184 Days Later

My baby girl turned six months old last week.  I got caught up in celebrating and neglected to write anything about it.  Guess I'm a better mother than blogger.  It doesn't seem possible that six months has passed since that sweet little purple chunk of love was placed in my arms.  She has grown so much, from a seven-pound newborn to a seventeen (PLUS) pound baby girl.  Many of you have already been inundated with the never ending stream of pictures on Facebook, but I still want to share just a few of the memories we've made these past 184 days.

Bath Time (3 weeks) 

This wasn't her first bath, but it's my favorite bath picture.  It didn't take long before we had to move her little tub to the big tub.  She fills this up end to end now and splashes out most of the water, but she loves it and it still gets her clean. 

First UT Game and Her Daddy's Birthday (1 month)

My two favorite people

I sure hope little Peanut likes the color orange because she is going to be wearing it quite a bit if she is part of this family. Her Daddy loves the Vols (as do her Pappy and Grammy).  We both got to spend our birthdays with Amelia this year, but I spent most of mine in the hospital and everything was a bit surreal still since she was only two days old.  By the time John's rolled around, we had settled in and she was getting more alert.  They blew his candles out together on his (of course) orange cake.  His birthday also fell on Game Day, so Amelia got to watch her first UT game.  Fortunately they won, so Amelia didn't learn any "new words" that day.

                                                                             

A New Expression! (8 weeks)

When Amelia was born, she had what we called angry eyebrows.  They were pretty cute and she used them frequently.  They lasted for weeks and I was a bit concerned that my child was only going to have one facial expression.  I was so relieved when she finally started smiling.  And once she started, she didn't stop.  There is nothing I love more than my baby girl's sweet "toofess" grin.  No matter what is going on, she can smile at me and everything in the world is right for a moment.  This was one of the first pictures I took of her when she got her "new expression." She does still pull out the angry eyebrows occasionally. I have a feeling they'll have an extended visit when she hits puberty.  And I might have to buy new clippers...

Carseat Trauma



Baby Strait Jacket

For the first month of her life, Amelia didn't mind her car seat.  In fact, she would pretty much sleep any time we put her in it and would continue to sleep everywhere we carried her.  Going out to eat was no different that it had been!  I even took her to a movie.  Then we entered our 2nd month and EVERYTHING changed.  Each time I would put her in her seat, she would scream like I was torturing her.  She would continue screaming until I removed her from the seat--even if we were driving an hour or more.  It was awful.  I got to the point that I didn't take her anywhere unless I had to go.  After trying out every single piece of advice I could find on the Internet and solicit from other moms, I finally got desperate around week six and decided to try something new.  Peanut loves to be swaddled (still does even at 6 months!), so I decided to swaddle her before putting her in her seat.  I figured if it soothes her at night, maybe it would help.  And it did.  Things were still rough at times, but she slowly started calming down for longer periods of time and even sleeping in her carseat again.  Now she loves her car seat again.  We still have no clue what freaked her out for those LOOOOONNNG two months, but we sure are glad it's over. 


Holidays



One of three costumes

 Babies make the holidays even more special.  Amelia arrived just in time to celebrate not only our birthdays, but also Halloween...

 




Thanksgiving...



Watching football on Turkey Day



and of course Christmas... 

Other Firsts

December brought other firsts for our sweet girl, including her first baby cereal, propping herself up and SNOW! 



nom nom nom




Well, hello there...

We've had so many snow days this year.  I'm not surprised, though.  When I was pregnant, I told everyone Amelia would probably grow up to be a meteorologist.  In nine months, we had a major snow (at least for this area), a record summer in terms of heat, AND the Noah-style flood that flooded so much of the Southeast (and my neighborhood!)  This kid brought some serious weather with her.  Her first snow day wasn't very impressive, but that didn't stop us from bundling her up for some pictures.



Baby Polar Bear

New Year



Happy New Year!

 I am so excited about all the adventures this new year will bring with my sweet girl. Every day she's changing, getting bigger, smarter, more animated, more curious, louder and (of course) even prettier.  Each day is a new adventure and I feel so blessed to be able to stay home with her.  It makes me a little sad that she's growing so fast.  I look back at the pictures from her first week and wonder where my tiny baby went.  I'm so thankful that she's developing normally, though, and reaching her milestones.  I just wish I could slow time down a little and savor each moment more. 

Which brings us to now. 



What?



My peanut is six months old.  She's a wiggling, babbling, slobbering, giggling ball of goodness and I'm absolutely crazy in love with her.  I never know what she's going to do next. 

We celebrated her "half birthday" with family this weekend.  I even made her a special "half" cake and cupcakes.  Turns out my kids LOOOOOVES sugar.  She absolutely destroyed her cupcake, cramming every bit she could into her mouth and every other nook and cranny (she even had some down her back).   As I looked around the room at those who came to celebrate, I said a silent prayer of thanksgiving that my little girl has so many people who love her so much.  She's too little now to know how fortunate she is, but she is so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends.  I honestly don't know if there has ever been a child who has been so adored.  Just hope it doesn't go to her head...

These first six months have had their challenges, but overall they have been pure bliss.  I am so excited about the next six months.  There are so many more adventures on the way. 



First Bite



Happy half birthday, sweet Peanut.  Mommy loves you so much.