Saturday, January 28, 2012

The big 9.....mos that is!

Baby Girl is 9 months!

I just love every little piece of her.....doesn't she look cute in her little valentine's outfit and bow?

I also love that little flip in her hair, it gives her some personality
(and keeps her from looking like she has a boy hair cut)
Her hair has definitely gotten longer and holds a bow well, that's if she would let it. She has begun pulling at them in her hair. I have lost a number of bows and so have decided to be picky about when and where she wears them!


She is still smiling at everyone, but has started some stranger danger. She knows when mommy is gone and will frown a bit at strangers. Although, she hasn't cried when leaving her at church. I hope she is better about that than Garyn was!
Attention is what she wants, though! It is quite funny when she is yelling and climbing up your legs then as soon as you look/talk to her, she just smiles and laughs.


She is eating better, more veggies and some meats. I give her a mix of homemade and store bought baby food. I have found she likes them about the same, its more whether she likes that specific food or not. She absolutely loves eating banana in the little fresh food holder. She is also picking up and eating a lot of starch-type food. (crackers, rolls, cheerios and such) I have tried sippy cups but she isn't really interested in them. She is a climber, like I said before, so eating out with her has become a challenge. Little Houdini gets out of most high chair straps and climbs onto the table. We spend most of the dinner holding on to her shirt while she stands trying to keep her off the table and from falling. Ha! Maybe she is our motivation to eating at home more often!


More on being restrained, laying her down to change her diaper and putting her in the car seat are also a challenge. We have learned to be quick and have many diversions ready. Thankfully, she doesn't cry as much once in the car. Garyn keeps her entertained a lot for us!
You can tell in the above picture, she did not want to lay down!


Her weight at the doctor this week was 17 lbs. 13 oz. (Garyn was 18 lbs. at 4 months, haha!) And she was 28 1/4 inches long. Most 6-9 months still fit but are getting shorter in the arms and legs faster than else where.


We are still thinking she looks like both of us (shocker since she came from us both!) She resembles Garyn in the nose, cheeks, mouth and chin (which is Tyler) but in the eyes and forehead she looks more like me, I think. And those eyes are still crystal blue with long eyelashes....


Anything Garyn does, she wants to do. He has started picking her up and moving her from his toys only to find she comes right back. I explained to him she just wants to play with whatever he had. Much to his chagrin, she loves his cars! I can tell sharing all the toys that he thinks are just his is going to be a learning curve for him over the next few months. He loves playing with her, too, though. His favorite game is to run from her when she is crawling towards him. He hides and screeches acting like she is coming to get him. Its funny to her, too.


Sleeping wise.....
I don't think she sleeps like this all the time but I have found her this way several times. We are working on sleeping through the night. I have been letting her cry and fuss for naps and in the middle of the night. I usually give in after 10 mins and then she stays down after that. But most every time at nap, she cries until I come in then after I lay her down and give her the paci back, she goes to sleep. It as if she has to have the last word! A few times, though, she will fuss and go down on her own. At night, she goes down great without crying at about 8:30 and has been waking around 4 (here lately), eats, then goes back to sleep till 7 or so. I can't complain, I guess!


                    She absolutely loves this bean bag! She will take off, climb into it, turn and sit down with the biggest smile on her face. She then pats it and jumps around in it before she is off to her next adventure. Speaking of patting, she likes to pat you on the back while you are holding her. She is doing better on her wave. She says "da da"  while waving more often than not. But will still say "ma ma" and "bye bye" some. "Ooh's" and "ouuu's" are becoming a stable sound coming from her.

I am saying "Oooh", too, cause it's going by too fast!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

two way conversation

(this picture is from this fall, but I loved how they were just admiring one another)

I listened today as Garyn and Ansley had a conversation.
It went something like this:

G: "Come on baby girl, come this way"

A: "UAHHH" and begins crawling towards him

G: "Just keep going here and we gotta go to work"....
"watch out for that crab (the stacking cups)"

A: "OOUH" ( her new favorite noise, reminds me of the way Hondurans say "OOIY" the way we say "oh my" or "geez")

G:  heavy sighs "ok, well we can go this way if you want"
"lets go in here"

A:  no noises just quietly sits, then takes off crawling to follow
{need to mention I am in another room, but invisioning the looks and gestures as I listen}

G: walking into bathroom, "watch your fingers" then I hear a door shut

A: "UAHH"

G: "alright baby girl, we have to stay in here and work"
{I come to check on the situation to find her in bathroom floor and him smiling behind the door}
 when I ask what they are doing , G replies "working" and I say "Oh, ok well, why don't you come work out here"

A: "UAAAHH" as if to say, "leave us alone"

G: "come on baby girl, we'll go find another place to work"

A: crawls out following right behind.....

