Week in Review... and Looking Ahead

We had a busy week at the Reiboldt house. When Belle decides to do something new, she decides to do several new things all at once. First of all, I made an executive decision to start giving her bottles for her lunch and dinner feeding. She was completely uninterested in nursing during these feedings, and that left for a hungry baby and stressed out mom. So the new system has been in place for a week and.... I LOVE IT! I still get to nurse her in the morning and before bed when she is at her calmest, but during the day she gets her bottles and is so much happier. I know there are plenty of people that might want to give me grief for this, but whatever - you do what works for you and your child.
The picture below demonstrates Belle's newest skill. Once she got the crawling thing down she began to crawl with purpose. Finding different objects to attempt to climb and go after. She wasn't getting close to pulling up until I found her like this during her afternoon nap. Lets just say no afternoon nap occurred this day and we took it as a great time to run some errands. We lowered her crib down the rest of the way that evening. Now I have to stand on my tip-toes to reach in to put her down/ get her out. She is now not afraid to try and climb on anything and everything. Baby proofing is underway and many blockades have been placed around the house.
Belle has never really been able to sit unsupported up to this point. It was sort of concerning to me, but I came across a blog of a mom with quads who were having the same problem. They were born a little more prematurely than Belle but around the same time. Due to the fact that they were more premature, they qualified for Early Childhood Intervention. They described the problems with sitting that their kiddos were having and it sounded just like Belle. She would arch her back and never could balance. I followed the blog along and they showed what the therapists were doing with their babies. I cheated and put them into practice at our house. Three days after, it all clicked for her and she is sitting SO much better.
We went to the pumpkin patch on Saturday and got some precious pictures. If you have a facebook account I have posted a bunch more there, but Blogger was giving me picture-posting grief.
Saturday night, Belle had her first sleepover at my parents house, and Mark and I went out on the town. We went to dinner at Killer Creek and then to the OAR concert. It was such a fun night. We felt a little bit old at the concert, but who cares? Belle did awesome at my parents (not that we had any doubts), and they had so much fun together.
The next few weeks are a little stressful at our house as Mark is gearing up to take his 5 final exams for graduate school. They are very intense and reflect the last year of classes he has taken. Please be in prayer that he will recall the information and feel great peace as he takes these tests. He is getting his Masters in Economics. Check out his blog and leave him a comment that you are thinking about him - www.reiboldt.com.

Hope everyone is having a great day! Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be a beautiful 72 degrees. Can't wait!