Trick or Treat

Here's Niva celebrating her first Halloween...

Cute and fresh-faced in the daytime

Spooky and ghoulish at night

Who am I kidding? I'm still cute!

Santa Comes Early

Niva was going to ask for a Jumperoo for Christmas. Lucky for her, I decided to splurge and buy her one early since she is growing so fast! Also, it's a new place for her to hang out besides the tired Little Lamb Swing and bouncer.

With all the interesting things surrounding her, Niva's favorite thing to look at is still the ceiling fan!

New Poses

Little Eggs and Bakey has discovered a couple of new poses that she enjoys:

In Mama's lap reading books...

I wanna turn the pages!

And trying to stand while looking over her crib...

Hey! There's a whole new world out there!

Yes, Niva's new thing is to stretch and stiffen her legs every time I try to pick her up-- is this how babies start standing or does she just have gas?

Bonus Picture of the Day:

2 Happy Little Sunshines

Niva Gets the Vote Out

Niva had her first voting experience today! Our daily outing on the town was going to Randall's to buy Halloween candy and rock the vote. After Niva had a mysterious baby fit in the car on the way there, I was a little wary of her voting booth manners. Thankfully, she kept it together long enough for me to cast my vote and get a quick lesson in democracy.

I vote for pandas!

Paci Addiction

Today's blog entry is not about Niva's addiction to the pacifier...it's about my own! While at the grocery store, I discovered just how dependent I am on the paci. As I was about to take Sunshine out of the car,  I quickly stuck my hand in my purse to assure myself that I had the paci just in case. It was not there! I vividly remembered seeing it on top of the shelf at home and telling myself to put it in my bag...where was it??? I frantically tore up my purse looking for it while Niva patiently waited for me. I looked again and again, yet it was still missing. This was worse than when I forget my Carmex! (If you know me, I am absolutely addicted to Carmex.) "Okay Niva, let's play a game called Supermarket Sweeps," I tell my Eggs and Bakey. I pretty much kept the grocery cart in motion the whole time, but my worries were unfounded. Niva was great the whole time-- we got our week's worth of groceries and there was no need for a pacifier! Whew, crisis averted thanks to my happy baby!

It's OK, Ma. I prefer my thumb anyway.

Niva's Many Roles

We went to Gammy and Gampy's house this past weekend and Niva was very busy! While there, she took on many roles:

Cowgirl

Supergirl

Singer

CIA Baby Agent

Since this is the last time we will see Gammy and Gampy before the big Jhanko (rice feeding ceremony) in December, Eggs and Bakey had to get all her fun in! It's always a great time at the G-parents...have fun on your trip to Nepal!

Another Milestone

Niva discovers that her hands are thoroughly fascinating...

Scary Car Ride

Today, I had a little scare while chauffeuring Miss Eggs and Bakey. After a pleasant walk at Town Lake with Auntie Karol, we were on our way home. Halfway home, Niva starts crying. These cries escalate to screams....some of the loudest screams I've ever heard from this child! I'm singing and trying to rock her with one hand while the other hand is on the steering wheel. These efforts just seem to fuel the fire so I stop. Suddenly, the screams come to an abrupt halt. Silence, not even a whimper. Huuuh? I take a quick glimpse into the Blue Elephant mirror. Her face is looking upward and I thought she was sleeping. At a stoplight, I look at the mirror a little closer and see her eyes are open and she is not moving! I start freaking out in my head. Luckily, I am only 2 minutes away from home at this point so I put the pedal to the metal. When we get home, I nearly fall out of my car seat to get to Eggs and Bakey and I find that....whew! Everything is okay. She is just staring at the circular pattern on the shade of her baby seat. Maybe the circles hypnotized her into soothing herself? What a relief!

Yes, I have bad days too!

And now for your viewing pleasure, Niva would like to show you a couple of her new toys:

Playtime

Here are couple a of pix from today's playtime...

 

Yes, Niva was getting a little tired of her same old toys so I made that makeshift "mobile" out of pictures of some of  her favorite peeps-- Daddy, Auntie Steph with Auntie Terry, and Tisha Fufu. Needless to say, we made a trip to BuyBuyBaby to get her a couple of new toys. By the way, this is the first time I have had to buy her toys besides her crib accessories...I never knew baby toys were so expensive. I may have to stick to making my own!

