Thanksgiving 2011

Tennessee for Thanksgiving!  My first big(ish) road trip.  I think I did pretty good if I do say so myself.  I sure did sleep a lot.  On the way there we drove straight through, but on the way back we made a couple of pit stops to stretch our legs.  I'm pretty sure I was good enough that mommy and daddy will take me again.

Holiday Highlights:

1.  Hopping in bed with grannie for my morning nap.
2.  Sitting on grandpa like a lay-z-boy chair while he sat in his lay-z-boy chair.
3.  Winston (aka Winsty), the 100+lbs great dane doggie that was more scared of me than I was him.  I just wanted to grab his cute face!
4.  New/different toys to play with.
5.  The food!!  I ate (and really enjoyed) all of the following: turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, collards with vinegar, beets, and brussels sprouts.  I seriously couldn't get enough!

Sunday Fun Day

Playing with mommy and daddy Sunday morning...

Olivia is TEN!!

The day after I hit my big 6-month milestone, my favorite cousin, Olivia, reached an even bigger milestone: 10 years!  Double digits... woop!  She had her party at our house and invited a lot of fun family and her favorite friend from school.  It was so fun to spend the day focused on Olivia and celebrate 10 years of her life.  She's kind of a big girl now.  Not like learning to sit makes me a big girl... but a for-real big girl.  She got lots of big-girl things like nail polish and jewelry, she played a real-life version of Angry Birds, and she painted her initial on a canvas to hang in her room.  One of the best parts was cramming everyone on the stairs for a group picture.  Mama held me up for the picture since I'm shorter and a little harder to see.

6 Months!

6 months old, friends!!  I sit like a pro, I'm saying new "words" all the time, and my frustrated doggie paddle that became my frustrated Arsenio Hall impersonation that became making snow angels has now become horizontal jumping jacks.  If mama puts me in the crib before I want to be there I just start flapping like a maniac until she picks me back up.

A couple of things have tried to distract from my day like the heat going out and Regis Philban's farewell show on Live with Regis and Kelly, but I had one last thing up my sleeve to get the attention back on me.  I finally figured out that the sippy cup is for sucking, not chewing!  I can finally get milk from another source which means mommy and daddy can take a date night away.  Yup, I'm officially a big girl.  

So... The nurse commented on the roundness of my head and my likeness to the gerber baby.  The doctor said my core strength looked good and that I was very social.  (Grannie says when the doctor tells you your baby is "social" it means she's going to talk a lot in school.  I wonder how Grannie knows that...?)  

The doctor also decided her 4 mo measurement of my length must have been a tad high (just as we suspected) but I'm back to a normal 26"now, 50th percentile.  My weight is 14 lbs 4.5 oz, 10th-25th percentile.  Once again, I'm not gaining weight at the rate she expects me to.  Last time she told mama to start feeding me big girl foods, and since that doesn't seem to be working, she told her to start feeding me higher calorie foods.  Her suggestions?  Mashed potatoes with butter and sour cream!  Ice cream!  Mac and Cheese!  Just in time for Thanksgiving... yesssss :]

New this week!

1.  Last Wednesday I started sitting.  I'm a baby sitter!  Get it?  :)  It's still not my preferred method of hanging out and playing, but I can definitely sit for an extended period of time and lean forward to pick something up without toppling.  I kind of enjoy this new elevation.

This is me sitting with mama's stuffed hippo, Kiboko.  We call him Kibo for short.

As you can see, this new skill is still being perfected...

2.  This weekend daddy noticed that my eyes are turning brown.  I'm excited because, "big brown eyes" sounds better than, "big gray eyes."  What am I, a husky?  Nope.  I'm a brown-eyed girl.  Daddy's brown-eyed girl.  Swoon.

3.  Ok, now for the biggest recent change/accomplishment.  You're not even going to believe it.  I slept from 8pm to 7am last night without waking up once.... without my paci!!  What?!  Can you even believe it?

4.  Areas with room for improvement:  I still can't make it two hours without my mommy.  I cried in the church nursery for the 4th week in a row and mommy had to come get me.  She didn't mind though, she just squeezed me really big and I felt better right away.

I'm a full time job!

Mommy made a really big decision yesterday.  She decided to stay home and devote her time to raising me seven (seven!) days a week instead of returning to the job she loves so much part time.  I feel like a pretty lucky ducky.

I was extra cranky all day just to make sure she knew what she was signing up for.  Now she can't say I didn't warn her!

This wasn't an easy decision for her for two major reasons.  1. She had a wonderful job with amazing co-workers that she considers friends and a boss that she respects so much and enjoys working for.  She worked hard while she was there but also had a lot of fun.  2. She had an excellent option for child care.  She could have gone back to work part time and felt confident that I was being cared for and loved on in a big way.

There was no real reason for her not to return to work part time except that she just kept feeling a tug that staying with me was what she was supposed to do.  She and daddy prayed a lot about the decision and even though it wasn't a no-brainer, she feels like she made the right decision for our family and especially for me.

I'm proud of my mommy and super happy that she'll be the one taking care of me full time.

This is my proud monkey face: