One year old!

Oh my sweet Sunshine, you had your first birthday and are now one year old.  It just flew by so fast!  I still can't help but smooch on those chubby cheeks of yours and your smile is infectious.  You have this sweet little giggle that you do when you are amused and it is the most adorable thing ever.

You can stand up by yourself for a few seconds, but as soon as you realize that you're doing it, you slowly sit down.  You like to walk around with your walker toy or holding on to someone's hands.  Your Auntie said you took a step by yourself on your birthday yesterday, but I think like standing, you'll only do it when you don't know it's happening.

You are far more daring than your sister and have started climbing up on your walking toy.  You also were trying to climb up onto the couch yesterday, you weren't successful, but definitely trying.  I think we may have a climber on our hands, which will be new territory for us.

Some of your favorites include avocado, animals, balls, baby dolls, your sister, and of course mommy. Whenever you have something you really like, you hold it to your chest and rock it like a baby.  It's really cute, but also funny because you do it with anything you like.  It could be a doll, a water bottle, or a book, you will hug it and rock it to show it's something good.

Your birthday party was a huge success.  You had a great time and enjoyed a little bit of frosting off your cake.  You weren't too interested in eating it, but you made a nice, big mess.  The only bad part was cleaning you up after cake.  You had frosting all over your body and you thought it was pure torture to have it cleaned off.  You eventually forgave us and all was good again.  It was a lovely elephant themed party where everyone enjoyed some fun at the park with family and friends.

You are such a sweet baby and you love to give kisses now, especially to your sister.  You make a smacking sound with your lips to give kisses and we say besos and lean in which makes you smile and giggle. 

I think that's it for now my love.  I started this post the day after your birthday, but didn't get around to finishing it until now.  I want to get it posted before it's time to do another update!  I love you so much my sweet Sunshine and I can't wait to see what this next year has in store for us.

10 months/11 months

I'm sorry my sweet Sunshine, I didn't get around to posting last month and we're already halfway through this month.  Well, I'm here now!

Last month you finally decided to start crawling.  It's a funny crawl where you use both arms at the same time and push with one leg while keeping the other crossed in front and you just drag it forward with you.  People say it looks like you have a broken leg!  It's pretty funny to watch, but it works just fine for you and you are quite fast when you are determined.  Usually mommy is what you're after, but sometimes it's something like your sister's toy or the gate was left open and you see your opportunity to taste some of that delicious cat food.  Seriously kid, I can't imagine that it tastes very good but who am I to judge?

You are such a little ham and it's really hard to be serious about things like telling you it's time for bed when you are giving us cheesy smiles and funny faces.  You are so stinkin' cute and you know it!  You are a total goofball and you always brighten my day.

Balls seem to be your favorite things to play with.  And anything your sister has of course.  Doesn't matter what it is, if she has it, it must be better than whatever you've got.  Your most important goal in life seems to be getting your sister's little stuffed bunny, Swirls.  You go after that bunny every chance you get.

Right now you are going through the I only want mommy phase.  It's nice to be so loved, but it is a little difficult to have you cry and throw a fit every time I need a little break.  You still absolutely love your daddy, but usually only when I'm not in the room.

Recently, you have been fighting sleep.  Naps and bedtime are turning into quite a battle.  The world is such an exciting and interesting place now and you don't want to miss out on anything!  I know there is so much to see and discover, but you really need your rest.  You are much happier when you are well rested.  For some reason, babies don't seem to understand that.

Now that you've mastered crawling, you really want to move right on to standing and walking.  You pull up on things all by yourself and you're getting really close to standing on your own.  We can tell that you are very frustrated that you want to do things that you can't do yet.  As a result, you have turned me into a jungle gym!  You spend your time in constant motion, climbing all over me, wanting to stand and walk but also wanting my help and support to do it.  It's quite exhausting, so hopefully you figure it out soon.

