TWELVE // DELILAH IS ONE!

It’s official: Miss Delilah Wren is ONE! Our little bird has taken one trip around the sun.

And what a trip it has been.

“The days are long but the years are short” has never felt more true … Especially so in these past two weeks in which the days and nights felt incredibly, exhaustingly long.

So let’s just get the not-so-fun part of this update out of the way first, shall we?

Week 51 — the week before her first birthday — was a doozy for Delilah, and her worried parents. Mama and baby got sick, but our sweet girl had it worst. A nasty cold (the second one in her short life) that had Delilah waking up from her afternoon nap on Monday (10/15) screaming because she couldn’t breathe through her nose escalated into croup and culminated with an overnight stay at the hospital on Wednesday (10/17). This was after already enduring an early-morning, three-hour stint at a local ER, bookended by visits to the pediatrician. The week felt like one big downward spiral. There were lots of tears from mama and baby, as Delilah was miserable not only from from the high fevers, stuffy/runny nose and hacking cough but also from all the doctors and nurses that kept examining her and the two breathing treatments she was given to help open her airway. If you know Delilah, you know she’s very shy and has a strong case of “stranger danger,” so all the poking and prodding, even if with just a stethoscope, was completely overwhelming and upsetting — for all of us. 

Despite having to sadly postpone Delilah’s birthday party, that weekend did see improvement. And on Tuesday, 10/23, her very first birthday, all that remained of Delilah’s cold was a runny, stuffed up nose and occasional cough. At the time of this writing, she is all better health-wise. What seems to be lingering, though, is the immense fear she felt at the pediatrician, the ER, the hospital... She may be a bit traumatized from the whole ordeal (and I don’t blame her!). Getting Delilah to sleep in her crib (and to stay asleep) has been a challenge, to put it mildly. Hopefully the memory of all those scary doctors and nurses will fade from her memory fast. 

(Unfortunately, Delilah did have her one-year well check at the pediatrician on Friday, and had to get three shots — poor girl can’t catch a break.)

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OK! Now onto happier things.

Stats: Our little bird has been weighed many times in the past two weeks and the numbers on the scale keep fluctuating; before she was sick she clocked in at about 18 lbs 12 oz. At her weigh-in yesterday (10/26) she was only 18 lbs 4 oz. Since she was born premature, I predicted that she wouldn’t hit 20 pounds by one-year. But she has been growing steadily along her curve — she has more than tripled her birth weight — and the doctor is pleased with her progress. And Delilah loves to eat, she’s just skinny! She’s happy and healthy in the 30th percentile. And no surprise here: Our string bean is lean and long! She grew 2 inches since her 9-month checkup and is now 30.5 inches long! That places her in the 90th percentile for height. Someone is taking after mommy :)

Tooth count: Delilah has three more teeth on the way (to join her cute bottom two). Both of her top canines have broken through, and her left bottom one is still working. It's been a big bulge with a white dot for weeks.

New skills: Delilah’s twelfth month wasn’t so much about learning a bunch of new skills as much as it was about refining the ones she already has. She is cruising now, mostly around the gate and new shelves in her play area. We joke that she sometimes “angry cruises” — she’ll be crying about something and step step step her way closer to mama. The first time she did this you could tell by her face that she literally didn’t know how she got to where she was! She cruised herself into a corner and when she stopped crying and mama moved positions, she didn’t know how to get back where she started. Since then her cruising has become more intentional though.

Delilah still loves to stand up and now she can actually stand independently (without holding onto anything for support) for a few moments. She’ll sometimes even do this while holding a toy or her snack cup. When she first began trying to balance on her own, you would see her deliberately let go of her support and hold out her arms and hands. She had this mixed expression of nervousness and amazement as she waited to see what would happen. She was testing herself! It’s incredible to see her challenge herself to learn and grow.

Favorites: She still loves putting things in and taking things out of containers. She’s obsessed with giving kisses — to mama, dada, the dogs, her stuffed animals, even books… anything that makes her happy. Our little explorer wants to crawl everywhere and she’s getting really fast! She’s fascinated with doors (will stare at them, actually) and thinks it’s fun to open and close them herself. She’s also strangely fascinated by ceiling fans — talk about easily amused! Our voracious eater has tasted more than 100 different foods and there’s not much she doesn’t like. She’s even interested in dog food, ha! Delilah does enjoy sharing her puffs with her pups, and finds it fun to feed them their own treats, too. While the Hot Dog Dance song is a perennial favorite, the Baby Shark song is also now on rotation as the go-to distraction during clean-up time after meals. Mickey Mouse never fails to garner a smile but Gymbo (and his songs) elicits just as much joy and excitement.

