So, not much exciting going on here these days.....just a girl growing more and more and more.  Sweet lady ma'am has a tooth.  At just over 5 months she cut her first tooth.  We're waiting for it's little partner to come in on the bottom and this second rodeo has been much worse than the first.  Anyone who has children knows how terrible it is when they're cutting so it isn't worth elaborating, but safe to say she's been a sad little girl.


I have finally started kicking myself in the butt and working out and trying to be good about taking my vitamins.  Unfortunately I accidentally bought the stupid vitamins that require you take 3 a day to get a dose.  Then I bought another supplement to take with it, 2 pills a day, plus Vitamin D and Fish Oil coming to a whopping 8 vitamins a day.....ridiculous.  When Matt came down one day and saw me with a handful of pills his comment was..."What are you terminal?".....fair point my friend, fair point. There is actually a pill missing from this shot.

And...we have 6 month pictures!  I cannot believe she is 6 months old!  I also apologize for the scandalous look of the wee one in these pics.  I got her all set up and did the photo shoot and then realized after she had gone to bed that she hadn't had a shirt on and was supposed to have one of her little undershirts on, but I wasn't even close to tempted to re-do it.

5 Months!

Crazy crazy!  This little monkey is 5 months old!  This was one of our more interesting photo shoots:

Escape from the Jungle

Mobile here we come!

Recently Maggie was playing on the carpet in her jungle where she stays put and I don't really need to worry about it.  Well this is where I found her:

And my world is now turning upside down; I don't think I'm ready for the mobile stage of life.

We had a wonderful Easter at home with just the 3 of us.  It was so lovely, the first day in quite some time we've all been home with no major chores to do and the last time it will happen for awhile.  So we got barbeque from our favorite barbeque pit, had some homemade carrot cake and enjoyed the Feast of the Risen Lord.  It was a glorious day.  Little Miss looked absolutely adorable in her Easter Dress:

                                                She's taken to talking to me during her photo shoots as you can see

We also watched the Red Sox opener the other day, and Maggie loved it......

Naptime Monster

I really think we have the best baby in the world.  She has been sleeping through the night for quite some time now, she is usually very happy and content, doesn't require much but the usual eating, diaper change situation.  At 7pm on the dot every night she is ready for bed, we do her nighttime routine, lay her down and have the rest of the evening to ourselves, she's up at 5, eats, back down for 2 or 3 more hours.  She really is the best baby...except at nap time.

Something happens at nap time, someone comes and replaces my sweet innocent baby girl with a crazy screaming monster.  Little Miss has never been much of a crier, she usually yells intermittently to register her displeasure at something.  But at nap times girlfriend can go the distance.  We've had some pretty serious battles here, and she plays to win.  As I write this she is sleeping in her swing, because sometimes mommy loses.  It's very obvious when it's nap time and she needs sleep, and if she sleeps well during the day, she sleeps better at night, that whole sleep begets sleep thing.  She is a classic "if I sleep for 5 minutes and wake up I'm convinced that was a pretty solid nap" baby.  But even getting 5 minutes can be hard.  And I want her to nap in her crib.  I need her nap times to get things done, like, laundry, cleaning, sitting and drinking a cup of coffee in peace...maybe.  So I don't want to get into the "I only nap if mommy's holding me or we're in the car" routine (clearly I'm probably the meanest mom out there)...  So anyway, our sleep battles are for naps, and sometimes she wins and gets to sleep in her swing.  

But in all honesty, as absolutely crazy as it makes me, I am thankful that Matt and I get to sleep all night, and I can only be annoyed for so long since she is so stinkin' cute, and when she does nap and I go in to get her I am greeted with huge smiles and coos and just the most joyful little baby you could imagine.  So in spite of her craziness when it comes to daytime sleeping, I say we got a good one!

Of Avacadoes and Overalls

I made my first trip to Goodwill the other day.  Thrift stores scare me because I hate shopping, so sorting through racks and racks of clothes to maybe find a couple of items is one of my worst nightmares.  But then I had a baby who grows like a weed and it much too tall for all the seasonal clothes I have for her, and the clothes I do have that might fit are all little rompers for summer....so off we went.

It wasn't that bad...it helped that Little Miss took her really, really long 2 hour nap for the day while we were on this trip.  I got 6 pairs of pants for her, which was really why we went.  Today she wore the overalls, which are so cute, and also make her look like a toddler.  When I bought them I figured they were going to be too big looking at them....but they just barely fit!  I cannot believe how tall this child is, it is ridiculous!  I think the other pants I got for her are longer, but we'll see.  I'm very glad I spent less than $1 a pair at Goodwill rather than going to Target and spending $30 for all of them.

