Week of Firsts

Rylie has had quite an eventful week. I'll itemize her firsts and go into detail about each one for those of you who are interested:
1. Sunday started out with a bang-first time we had to leave church because Rylie wouldn't stay in the nursery. She LOVES nursery, but on Sunday, she wasn't feeling it.
2. First teething biscuit. I made HOMEMADE teething biscuits! Rylie really really enjoys them. The only downside is how messy they are. She only eats them while she's in her high chair.
3. First phone call dialed by none other than miss priss herself! She called her Granny! Granny LOVED the surprise. I was getting ready for the day and I saw Rylie playing with my phone. It was all lit up and I heard someone saying, "Hello?" It was Granny, and Rylie had called her all by herself!
4. First word. I need to clarify this one. She has been saying "da-da" and "aa-da" all week. Her daddy is convinced it's her first word. I want to think it is too, but the educator in me doesn't want to count her first word until she says her first meaningful word in context. So, we'll write it on the calendar, but we'll also write on the calendar the day when Tripp walks through the door and Rylie looks up and says, "da-da!" That day is probably going to come too soon. We always talk about daddy a lot when he's at work, and then we get really excited and say, "daddy's home! Yay!" over and over again when he finally gets home. She smiles SO big every day when he walks through the door after work, and I know that smile will be accompanied by an excited exclaimation of "da-da" all too soon!
5. First professional portraits-Tripp's work had a little family social get together at the beautiful Duke Gardens this afternoon. One of his co-workers and her husband are professional photographers, and they graciously offered their services today. We can't wait to see the proofs!
6. First crawling-Rylie has been scooting for a while, but she actually started crawling today. She does the army crawl for now-on her knees and forearms, and I'm interested to see if she'll continue like this or eventually move to hands and knees.
7. First table food. I've been fixing purees for Rylie for a few months now. Over the last few weeks, she has shown no interest in eating. I offer food daily, but she will rarely take a bite. She purses her lips and thrashes her head around. I've tried to feed her at all times of the day-nothing seems to work. I finally called the doctor just to make sure this wasn't a concerning issue since she's soooooo tiny weight-wise for her age. We ended up having to go in for a weight check and the nurse I talked with over the phone on the advice line mentioned things like a food therapist and switching to formula. I wasn't fond of either of those options, so I was anxious to get in to see what the doctor had to say. She did note that although Rylie is not on the charts for her weight, her length to weight ratio is good because she's also very short for her age. The doctor wasn't too terribly concerned. When I explained what had been going on, and I added that Rylie's been turning her nose up at her chunky baby foods, but she'd eat cheerios for three hours if I let her, the doctor suggested trying as many "adult foods" as possible: cheese, bread, pastas, rice, pancakes, fruits, peas, etc. She also said that I could go ahead and switch Rylie to whole milk and bypass the whole weaning to formula thing! Rylie has done really well with the whole milk. She drinks out of a regular cup now, but we're working on a straw. She loves yogurt. She has really enjoyed doing things herself. My mom often reminds me of the days when I would constantly say, "No mommy, I do it!" I guess Rylie's just getting a jump start on that little independent streak she inherited from her mommy!
8. First ear infection-and a double one at that! She has been sick off and on for a few weeks, and the last few days she's had the green gunk. While we were at the doctor, they checked her ears and found out she has a double ear infection. She's been such a trooper!
Here are some photos from our week of firsts!

We love all the advancements in technology (although truth be told, Tripp and I both prefer the colonial era in simplicity and lack of technology). They allow us to be closer to family even when we're far away. Here's Rylie talking to her Poppy and Plunkie via Skype while she plays with her Lincoln logs. They're actually mine-I asked for them for Christmas when I was probably in the neighborhood of 16-18 years old :-)

First table food meal-peas, bread, and gerber puffs
Look at those teethies! They're getting so noticeable!
She likes to play peek-a-boo when we're behind the cameraEating some bread

She's getting really good at figuring out how to get the food to her mouth

Two hands are better than one when it comes to catching those little pieces of food!

Her newest travel arrangements

She looks just like her daddy!

Yogurt

Drinking milk

"Mom, I wasn't done..."

Peek-a-boo with daddy this time

She looks SO cute to me in this one! I think she looks like she's a baby from the 70's in her little oufit, and her little pose is adorable!

This makes me laugh!!! Many of you won't have a clue what I'm talking about here, but she looks like we caught her in the middle of doing the dance "the sprinkler"