Personality: At one-year-old I would describe Delilah Wren as mostly sweet, deeply shy, sometimes silly, incredibly smart and a tiny bit sassy. (She has this funny way of tilting her head all the way to the side and giving a sly little smile — like she’s keeping a secret.) She is super observant and detail oriented and determined, sometimes stubbornly so! When she decides that she wants to learn or do something, she goes for it.  If another baby takes her toy, she won’t mind, she’s happy to share, but if that baby touches her food — forget about it. Ha! She’s a mama’s girl through and through but she adores her daddy and he can make her laugh like no one else.

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Even though Delilah’s birthday was several days ago now, it is still hard for me to believe that she is really one year old. Looking through old photos, I can’t help but wonder, “where did that baby go?” It’s so cliche but this past year really did fly by in the blink of an eye. Of course while in the midst of things it didn’t always feel that way. Each new phase brings new challenges. Right when you think you have something figured out or managed, the girl goes and changes the game! You want to hold onto time, slow things down, savor their babyhood, but then there are days you just want to Get. Through. It. Whatever the hard thing is that day, you’re just trying to get through… and then at some point you realize you still need to treasure the difficult moment because one day too soon they’ll also be a fuzzy memory.

Suffice to say, Delilah rocked our worlds when she came into our lives in the most unexpected way, and she has continued to surprise me, in both good and hard ways... At 6:08 pm on Oct. 23, 2017, everything changed. Everything got harder but better all at once. And at Year One that continues to be true. Motherhood isn’t easy. It isn’t glamorous. It isn’t always picture perfect. But it is the biggest joy and blessing of my life. Our journey to parenthood was a lesson in trust and patience and holding onto positivity, and I find those are the same lessons I keep needing to learn as a mama. This girl is teaching me, refining me. She has learned and grown so much in 365 days and I have too. We’re in this together, kid! 

Delilah Wren, knowing and loving you and calling you ours has been the most amazing blessing, an incredibly imperfect journey that really is only just beginning. Your Daddy and I dreamed of you, and still you are so much more than we could have ever hoped for... So keep on blossoming, my beautiful wild flower, and we’ll keep on loving you, forever and ever. 

Happy First Birthday, baby girl.

ELEVEN

 

Miss Delilah Wren is 11 months old! Now that we’re one month out from the big one-year mark, I think I’m in a state of denial. On past monthly milestones I’ve felt more emotional but for some reason this one feels just, surreal. Like, can I really have an almost one-year-old? Scrolling through old baby photos the other day I couldn’t believe how different Delilah used to look, how much she has changed. She was so much smaller. Her face was so much rounder, her cheeks were so much chubbier, just a few short months ago. Her movements were slower and less refined. She was far less opinionated, ha! She’s become her own little person. I remember everything and yet it all feels like a blur. Those newborn days are especially foggy now. Well, writing that makes me a bit sad. I want to hold onto this special time — this first year with Delilah — longer, tighter. Have I made the most of every moment? I hope so. I guess I am emotional after all.

While there’s plenty for this mama to feel sappy about, there is also much to celebrate in this update! This past month was one full of growth and development for our little bird. And, as seems to be the case with maturing babies, it was also one full of fighting naps and bedtime. Apparently Delilah is too excited about all her new skills that she doesn’t want to waste any time sleeping. Truthfully, she is also still very attached to us (stranger danger is still a thing, and she’s still very shy) and Delilah doesn’t typically like being left alone, so she’ll do whatever she can to get Mama and Dada back in her room (throwing Wubba, pulling on the tapestry above her crib…). But let’s focus on the positives, shall we?

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New and notable this past month:

Stats: Delilah weighs about 18 lbs 8 oz. I wish I could note how long she is but that will have to wait until next month. But let's just say I think she’s going to be needing a new car seat sooner than later. Her feet dangle over the edge and touch the backseat of the car. Her head is as high as the side-impact-protection padding. Our string bean keeps getting longer and longer! In clothes she is still generally wearing 6-9 months but she’s starting to fit 9-12, especially her legs of course. The 6-9 month pants are capris now ;)

Baby girl is on the move more than ever! The biggest accomplishment this past month has to be that Delilah is finally, officially, crawling on hands and knees. She’s up off the ground, off her belly, and she’s getting faster every day. She occasionally slides back down onto her belly and returns to army crawling when she’s tired, but if I say “knees, baby, knees” she gets back up (she’s so smart!).

Ever since discovering how to pull up, Delilah loves to stand. It’s probably her other favorite thing to do, besides crawling, and she practices all the time. (She enjoys crawling into our laps and pulling up on us!) There was one day a few weeks ago where you could tell she was diligently working on figuring out how to sit down from standing, and after that day she was a pro! (Which made mama feel better, that baby wasn’t going to just topple over anymore. At least, not as frequently.) Delilah does some nice deep squats now; her little legs are getting so strong! She can bend down to pick up toys and she can twist her body while standing to take a toy. Our girl keeps her feet flat on the ground more than she goes on tip-toe now, but she is still finding her balance. Delilah wants (and tries unsuccessfully) to stand independently at times, but she hasn’t really started cruising yet. She has, however, shown more interest in climbing, especially at Gymboree where she likes to climb up and around the playroom’s structures. 

