Splish Splash

Estelle LOVES the bath. Afterwards, Mommy is usually as wet as Estelle with all the splashing. As you can see, she doesn't even want to wait until all her clothes are off to get into the tub. Though she has very cute rubber duckies to play with, her preferred bath toy is an empty bottle. She crawls around the tub chasing after that thing.

The wind in my hair

I've lost track of how many colds Estelle has had this winter, but finally spring has sprung! Hopefully we're past the worst of the virus season now. In any case, the humidifier has taken up permanent residence in her room, and she is obsessed with it. Every time she's on the floor she makes a bee line for it. She giggles as the air blows into her face...it seems like it takes her breath away.

Now that she's crawling and pulling up she's discovering everything. Time to babyproof!

Cruising

Estelle started crawling on Saturday and pulled up to standing in her crib today. Let's hope she doesn't take her first steps tomorrow since mommy and daddy need some time to adjust. Here are some shots of her motoring around the family room.

Estelle's new theme song

Mommy and daddy are so excited about some of Estelle's most recent developments, we must share them with all (3?) of her blog readers.

Sleeping
The most exciting news (for us anyway) to share is that Estelle is sleeping in her own crib all night. After reading "The Sleep Lady," we learned how many things we were doing wrong with respect to putting Estelle to sleep -- rocking, walking, nursing, reactive co-sleeping (putting her down in her crib and taking her to our bed once she woke up) in order to soothe her to sleep. In short, she needed us (and all the sleep crutches we had given her) to fall asleep. We decided we weren't doing her any favors -- a growing baby needs uninterrupted sleep during her daytime naps and at night, not to mention establishing good sleep habits now into adulthood. We love the Sleep Lady's advice (highly recommend her book: "The Sleep Lady's Gentle Guide to Helping Your Child Go to Sleep, Stay Asleep, and Wake Up Happy") which acknowledges that Ferber's Cry It Out method feels awful for parents and awful for babies, but that pure Sear's attachment parenting might have her in our bed until she's 5 (which, if any of you know Bryan, was not an option). It also respects how smart babies are. After a few weeks of applying her gentle sleep training methods (and, I'll admit, a couple of hellish nights of no sleep for me) we now lay Estelle down in her crib at 7 pm, walk out of the room and she's asleep with nary a whimper. She greets us (as usual) with a huge smile in the morning. I'm still nursing her once in the early morning -- around 4 a.m.-- which she probably doesn't need, but we both enjoy.

Laughing
While Estelle has been giggling at us for quite some time, she's figured out that she can make us laugh by laughing first. Her newest application of this knowledge has been in the car -- she laughs in the carseat at absolutely nothing, which makes me laugh and gets her laughing ever harder. She is a joy.

New bud
I should have known not to be anxious about Estelle and Darwin (our sweet kitty) interacting. He is her new favorite friend. He seems to more than tolerate Estelle and, in fact, seeks her out. She's more interested in him when he wanders into the room than in any other activity we could supply, including toys, food, books, etc. He patiently sits while her hands awkwardly reach for him. I'm teaching her to stroke, rather than grab, and it seems to be working...she's only pulled out one whisker so far...

Music time
Now that the nursery is fully set up, we listen to music in the morning. To our delight, Estelle loves dancing around in our arms. Daddy has always been particularly skilled at making up his own lyrics (a latent desire for rap stardom, perhaps?), but the other morning we listened to "Video" by India.Arie and it's Estelle's new theme song, courtesy of mommy:

I'm not your average girl from the videos
and I ain't built like a Supermodel
But I've learned to love myself unconditionally
because I am a queen

I'm not your average girl from the videos
My worth is not determined by the price of my clothes
No matter what I'm wearing I will always be
little Estelle Marie

Raspberries

Estelle is already 6 months old! She is so ready to crawl, pushing up onto all fours and rocking back and forth. It's just a matter of time, and daddy and mommy will never get a moment's rest. She also loves blowing raspberries, spraying us with whatever is in her mouth. She has slowly started solid foods. So far, she loves her rice cereal, apples and pears (also, coincidentally, the color of the fun green wall in the nursery--"Apples and Pears"), but is not liking carrots or sweet potatoes too much. Maybe a few more attempts will do the trick.

