thankful

for this ray of sunshine. and i'm pretty sure she's thankful for me. ;P

Going Back In Time

Okay, NOT really, but I'm going to post Addy's 6 month pictures. While on my way to my parents house in Maryland, I stopped in South Carolina, to visit my dear friend Sariah and her wonderful husband and gorgeous boys. Sariah is one half of SSquared Photo, and is truly an amazingly talented photographer! If you live in or are passing through the Charleston area, book a session, you won't regret it!

I think I might try and convince Sariah to come down to Georgia and take Addy's one year pictures! I can't wait till Jeff gets home and sees these amazing pictures!!

7 MonthDay!

I'm just going to gloss over the fact that I haven't written an entry in over a month, and I'll update you on her 6 mo stats and get on to her 7 mo skiiiillls.
So Addy went in for her 6 mo well-baby visit, she weighed in at 15lb 2.25oz(50th percentile) and 26.5in(75th percentile). Since my memory is a little hazy, I can't remember what she did between 5 and 6 months and now 6 and 7 months, so I'll just compile a list of all her current skills and abilities!
*Sits unassisted
*Puts self into sitting position
*Moves toys from one hand to another
*Babbles ba-ba-ba/ga-ga-ga sounds
*Crawls
*Turns when name is said
*Reaches out to people
*Can pull into a standing postition from seated position
...and I'm pretty sure she understands the word 'no'

I have a 7 month old. Wait, give it a minute to sink in....

OH MY GOSH! :))

My next entry I'll be showing you some of Addy's 6 mo photos, that my AMAZING photographer friend Sariah from SSquared Photo took while we visited her and her beautiful family in SC.

Stay tuned, I promise it won't be another month!

Happy Half Birthday!

We made it to 6 months!! The next 17.5 years should be a breeze!

Look what a difference 6 months makes! I'll update tomorrow after her 6 month well baby appointment with her stats and all the fun new things she's doing.

New Trick

Addy has learned how to put herself into a sitting position. I'm in amazement that she can do this. She doesn't stay for very long, because the girl is always on the move, but she gets herself there. She did it a couple times last week and I thought it was a fluke, but she gets better at it every day and is rarely laying down or lying still now.

Avocado Schmavocado

We gave Addy solids for the first time 2 nights ago. We originally wanted to wait till she was 6 months old, but since Jeff is leaving for sea soon, we decided to start a little early. You may ask why we wanted to wait till 6 months as apposed to the AAP and some pediatrician's recommendations. The AAP actually suggests starting solids between 4-6 months, and most pediatricians now start pushing cereal at 4 months.

This webpage explains why delaying solids is a  positive thing.
http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/delay-solids.html

On to the fun stuff. We started Miss A on avocado instead of cereal, since avocado has actual nutritional value as opposed to cereal which has pretty much none. She didn't really like it the first night, she ate just a couple bites then refused to open her mouth. Ha ha. The second night she did MUCH better and would not only open her mouth for the spoon, but whine when I didn't get another spoonful in her mouth fast enough. Here are some pictures

First bite

This is food? I'm not too sure about this

Jeff wanted to get a close up reaction

Okay maybe it's not so bad

Nope still gross

I put the bowl down to see if she would try and feed herself, she was more interested in the camera than the food. 

I'll be updating soon with 6 month stats and all the cool new things she can do.

More 5 Month Pictures!

Here are some outtakes from our 5 Month shoot yesterday!

"Whatcha doin' there mom?"

 

"Are we almost done mom? I wanna play" 

"No more pictures please"

"I'm outta here" 

 

"Give me the camera"

"Weeee I'm 5 Months"

Happy FifthMonth Day!

I have been such a bad blogger. Addy is in the midst of what I believe is sleep regression. She went from sleeping 6-7 hour stretches to 3-4 hour stretches. Which isn't too bad, but it's still not the most pleasant of things.  This in turn makes me a zombie mommy, who would rather just sit mindlessly during nap time, then blog. Oh and nap time went from being 1.5 hours to 30 min., fun stuff. But I have little else to complain about. Addy is so much fun these days, smiling and giggling. She thinks it's reeeaaaal funny when I come in to get her after one of her 30 minute naps. I usually have a scowl on my face, but with her HUGE grin, I can't help but smile and laugh at my silly girl. Here's her 5 month shot:

I said 'cheeeeese' before I took this, and that's the face she gave me. Too cute! I can't wait to celebrate her half birthday next month!

