  She's still working on rolling over, but why work so hard when there are grown ups around who do the rolling over for you.  She likes to grocery shop (which makes only one of us - I hate it).  Just put her in the front pack and she'll go up and down aisles all day.  Checkout time is especially interesting.  She's wearing her six month clothes now, which makes me sad, she is growing so fast.  She's very particular about what position she is being held in and will let you know, loudly, if it isn't her preferred position.  She is cranky every evening, but wakes up every morning with a big smile on her face.  She watches everything:  people, pets, anything that moves, or doesn't move.  She just soaks it all in taking little mental notes - probably that we are all slightly insane and she can't quite figure out why she's here in the middle of all the craziness.  She loves her hands and is working on controlling them, although most of the time they are in her mouth and soaked in slobber. 

I could probably think of at least a thousand more things I want to remember if I just sat here long enough, but the truth is, I could never sit here long enough to remember it all.  She changes so quickly that I can hardly keep track of what she's doing.  Like for a week, all she did was stick out her tongue...constantly.  I couldn't get a picture of her without her tongue.  And then one day I was watching her and realized, oh, she doesn't stick out her tongue as much anymore.  I wonder when that happened?

I guess the most important thing I want to remember is that she brings us great joy and little headaches, both of which are necessary parts of life, and that we love her very much.  Thankfully, I don't have to write that down in order to remember it.

...three months...

The Stats:

11 lbs 12 oz

23 3/4 inches long

Our little girl is three months old already, and what a GIRL she is.  She's found her voice and she's been oohing and aahhing all week.  She's even laughed a few times, at the lamest and most unexpected things, but who am I to judge what's funny and what's not?  She can whine with the best of them when she thinks she's bored and she's got the high-pitched girly squeal perfected.  She's become very observant of her surroundings and is quite the people watcher...just my kind of girl.  She can be entertained for quite a while with just a ribbon tied to the ceiling fan, which lets me lay in bed for just a little longer in the mornings.  She's still working on her thumb but has also decided that her first and second fingers are just as good for sucking and chewing.  It is so fun to see her change just a little bit everyday.  She's constantly watching the world around her and trying to do new things.  I'm sure at times it is very frustrating to be so helpless.  Sometimes she looks like she just wants to take off running, but (thankfully) we're a long way from that. 

She's beautiful, smart, sweet, and all that we could have asked for. 

I'm just wondering what we ever did without her.

...two months...

Laci is two months old today. It's pretty crazy how time can pass so quickly, and yet feel like a snail's pace sometimes. She is getting big so quickly it is already hard to remember how tiny she was when she came home. Life is slowly getting a little easier each day, although we are far from any routine. About the only thing I can count on each day is that Laci will be unhappy about something and neither one of us will know what it is, or how to fix it. The good thing is the sound of the vacuum really relaxes her, so if she is crying and I can't fix it, I just put her in the swing and pull out the vacuum. Let's just say my carpets look as great as 30 year old carpets can...they've been vacuumed everyday this week. She's getting pretty good at lifting her head up now. Ryan says she looks like a turtle, I would have to agree. She hasn't figured out she can use her arms to help her up yet, so she just cranes her neck up. Well, actually, first she lifts her eyebrows really high, then her eyes, and then her head pops up. Good thing she has such great eyebrows.

She has finally figured out that the car is a great place to sleep instead of scream, which makes it so much more peaceful when we have to go places. Probably safer too, since I don't have to block out a screaming baby as I'm driving.

She is getting better at finding her thumb. Most of the time she settles for sucking the side of her hand, but every now and then she actually gets her thumb in the right way and gets so calm.

Grammie's shoulder + magic blankie + thumb = one very relaxed and sleepy baby :)

One of the best parts of this week is Laci has finally started to take notice of the things around her. I mean, she has always looked around and at people's faces, but now she actually looks at toys. We got a cute little butterfly from Cousin Sydney that lights up and plays a little song that she thinks is the funniest thing, and she loves the mobile above her crib. She will just lay there and watch it go round for quite a while before she gets bored. Pretty much anything that moves and plays a song is good in her book. This has made my life as "baby entertainer" so much easier. I mean really, how many silly faces can you make?

Having Laci around has changed everything, but definitely for the better. Whenever I feel like I'm going crazy I am reminded by some that even though she has her daddy's eyes, she has my personality: emotional, demanding, high maintenance, stubborn...we both get cranky when we're tired, when we're bored, and especially when we're hungry...What can I say? When a girl is hungry...FEED HER! She definitely expects a lot from her rookie parents. It is all worth it though when she busts out her smiles. I couldn't catch any good ones with the camera this week, but she is a smiling machine.

I just noticed that the "magic" blanket is in every one of these pictures. Yes, I still believe in its magic and so far, it is still working. We figured out that the blankie came from Auntie Whitney to whom we are forever indebted. We will be investing in a few "magic" blankets in the near future for fear that this one is lost, forgotten, or inadvertantly destroyed. We love our blankie!

...seven weeks...

Miss Laci is seven weeks old now and went to her six week checkup with the doctor today

(hmmm...who did the math on that one?).

Her stats:

10 lbs - 50th percentile

21 1/2" long - 50th percentile

Guess she is perfectly average...although we don't think so.

She is getting beautifully chunky legs and is SO cute when she is happy. She's pretty cute when she gets mad too...that bottom lip just starts curling out and you know what is coming next.

The sad part is now she cries real tears...just breaks your heart when they start puddling up in her eyes. Love those eyebrows, so expressive, she works them all over the place. We'll definitely be having waxing/tweezing issues in the future, but at least she has a mom who can relate.

We just love our little girl!

...four weeks...

My baby is almost a month old, and as I sit here in a moment of rare silence I can think of absolutely nothing to say. A sure sign that my brain is on the verge of breaking down due to complete exhaustion. What I find most exasperating is that I have composed numerous inspirational, glowing, at least entertaining, blog posts in my head in the wee hours of the morning. As the Milk Monster consumes her umpteenth snack of the night, I sit in the darkness and craft stories, anecdotes, and tales of the Edwards' Family in great detail, often rewriting sentences in my head until they have just the right ring. However, when the light of day hits my now baggy eyelids, the words disappear somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind, hiding from me until I am once again awakened in the middle of the night and find it completely impossible to get to a computer. Now, I don't really know if these tales I weave in the night are actually of any quality, or if, in my exhaustion, I am deluded into thinking I am some kind of writer. They could actually be complete crap. I guess I'll never know, unless by some luck of grace something sticks in my brain one of these mornings.

So for an almost one month update, here is what you get:

Laci is alive and well, her cold is almost completely gone. She still won't smile at me, although I like to think she is getting closer. And, at this point, I am no longer enjoying motherhood, I am simply trying to survive it.

And just in case you wondered how our photo session ended this morning...

...three weeks...

At three weeks, we're barely starting to get the hang of things. I'm trying to learn how to be a mom and she's trying to learn to live outside the womb. The parenting gods must have thought we had too easy a time the first couple of weeks because we were blessed with a tummy ache all weekend (lots of crying and screaming - baby and me) and a stuffy nose last night. She sounds so stuffy I just want to blow her nose for her. Fortunately, I think she is on the mend now.

What we know about Laci so far...

...she has an adorable smile...when she is sleeping

I'm still waiting for that real one

...she is small but has a very large voice

which means she'll fit in great with the family ...she loves baths and loves to snuggle

which makes me feel like I'm doing something right

...and she loves to nap on Grammy's swing