A different kind of tag

I saw this on a few blogs. It's always fun to reminisce.

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Five Year Anniversary

We were able to celebrate our fifth anniversary recently. We went to a nearby boardwalk. Since Dani is showing some signs of separation anxiety and we were celebrating on a week day we decided to take her with us during the day. She was fairly well behaved at the restaurant and the waitresses were often commenting on how cute she is.

"Hmmm... I want... this."

We then walked around the boardwalk and stopped to look at the catfish and ducks fighting over food.

Unfortunately, one walk around the boardwalk is a little too long for a baby. So we walked back to the car to cool off in airconditioning.

This sure perked Dani up. Within a few minutes she was smiling, laughing and playing again.

6-9 month outfits

Daniella is now big enough to wear 6-9 month outfits. Since I've been able to try on a lot of new outfits, I'm taking lots of pictures of her in the new clothes while they still look new and while she is still fairly stationary. I'll try to include some with a few unique facial expressions as well to keep it interesting.

I find that morning time I get the best facial expressions. There is the spaced look, sweet smiles, thoughtful look, poses, and giggles.

When you fall, make the best of it and enjoy your new perspective. Dani thought this outfit was cute too.

This past Sunday we were able to put Daniella's hair up with clips. She enjoyed playing with the brush.

Since we have been watching the olympics in Beijing this week, I thought it fitting to put Dani in the smaller of her Chinese outfits. She also found this outfit fascinating.

Switches and Dials

Daniella has a new favorite element to her play gym . . .

Since she discovered this switch, she will often try to roll to it to turn it off. She has not quite figured out how to turn it on yet, but I'm sure that is coming. She also loves to turn the dials on our ancient microwave.

She's a beauty, and she knows it!

Daniella loves my computer screen saver, so I printed it for the back of her book. The morning after I put together her book, this is her reaction as we flipped to her favorite picture.

The saddest face!

I've been meaning to post this for a few weeks now but it is so sad that I've been holding off until now. Daniella is starting to display fears. Her latest fears are: 1. the vacuum, 2. anyone wearing a towel on their head, and 3. Mom leaving the room.

I discovered the second fear after taking a shower. I had just gotten out of the shower and heard that she had woken up and seemed very happy because she was talking to herself. So I expected to see big smiles, but instead I was greeted with huge tears. At least on this video it was quick to console her, normally it takes much longer. I don't dry my hair with a towel wrapped around it anymore.

She's rolling!

Daniella intentionally rolled over two times in a row tonight so I pulled out the camera and within four minutes, I had this video. She sure loves her bath book!

Note that she is in her diaper only because she had just finished dinner and was about to take a bath. Since she still does not care to be dressed or undressed I figured I'd let her hang out in a diaper for a while. This is somewhat risky now since a few days ago she figured out how to pull open her left diaper tab. Luckily she has only done this (so far) during diaper changes when I put her new diaper on, and she has not yet realized that she can lift the tab any time she can reach her diaper.

First bites

A few weeks ago we let Daniella play with a spoon in preparation of feeding. She had a lot of fun with this activity.

Then this past Wednesday when she wanted to eat every 2 hours and during one of the feedings she ate for over an hour, I decided it was time to introduce something more to her diet. So, this Friday we gave Daniella rice cereal for the first time. This was a learning experience for me as much as it was for her. She tried a few bites but she was tired and frustrated that I was not giving her the spoon to play and bowl to play with. I realized that we were trying a little too late in the evening for her and since then we have started feeding her during our dinner time and she seems to enjoy it more. Here are pictures of today's feeding.

As you can see from the pictures, very little cereal was actually ingested, but she is having fun and we are learning together.

My Musician

Daniella was first introduced to the keyboard when she was 2 months old. At first she just enjoyed playing single keys with her toes.

Now she is able to play a 5 minute medley for us and is very proud of her achievement.