Month Seven

• She goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 every night and wakes up around 6:30 or 7:00. She'll babble a little bit and then be pretty quiet, sometimes until as late as 8:00. The extra sleep this provides makes me feel very spoiled. When I go in to get her from the crib, she has found her pacifier and put it in her mouth. That's why she's so content and quiet!
• Every morning, I make her bottle while holding her. I shake it up and put it on the end table as I sit down on the couch and get us situated (cushions pushed in, burp cloth in place under her chin, blanket over us for snuggling, etc.), and she immediately begins to cry, as if I'm not going to feed her the bottle I just made. She has no faith in me, even though I feed her the bottle every time, haha. Oh, and the cry is really sad and pathetic, which just makes me laugh. (Am I a bad mom?)
• She likes anything we give her to eat, which so far includes rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, carrots, peas, green beans, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, peaches, applesauce, blueberries, mangoes, spinach, pears, plums, prunes, bananas, corn, and pineapple. We've finally moved on to "stage 2" foods.
• After she eats solid foods, I always go to the sink and wet a paper towel, and when I walk back over to her high chair, she scrunches up her face in anticipation of having it wiped off.
• She knows that when I clap my hands twice and wiggle my fingers in a "come here" kind of way that I'm going to pick her up, and she starts smiling and kicking her feet.
• She is still an amazing sleeper, and now she's incredibly easy to put down. At night and usually for naps, we can put her in the crib and walk away, and she'll fall asleep on her own. And if she wakes up on her own at night, she almost always puts herself back to sleep. We never really had to do any sleep training or cry it out. We feel very lucky!
• She loves chasing things that roll, especially empty water bottles.
• One of the only downsides to her crawling is that she can now track me down and cry at my feet while I'm doing dishes or cooking. She can also follow me. When I took out the trash one day, she crawled after me, crying pathetically the whole time. Then she just sobbed at the front door until I came back and picked her up. Killed me.
• She likes to squawk, and she thinks it's funny if you mimic the sounds she makes. We'll often have long squawking conversations with her!
• When we read to her, she tries to grab things (words or pictures) out of the book.
• She likes to babble, and she mostly says "Blah blah" and "Ma ma." I like to pretend she's saying my name. :)
• On Halloween, when we were all dressed as pirates, she got really scared and cried both times Daniel said "Arrr!" to her. So sad cute!
• She can stand on her own if she's holding onto something, like the couch. Oh, and she stands on her tippy-toes rather than on flat feet. Is that a typical baby thing or just a her thing?
• Unfortunately, one of her favorite things to do is pinch people's neck skin. It's surprisingly painful. (She also pulled fistfuls of Daniel's beard before he shaved it. Apparently that hurt, too.)
• She doesn't like being held facing you. Instead, she likes to look out at the world. It's cute, but it's also sad, because she's totally not a snuggler :(
• Though I'm ashamed to admit this, she is OBSESSED with the Taylor Swift song "Shake It Off." Showing her the music video, playing the song, or sometimes even just singing it will make her stop crying EVERY TIME.
• She experienced her first snow on Sunday, November 2nd. Poor girl.
• Right now is actually her first time being sick (with a cold). She's still a total sweetheart, though the waking up every hour in the night earlier this week wasn't so fun. I haven't so much enjoyed all the snot and barf on me either.
• She loves being outside and going for our daily walk, even if it's windy and cold. The other day, I opened the front door while holding her to check the weather for our walk. When I closed the door, she immediately started crying and didn't cheer up until we actually went outside. What are we going to do during the winter? *Sigh*
  
  

Month Six

Holy crap, Aubrey is six months old! Craziness. Regrettably, her six-month "birthday" hasn't been superb for her... she seems to be having tummy issues and is pretty fussy. Still, I managed to snap the following picture and gather some cute highlights:

