And she's off!

there is no stopping this child now. She is crawling everywhere and fast. She pulls open drawers and then pulls up on them and tries to empty whats in them. I put her in the playroom and walk away to do something and I look behind me and there she is, just following me. I really need to put up that second baby gate to completely block off that room. Her playroom is completely baby proof and safe and I only leave her in there by herself while i'm in the next room and I can peek in her every minute or so. When shes in there by herself she just destroys the room. Every toy she owns is taken out and scattered around the room. I guess we need to start teaching her how to pickup soon.
We had a great family weekend, with Dave having 4 1/2 days off! He was home half day friday and then he didn't go back to work until this morning. It was wonderful! We went to the beach, the pool, a BBQ, and had our own BBQ/poker night. My dad and his wife Cindi were in town Sat-Sun. We had a very eventful and fun weekend! And this upcoming weekend should be just as fun. Dave only has a 2 day work week this week since we are leaving Friday morning for California for a friends wedding. It will be dave and Alyssa's first trip to CA. We don't know what we are going to do yet about Alyssa staying up at the wedding until 1 am her time. We have a few options so we are just going to go with it, have fun, and deal with the sleep consequences later. We never do that so we are just going to not worry about it and have fun.
Alyssa is starting to respond to little phrases now. She will give kisses if I tell her to, well most of the time. When Dave was putting her to bed the other night I told her to give Daddy kisses. She turned her head and did just that, it was so sweet! She also knows what "no touch" means. If shes going for a cord or cabinet I don't want her to open we say no touch and it really seems like she gets it.
Alright its nap time says the fussy baby grabbing at my legs saying mamamama. I have a few video I will try and post as soon as I can find some free time between packing for the weekend and playing with my sweet girl.

Hold the Dairy

So she has been eating beef and chicken the past week and a half and has loved it. I break it up into tiny pieces and put it on her highchair tray and she feeds herself while Dave and I eat. She also loves plain whole milk organic yogurt and cheeses. If she didn't want to finish her veggies I could put a little yogurt on them and she would eat it up. But...she did not sleep through the night for a week straight so I started thinking of what was different. My first thought was teething, but I still don't see any teeth. Second thought was that her ear infection had come back, but no fever. And then I realized she had been eating all this new food and it might be bothering her. So I decided I would cut out just the dairy to test if thats what was hurting her belly. She hasn't eaten diary the past 2 days and has slept from 845-7 straight the last 2 nights. So I don't think her little belly can tolerate dairy yet. Hopefully shes not lactose intolerant but just needs to be introduced to diary a little slower.
Alyssa is so mobile now. From the belly to crawling to sitting to crawling, etc. However it is posing a problem come naptime. The second I laid her in her bed this afternoon she got to a sitting position and then obviously can't fall asleep that way. She gets frustrated and cries and then forgets she knows how to get back to her belly/back to sleep. It is now 4 pm and I've been trying to get her to lay down since 3 pm. I keep laying her back down and she just pops back up. And when shes sitting, she can see all around her room and it distracts her. I don't know what to do here. Let her scream until she figures it out? Keep going in and laying her back down? I don't know. I was going to post pictures and all while she napped this afternoon but I don't forsee a nap in her future unless I take her out of her crib and rock/walk her to sleep. So either way, I doubt there will be pictures up today, sorry Mom.
I finally figure out the dairy thing and now its the sitting up thing...its always something.
Well she is absolutely screaming her head off to the point where it sounds like shes losing her sweet little voice so I am going to go get my little peanut and let her nap on me....hopefully I'll post pictures tomorrow.

