Smiley Girl

Smiling is one of the best milestones Mikalya's reached so far. It never gets old to watch her cooing and smiling seemingly for hours on end. Here are some pictures and a video so you can see for yourself:

Cutie

Very pinch-able cheeks

Cooing and smiling live

Red Velour Jumpsuit

There is a picture of me wearing a red velour jumpsuit when I was a baby. It is quite awesome. So imagine my delight when my mom brought that same jumpsuit for Mikayla to wear! She never ceases to amaze me. First, how did she manage to keep it that long, and second how was she able to find it so easily 30 years later?! Truly impressive. The tag on the jumpsuit says it is for babies 11-17lbs. So I've been waiting for Mikayla to get that big so I could put it on her. The day finally came! Here is Mikayla in her mom's old red velour jumpsuit. She loves it!

Loving it! 

Even if the feet don't quite fit...

Feeling inspired to do some gymnastics!

Here is a link to a video of her rocking out in it: Red Velour Jumpsuit

Camera Lessons

For Mother's Day, Chris and Mikayla got me a digital SLR camera that takes HD video too. I was so excited that I wanted to take pictures and videos of Mikayla all the time! Unfortunately, a few of the videos I took with the new camera were really blurry and I couldn't figure out how to focus the picture better. I told Chris about it and he gave me a lesson. Basically he said to press the 'focus' button. I didn't believe that it could be that easy, so I told him I wanted to try it out first. Here is the video of me testing out this new functionality with Chris and Mikayla as my subjects: Camera Lessons

Pool Time!

It was VERY hot in Danville last weekend which gave Mikayla the perfect opportunity for some pool time! She is still too young to go in the pool (especially because of her sensitive skin) but she enjoyed lounging poolside with her pop and her pooches.

Father's Day

Just like my Mother's day, Chris got lucky and didn't have to wait long for his first Father's day. Mikayla got him some really great stuff. She has very good taste. He appreciated the gifts so much that he did a little dance with her:

Father's day dance

Hate turns into Love

If you asked me a month ago, I would say Mikayla HATES two things in life: baths and diaper changes. These things would cause her to scream bloody murder until they were over, so we tried to do them fast. Luckily, her two biggest hates have recently turned into two of her greatest loves! As soon as her umbilical cord came off and she was able to take a bath fully immersed in water, she suddenly started loving it. Sponge baths are no fun no matter how old you are. Her love of the changing table seems to have developed around the same time her diaper rash went away. The rash disappeared when we switched to cloth diapers and Earth's Best sensitive wipes. Now that there is no pain associated with diapering, Mikayla loves to spend as much time as possible just laying on her changing table and looking out the window. She has quite a nice view, so I don't blame her.

Bath time is fun!

We can finally relax and enjoy our time

Nice warm towel after the bath

Lounging on the changing table looking out the window

Here are links to some videos of Mikayla enjoying her changing table:

 

Changing table pt1

Changing Table pt2

6 Week Appointment

Last week Mikayla had her 6 week checkup and guess what, she's still perfectly average!
Here are her new stats as of Monday June 11th:

Weight: 10lbs 2 oz (50th percentile)
Head Circumference: 38cm (50th percentile)
Height: 22.25 inches (50-75th percentile)

The doctor was surprised that she wasn't taller given the height of her parents, but she is in the 50-75% so I think she's doing just fine.

Other new milestones she's reached include:
- Smiling
- Cooing
- Tracking faces or objects with her eyes and even turning her head toward them
- Lifting her head almost 90 degrees when she's feeling particularly strong
- Starting to make some giggling or chuckling sounds

The Great Cloth Diaper Experiment

We like the idea of using cloth diapers because they are more environmentally friendly, they are non-toxic for the baby and they are very cost effective in the long run, but we knew convenience could play a big role in making the ultimate decision on whether to use cloth or disposable. So about a month ago we began the great cloth diaper experiment. After much research we chose to use Bumgenius 4.0 all-in-one cloth diapers http://www.bumgenius.com/one-size.php. These cloth diapers will fit a baby from 7-35lbs, so hopefully the whole time they need diapers. They look like disposable diapers made out of cloth, but they have Velcro closures and a pocket to insert a pad for extra absorbency. The only downsides are that they take a while to wash (2 hour sanitary cycle) then line dry, they take some time to re-stuff with the absorbent pads (we do this while watching TV) and they are pretty bulky on a newborn seeing as they will eventually unsnap into a diaper big enough for a 2-3 year old! They are cute despite their bulkiness and I love all the different colors they come in. Choosing which color to use makes changing diapers actually fun. We have 31 diapers and sadly this is still only enough for 2 days! She goes through diapers like crazy! The good news is, these cloth diapers will pay for themselves in just two months compared to using the chlorine free Earth's Best disposable diapers we were using due to Mikayla's sensitive skin. I think we'll try to stick with cloth for as long as we can. Eventually Mikayla may start using less than 15 diapers a day and then it will really be easy! 

She loves being on her changing table

She can wear color-coordinated diapers instead of bloomers

Here is a link to a video with Mikayla in her cloth diapers. It shows how bulky they are when she's this small, but they work, so I'm not complaining:  

Visitors from afar!

Mikayla had lots of visitors at the end of May and beginning of June! She saw her Aunt Natalie, her Nanni Nancy, her Great Nanni Rae, her Grammy Patty, and her Auntie Stephy. She had so much fun getting held 24-7! We learned a lot of good baby soothing techniques from all of the experienced mothers too!
Having visitors helped us stretch our comfort zone past the front doors and we actually went out to dinner TWICE, went out to lunch once and went downtown twice! It was good to try these new things with so many people to help out. Maybe now Mikayla will start writing her own Yelp reviews about how baby friendly the restaurants in Danville are :)

Aunt Natalie, Frankie and Nibbler (above)

Aunt Natalie, Mikayla, Great Nanni Rae and Nanni Nancy 

Grammy Patty and Mikayla

Auntie Stephy and Mikayla

Auntie Stephy, Mikayla, Nibbler and Frankie