Carrots, Avocados and Rice Oh My!

She's eating...

Well she has been eating quite well for 6 months but now she's eating more like the rest of us do. Esther enjoys the brown rice cereal mixed with breast milk and the avocado mixed with breast milk (be careful eating guacomole at our house... haha). She is less sure about the carrots, and as of now pretty much refuses to eat them, though we are going to continue to try little bits at a time.

Esther is 6 monthes and about 2 weeks old now and is doing great! At her 6-month check-up she weighed 16 lbs and was 26.5 inches long. I was very excited about her weight because she has doubled her birth weight in 4-6 months (recommended by most pediatricians), overall she is in the 50th percentile for weight and the 75th for height/length.

Developmentally she is holding her own... toys, books, spoon (not eating just holding). She is also grabbing... this is fun!! (I am trying to convince myself of this) She reaches for everything, my cup of coffee or tea, my sandwich, my glasses, necklace, hair (why did I decide to grow it out?), earrings, pretty much everything that looks remotely interesting. Thankfully she has not succeeded in reaching some of those things, like the coffee and tea. She is sitting quite well, and has begun scooching on her hands and knees. She can't quite crawl but kind of backs up a little and we are holding the crawling vigil because she is at the point where we are saying "A month from now she'll be crawling, but it could happen any day!"

Esther is laughing and cracks herself up from time to time, she babbles a lot and seems to understand some of what we say. We've witnessed some of her mischevious side when we say "no" and she looks at us as if to say "really...". She expereinced her first cold and is on the tail end of clearing out some congestion from her lungs but is well past the worst. And she is one of the most expressive babies I have seen, this is shared by some of my pedi-nurse friends who have seen their fair share of babies.

Here are is a little video of Esther's first food experience... Enjoy!

Esther four months and first Christmas

Esther has been doing great!! We can hardly believe that more than four months have gone by already. Everyone says that the time flies and it truly does. It's funny in some ways it seems so new and foreign to have a baby, in others it seems as though she has always been here. Esther and Wes are getting along well, though we are mildly worried that there may be talks of them unionizing. We know that Wes has been talking to Esther about how we starve him and it seems like they may be commiserating now. It remains to be seen if they will try to form a union or simply stage some protests. Esther loves to eat and so does Wes so we're fairly confident it will not be a hunger strike.

In mid-December Esther played the part of the baby Jesus in Trinity Covenant Church's Christmas program. There were four performances in all and she did great. She seemed to really enjoy herself too, maybe a star has been born (hehe...for those who may not know Esther means Star).


Esther weighed 14lbs 2oz and was 25 inches at her four month check-up. Since then she has gone through a bit of a growth spurt so we're not sure of her length, but she weighs around 15 lbs. As of now she has dad's wonderful blue eyes, mom's smile, mom's long fingers and limbs. Matt speculates that she will be taller than him by age 3.

She has perfected her smile and LOVES to "flirt" with people she sees, whether at church, the grocery store, mall, etc. As soon as she makes eye contact you can see this little twinkle in her eye and then she breaks into a big smile. It seems Carey's communication skills have been passed on as well, Esther talks a lot (not quite constantly, but almost) and we know that it's only a matter of time before the "Why mommy? Why daddy?" questions start.


Our best Christmas present this year was Esther's first completely unassisted roll over, on Christmas day while daddy was playing with her she rolled over from her tummy to her back with no help. Since then she has rolled from her back to her tummy as well but she prefers starting on her tummy. She also has been doing an early version of the army crawl skooching around on her belly in her bassinet as well as on the floor.


All in all the time is flying, Esther is doing wonderfully and mom and dad are getting a little more sleep each night. Matt began a new job with a banking software firm as a finance manager. He loves the job and people he works with and feels like this will be another great experience for him. Carey returned to work briefly and is now staying home full-time with Esther. She also has been doing some freelance marketing work for a few companies in the area. The adjusting continues but it gets a little easier each day! We'll try to be a bit more regular with the updates but for now here are a few pictures of our itty bitty one. Enjoy!

Esther as Baby Jesus:

Playing in the jungle:
Wondering what mom is doing...
Dancing on the counter... And another favorite activity,looking in the mirror, "Who is that funny girl?"