SIX MONTHS!

Last Wednesday, Daisy was officially SIX MONTHS OLD!!! Dude, time flies. While moving so slowly at the same time. I can't explain or comprehend it, so I guess I'll just have to deal with it. Here are some photos and stats instead of philosophical ponderings on the concept of time [I know the baby photos are the real reasons you're here]:

yogurt!

blueberries and raspberries!

asparagus!

Not going to lie, most of the recent photos I've snapped are of Daisy eating. We've been letting her feed herself (called "Baby Led Weaning") and she LOVES it. It's super messy, but also super adorable, and much easier than playing airplane with a spoon [in my opinion]. She's even pretty good with a pre-loaded spoon! If I put something on it, she can get it to her mouth and is super happy about it. It's a blast.

the closest I got to both of them looking at me...

Our friend Grace [and her mom Ingrid and baby sister Eliza] came for a visit!! I got to check out my double stroller capabilities, and I must say, they are pretty dang sweet. Thanks again to the Bigelow relatives for the lovely gift card that made this possible! I forsee many years of strolling adventures in our future.

Daisy is also an accomplished roller, and frequently gets herself into sticky situations such as this [don't worry, I'm currently devising a solution to the rocking-chair-and-ottoman-of-death situation....but any suggestions are welcome. How do you keep babies from getting underneath them and becoming amputees??]

car naps are adorable. and so is that ponytail. and none of her dresses are long enough so her diapers are always showing at church - at least they're cute!

Story about Daisy's ponytail: when we were leaving the doctors' office after Daisy's 6mo checkup, there was a little girl who was probably 4 years old sitting in the waiting room. As soon as she saw Daisy, she pointed and said loudly, "Look! There's a little baby! A little tiny baby with just one hair!" -- it was adorable, and the entire waiting room laughed.

Story about the checkup: Daisy Anne Rydalch is currently 27.25" tall, and only 15lbs 13oz. That puts her in the 100th percentile for height, and only the 47th for weight. A true Adams indeed! Except for the fact that she is super muscular and a baby-athlete. I guess we should thank the Rydalches for that ;) Also our pediatrician is the best. He let Daisy play with his hair and rub noses with him [AKA drool all over his face]. We love Dr. Tsai!

playing in a pile of laundry while I cleaned my room! SO CUTE.

Also, I have reason to believe that we are raising an opera singer:

I just caught the end of her performance this time

Or someone with mad pipes, at least. This particular day, she chose to sing along to Bruno Mars and Katy Perry. Whatever that means. Occasionally she'll start "singing" all on her own, and whenever I've got the radio on she'll pick random songs to "sing" to. She also babbles constantly. I'm really, really loving this age :)

On another note, we finally buckled down and decided to start sleep training last week! And let me tell you, it is amazing. I was very much against the cry-it-out/Ferber method for a while, but after some straight talk from Chris and my dear friend Ingrid I realized it probably wasn't as inhumane as I thought and that it might actually work. And guess what? It does! Bedtime is a million times easier now. Not to mention naptimes [which were practically non-existent before].

Also, here is a cute bathtime video from when Ingrid and her girls were visiting [Daisy loves having "big kid" friends]:

Annnnnnd I think that's about all the Daisy updates I've got! She's a character, and it's so much fun to see how quickly she learns about the world around her. She's a sweetheart, and we're insanely happy that she's ours.

In case anyone needed proof:

Daisy is definitely our child. 

Aunts and Uncles and Pez, OH MY!

Last weekend, my youngest siblings came to hang out with us for a couple of days! It was pretty awesome. We ate a lot of good food and played games every night and watched movies!! AND I woke them up at a reasonable hour every day and made them clean my house and entertain Daisy for me! Because that's what Aunts and Uncles are for! I think they'll be back soon. I know I would come back if I got to scrub the floors and bathtub in my house for free! [oh wait, I already do! that's why I come home every day! hahaha.]

Chris had so much fun teaching Rebekah and Joseph his favorite game from his childhood. It's called Extinction, and it's some sort of deck [herd] building game that takes you through the Cretacious, Triassic, and Jurassic periods...or something [is it obvious that I didn't actually play?]. They loved it and requested to play it two nights in a row.

On Friday, we headed up to Burlingame to take a gander at the Pez Memorabilia Museum [slash toy museum slash banned toy museum], and the World's Largest Pez Dispenser! It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but it was pretty cool nonetheless. I have never seen so many Pez dispensers in one place in my entire life. And did you know they make SOUR Pez?! They actually taste good!

