Video - High fives

Jeff taught Allie how to high five last week.  We're still working on rolling over...but who needs to roll over when you can high five? It's a much more useful skill, don't you think?

5 months old

**Warning: Extremely long post, it's been awhile**

Five months.  That's almost half a year.  That's a long time if you think about it.  How do I have a five month old baby?  The thought is still very surreal to me.  But the older she gets, the more I love being her mom.  I feel so lucky that I was chosen to love and take care of such a wonderful little girl.  She's the sweetest, cutest, most lovable little creature I've ever known.  I'm not biased or anything, she truly is the greatest.

10 facts about Allie at 5 months old:


1. Similac is still her one true love. You'd think she'd grow tired of it at some point.  But nope, her love for Similac is still going strong.

2. She loves peas.  She wasn't a fan of carrots at all.  Hated rice cereal & oatmeal.  She grew to like sweet potatoes after a couple of tries.  But she literally lunged at the spoon when I fed her what I think is the most disgusting vegetable on the planet, Peas.  Who likes peas??? This girl does.  I guess it's a good thing, but man I couldn't even stand the smell when I was feeding them to her. And she loves sitting in her highchair, it's like her princess throne.

This is her "I hate carrots" face

3. She's apparently scared of dogs.  She just started noticing our dog, Kiki, and she wasn't a fan.  We let her ride on her cousin, Cooley, and it lasted all of 2 seconds before the waterworks began.
But I managed to snap a pic first.

4. She loves playing peek-a-boo.  She used to just look at us like we were stupid when we tried to play peek-a-boo but now she cracks up.  This girl is a tough audience though.  She rarely laughs at the same thing twice, so you have to keep adding to it and spicing it up to keep her interested.  By the end, a normal game of peek-a-boo has turned into a cirque du soleil act with Jeff jumping over the couch and through the play mat.  It's really exhausting...for Jeff mostly.  It's worth it though, there's nothing better in this world then seeing your baby laugh (or any baby for that matter), it really makes my day!

5.  She loves watching Mickey Mouse on the Disney Channel in the mornings.  I end walking around all day singing M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E, it's the Mickey Mouse Club house, come inside, it's fun inside.  No wonder I've started listening to hard core rap when I work out, it makes me feel like an adult again.  


6. Her favorite toys right now are her singing dog (don't know his name), her soccer ball that sings and makes noises, and her vtech noise maker (don't know what it's actually called either but it makes LOTS of noise).  She still likes her jumperoo but it doesn't keep her occupied for  very long.  I'm telling you, this girl is one tough crowd, and if possible I'm pretty sure she has baby ADD.  She loves books though, I hope this means she's going to be super studious. Her favorite book right now is her soft book "God Loves You."  It has pieces that come out of the book and she just thinks they're hilarious.

7.  She likes 'daycare.'  I started taking her to the childcare at the gym and she really seems to like it.  She's not even excited to see me when I pick her up.  There are usually about 20-40 kids running around screaming and crying and Allie just sits back with her paci and watches them act a fool.  She's mature beyond her months.


8. She's currently wearing 9-12 month size clothes.  Again, mature beyond her months.  She has been wearing a lot of 6 month stuff since she was 3 months old and she can still fit into some of it, I actually think her age might be finally catching up to her weight.  I love my little chunky monkey though, I'm not quite ready for her to thin out. 

9. She likes to sit up and play.  She doesn't like laying down unless she's sleeping.  If you lay her down, she strains herself to try and sit back up.  She almost does a full V sit, which I can't even do.  If she keeps this up she's gonna have a 6 pack by the time she's 9 months old.  She also likes playing with her feet, which she just discovered a few weeks ago.

10.  Her bottom teeth are fully visible and I think others are on their way in.  I think her little teeth are so adorable...but don't let them fool you, I almost lost the tip of my finger the other day.  They are way sharper then they appear.