• She loves watching the laundry spin around; it always helps to do laundry when she's fussy.
• When you change her diaper, she grabs whichever of your arms is closest to her, making it very difficult to continue. She also lifts her bum up when you pull the front of the diaper forward before folding it up, so the diaper often slides right out from under her.
• She's an amazing eater! This makes us so happy. She particularly loves bananas, but she'll eat anything we give her. As she waits for the next bite, she just sits expectantly with her mouth open. So cute!
• When she's tired and fussy, she likes sitting on her daddy's legs and listening to him drum out a beat. It will always get her to stop crying (and she starts crying again if he stops)!
• She gets really excited and kicks her feet and waves her arms if she thinks you're going to pick her up when you walk by. Sometimes, she'll cry when she realizes you have no intention of picking her up. Sad cute!
• She wants to crawl SO badly. She moves the right way, but she hasn't quite mastered it. Instead, she army crawls to get around. She also loves to roll all over the place.
• When she's dragging herself along the ground with her arms, she makes her way to the hardwood floor and runs her hands up and down to make a squeaking noise.
• She's finally sitting up like a champ, and next time we go shopping she'll be sitting in the front of the cart. (I've been dragging her car seat around and throwing it in the main part of the cart, thereby taking up most of the room. So annoying.)
• One of her favorite games is pulling a blanket/shirt/burp cloth/anything fabric over her face and sniffing really hard (as if she's trying to smell it really well) until someone takes it off with a flourish and some sort of fun sound effect. As she does it, she makes a funny squished-up face that I love.
• She also likes "Wheels on the Bus," but she always locks her elbows, making it difficult to get that circular motion with her arms.
• I'm pretty sure she knows her own name. She seems to respond to it.
• She loves any form of peek-a-boo, and she laughs harder the more you can surprise her/make her jump.
• A person blowing his or her nose can make Aubrey jump through the ceiling and maybe even cry.
• In the late afternoon, as we're waiting for Daddy to get home, she often wants to be held and walked around. If I try to put her down in her Exersaucer, play mat, swing, or high chair, she just cries. But then, when Daddy gets home, I hand her off to him, and she lets him put her down without a fuss. It's so annoying (mostly because of how smug Daniel is about it, haha).

And there you have it! I tried uploading some videos to illustrate these things, but Blogger isn't cooperating. Oh well. Maybe later!

My Baby Has a Black Eye

Well, yesterday was quite the day. It was Rosh Hashanah, so Daniel had the day off. We decided to finally tackle our bedroom walls and get rid of that lavender paint once and for all (seriously, lavender?).

We got everything all ready and put Aubrey on the floor with some toys outside our room. We also took a full-length, unframed mirror (which we plan to hang on the wall after we paint) and propped it against the wall outside our door. This not only got it out of our way but also made a nice distraction for Aubrey, who loves looking in the mirror. Daniel even propped it up nice and straight for her so she could really see into it.

Oh, for the record, the mirror looks like this:

See those sharp edges? Yeah, you can probably see where this is going.

The worst thing is, I even had that nagging thought, "Maybe we shouldn't put this out here with her. She might knock it over onto herself and get hurt." But did I listen? No. Instead, I rationalized, "Well, we'll watch her and make sure she doesn't get too close to it." And actually, I did watch her, and she never went near it. Ironically, she'd have been better off if she had. If she had knocked it over herself, it probably would have landed on her and bonked her head or something. I don't think she would have been cut by it. But as fate would have it, she was just about exactly the length of the mirror away. Bad news.

You see, Aubrey started to get fussy awhile into our painting. It was getting to be nap time. So I decided to leave Daniel to finish the room while I handled Aubrey. Only I'd stepped in some paint and needed to clean off my foot before I walked all over the carpet. So I hopped to the bathroom, grabbed a wipe, and started scrubbing my foot. But Aubrey was really sad, so I decided to sit by her while I cleaned my foot off. I plopped myself down by her and talked to her reassuringly, and once the paint was off, I pulled myself up by the door frame. And in the process I somehow--I still don't really know how--bumped into the propped-up mirror ever so slightly. And because it was propped up so straight, it never stood a chance.

I heard a thud and then instant crying. I turned around to see Aubrey lying there with the mirror next to her and blood all over her face. It was the most horrible moment. I could tell that the corner of the mirror had just caught her on the face, but I had no idea what part of her face was hurt or how badly. I hurried and grabbed her from the ground and shouted, "Aubrey! Oh my gosh, Aubrey!" in such a way that Daniel knew something was really wrong. He came running out of our room, saw the blood, and sprinted downstairs to the kitchen. I followed, holding Aubrey tightly to me (and getting blood all over my shirt). Daniel grabbed a paper towel, and I held it to her face for a second, pulled it away to see what was actually bleeding, and discovered that there was a small cut under her eye and big gash across her nose. I held the towel there to stop the bleeding while Aubrey just screamed. It was awful.

