Museum, Parade, Carnival and a Visit to the Beach

In the past week and a half Grace has experienced many firsts. On Saturday, June 6th we took her to the Strong National Museum of Play for the first time. Uncle Brian and Jason wanted to go visit the Videogame exhibit so Grace and I tagged along.


This past Thursday Uncle Brian and I took Grace to her first parade. Unfortunately Jason was not able to come with us. I was a little nervous about how Grace would react to the loud noises, but she loved it. I tried to cover her ears, but she wasn't having it. It did start to rain after a little while so I was not able to take any pictures.
This past Saturday we took Grace to the Spencerport Carnival. She loved watching all of the people. She won her first prize (a fuchsia doggy). We also took some great pictures by the canal. Here are a few:

We stopped home for a quick nap and then we went down to Charlotte beach for some dinner and a walk on the beach. We ate at Harbor Hots which was pretty good and then took Grace for her first walk on the beach. We were able to make it just in time for the sunset and we got some great pics.

Healthy at Last!?!

It seems as though Grace is finally healthy again. Her bowel movements have slowed down and her bottom is just about healed. Thank God! Jason was right! I was a crazy, overreacting psycho mom. Oh well! Haha. We're thinking that it just took her body a few extra days to regulate itself and get the rest of the soy protein out of her body.
Due to Grace's health, I didn't get a chance to write up an 8 month post. She has really started to entertain us this past month. I spend most days after work watching her in her Around-We-Go. She is hilarious! Orville usually barks at her to play with him when she is in the Around-We-Go. She usually ignores him, but yesterday she realized that he was barking at her and she just started laughing and then proceeded to zoom around.She has also started making this gasping noise. At first is really scared us because it sounds like she is gasping for air. We are used to it now though and it seems like she does it when she is upset about something.
We started turkey and chicken this past month. Since I make it myself it is a little difficult to get the texture perfect. She just gagged on the turkey (probably due to the texture). I mixed the chicken with sweet potatoes and she wasn't a huge fan so I added some butternut squash to it and she seems to be pretty happy with it now.
Grace really enjoys play time on the floor now. She is starting to scoot herself backwards when she is on her belly, but she hasn't started going forward yet. She do it when she is ready!
I know we have some new pictures and video, but I'll have to ask Jason to post them for us. It probably won't be until Wednesday or Thursday due to his softball schedule. We hope you all have a happy and safe week!

Update #2

Well it looks like things are not getting much better. P-nut's bottom is very red again. She had about 6 bowel movements yesterday. I called the doctor's office this morning and they said that it is still a little concerning, but if there is texture to it then it should be ok. They said that if it is watery, then I should bring her in with a sample. It does have texture, but it still bothers me that she is pooping this much. As the day progressed she seemed to be doing better (2 bowel movements). Later this evening I went to give Grace a bath and I noticed that her left nipple was a little red and slightly swollen. Jason thought I was kind of overreacting and maybe it was just from him holding her (Grace does tend to have pretty sensitive skin). Well after her bath I noticed that it was still there. Jason thought that we should just wait and see how it looks tomorrow morning. Well at about 9:00 pm I changed her diaper and it was still looked exactly the same. Maybe I am overreacting, but this is just really starting to make me nervous. I tried to do some research online and I was not able to find anything. I just wish our little P-nut would get better. Thank you for all of your prayers. We really appreciate it! Please continue to pray for P-nut's health. Hopefully we will have great news.
On a side note, I landed a summer/part-time job at Target. I will be working in the Starbucks located in their store. I cannot tell you how excited I am about this. I can walk/ride a bike to work everday. I also love coffee!

Update

Our prayers seemed to be answered. Grace seems to be doing much better now. She was able to drink most of her formula yesterday. She also slept in until 9 am which she hasn't done in a long time. She took two good naps too. She still pooped more than she probably should be, but hopefully that will stop once the new formula gets in her system and the old stuff gets out. Her bum also looks a lot better so hopefully it will continue to heal.

