Happy birthday Lola!

This weekend was my mom's birthday. Part of the reason why we had Nina's ears pierced was to surprise my mom for her birthday - she's been dropping hints for us to pierce Nina's ears since she was a month old! she even bought Nina two pairs of earrings already!

It was a great day - she LOVED nina's earrings and kept saying over and over how pretty they were. We spent the whole day together. My mom got tons of roses, we had great Chinese food and Ghiradelli's on Lincoln Road for dessert.

Nina insisted on paying!

As soon as the waiter put down my dad's banana split, Nina dove for the whipped cream and got a big handful! Too early for ice cream missy!!

Dr's Appointment and....

Nina went in to get a routine shot this past Thursday. Everything checked out really well. Nina weighs 18 pounds, 4 ounces and is 26.5 inches. She is 60th % for weight and 35th for height. She cried like crazy when I left and the doctor came in, I never saw her get like that - ahhh, separation anxiety. She is usually great with strangers. She's been passed around to pretty much everyone since she was born but I guess this is the time babies start to get stranger anxiety. The doctor was very pleased with Nina's progress and when I asked her about worrying about Nina not crawling and not having teeth yet, she said Nina is fine. She is pulling herself up, standing and said Nina may not walk at all - we'll see!

Sooooo, the doctor's appointment wasn't just for the shot. We also decided to get Nina's ears pierced! It was really hard. I never heard her cry that way EVER. It was shocking for me. BUT, 5 very long minutes later, Nina was back to smiling and laughing. Here are some before and after pics.

Here she is when the nurse came in to mark her ears. She's like "uh, what the heck is THAT!"

She always holds really still when we clean her ears. She was very good as they made the marks.This was about 30 mins later...And later that night...seemed like they didn't bother her at all.

8 Months already!

Nina turned 8 months last week! It's been an exciting month with lots of changes. The newest thing this month is I finally went back to work. It's a part time accounting position less than 2 miles away from our condo. I leave Nina with her new nanny, Elisa from 9:30 - 3:00 pm. Since she is still breastfed, she is taking water and breastmilk from her sippy cup while I am away. And she is eating 3 times a day now. She pretty much eats everything, mostly baby food but will eat fresh blueberries, watermelon, cantaloupe, mashed avocado, corn on the cob, sweet potato, rice, chicken, cheerios and bread from us. Her favorites are prunes, anything with corn or squash in it, green beans, peas and lentils. Still no teeth but I can see two coming in on the bottom that should breakthrough in the next month. She has taken to her new schedule with Elisa very well. She loves Elisa and Elisa loves her - we are very lucky. She doesn't cry when I leave and is so happy when I get home - I rush home everyday to see her and she is all smiles when I walk in the door - it's a great feeling!

Nina is not crawling yet but is definitely attempting it. She sits up well alone and when there's a toy out of her reach, she lunges for it and falls on her belly to creep to it. She will turn around in a circle and roll over and over to get to things but hasn't gotten up on all fours. When she's in our laps, she gets really bold, jumping out of our arms like she is going to run away! She just won't keep still these days. She pulls herself up to a standing position when sitting and is trying to get up to sit when laying down - it's cute, like she's doing crunches!

She continues to love the water and we visit the pool at least once a week.
here's a video of her taking a dip with me:



She is sleeping alone in her crib and through the night which is great! She sleeps from 9 - 9, waking up before I go to bed and then again around 6am for feedings. Here she is happy in the morning before I left for work:

Nina has said many things EXCEPT mama - LOL! she says "dada" and "baba" all the time and has started spitting a lot, which is cute but not when she does it during a meal! here she is saying baba (excuse her outfit, elisa likes to match her colorwise a little too much):

and spitting:


It's so fun to see all the new things she does and watch her explore everything around her. I can't wait to see her crawl and take her first steps....she is growing so fast! Jeremiah and I are so in love with our little girl - life is GREAT!!

Back to work!

I went back to work last week. I wasn't excited or agressive about looking for a job but I met with one recruiter and went for an interview and got the job. It is a part time (25-30 hours per week) accounting position at the City of Hallandale. My hours are from 10am - 3pm. We live in Hallandale Beach so it is literally 1.6 miles away from our house! It all happened so fast - as soon as I accepted the position I immediately started stressing about finding someone to take care of Nina.

I spent a couple of weeks looking for a nanny. We interviewed about 10 different women and ended up hiring my parents housekeeper, Elisa. She is a 23 college student, studying Business Admin. She goes to school at night so watching Nina during the day is perfect for her schedule. After meeting everyone, she definitely stood out in the way she interacted with Nina. She held Nina the entire time we interviewed her and Nina was all smiles. The week before I started my job, she came over to see how Nina's day went and so I could show her how to do things the way I like - control freak! The first day was tough, I cried as soon as I shut the door. But the next day was better and now it's fine. When I come home now and see how much she loves Nina before she leaves, I know we made the right decision. Not to mention, Elisa does housework! She cleanes our tiles, vacuums our bedrooms, does our laundry and makes our beds! She is just an awesome person - we are so lucky to have her.

Here she is on their first day together:

Every day, Elisa takes some pics of Nina while I am at work. I never put shoes on Nina (probably because I love to go barefoot) and she has tons of them that she received as gifts. Elisa always puts shoes on her, it's cute to see them on.

Elisa takes Nina out for walks everyday before her afternoon nap.

I was sad about going back to work and the thought of seeing less of Nina and leaving her with someone else was so tough for me. But now, a week later I feel great about it. I do still miss her every day while I am away but coming home and seeing how excited she is to see me with her arms stretched out and a huge smile just melts my heart. I have more energy (I thought it would be the other way around) and just feel like life is great. I feel lucky to have found such a great job and nanny.

Dada!

Nina said dada before mama :( but i am going to chalk it up to it being easier for babies to say dada than mama! Here's a clip of her saying it....it's her favorite word now. She screams it wherever we go!

Happy 4th of July!

The fourth of July was a busy day for us down here. The weather was great, it finally stopped raining so naturally, we took advantage of the great weather and went to the mall! LOL! We had a fun day of shopping, eating and fireworks.

Nina's ready to shop!

Let's have a snack first...

While I was in the fitting room, Nina popped in and said, "hurry up mom - we have to get home in time for the fireworks!"

We watched about 7 different firework shows from the roof of our building. We saw fireworks from Aventura, Hallandale Beach, Hollywood Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, Gulfstream Casino, Mardi Gras Casino and the Hard Rock Casino! Nina was mesmerized! Happy 4th everyone!

Check out my new tub!

Nina is too big for her infant tub but too small for our tub so we got this one to use until she is a little bigger. It's so cute - it quacks when you touch it's beak! And best of all, Nina loves to splish and splash in it.