This one's for grandma

This is especially for Grandma Vonnie, who gave Estelle this cute outfit just for the trip.

Little fishy

We had a great trip to Hawaii -- much different than previous vacations there, but still wonderful. Frank and JC's wedding was beautiful.

Estelle is an amazingly good baby -- she didn't cry once on the flight out (8 hours is tough for the adults, let alone a 6-month old), and slept the whole way back. She was a trooper through some long days and late nights with family dinners and wedding activities.

She absolutely loved the water...and why wouldn't she? She is a Bass, after all!

A big thanks to Patrick, Molly and PJ, who all helped out watching Estelle to give us a break to golf, dance and relax on the beach!

"Cheeks" and cheers!

Congrats to Uncle Frank and Auntie JC who got married in Chicago this weekend! Estelle was an incredibly good girl the whole weekend. Though on the drive back she decided she'd had just about enough of the car once we got to Madison, so we stayed at Amy's house overnight. Thank goodness for friends! Estelle met her great grandma Mary and her auntie PJ this weekend, who affectionately dubbed her "Cheeks." PJ also put the orchid in Estelle's dark brown hair that is newly growing in.

We had a lovely time at the #1 wedding...on to #2 in Hawaii!

With my grandmas

Estelle is such a lucky girl to have both of her grandmas to cuddle and play with her.

Just about done

We hope to move Estelle into her home in 2-3 weeks...we can't wait!

My first Christmas

The best part of Christmas for the Bass family is breakfast in our pajamas on Christmas morning at Grandma Vonnie's house (even when we come from our own house we stay in our pjs!). We missed Uncle Eddie this year, because he loves breakfast and makes a mean scrambled egg.

Christmas Eve

We had a nice dinner on Christmas Eve at Grandma Vonnie's house. Patrick, Molly, Frank and JC, and great aunt Peg all came over too. Fun! Estelle has had a cold though so we took it easy and stayed out of the dominoes game.

Down south

Estelle got to meet her little cousin, Charles Heath, last weekend when we all trekked down to Mississippi to visit Eddie and Angie. Heath is 2 mos. old and is the cutest little pork chop! It was quite the adventure for grandma and mommy to make the trip with Regina, Darien, Estelle, luggage and 2 car seats, but we made it. We were pooped when we got back but not quite as tired as Daddy, though for very different reasons...he went to Vegas for Uncle Frank's bachelor party over the same weekend. We won't be posting any of those pictures...

Happy, Happy Thanksgiving!

Estelle had a great thanksgiving. No turkey for her this year, but it was still a wonderful time with family. Here she is with her great auntie Julie, who has been doing a wonderful job taking care of her when mom works. (Julie said Estelle called her the night before to be sure they wore matching outfits...)

A special day

Today was Estelle's baptism, and we were blessed to have family share the day with us. Our priest, Father Kevin, makes the sacrament so special for the babies and parents. We are grateful to be a part of a loving church community that welcomed Estelle so warmly! We are also thankful that Uncle Frank and Auntie JC came all the way from Chicago to be Estelle's godparents.

Gaining and growing

Two common sightings around our house -- Estelle asleep in the vibrating chair and eating "under the blanket." Estelle had her two month check-up recently and landed in the 85th percentile for weight at 12 lbs, 4 oz., and 95th percentile for height at 24 in. Dad's hoping that's a good sign that she'll be very tall (all the better for playing basketball, of course). For now, it just means that she's a good eater!

House update

Another shot of changes to the house...we can't wait until it's done! It looks like we're on track to be back in by the holidays.

Growing

Estelle is getting more independent every day. She's started to enjoy sitting in her chair or swing while daddy cooks or mommy showers or eats. She's growing so quickly and has already outgrown some of her 3 mo.-size clothes.

She'll flash a momentary, but big smile when talked to now. She's also started to "talk," to which mommy babbles back, "Oh my...really? That's terribly interesting. Tell me more about that!"

Transformation

Exciting changes occurring at our house...in more ways than one.

My favorite spot

I love sleeping on my dad's chest, and he's not shy about saying he loves having me there. I think it's his favorite spot too.