This past month we really focused on container play (in vs. out) and Delilah caught on fairly quickly. Now she loves putting toys and other items into various containers, such as balls into baskets. She loves taking things out too, but babies are basically born knowing how to do that! I read that babies learn how to undo things before they learn how to do them, and Delilah has proved that to be true. (Here’s hoping she’ll learn how to put all her board books back in the bookshelf soon.) Not long after understanding how to put things “in,” Delilah learned the meaning of “give.” A natural progression, to be sure, but one I didn’t necessarily set out to teach — it just happened. She wanted to put things "in" our hands. Now if I hold out my palm and ask her to give me something (or if I ask her to give a ball to another baby at Gymboree) she’ll often do it! Not always of course, but many times.

Can you tell Delilah likes balls? Something else that she learned how to do is play pass. This was another accidental discovery that started with us rolling a big ball to her. In her attempt to touch/grab it, she flicked it back toward us. This happened enough times that she found it amusing. Delilah noticed the pattern of going back and forth and began to do it on purpose. She even played pass with a younger baby at Gymboree! I asked Delilah to pass the other little girl the ball and she did it three times in a row. A smarty, this one.

An adorable milestone moment this month was Delilah learning to clap! Sometimes she claps in the correct context, like when I tell her “good job” or when someone else is clapping, and other times she just randomly claps for fun — or for reasons unbeknownst to anyone else but her. Say, when she's laying in her crib fighting sleep ;)

Delilah still really enjoys a good game of peekaboo and she finds it extra funny when she is the one doing the hiding. This happens a lot lately when being changed — she’ll grab her clothes and raise both arms to cover her face and then … PEEKABOO!

We’re still working on waving. Sometimes it seems like she is waving, but if so her wave consists of stretching out her arm with an open hand. When she does this, it is toward other people but often they are not looking in her direction.

Delilah continues to be, more often than not, quiet and observant, which I think is why she understands most of what we say to her. But no real babbling yet. Just lots of AAH!s (short and loud, many times directed at the dogs) and grunting (when excited or frustrated or just overwhelmed).

Our adventurous gourmand got her very own fork last week and gobbled up spaghetti squash with it. We still load her utensils for her but we have begun working on teaching her to “scoop” and “poke.” Delilah is ever closer to reaching the goal of "100 foods before one," with less than 10 new foods to try. Recent eats include pulled pork, mushrooms, papaya, and different kinds of cheese. The mushrooms were a surprising hit. Delilah specifically pushed the rest of her pasta aside to pick each morsel of mushroom out to eat. My baby loves baby bellas! :)

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This next month is probably going to fly by despite my best efforts to slow down time… but we can’t wait to see what our little lady learns next!

TEN

And just like that, baby girl is 10 months old! Now it really feels like the countdown to the one-year mark is on, and birthday party planning is in full swing! These next two months are going to fly by, I’m sure, but I don’t want time to tick on too quickly. Can my baby stay a baby just a little longer?

Delilah has been changing and progressing so much lately… I am simultaneously incredibly proud of her and her development, and also feeling nostalgic about those newborn days (the non-colicky ones, ha!) that seem so long ago now. Mostly, though, I spend my days cheering her on to her next milestone because it is a special thrill to watch your baby grow and achieve. 

Delilah is driven and determined, as well as easily frustrated when she can’t do what she wants to do… So when she finally reaches a goal, you can see the pride spread across her face in the sweetest smile. Our girl is more mobile and social than ever before, and it’s a joy to watch her personality blossom. She’s often shy (with others) and sometimes sassy (with us). She can be silly, she’s ticklish. She’s super observant and incredibly smart. She is definitely impatient (especially when waiting for food). And she is obsessed with / fascinated by the strangest things (our smartphones, glasses and wallets). She doesn’t say much but she understands a lot, and she makes her feelings known through grunts, giggles and gurgles, as well as cooing and crying, of course. She has her favorite things — her favorite types of food (fruit of all kinds, or zucchini), her favorite books (and pages within those books), her favorite TV show (Mickey, duh)… She’s her own little person! And it’s amazing to see.

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New and notable this past month, in no particular order:

Stats: Delilah weighs approximately 17 lbs 15 oz (so almost 18 pounds!), is currently in size 4 diapers (we just moved her up, she's technically between sizes but she needed the extra length) and wears mostly 6-9 month clothing.

We enrolled in the Baby Lab class at Gymboree, which seems to have helped ease Delilah’s anxiety around strangers. While she has lots of “baby friends” now, she still quite introverted.

Our girl attended church for the first time (Brave Church in San Ramon) and she loved the music and whenever the congregation clapped.

