Teething + Congestion = Sleepless Nights

Ok, ok... so, after spending an hour reading through all of April, all of July, and most of the June posts on my friend Holly's blog, I feel compelled to actually begin writing in our blog, in addition to my regular (or not-so-regular) photo and video posts. I have a lot of catching up to do, so I'll start out with the general stuff...

The past few days have been a little rough for Aliz, as she battles teething and congestion. She has been waking up crying frequently throughout the night and isn't napping or eating very well. She did cut a tooth, today, so hopefully that will relieve (at least) some of her pain. Hopefully, she cuts the rest before August 12th, as that is the day Uncle Jake and Aunt Kate take over for us while we're in St. Lucia!

She's also been scratching her ears a lot, lately, so we went to the doctor to make sure it wasn't an ear infection. As of now, her ears seem to be fine. She weighs 19 lbs. 11 oz. but we weren't able to get a measurement on her. Her 9 month check-up should be coming up in a week or so, and we'll get her percentiles then.

She's getting a lot more confident on her feet, now, and cruises around anything (the vacuum, walls, couches - anything vertical) with ease, and many times tries to go faster than she should, resulting in a few tumbles. She'll let go for a few seconds and stand on her own, but usually decides sitting down and crawling is a safer decision than taking steps on her own. She's been rearranging the furniture, after figuring out how to use the dining room chairs as walkers, and pushes them across the floor.

Last night, Aliz was having a lot of trouble sleeping flat in her crib, with all of her congestion, so I held her upright while she slept in bed with us... waking up with her nestled fast asleep in my arms was one of the most amazing feelings I have ever had. Ugh... she makes me weak. I always thought it was a little creepy when people said they were "in love with" their children, but that was before we had Aliz. Now, I get it.

Here's a little sampling of Aliz pushing boundaries... she loves the predictability of the whole scenario, and while I know that laughing while you say "No" is slightly ineffective, :) sometimes, it's just hard to be firm when she's being so adorable!