Spiderman PEZ dispenser signed by Stan Lee [isn't his autograph legit?!]

TWO autographed Princess Leia PEZ! One by Carrie Fischer and one by George Lucas.

PEZ vending machine!

PEZ sets for Ratatouille and Meet The Robinsons! Obscure-ish and awesome.

The Guinness Book of World Records Certified "World's Largest PEZ Dispenser"! It's 7ft tall, and will dispense a rectangular box containing a PEZ dispenser and pack of candy. If it was for use, that is. They don't use it since it won the world record, because they don't want it to break. The owner of this museum and two other guys built it themselves.

Bekah and Joseph each picked out a souvenir, and they promised to do chores and earn an "allowance" from me in order to get them. Hence the aforementioned scrubbing and mopping and why I think they actually *will* be back sometime ;) Rebekah picked out these bobblehead figurines of Jack Skellington and Oogie Boogie, and Joseph snagged a replica of the original PEZ dispenser + peppermint candy [the first and only flavor of PEZ for quite some time]. I grabbed sour PEZ candy and a little dispenser of Squishy from Monsters University. And some postcards. Because, why not??

Anyway. We had a picnic in the park after the PEZ excursion, and then came home to do some chores, and then I made stuffed zucchini for dinner, and then we went to a ward movie night to watch Wreck-It Ralph! It was a great day indeed.

feast your eyes on the funky tomato that became part of our stuffed zucchini. also pictured: the strip of concrete that is our "yard".

On Saturday we woke up bright and early to scarf some coconut waffles before heading out to the Dreamworks pre-screening of their new movie, Turbo!!

this is an old promo picture...it actually came out today, July 17

We all really, really liked it. And it's out in theatres today! GO SEE IT! It really grew on us throughout the day and we found ourselves quoting it [quotability is definitely the mark of a good movie in my book]. I loved their representation of garden snail life. And it was farfetched juuuust enough to still be believable! It made me smile and chuckle.

The rest of Saturday was a smidge lame, we were sleepy and Daisy was keen on nursing every hour or so. But we grabbed In-N-Out on our way back across the bay [delish, as always], and enjoyed a nice leisurely evening with the rest of my family!

Please come back soon, Aunt Rebekah and Uncle Joe. You guys are awesome.

a tall, skinny babe

Daisy had her four month checkup yesterday! She is now clocking in at 13lbs, 9oz and 26.25" long.
Apparently that is the 99th percentile for height...and only the 10-25th percentile for weight. A true Adams, indeed! We are so proud.

this is what I find after naptime is done

Her favorite activity as of late is doing crunches whenever she is laying on her back. It's pretty impressive, actually. I think she has stronger abdominal muscles than Chris and I combined!

mid-crunch

tummy time champ

She still loves being "dropped" or "thrown" or hanging upside down more than anything in the world. She's always wiggling and moving...even when she's fast asleep. She's getting more talkative by the day, and is starting to laugh out loud at silly faces! And she still has one of the loudest cries/best set of lungs I have heard on a baby her age.

not entirely sure about this whole door bouncer thing

strollin' and nappin' like it ain't no thang

She's also pretty good at sitting up...as long as she has some support and feels like it is a decent time to do so. If the timing is indecent, the Bumbo is her worst enemy. She still has yet to figure out how to roll from her tummy to her back, which is a source of deep frustration during tummy time [and all of the "accidental tummy time" she gives herself when she rolls from her back to her tummy].

first time Bumbo love!

I started making these adorable felt bows and I can't stop.

We've also been to the pool a couple times, and I think she likes that too! She doesn't hate it, at least. I think it's possibly still a bit overwhelming for her, haha.

she doesn't quite understand headbands. this one always ends up over her nose.

umm they're real cute.

Also, she has not had a dirty diaper in nearly a week.*

So don't let that smiling face fool you. 

She is a ticking time bomb.

[and we love her anyway]

*It is completely normal for exclusively breastfed babies to go a long while without having a bowel movement. So don't worry. She's fine :)

HAPPY FOURTH!

Happy Independence Day, and happy fourth month of life to our little 'zee!! I can't believe she was born 1/3 of a year ago. Holy moly. More about that later, but she lucked out and had a pretty awesome four-month-birthday.