Our little bird became a little fish, going swimming for the first time! She was apprehensive at first but then she had a blast cruising around in her pool float and splashing the water.

Delilah also went to a farmer's market for the first time this past month and she LOVED sampling all the fruit!

After an immensely difficult week while Daddy was away (the first time Mama was on solo baby duty) that included lots of fighting sleep, Delilah is no longer rocked to sleep for naps or bedtime, and she goes to sleep on her own! Not always easily, and there’s usually a few minutes of fussing, but surprisingly she is much better at putting herself down than we thought she’d be. First-time parenthood = always learning new things.

Weirdly, now that she puts herself to sleep, she snoozes mostly on her belly instead of her side!

Delilah loves to crawl around the house and especially enjoys going after the dogs. She’s still a champion belly crawler but Delilah is getting her knees up and under her more and more. She often plays while kneeling, or reaches for a toy on her knees. There have been several occasions (mostly at Gymboree! inspired by other babies?) where she crawls on hands and knees briefly but then she inevitably slides back down to her belly.

Sitting up on her own is easy-peasy now, and in the past two weeks Delilah has begun pulling up to a stand! When she first sat up in her crib, we lowered the mattress. Then she started pulling up onto her knees so we lowered it more. Now she can get up on her feet pretty quickly so the mattress is down as far as it can go! She also pulls up on the gate surrounding her play area. I was shocked when I turned my back to grab something out of the diaper bag the other day and when I spun back around Delilah was standing up, fairly steady, like “hey mom, look what I can do!” Of course she fell to her booty before I could snap a photo. She also really likes using Mama as a jungle gym, crawling into my lap and grabbing on / pushing up. Lately, all Delilah wants to do is practice her new trick, which is good because she still needs to work on keeping her “ballerina” feet flat on the ground, instead of standing on tip-toe, and finding her balance. (At the moment, she’s like a wobbly baby deer, or — what I really call her when she stumbles around — a drunk baby!)

Other signs our baby girl is growing up: She takes baths on her own (without a seat) in the big tub; she eats 2-3 meals a day and uses a plate (most of the time) and, very recently, is learning to drink from a straw cup; and she can sometimes play by herself without needing mom or dad’s direct attention.

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Delilah Wren, we are so proud of all you have accomplished, but don't grow up too fast, mkay?

NINE

Baby girl turned 9 months old this week! With the busyness and stress of moving to our new home at Camp Parks, the milestone kind of crept up on me… And yet, while Delilah's eighth month may have seemingly gone by in a flash, I wouldn’t say it was one of those “time flies when you’re having fun” scenarios. In many ways this past month was one of the hardest ones we’ve had — at least since Delilah’s colicky/gassy/reflux-y newborn stage. The culprit this time? Teething. Delilah’s first tooth started breaking through her bottom gum on July 6, and a few days later the one next to it started making an appearance too, and both teeth have been giving her (and us) a very hard time ever since. She was actually feeling so miserable on Monday (lots of crying, about everything) that we had to postpone her nine-month photo opp until Tuesday. 

Three weeks and only half of the teeth have emerged above the gumline… they are just the slowest growing little things! And while everyone says the pain of cutting a tooth goes away or subsides once it breaks through the gum, this is not the case for Delilah. This past week has seemed even more bothersome for her. (Maybe there are other teeth coming that we can’t yet see?) On top of the teething, Delilah’s been struggling with major separation anxiety/clinginess, has developed a case of stranger danger (if she doesn’t know you and you say hello, cue the waterworks!) and, according to the Wonder Weeks, she's in the middle of leap 6 (which I haven’t even had time to read about!).

Suffice to say, Month 8 was filled with a lot of tears (hers and mine) and lots of difficult bedtimes, followed by middle-of-the-night wake-ups. “Sleeping through the night” is a rare luxury lately, where previously Delilah had been a pretty decent sleeper.

It goes without saying but I’ll say it: This girl is my whole world and she has my whole heart. When she hurts, I hurt. When she’s mad, I’m madder (ha!). Seriously though, as hard as this past month has been, there have been joys too. And every happy moment, every smile, makes the tough times worth it and pushes me to get up — bright and early! — each morning to do it all over again and hopefully be the best mama I can be.

And through the difficulties of teething and clinginess and leaps, our sweet, shy bird is slowly coming into her own… Often now I see a strong, bright and feisty girl about to blossom (watch out, world!). With each new skill she learns, she becomes more confident, more opinionated (a nice way of saying impatient) and more determined.

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New and notable this month:

Probably the sweetest, cutest accomplishment: Delilah learned to kiss! She now gives mama and daddy drooly, open-mouth kisses. She likes to stick her tongue out for good measure! French baby kisses :) She finds the act wholly amusing.