Since you have been so focused on motor skills lately, language has taken a backseat.  Your favorite word is still uh-oh and is usually said as you purposely drop something on the floor.  You will occasionally still say dada and mama, but mostly you are just babbling nonsense.  You have said ball (ba), Raeya (aya), and you still say hi a lot.  You also sign milk and please.  You are very good at communicating and are always pointing to things.

Well, I think that's all I've got for now.  Tomorrow we are doing your one-year photo shoot with Uncle Jeff and I've been busy planning your first birthday party.  I can't believe you are already going to be one-year old!  I love you so much my sweet Sunshine and can't wait to see what the next year has in store for us.

Oh wait, I almost forgot that you have 4 new teeth!  All on top which makes 6 total including the 2 on bottom you already had.

 10 Months old

 11 months old

9 months

Sunshine love, you are now 9 months old.  This has been quite a month for you!  There are all kinds of tricks you can do now.  You love to clap, point, and wave.  Waving is by far your favorite lately.  You have an adorable wave that Grandma calls your princess wave.  This wave is also great proof of your new understanding of words as whenever you hear the words "hi", "hello", or "bye", you start waving.  You are quite amused by people waving at you and just stare at them.  But if they say one of those key words, you will show off your waving skills.

This month you decided that this whole eating business is pretty cool.  You're in that wonderful phase where you will eat anything that is put in front of you.  I need to enjoy it while it lasts because soon enough I'm sure you will end up being picky like your sister.  I guess I can always hope that you stay a good eater.

I can tell that you really want to be mobile and I think that is causing a lot of frustration for you.  When you are in our arms, you are twisting and pushing on us like you're trying to go somewhere, but you're not happy if we put you down because you don't know how to get anywhere yet.  You'll figure it out soon, though, you are so close.  You started to scoot some on your booty, but it takes you a long time to go very short distances because your motion is all up and down like you're bouncing.  I really need to get it on video because it looks hilarious.  You are also leaning forward while you're sitting and trying to get on your hands and knees.  One foot keeps getting stuck in front of you though and when you make it over that foot, you end up flopping on to your stomach.  Like I said, you're getting close and you'll be taking off in no time.

The little bit of mobility you have managed to acquire is allowing you to get in to all kinds of stuff already.  You have made your way over to the diaper bag and gone through the contents and you've also sifted through papers and magazines from the coffee table.  Which is fine until you start eating them and then I have to take them away.  I really need to do some baby proofing because you are very curious and love to get in to things you shouldn't right now.  Once you are crawling, I'm in trouble if I don't get my act together.

You have definitely been much more focused on language than motor skills which is why you are not crawling yet, but are understanding lots of words and are making so many different sounds.  You aren't really using any words yet, but you can repeat a bunch of different words.  I didn't even know babies your age could do that and at first I thought I was just hearing things until other people were pointing it out too.  So far you have repeated "dada", "papa", "mama", "ball"(ba), "Katie"(I don't remember how you said it, but you definitely repeated it.), "ow".  I think that's it.  The only word you really know though is "dada".

You try to copy other things too.  Like when we were at the doctor's office for your 9 month check-up and your doctor was trying to distract you by snapping her fingers, you watched her fingers so carefully and you brought your thumb and index finger together like you were trying to snap.  It was crazy to see.  You are definitely one smart little baby.

One of the funniest things you did this month was when you were supposed to be taking a nap in the swing, but you decided you'd rather play peek-a-boo instead.  You'd hold up your blanket so you couldn't see and then put it down with a big smile on your face.  So freaking cute!  You did that many times and even though you were supposed to be going to sleep, we couldn't help but laugh and play along with you.

Well, I think that's it for now.  I love you so much my sweet baby.  You are such a joy.

8 months

My dear sunshine, you are now 8 months old.  You get funnier and funnier every day.  You are such a silly baby and make some very interesting faces.  You are experimenting a lot with your facial expressions and like to make a scrunchie face and you also have a new, cheesy smile where you smile so big that your eyes close.  You are quite the little ham and are definitely starting to do things for the reaction they get.