The Fourth of July is my favorite holiday. Last year, it was kind of a bummer. "Morning sickness" (AKA all-day-every-day sickness) inhibited all of our usual festivities. We were reduced to running out to buy toilet paper (and some food for Chris), when most people were standing in the street to watch fireworks from the top of the hill we lived on. Which made driving and street parking an adventure. The day wasn't all bad though, we did get to watch Where Eagles Dare, which is awesome and makes you feel all American and stuff! 

But I digress...

This year it was much more fun having Daisy out of the womb. Our life and hearts are so much fuller now that she is here to accompany us on all of our adventures :)

We started off with a lunchtime barbecue with our dear friends in Redwood City! It was beautiful, the food was delicious, and the company top-notch.

Sophia and Annabella - Daisy's new favorite friends (and chew toys)

thanks for this shot, Shari!

And then we shuttled ourselves across the Bay for tacos with my fam (not pictured but it was the most patriotic Mexican food you've ever seen, I assure you). We also watched the first half of Independence Day before heading out to Pleasant Hill for fireworks. Because that is the one day a year when it's pretty much guaranteed that movie will be on TV somewhere. And aliens + America = quite the winning combination.

We love 'merica.

We also love dressing patriotically (my shirt is actually an American flag made up of the names of all 50 states. and Chris calls Daisy's outfit her "picnic table dress". holla!)

And of course, the only photo where Daisy graces us with her gaze and Chris and I have AWESOME facial expressions is also the only one that turned out super blurry...

On to the fireworks! Daisy LOVED them. Totally transfixed. I guess our little adrenaline junkie adores explosions and loud noises too. Should we be concerned about this? 

Props to Chris for how well this one turned out!

my heart was kind of a puddle by the time this was all over.

After this show was finished, there was another one about three miles away and just slightly to the left of the one we had just watched. So while we waited for the crowds to clear out of our general vicinity, we chilled and watched a second set of fireworks! Daisy was so stoked. She couldn't stop talking. It was precious. 

After fireworks we went back to my family's house, ate some pie and ice cream and finished watching Independence Day, then ended up staying the night because we were pooped. 

All in all, I believe it was a successful celebration of our American freedoms :) I am so grateful to live in this beautiful country. 

Monterey Bay Aquarium

About a month ago, Chris surprised me with a day trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium! We live about a two hour drive away from Monterey, and the journey out there is absolutely beautiful. California is a pretty place, there's no denying it. We drove the entire thing in our spiffy new Honda CRV, as a matter of testing her road-tripping capacities of course, and I must say she is a keeper.

As for the actual content of the aquarium...two thumbs up from us!! Here are some pictures, because my grasp on the English language is not at its' peak tonight:

 itty bitty jellies!

 baby sea turtle!

 Jellyfish exhibit NUMBER TWO! With psychadellic Hendrix-esque music blasting the entire time. I was stoked. If you couldn't already tell, I kind of love jellyfish.

 these little guys moved FAST. which is weird for a jellyfish. but they looked rubbery and bounced around like crazy bouncy balls and were super fun to watch.

 the octopus was feeling shy today :(

can you spot the crab???

Anyway, I pretty much only photographed jellyfish, because I love them and also because my phone died. But luckily I wasn't the only one documenting our adventures that day....

 Chris brought a sketchbook along! :) I love his sketches.

And okay, I guess we both kind of love jellyfish.

There were a lot more awesome things in the aquarium - apparently they even had a Mantis Shrimp in one of the exhibits! We went on a quest to find it, but failed, because apparently it was in the kiddie "Coral Crawl Tunnel" that we didn't venture into because we thought maybe we were too old for that business and also we were taking turns wearing Daisy.
Speaking of Daisy, she looked pretty darn cute, but in the only picture we remembered to take of her, she looks kind of stoned [it was just the sunlight, I swear!]:

Our little explorer is still kind of upset about how the sun gets in her eyes.

Anyway! We both loved it. I think Daisy even enjoyed it - especially the super long nap she took in the sling...the aquarium lighting was dark and the sling was cozy so she was a pretty happy camper.

We'd love to go back to downtown Monterey and explore some more sometime - it looks so interesting! Unfortunately we were so beat by the time we finished the aquarium, all we had enough energy for was to pop into a cinnamon roll bakery that was on our way back to the car and grab a couple rolls. Which were extremely delicious, by the way.

Those were the days. What a great way to celebrate Chris' last week of freedom before heading back to work. [he ended up having the entire month of May off, due to film schedule shifts, and we were able to use the rest of his "paternity leave" and hang out with him every day! It was soooo nice. So so so nice. Sometimes I miss those days, but I'm glad to have a schedule back again too :) ]