Thru the Eyes of a Child

We put up our Christmas tree this past weekend and did a little decorating around the apartment. We didn't do as much as in years past because there just wasn't the space and let's face it, Hailey is into EVERYTHING. Here's the progress of our tree going up and Hailey commentary (courtesy of me)

What is this? Why is Daddy taking a tree out of a box? Ohhh! This is fun to bang on!

It has lights too?!

Why did they put this really soft stuff around it? It's fun to play with.

Now he's putting hanging things on it! (Our first family ornament)

This one is for me!

 

 I can help with these hanging things too!

Now that's more like it. There's my nativity scene that Mimi gave me.

This Christmas sure will be different with a baby! But I can't wait to see her experience it for the first time!

Thanksgiving 2012

OK...I don't actually have a lot of pictures from our actual Thanksgiving meals/celebrations, but I do have a lot of cute pictures of Hailey from our trip to Charlotte in general. So here goes:

playing at her activity table at Grams and Gramps

She loved standing at this window. It was just her height

Standing alone. She is doing this more and more. I'm not ready for a walker!

She loved being tickled by Gramps. She would move away and then just smile and lean back in for more

Demolishing Tucker's train set

She liked it more than her toys!

playing with Beau (the dog). She thought he was hilarious!

I love my Mimi

best I could get of her in the Thanksgiving bib. She's so busy!

Hailey's funny face. Scrunched up nose!

Love her!

Of course the headband won't stay on

 We hope you had a great Thanksgiving. I know we did!

Something She Gets From Mommy

I know I've mentioned it in my monthly posts about Hailey, but she LOVES books! In fact, when I picked her up in the nursery on Sunday the worker handed her to me and said, "She was great for a while but then started to get really fussy. I tried everything I could think of then we just sat down to read books and she quieted right down!" I think it might be the new secret weapon for the nursery!

Anyways, here are a few pics of our book-lover in action:

We do this at least 3 times a day...all of the books in the basket

You mean we don't have time to read before church?!

Please?!!!!

Trying to pick a book out at Daddy's office

You know, just a little light reading

Finally! Something she gets from Mommy!

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...

...who's the cutest baby of all?!

So, we have one wall in our apartment that is floor to ceiling mirrors (not very fun to walk past a million times a day). Normally, I have my sewing stuff piled up against it because there's nowhere else to put it. Well, I moved it this week because we had some people over for dinner.

Hailey discovered it today and it was so sweet. She just crawled right over to it and started talking and making faces at "the baby in the mirror". So funny!

Apparently she didn't like the baby too much

She's talking to the baby in this one "Ah blah, blah, blah"

And Ryan took this one of Hailey today when I went into the bathroom. She crawled over to the door and was scratching on it trying to get in.

This age is so fun with her little personality starting to come out!

8 months

It's already been 8 months! Seriously?! Now I know what people mean when they say babies grow up too fast.

Hailey is growing and changing everyday. She weighs about 19 and a half pounds (according to the at-home Epley weighing system). She still goes to bed around 8:00 and wakes up about 6:30ish in the mornings. (She's had a rough time with the time change and teething, but I think we're getting back on track) Hailey's still not a great napper; same 30 minute nap every two hours, although sometimes I can get closer to an hour, which is nice. She still nurses every 3 hours and we just started feeding her 3 baby food meals a day this week. Her favorite foods are probably bananas and pears. She also loves puffs!She has two teeth on the bottom and another one just popped through on the top.

Hailey has been crawling for a while now, but this past month began pulling up on EVERYTHING! The couch, TV cabinet, DVD stand, chairs, cabinet doors, table legs, our legs, the bathtub... It makes me so nervous because I'm so afraid she's gonna fall and hit her head, and she does sometimes but she's a tough little cookie.

I'm pretty sure her favorite place to play is either the tupperware cabinet, the pantry, or this little red cabinet we have that holds all of her baby food and sippy cups. If we leave the doors open to any of those, she's there in a heart beat! Here's evidence:

She still loves to read books. Although there has been a shift in the favorite; now her favorite is "Where is Baby's Belly Button" because she likes to lift the flaps. She has a few lift-the-flap books and loves them all. She also likes the books where the pictures have texture.

Sometimes Hailey likes to do a little "light" reading with Daddy

Hailey is still not a big fan of the nursery or being left with someone other than Ryan or I, but we're still working on it. She stayed with one of the other pastors' wives for a few hours last week and did ok with it. (At least that's what they told me!) So, I'm hoping we're turning a corner there. 

She loves to babble and make tons of noise, but no words yet...unless you count "blah, blah, blah". We're working on "mama", and "dada", but don't tell Ryan I work on "mama" more! We're also working on waving bye bye; she smiles at us every time we do it, but won't do it back. Stinker. Occasionally, she'll move her hand in the motion, but down at her side, not in the air.


I'm sure she'll master those things and more next month! We'll see!

Sweet Sunday Pictures

One last post about our weekend in Charlotte...

Sunday morning we went to church with Ryan's parents. Mimi (Ryan's mom) enjoyed having all of her kids and her grandchild with her at church! I'm pretty sure that's the first time it's happened. (Since Ryan is a pastor we obviously have to be at the church where he works on Sunday mornings.) Here are a few pictures of my sweet girl from Sunday.

After church we went to lunch and, much to my dismay, Hailey had her first taste of lemon, compliments of her daddy. Here is the sequence of events...

She really didn't make a funny face like we expected! Ha!

Oh well, maybe next time...