I instantly burst into tears and kept apologizing to Aubrey and telling her I loved her. Daniel, much more calm than I, was quick-thinking and remembered to give her a Priesthood blessing. That helped calm me a little bit, and I thought to give her some infant's Tylenol. We then made some phone calls and ended up at our pediatrician's office (where we had never been before... what a great first impression!).

Long story short, Aubrey's eye was okay (SO grateful for this), but they weren't sure if her nose needed stitches--it was right on the border--so they sent us to the E.R. in Providence. We were there for four hours or so (ugh), but thankfully Aubrey didn't need stitches. They iced her nose (she was NOT a fan) and then put Dermabond on it. The doctor said she has "perfect skin," so it should heal well and not scar. We're really hoping it doesn't. 

In the end, it ended up not being too bad an injury. The cut looked better and better as time went on and it stopped bleeding. But just a little to the right, and our baby could have been blinded or lost her eye or something equally awful. And the amazing sweetheart that she is, she only cried for the first ten minutes or so after it happened, and then she was sweet and happy again. Man, I love her.

Now it's the first day after the injury, and the cuts are looking okay. But Aubrey now has a little black eye. I can't decide if I think it's pitiful or hardcore. Either way, we feel like awesome parents.

Month Five

Well, we're finally living in our new home (yay!), and Aubrey has adjusted quite well to her new surroundings. With the new change in location have come other good changes for Aubrey too, including the following:

• She has started eating solid foods! She likes rice cereal and bananas a lot, and she seems to be pretty good with carrots and oatmeal cereal as well. 
• Thanks to Grandma Mangum's efforts while she was here, Aubrey finally takes naps in her crib. And better yet, she takes a 2-hour (sometimes more) nap at least once a day! This is awesome.
• She continues to love music, and it's the sweetest thing to see how interested in it and distracted by it she is.
• When she smiles at someone, she often looks away all shyly.
• She likes to chew on the tags of stuffed animals, pillows, etc.
• When she's being really serious, she sticks out her bottom lip in a little pout.
• At her last doctor's appointment, she was in the 70th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height. She had a huge growth spurt!
• She loves growling loudly and shouting at the top of her lungs. 
• When she sits, she often extends both her arms and legs and rotates her hands and feet around. 
• She finally likes tummy time! She's been trying to crawl for awhile now, but she has awhile to go yet, I think.
• Most of the time, she is one giant wiggle. We can't get her to sit still, especially during diaper changes!
• She likes to touch and grab people's faces.
• When she's ready to go to bed at night, she gets really smiley... like she's loopy from exhaustion!
• She loves grabbing her feet and playing with them.
• Thankfully, she's still an amazing sleeper, and she has become a lot easier to put to bed. She goes down around 8:30 and sleeps until about 7:00. A few nights a week she'll wake up in the middle of the night, but she goes down well after having a bottle. And sometimes she'll wake up and just put herself back to sleep! We love this.
• She rolls all over the place! I guess she finally remembered how to roll onto her back again.
• If there's a blanket or burp cloth or some other fabric around, she'll grab it and put it over her face. Then she just sits there calmly with the thing covering her face until someone removes it.
• When Mommy or Daddy is holding her, she'll often crane her neck to look up at us. Too cute.
• She has been on three flights, and she did great on all of them. This was a big relief to her mommy.
• In California, we discovered that she likes the pool. So much splashing fun!

I'm sure there's much more, but suffice it to say that Aubrey is still the cutest, sweetest baby, and I love her more every day! Seriously, it's ridiculous.

Month Four

Things are a little crazy here at the Jibson house (er, apartment). In nine days, we close on our very first home (yay!). And in two days, Aubrey and I are heading to California for a Mangum family reunion (yay!) without Daniel (boo!). This means Aubrey is going on her first flight in a couple of days, and I'm very curious (and kind of terrified) to see how she does. Fingers crossed!

