Bethany's First Boat Ride

Joe and I have pretty much visited all the tourist attractions in Ottawa.  Since Miss B is "new" in Ottawa, we figure we should be her tour guides and show her around in Ottawa.

We took her to Dow's Lake for the Tulips Festival two weeks ago. and other than a bit of a meltdown in front of the flowers, she did pretty good.

Last weekend, Bethany had her very first Ottawa River Boat Ride.  The ride was 75 minutes and she did amazingly well (of course, with the help of cheerios and rice puffs) and did not even fuss once!

 

Bethany is a crawler!

A month ago, I made a point of blogging everyday, or at least, every other day.  I would sit Miss B on her playmat, and then I would be blogging like a mad person while she is happily chewing on her Sophie!  This works great for a few weeks until she decided that sitting at one spot is no fun anymore.  

Miss B has been "scooting" for the longest time I can remember.  She would "scoot" underneath the jumperoo and be happily playing "under" the jumperoo for half an hour.  She would "scoot" so close to Bee and then pull the poor dog's tail.  

One day, out of the blue, her little mind decided that "scooting" is no longer fun, and then she started army crawled.  She was in the slow army crawling stage for two weeks (before she turned 9 months old).  This week, she has progressed from the slow army crawling stage to the super duper fast army crawling stage.  She crawls so fast that even my dog looks at her, from a distance, in pure amazement!

Though it is uber cute to watch Miss B crawls on top of the dog, over her toys, underneath the chairs... it could possibly cause serious accidents in the house...

... and hence... B.A.B.Y.P.R.O.O.F.I.N.G.!

Bethany has cut her first tooth!

Miss B has been teething (so I was told) since she was 4 months old.  Everyone has been telling me that a tooth or two should be on its way anytime soon.  Well this "anytime soon" has turned to a 5 months wait.  During this waiting "game", I got discouraged a few times, after seeing babies younger than Miss B, had cut their first teeth before Miss B did.  There was a time that I began to worry that Miss B would be a toothless baby.
Yesterday, Miss B was 9 months and 4 days old, she cut her very first tooth! 

Bethany's OALASWI!

For those who do not know the mommy lingo: OALASWI = Out As Long As She Was In!

Well this day has finally arrived! The day that my sweet little baby girl has been out as long as she was in! It has been a wonderful yet sometimes hectic 39 weeks. It has been truly amazing to watch her grow, watch her laugh, watch her chuckle, watch her roll, watch her jumping happily in the jumperoo, watch her sitting up un-assisted, watch her babble "Hey da..d", watch her sign "More" & "Eat" and watch her army-crawl. Most importantly, it is very rewarding, as first time parents, to watch my daughter grow up happily and healthily.

My love for my daughter grows everyday, every hour, every minute and every second. Bethany is a sweet chunky monkey and there are so many things I love about her and her developing personality. I truly hope that she will be as close to me as I am to my mother in the years to come!

Here are some pics of my precious sweetie pie:

At Birth -- Birth Weight 6 lb 15 oz

First Picture with Daddy in the Recovery Room at the Hospital

First Picture with Pao Pao in the Waiting Area at the Hospital

7 Days Old

One Month Old

Two Months Old

Three Months Old

Four Months Old -- in her bumbo and with her Sophie!

Bethany's First Christmas

Five Months Old -- Tummy Time!

Six Months Old -- eating a huge chunk of banana

7 Months old

8 Months Old -- First Time sleeping on her tummy

First Easter

First Tulips Festival (picture taken the day before OALASWI)

The very first Mother's Day Gifts

It is not even noon yet and I have been uber spoiled by my husband and my daughter.  They made me a yummy breakfast this morning and showered me with flowers, cards and gift!
 

I love being a mom...

I love being a mom...

I love the way my daughter smells.

I love her little hands and little toes.

I love the way how her little hands touch my face.

I love the way how she smiles when I walk into her room in the morning.

I love the way how she holds out her arms when she wants me to pick her up.

I love the way she babbles, yells, shouts and screams.

