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.

5 months

I promised pictures of Dani sitting up by herself. Here are some of my favorites that I took on her 5 month birthday. She has many more pictures from this shoot where she is sitting up with both hands up, but I only have time to pick a few favorites.

What did Dani do as a 4 month old?

Daniella has learned so many new things over the last few weeks. She is now 5 months and I do not know where the time went. Since I am so far behind on my blog, I figured I'd do one entry for her 4th month. Since I tend to have difficulty thinking of what to write, I am going to let the pictures and videos guide my thoughts. Here are a few of the activities she did while 4-months-old.

She laughed at games and tickles:

Took walks outside:

Played xbox with Dad:

Typed an email to Grandpa:

Played with her toys:

Grabbed her toes:

Sucked her toes:

Waved hello to the mirror and other children:
(I was cleaning out her closet and heard her talking and kicking the mirror closet doors. Ever since she has tried to reach and touch other babies.)

Stuck out her tongue:

Looked out the window by her changing table:

(we now have to be fully dressed if we are going to change a diaper)

Danced and sang in the jumper:

(Dani likes for us to turn on music while she is in her jumper. We typically turn on the keyboard's dance rhythms - she prefers hip hop or flamenco to waltz. Sometimes she seems to get the rhythm of the beat in her jumping. On this particular day she decided to "sing" with the music - there was a singer after all)



Squealed at Mom:
(She has been squealing like this for months now. I think it is her favorite sound to make.)

Read scriptures with Mom:

Attempted to eat dinner with Mom and Dad:

Played on the floor:

Pet a pug:

(A few weeks ago Dani would yell "Aaa!" at the pugs for getting near her, but now she reaches for them as they walk by, similar to the mirror video. The first time she pet a dog was this past Saturday)

Learned to tripod sit:

(This improved significantly over the month and by her 5 month birthday she was able to sit for about 5 minutes at a time on a pillow - pictures to come soon.)

They grow so fast!!!

First ultrasound:
July 5, 2007
9.3 mm long


Last doctor visit:
July 8, 2008 - approximately 1 year later
26 inches (~660.4mm)
14lb 13oz


She is now over 71 times longer than she was a year ago. If she grew at that same rate over the next year, she would be over 153 feet tall next July.

I'm amazed at how much she has grown!

4 months

Daniella is already 4 months old!!! It is amazing how time flies. Here are some of my favorite photos taken recently. I will try to edit this blog later when I have more time with more descriptions.

Father's Day

Trent has been stay at home dad for the past month and has done a WONDERFUL job! Dani LOVES her daddy. After eating she will try and sit herself up so that she can see her Dad and smile and talk to him. Every morning she smiles at him and talks to him while Mom is gets ready for work.

Though at first, she looked up at him with uncertainty....

she now looks to him for comfort. When she suffered a reaction to her immunizations, it was her Dad that she wanted. He helped relieve her of her pains and stayed with her until she fell asleep. He even made sure she had another dose of Tylenol in the middle of the night so she could relax.

We both missed him when he was on call. Dani loved to cuddle up next to him on post call days. Some days they would even take a nap together.
Dani likes to be outside with her daddy. She prefers to be in his arms while we take family walks. She also likes to chew on his finger along the way.

Dani is very lucky to have a dad like Trent. It has been so fun to have him home!

My Book Worm

So a few days ago I decided to read Les Miserables (the unabridged version) to Daniella since she was acting somewhat sleepy. But instead she was energized by the book and began to read back to me. As long as I was reading, she was also "reading". Here is a sample of her "reading".




Though in the video Daniella's response is somewhat toned down from her typical reaction to this book, it still gives you a good idea of how much she loves Victor Hugo. She has not enjoyed any other book as much as this.