You have started wanting to stand and sometimes we have a difficult time getting you to bend to sit down.  You still aren't really going anywhere yet, but you recently started scooting backwards when you're on your tummy.  At least you're getting somewhere and I figure it means you'll figure out how to go forward soon.

Grandma always comments on what a talker you are.  It sounds like you have your own little language and you just babble away.  We're pretty sure you started saying "dada," though you don't do it very often and that makes it kind of hard to tell.  Other people heard it too, so I think we're going to go ahead and say that it's your first word.  Although according to your sister, your first word was "careful" and every time she thinks she hears you say something, she decides it's your first word.

You mastered the pincer grip by picking kitty litter off the floor, so we decided to give you cheerios as a much more appropriate item to practice that skill on!  You have definitely become much more interested in food now that you are better at picking it up.  You still don't eat much food, but you are trying lots of new things.

Dropping things on the floor is a new favorite, so we know you are learning about cause and effect.  It's a tiring game for mommy and daddy, but great fun for you.  Peak-a-boo is another fun game right now and you can pull blankets off your head for it.  You seem to enjoy this game the most with your sister because you always giggle like crazy when she plays it with you.

You also just learned how to clap, but don't do it regularly yet.  You still need some practice with that one.  And you have started to bounce or head bang to music.  It's so cute to watch you discover all the things that your body can do.

I love you so much my sweet sunshine.  And hey, I'm only 2 days late with your update this month!

7 months

My sweet sunshine, you are 7 months old now.  You can sit very well unassisted and sitting is how you prefer to be.  You will sit and play with your toys quite nicely.  Especially if your sister sits down and plays with you,

You got your two bottom teeth this month and you have also been trying different foods.  So far I have given you bell peppers, cucumber, apple, pear, avocado, frozen peach, mango, and asparagus.  You like foods that are easier to hold on to.  Avocado, pear, and mango were too slippery, but the second time I gave you mango, I held it for you and you were a big fan.  You haven't actually eaten much of anything yet, mostly just tasting and playing which is just fine.

You do this really cute thing where you tilt your head to the side and I think it's so adorable.  You also learned how to nod your head, but you look like you almost fall over when you do it because your head is heavy!

You still love to talk and are learning new sounds.  I believe your newest one is "oh".  You are getting a little better at blowing raspberries, but still not quite there.  It's adorable watching you try.

You have been unusually grumpy lately and we're not quite sure why.  You're sleep has been negatively affected and neither one of us are very well rested.  You just want to nurse constantly and have started spitting up in the morning because you are too full from nursing all night!  That isn't good for either one of us, so we're going to have to figure out what to do about that,

Even though you are more grumpy than usual, you are still a very happy baby.  You just seem to be very whiny and it's hard to figure out what you want.  Other than to nurse constantly!  Hopefully everything gets worked out soon.  I keep having to remind myself that you will sleep one day, I just wish it's sooner rather than later.

I love you my sweet, happy baby.  I can't imagine life without you.  You bring such joy to our whole family.

5 years

My sweet girl, you are 5 years old now.  Your birthday was February 22.  I cannot believe you will start kindergarten in the fall!  You love your preschool, so hopefully you will like kindergarten too.  You seem excited for it, though you are not a big fan of change.  We shall see how it goes.

You love to sing and dance and your favorite singers are Taylor Swift, Katie Perry, and Justin Bieber.  You have been asking to go to ballet class, so hopefully I will find a class for you soon.  You recently went to your cousin's dance recital and could hardly contain yourself while watching because you were so excited.  You also got to go to one of your cousin's dance classes and had a blast!

Your best friend is Elsa and you always tell everyone, "I have a real friend named Elsa" because everyone thinks you're talking about Elsa from Frozen.  Whenever you and Elsa say good bye to each other, she says, "Good bye Elsa!" to you and you say, "Good bye Raeya!" to her.  It is the cutest thing.

