Queen of the Pile

Today we had Little Josh over for a playdate. Alegria was sure being silly while he was here, lying on her back and playing with her feet like she did when she was only five months old!

After her nap, she just wanted to hold Big Bear close:

As I was making the bed, Alegria began playing with the pillows I had placed on the floor:

So I made a pile out of them and she really enjoyed climbing on them and having me "throw" her onto them!

Daddy had a long day at work today. He got so dirty that the dirt from his helmet had given him a unibrow! Of course, I HAD to get a picture (much to his dismay!). :)

Also, today I began nursing Alegria only four times a day. For her whole first year, I fed her whenever she "asked" to be fed. However, I had decided from the very beginning that I would only nurse her for a year and then wean her. Because she wasn't sleeping through the night yet, though, I decided to start the weaning process by establishing better sleeping habits for her first.

On August 12th, she finally slept through the night for the first time. I gave her a couple of weeks to establish this better sleeping rhythm. For the first week, she slept through the night four nights and woke up in the middle of the night three times, but by the second week, she was a pro and has been sleeping through the night ever since! Now the actual weaning begins, now that she sleeps better and is a happier baby for it!

I won't lie, it was a rough day. When she was hungry, she would cry and even try sticking her hand down my shirt and I was so saddened by this that I ALMOST gave in! But I have a goal in mind and I resisted and tried giving her snacks instead to satisfy her hunger. It was a little difficult for her to get used to the solid food snacks during the day and so she was hungry a lot today and I felt like all I did was feed her snacks all day long until he rnursing times, but we'll keep going and see how long it takes to get her completely weaned! Right now I've got her nursing when she wakes up in the morning, right before her nap, when she wakes up from her nap, and right before bed.

Wish me luck! :)