Day 29: July 30th, 2010

So I know a lot of people wonder but are too nice to ask. Then there are others that come right out and tell me, "don't worry, she can still be cute even though she has that red bump on her head". I've had people ask me "what's wrong with her?"... nothing! The red mark is called a capillary hemangioma. It's just a birth mark that appears shortly after birth and grows until they are about a year old (or so says my pediatrician). Most disappear completely by the time they are 2 years old while about 95% disappear by the time they are school aged.

I've had people ask me why we don't get it removed. I asked my pedi about it when it first showed up and she said that they don't like to intervene because typically, the scarring from the lasers will leave more noticeable damage then if we just let it involute on it's own. So we're just letting it do it's thing. It grew a lot between birth and 2 months, but hasn't changed since then. Here's one of Paige's newborn pictures, just to show the difference...

Paige at 5 days old. You can see a pinkish spot but it wasn't raised at all.

Photo, obviously, by Katie Ryan

Paige today! Playing with the remote control. Her new favorite toys are anything Mommy uses (remote, alarm clock, iphone, keyboard....)

In this picture, you can see how our dogs ruined our blinds by scratching at them from on our bed. Now a chunk of the blinds are missing on the right side and if we don't position them right, we look like the neighborhood peeping toms. I really need to buy curtains... sigh!

Paige just adores her daddy and is always touching, feeling, grabbing his face to keep him close to her. So sweet!

Day 28: July 29th, 2010

Paige gets CRAZY in her Exersaucer. Like, huge eyes, screaming with excitement, jumping up and down frantically, grabbing onto things and shaking them as hard as she can kind of excited. And lately, she's been trying to chomp on the toys in it, except that she can't quite reach. So first I'll share some "crazy baby" pictures then the normal ones.

"Holy crap, Mom!!"

Actually, I think she was trying to get to the toy to eat it in that picture.

And some normal pictures, just so I don't make my baby look like a total spaz!

She's always doing weird stuff with her toes. Everyone always comments on it because she ALWAYS has her toes curled as tightly as possible - then she hooks the pinky toe underneath the one next to it (kinda like crossing your fingers).

Some other random shots...

Day 27: July 28th, 2010

I'm in love with the little footie pajamas. My husband says they remind him of Christmas. Anyways, I just had to take a few pictures of Paige sitting on her own. She still can't roll over but she's getting close (she has the strongs for it, she just gets freaked out when she's about to roll and flips back the other way).

Getting all set up to sit...

"Mom look! I'm doin' it!"

Yeah, I really did need 3 pictures of virtually the same face doing the same thing!

My parents got her this toy and it's just CREEPY! Like it has teeth and it's mouth opens and it sings when you squeeze it. And it's face is really ugly too. So of course, Paige is in love with it.

Paige loves to stand. She can do it by herself as long as she's holding on to something. I wonder if she'll be one of those babies who skip crawling.

This is a classic Paige tired face. I just love when she gets sleepy. If you're holding her, she buries her face in your neck and rubs it on you.

Day 26: July 27th, 2010

Paige is hilarious when she eats now. She says "mmmmmm!" as I feed her and tries to grab the spoon and kind of push the contents of it into her mouth. Her favs are definitely avocado, peaches, and now pears. Still hates apples and banana. Is this really my baby? lol. I don't think I've ever eaten avocado (I don't even eat guacamole) and I definitely don't like pears. Apples and bananas are two of my favorite fruits!

She's so cute with the dogs too. Whenever she sees Maddie, she reaches for her and giggles like crazy! I don't know why I never get any pictures of Cali, our third (well, technically our first) dog. I just realized every picture is of Nic and Maddie. So here's Cali, our princess.

Day 25: July 26th, 2010

Ewww Monday! But only 6 more weeks until we go on vacation! That is, if we make it through my brother-in-laws wedding alive. :)

Paige loves her baby bjorn. I really don't use it enough, pretty much just to vacuum with her. I convinced my husband to try it out though!

Day 24: July 25th, 2010

For the first time since Paige was born, my husband and I are going out on a "date" without her. It will be hard to leave my munchkin behind but with the whole not sleeping very well issue, mommy needs some time to restore her sanity. :)

Of course, it had to be very complicated figuring out a date that would work with my mother-in-law for her to babysit but finally the stars aligned & it all worked out. This Sunday is the day!

Paige going for a walk (taken with my new 35mm! squeee!). You wouldn't know it from these pictures but she actually despises her infant seat.

I just compared these images to themselves in PSE and they are definitely warmer and have a nice sunkissed "glow" to them in PSE. :( I guess I'll be looking into fixing that this weekend!

Day 23: July 24th, 2010

Flickr is really messing with my image coloration & making them look weird all of a sudden. I'm not sure if it's my (uncalibrated) computer or what.

After Paige's bath we fixed her crazy hair into a little mohawk!

Day 22: July 23rd, 2010

Eek, I'm getting behind again! I have a good excuse though. After an entire week of sleeping through the night, Paige decided being awake at night was much more fun. Yep, the 4 month sleep regression. It started slow. She went down to bed as usual then randomly started crying 30 minutes later. Diaper was clean, she was clearly tired, and she didn't want to eat. So we gave her the paci and she fell back asleep for the night. Except starting around 4 am, she would fuss. Just for 10 seconds or so. Every 2 minutes until 5 am. Like you know when it's bugging you but you're too tired to actually get up and do something about it? Well I passed that point and just got up and gave her the paci... and she fell back asleep until 8 am so I was convinced it was just some weird fluke.

But then last night, she was so tired as she was eating her squash that she started to fall asleep in her Bumbo... and it was only 6:30 pm. So we finished up, gave her a bottle, changed her for the night, swaddled her, & as soon as her head touched the mattress she was asleep. Until 8 pm. Then 8:30. And then 9. Then 9:30. Luckily after that she slept pretty well, until about 3. Then she started doing the fussy thing again every few minutes, but this time the pacifier didn't help. Nor did a diaper change, a feeding, or even the swing - our go to for emergency sleep situations. Oh, and she won't nap for more than 20 minutes now. She will clearly be very tired (rubbing her eyes, barely opening them) but just can't stay asleep. I don't know who this is harder for, her or us!

Anyways, pictures of Paige being cuddly:

Day 21: July 22nd, 2010

I've been in a bit of a photography rut lately. My new lens (hopefully) comes tomorrow so maybe that will help. I feel like I keep making the same mistakes over and over so I get frustrated and then don't want to keep trying. Oh well, I need to keep in mind I will get better with practice and focusing on my problem areas. No matter what the quality, these pictures should make a nice album for Paige's first birthday. Anyways, sorry if that sounds like a rant, it's not meant to be one. I just want to get the best pictures I can so I'll always remember the little things I loved about her age. :)