Our first family trip to the beach

On Mother's Day we all went to the beach (well minus Brody since we didn't know where the dog beach was). We got Alyssa all lubed up with lotion and a big brimmed hat. She wore her swim diaper and new bathing suit(size 24 months and it fit!). She liked the sand and seashells a lot however all she wanted to do was eat them both. When we took her down to the water she was a little unsure. She absolutely loves the bathtub and splashing, but thats warm water. The ocean was still pretty chilly so she was a little unsure. After a few minutes she started having fun and smiling. After we were finished playing in the water we sat on a blanket under an umbrella so that new baby skin didn't get too much sun and burn. She wasn't a huge fan of the clean up though. They had an outside shower we washed off in, but it was all cold water, no warm at all. And then we still found more sand in the bath that night that was hiding in all of her roll creases.
Dave cooked us dinner and since it was May 10th, Alyssa's 8th month bday, she was allowed to try some of the chicken (before it was added to the chicken chilli). She liked it a lot. She tried some ground beef last night and really liked that too. I chopped it up really small and put it in a pile on her tray and she fed herself while Dave and I ate. Entertainment and nourishment all in one.
Since she is 8 months now she can start eating chicken, beef, pork, egg yolks, cooked dry beans, and whole milk yogurt and cheeses. Our family and friends should be happy about this because everyone always wants to feed her. Maybe its because shes so chubby, I don't know. As soon as someone picks her up they want to give her a sip or bite of whatever they are eating and I am pretty strict with what I let her eat. I follow the doctor's instructions completely, which I'm sure isn't always necessary, but I'm just trying to do whats best for Alyssa's health and teach her good eating habits. I am trying to feed her organic foods since I don't want her eating all those pesticides. Especailly in little girls, they are now saying all the hormones in meats are causing them to have their periods earlier. We don't need that. I am having a lot of trouble though finding organic foods in Jacksonville. I make her own baby food so there aren't any perservatives, salts, fillers, etc. Since I can't really find much organic, I planted my own vegetable garden for her last night! Hopefully in a month or two we will have all the zuchini, squash, eggplant, tomatoes, cucumber, and peppers the family can eat. Now I just have to keep Brody from peeing on them or eating them himself.
She is now pulling up on stuff easily and is starting to stand by herself for a few seconds. The last 2 weeks she has really been doing new stuff all the time. Its crazy how much can change in just a few weeks in a baby's world.
I think she might be getting those top teeth. its been about 2 months since the bottom ones came in so its about time for the top. She woke up in the middle of the night 2 nights ago crying and she has been doing a weird thing with her tongue. Its like she rubbing her tongue on her top gums. So I assume she is teething but I can't see or feel anything yet.
When I get around to it I am also going to post an album of Alyssa's Baptism from a few weeks ago. I posted a video of Alyssa at the beach at www.youtube.com/dlalewis

My Catholic Girl

Alyssa is now officially a Catholic! We had her baptism on Sunday and it was really nice. There were five babies that were baptized together. It was not part of a church service, which was nice so the focus was just on the babies. And the focus was mostly on Alyssa since she was the only one that made a noise. All of the other babies were just hanging out not talking or moving. My little monkey was as loud as can be. She wasn't fussy at all, just talking away. She was grabbing at the priest's bible, dave's dog tags, etc. She was smiling everytime he came up to her. It was adorable when they were pouring the water on her head, she looked back at him and smiled. There is a really good picture of it. She sure does have a big personality on her now! Alyssa was even the 2nd to youngest baby, so its not like it was all sleeping newborns. But somehow none of the other babies made a peep. I'm going to have a little talker. We also had about half of the total guests even though there were 4 other babies being baptized, so thanks to everyone who came and supported Alyssa! She did very well at her little party afterwards, staying awake and happy until everyone left around 415 when naptime is usually around 245. I sent out thank you notes to everyone who gave alyssa a baptism gift and it just dawned on me I did not write a return address on them. So if for some reason you did not get a card, i may have gotten you're address wrong and now the letter is lost at a post office somewhere...but thank you very much, we did appreciate your gift!
I posted a few pictures but they are just ones my mom emailed me and they are really small and fuzzy in the album. I'll post better ones next week when I get the cd of pictures in the mail.
The rest of the trip was nice. I got to see some of my high school classmates that I hadn't seen in a while.
She is just such a little ham still, maybe she'll be a performer. When we are at the grocery store or in line somewhere she will just pick out a person and stare at them until they notice her. As soon as they look at her she puts on a huge smile and kicks in excitement.
For some non-Alyssa news...Dave finished the rag yesterday! Although he was technically finished with flight school in September when he got his wings, he still had to study in the rag and all so it was still like school. No more studying now which is good for all 3 of us! He will be moving to his new squadron next week so I can finally meet all the wives that I will be around for the next few years. We went out to dinner to celebrate and I made some chocolate and strawberry crepes for dessert!
I am going to post a video when I have time...its of Alyssa playing fetch with Brody. Well she really doesn't throw it as much as just place it in Brody's mouth, but its really cute. She loves her Brody!