You with your best friend Elsa on your birthday.

Books are still high on your list of favorite things, but you spend most of your time these days playing with your "treasures".  These consist of various small, shiny objects.  Usually beads, gems, sequins, etc.  You absolutely love treasures and we are constantly finding them all over the house.  I don't always know what you're doing with them, but you have such a great imagination that they provide hours of endless entertainment.

You are extremely girly and will only wear dresses, the fancier the better.  Sparkles and frills are the best as far as you're concerned.  You also love jewelry and need to pick out a necklace everyday to wear.

You are a great big sister and do an excellent job at entertaining your little sister.  She adores you and you're pretty fond of her too.  Watching the bond grow between the two of you has been one of my greatest joys as a mother.

You are very interested in reading and I'll bet it won't take you very long to learn.  You are starting to be able to write some letters, like the ones in your name, but you have a hard time because you want it to look just right and that takes practice.

You are still extremely cautious and you're definitely not a risk taker.  While sometimes I wish you were more daring, I know that as you get older and the consequences become more serious, that I won't have much to worry about with you.  You're always going to stick with safer choices and that is just fine with me.

You have grown up a lot this past year and while I'm not fond of the sass and attitude you've acquired, it has been great watching you grow and learn new things.  You are gorgeous inside and out and I hope your curiosity and thirst for knowledge will serve you well when you start school.

I love you so much my little girl.  You give the best hugs and have the most beautiful smile.  I can't wait to see what comes next.

 

 (Photo by JRoPhotography.com)

 

6 Months

My sweet sunshine, you are 6 months old now and have mastered some new skills.  You are getting better and better at sitting all by yourself.  I can't walk away from you yet because you do eventually fall over, but you love to sit and are doing pretty well.

You are very good at tummy time and can lift your upper body all the way off the floor.  No scooting or crawling yet, but you can rotate around in a circle!

You still don't roll either.  I tricked you into rolling from your back to tummy once and that's the only time you've ever done it.  You rolled to your side and the bottom half of your body was completely turned over.  You just needed to get the top half over, so I put my cell phone just out of your reach knowing that you would go for it.  When you you tried to grab it, you couldn't help but roll the rest of the way over.  And that is the one and only time you've rolled.  I think you might just skip it and crawl instead.

You still don't laugh a whole lot, but one day you thought your sister was the most hilarious thing around and were laughing out loud.  It was so fun to watch and is the best sound there is.  You absolutely adore your sister.  I love watching the two of you together, it really is the sweetest thing.

You love to talk and babble away saying babababa and when you are upset, it sounds like you are crying mamama.  You also make a sound like ba-bo and daddy says you're saying bubble.

You are very animated and have the most expressive eyebrows.  I love your eyebrows and have noticed from the very beginning how expressive they are.  And when you're happy, your legs are kicking nonstop.

You started showing signs of separation anxiety and get upset when you can't see me.  This past month it has been very difficult to put you down.  You want mommy all the time.  It's ok with me, but does make it hard to get things done.

We haven't given you food yet, but we need to do that soon because you are very interested.

I think that's about it.  Oh and you like to smack your lips and blow air out your mouth.  You are very proud of your new tricks.

I love you so much sunshine and can't wait to see what changes the next month brings.

By the way, even though this post is late, I did start it over a week ago.  So it's not as late as it looks, I swear!

5 Months

My Sweet 2nd baby girl.  I'm sorry it has taken so long to get back to blogging.  I keep meaning to do monthly posts for you and then I miss the date and decide to try again the next month.  Obviously that hasn't been working out to well, so I'm doing your 5 month post now even though you turned 5 months on Dec. 30.

You are such a joy and you brighten my days.  I don't know that I've ever known such a happy baby before.  I've started telling people that I think you're so happy because the midwife who delivered you is named Sunshine.  But really, you smile all the time and everyone always comments on what a happy baby you are.  You are very social and just love to smile at people.  Especially your Papa, he has always gotten the most smiles from the beginning.  He is a funny guy and you are always highly entertained by him.

