Lately, I've only been posting every month with updates for Mary Elizabeth. Yet somehow it feels like I just did 4 months!! Where does the time go?? Well here we are, with almost half of her first year behind us. When word it like that, it makes me so sad! But what a fun age she is at right now. The other day, I remember being pregnant and looking forward to the adorable baby age when they lay on their backs all the time, grabbing at their feet and giggling. We're totally here...and its awesome. She is such a happy little girl! She has finally starting laughing more consistently and her little laugh is the goofiest and sweetest sound ever. She loves to smile, I think its her favorite. Her favorite toys right now are her hands and feet, though she is very into other toys now that she is proficient at reaching out and grabbing things.
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| Practicing her "happy baby" yoga pose |
I think we're beginning the teething process, though we can't see or feel anything yet. She's drooling a lot and always has something in her mouth. Its usually her hands but anything she can get in there she will. She doesn't take the pacifier as much lately, except when sleeping. Even then, she's most often chewing on it and then spitting it out to suck her fingers. As much as we're trying to keep her on the paci instead of fingers (because we can take away the paci eventually), she has a clear preference. She likes to suck her ring and middle finger together. It is so ridiculously cute, like she's giving us the "rock on" or "go Texas Longhorns" symbol.
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| "Bet you I can get the whole fist in my mouth!" |
She is doing so well on a consistent schedule, waking about 8:15 every morning, eating every 3 hours, napping for about an hour after every feeding and in bed by 9:30. She really drives the schedule herself now and gets very fussy if I deviate at all. So type A already. :-)
We also discovered in the past month that she LOVES to be outside. Unfortunately, it has been so incredible hot and humid lately that we can't spend too much time outside. However, she loves to swing on the front porch with mom and dad when the sun is behind the house. If she's cranky for any reason, all we have to do is take her outside and she immediately stops crying. Very neat trick to have. Last weekend we went for a family picnic at the lake. We ate, played with toys and watched Hershey and daddy swim in the water. Today we were getting restless so I laid out a towel in the front yard in the shade of a big tree and we just hung out for about an hour. I'm so excited for the weather to cool down a little so that we can get out and enjoy it more.
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| Yeah, we're gangstas. |
She holds her head up great, loves to "stand" in our laps, and though she sits very well in her Bumbo seat, she haven't mastered sitting on her own yet. She still loves bath time and has started kicking her legs even harder, which makes her laugh histerically. She still does her swing fairly regularly but she grows bored or it (and everything else) very quickly.
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| Mommy's little sous chef |
She still eats and sleeps great. We're still only breastfed but we'll probably start introducing solids before her 6 month birthday. I'm so excited to intorduce her to "people" food but at the same time, sad that she won't be solely dependent on mommy's milk anymore. I still absolutely love nursing her and will probably do it until she's 3...just kidding...kind of. She doesn't really like to be rocked to sleep anymore, much to my dismay. I keep trying to tell her that I'm not doing it for her sake but she just fusses and squirms until we put her down. I have to just take my snuggles whenever she's willing to hold still long enough. Big news from just yesterday, we finally got her sleeping out of her swaddle! We had been swaddling her with one arm out for teh past few weeks and I decided we just needed to go cold turkey. So it started with naps yesterday and though it was definitely an adjustment, she slept the whole night through. We were so surprised and very excited to be done with the swaddle.
She is becoming more aware of her surroundings everyday. She loves her dog Hershey and laughs when he shakes his head. She follows my voice wherever I am (and I love it!). She gets a huge grin on her face whenever daddy gets home.
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| She loves her Hershey dog |
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| Story time with Dad...so sweet. |
Otherwise, it has been a very busy few weeks. I started some contract work at the church that keeps me busy about 2 days a week through October. I enjoy it but am definitely not in a hurry to take another one. Luckily, some of it can be done from home, though it is significantly harder to work from home with a 5 month old! My mom comes to keep her twice a week though so that's nice, for all of us. We've also had our house on the market for about 2 months now. It is a full-time job in and of itself trying to keep a house clean enough to show. We've been blessed to have a lot of interest but unfortunately, no offers yet.
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| First concert. We went to a CD release party at church. |
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| She slept through most of the concert. |
More cute pictures. She continues to fill mine and Parker's heart with more love and joy than we ever imagined possible. She is such an amazing blessing in our lives and we can't wait to see God's plan unfold in her life!!
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| She makes my heart happy. |
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We loved having our Papa visit!
Tutus and hairbows...isn't that what little girls are made of?? |
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