Here are some recent pictures from this month

Hopefully I'll stop being a slacker blogger and post again in a couple days!

xoxo

How Impressive!

She learned this new trick before we left for MN, but I didn't get a chance to post the picture. It's called "tri-podding" because it looks like a tri-pod. Even though Addy does the quad-podding. Ha ha. One step closer to sitting on her own.

Love the goofy grin on her face!

She's also learned how to pull out the pacifier, hasn't quite learned how to put it back in yet though.

"Look ma, did it all by myself"

My baby is a genius! =)

Happy FourMonth Day!

Dear Addy,

These last four months have flown by, yet I've watched the clock hands tick so slowly. You're an amazing little person and you've taught me so much about life and love and patience, about kindness and stability and laughing through the tough times. All this and your just 4 months into this world.

You've learned all kinds of new things in the last month. You've learned that lying down is for babies, and that sitting and standing is what you'd prefer to do. You've learned how to tri-pod sit, you're one step closer to sitting on your own. You've become better and better at scooting around and across the floor, meaning you're also one step closer to crawling. If you could just figure out how to work those arms, we'd be busting out the baby gates. You know who your mommy is and although you are a social butterfly and allow everyone a chance to hold and spend time with you, you have no problem letting them know when it's time to go back to mommy. Daddy makes you laugh the hardest, which mommy is a little jealous of, but she'll get over it. Your belly laugh lights up a room, and makes mom's heart melt.

I'm looking forward the coming months when you learn to sit and crawl. To the time when you get solids and say your first word(Fingers crossed for 'mama'. Ha ha). If you could just slow down a bit so mommy has some more time to cherish this time when you're so little. Take your time little girl(I'm sure you'll hear mom say this many times in the future), it comes and goes too quickly.

Love,
Mom

Oh Natalie, You're So Fun!

We got her this soothe n' glow seahorse to help put A to sleep. As of now, I rock Addy to sleep every night, which I love, but I also want her to be able to put herself to sleep at night, this being the first step to sleeping through the night, because if she can put herself to sleep, she can put herself back to sleep when she wakes up in the middle of the night. I've heard from my mom community that this is a magic seahorse. LIARS. Addy is far too entertained by this seahorse for her to even think about going to sleep. She just laughs at it and bites it. WHAT a waste of $13, especially cause it's not even pink. :P

Miss A has learned to scoot and roll everywhere, I'll put her down on her playmat, and she'll end up by her bouncer, or by the tv, or by the kitchen. I only discovered this when one day I put her down on her playmat and walked away to go move the laundry, only to come back and discover no baby on the playmat. I guess she really wanted to play in her bouncer instead. Although this new trick is pretty awesome, it just means that 1.) Pretty soon she'll be crawling and then eeek walking. 2.) She's growing up WAY to quickly for my taste. She really needs to knock that off. LOL.


Addy has discovered that her feet are her new best friends. They only come to visit her occasionally(socks vs. no socks), and she treats them with such love and respect, constantly adoring them with 'kisses' and making sure they're at their most comfortable(resting on her belly).

What's her tooth progress you ask.... Well we swore her little tooth would be popping through at any moment, then one day, the crankyness subsided and chewing decreased and that was that. We still see the tooth right on the surface, and wonder if Addy broke it's spirit and it's given up for a while. She's a tough cookie, with plenty of attitude, so we wouldn't doubt it.


And THIS is what I'm excited about! My new clothes line! After opening the electric bill last month and picking my jaw off the floor and wiping the tears away(okay, a little dramatic) We decided we needed to make a change! We do diaper laundry every other day and realized that we are being eco-friendly by doing cloth, but not so eco with running the dryer as much as we do. Hopefully this will save us some money and help the environment a little bit more.

Addy and I are headed to MN this week and won't be on for a whole 9 days, probably more, because it'll take me a few days of recovery time. :P Hopefully I can get another post in before we go.

xoxo

WHAT A Slacker I've Been

Wow, it's been a long time. And I don't really have a lot to talk about. Natalie is doing well, reaching new milestones daily and falling into a great sleep/awake routine. She's so much fun to be around, that I find myself completely enthralled with what we're doing at the time and always forget to pull the camera out to document.

I'm trying to prepare for our trip to MN next month. I'm mainly concerned with the 3-hour flights we'll be making. I was lucky enough to book non-stop flights, but am still worried about take off and landing and keeping her entertained. If anyone has any tips, they'd be greatly appreciated!