Even with all of the packing and craziness going on, I thought it was important to commemorate Aubrey's four-month birthday. So here is a little bit about her in this current stage:

• When she's tired, loud noises make her stick out her pouty lip and cry.
• For inexplicable reasons, she likes hanging out in our bathroom. There have actually been times when she would cry anywhere but there... weirdo.
• She likes to suck her bottom lip and will also suck on an invisible pacifier sometimes.
• She is finally big enough to use her Exersaucer, and she really likes it.
• If you lay her down, she will almost always roll onto her tummy (she can even do it when she's fully swaddled). Of course, she hates being on her stomach, so she then immediately cries (we're working on reminding her that she does know how to roll back... SO annoying).
• When I strap her into her car seat, she looks up at me with big eyes and kicks her feet excitedly.
• Unfortunately, she likes watching the TV if it's on, but thankfully she's easily distracted from it.
• When she sits in her bouncer in the morning as we eat breakfast, she clasps her little hands together, and it's so adorable.
• She likes being held up high in the flying position and then being brought down in short, quick bursts.
• Like all babies, she puts everything in her mouth.
• She smiles when I blow on her face, and she even screws up her face in anticipation of it when I take in a quick/loud breath.
• She's a thumb sucker, which I find strangely adorable.
• Bath time is still a favorite, and she likes kicking and splashing around.
• When she's awake in her car seat, she cries if I put the cover over her... she wants to see everything!
• She likes it when I scat/sing badly to her.
• We've finally gotten her on a schedule. She goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 and sleeps until 6:00 or 6:30. It's really nice!
• She is now able to play with some toys, which is nice for Mommy and Daddy. 
• We're working on getting her to sit up on her own. She's getting close!

Month Three

Well, another month has gone by, and Aubrey is different every day. But one thing never changes: she kills me with cuteness!

She:

• Can roll over from her tummy to her back (first time on June 16th)
• Is starting to try to roll over from her back to her tummy
• Moves all over her crib at night (seriously, in the morning she is at the opposite end of the crib and has rotated anywhere from 90 to 180 degrees)
• Hates being swaddled (but she sleeps better that way at night, so she can deal with it)
• Still sleeps like a champion at night (with an earlier bedtime now, around 8:00, which Mommy and Daddy enjoy)
• Takes inadequately short naps (we're trying to work on this)
• Opens her mouth the second I lay her down for a nap, because she knows the pacifier is coming (this is super cute but makes me worry about pacifier dependence for sleeping, haha... oh well)
• Often tries to sit up when she's leaning back or lying down (but, of course, she isn't strong enough, which seems to vex her)
• Loves grabbing her shirt/dress and pulling it up (a habit that is only cute for a couple more years)
• Startles when she sees herself in the mirror sometimes but is also fascinated and will stare at herself
• Enjoys going for walks in her stroller (when it isn't hot)
• Likes books and will "ooh" and reach out to touch the pages
• Has recently become quite the hand sucker
• Grabs the top of her head when she's lying down for naptime but before she actually falls asleep

And that's it for now. There are a couple of funny Aubrey stories to tell as well, but we'll save those for another time...

Month Two

Well, I'm a little late in doing this, but Aubrey has been alive for two whole months! And she just gets cuter every day! So without further ado...

All about 2-month-old Aubrey:

• Did her first real smile on Mother's Day (Sunday, May 11th)
• Smiles when Mommy comes to get her in the morning/after naps
• Cries real tears now (and breaks Mommy's heart)
• Blows bubbles with her mouth and is starting to be a drooler
• Sleeps from about 10:00 or 11:00 at night until anywhere from 7:00 to 9:00 in the morning (occasionally she wakes at 3:00 or 4:00, but that's rare)
• Likes taking naps in Mommy and Daddy's bed (sometimes with Mommy, haha)
• Is finally starting to fit in her 0-3 month clothes
• Loves her play mat
• Is starting to make cute cooing noises
• Thinks kissy noises and whistling are funny
• Likes being sung to
• Loves batting at her little ducky rattle thing (that's its technical name) when we hold it in front of her
• Is starting to grab Mommy's hair
• Gets really angry and tries to stand up when you stop feeding her and try to burp her
• Enjoys watching Mommy get ready
• Is so cute that she helped Mommy and Daddy secure a new house!