Hello Corpus

Audrey made her first trip to Corpus this past weekend.  She's such a great little traveler.  We also had the treat of staying in a hotel during our stay.  Luckily, a 6 month old is easily entertained and stays where you put her.  This might be a bit more challenging when she becomes mobile.

 

We were all able to go for a walk on the sea wall the first morning we were there.  The second morning, Daddy had to go run by himself since the wind was blowing so hard. 

 

Playing  at the hotel

Baby Blues

Both the little girl and the big boy decided to take a nap at the same time.  I took this chance to read on my Kindle.  Such a glorious 30 minutes!



 

Hanging out with Grandma and Ite.  We took Grandma out to dinner to celebrate her 85th birthday.  We ate dinner at 5, went back to their house to watch Bonanza, and were back to the hotel by 7:30.  Is that what we have to look forward to when we're 85?





Playing in Ite's cowboy hat.

Like father, like daughter. 

 

 

 

Spring Break Recap

Dear Spring Break,
I'm sorry you're not getting the attention you deserve.  Despite a few sucky parts, you really were pretty spectuacular.  Here we are a week or two later and still nothing.  Here's my feeble attempt at remembering you. 

School gets out.  Principal lets us leave early.  Neal leaves for Europe.  Nana arrives.  Attend a Sip N See for new Baby Sophia.  Attend a 5 year old's skating party.  Grandpa comes for a day.  Go to church.  Take 6 month pictures with Pink & Purple.  Have a Chick-fil-A lunch date with the Sultenfuss boys.  Take Audrey to doctor.  Find out she just has a cold. Pack the car and drive to see Aunt Karen.  Stop in College Station to eat lunch with Bryan and Stephanie.  Spend a few days relaxing in the country.  Return to Houston.  Take Audrey to her 6 month check up.  Hang out with the San Antonio Fergusons.  Neal gets home.  Eat mediocre Italian food.  Mommy gets a 24 hour stomach bug.  Saturday night date night at HEB.  Go to church.  Costco trip.  George Strait concert. 

Thanks for the memories!

6 Months

Better late than never with this 6 month post.  I consider it a success if the 6 month post is posted before the 7th month post.  She. Is. So. Much.Fun.  She's got quite a little inventory of vocalizations: babbles, squeals, raspberries.  Sweetest sounds in the world.  Audrey is also officially an "eater."  Her menu includes avocado, sweet potato, squash, green beans, apples, pears, peaches, bananas, carrots and we add a new one every week. 


Audrey also had her 6 month check up recently.  With that came another round of shots.  She squealed like a pig when the nurse gave her the shots.  I giggled because it was the funniest/saddest sound.  I'm pretty sure that wasn't the appropriate response from me but better than me bawling my eyes out. 

6 Month Stats:
Weight:  14 lb 13 oz (28th percentile)
Height:  25"  (26th percentile)
Head Circumference:  17.24"  (86th percentile)

Sitting Up

This past week Audrey decided that laying down was for babies.  She started sitting up unassisted.  Look how proud she is of herself!

Now that she can sit by herself, there are so many new things she can do.

 

Cruise in the Target shopping cart.

Sit in the high chair at a restaurant.   The girl loves her avocado!

 

Slow down little girl!  She's showing her independence holding her bottle all by herself.

Cruising in the umbrella stroller.  This one might change our lives.  I'm only half kidding when I say that.  I hate, hate, hate the bulky stroller that came with our "travel system."  We fell for the rookie mistake of thinking we needed the whole system even though countless people told us we would hate it.  We were on our way to the TNO store for the Texas Independence Day party.  Happy Girl!



Sweet potatoes were a hit!  What can I say, she's my girl and the girl likes to eat.  Both the big one and the little one. 



 

These make my heart skip a beat.  Spring sandals for babies just might be the cutest thing I ever did see.  Now if Spring would hurry up and get here.  

Bonus:  Audrey and her BFF chatting away at school.



Whirlwind Weekend

We're coming off of what has been one of the busiest weekends we've had in a while. I really don't think it would be possible to squeeze much more in.

My weekend was off to a great start.  I was able to sneak away from school to go see the Rodeo parade at Bear Boulevard.  Here are Audrey and her BFF on their "float." 

Our cleaning lady was supposed to come Wednesday but had car trouble and came Friday instead.  Long story short, she came to clean, her car wouldn't start, she sat in front our house for hours with the hood up on her car, and then finally allowed us to jump her car which we had offered to do as soon as we got home.  After she left, we saw that she had puked in the street right in front of our house.  Nice.

We down the cook-off on Friday night.  Always a good time.  We missed out last year because I was newly pregnant and right in the middle of my "throw up every evening at 6:00" stage of the pregnancy.  Fun times.

 

Saturday morning, we went downtown for the Rodeo Run.  Karen and I were able to run the entire 3.1 miles which was pretty amazing since I haven't run at all in about 5 weeks.  The rodeo parade was also going on and somehow we managed to get stuck inside the parade route trying to get back to the truck.   