I love these times. Listening, watching the two of them play together. Even though Ansley doesn't speak, they totally understand each other as much as they want to. Garyn can make up her words (just what he wants to do really) and she just enjoys the attention from him. Its really fun knowing they will always be able to play together and yes I know it won't always be so peaceful! 

I love my days with these two at home! The memories we will have watching the two of them and their imaginations!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Bites

Here are some little bites of my day, today......


I have happily cleaned this mess a few times today....


I laughed as I cleaned out Garyn's Gman's book bag,
 for that is his new name or so he says......


Tyring to ease my throat that was attacked by strep,
 I have consumed a lot of these two items today....


I wanted a change up and am rocking these tails...


Been working on this list, which I must say I have been loving!


I haved played Trouble, once again, with silly Gman who inevitably wins...


And we ended the day by celebrating Poppa's birthday




Monday, January 16, 2012

Ansleys 8 months old

Ansley is 8 months now but only for 10 more days! (sighhh it goes by too fast!)
She is a ball of fire right now. Smiling and laughing a lot but also growls, screams and yells just as much.
Thats why ball of fire is the most appropriate description of her right now!


She loves to stand, climb, and jump. She is cruising all around the tables, couch, and any thing else she can reach. If you try to get her to stand on her own, though, she immediately sits down. As for climbing, she tries to climb on the table, chairs but she has mastered climbing out of the highchair onto the table. We have a brick fireplace surround in the playroom that she climbs onto now, too. Her favorite thing to climb into is the dish washer. As soon as I open it up, she takes off for it. When you hold her, she constantly climbs up your side. Its quite funny really how active she is.


All that activity makes her tired against her own wishes! She started fighting sleep terribly at the beginning of her 8 month mark (and at the end of 7 months). Every since she was sick in November, I guess, it started getting hard to lay her down for nap. I was constantly having to come in to lay her back down and insert the paci. It progressively turned into her just not sleeping until we were in the car or I fed her. She was also doing this a lot at night, waking up more and more just wanting to be nursed back to sleep. Then after keeping Tyler up a few nights when I worked, we decided it was time to let her cry it out.
She has been doing much better now. Waking less at night and napping better during the day. She still fusses some but isn't as loud and mad.


She is still saying mama and dada some. Not sure she is using them to ask for us yet, though. She has also said nana and bye bye a handful of times. However, she definitely knows how to yell and scream for what she wants. She isn't horrible by any means but lets us know when she is mad or wants something. She also does it for attention. We were at the store one day and she squealed a few times while looking at the cashier. Once the cashier stopped and talked to her, she just smiled and stopped yelling. It was quite humorous. We are working on her wave and clapping. A few times she has done them on her own surprising me.  


She is liking baby food more and more. Again, she runs the show and chooses what she will and won't eat. Vegetables are not her favorite so I have to mix them a lot with some fruit. She is eating some table food, like scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, bread/rolls, cheerios and the baby puffs. Everything and anything, really, go into her mouth. But there are still no teeth in there.
Size wise, she weighs 18 lbs now and seems to have gotten a little longer based on her clothes. She is wearing 6-9 months. Her face has definitely filled out more. Her hair has gotten longer, too.


Garyn loves to pick her up now and move her. Usually that comes along with her being in his toys! His favorite cars are her favorite, too! Never fails that he will get a race lined up with his cars and she will come along grabbing. She just wants to do everything he is doing all the time. When he plays Wii, she starts climbing into the entertainment center getting the other Wii remotes. He loves for her to chase him. Really she just crawls from one door to another while he runs back and forth. They both just laugh and squeal!


One of my favorite times is for us to all be in the playroom floor tickling and wrestling. Ansley has taken a liking to this time too, and starts growling at us as she comes crawling on top of us. It is so cute!
Savoring these days!


Thursday, January 12, 2012

December Fun

When going back through the pictures for the other posts, I realized there were some fun activities we did to begin celebrating the holidays. We did all of them in a weeks span and started the season off strong!

To start, we went to Nashville with Tyler for a work conference for a couple days. I started looking around for things to dowhen I saw that Shrek and other Dreamworks characters were at the Opryland Hotel. Nana did some more research for me and found several other things that Opryland was doing for Christmas.

Even though we weren't staying there, we were able to do most everything. One fun event was a music show that Shrek, Po and other characters were in. We had a great seat and the kids just loved the show.  




Then they also had Gingy from Shrek helping everyone decorate gingerbread cookies.


Our gingerbread family.....

There was also an old town area, with lots of Christmas related things to do that were popular traditions of say the 40's/50's.
One was a train ride......


Then there was story time with Mrs. Clause...


