Isn't this the cutest crawling you've ever seen?! Oh my gosh how I love her! :)

May 31, 2008 (Venily is 7 months, 2 weeks, 4 days old)

Venily has been crawling more today!!!!!! AND I actually got it on video, it's so cute! She sticks her whole butt up in the air, I'll put it up on here when I get a chance!!!! :)

May 31, 2008 (Venily is 7 months, 2 weeks, 4 days old)

I put Venily's 7 month professional pics up! That was fast, we just got them done yesterday! We went to Sears this time. Venily was not in a picture taking mood again- haha, guess she can't be a model after all- she gets too overwhelmed with all of the bright lights and people yelling at her and all.

May 29, 2008 (Venily is 7 months, 2 weeks, 2 days old)

Well, I broke down yesterday and took out all of Venily's 12m stuff! I'm so sad that she is so big, but she DOES have a lot of cute new clothes now! I looked at the tags and a lot of them said 17-23lbs. Ooops, guess she should have been wearing them a lot sooner! She is in a pair of 12m pajamas right now and they already look small on her! I'm going to have to start stocking up on 18 & 24m clothes now. :)

Venily has been sleeping soooo much better now! She went to sleep last night at 9pm and didn't wake up again until 7:30 this morning! But... we left static on the radio all night so that is probably why, lol. Oh well, I know it's not the best, but if it gets her to stay asleep, I don't care! We have been using it more and more... she is such a light sleeper that the tiniest little noise wakes her up, so it really helps! She's back to taking at least 1 hour+ nap (out of her 3 naps) a day too!

Oh and she is starting to get so sick of baby food! She just wants to be able to do it herself. She's little Miss Independant! I have to trick her a lot of the time to eat it. She LOVES finger food though and when I let her use the spoon herself. It's sooooo messy though, especially since she likes to put everything in her hair... luckily she only has a few strands to get messy, haha!

May 27, 2008 (Venily is 7 months, 2 weeks old)

Happy Birthday CHASE!!! Chase turned 2 years old yesterday!! Oh my gosh, he's getting so big!



We had a very nice Memorial Day weekend! We went to Chocolate Fest for a little bit and have been playing outside and going for tons of walks! Venily just LOVES being outside!! Yesterday was Memorial Day and we saw the Chocolate Fest parade. Venily loved that too, she's just fasincated by everything, lol! And she didn't get scared at all! Even when the bands would go by or when this guy in a full ape suit came up to her and was by her for a while, she didn't even cry, haha! I couldn't even look at him or I would have cried! :) I'm so blessed that she's such a good little girl! Yesterday she also went on her first boat ride and liked that too! I'm so happy, this is going to be a very fun summer! We're already talking about when we're going to take her on her first camping experience! Possibly Devil's Lake, I can't wait! And I know Kaitlyn can't wait either! :)

Updates... let's see... I still need to get her 7 month pics taken! Sometime this week, I promise! Venily said Mama to me last week!! She usually only says Dada! But after I got her to say it a few times, she switched it back to Dada! HA! Whenever I tell her to say Mama, she says Dada. Oh well! I know I'm still her favorite! :)

Still no more crawling! She gets around so good without crawling though, I don't see her too eager to try. She can schooch around pretty good and pull herself up to sitting if she has something to grab onto. (Especially in her crib, I find her now in all sorts of different positions when I come get her from her naps or in the morning!) Sometimes when she tries to crawl, she ends up moving backwards, lol! Then gets very mad! She can pull herself up to standing now too if I help her. She loves it and is getting good at balancing but has no regard for danger and I have to be quick to catch her when she falls! :)

She ALMOST stopped spitting up.... but has her days now when she sometimes does! I am trying to find a food-link but haven't been able to do it! I can't wait until the day when she no longer spits up, haha, but by then I'm sure her new sibling will be on her way and will be a spitter-upper too!

May 19, 2008 (Venily is 7 months, 6 days old)

Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday! I had a pretty good day. Venily and I were sick with colds (that we are only now getting over) but other than that it was good.

We have been busy! Wednesday was my birthday, Friday was Grandpa Don's birthday and Matt's first game, and Saturday we went to Joliet for Uncle Jim's race!! Even though she's been sick, she still LOVES seeing everyone and absolutley LOVES being outside!!! She did so good at Matt's game and at the race, I couldn't believe it! Just smiled and laughed and looked around at everything and everyone the whole time!