 

 

After the run, we rewarded ourselves with Guadalajara.  Audrey had her first taste of avocado and liked it.  Mom, Audrey, and I headed to Tomball for a baby shower.  I about lost my $#!t trying to get there.   We found out the Beltway was closed after it was too late to exit for another route, Google maps took the liberty of not working properly, we hit every freaking red light we encountered, and also had the pleasure of catching a train.  I think it's safe to say I hope to never go back to Tomball, TX.  We were an hour and a half late for the shower but I'm glad we still went.  Audrey got to meet some relatives on the Heiner side that haven't really had a chance to see her. 

 

After the shower, Neal and I went out to the Katy Rodeo because TNO was sponsoring one of the events.  I think I was too tired to really enjoy it and we came home early.

 

We finally had some down time today after church.  I think we have found a contender with this church.  It's a little more contemporary than we were looking for but we're really liking it.  Time will tell. 

 

Audrey had a really busy weekend and I think it all caught up to her tonight.  She was really fighting going to sleep which isn't like her at all.  I really don't know what to do with a fussy baby since she's very rarely like that.  I busted out all my tricks:  nursing, rocking, swinging, the 5 S's.  She was not having it but her little eyes were so tired.   Finally I put her in her bed and cranked the sound machine up as loud as it would go while I held her arms still against her body.  She IS our child.  She was calmed by the ocean waves and asleep in 5 minutes. 

 

Good night moon.  

Murphy's Law: Baby Edition

It looks like Murphy's Law has followed me into motherhood.  Here's how I know.

• When Audrey was just weeks old and I was scared to death still getting used to taking her on outings to get us out of the house, I always thought I had planned her feeding schedule perfectly.  I would feed her and rush to get out of the house knowing that my time was ticking before she would need to eat again.  It would never fail, after all my careful planning, the babe would pick that time that she would want to eat sooner than later.  You learn where the best places to nurse are located.  My go to was always the Dillards restroom with their nice set up of couches and big counters away from the toilets.  Babies R Us has a mother's room which I would use in a pinch, but I can recall at least 3 of these rooms that I've used and they were kinda icky.
• Need your kid to poop?  Dress them in the prettiest outfit they own and take them to church. Works like a charm. Sadly, I speak from experience. 
• You really do learn how to function on small amounts of sleep.  When Audrey wakes up in the morning, she will sometimes go back to sleep but I never do.  Not because I don't want to, but my body has learned to stay awake.  It doesn't even bother me that much anymore.  What this means is my day (weekends included) begins around 5 am.  Sometimes she'll "sleep in" until 5:30.   After I feed her, I begin doing one of the million of things that need to be done around the house.  I came across an article that the main point was Everything is Never Done.  I'm getting better at not feeling like I have to mark everything off of my to-do list every night.  I still keep a running list but if I can accomplish at least 1 thing on the list every day, I feel productive.  I don't mind that everything on the list is not ever complete.  I get so excited when I can re-write my to-do list because it has too many things scratched out and looks messy.  Here's the Murphy's Law part.  Put child down for a nap.  You can't fall asleep for a nap yourself so you spend the next hour or 2 folding clothes, playing on the computer, reading a book, whatever.  After the hour or 2 has passed, you finally decide maybe you could use a disco nap.  Lay down, get comfortable, close your eyes, cue the innocent little voice from the next room.  Guess who is done with their nap?  Every. Single. Time.

As much as I like to plan things, I've learned that it really is better for everybody to go with the flow as much as possible. 

5 Months

Here we are, another month later.  Time really does fly when you're having fun. This whole mommy things just keeps getting better and better.  Audrey has started smacking her lips after she sees us doing it. She "sings" in the car on the way to school.  She's interacting with her little friends at school.  The only thing funnier than one baby laughing is a group of little babies laughing at each other.   Although she's pretty perfect, there are times when she cries and this is the first month that she started shedding tears. Who knew babies didn't have tears right away?  Not me. Her favorite things to play with are her feet and Mack.  She thinks it's hilarious when he comes around her.  She hasn't quite mastered rolling from her back to her tummy.  She gets about 80% of the way over and then gets stuck on her arm and can't quite make it.  That's ok, I'm not quite ready for her to start rolling over in her crib yet.  She's been eating rice cereal for about a month.  I don't think she really likes and I can't say I blame her.  That junk looks disgusting.  But she'll open her mouth like a little  bird and let me spoon feed her.  Maybe she's hoping one day she'll get something a little more tasty. Today she was sitting on  my lap while we were eating lunch after church and the little sneaky one swiped a crouton off my plate.  She's definetely showing an interest in our food. 

 

Thank you for your smiles and giggles that make each day better.

 

Thank you for being you.

Thank you for already showing a love of books.  Even if it is to eat them.  Hey, the book does have a cupcake on it!

Thank you for all your different expressions.

 

Thank you for being the cutest little girl in the world.