You are definitely a morning person and always greet me with a smile.  Even if I have to wake you up, you are just so happy to see me that you don't care.  After a rough night nursing you every couple hours, I dread getting up to start my day.  But then I see your happy, smiling face and I can't help feeling joy for getting to be your mom.  If you could start sleeping better though, I'd be totally on board with that!

You used to be a decent sleeper giving me a good 5 hour stretch just about every night and then waking every 2-3 hours after that.  Sometimes you'd even give me a longer stretch.  I believe the longest you ever went was 8 or 9 hours.  That was amazing!  Of course it never happened again, but I did appreciate it at the time.  Unfortunately the dreaded 4 month sleep regression hit and you've been waking up every 2 hours since.  On particularly bad nights, you might even wake up every hour.  Luckily I know that things will get better eventually and looking back this will seem like a short time.
Naps are mostly 30 min. right now, but I remember going through this with your sister and it doesn't last forever.

You are a talker, just like your sister!  You love to shriek, growl, squeal, and make all kinds of interesting sounds.  Your dad and I love it when you sing yourself to sleep.  It is the sweetest thing.  Your latest trick is blowing raspberries with your mouth.  You tuck your top lip under your bottom lip and blow spit bubbles while making noise.  You are quite proud of yourself and are practicing this newfound skill as much as you can.  I stick my tongue out at you and blow raspberries and you are trying so hard to figure out how to do it too.  The other day you were watching me do it and you were able to stick your tongue out and kind of make the noise.  You didn't quite get it, but it was so fun watching you try.

You also have discovered the joy of hanging upside down.  You throw your head back and just hang there.  You make it almost impossible to lift you back up until you are good and ready.  I am amazed at how long you can remain upside down.  I guess you are just enjoying the new perspective.

I really expected you to be laughing by now because of how smiley and happy you are, but you're still waiting on that one.  We've gotten some giggles out of you here and there, but that's about it.  It's ok, your millions of smiles more than make up for it.

Another thing that has surprised me is that you're not rolling yet.  With how active you have been since before you were even born, I really thought you would be more mobile.  Not that I'm complaining.  I'm in no hurry for you to be mobile, just a little surprised.  You will roll onto your side when you're on your back, but you don't try to get all the way over.  You're really good at tummy time, but again, no interest in rolling onto your back.  You did scoot backwards about a foot the other day while you were on your tummy.  I had been looking somewhere else and when I looked back, you were almost off the blanket I had you on.  Maybe you just don't think rolling is necessary.

You love to sit up.  You can't do it by yourself yet, but you love it when I sit you up on the couch or in my lap.  You can see much more this way than you can on your back.  I think it also makes it easier for you to play with toys.  You also love splashing in the bath, sucking on anything soft and fuzzy, trying to turn the pages in books, chewing on your fingers, your stuffed unicorn from Santa, music, your kitties, and your sister.

You adore your sister and love to watch whatever she happens to be doing.  Even her tantrums provide great entertainment for you.  She loves to play with you and get you to smile at her.  It is amazing to watch the bond you two are building.  Your favorite thing is to grab her hair, which she isn't too fond of.  When you were born and she found out you were a girl, she took one look at you and asked, "When does she get long hair?"  You don't have much hair, so she will probably be waiting a long time for that!

You also get very excited when your kitties are near.  You love to pet them and sometimes you're gentle, but other times you have trouble holding back your excitement.  When you start shrieking loudly, they decide they've had enough!  They don't mind so much when you grab their fur or pat too roughly, but the shrieking is more than they can handle.

Let's see, what else?  You won't take a pacifier or bottle or suck your thumb.  It seems to be the boob or nothing!  You do like to suck on your blankies though.