Too bad the nights haven't been that easy. Runny nose, congestion, teething, etc. have made our nights somewhat difficult! Last night has been the first night that she has started to get a little better. She absolutely refuses to sleep in her crib at night (but somehow doesn't mind it during the day) and was waking up screaming A LOT, which she has never done!!! I wouldn't last ONE day with a colicky baby, oh my gosh!!! I gave her Tylenol last night, and that seemed to help. If she seems to be in any pain today I'm going to bring her to the walk-in, but we will see!

Tomorrow is Uncle Jim and Aunt Kayla's wedding (good luck you guys!) and Grandma Lauren and Grandpa Don's Anniversary!

Oh, and I updated Venily's growth charts on the front page! I KNEW she was going through a growth spurt this last month, haha, just look at her spike in her weight!!

May 13, 2008 (Venily is 7 months old)

7 Month Stats: Venily is 28 inches long and 20 POUNDS!!!! WOW, what a chunk!!! Her car seat is only for 29 inches or 22 pounds, guess we're buying a new one soon! I don't look forward to having to take her in and out of it, but it IS getting ridiculously heavy... :)

That makes her in the 94 percentile for weight and still somewhere in the 95+ percentile for height!



VENILY IS 7 MONTHS OLD!!! We've been so busy, this one really caught me off gaurd! I will have to start preparing myself a week ahead of time for 8 months! I will weigh and measure her when she gets up from her nap!

Let's see.. Venily is doing AWESOME!!! Sleeping good, (4 naps yesterday and she still slept good last night! (and 2 of them were 1hr+), Eating great (never afraid to try new things, LOVES eating finger foods!), Drinking from a sippy cup and real cup, Starting to crawl, Starting to say words (she is still saying "hi" when she waves!), Learning new things EVERY day now (waves, points, claps, does "so big", sticks out tongue, opens mouth, bangs toys together, etc.), AND has an AMAZING sense of humor (there is a song we listen to called "Mommy and Me" and one line goes "We laugh a lot,...how could we not? We're something to see, Mommy and Me" and that basically sums us up, lol! She is so funny, I love her to bits and pieces!!! ? ? ?

I've been thinking of a theme to go for Venily's first birthday and am having some trouble! Any ideas? Jason thinks I'm crazy, I don't care. So what I have 5 months left?! So far "Barnyard Animals" is at the top of my list. I can't wait until the end of the month when we go to Chocolate Fest. Venily is going to have so much fun seeing the animals, she loves animals!

At 7 months....

Venily's LIKES:
* Any non-toy she can get her hands on... scraps of paper, cell phones, remotes, wipe cases...you name it, lol!
* Her family ? ? Especially the ones that entertain her or run around silly all the time!
* Walks with Mommy
* Swinging on the swing in the front yard of Grandma and Grandpa's- it makes her sooo relaxed!
* Making monster sounds!
* Laughing, my favorite sound EVER!!



Venily DISLIKES:
* Being tired! Luckily Mommy now knows when to put her down for naps and how to do it very quickly! ;)

May 11, 2008 (Venily is 6 months, 4 weeks old)

Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies and mommies-to-be!!!! My first official Mother's Day went good! I didn't get what I really wanted but I knew I wouldn't, Jason tried to make it up to me though, lol. I told him all I wanted for Mother's Day and my birthday was to get Venily's ears pierced! He told me ABSOLUTELY NOT, lol. We've been arguing about it since before she was even conceived! So what does he do? He brings her up to me with these huge clip on earrings, I laughed so hard! I'll try and put the pictures up sometime today! Oh well, she looked so cute in them, they make me want to get her ears pierced even more!! Jason also made me breakfast and we had the whole family over for dinne r.

I told Venily all I wanted from her is to grow me some more hair and she ACTUALLY listened!! She's been growing it up so good, there are no more bald spots and some of her top mohawk hairs are super long, lol!! I love it. It seems to be getting lighter too. Venily kept waving and saying "Hi dada" yesterday too! It was super clear, we couldn't believe it! She keeps saying "hi" sometimes when she waves now too. I'll give it a few days before I count it as her first word, just to be certain. HAHA. I was trying to get her to say "hi mama" for mother's day, but she wouldn't! She still only cries "MAMAMA" when she's really mad!

