our lil' pumpkin

Happy Halloween!
(She wasn't cooperating so you can't see much of her costume....we're going to try and get a better one later today.)

surprise photo shoot

I went to Babies R Us today to get some diapers (which I didn't end up buying after all) and while I was looking around a girl from the photo place within the store stopped me and asked if she could take my baby's picture. She said she was training and needed practice, and they'd give me a free portrait if I let her practice on us. So I said yes. Sadly, I had only dressed her in a sleep and play today because I hadn't planned on going anywhere but the grocery store, so though in my opinion she always looks cute, she wasn't dressed particularly "cute" today! :(

So the girl tried and tried and tried to get her to smile, but she was stubborn. Actually, I think the girl was trying too hard--she smiles at people who smile at her, but this girl was squeezing really loud toys, talking way up high in a squeaky voice, trying to tickle her with a duster....it probably works on some babies, but not mine. Just give her a simple old smile and say hi and she'll usually smile. So she wasn't smiling much today, and the pictures didn't turn out so well. I picked the only one in which she was smiling....a little odd, but the girl wanted to try a winter picture with her winter hat on, because she had seen it sitting in our cart and thought it was so cute. Here's the picture.




The other pictures were fall pictures (I didn't get to choose the props or backgrounds). She didn't smile for a single one of them, but this one was the closest to a smile she could get. I guess beggars can't be choosers...it was free, after all!

So we were at Babies R Us much, much longer than I had planned, I didn't get the diapers I had gone for (I decided the sale wasn't that great of a sale after all!) and I didn't even make it to the grocery store! By the time we left I had a tired, fussy baby, so I had to get home, feed her, and put her to bed. The grocery store will have to wait for another day.

pretty pictures

Here are pictures from the fall foilage excursion last weekend.


This is our little family....she wouldn't smile because there was no one behind the camera getting her to laugh! (we set up the tripod and set the timer)

Here is Mommy and a happy baby girl. She loved looking at the shadows that the sun made through the trees.

This shows the beautiful trees. Of course we have WAY more tree pictures than family pictures....if you know my husband, you know this is always the case.

She loved her ride up the trail on Daddy's chest! Daddy loved watching her enjoy the outdoors with him.

a tooth and a "word"

After weeks and weeks of teething, there's finally some evidence of it all...a tiny little white speck has poked through on the bottom of her little gums. She doesn't seem too bothered by it, though she is pursing her lips a lot more and sucking on them--I don't know if that has anything to do with the tooth or not.

And today she said her first consonant-vowel combination that was at all recognizable. She said "ba ba ba." Yeah, I know, what does that mean???? Nothing....but at least it's progress from the "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" that she's been doing for months now! She also makes this "ng" kind of sound--I can't even imitate it, but it's kind of like the "ing" sound without the "i." The "ba" was quite exciting to hear. Daddy thought he heard her say "ma ma ma" this morning, but he said it hasn't been confirmed, so he's holding out hope that it wasn't and that she'll say "da da" first! :)

Yesterday we all three went on a hike up to the top of this ridge that overlooked the beautiful fall leaves. She rode in the baby bjorn on Daddy's chest, facing outward so she could see where we were going. She loved it, and babbled and squealed up a storm the whole way. Daddy was glad to be hiking and to have things to take pictures of, she was happy to be outside and having a fun ride, and I was happy to be with my happy daughter and happy husband and enjoying being a family. It was a gorgeous day here--maybe the last warm-ish, pretty fall day we'll have. Snow is on the way, I heard. :( I'm not ready for cabin fever. Anyway, I'll post pictures of our excursion in the next day or so.

back among the living

I feel like I've missed a week. Last week was spent almost entirely at home because first my little one was sick and then I caught it from her and was out of commission for a few days myself. I'm finally feeling a little more normal today and may even venture out to the grocery store this afternoon if I have time....currently there's apple pie baking in the oven (a surprise for my husband), so I can't go until that's done, but by then my little smiley girl may not be so smiley anymore and won't do well at the grocery. We'll have to see how that all goes. I may have to wait on the grocery store trip, though it will probably be postponed until Wednesday since tomorrow's outing is a trip to the pediatrician for her 6 month visit (more shots....yuck!!!!), and she'll likely need a long afternoon nap to sleep off the shots. Thus, no grocery store, in all likelyhood. But even if I don't get to go, at least I'm feeling better and have gotten some things accomplished today.

Still no teeth popping through those little gums. You'd think with all of this teething, there would be teeth, but no. She's still waking up in the middle of the night--I don't know if it's seeking comfort for the pain, seeking food, or just seeking company. Letting her cry is so hard, but last night, since I had taken cough medicine that knocked me out, I went to check on her, let her cry, closed both of our doors so I couldn't hear her very well, and fell back asleep. I had only meant to let her cry for an hour (torture when I have to listen to it--I feel like such a horrible mommy), but because I fell asleep, after an hour and fifteen minutes my husband said, "Oh my gosh, how long has she been crying like that?" I realized that I had let her go past what I had planned. Then I really felt like a horrible mommy. I went in and fed her after that, thankful that she still wanted to look at me after that!

picture day!

She turned 6 months old on Monday. SIX MONTHS!! It's hard to believe she's been with us for a whole half of a year. The time has gone fast. I'm trying to savor every minute and not let the sleepless nights and frustrating moments wish her childhood away.

So I took her to get her 6 month pictures taken today at a new place in town. It's a chain that a friend told me about in her hometown in Illinois. They didn't have one here, but they have one up where my parents live, so I was going to take her up there, but then I found out they just opened one here two weeks ago! Awesome! I was really happy with the job they did. They took tons of pictures and they let you change their outfits. It's a nice place.

So in this picture she's wearing the pinafore that my mom wore in her 6 month pictures and I wore in my 6 month picture, so now she's wearing it in her six month picture! Let's hope I can keep it nice for her daughter's 6 month picture!

I also had her in a pink and white sailor dress with lacy socks and black patent leather shoes. I loved those too, but only got it in a wallet size. When I scan it it's way too small to see, so I can't put it on here. Maybe I can work with it and try to figure out how to make it look bigger, but until I do, you'll just have to enjoy this picture. It was quite a chore to get her to smile, but we managed to get a few of her smiling.

sleep

Finally...she slept through the night again last night. Hallelujah!

I, however, couldn't fall asleep until after 2:30 AM, which is completely ridiculous. I have no idea why, because I'm totally sleep deprived and all day long that's all I want to do is sleep. So even though she slept, I'm still exhausted...but at least we're moving in the right direction and ONE of us is sleeping!

Just a picture of her on the changing table, just because.....

big girl bath!

Teething continues to take its toll on a tired Mommy, but I don't want to write about that....let's write about something happier.

Since she's sitting up now, we've moved up to the big girl bathtub! No longer will she be laying in the little baby bathtub in the sink. She has the whole big bathtub to explore now. Before this, she wasn't ever sure that she liked baths, but she has quickly changed her mind. Water to kick and splash? Toys? Sitting up? All at the same time??? Could life get any better? (Well, maybe if there was a bottle of formula involved, but you can't have everything).

Here she is wondering if this bath thing is really all it's cracked up to be....

...and then she found the toys to play with......












...and realized that big girl baths are the best things since....(I can't say sliced bread because she's never had it...) ....since sweet potatoes! (her favorite food, I think).