A Few Firsts

Our little girl is growing up so fast.   About two weeks ago ( I think it was May 30th...) Kalea managed to roll from her back to her tummy for the first time.  She had been so close before that but she was having difficulty going all the way over since she kept her fingers in her mouth.  Finally she managed to figure it out and no one saw!  I have her on her back one minute as I went to brush my teeth and the next thing I know I come back and she is on her belly!  Luckily, she did it again later that evening when both Pat and I could see.  

Since then she has mastered rolling over and getting her arm out from under her.  She has even mastered rolling over in both directions, so she is now an "ambi-turner!"  (10 points if you know the movie that is from=)

The fun part is now when she gets to her belly she either falls asleep, gets mad that she can't go back the other way, or enjoys pushing herself up and looking around.  She is getting really good at pushing herself up now that she can control the amount of time she spends on her belly.

Here she is fast asleep on her giraffe.

What a long day she had!

We recently went to lunch with my family, my sister's fiance, and her future mother-in-law to test out a possible rehearsal dinner location.  There were ceiling fans spinning and one caught her eye.  She just kept looking up at it to see what it was doing.  It is really fun to watch her as she discovers more and more of the world around her. 

Kalea is still spending her nights in her cradle in our room.  I love having her next to me so that I can be there as soon as she wakes up.  In the mean time, we have been trying to get her used to her regular crib in her room as well.  We don't want  it to be a complete shock to her when it is time to move her to her room.  She seems to love it whenever she has a nap during the day.  This is how I found her sleeping the other day!

As she nears the 6 month mark, we are in preparations for her to try solids.  Last week we put together her high chair and now she joins us in her own chair as we eat dinner.  She looks so tiny in it!  The straps are as tight as they can go and yet still way too loose.  She loves taking the shoulder strap and gnawing on them to help her teething gums.

One night we gave her a baby spoon to "play" with and she seemed to enjoy checking it out.

Finally, the day came to try out her first real food.  Aunt Sara came down for the occasion.  Saturday, June 9th, we got out the camera, video camera, and phone to capture her first taste of food.  On the menu...homemade oatmeal cereal.  We decided to go for the Bumpo in the beginning since the high chair is just a bit too big for her.  Here she is all ready for her big moment.

At first she was way more interested in the hanging mobile from the ceiling fan then what I had for her.

"What is this stuff, Mommy?"

She took to her fingers for comfort in between bites.

Daddy got in on the action as well

Yumm...fingers and food at the same time!

She seemed to like it and kept opening wide and leaning forward toward the spoon.

Nice mess she made for her first meal.  We decided to let her go at it since it was a special occasion, plus she was due for a bath that night anyway.  Here is our beautiful girl when she was all done!

She has been on oatmeal for 4 days now and so far so good.  i think we are going to keep it going a little longer since she is still learning and not really needing to have too much of it so far.  I have already prepared home made green beans, sweet potato, and carrots for follow-up food.  Can't wait to have her try those!