6 Months Old

Wow, tomorrow our little girl is half a year old. It's hard to imagine life without Lailey now. What did we do before she came into our life? Who knows, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Every day is an absolute delight. She is incredibly happy most of the time. I love when she gets so excited when she sees me, and her little giggle can make all my worries disappear. Here are a few of the pictures that I've taken the last couple weeks.

Puppy kisses - eeeeewwwww!
Chewing on her thumb, playing with her foot...favorite activities these days

She sticks her toes and fingers through her blanket when she sleeps - isn't that funny?

Sitting up like a big girl!

Getting ready to go to Grammy and Granddaddy's house on a cool morning

First time with a sippy cup...all she did was chew on it. Hehe!

Lailey loves peas!!! I just couldn't believe it! I gave her peas (homemade baby food, of course) this week and she really seems to like them. No, I did not retouch this photo; her eyes are really that blue and the peas are really that green.

This is the first time Lailey has ever held herself up on the couch. She has been able to stand for a long time, but now she's figured out how to hold on thanks to Grandpa. Enjoy!



At six months, Lailey weighs about 17 lbs, is 26 in. long, and can sit up on her own. She will still fall over though, so we have to watch her. She says "da-da" and loves to make lots of noises, including very loud grunting. She sleeps really well at night, about 10 hrs. and takes two long naps and a short one in the late afternoon/early evening. She doesn't have any teeth yet, but that will come soon enough. She chews or sucks on anything she can get her hands on.

We love you, Lailey. You are our joy and delight. Thank you God for our sweet baby.

Outside pictures

This past week I decided to attempt taking a few outside pictures of Lailey. She is sort of sitting up on her own, though she did wobble over a few times before I could catch her. She was fine since it was on a soft blanket. And I got a few bug bites, but it was worth it.

This face just cracks me up

This one is my favorite I think

Sitting up!

She is able to sit up now with support, or for a few seconds on her own. It's crazy how quickly babies go from completely floppy little newborns to strong kids who want to move. Baby-proofing is coming soon...I can feel it.

I mixed in a little homemade carrot puree (that's "carrots mashed up real good" in Granddaddy language) with Lailey's oatmeal cereal yesterday and after she made a half disgusted half surprised look with the first bite, she ate every bit. I'm not doing lots of veggies yet, I just wanted to see what she thought. Maybe next weekend I'll make some different foods like peas and green beans to stock up. My plan was to start veggies around 6 months, and that's in two weeks so I wanted to start freezing some food to make it easy during the week while I work. I've looked online and in a book for baby food recipes and it doesn't seem very hard to make good wholesome food very cheaply. Store bought is fine too, but I figured I'd try making my own and see if the money saved is worth the effort. We shall see.

TMNT Rudy

I was sorting through photos and videos on my computer and organizing them - one of my favorite things to do - and came across this video. It's not Lailey, but I think it's funny. This is from 2007 when we camped at Cloudland Canyon, GA. For those of you unfamiliar with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT), Rudy (Davey) is explaining his role as "Splinter," the turtles mentor. My husband is strange, yes, but he makes me laugh. Enjoy! (You may have to turn it up, because it's kind of quiet)

This is what we're saying. Watch it while reading it...

D: Sarah, it is time you know the truth. I have 4 turtles. They fell into the pile of ooze and became teenage mutant ninja turtles.

S: He doesn’t look like he’s moved his mouth much.

D: Anyways, enough about the lady behind the curtain. (continued laughter) Uh, I gave them four names: Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michaelangelo. They are now my four sons. They are very good at fighting crime. I took many years training them the art of …one of those martial arts. Anyways, shut up.

Hedgehog it is...

Sorry to the 5 of you (including Davey) who voted for sheep. I do believe it is a hedgehog. I was quite entertained by how many people responded to me about this debate! Those who knew what a hedgehog was and decided that is what this must be pointed out some interesting features that I have so kindly included on the photo below (thank you, Picnik.com).

Of course, "Hug Me" is funny because hedgehogs are prickly, so it's a joke, tongue-in-cheek if you will. (I actually looked up that phrase to make sure I was using it correctly. I'd always wondered about that.)
So, the debate is finally over. Sorry sheep, you didn't make it.

Give Me Ten!

Okay, I PROMISE I did not make Lailey do this. Yes, Davey loves to workout, but this was a chance baby thing, not him rubbing off on her. She started this on her own the other day and I caught it on camera today. She loves to play on her tummy and has gotten pretty strong. Not too long before we're baby-proofing everything. Hope you enjoy your daily dose of Lailey.

(P.S. I know it's not exactly a daily update, but the name worked.)
We love you, Daddy.

Bright Eyes

Well, it's almost 11:00, which is super late for me, but hey, I'm on fall break so I can do whatever I want and take a nap later! Sweet. Anyway, I had to check something online and figured while I was on the computer I'd post some recent favorite pictures of my cutie pie.

This is the precious face I get to wake up to every morning. On this particular morning, we found Lailey awake and happy in her crib after her morning nap. Unless she's really hungry, she's usually extremely happy when she first sees me in the morning, and she'll kick and squirm with delight and give me a huge smile. It's the best.

Davey and Lailey in the same shade of blue. Daddy, we miss you while you're gone.
Lailey in her big girl stroller! Gosh, I just realized while looking at this picture how grown up she looks wearing her little sneakers and sitting up like that.
This cracked me up. I placed her on her tummy in her activity center instead of her back just for a change of pace. Plus, she likes being on her tummy a lot more now that she's stronger. Attached to the bottom are these leaves that have crinkly stuff in them to make noise. But who cares about the crinkly stuff when you can just eat them! She did this on her own and I had to grab the camera.
Okay, that's it. I finished my glass of chocolate milk and now have to brush my teeth (again) and go to bed.

A New Design

I've been having WAAAAAY too much fun with the computer lately.  Davey, who I call a "googlehead" because he can find anything online, recently came across an incredible website called Picnik.com.  I've been looking for a way to have fun editing photos on my computer (which he also just recently rebuilt).  Picnik is the perfect way to edit photos.  Even the free version is great, but the premium version is only a couple bucks a month.  Totally worth it.  I know next to nothing about digital editing, and I've already had a blast.  This whole thing started because I've been organizing and playing with photos I've been taking of Lailey.  Nothing spectacular, just amateur shots of the cutest kid in the world.  This is an example of what you can do... (before and after)

It may not look a lot different at the first glance, but I took out red-eye, made her eyes more blue, framed it, used an effect to make the picture sort of "bloom," made the edges fade to more black & white, and even edited out the drool on her chin.  Okay, I'm amazed by all this, even if no one else is.  Maybe I'll get really good at it eventually.  But for now, it's a fun hobby.  

Oh yeah, and the new heading at the top of the blog?  I uploaded the flower photo (which I found online) and actually put the text in and designed it on Picnik.  I think it turned out pretty spiffy.