life gets in the way

i’m so sorry for being gone for so long. inexcusable, really, but things have just been a little crazy over the past few weeks. i’ve wanted to blog a million times, but somehow experiencing life seemed more important than writing about it, for awhile at least.

some of you know that we ventured out on our first transatlantic journey with s last month. let me just say this: not doing it again before this child can walk. The trip itself wasn’t actually HORRIBLE. s was a genius baby, as always, sucking her dummy during takeoff and landing on both flights (i had every intention of nursing at these points but it quickly became apparent that a quiet baby was more important than a screaming hot mess of a child…who knew people’s looks could cut you so deep?!) and generally being an awesome baby. the trip back was not quite as awesome. it involved lots of s crying, strangers telling me my baby needed to swallow, and me almost getting kicked off the plane for beating the crap out of said stranger (just kidding, but seriously? do you think i don’t know that my baby’s ears need to pop?). we were very very very happy to get home and back to normal, but it was fantastic being away and seeing my family.

all smiles…before the trip started.

some highlights from the past month:

meeting and visiting with parents, sisters, grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, great aunts, great great aunts and uncles, great cousins, and everyone under the sun in my hometown! s loved being the center of attention, chattering away to everyone, waving (i know! genius baby!), flirting, and kissing at every opportunity.

my parents…gram and poppa…with s. adorable!

sisters!

s and gram, who finally got her cuddles!

starting to become mobile…rolling across the room in one direction, arching her back and flipping over, lifting up her knees and bum and pushing off our legs and hands. it won’t be long til we have a crawler, and until i have a big problem. i’m tired just thinking about it.

where did my tiny baby go?

TEETH! well, one officially, but the second one is pretty much cut, too. i can’t believe my baby isn’t toothless anymore! this definitely means it’s almost time to start weaning (in the british sense of the word…). we’re going to try baby led weaning rather than purees and rice cereal, which means just giving hunks of baby sized food and letting her play with it and work on eating it. we have to wait until she can sit up on her own, but she’s almost there and we’re shopping tomorrow for a high chair! i have a feeling this blog will take a turn and follow this pretty closely, so if you’re ready for lots of pictures of messy, happy baby and messy, messy house then you’re in luck!

ok so you can’t really see teeth, but i can’t get her to open her mouth long enough!

FIVE YEARS of marriage. i can’t believe it’s been five years since we got married, and our wonderful adventure over here began! it’s flown by, and remembering it all has made me feel so old, but i wouldn’t change any of it for the world. we had every intention of having a date night on our actual anniversary, but s is a diva (my baby?! no way. ;)) and wouldn’t take a bottle for my mom. we settled for ice cream from coldstone instead. and wine. lots of wine.

p and s…my loves!

it was all over too quickly.

for those of you who came back to read this, thank you. sorry for the silence. i promise not to do it again! for your patience, i give you cuteness.

❤

❤

sign of a good vacation!

five months

dear s,

five whole months! we can’t believe you’re so old. this last month has been a little crazy (as evidenced by my lack of blogging about your life…sorry about that!), but you are so quickly becoming a little girl. this month your talents include:

rolling over – finally! you WERE saving up your talent until you had lots of time, space, and people to show off for. all of a sudden this huge milestone us no big deal for you. we put a blanket on the floor and you can roll for days…in one direction. you can go right, but not left. go figure! when you reach the end of your runway, we just flip you around and let you go back the other way. go left, zoolander!!!

chatting – your language skills are developing really quickly right now. you still can’t razz yet, but you try your damndest and sometimes get it right. it takes you an hour or so in the morning to start chatting, but once you start, you don’t shut up. sound like someone you know? you still speak in consonant-vowel groups, but also squeal, belly laugh, and fake cough a lot. love that your voice is coming through!

chewing – you put EVERYTHING in your mouth these days. frank, sophie, soft toys, hard toys, your hands, everyone else’s hands, it doesn’t matter. straight into the mouth. we’re hoping you’ll cut a tooth soon, because the chewing coupled with drooling and fussiness definitely means teething.

throwing – i thought we’d have longer to wait before this happened, but no. if you don’t want a toy anymore, down it goes. you haven’t quite figured out that this can be a fun game, so i try to ignore it as much as possible for now.

flirting – when we met your aunt kelsey for the first time, you kept giggling and holding your hands back behind your head like you do when you’re going to sleep. we thought you were tired or silly, but it turns out you were flirting. this is adorable and hilarious!

playing with animals – my parents have two dogs and two cats, and you are OBSESSED with them. the dogs are gigantic and the cats aren’t particularly friendly, but you’re not really bothered. you love reaching out to the them and petting them, and you don’t really even mind when you get licked in the face. it’s so cute to watch you being so gentle, and to watch the animals being gentle and even protective back towards you. i don’t love all the animal hair that comes along with it, though. ugh.

stamping your foot – you like to stand almost ALL the time, and recently have started stamping your left foot when you’re standing. lord help us when you start to walk.

cuddling – you went through a phase of hating cuddles in all forms, but are starting to come around to the idea of giving and receiving cuddles. your grandmother would love for you to fall asleep while she rocks you, but so far you’re having none of it. hopefully someday you will be a super cuddly baby, but for now you’re very very independent. like your mother. 😉

sitting…kind of – you love sitting in the bumbo, for a limited time. you can also sit propped up on the couch, but still pitch over to the side after a few minutes. in the next month or so we’re hoping to start solids (maybe via baby led weaning, but we’ll talk about that later) so get to sitting, girl!

we’re so excited that you’ve come along so much in the past month. you’re also challenging in many ways. right now you seem to be going through a phase of difficulty settling down for a nap or nighttime sleep. we haven’t tried any kind of sleep training with you yet (mommy’s just not ready to hear you cry!) and sometimes you can get pretty needy. most of the time i have to nurse you to sleep, or daddy has to do silly dances around the room with you. but once you get to sleep, boy do you sleep! usually you wake up once in the night for a feed, but some lovely nights you sleep all the way through. i get confused when i wake up in the morning and haven’t been woken up at all! when we come home from our trip to the states we’re going to think about moving you to your own nursery. let’s not talk about that now. you are also pretty demanding…if you want something, you want it NOW. it’s cool to see you aware of the world around you, but girl, patience is not a virtue you possess. your shrieks are louder every day, but your smiles are brighter. we are so happy to have you in our lives and are so lucky to watch you grow every day!

happy five months, s. we love you! ❤

gorgeous baby!