Breast really is best!

I haven't been able to bring myself to post about this because it was pretty heartbreaking. I had to stop breastfeeding at the end of April because Grace decided that she wanted nothing to do with it. I would try to feed her and she was just sit and scream on my lap. She would literally just start arching her back and and pull away from me. It was pretty stressful for both of us. When she first started to do this I thought maybe she was teething or I just wasn't making enough milk. I tried everything I could think of to increase my supply with no progress. I researched it and still nothing helped. Finally after about a week or two of this Jason and I talking about it and decided to stop nursing Grace. I tried to continue pumping, but I was only able to make about 3 ounces a day.
We continued to feed Grace soy formula which we were already supplemented with. She was doing really well at first and then on May 5th she started to get a really bad diaper rash. We went and bought special (expensive! $29.99 for 16 oz.) cream called Triple Paste. It cleared it up for a day and then it came back. We tried taking out some different foods from her diet and nothing helped. We also noticed that her sleeping schedule was a bit off. She's been walking up at about 5:45 am everyday (she usually sleeps until 7). She naps for about 3 hours straight some days and then other days 45 min. Then she started pooping more frequently. We noticed that the rash was always worse after she pooped.
I finally took her to the doctors on Monday and really didn't find out much. They said to increase bananas in her diet and decrease other fruits such as peaches/pears. They also wanted us to give her rice cereal, but our poor baby girl's belly can't really handle it. If this didn't work then they said she most likely has a soy protein allergy (apparently if babies have a milk protein allergy then they most likely have a soy protein allergy).
She seemed to heal well on Monday and Tuesday with this new approach and then Thursday she pooped 8 times. Yes 8 times! Needless to say her poor bum was raw! Well I called the doctor's office back yesterday and they called in a prescription of Nystop powder for her bum and they put Grace on Alimentum formula (hypoallergenic - $25.96 per 16oz can). Well I tried to give Grace this new formula this afternoon and she seems to hate it. She just kept spitting it out.
I have never been the type of person to push my beliefs on others, but now I am going to encourage every person I know to breastfeed at all costs. I can't tell you how many people thought I was crazy for breastfeeding even with the thrush and stuff, but I personally think people who formula feed are crazy. At least we only have 4 more months of this. Please pray that our baby girl gets better and takes this formula and her bum heals.

Lilac Festival

Here are just a few of the pictures from our wonderful morning!

Above is a picture of Grace in the tulip garden. She's so small so you can't really see the tulips behind her.

Mommy and Grace next to the lilacs.

Grace chilling by the white lilacs.

I love the lilac bush above and these tulips. This lilac had a mixture of blue and purple in it. I thought they were beautiful. I lso love the orange and pink tulips above. They were awesome.

I think they are fantastic! Jason did an awesome job!

This morning Jason, Grace and I woke up bright and early so we could venture on down to the Lilac Festival. Some of you might be wondering how I was able to get Jason to go to the festival with us. I'm not really sure how I did it this year, but I was really excited when he decided to go with us. When I was younger I used to dance at the festival every year. I think that's why I love to go there so much.It was absolutely beautiful this morning! The sun was shining and it was about 76 degrees out. One of Jason's coworkers was gracious enough to let us park in her driveway. This allowed us to park for free and enjoy a short walk to the festival.
By the time we arrived at the festival the parade had already started so we decided to walk through the gardens and view the lilacs. Grace seemed like she had a great time listening to the marching bands and looking at the beautiful flowers. We wanted to venture over to see the different craft booths, but we couldn't get across the street. We only stayed for an hour, but Jason took many beautiful pictures. Unfortunately, he didn't get in any of the pictures with us. :( We were going to go back to the lilacs to get a picture of Jason and Grace together, but we ended up forgetting about it until we got home. Thankfully we got home just in time because he started to pour out and it when down into the 60's.

And Grace's First Word is...

