Where We've Been

I apologize for my lack of blogging these last two weeks.  AR and I have been very busy with two trips to Lovey and Grand Daddy's the past two weekends and she even got a little trip in to Mimi and Papa's as well.  When I'm gone over the weekend, it just seems to take me forever to get caught up on things that I need to get done and therefore the blog gets pushed to the back burner.

Don't fear however... I plan to have many, many new pics to post as we purchased a new camera today!  I'm sooo excited and can't wait to start using it and to learn all about it! 

I will try to catch up on the past couple weeks the best that I can!

AR has decided she loooves pulling books off the shelf in the office.  Sometimes she will pull a book off one at a time, flip through it, then pull another one, and so on.  I haven't decided if it's a battle worth fighting quite yet.

Got to love when you child reads her own child rearing books... takes a load off me!

Next, the New Testament.

Two weekends ago, AR and I got in a nice long weekend with Lovey and Grand Daddy.  We got to see some other family as well as Aunt Heather!!  It was a fun time and nice break for me!

Tell me how my child knows how to operate this telephone when she's never seen a phone on a cord before?!  Just super smart I guess!

 There is never a dull moment around here anymore!  AR is on the go all the time.  She is always getting into something new and somehow manages to find things to try and put in her mouth no matter how much you sweep, mop, and vacuum! 

She loves remotes and knows exactly what devices they work.  She'll hold this remote and look at the tv.  (I promise my child is not sitting in front of the tv all day!)

She loves the banana popsicles that I make for her... though they are quite messy.

Bananas everywhere!

 This past weekend, we headed back to my hometown b/c my great aunt was recieving an award at her church and we wanted to be there to support and celebrate with her.  She is a fine Christian lady and I look up to her very much.  We are very blessed to have her in our lives.

JJ receiving the award.  She was very surprised!

My mom, my aunt, Carole, JJ, Katie, AR, and me at the luncheon.

 We are back at home now and will be for a few weeks.  Hopefully we can get lots done around here and knock out my March goals!  That is, the best that I can and keeping up with this cute chick!

"Mama, I don't do bows"... yes, yes you will... one day

She really loves her books, especially hard books that have either touchy pages, cut outs, and/or mirrors.

I introduced her to the snack cup this past week and she has really taken up with it.  She carries it around and eats her cheerios out of it.  Some end up on the floor, but she usually gets those for me at some point! ;)

 Now, time for a few videos!  I know, I know so much in one post you can hardly contain yourself!  Sorry, I will try to do better at spreading it out!

AR just loves her cousins!  We have been looking at this picture and discussing who is who.

Speaking of cousins, she won't be outdone by cousin Caroline! Here she is on her walker... this is about a week old and she's already better at it, though we had quite the fall yesterday!

Here she is again pulling books off the shelf... as you can see, she does speed read them... backwards.  But I'm pretty sure that counts.

Please excuse the mess on her bed... I haven't quite finished unpacking :/.  Here she has escaped from her sleep sack and is playing around in her crib.  You can really see her hair thickening up in this video!

Whew... I think I'm done.  Now off to play with the new camera!!

Video Update

These videos cover the last few weeks.  Hope you enjoy!

It amazes me how babies respond to music, they seem to love it or at least mine does!  And it's not like I ever dance in front of her or anything...

Many have seen this video as I couldn't wait to post it.  AR's absolute favorite song is "The Wheels on the Bus" as you previously heard in the first video.  I have been thinking about putting her jumperoo/execauser in the attic due to her lack of interest in it... that was until we added music!  Excuse my snorting!

As parents we often do whatever possible to get a laugh, squeal, wave, or any reaction from our children.  When AR wouldn't respond to her daddy, what else could I do but film him instead!

This girl loves to wave now, even at random things.

AR has a favorite noise she makes now and it cracks us up!

Playing ball with her daddy.

Just so you don't think it's all smiles around here.

Caught her doing this funny crawl one day.

A Video Update (Crawling included!)

As usual, I have well over a month's worth of videos to share.  Those of you who have babies know that they can change so much in a month.  Watch as we go from wanting to crawl, to Christmas, to crawling!

1)  Wanting to crawl so bad!

2)  Santa came to see AR and Daddy did a great job narrating and filming!

3)  Playing with cousin Pearl.

4)  Getting the hang of opening those presents!

5)  I've mentioned this before, but this girl loves her some Buddy (my sister's dog).

6)  AR loves all her new toys and especially enjoys pulling up onto her knees at her musical table.

7)  She wants so badly to pull up all the way, which she's done maybe once.  She'll try just about anything to get to a phone, camera, or remote.  She might be the only person who still thinks my phone is cool!

8)  I was fortunate enough to get her first 2 "crawling steps" on camera.

9)  Pulling up and daddy tickling her.

10)  Now the moment you've all been waiting for (and the end of life as I know it)... crawling!!