They also had a post office set up with old memorabilia where the kids could write letters to Santa. Garyn is mailing them in this picture. We got a letter back, too!


Back to the characters, Po from Kung Fu Panda was out for pictures and doing his awesome Kung Fu for everyone to watch. Garyn was a little apprehensive though about getting close....


Had to include this picture. Ansley loved the baby that was staying in the closet of our room! She spent a lot of time playing with her.....


Love the amazement in her face....



Once we came home that Friday, we went down to the Red Bank Parade and happened to see some great friends there to watch with....


Ansley all bundled...
(I must mention that this was about the time that it came impossible to keep her in her stroller.....she climbs out of it constantly unless its moving)


Garyn always has the best view!


That same weekend, we put up our tree and decorations. Then began wrapping presents! Ansley loved the bows and paper. (She also loved climbing on the boxes to get to them easier!)


We borrowed Nana and Poppa's tree because the one we bought on sale last year (in background of next pic) turned out to be quite small. We usually do real trees, but we were worried about Ansley pulling on it and creating more of a mess than they already are (not to mention, her trying to eat it). Instead, we put the smaller tree out in the yard which worked great.
Garyn did a lot of the ornaments this year. I smiled every time I looked at the tree because there were several bare spots and most of the ornaments were at his eye level. I never had the time to fix them; I wasn't sure I wanted to anyway!


Like I said, she loved the boxes!


Well, I think that is finally all the Christmas related events and pictures. Something we didn't get good pictures of was Garyn's preschool Christmas concert. (sadness) It was very cute though and we got a couple of cellphone pictures to remember it by. The kids did go see Santa and both smiled great. Next year will be when Ansley cries I'm sure. It was a great first Christmas for Ansley, though. She, of course, had no clue what was going on expect for loving all the paper and bows people kept giving her! Garyn was very fun to watch since he understood everything more. His anticipation leading up to Christmas was almost more than he could bear. When he started telling me in November that December was coming and it would be Christmas, I knew we were in for it! December 1st was a let down for him since it, in fact, was not Christmas yet. Then he also had to realize when we went Christmas shopping it didn't mean he was getting what he wanted but instead what we were giving others.

Being married and having children definitely makes everything so much more entertaining. I love our little family so much and thank God for them!

Monday, January 9, 2012

Christmas Part 2

Well, here is the rest of our Christmas gatherings......

We left our house to go to my family in Georgia first. Always enjoy seeing them all since we live furthest from them.

This is Ansley and Kaysie Lee, my cousin, Ansley's second cousin....


Tyler and Garyn had a little rest before we ate....remember how I said all four of us were up most of the night!

My grandmother, two cousins and niece Lorna with Ansley...


This was taken the week after Christmas, when we went down, but this is my grandfather with the kids..


Once we left Georgia, we drove back into Tennessee to go to Tyler's grandparents. We always play games after our eating and present festivities. It makes for a great ice breaker to get everyone talking and there is always lots of laughing!


Ansley and her other great grandfather....


Then the week after Christmas, we drove up to Clinton, TN to visit Mimi and Didi, Poppa's mom and step dad. We also got to see Poppa's sister, brother and their families...


This is Mimi with Ansley and I and below she is with Tyler and Philip, his brother.


Mimi and his Aunt Sharon were shocked when Tyler started making the biscuits!


He is one handy man, I tell you! He makes some good food!
We have gone to visit them the week after Christmas two years in a row now so I think it is becoming a great tradition! We don't see them much through out the year. Looking through these pictures I love how Garyn and Ansley get to see and know their great grandparents. They have a lot! I only remember my great grandmother who died when I was in middle school, so I hope they stay close to them and remember them well!

Next up is our trip to my brother's house for our Christmas with them and my dad.
We went on New's Year Eve, stayed the night, and had a great visit just hanging out.

The kids eating....my nephew doesn't want his picture made anymore, I could just ring his neck because I could have got some good pictures if only he were smiling! Guess that's a 12 almost 13 year old for you!


Ansley getting into mischief, she loved Aunt Karen's roosters...



We had steaks, potatoes and salad....


Pretty girls....notice Lakelin hiding behind the pillow


 Lakelin has joined the FFA at his school (Future Farmers of America) and as a project they are raising goats. My brother, Josh, has really jumped right into it all. They have anywhere from 8-15 goats most days! This little guy is one of three and wasn't getting enough milk, so he is getting bottle fed. He was about 3 days old when we were there.

Ansley curiously watched him.....


Garyn helped...


See what I mean!


Garyn just adores that Lakelin, though, so I guess we will just have to deal with the teenager stuff!

I think that ends our Christmas festivities! Although, I did find some pictures of a few festivities we did before Christmas that I need to post next.

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