Delilah also enjoys being tickled, especially on her back, and the “Tickle Monster” is a new favorite game when she is in a giggly mood

Speaking of games, baby girl played peekaboo a couple times, by lifting a blanket in front of her face and then dropping it. When mama said “peekaboo,” she smiled and did it again! Usually we’re the ones hiding from her (and she loves it, this game can always get her to crack a grin or distract her from something she doesn't like)

Delilah started doing this funny thing of lifting toys over her head, and we weren’t quite sure why… then she started doing it with her food/spoon… Eventually we figured out that she wanted to share with us! She will now often go back and forth, taking a bite and then offering the food (or a teether) to us before back in her mouth it goes

Blame it on teething or the leap or just loving mama SO much but Delilah is in a new phase of wanting to bite mommy, especially at bedtime. She’ll try to bite my hands, arms, chest, anywhere she can reach (she even bit my foot the other day!) but for some reason she never tries to bite daddy. Hmmm… And even though her teeth are only halfway in, man are those things sharp!

Delilah is belly crawling still, and sort of hates being on her knees despite our attempts to help her get more comfortable kneeling and putting weight on them. She has, however, sat up on her own a couple of times, always to our surprise! She comes up from laying on her back/side — girl has some serious core strength 

Now that we are in our new place, bath time has been happening in an actual bath tub and baby girl loves it! It’s fun to watch her having fun in the water and have this “chore” be less like a chore and more like play!

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A final note about the evil that is teething: Although it has caused us all a lot of grief and I pray subsequent teeth won’t take nearly as long or hurt her nearly as bad, I am excited for her to have the extra “help” while eating plus it is really cute to see those teeny-tiny pearly whites peek out she smiles. 

EIGHT

Another four weeks have flown by and our girl is 8 months old! And for some reason, hitting 8 months is freaking this mama out. I shared my (albeit, crazy) thought process with Greg on a family walk the other day: Eight months is almost 9 months, which is almost a year! Ack! Why is time going by so fast?! I know, I know, I shouldn’t get ahead of myself and yet this baby of mine is growing up far too quickly for my liking. I want her to stay small and snugly and easy to contain, haha. 

Seriously though, our sweet little bird is much more spirited these days. Just this past month Delilah has gotten a lot stronger and much more active, and she definitely has opinions. Oh, does this girl have opinions. She wants things and will let you know how she feels if you are too slow or say no — not that she understands the word “no,” but she does understand when she doesn’t get what she wants (i.e., our phones, the TV remote control, the eye glasses on my face… basically anything within arm’s reach). Nevertheless, this not-yet crawling or standing baby will attempt (and half-succeed) to lunge out of our arms to grab something, and she’s been honing her army-crawling skills, though a lot of the time she’s just face down in the blanket, rubbing her nose in the floor in frustration. Our former tummy-time hater can, however, do a fast and mean PIVOT! 

Despite all this growth and newfound strength, Delilah is still a sensitive and delicate flower at times. We often sing “Twinkle Twinkle” to soothe her during diaper changes, outfit changes, mealtime cleanup, etc. And our gal is still very observant and detail-oriented, which can make her seem like a very serious baby but she’s just taking it all in and figuring out the world around her.

Side note: The dress Delilah is wearing in these photos is the one Greg and I picked out at a cute local boutique the day we learned we were having a girl! So sweet to finally see her in it.

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Other news and accomplishments this past month:

Sitting up! Just a week after turning 7 months old, Delilah sat up on her own for the first time. Several weeks of sitting practice and leg stretching, especially, paid off and Delilah’s balance and flexibility has continued to improve in the last three weeks. In fact, in just the past two days she has started to prop herself with her hands while leaning forward to reach things and she is using her arms to catch herself (sometimes) from tipping over sideways. She also is slowly becoming more graceful at getting out of the sitting position and onto her belly, a move that is almost always done in an effort to reach Cali or, secondarily, to see the TV.

Just a couple days before that big milestone, we hit another one: transitioning Delilah to her crib. We did it on a whim, cold turkey. No practice napping in the crib or anything. Daddy just decided he wanted our bedroom back — he was tired of tip-toeing in at night — and he put her in the crib that night. She actually took to it well all things considered, though she was waking up at least once in the middle of the night for weeks, which mama had to deal with since Dada is a heavy, deep sleeper. There were many times it took an hour or more to get her back to bed but its getting better. The last week or so there have been several nights with no wakings, and the nights that she does happen to wake up I can sometimes just slip her Wubba and quickly retreat. We’ve also transitioned Delilah out of her puffy Merlin Magic Sleep Suit and into a thinner, lighter sleep sack — a change that did not go well the first time we tried it! We waited a few weeks and tried again and now baby girl seems very comfortable because she can sleep on her side (either one), which she prefers.

