love at first sight

so a few disgruntled readers (meaning family members) have expressed their displeasure that I haven't posted any recent pictures of alexandra on the blog. truth be told, as much as i would like to photograph my little girl all the time, there is little opportunity to do so during the week, what with rushing out the door in the mornings and then getting her down for an early bedtime at night. i made it a point to take a bunch of pictures this past Saturday, and my - HOW SHE HAS GROWN!!!




as you will see in these pictures, she has a healthy head of hair - unfortunately for alexandra, she was destined to have unruly hair as it is an affliction of both her mommy and daddy. she has four - count 'em FOUR - teeth. the bottom two are very noticeable in the pictures of her standing in her crib, and she has also grown in two on the top - we joke and call them her fangs because they are not in the middle of the gum but on the sides! her pediatrician says that after the bottom two middle teeth come in, it's anyone's guess as to when the others will fill in. it's funny, alexandra is actually **obsessed** with teeth! she loves it when we give her a full blown, toothy smile...her little face lights up and she places her little hand in your mouth to feel your teeth. maybe we have a little future dentist on our hands....





alexandra is eating like a champ! she is still on breastmilk - i am officially 5 weeks away from hitting the one year mark and then weaning her to regular milk. she is doing great with solid foods - she's not a big fan of things with texture and she does not like many finger foods (though she loves those gerber wagon wheel puffs), but everything else seems to be fair game. i decided early on to make her own baby food and have been so happy with my decision - it tastes better, it's more economical, it's easy, and i know what i am putting in my little girl's tummy! plus, you get to try lots of different things that you don't find in baby food aisles, like mango! so far, our successes have included yogurt (a favorite), apples, bananas, kiwi, blueberries, peaches, the aforementioned mango, macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes, carrots, butternut squash, yellow squash, zucchini, corn, green peas, cauliflower with cheese, flounder with cheese and chicken with apples and corn. the last two might not sound all that great, but they actually are pretty darn tasty!






my little girl is always on the move and wants to explore everything! the daycare teachers tell us that she is always crawling (sometimes over other babies!) to explore new toys. she is constantly practicing her standing skills, and can pull up to a standing position quite easily within a matter of a few seconds. about a week ago, she greeted me from a standing position in her crib one morning and that is usually how i have found her since. she is quite vocal and says a lot of different sounds like "da da" and "ma ma", but she has not yet said dada or mama intentionally towards ryan or myself (i'm secretly rooting for mama!). one of her daycare teachers swears up and down that alexandra said "baby" last friday, but ryan and i have our doubts!




she's developing such a little personality and i simply adore watching her observe the world around her and learn new things everyday. i always thought motherhood would be rewarding, but i never knew what a joy it would be until i laid eyes on her - truly love at first sight!