Memorial Day Weekend Vacation

Hi little one,
Daddy and I took you on your first vacation last weekend to Branson, Missouri. It was a blast! We left mid afternoon on Friday and stayed at the Barrington Hotel through Monday morning. I was a nervous mommy about how you would travel and sleep, but surprise surprise, you did fine on both accounts! You're just the best little girl :)

We crashed pretty hard Friday night so we could get up early Saturday morning for Silver Dollar City. Your first amusement park! Not even the rain stopped us from having a good time!

As you can see, Daddy and I embraced the new Petunia Pickle Bottom Ergobaby that I recently purchased. It was especially handy since 1) your stroller was soaked by the time we finished breakfast, and 2) you could nap in it in peace. Daddy was a little hesitant to wear you at first, but he got the hang of it and enjoyed the attention from all of the old ladies at the park who wanted to love on you :)

Probably my favorite part of the whole trip was eating skillet food at SDC. Skillet food is my JAM. To. Die. For. These bowls were worth the price of admission alone! These would totally be worked into the home dinner rotation if your mommy owned a cast iron skillet...and knew how to cook.

Sunday we went shopping around Branson, and Monday we did some more shopping before heading home. I *might have* gone a little crazy at the Carter's outlet, but it's soooo hard to resist buying cute baby clothes for you! (Like, ridiculously hard. Ridiculously, ridiculously hard.) I also bought you a tiny taggie blanket that you adore chewing on because more teeth are on their way. In retrospect, I should have bought some of the fabric because that print is TOO CUTE!

As much fun as we had, it was nice to come home and start our summer together. Daddy and I are so excited to take you on vacations as you get older! In fact the next one might be sooner than you think...

That's all for now. I love you, baby girl!

Pemberley - Seven months

Hi little one,
First, my apologies this is so stinkin' late! Between you getting sick and the end of the school year, things have been a little crazy. But summer is FINALLY here and I'll have much more time to stay current on your blog (and maybe give it a facelift, too!).

Seven months was HUGE for you! Daddy and I have had so much fun getting to know you and seeing you grow and do new things. You're growing into such a smart, beautiful little girl! As always, your adorable monthly pictures...

 At seven months, you..

-weigh 16 pounds, 13.5 ounces (50th percentile)

-still wear size three diapers

-are in 9 month clothes

-have two bottom teeth, which are quite adorable

-can sit unassisted (sometimes you get so excited that you topple over, and then you glare at me like I pushed you)

-love to roll onto your tummy and rotate around in a circle

-can scoot backwards, but not forward

-have zero interest in standing up

-are regressing back to waking multiple times a night (if any blog readers have any tips, I'd love to read them! Your sleep schedule is slowly driving me insane again.)

-love watching the dogs play, but have little interest in watching the cats

It's hard to believe that you're seven months old. Like...really hard to believe! I still cradle you like you're my little newborn and want to cry when you squirm and wiggle your way out of my death grip. People always told me that "they grow up so fast", but I honestly never knew what they meant until now.

I love you SO much,

A Month of Many Firsts

Hi little one,
Things went from zero to 60 this past month! So many FIRSTS!! Allow me to catch you up...

First ER Visit:: Okay, maybe, maybe I freaked out and took you in at 3:15am for what turned out to be an non-emergency (upper respiratory infection and left ear infection). But to be fair, I freak out over practically nothing anyways! You sounded really congested, and you kept waking up so I started worrying and eventually woke up your Daddy to tell him your fever wouldn't go down, and that I was taking you in to see a doctor. Glad I did, because we never would have known that you had an ear infection since you weren't pulling on your ears or crying. 10 days of amoxicillin later, you felt much better. Here's your sweet, exhausted, sickyface at the ER.