We don’t have a well visit for another month but we weighed Delilah at home and she’s clocking in at a little over 17 lbs now! She’s in size 3 diapers and starting to wear 6-9 month clothes but can still fit her 3-6 month onesies and shirts.

As to be expected with a teething baby, playtime is often more about “what can I put in my mouth?” than actual play. Delilah just wants to grab and chew everything. You can tell her gums are sore because of the sort of crooked way she holds her mouth when she cries or when she rubs her tongue over them, but still no teeth breaking through!

Our little bird isn’t babbling yet (no matter how much we try to get her to say “mama” or “dada” or “baba”) but still lots of cooing and gurgling when she’s happy. And nothing guarantees a smile more lately than Mickey Mouse! She gets so excited whenever Mickey comes on and she loves all the clubhouse songs, especially the Hot Dog Dance. I swear she wants to get up and boogie! She stretches out her arms, wiggles her legs and feet, and grunts and squeals in delight.

Delilah also still loves turning the pages of books, to the point of obsession. She goes lightening speed, clearly not caring about the story or the pictures but simply the act (and accomplishment) of page turning. She actually gets mad if I try to slow her down and read! As much as I may want to read her the book, I try to follow her lead and let the girl do what she wants to do. Her dexterity is getting better every day and she is able to turn the pages of some of her board books on her own!

I should have mentioned last month that she was already much more skilled at manipulating objects with her hands, especially at mealtimes. She would often pass the spoon or piece of food from one hand to another to get a better grip (or, to turn the spoon the right way). Practice makes progress so she continues to improve and is able to pick up smaller pieces of food now, such as half a raspberry — though puffs still evade her grasp and frustrate her completely.

Delilah can also put her beloved Wubba back in her own mouth now, though many times (especially if she is half asleep!) she is lazy and opens her mouth waiting for us to do it.

She’s begun to bang her hands on things, mostly the highchair tray. But (as of this writing) she’s also learned to bang toys together, too. While she can’t clap, she is absolutely fascinated when mama claps a rhythm. She’s enjoying her light-up musical drumming toy even more now that she can effectively hit the buttons! (Similarly, baby girl has also gotten good at actually shaking her rattles.)

I’ve started implementing a few Montessori techniques at home such as presenting like toys and materials in a “treasure basket” for Delilah to explore, and she really seems to love taking items out of the baskets, examining each one and, of course, figuring out which fits best in her mouth :)

SEVEN

It seems that I pen the same things every month but it all remains true: Time is going by in a blink! Our baby girl is growing so fast (16 lbs 4 oz now), and Greg and I just couldn’t be more proud at all she’s learned and accomplished so far. Sometimes — especially when I get nostalgic and scroll through old photos, usually late at night after Delilah has gone to bed — I want to hit pause and freeze time, to keep my squishy little babe a baby forever. And yet, simultaneously, I can’t wait to see what our little girl will do next.

She fills our days with joy and purpose and we’d do anything to see her smile and hear her laugh. (Oh man do those giggles make my heart just soar!) Parenthood isn’t always easy (as any parent knows) and our everyday is not always a picture perfect fairytale, but I have to say that overall parenting Delilah is pretty damn good and the hard moments in between just make the good ones that much sweeter. Our little bird’s favorite board book is called “Will You Be My Sunshine?” and she most certainly is that light in our life.

“I’m so glad you are my sunshine, my rainbow up above. 

My bright star and moonbeam. My sweet and precious love.”

We love you, Delilah! To the moon and the stars, all the way around the sun and back again.

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New and notable this past month:

The biggest change is that Delilah started solids! She is great with a spoon, and prefers it actually. We’re working on picking up finger-sized pieces of food. Sometimes she’s into it, and other times not so much. There isn’t much she doesn’t like (she’s even jumped on board the avocado bandwagon!) but I’d say her favorites are yogurt, banana and sweet potato. But she also gobbled up a pea and summer squash puree I made, as well as a bowl of apple cinnamon oatmeal. 

I heard about a challenge called “100 foods before 1” and it sounds like a fun goal! We’re only a month in and so far Delilah has tried 23 different foods: 

1. avocado
2. sweet potato
3. banana
4. salmon
5. plain yogurt
6. yellow bell pepper (raw)
7. carrots
8. black beans
9. turkey
10. egg
11. wheat toast
12. pasta (marinara)
13. summer squash
14. oatmeal
15. strawberry
16. bolognese sauce
17. peanut butter
18. raspberries
19. broccoli (raw)
20. flank steak
21. apples (granny smith)
22. peas
23. zucchini

She’s also experienced several different flavors and spices: lemon, lime, cinnamon, curry powder, garlic powder, paprika, turmeric, chile powder, cumin, olive oil, butter and coconut oil.

Now that she’s been introduced to food, if you eat around her and she doesn’t have something to munch on as well, she gets mad. Luckily if we’re out at a restaurant she’s pretty content with a teething wafer. She loves them and it’s good fine motor skill practice! As far as drinking out of an open cup, she is still getting the hang of it, some days she is better than others and some days she even holds onto the cup herself. 