Our family has been plagued with two illnesses lately, a stomach virus and then some type of cold/flu.  I guess it's part of the territory of having a child, but man it's awful.  Being sick and not even feeling well enough to take care of yourself and then having a small baby that is extremely ill and requires your full attention...mis.er.a.ble. All of you who have children and have been through this, know what we've endured. And for those of you that don't have children, I'll spare you the details. Just wait for it, your time will come.  But I do have to give Allie props, she handled both illnesses like a champ, much better then her mom & dad who were total wimps, I'm STILL recovering.  However, thanks to the stomach virus, I lost my last 4 pounds of baby weight. Thank you stomach virus. I owe you one. Now if I could just figure out how to get my hips back to their normal width we'd be good to go.

Funniest Home Videos

No not the show, just some videos we've made of Allie recently that we find hilarious.  Not the knee slapping kind of funny, but the kind of funny that just makes your heart smile.  To me, there's nothing better then the laughter of a baby, but that might be because I have a baby.  I wish I could edit out our voices in the background though, hearing my own voice being recorded is like nails on a chalkboard.  Do I really sound like that?  Please say no, even if it's a lie.  If I sound like that for real, I might become a mute.

An Allie first - Teeth

As I mentioned in one of my previous blogs, this is going to be a year of many firsts for Allie and let me tell you, she's starting 2012 off with a bang! I have several of 'firsts' to post so bare with me.  For me, it's like Christmas morning every time she does something new, so I'm loving it!  But a lot of these posts are more for my records, so you won't hurt my feelings if you decide to skip them.  I mean Allie might take it personally, but she's just a baby, she probably won't even remember how sad you made her.


So Allie has been very uncharacteristically (big word, had to spell check that one) irritable this past week.  We just couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. She didn't want to play by herself, she just wanted to be held, she would cry EVERY time one of us left the room, even if she was being held by the other one, she would just cry for no reason, and has just been down right fussy & needy.  She was sick on New Year's Eve with a bad cold/allergies but that had cleared up, so that couldn't be it.  I'm pretty sure we can rule out PMS.  So what could be bothering her so badly?


Well Allie has been 'teething' since she was about 2 1/2 months old. And by teething, I just mean the common symptoms of hands in the mouth, more drool then even bounty can handle, and chewing on everything that comes near her mouth.  But the Dr. said it might still be awhile before teeth actually come through so I didn't really think anything about it.  I've been putting orajel on her gums every night before bed for weeks now, it keeps her from tossing and turning and waking herself up at night.  So Tuesday night,  when I was putting her in bed, I stuck my finger in her mouth (clean hands of course) to rub the orajel on her gums and there it was...the culprit of all the fussiness, and a sharp little sucker...a bottom tooth!!  I'm not sure why I got so excited, but I ran into the living room shouting "Allie has a tooth, I can't believe our baby has a tooth, she's too young to have a tooth, can you believe Allie has a tooth?"  For reasons beyond my comprehension, Jeff did not share in my excitement.  His response was "it's just a tooth, what's the big deal?" Total killjoy.


The next morning I couldn't wait to take a look in there to see what this 'toof' looked like (I don't know why I feel like calling it a 'toof' helps Allie to understand me better, but when I talk to her, I find myself using words that are probably just making us both dumber...I need to work on that or no one is gonna want to hang out with me).  But when I looked in her mouth, what to my wondering eyes did appear...but TWO tiny TEEF!!  Allie's two bottom teeth are coming through!! I hope someone out there shares in my excitement. And if you don't, at least humor me and act excited, I would really appreciate it. 


Here's my little fussy pants...

That pouty face of hers makes me wanna laugh and cry at the same time.  


And I have to include a happy face too...

 

Christmas in Nashville

We took Allie to church for the first time on Christmas Eve and she LOVED it.  We go to a 'rock band' kind of church so she really enjoyed the music. 

We had dinner at the Pitta's for Christmas Eve and opened lots of presents. 

Allie opening up her highchair, she was SO excited!

Allie sitting next to the 'Allie' tree, decorated especially for her. Yes, she's spoiled.

Christmas Day we started the tradition of waking up at our house Christmas morning, having breakfast, opening presents, and just enjoying our little family time.  Allie got to play in her new jumperoo and it was so fun watching how excited she was with her new toy.