Gigi and Pa G:: Your grandparents came to stay with us for a few days. It was awesome to see them!! Aunt Darcy, Uncle Scott, and your cousins Evan and Ryan came for a few days, too, so they could do some house hunting before their big move in July. We all got together Saturday and Sunday, and somehow managed to snap this picture with all of the grandkids. Pretty good, considering that about five seconds after it was taken, Griffin was looking through his binoculars, Reagan was almost buried in the couch cushions, Ryan quit gazing at the fan, Evan decided he would rather watch the Lion King instead of say cheese, and you wanted to suck on your fingers! I'm sure this was the first of many, many more shitshows of us trying our hardest to get you all to pose and smile at the same time :)

First words:: You're officially not just babbling anymore! I was so sure your first words would be either "I love cats" or "mama", but no. Wrong! You said "Dada" one night when we were all in the living room. Daddy got the BIGGEST smile on his face, so as sad as I am that you really are a daddy's girl at heart, I can't be upset. I love watching your Daddy's face light up when you say his name. You have him wrapped around your little finger, Pemberley!

First night sleeping on your belly:: You're officially a tummy sleeper! It was about 6am one morning when I went to pick you up out of the crib, and I noticed that you weren't on your back where I put you. You were belly down, just snoozing away! Once you mastered rolling in your sleep, you weren't afraid to finally show off during the day too. You roll all the time now! (But not tummy to back...it's the weirdest thing! Now when you roll onto your tummy, you're pretty content to hang out like that for awhile, doing what appears to the untrained eye to be baby pushups.) You also sleep for really good stretches through the night now that you sleep on your tummy. (Except for the occasional night like this one...I believe Daddy called you 'Paranormal Activity baby' when we saw you staring at the camera like this.)

First dance:: Little Miss Twinkletoes! We got all dressed up and took you to your first real dance! It was the annual 8th grade spring fling at mommy's work, and I must say, your slick dance moves impressed everyone!

Okay, maybe you didn't get much dancing in, but we still had a good time :)

Ooookay, maybe you just sucked on your fingers and fell asleep an hour after we got there, but I'm just positive you would have been a little ballerina on the gym floor! Here you are, hanging with some of my students. I can't wait to take you in a big fancy dress next year and watch you have your first daddy/daughter dance...my heart is melting already!

First foods:: Daddy and I took a CPR class in preparation for feeding you solid foods. We decided to skip baby food in a jar and go straight to finger foods, using a method called Baby Led Weaning. Up first? Bananas! Your expression is priceless!! 

::lessons learned from feeding you solids::

1) Strip you down. Cleaning banana stains out of your onesie was so not fun.

2) Your poop changes when your diet changes. I don't want to get into it too much, but it's safe to say that you did your Daddy proud in that department.

3) You don't need a vacuum when you have two dogs.

4) Even after researching the difference between choking and gagging AND taking the CPR class, it's still a little scary to see you shovel in food. But damn, girl. You love to eat!

First Mother's Day:: This was the first Mother's Day that we spent together as a family, and let me tell you, it was the BEST! We woke up and Daddy took us to First Watch for some delicious pancakes. We spent the rest of the morning taking naps during the thunderstorms. When they cleared up, you and I went over to see your Grannie and Grandma Joanne while Daddy worked on his class final. You weren't shy to show off your new talents of rolling over and sitting up unassisted, and you were the center of attention the whole afternoon. We printed and framed the picture below, and your grandmas just loved it! But seriously, though, who wouldn't?

I also have to give a huge shout out to your Daddy for getting me this beautiful ring for Mother's Day. It's your birthstone, opal, and it's now officially my second favorite piece of jewelry. Isn't it gorgeous? Daddy did good!!!

First teeth:: Yep. I found them when I picked you up from daycare one day, and it took everything I had not to burst into tears right there. You now have two bottom teeth! I of course called your Daddy to let him know. The conversation went something like this::

-Honey, our baby girl has two teeth!!!

-You're shitting me.

-No babe, I'm serious! I can't believe this. *crying sniffles*

-Does this mean we have to buy her a toothbrush?

-OMG.

I think that's all for now, as if it wasn't enough! I can't wait to see what happens when you're 8 months old! I love you more and more every passing day, big girl.