DADA! Jason and I both missed it unfortunately. While we were at work today she said "Dada". Grandma Peej (Stacey's mom) thought it was just a fluke, but she kept repeating it throughout the day. I can't believe how big she is getting. I never would have thought she would be talking already.

And here's the video! Jason was able to capture her on camera last night as she was playing in her crib, whispering "Dada" over and over to herself. There are 6 different videos in the "Grace's First Word" Series on YouTube you can check out, but you can hear the "Dada" the best in this one (you'll have to turn up the volume on your computer pretty loud to hear, sorry!).



To check out the rest of the Grace's videos, visit Grace's YouTube Channel! You'll find some videos from Easter, her in the bath, and more - all available in HD!

Spring Break and a Sick Baby

I was able to enjoy a great week off with Grace last week due to Spring Break. We were so busy that I didn't get a chance to write. Daddy finally found some time to download some of our pictures. The rest are posted in the gallery. On Friday we took some lunch to Uncle Brian's work for him and his coworkers. This was Grace's first trip to the ice rink and I think she really enjoyed it.


The weather was kind of all over the place last week. On Saturday it was 85 degrees out. Poor Grace was sweating away so we let her just wear her diaper for a while and she was loving life. Here is a picture of "Super Grace".

We tried to take some pictures of Grace's new teeth on Saturday. It was a tad difficult to do. This picture is not the best, but you get the idea. I think she has a new one working its way up on her bottom gum.
Grace was definitely tired out by our busy week. Here's a picture of her taking a nap.

Apparently we did a little too much last week and now more Grace is sick. We think it's a combination of a cold and teething. Hopefully she will feel better soon! I will keep you updated.

7 Months Old

Grace is 7 months old today! We cannot believe how fast each month goes by. It seems like it goes by faster with each month. It also seems like each month gets better and better as Grace learns new things.
She has started to sit up on her own. We still need to sit next to her so we can catch her if she begins to tip which happens sometimes. Last week she still needed a lot of help with this, but today she was able to sit for a few minutes without tipping. It's amazing how fast she learns new things. As I reported earlier this week, Grace's first tooth arrived. You can see it a lot better now. We think that another tooth is poking through now too, but Grace won't let us get a clear shot of it.
She is eating lots of different foods now. We introduced butternut squash, acorn squash, avocados, peaches and pears this month.

Grace is also becoming quite the noise maker. She loves to hear herself cough so she will usually spend a lot of time doing this during the day. Apparently when Jason and I leave for work, Grace likes to screech. We are started to notice that she really seems to enjoy music. We have always played music every night while sleeps. Every time she hears music she turns her head towards it and listens intently. She also likes to play the keyboard on her "Around We Go" toy. Another new thing that we have noticed is that Grace is starting to developing seperation anxiety. If I leave the room while she is playing she will usually start to cry until I return. I have also noticed that if I start walking towards her she will smile, but as soon as I turn away she starts to cry. She has also started crying when different family members try to hold her.
Last week, Grace had her first "photoshoot". She was quite the little ham. The photographer asked us if we take a lot of pictures of Grace and we said "Oh yeah!". She said that she could tell since Grace was so comfortable in front of the camera. We are supposed to pick up the pictures on Friday so we will try to post them when we get them.

Grace's First Easter

Here are some pictures for Grace's First Easter. She was true champ considering the fact that she was teeth combined with all of the running around we did over the weekend.

Grace with her new ducky from Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Pizzoli.


Grace showing off one of her Easter dresses.

Grace and Mommy at Great-Aunt Andi's house.

Here's our little bunny!

This was actually a Halloween costume that my mom bought for Grace, but she couldn't wear it because it was way too big for her. We saved it in her closet because we thought maybe we could use it for something else in the future. A few weeks ago my mom was going through Grace's closet and she stumbled upon it. We finally thought of a purpose for it. A photoshoot! She just woke up right before we took this picture so she was in a bit of a daze.