Finley's valentines

Our friend Tina came over to help make Finley's valentines. These are valentines for her friends at daycare. We worked on some different and very special valentines for our family... Pictures of those to come soon!

Little Chompers

 Finley's two front teeth FINALLY popped through!  The one on her left popped through last Tuesday and the one on her right came through last Thursday.  There are also several bumps on her top gum line.  I am thinking she will just constantly be teething for the next 2 years :)

Dadadadadada

Finley has learned how to say 'dadada'.  We know this is normal for babies and we also know she doesn't associate any meaning with it yet, but we still LOVE hearing her say it.   It makes us eager to hear her first words and hear her little voice in the future.

Lazy Sunday morning and TICKLE Monster!

 Daddy busted out the tickle monster gloves and Finley got a kick out of it.

 Her armpits are much more ticklish than her thighs... must be the layers of 'chunk' on her thighs that protects them :)

 Finley got this book and the matching Tickle Monster gloves from her great aunt Terrie and great uncle Barry for Christmas!

After the tickle monster attack... she decided to roll around.  She can push her body backwards really well, but hasn't quite mastered the forward motion.  This is where she ended up! She is in a corner and under the ottoman.

She tried to get out from underneath the ottoman for about a minute and then just gave up and laid there until we rescued her :)

2nd Anniversary

 Finley's Godmother Lauren and Godfather Lee offered to watch her so we could go out to celebrate our anniversary.  We went shoe shopping (SO glamorous) and then to our FAVORITE sushi place in Kenosha.  We ordered TOO much, but at least we had lots leftover to bring home for lunch the next day.

 Writing down our order for the yummiest sushi rolls in the world!

 Yes, he is holding his straw with his chopsticks!

 I love this man SO much!  The past two years have been the best of our lives.  This year, I have had the awesome opportunity to watch him be a daddy... This makes me love him even more.

 The 'Dream' roll... YUM!

This was after we demolished about half of what we ordered!

Finley the 'Chef'?!

Our amazing friend, Nikki has a little girl (Jayda) that is almost exactly one year older than Finley.  She always lets us have first 'dibs' on her garage sale bins.... I got a ton of great new clothes for our girl and this is one of the ensembles we got from 'Jayda's Boutique' LOL

Cory said she looks like a fancy 'chef' :)

Sippy Cup :)

  We have been working hard on lots of 'skills' this week.  Yesterday was the first day that she drank more than a sip or two from her sippy cup (about an ounce).  She seems to like the watered-down apple juice we put in there, but hasn't totally mastered holding it on her own or sucking it properly either.

 She has to lay all the way flat in order to have any kind of success at it!

 

 She grips it very well with her right hand. Hasn't quite figured out how to use both yet!

Finley tries 'Puffs'

 I gave Finley some puffs the other night and for the first time she seemed interested in trying to grab them and put them into her mouth. She was successful a 'handful' of times :)

Watching her try to get it out of her grasp and into her mouth is quite comical!  The LOVED the strawberry flavored puffs.  We got some apple cinnamon ones at the store yesterday and she loves those too!

Finley the Nun

When Umpa and Nonni were here last week, they we SO helpful!  Cory had to work 10 days in a row and Finley and I were so grateful that they were able to come down to help us and spend some time with us.  My dad loved doing the bedtime routine (especially bath time). One of the nights he came out with Finley looking like this.  He said she looked like a Nun and I agreed.  :)

My dad told me over and over again when I was little that he wanted me to be a nun (so he would never have to give me away on my wedding day).  Now he is telling Finley the same thing! LOL

7 Months!

Wow!  Our little peanut isn't so little anymore.  It seems like every day she is meeting new milestones and doing new things.  She has tried lots of new food this month including peaches, chicken, cauliflower, blueberries, multi-grain cereal, and broccoli.  We have also started to try having a little watered-down juice in a sippy cup.  We gave her some 'puffs' and Cheerios too.  She isn't too interested in eating these two things, but we figure it helps her work on her fine motor skills :)

She has 100% mastered her independent sittings skills and is getting all fours when put onto her belly.  Crawling isn't too far off!  Also, I think this will be the last month with the blocks in which she has a gummy grin.  She has two that are SO close to popping through on the bottom.  

Finley has always been chatty, but in the last couple of weeks it seems like she is vocalizing pretty much non-stop.  She has just started to verbalize a few of the consonants (mostly b and m).  She has also learned to click her tongue.  

She continues to bring us more joy than we could ever imagine and we look forward to all of her future milestones!  We love you our sweet (and sassy) girl!

 I guess this is a new way to show off 7 months!

Go BUCKY!

We wish daddy could be home with us to watch the Rose Bowl... It does feature his Alma Mater after all (and likely the school that he will make Finley go to in 18 years :)).  

We are all decked out and ready to go!  GO BIG RED!!!!!!

 Finley's Nonni had this embroidered for us :)

 Finley's Auntie Becci got her this awesome pretty for Christmas!

Our favorite, little Cooper!