I also tried to get her to crawl again and get it on video, but she won't! She's back to just getting into the crawl stance and then laying down on her stomach! Now she knows I want her to do it so she won't!

TODAY LANDEN IS 1 MONTH OLD AND TOMORROW VENILY WILL BE 7 MONTHS!!!

May 10, 2008 (con't) (Venily is 6 months, 3 weeks, 6 days old)

My little baby is on a roll! Now she can clap too!! I've been working with her on that one for a

few weeks now. She always likes when I do it, but never understood how to do it herself. And today I was playing patty-cake with her and when we're done I always clap and she started to clap herself. It doesn't make any noise because her hands aren't flat, but she was definitely doing it! Now I have to make sure and take some videos of all of her new "tricks"!!

May 10, 2008 (Venily is 6 months, 3 weeks, 6 days old)

WOW, what a busy morning! First of all, Venily has learned how to point now! She likes to point at me and at herself. So we've been doing that all morning. Then she was switching off waving at me with one hand and then pointing at me with the other, it was HILLARIOUS (at least we thought so, lol)!!

THEN.... I set her in the hallway with a couple of toys while I was doing my hair in the bathroom like I always do and Matt had this paper butterfly he made in school lieing on the ground right out of her reach. So I was watching her do her "sitting-to-crawl stance" that she does that usually ends with her flat on the ground and then trying to roll to whatever she wants. WELL, NOT THIS TIME!!!! She sat there, rocking back and forth a bit and then CRAWLED to it three "steps"!!!! I couldn't even speak I was so in shock, then I started jumping up and down and set her up to do it again, just to make sure I wasn't seeing things! Another three "steps"! I was screaming, lol!! She just looked at me with a huge smile on her face and the butterfly in her hand (until I took it away)! It was weird, my heart hurt I was so proud of her and my stomach hurt with anxiety at the realization of how much harder my job is going to get, lol! Oh my, what do I do now?! HAHA, Jason just bought her a pack-and-play yesterday at a garage sale, guess he got it just in time! Man-oh-man, I'm still in shock...

She still can't crawl from a laying down position, she just schooches a little and rolls still, but man it is all coming way too fast for me! Where did my little baby girl go?!

May 6, 2008 (Venily is 6 months, 3 weeks, 2 days old)

Oh my, it's so gorgeous out today! Venily and I have been playing outside all morning, it's so fun! I love the smell of sunscreen and flowers!! I can't wait to buy her a little pool to play in!! I bought her another swimsuit the other day at a garage sale- it's a 2 piece, hahaha! I've come to discover that the more impractical baby things are, the more I love them! Anything "adult-like" I just LOVE!!! Like little jeans with little pockets in them- what's a baby going to put in a little pocket, lol, it's just so cute and funny!

Venily has been taking AWESOME naps again this past week!! AND they are really consistant! 3 a day, 30min- 1 1/2 hours each!!! I can really get a lot done in 30 Venily-free minutes, lol! AND they are like real naps, in her crib and everything and she usually doesn't fight me too much to take them! The only problem is if we go somewhere, then her whole schedule falls apart! On the other side of that though, she's waking up in the night. I don't think the two are related though. She just gets scared when she's by herself. If I put my hand in there with her she'll hold it with her two little hands and fall back to sleep, lol. She's also a REALLY light sleeper and when Jason gets up for work, that usually wakes her up. I usually just bring her in bed with me then and she'll play with my hair or something and fall back asleep!

I really have to keep my eyes on Venily lately! I can't leave her alone on the couch or our bed anymore by herself, because she can easily get off if she wanted to... I've caught her a couple of times close to the edge. She springs forward from sitting and then rolls! No crawling yet! If she's on the floor and she sees something that she wants ahead of her, she'll keep rolling back and forth until she gets frustrated or finds something else that she wants. She schooches around some too. She also will pick up and put any small thing in her mouth. Little rocks, crumbs, grass, you name it! AND I have to put her crib railing up now because she'll pull herself up on it to a sitting position and from there it wouldn't be hard to get over and fall to the ground!

We just picked up one of the last permits needed for our house!!!! We're going to go and order it some time this week, whenever Jason gets a break from work!! We have all of our custom plans drawn up and we've agreed on a siding color/ roof shingle color/ trim color etc.!! Now we need to go there and pick out all of our interior colors! I can't wait! AND we got our address!!!! We're thinking about picking up a mailbox and switching all of our mail to there already!