California Dreamin...

Finley and I had the opportunity to tag along with Paul and one of his athletes for a 5 day trip to California. I've never been there before and thought it would be a fun time!

Finley got to see her grandma and grandpa Koutz in the airport as they were picking up the Great grandparents. She did really well on her first flight and was only a little fussy on the second flight.

She got to go to the Rosebowl and see the mountains.

We enjoyed the sunshine at the track meet.

We took an evening to walk around Downtown Disney.

It was a whirlwind week!

Getting so BIG!

Finley has learned to LOVE bathtime. She tries to gather up all the little floating toys in her lap and then shove them one by one in her mouth. Its pretty fun to watch until she falls face first in the water because she reaches too far foward.




She also has become more mobile. She's not quite crawling but can roll all over the place. A few nights ago I found her sleeping on her belly for the first time.



She's getting bigger by the second it seems!!!

Indianapolis Trip

Apparently I'm a blog slacker.

The goal of the week is to play catch up on the blog. We'll start with the first weekend in April.

Finley and I made the trek south to Indianapolis with Paul's family... sans Paul. We celebrated many birthdays - Glenda, Caroline and my own. We also celebrated the announcement of Dave & Caroline's baby, expected in October!!


Finley enjoyed all the family time as well as shaking her groove-thang at the Battle of the Bands at the women's NCAA Final Four.

Randomness

Sorry for the lack of blog updates. This is definitely our busy time of year around the Koutz house and its hard to remember to do things like take pictures and update the blog, and honestly there hasn't been anything super exciting to report in recent weeks but I'll give you the run down of whats been going on in the last month.

Finley enjoyed a quick visit with Nini and Pops at the beginning of March. We were driving home from track nationals in Cleveland and stopped for an overnight in New Hudson. Finley received a new T-shirt from Nini and Pop's recent trip to Florida.



Finley has also reached the age where everything goes in the mouth. I'm not quite sure why she doesn't like to eat food but paper is the tastiest thing she's ever had! (And every toy within grasping distance.)



Finley is now the quite proficient sitter. It is rare that I find her toppled over anymore. She loves sitting but hates being on her tummy and therefore has absolutely no interest in crawling. We think she might be a straight-to-walking kind of kid.


Her hair is beginning to come in. Not quite enough for me to put bows in it yet but enough for Daddy to give her an awesome hair-do after bath time.


Coming up for Finley - Weekend of Koutz-extravaganza in Indianapolis and her first plane ride to California....

Growing up (and out)

A little over a week ago Finley had her 6 month check up. The doctor was impressed with her ability to sit up on her own and even the fact that she hasn't really been sick at all. (Aside from two colds, Finley hasn't been sick enough to call the doctor yet!). We discussed Finley's hatred for food and the doctor just said "keep trying". Awesome....

Finley had a few shots, but like usual, was a tough girl and cried for a few seconds then was back to normal.

Here are her stats:

16 pounds (50%)
26 1/4 inches (30%)

So pretty much average all around. I'm convinced that the majority of her weight is in her cheeks and belly!

Starting solids....

Last week we tried solid food for the first time with Finley. Up to this point she's only had milk but she's been staring at us while we eat and knawing on her fingers so we figured it was time. She's almost 6 months and that was the developmental milestone I was aiming for.

So I went to Meijer and bought infant rice cereal and a box of infant oatmeal cereal (I had a coupon for two boxes, of course!). That night Paul and I mixed up the cereal and got Finley all ready in her booster seat. Here's the video:


Much to our dismay, she HATED it. She even gagged and shuttered. I tried the rice cereal for several nights and got the same response every time. Two nights ago I tried mashed up bananas thinking that maybe the sweet taste would win her over. NOPE same response.

Apparently it's going to be milk only until she's 16. I guess we'll have to keep working on her! I'm making some sweet potato baby food today, we'll see if that's a winner!

Finley's Dedication

We had most of our family (minus Brad and David's families) out for Finley's Dedication on January 30th. It was great to have a large portion of both families represented.

They all met us at church where Finley got ready.

We put her in the gown that Paul's Aunt Cheryl had made over 25 years ago, although Finley was the first to wear it.

Several other families were being dedicated at the same service.

Afterward, we all traveled back to our house for a pasta bar. Daniel did a great job with the tablescape. I'm so glad to have him around to fancy-up our table.


Finley enjoyed her day and all of her family. But she was pretty tuckered out at the end of all the festivities.