Baby Bloomers

This morning, we had a new adventure out in the world. Instead of our usual Morning Baby Walk, we went to a program called Baby Bloomers at the Austin Children's Museum. During this time, the museum is only opened to kiddies 3 and under and they have special activities for the babies. Niva's homie Leo and Auntie Karen met up with us and brought some other friends too. It was a blast! The babies were a little too young to understand the details of the physics exhibit but Niva sure did enjoy the new sights. There was also a storytime sing-a-long that got the kids involved. As we all know, 70% of a person's brain develops in the first year of life...I'm just trying to get Niva's gray matter to its fullest potential! Okay, maybe we didn't all know that and I am quoting my current favorite book, Baby 411....

Scenes from today:

Right outside the museum

                                                Eggs and Bakey is intrigued by the flying red object.

Okay, I'm hungry now. Let's go home.

By the Books

In the Baby 411 book, Dr. Brown says that by the age of 4-5 months, good sleeping habits need to be established. This means all sleeping goes on in the crib...no swings, car seats, or bassinets. Well, ever since Niva has been born, she has taken all her day naps in her Little Lamb Swing. Having read this in my current bible, I have been slowly trying to decrease the number of naps in the swing. The results have been crib naps = approximately 30 minutes and swing naps = approximately 1.5 hour. Today, I wanted to buy myself a little time for my own nap so I had to cheat and put her in the swing for her nap. Check out how cheerful Baby Sunshine is after her 1.5 hour swing nap. How can I say no to this swing?

Ok, due to technical difficulties (I tried uploading a 1 minute video for over 14 hours), this video of Niva laughing and doing the usual cute stuff is not going to be posted. Instead, you will have to settle for this picture of Niva at the park. Sorry!

Wish you guys could've seen my video. Oh well!

News Flash!

Breaking news: today, Niva actually rolled over from back to tummy! This makes me very uneasy. It first happened while I was in the shower. Coincidentally, Kraig had come home from work right at that time to find that Niva had rolled on to her stomach, foot stuck between the crib bars and crying. Niva attempted to do this feat again and again throughout the day-- crying hard each time she tried. Nervous Mommy that I am, I called the pediatrician to make sure that she would not hurt herself because of this. Turns out that this is normal for her age and if she is able to roll on to her tummy, she is able to turn her head to the side. Still, I'm very paranoid....she is growing up too fast and I can't keep up!

Halfway there!

Pajama Wars

You may look at that picture and think, "Aww, there's a happy baby in her cute little pajamas. Isn't that nice!" Well, let me tell you about the war that is Pajama Time. This picture was taken this morning when all is right in the world according to Eggs and Bakey. However, such was not the case the evening before...or any other evening at this time. For some reason, she goes from laughing and cooing to red-faced tears every time I want to put her pajamas on! I don't even put them on all the way-- I only put on the sleeves and only snap them up right when she is about to be put in the crib for the night. I have to  pull all my tricks out of the bag-- rattles, songs, stuffed toys. Maybe she is grumpy that Pajama Time means the end of Baby Massage in her birthday suit? Perhaps....

Baby Magic

Being Niva's Mom is more fun than I ever thought it would be. There is one part of the job that I can do without though--- changing sheets and outfits several times a day! Sometimes, I will be changing a diaper and suddenly, I don't even see it happen but changing pad, sheets, and onesie are all wet! And there is a diaper still under her booty!  Is Eggs and Bakey a Baby Magician? Apparently, 3 sets of crib sheets are not enough if I want to avoid doing laundry on a daily basis. This led us to today's trip to Target for another set of crib sheets and changing pads. I guess I will have to work on my diaper-changing speed to keep up with Baby Sunshine's "magic"!

Did I do that???!

Can you tell how excited I am about these crib sheets?

Just a Fluke?

