Mikayla Visits Her Great Grandpa

Today Mikayla visited her Great Grandpa Bernie in Davis. He was so excited to see her again! Last time he saw her she was only about a month old. They both smiled so big when they saw each other. These pictures are priceless!

Great Grandpa Bernie loved seeing Mikayla again!

Mikayla had so much to tell him!

She had lots of fun sitting on his lap and playing with her hands

Aunt Lisa helped Mikayla show off her new standing skills

Look Great Grandpa! Just one hand!

Bridal Shower!

No Mikalya's not getting married yet, but her second cousin John is. Yesterday Mikayla went to his future wife, Becca's, bridal shower in San Francisco. It was her very first visit to San Francisco! She had a wonderful time. She got to see her Aunt Lisa, her Aunt Christina, her Uncle Boris, her Great Aunt Jean, her Great Uncle Mark, her second cousin John, her second cousin Annie and she was especially excited to see her future second cousin Becca in her pretty purple dress, bridal veil and bride-to-be sash! There was no shortage of fun things to see and fun people to entertain Mikayla!

Mikalya's Quilt

As part of her baby shower, many of Mikalya's friends and relatives made quilt squares for her before she was born. My Mom recently finished putting all of the quilt squares into the quilt and Mikalya loves it! Nibbler loves it too, it was rather hard to get these pictures without Nibbler busting into the photo :)

Here are some close up shots:

Bradley Reunion

We took a natural childbirth preparation class called the Bradley Method once a week for 12 weeks before Mikayla was born. There were three other couples in the class and we got to know them pretty well over that time. Now, all of the babies have been born, so we went back to the class once more for a reunion with all of the couples and their new babies. It was Mikalya's first time seeing babies her same age! It was so fun for us to see all the new babies and hold them too! They were all very cute. Unfortunately Mikalya was not in the best of moods while we were there (still a little cranky from waking up early from her nap), but she had a good time overall. Here is a picture of all of the babies with our instructor. 

Hmmm, can you tell which one is Mikalya?

New Abilities!!

Mikayla is almost 3 months old and she has developed many new amazing abilities such as:

1) Trying to sit - When she was sick, I put a pillow behind her in her bouncer to help with her cough, but that was exactly the leverage she needed to use her strong stomach muscles to try to sit up and escape! Here is a video of her efforts:

2) Holding her head up during tummy time - Mikayla used to HATE tummy time. She screamed the second we put her on her tummy. I was afraid she would end up crawling like the baby in this video. Luckily, after she recovered from her cold, she gained new strengths that she never had before, such as, holding her head up during tummy time! Here is a video of her holding her head up on the floor and on the bed.

3) Grasping her hands together - it is quite cute, she really likes to grasp her hands together over and over again, which looks like she is working on an evil plot!

4) Rubbing her eyes (or nose) - She now rubs her eyes when she is waking up from a nap or getting sleepy, is is very adorable. She was also rubbing her nose and I noticed she had a bugger she was trying to take care of :) 

5) Using pulley systems - She has a new favorite toy. It is a dangling strawberry handle and when she pulls it, it causes a propeller on the toy to spin around. It is her favorite thing to do and she seems to really understand the correlation between her actions pulling the strawberry and the movement of the propeller. Watch her in this video, she really gets into it at the end!

6) Standing - Mikayla is very strong. She can hold all of her muscles steady so we can pull her up her up to a standing position while she just holds onto our hands. I'm pretty sure she's the strongest 12 week old I know! Check her out standing on her quilt and standing on the bed:

  

Miss Tomato Head

Mikayla's Grandpa John has a great big vegetable garden where he grows great big vegetables. Here are some pictures of a tomato he grew that is almost the size of Mikayla's head!

Wow! This tomato is as big as my head!

Ah! get it away from me, big tomatoes freak me out!

First Cold

On July 8th, one day before she turned 10 weeks old, Mikayla got her first cold! It was so sad for everyone, including her. At first I just noticed she had goopy eyes and maybe a bit of a runny nose, so I was afraid she might be getting allergies. After fretting for a day about what we would do if she was allergic to dogs (picture Nibbler and Frankie with all their hair shaved off), we took her to the pediatrician and they said she most likely had a cold. Unfortunately at 10 weeks old there is not much you can do for a baby with a cold other than monitor their temperature, keep them hydrated and try to keep them comfortable as much as possible. As the cold progressed Mikayla developed a cough, runny nose, goopy eyes, and a slight fever, plus she vomited almost every time she coughed! It was really hot out that week, so we tried to keep her fever down by putting cold washcloths on her head. She wore them like hats all week long. It was a really hard week. Chris said that when Mikayla was sick she basically reverted back to being 2 weeks. All she did was just eat, sleep and cry - all day every day. I didn't get out of bed much either, I just laid there and fed her and let her sleep on me (which was one of the only positions she could sleep in due to her cough). 

I read that baby colds usually last between 7 and 10 days, but on day 6 she was still very sick and I couldn't imagine it getting better any time soon. Miraculously on day 7 she was almost 100% better! By day 10 all of her symptoms were gone and she was feeling happy and strong. 


Here is a video of her when she was sick. Notice the wet washcloth, the disposable diapers (because she also got diaper rash) and her sad little cough. Her mobile was one of the only things that made her happy while she was sick.

TWO Months Old!

Mikayla is TWO months old! Can you believe it? She's changed so much from a month ago. She is so much more active and has the cutest personality. I am trying to take a picture of her in the glider once every month so I can see how much she is growing. I've been putting her stuffed pig next to her so it's easier to track the changes in her size. Today I was trying to take her two month picture, but apparently she learned to grip onto objects and swing them around because she gave the stuffed pig quite a ride. In fact Nibbler thought she was shaking the toy for her and tried to grab it. Here's a link to a video of the whole incident as well as her two month picture compared to her picture at one month.

Mikayla's Two Month Old Photo

Mikayla's One Month Old Photo

Purr-fect Sleeper

The title of this post is Purr-fect Sleeper, for two reasons. The first reason is to introduce you to Mikayla's new favorite sleep sack - a leopard print fleece sack with 'Purr-fect' written on it. She likes it because it is cozy, but I like it because it makes her feel like a little stuffed animal, so cute!
The second reason for the title of this post is that Mikayla is finally starting to sleep much longer at night! She has slept for over 6 hours straight the majority of nights this week! I hope this trend keeps up, I can definitely get used to these long stretches of uninterrupted rest!

Click here for a link to a video of her in her purr-fect sleep outfit.

She loves her Purr-fect sleeper

Changing diapers is a breeze in this outfit

Sticking out her tongue like usual!

So it is a little big, but it works!