The Still Hot Days of Septemeber

Dave says: In September, it seems like fall should be almost here and yet the temperatures are still plenty hot. We spent a lot of late afternoons in our pool and Skye has been an excellent swimmer this year. One Saturday we went over to the beach pool at Val Vista Lakes.

A benefit of the heat was lots of very early morning bike rides. One of our favorites this summer when we could pull it off was out to Canyon Lake on the new smooth pavement that they just put down out there. I also saw a few rattlesnakes on early morning mountain bike rides. In early mornings and late evenings, we found that the kids enjoy going on wagon rides around the neighborhood now that Jade is able to sit up in the wagon. She is really well-behaved and will sit there for an entire ride playing with a toy or old food wrapper. Skye does a bit of riding on her bike, scooter, and pretend horse. Often, I am carrying this object on the way home though.

We also had some fun trips to Payson to escape the heat. One weekend we were up there with Christine's family and did some hiking and looking for crystals and geodes. She got to sit in a RZR which she calls "jeeps" and now she has been obsessed with pointing out jeeps everywhere.

At work, September was my busiest teaching time with three sections of the online MBA ethics course. However, I had great students and it turned out to be another good year.

8 Months and on the Move

Alisha says: Jade has grown up so much this last month. First of all after one particularly rough night where she was up 5 times in 5 hours we decided it was time to move her into her own room. The first week was a little rough as she still woke up multiple times wanting to be fed but we have since settled into a steady routine where she goes to bed at 7:00 PM and will usually sleep until 4:30 AM and get a snack and then she will go back to sleep until about 6:30 AM.

She is officially crawling and can go from a crawling to seated position and back. She even enjoys doing a little bit of standing. It is fun to watch her maneuver herself around to get different items that she wants. She is already getting into cupboards and the tv buttons.

Although she is a mommy's girl and wants me whenever I am around she will also sit and entertain herself a little bit. She also enjoys going on walks in the wagon and will just sit and look around and play with her toys. We love her so much and I love her smiles, giggles and growls.

Baby in a Bucket

Alisha says: I saw this idea on pinterest the other day and so when strawberries were on sale for .79 a package I decided to give it a try. Dave mostly just rolls his eyes at some of the things I do but I think that I got some adorable pictures of Jade.

August

Alisha says: August was another hot one here in Mesa. We spent our early mornings cycling and our late afternoons swimming. I have been able to put in some solid miles in on the bike and feel like my fitness is coming back after having Jade. I have recently started posting more rides on strava and going for a few QOM's that are around here. Dave has been busy with work and went to his work conference early in the month leaving me solo for a week. I had my ups and downs with the kids while he was away but we made it and were glad when he returned home.

Now onto the update on Skye: Skye knows and can sing a lot of nursery rhymes but recently she has discovered that she also enjoys a few pop songs. One that she likes to sing and watch the video on youtube is Thunder by Imagine Dragons. The song basically has two words, thunder and lightning which she says over and over. It really is adorable. She also like to watch the music videos and listen to Roar by Katy Perry and the Zootopia song Try Everything by Shakira.

She has started to do more pretending and has recently given herself the name "Brewster" (it's from a cartoon called Chuggington). She likes to be called Brewster and frequently refers to herself in the 3rd person as Brewster. Other names she has given herself include; bunny, Allie and Carly.

Skye started preschool two days a week. She was really excited about it and did really great her first day. She has two teachers Ms. Bear and Ms. Mansfield. I ask her questions on the car ride home about her day at preschool and for the first several days whenever I would ask her what her teachers names are she would say "Ms. Mansfield, don't throw sand". Which I decipher as Ms. Mansfield has had to tell her several times not to throw sand during recess which I later am able to confirm by the amount of sand that is in her hair and shorts. Haha, oh well. She also gets excited about snack time and sitting "criss cross apple sauce" on the rug. It is fun and exciting to see her grow and start to explore the world around her. Right now we think that she is going to have a more extroverted personality as she talks a mile a minute and likes attention. She has big emotions which is really cute when she is excited about something and not so cute when she throws a fit.

Skye's first visit to the dentist. She did really good, letting them take x-rays and clean her teeth. No cavities!!

Playing at the Children's Museum

Skye's first day of preschool!

We took some family pictures with the whole Welsh Family.

Riding with my friend Victoria! I love early morning riding.

7 Months

Alisha says: Jade is continuing to grow and develop each and every day. She is quite the little wriggler and can maneuver herself around on the floor to reach things in her general vicinity. She is working on the crawling motion and will probably figure that out in no time at all. She does the cutest little baby planks where she is stretched out and up on her toes, she also can get up on her knees in the crawling position. I regret to write that she still has not slept through the night, not even close. Hopefully we can work on that during this next month.

We started introducing Jade to some new foods this month. She has tried avocado, sweet potato, mango, banana, and a few pouches that are a mix of a few veggies. Sometimes she likes the new tastes and other times she doesn't want anything to do with it. I also forgot just how messy it can get feeding a baby pureed baby food.

6 Months

Alisha says: Jade is such a little joy. This past month she has really changed a lot. She just seems bigger in general to me. She like to be held facing out so she can see what is going on. She has figured out that she has hands and can control them which makes it a lot harder to eat while holding her because she is constantly grabbing for my plate, food, or utensils. She will entertain herself for stretches of time while laying/rolling/wiggling around on her play mat reaching for the toys that hang down, or sitting in her jumper playing with the toys around the edge. She likes to look at (and try to eat) books as I read to her. She can sit up for short stretches of time all by herself.

She is still not a great sleeper and tends to get me up an average of 4 times a night and recently has been waking up for the morning between 5:00-6:00 am. The good thing is that I am usually getting up anyway to head out on a bike ride but it would be really nice if she would sleep in a little more.

6 Month Stats:
Weight: 15 lbs 1 oz (40%)
Height: 26 in (60%)
Head Circumference: 16 3/4 in (50%)

 

July

Alisha says: It was oh so hard to return to the heat after our Park City vacation and as much as we immediately wanted to plan another trip I told Dave that we needed a few weeks of routine at home to really work on potty training with Skye. She is enrolled to start a little preschool two days a week mid August but it is a requirement that they are potty trained. We had a few rough days but she is finally starting to get it and I am beginning to think there is hope. The thing that finally started motivating her to do #2 on the potty was the reward of getting 2 oreos. So other than that we have been spending a lot of time in the pool where she continues to amaze me with her swimming skills. She can swim the length of our pool all by herself. She is good at holding her breath and looking around while under water. We have also tried a few other water related activities and took Skye paddle boarding and tubing on the Salt River.

Skye's vocabulary is growing every day. She knows a lot of words and is constantly asking "what's that" these days. It is fun to have more "conversations" with her and just to see what comes out of her mouth and what her little mind is thinking.

She has started saying the dinner prayer all by herself. It is adorable, mostly she just whispers a few sentences where we are not really sure what she is saying and then ends with a loud, clear, Amen!

First tiny top knot hairdo!

Early morning bike rides everyday!

 Paddleboarding

Tubing on the Salt River