After our relaxing morning, we headed over to Jeff's aunt Sue's house for lunch/dinner.

We got home and I had a little fun playing with the settings on my camera with my new lens that Santa brought me.  Santa was WAY too good to me this year, I feel undeserving, but I'll take it.

We had such a wonderful first Christmas with Allie and we feel so thankful for everything that we've been given and for all of the people that we have in our lives.  We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well!

Christmas in Lebanon/Knoxville

We started our Christmas celebrations 3 weeks before Christmas with my mom's family in Lebanon. Christmas is a month long celebration in my family, sometimes even spilling over into the new year. I failed at taking pictures at the Lebanon Christmas, but here's one of Allie.

And then the weekend before Christmas we headed to Knoxville. We had Christmas with my dad's family Saturday night.

Allie & Nannie

Napping on Papaw

 Sorry guys, but I like this pic :)

Allie's new hat

Allie with uncle bunny

And we finished off the weekend with Sunday brunch with my mom, brothers, etc.

My sweet nephew Jayson

Jayson's so sweet to Ayee (that's how he pronounces allie)

Having fun with Dad

Jeff giving Jayson a play dough mustache

My brother and nephew

Allie & her new gear

Cousins

And then we headed home after a fun filled weekend. Allie was pooped from all the present opening. She loves car rides, she usually sleeps the entire way.

New Years Resolutions

I have a feeling I'm going to regret this post before I even finish typing it, but they say if you write down your resolutions you're more likely to follow through with them...right? And I feel like the more people I tell, the more obligated I will feel to follow through with it for the sake of not being a fake planner. So here goes...my first new years resolution/30th birthday goal is to run the Country Music Half Marathon on April 28th.  Phew...just typing it out makes me tired.  For those of you that don't know me that well...I hate running.  I mean HATE. Like I'd rather go to the dentist then go for a run.  A half marathon is something I've never felt like I could accomplish.  But when I watch the biggest loser and I see them do a FULL marathon, I think to myself, 'if they can do a full, surely I can do a half.' 

Well I attempted my first 'training' run on New Years Day (clearly my New Years wasn't wild enough). It was only 2 miles, which to most of you sounds like a walk in the park, but for me it's quite a challenge.  I told you, I HATE running.  Jeff said "it should only take you about 15 minutes" to which I replied "you've lost your mind, you clearly don't know me."  I downloaded the Nike app on my phone, which is awesome and tracks where you ran, the time, the distance and you can make comments on how it was.  The first mile wasn't SO bad, it took me 11 minutes and 20 seconds...not good, but not terrible for a beginner.   The second mile, not so much.  The wind picked up, and I was seriously wondering if I was going to make it back to my house.  I walked most of it.  Twenty Five minutes later, I finally made it back to my driveway, thank God!  I could hear the angels singing hallelujah, it was glorious.  I've never been that happy to see my house.  I can't wait for the 13 mile run...this is gonna be fun.  

And my other resolutions are pretty typical, but things I still want to accomplish.  Be a better mother, wife, friend, daughter, sister, cousin, niece, aunt, etc.  Go to church more often, and find a good sunday school class.  Do more things in my community/help others.  Work on my photography skills/gain photography skills.  Become more organized/Purge (my belongings not my food). Make my home look more pinterest worthy (all of you pinners know what I'm talking about, and for you non-pinners, don't worry about it, this is an addiction you do NOT want to start in 2012).  And last but certainly not least, make lots of great memories with family & friends.  

We have a lot of exciting stuff coming up in 2012 and I'm really looking forward to it. Not only will it be a year of firsts for Allie, which will be so exciting, but we have several trips planned (thanks to everyone getting married).  We will be traveling to Park City, Utah in March, Knoxville in June, New York City in July, Florida in August (and hopefully several more trips to florida in between), and I'll be going to Charleston in May for my BFF's bachelorette party.  Exciting stuff!!!

I hope you all had a very happy new years.  Welcome to 2012!!  

And because no post is complete without a picture of Allie...