Nothing much has been happening lately in the life of Eggs and Bakey. However, today there were a couple of things that happened that could have been flukes...but I'll report on them just in case. First of all, when Daddy said, "Hi Niva!" this morning, we both heard her say HI back!  Whaaaat? She's only 3 months old, surely this is just a coo that sounded like hi, right? It happened later in the day too. When I got the camera to record it, she went back to talking her regular baby language. Second, while we were on our Evening Baby Walk, she was drooling an awful lot. Daddy had a washcloth on her lap in the stroller and kept wiping up her mouth. At one point, Niva picked up the washcloth herself and wiped her own mouth to save Daddy the trouble. No lie! I'm just glad Kraig was there to witness both of these incidents as well so the naysayers (T-Fu) won't think I'm telling tall tales!

I got more tricks up my sleeve for tomorrow!

One thing that I know is no longer a fluke-- Niva J. Bonzek officially sleeps through the night every night!!! She wakes up about 7am or later with a big smile on her face. I hope I am not jinxing it but I'm doing cartwheels all over the house!

Lucky Onesie

We have been going to the Austin City Limits music festival every year since 2005. Now that we have a little munchkin, this is how we got in the spirit of things from afar....

Ma. take me to ACL next year!

Yup! At this time last year, the kid wasn't even a twinkle in the sky. This little onesie was a gift from Auntie Steph back then in hopes that there would soon be an Eggs and Bakey in the oven....a couple weeks later there was! Must be a lucky onesie! I don't know though...both yesterday and today, this outfit didn't last more than 5 minutes on her (I had to wash it 3 times in 2 days). You don't even want to know the details of why :S. Hence, the grumpy face in the picture!

Happy 3 Month Birthday, Sunshine!

Today, Niva is 3 months old...I can't believe we have had a baby living in our house for 3 months! But the time has gone by really fast. It just amazes me how Eggs and Bakey demonstrates something new everyday. So far, some of the skills on her resume include:

• lots of cooing
• smiling in response to a smile
• laughing
• tracking objects with her eyes
• sucking fingers to self-soothe
• holding pacifier into mouth
• batting objects of interest
• lifting her head on her own
• bearing weight when I stand her up on her legs
• being the best little daughter in the world!

Niva showing off her skills...

It's BEEN THE BEST 3 MONTHS EVER!!!

It's Official!

For all the Nervous Nellies afraid to hold Niva, she can finally hold her head up on her own!

My hand is only on her back...no neck support!

What a relief it is to not have to keep a constant hand behind her neck. Thanks to tummy time, she is getting stronger everyday!

Here's some snaps from today's tummy time session:

Give me a kissy, Lily Lamb!

Again, this is NOT staged. Niva just knows how to strike a pose.

Okay, enough with the pictures, Ma!

Life is Good!

Click below to hear the best sound in the world...

Niva's Exercises

During her Evening Baby Massage, Eggs and Bakey got an impromptu workout from Daddy. The Octagon awaits!

Today's Bonus Picture of the Day:

Tummy Time = Panda Booty!

Mommy's Morning Out

We have recently started a new Monday morning routine. Kind, generous Auntie Steph has volunteered to babysit Niva during this time while I get to hit up an 8:30 kickboxing class. Since I miss working out so much, this is the nicest thing anyone could do for me!

Auntie Steph has been coming over for the last couple of Mondays and Niva has been having a grand time with her Favorite Austin Aunt. However, Momo has taken this opportunity to act worse than normal...running away from home, eating dirty diapers. Hopefully, this doesn't scare away Auntie Steph!

Niva has a message for Auntie Steph:

Weekend Update

What a busy weekend Baby Sunshine had! First of all, we had to celebrate Saturday morning because Niva slept for 12 continuous hours....hooray! Here she is proudly showing off that accomplishment (by the way, her legs were pointing to the right when she fell asleep the night before):

I'm doing a Happy Crib Dance!

Then, Niva's Birthday Twin Miss Taleen came over bearing gifts. Niva is excited to share July 8th with such a cool Birthday Twin:

Later on that evening, Eggs and Bakey went to her first festival...the Mediterranean Festival downtown. She got to experience all kinds of new sights, sounds, and smells:

Then, after hitting up Tutti Frutti again on Sunday afternoon, Niva supervised as I gave Daddy a haircut outside. Great weekend...back to work on Monday! (haha, just kidding!)

Wow, Daddy! Your hair looks almost as good as mine!