We have started big girl food!  The last week Little Miss has been very, very interested when mommy and daddy are eating.  She get's what Matt and I call her "NoodleBug" Face.  Don't ask why we call it that we just do.  She's made this face since she was born, and she usually makes it when there is something new or interesting that she is very curious about.  We've been getting the NoodleBug face while eating.  We set up her highchair a few days ago and she sat at us with some toys at dinner but rather than play she was intrigued by us eating the whole time, so I decided it was time.  I went and got her some rice cereal today and a couple of avacadoes.  Here's some shots from the adventure.

Well, not too surprising she was waay more interested in watching us eat rather than eating herself. 

She is starting to get a little bit better with it.  We are mostly settled in the new house, have been super busy transitioning lately, hence the non-blog.  But we can't wait for the spring weather to get here!

And here is what daddy is greeted with everynight when he gets home:

This and That

Matt received, for the first time in years, a toy for his birthday.  His sister got him a toy helicopter for his birthday, and it has been one of the funnest (not a word but it's appropriate) presents in a long time.  We've have spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to learn how to fly it and laughing hysterically.  It is usually the way we unwind in the evening after Little Miss has gone to bed.

Here Matt showed off major skills by landing the helicopter on the jungle....

           These pictures show the focus involved and unfortunately I missed it due to laughing so hard, but shortly after this he almost flew it into his face.

The thing looks like a giant wasp flying around our apartment, and luckily is incredibly resilient considering how many times we've crashed it into walls, counters, bookshelves and just had it come crashing out of the air.

Little Miss has been awake a couple of times when we have it out and sits there generally giving it the stink eye and probably trying to figure out why mommy and daddy get so silly when it's flying around.

Maggie has a new goal in life.  It consumes pretty much every single waking moment of her day.  And that goal is to stuff her entire fist in her mouth.  She usually tries this even when she is eating, which has caused some interesting nursing times.

     This is how most of the day goes, she usually does this for a few minutes before choking when she actually accomplishes getting most of her fist in her face.

Checking out the newest object of her affections

                                     Why would you ever use a teether for teething when you could simply wear it and continue to work the fist?

In other news, this girl looks exactly like her daddy.

Dear Margaret

Sweet Baby Girl,
You are 3 and 1/2 months old!  Your daddy and I cannot get over how fast time has flown since you were born, and how big you have gotten!  We are so thankful for your life, when we found out you were joining our little family we were overjoyed, we had been praying and praying for you to come along and God answered our prayers.

You are loved by many, many people.  So many people prayed that we would have you and prayed for you during the scares you gave us when I was pregnant with you.  We knew from early on you were a fighter and were tough.  Twice when you were in my belly we rushed to the hospital thinking we had lost you, and twice we had ultrasounds that showed you wiggling and dancing away unconcerned with what was wrong.  In the beginning of Mommy's pregnancy you weren't growing well and the doctors were very concerned, then you started growing fast and haven't stopped since!

When you came we were so excited!  The first time I saw you I was overwhelmed, excited, happy and absolutely in love with you.  Your Daddy instantly fell in love, I've never seen him look so excited or happy as he was when he saw you and held you for the first time.

Then we brought you home, your favorite thing in the world to do was eat.....and really has been ever since.  You've grown so much in the last 3 months.

Eating is still your favorite thing, whether nursing or having a bottle with Daddy, you never have trouble eating and always have a big appetite, and it shows!  You are a healthy girl and already wearing 6 and 9 month clothes, your 3 month outfits stopped fitting a long time ago!

You love bathtime, you would be so happy to sit in the bathtub kicking your feet all night if we would let you, we usually pull you out when you start shivering although you never complain about that....

You are very independent.  You aren't much of a snuggler at all, if you are awake you like to be on the floor playing with your toys.  You love your jungle play mat and spin yourself around talking and playing....

You also roll over both ways, although you are more likely to roll from your back to your belly and then get mad because it's too much work to roll back and you don't usually like being on your belly.

You love sleeping at night you usually only get up once a night to eat now, and some nights you sleep 7 or 8 hours.  You don't always sleep so much during the day, usually little cat naps.  You like your pacifier to fall asleep and usually spit it out shortly after drifting off.....

I have to try to pull it out from under your face without waking you or you wake up with an imprint on your face that lasts the better part of a day.

You love your daddy.  You give him a hard time sometimes if you know I'm home, but you save your best playtime for him.  When he gets home you love to talk and talk and talk while he changes your diaper.  And you talk and talk and talk while he puts you in your pjs.  And you love storytime with daddy before bed.  Everynight he reads you The Going to Bed Book and usually reads it 3 times before you are ready to be done:

You are a sweet girl, laid back and beautiful.  We love you so much and are amazed everyday watching you grow more and more.