Santa Claus and New Videos

We have been staying busy around here getting ready for Christmas and all.  It's quite different with a baby in the house and things have taken a little longer than usual.  The house is done but we haven't really started on the advent calendar like I had wanted.  I guess that's okay considering AR really isn't old enough for a lot of it anyways.  We did however get one done today and that was visit Santa!  I saw that he was going to be at our Chick-fil-A so I thought we'd give it a try rather than standing in a line at the mall.  I thought it might be a zoo at CFA but it wasn't and we actually walked in and right up to him.  She wasn't hesitate to go to him at all and seemed intrigued by his beard.

She's looking at her daddy here and was about mid smile when I took it.

 

The next picture is quite disgusting, but it has to be documented!  For those of you who have yet to enter parenthood, we promise it's all worth it!  ;)

Yes, that's what you think it is!  (Meredith, I hope you and Jack are ready for this!  haha!)

Here are a few other pictures since the last update:

Sitting in her portable high chair at Mr. Salsa!

 

Sleeping babies are absolutely the sweetest

 

She is playing with her "practice gift".  I thought it might be a good idea to give her a gift bag and fill it with toys so that she could practice pulling them out.  I heard Santa was putting her toys in bags this year to make it easier for her.

The latest videos:

I'd say we might have a crawler before too long.  She's starting to be braver about reaching to get things and figuring out how to use her arms to get her there.  This two videos show her progress.

Video #1

Video #2

We also have some major separation anxiety with mama. 

And my favorite - laughing at daddy!

We're Still Here (with videos too!)

Seems that time is getting harder and harder to come by these days.  I didn't know that those months where AR wasn't reaching for everything in sight, turning over, and so on would be the most time I'd have to get things done!  Now it seems she is requiring more and more attention.  Don't get me wrong I love her to the moon and back, but I find the hardest thing about being a new mama is not having time anymore.  I think I just have to get more creative and organized with my time and tasks!  Not to mention that she is totally going through major separation anxiety right now.  She's normally fine if I leave her with other people, but if I turn my back to her or she can't see me... you better hold on because the world is coming to an end!  I try to ignore it the best I can and half the time she gets distracted and starts playing, but sometimes she doesn't stop and that's the hardest!


Last weekend, my friend Jennie and her mom drove down to visit and meet AR for the first time.  Jennie's sister, cousin, and aunt were also able to meet us for lunch and we so enjoyed it.  For those who don't know, I went on summer vacation with Jennie and her family for 6 years straight I believe... so they became a second family to me.  I was so glad AR got to meet them and can't wait to do it again!

 Abby Ruth has also been battling a cold and stuffy nose for about two weeks now.  The cold seems to be gone but the congestion is just hanging on with all it's might!  So while at Buy Buy Baby I saw this "snot sucker" (mom - sorry for the language) and I told William about it.  We decided to give it a shot b/c unless there is some secret you other mamas are telling me, those suction bulb thingys just don't do squat!  I have to say, I have really liked this "tool" and use it a good bit.  It sounds gross and no, I wouldn't do it on any other child, but it's not so bad on your own and it helps get the job done!  I totally recommend it!

 So apparently I haven't uploaded videos in a good while.  I have about 7 to share with you and they go back a little over a month.  You'll see that AR is really starting to show her personality and is very interactive now!

This girl is not a fan of green beans!

She looooves playing with her daddy's hair.

She jumps even when she's not on the ground!

Laughing at mama.

Laughing with her Aunt Katie!

The one-legged jig!  (just noticed the music in the background went right along!)

Where's Daddy?

Video Overload

Lovey, this is for you!  (And others too!)

If you read this blog you know that we started AR on rice cereal just a couple weeks ago.  Here are her first few "bites"! 

And here she is just a few days ago!  Wish I would have gotten this morning b/c I figured out just what those should straps on the high chair are really for.  Every time I put the spoon towards her mouth, she about dived for it!

This next video is of AR kicking in her high chair which is what she does when she gets excited!

In the late afternoon when I am getting supper ready, I usually have AR somewhere near so she won't get too fussy.  So we've gone from the bouncy seat to playing in the high chair as she can play better with toys now.  Her noises crack me up though and are so cute... except for this one noise that she likes to do when I'm driving.  It's one of those "4th grade boy noises" that comes from the back of the throat and she does it until that breath is totally gone.  That noise is only slightly less annoying that my students who use to make it!  :)

This girl absolutely L-O-V-E-S her bouncy excersaucer thingy.  She's been using it for a while but the other week it was like she just all the sudden discovered she could jump and bounce and it was so funny!  It's especially humorous to me b/c she can't smile and jump at the same time so she jumps then stops to smile and then jumps again!

This video is from the other morning when I went to get her up.  She is usually Miss Smiley when she wakes up but this morning was a bit different.  Maybe she was confused by the camera?

Lastly, I have two videos from the beach from a couple weeks ago.  This first video is a quick snip of the three cousins playing on the floor together.  Then we have a clip of what "Mimi Camp:  Beach Style" looks like.  We came back to the house and somehow Mimi had ended up with all three grandbabies by herself, but she was doing a fantastic job!  Grayson was very entertaining with his music, singing, and dancing!

And that is a view of our lives with a 4/5 month old!