I think that's it for now.  If I don't stop, I may be writing all night!  I love you so much my 2nd baby girl and couldn't be happier that you are part of our family.  I will try really hard to do regular updates on here.  I was going back and reading your sister's posts and it's so nice to have.



Brand new

One month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

It's A Girl!

(Edit:  This has been sitting here for months waiting to be published.  I was going to edit it and break it into paragraphs, but I'm just going to go ahead and post it.)

So it's been awhile.  Elisabeth Rose Mojica was born on her due date July 30, 2015 at 12:31 pm weighing 7 lbs. 6 oz. and 19 in. long.

Early in the morning contractions started waking me up. I started timing them at 4 am for about an hour and they were all over the place from 9 minutes to 15 minutes apart.  I was still pretty sure that this was it though, so I told Jose not to go to work and I texted the midwife what was happening so far.  She said she would hop in the shower and check back with me at 6 am.  I called my sister and mom so they could head over.  The next hour contractions were still all over, but 7 to 12 minutes apart and lasting 30-50 sec.  The midwife decided to head over and arrived about 7 am.  My mom arrived shortly after and my sister came about 8:30 am.  I wasn't timing contractions anymore because I needed to focus on what I was doing.  Slow, deep breathing and a focal point got me through the majority of labor.  I sat out on the couch with my mom and sister watching the show Friends for a couple of hours.  Meanwhile, the birth tub and everything else was all ready for me in the bedroom.  My mom and sister thought it was so funny that sometimes I would end a contraction laughing because I would catch a joke from the show as I was coming out of the contraction.  I have to say though, my super active baby would push back during the contractions.  I would be having a contraction and my mom and sister could see her pushing her but out.  That was not comfortable for me!  Anyway, by about 11 am I wanted to go lay down in my bed and I had Jose go with me to rub my back.  I still thought it was going to be awhile at this point, but everything ended up going super fast after that.  I laid in bed with Jose for awhile but then the contractions started getting more intense.  My mom and sister came in and I told them I could feel the baby moving down.  It was so weird to me, but I was much more in tune with my body this time than I was with my first daughter's birth.  She was born at the hospital.  So, after awhile I just couldn't get comfortable in any position and decided to get in the birthing tub.  The midwife and her assistant had pretty much left me alone until this point and were just letting me do my thing.  Other than periodically checking baby's heart rate, they didn't interfere at all.  In the tub the contractions got super intense and I didn't want to do it anymore, so I realized I must be in transition.  I changed my breathing technique to 3 breaths and a blow to cope with the pain.  Being in the water also helped a lot with the pain.  My water broke in the tub probably about 15 min. before the baby was born.  After awhile I started pushing and was saying "oh" through contractions and moaning.  Again, very different from my first birth in the hospital where I didn't make a sound.  I was kind of wondering if I should be pushing.  I had never been checked for dilation at all, but my body knew exactly what it was doing.  I said I thought I could feel a head down there and the midwife said if I reached down, I could feel the head.  So I reached down and sure enough, I could feel the top of her head which was so cool and very encouraging.  I was on my knees, hanging on Jose and I really wanted the baby out.  The midwife encouraged me to change positions, so I flipped over and leaned my back against Jose.  It was much easier to push in this position and I got her head all the way out.  I probably pushed too fast because I ended up tearing, but I just couldn't take the burning sensation anymore.  While I was waiting for the next contraction, I could feel the baby moving which seemed odd to me, but when I said I could feel it, the midwife said the baby was turning to the perfect position to come out.  Then I pushed her all the way out and got to hold my baby for the first time.  It was amazing and I couldn't believe she was finally here.  Of course, we didn't know what we were having, so I still needed to check.  So many people thought I was having a boy, so when I looked between the legs I was looking for a penis.  Well, there was no penis, I checked twice!  Then I announced that it was a girl.  Such an amazing experience.  And I was only in the tub for about 30 min. before she was born at 12:31 pm.  It all went very quickly!