The only thing Delilah hates about mealtime is… cleanup time! She cries every time we have to wipe her hands and face. Sorry, kid, it’s just part of the deal.

And while our little eater has been teething for four months now — and it’s quite bothersome to her some days, poor thing — still no teeth!

Aside from learning how to eat, we’ve very recently introduced sign language to Delilah to hopefully give her a way to communicate her needs even before she can begin to talk. (I can already tell she understands a lot of what Greg and I say to her, particularly repetitive phrases that we use often, she just can’t really reply.) I’ve mostly been focusing on teaching signs at mealtime — signs for “more” and “water,” as well as “milk” during bottle feedings — but I’ve also incorporated the “all done” sign into playtime when it seems that she is done with a toy or game. I’ve also been trying to teach Delilah to wave hello, and there have been a couple times where it seemed like she was really trying to mimic mama’s hand movement. Other times she just grabs my hand :)

We’re still working on sitting, but we’re getting closer! Delilah’s legs and hips are tight and she likes to straighten her legs, keeping them rigid and stiff as opposed to letting them lay wide and floppy to give herself a good base. So I’m working leg stretches into our sitting practice sessions. But when her head is up and she’s looking at something at eye level, Delilah can actually sit pretty well on her own for several seconds, so I know that she’ll master sitting up soon enough. Until then she still really enjoys rolling around on the floor and playing with her toys, which is a good thing because although it looks like she really wants to crawl at times, she needs to gain more strength first. She's is excellent at pivoting though!

The only real “negative” this past month is that sleep hasn’t been great. Delilah’s been more difficult to get down and many nights she wakes up after only a few hours… or at 3 a.m. She’s been getting a lot of cuddle time in the bed because often that is the only way to get her to go back to sleep. We’re hoping this development is just due to the leap she was going through or the infamous six-month sleep regression and that she’ll revert to her normal sleeping patterns soon. The wishful thinking of naive first-time parents? Maybe. She’s still in our bedroom, but that will likely change soon after we move to a new house in July (or sooner, hopefully!).

Delilah Eats: Let the Adventure into Solids Begin!

The following was written in bed, in the dark, on my phone at 2 a.m. on April 21. #momlife #mombrain #thisiswhyIcantsleep ;)

I am getting excited — and admittedly a little anxious, but mostly excited — to introduce Delilah to "real" food! Over the past month or so, she's been watching my husband and I pretty intently while we eat. If she's playing, she just stops and stares. It is so interesting to her! And for weeks now she's expressed a strange enthusiasm for mugs and cups (and wine glasses!), following them with her eyes as we drink and even reaching out to touch them. But it wasn't until this past week, while out at restaurants, that she started to actually make grabs for our plates of food (and forks)! Clearly, this girl is ready to eat. And I'm feeling more confident that she is, in fact, ready for this next phase as her head and neck have gotten stronger and she attempts more and more to sit up.

Starting solids is something that holds special meaning to me, and likely other mamas too. Because food is more than food; it’s relational.

I'm a lover of gourmet eats and dining out — call me a foodie, if you must — and both my husband and I enjoy cooking. As such, long before I got pregnant, I would daydream about the types of breakfasts and after-school snacks I would make my kids and I'd wonder if my children would be fans of my favorite dinner dishes. (I hope Delilah will like black beans because they're a go-to!) I'd imagine holiday dinners with my family's traditional cuisine, such as rice pudding at Christmas. I couldn't wait to cook for my little one, to provide delicious, satisfying, nourishing and creative eats. And now that my baby is almost 6 months old, I'm highly anticipating our first family meal (at the dining table! Even though that means clearing it off and no longer using it as a catch-all).

I've given Delilah's first foray into foods probably more (no, scratch that — definitely more) thought than my hubby would have liked. I've read two books {this and this} and countless online articles, and I even took an e-course! I've debated high chairs, spoons and cups. I've carefully selected her very first foods. Oftentimes my tendency to examine and research and (over)analyze gets the better of me. But I just have this strong desire to "get it right." What do they call that? Worried first-time mama syndrome? Seriously though, I haven't always had the best relationship with food (eating when I'm bored/sad/stressed, eating until stuffed), and consequently my weight and self-image have suffered, and I want to help my daughter avoid that negativity if at all possible. If I can establish healthy eating habits and associations now, I'm all in.

Besides all that, it's gonna be FUN. I'm going to have to learn to let go a little because teaching a baby to eat is guaranteed to be messy, and flying food has the potential to drive me bonkers, but all the hilariously cute photo opps are sure to make the mess oh-so worth it.