Here are some cutie pie pictures of Natalie(click to enlarge). These first three are proof that she is my daughter, she has to be difficult! She can't sit in anything properly!! =)


And here is a picture of her learning the 'mini push-up'. She's just learned this new trick, of pushing her upper body up with her elbows!

And having an upsetting conversation with daddy
and she's just too cute sitting on the couch in this picture, gotta post it.

Happy ThreeMonth Day!

So I'm a few days late, I had every intention of getting this post up yesterday, but I got hit with a wicked migraine and passed out with Addy at 830.

So I can't believe I have a 3-monther on my hands. She is changing so much everyday, and although the last couple days have not been fun(I'll get to that in a second) we usually have so much fun playing an discovering new things everyday.

This is her supermodel pose.

As you can see she is growing like a weed. She doesn't have a check-up this month so we won't get to see how much weight she's gained or how tall she's gotten. Although I might just take a tape measure to her back to see all the inches she's gained.

So with growing up, you have to go through growing pains. 3 months is a normal growth spurt which to her instead of nursing all the time, means she doesn't want to nurse at all. And on top of that, she has started teething which makes it painful for her to nurse. So we've been hit with a double whammy. No whammies, no whammies. Give me my little baby back, the one that loved to eat and sleep and be happy. Hopefully the spurt will end soon and we'll just learn how to deal with the teething. So teething has been a ball of fun these last couple of days. She's drooling enough to fill a water jug and has an attitude to boot. Poor kiddlet though, she is just having a hard time with it, but wouldn't you if a little boulder was trying to push though your gums. I wish the little rock would just leave my little girl alone.

On other fronts, she's doing really well. She's a rolling and scooting machine. She loves to smile and chat with us and has found a new friend in her hand. She's discovered to not only is it good to grab things and pull mommy's hair, it also is quite tasty. She has a hard time deciding between the pacifier and her hand, and sometimes she'll choose both. She'll wriggle her fingers behind her pacifier and suck on both, making these loud slurping noises. Such a character!

Here is a picture showing all her growth in the last three months(click to enlarge)

She's growing so fast, I'm going to go snuggle with her while she sleeps, cause we're never going to get this time back. I know, sentimental mommy.

A Post About Not A Post...

Make any sense? Ha ha. I'm far too tired tonight to update the blog, but wanted to reassure my 3 readers that I will be updating in the morning. Thanks for coming...to read nothing.

My Mom Is Now A Reader (Hi Mom!)

Haha. I recently got an email from my mom the other day asking me for my blog link, since her sister reads my blog(Hi Auntie Debi!), she wanted to read and keep up too, and who wouldn't? Who wouldn't want to know about my exciting life as a stay at home mom? And who wouldn't want to know about the daily happenings of a 3 month old? So I send her the link, and a few short hours later I get an email back saying how great the blog was, and how funny I am in my writings(I may be paraphrasing), but 'did I really have to use the phrase haul a$%?'. The funny thing is, when I was writing the blog, I thought twice before using the phrase, because I knew I had some relatives that read the blog, and because I really need to cut back on swearing, because I have a child that soon enough will be talking and repeating what she hears, AND because there really is no reason to swear. So from now on this blog will be profanity free.

Besides that, Addy has been having some good couple of days. We bought her a bumbo-exersaucer thing. Because the girl has been doing little baby crunches trying to sit up lately(she's was gonna have a baby 6-pack soon) we wanted to get her something she could sit up in. I was originally just on the hunt for a bumbo, but didn't want to buy a new one, because it's ridiculously priced, so I went searching at consignment stores in the area. I have to say, consignment shops are my new obsession. There are so many treasures you can find in a child's consignment shop, and they cost about a 1/3rd of what their full price is. We walked out of the store with a bumbo like entertainment thing. Haha. It has a toy tray that goes all the way around it and spins. It has toys already attached to it also. And when she starts eating, the top tray comes off, as does the bottom stability ring, and it attaches to our dining chair, like a booster. That's right, 3 different things all in one, and for the low low price of $20. Score one for mommy! Here is a picture of Addy enjoying her new toy. And the second picture was taken today, she managed to get her foot up into the main part of it.


And I just got this picture from a friend we spent the fourth with. It's Addy and our buddy Kain waiting for the fireworks to start and they're holding hands. So cute!

That's it for tonight. Off to check on my sleeping babe, then to bed myself.