I love the way how she army crawls (well, only backward though.)

I love the way how she signs "more" and "eat".

I love watching her personality develop.  

I love watching her experience new things for the first time.

I love that she is making me a better person, more loving, more caring and with loads of patience.

I love that I am her world and she is my world.

I love bragging about my daughter to strangers or family members who have not seen her in a while.

I love that strangers come up to me and tell me how beautiful my daughter is.

I love knowing that with a simple diaper change, her world is perfect again.

I love knowing that there is no other being on earth that is more loved that she is.

I love knowing that my daughter is healthy, happy and simply just perfect.

I love all my mommy friends!  I have met a lot of awesome friends from being a mom!

I love watching Joe's love to our daughter grow everyday!  They sure have a strong daddy-daughter bond!


Happy Mother's Day to all the G.R.E.A.T. moms out there... especially to my mom, Bethany's Pao Pao!

Bethany's first sushi experience

Yesterday, I had lunch with two of my mommy friends and their sons!  We had sushi for lunch.  I have been giving Bethany "human food" * since she was 6 months old.  As a lover of Japanese food, I decided to give Bethany a piece of avocado roll... and she loved it!

* By "human food", I mean real food that we, adults, eat.  I started giving Bethany home-made purees when she was 5 months old.  At 6months, I noticed that she was not too crazy about the smooth texture of purees.  So I gave her mostly finger food instead.  The other night, she had pasta with tomato sauce for dinner!

 

Bethany is a rolling machine!

Bethany started rolling when she was 5 months old (only tummy to back) and by 6 months old, she could roll from back to tummy.  By 7 months old, Bethany was a un-stoppable rolling machine; fron to back, back to front, roll to the right, roll to the left, roll into closet, roll to the dog, roll on top of the dog... etc.  She started rolling in her crib a few weeks ago.  Putting down for a nap in the morning has been a challenge for the past few weeks, often time, she sees her crib as a playground instead of a place for her to rest and relax!


This morning, after rolling and screaming in her crib for half an hour, she finally fell asleep.  I went to her room to check on her, and this is what I saw:

Signing Class One

This morning, Bethany and I went to our very first Baby Signing Class (Green Class)... and it was F.U.N.!  Today, we (ok mostly I, as Bethany was busy chewing toys and touching other babies!) learned how to sign:

Hat, Coat, Socks, Shoes, Doll and Bear!

Bethany and I learned the Pink Class (Eat & Drink, Pets, Diapers & Hurt, Mom & Dad) by watching the Baby Signing Time DVD Volume 1.  She can sign "eat" and "more"!


The class was given by Signing Start and Danielle, the instructor, is truly amazing!  

http://www.signingstart.com/Course-Information/Baby-Signing-Time

Month of May...

It is hard to believe that it is May! Last year this time, I was rounding the corner into the last trimester, the homestretch of meeting our precious daughter! 

 ... I went through all my pregnancy pictures last night and I can't believe how "huge" I was last year!  This picture was taken when I was 32 weeks pregnant!  Thanks to all the late-night samasos I sent Joe to get for me! :-)

Bethany's First Words...

Bethany has been babbling since she was 7 months old.  Most of the babbling did not really mean anything. It is a way for Bethany to express herself or simply just for her to hear herself.  When she was about 4 months old, she "screamed" everyday just to hear her own voice.  It took her quite a long way to come from screaming to babbling, and there was one point I was secretly worried that my daughter will grow up to be a screamer!


Last Thursday, while I was out at the dentist, Bethany babbled her very first words " Da Da" to Joe!  I am a bit sad that I was not there when Bethany did that! The next day, while I was changing her diaper, Bethany babbled "Da Da" again.  I then said to her " Hey little one, Da Da is at work!".  Then she "da da" at the dog, at her singing cow, at her sophie and at her toys!  She pretty much "da da" at everything and all day long!  It was just so cute!


This morning when we had breakfast, Bethany babbled " Hey Da... d"!


My daughter is sure growing up fast!