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Fast-forward to today and guess what? We’re a week into our feeding adventure! We started slowly, with a few days of prep. Greg assembled the high chair on Sunday, April 22 (the day after I wrote the above prologue) and the next day I strapped Delilah in for a test run in which she got to munch on… spoons! Empty spoons. She checked out her new utensils {this and this} as well as her cup and she was pretty content just chew-chew-chewing away (those poor teething gums).

We “practiced” this way in the high chair every day for three days so that she could get used to the process and not feel overwhelmed once we introduced food. I planned to keep her “practicing” for about a week but by the third day she seemed to know there was supposed to be something more. I swear Delilah gave me these looks like, “hey ma, where’s the food?!” She was already sitting taller in the chair than on the first day so I decided it was time to give the girl what she wanted.

But, of course, the first meal didn’t go as planned.

The short story: She hated it.

Greg and I selected avocado as Delilah’s first food. The native Californians that we are, we love avocado and almost always have some in our kitchen. Avocados are healthy, too! Chock-full of good fats that support brain development. I simply mashed a ripe avocado with a fork, taking care to make sure it wasn’t too chunky. I loaded up the baby spoons and presented Delilah with her first bite. She eagerly grabbed the spoon and brought it to her tiny mouth. But her glee quickly turned to disgust! “What is THIS?” Her face was priceless. Funny even, initially. But after several attempts (including trying the other spoon) that led to the same reaction, her pouty cries turned to real upset. Greg and I comforted our babe, cleaned her up and took her out of the high chair.

I was disappointed, no doubt. I didn’t anticipate her hating her first food, but I knew I had no control over her reaction. And I also knew that it can take many tries for a baby to warm up to a new flavor or texture. All she’s ever had is (some) breastmilk and (lots of) formula. As much as she seemed ready and excited to eat, it’s really not surprising that she wasn’t into her very first taste of food. But we’ll keep trying avocado and hopefully after awhile she’ll join the bandwagon.

In the meantime, there are lots of other yummy things to eat! Delilah’s food diary thus far:

4/26 … mashed avocado // not a fan, quickly became upset

4/27 … mashed baked sweet potato // still apprehensive at the initial taste/texture, but liked it much better than avocado! // messily drank some water from her open cup for the first time

4/28 … leftover sweet potato, this time thinned with a bit of water and mixed with a pinch of cinnamon // improvement again! she ate/swallowed much of what was offered // drank beautifully from her cup, took four good sips

4/29 … mashed banana // definitely Delilah’s fave! hesitant at first, kept dropping spoon, but once she got a taste she couldn’t get enough. ate more than I expected and really seemed to enjoy it

4/30 … a little bit of everything: banana, sweet potato, and tried avocado again (sliced at first, then mashed) // didn’t eat as much as the day before, possibly overwhelmed by all the different flavors

4/30 (evening) … dinner with mom & dad: flaked salmon! // played with it at first, spreading it across her tray, but eventually grabbed a handful and attempted to bring it to her mouth. she then accepted my help and took a bite — didn't seem to love it but she didn’t hate it either

5/1 … plain full-fat Greek yogurt with a sprinkle of cinnamon, thinned slightly with water // made a face, probably due to the tartness of the yogurt, but kept going for more! // drank some water like usual, but she gets frustrated that mama won’t let her hold the cup by herself

5/1 (evening) … yellow bell pepper // munched on but didn’t actually eat a raw pepper slice that daddy was prepping for dinner (fajitas) // she seemed to like it, the cold hard vegetable likely felt good on her gums

5/2 … mashed steamed carrots mixed with a little water and melted butter to smooth it out, but it was still a little chunky // again, she seemed to like the taste but perhaps put off by the texture. will attempt to make her food a bit smoother in consistency and see how that goes!

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We’re still finding our way on this eating “real,” solid food adventure. I don’t rigidly subscribe to one particular feeding strategy. When it comes to traditional weaning vs. baby-led weaning I take a more middle-of-the-road approach. As much research as I’ve done, I’m still trying to figure it all out, honestly, and follow my baby’s lead. That is the one thing I am a big supporter of: baby-led feeding. I want to teach and encourage my daughter to feed herself from the start. And I want to be respectful of her and her body’s cues. When she’s full, she’s full. If she doesn’t like something, I’m not going to force it. At this point, food should be fun. She’s getting all the nutrition she needs in her bottles. Which means that mealtime in the high chair can focus on exploration and discovery: New tastes, textures, colors and smells;  learning how to pick things up; learning how to navigate food in her mouth. Interestingly enough, actually eating isn’t so important right now, though Delilah has done a bit of that. What is important though, to me anyway, is the experience.

So here’s to many more fun food adventures with my gal, to family dinners, afternoon snacks and Sunday brunches, and to more adorably hilarious photo opps. Cheers!

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I've taken way too many photos over the past week! Here is a sampling from Delilah's first bites:

sweet potato

banana

 salmon

yogurt

carrots