Lizzie Sue - Happy 6 Months Old!!!

Dear Lizzie Sue,

Today you turned 6 months old! Mommy and Daddy can hardly believe you are already 1/2 of a year old. Everyone warned us this would fly by and they were not kidding. If the next six months goes as quick as this first 6 months went, it's going to be Christmas time (and your birthday time) before we know it. As always here you are with Roxie Bear:


This last month has been a pretty crazy month. You've seemed to stop teething...for now. On one hand Daddy wishes you were done teething forever...on the other hand he would feel really bad for you trying to get a date in college (notice Daddy said college, not high school) with only your two front bottom teeth. Of course eventually you will start to teeth again, yet this time we have a secret weapon...no not the blackberry brandy...just this past week you've fallen in love with your mesh feeding bag. Daddy has learned this is a more recent development in babies so he'll explain. It's a little mesh bag on the end of a seal-able plastic ring. The ring is easy for you to hold onto, and we fill the mesh bag with everything from bananas to watermelon. You can gnaw away on the bag, and you are only able to get little tiny pieces of food through the mesh so there's no choking hazard. Your face with your first real bite into a banana was the best bitter beer face Daddy has ever seen. Anyway the point of this story is that frozen banana chunks in the mesh feeder are a great teething remedy and you get some nutrition out of it too. All this solid food is turning you into Popeye with his spinach...just look at this picture...I could have sworn you asked Daddy if he had his ticket to the gun show!!!

Solid food has become a nightly routine around here. After Mommy and Daddy finish dinner you get put in your bumbo chair on the dining room table and you tear into anything we put in front of you. So far you've eaten (also worn) avocado, sweet potato, oatmeal cereal, bananas, watermelon, blue berries and you keep eyeing up Daddy's baked ziti. Daddy just doesn't think you are ready for the baked ziti just yet. In the last couple of days you’ve even been eating so well that we figure about half of the food actually makes it both in your mouth but down into your tummy, instead of the other half that either makes it into our mouth and ends up on your tummy or just ends up all over your hands which get just about everywhere else.

Also in the last week or so you’ve really figured out rolling over…or at least half of it. Every time Mommy or Daddy puts you down on your back, with in about 10 seconds you are rolling over to your belly. That’s all well and good but you really haven’t figured out the rolling from your belly to your back yet. You’ve pulled it off once or twice but more often than not you just end up laying there and crying until one of us flips you back over. The other day you were so close to crawling, you were up on your arms and started to move your knees, then the next thing we knew you started doing pushups. I guess you really are getting ready for Norwich already! Another sign your going to end up in the Corps of Cadets is that you get distracted very easily..."oh shiny"...where was Daddy? Oh yeah you've started to sit up on your own if we help you get into the position. You are doing very well with it until you get distracted, either look off at something in the distance or just stop concentrating on sitting up and boom you fall over...it really is pretty cute to watch!

The next couple of weeks will be very interesting for all of us. We are taking our first big vacation with you. We will be driving 5 hours to the Cape to visit Guy and Ashley for the 4^th of July. We can’t wait to see your reaction to the first time on the beach, first time in the ocean and first fireworks experience. Right from the Cape we will be flying to Pittsburgh to see Grammie Sue and Gramps. Daddy's keeping his fingers crossed that we aren't that couple with the screaming kid everyone hates on their flight. Hopefully a milk coma will help us on that one. While in Pittsburgh we are looking forward to your first adventure to the zoo, your first ride on the incline, your first primanti brothers sandwich (don't worry Daddy will eat it for you, we'll just let you get all big eyed at the size of it) and your first time in downtown Pittsburgh, maybe we'll run into a Steelers player who would take a picture with you...long as it's not Hines Ward because if it's him Mommy might not be coming back to VT with us...ha ha! Even if we didn't do any of those things in Pittsburgh, the time with Grammie Sue and Gramps will be awesome...hopefully Gramps will continue to teach you how to play poker!

We love you,

Mommy & Daddy

A week in reflection

So most of you know that last August I took a new job at the local high school and one of the benefits of this job was that I would be off for the summer. My summer officially started last Friday (about 10 days ago).

Anyone who knew me growing up knew that I never thought I would be a stay at home mom. I often stated that I thought "I would lose my mind" but after I had Lizzie I thought I would like nothing more to have that opportunity and now I do since I am off for the summer.

I have officially been a "stay at home mom" for just over a week and I have to say full time stay at home moms deserve a lot of credit. Every day I wake up with the hope of getting so much done, and everyday I go to bed after not having accomplished hardly anything that I wanted to. For example I have been trying to wash our sheets for at least a week and I keep running out of time. I would also love to vacuum but I value a sleeping baby that much more I can deal with the dust bunnies.

In other news we are in the process of transitioning Lizzie from our bed to her crib. I love the cuddle time we have a night but I am ready to have my space back, especially since I am with her all day every day (and I wouldn't change if for the world.) We have only been at the for 2 nights and it is hard but I feel it is important so we will keep at it.

I am trying to get back into running. This baby weight is not going to come off by itself so I have decided to help it. So 3 mornings a week I pack Lizzie into the stroller and walk to Norwich where I do the couch to 5K program. I did this program before I got pregnant with her and had good success with it and am glad I am finally getting back into it.

We are getting ready to go on vacation in about 10 days and I have already started planning. Going on vacation used to be relatively simple for just Keith and I but now we have Lizzie and that add a whole new dimension of planning. Stay tuned for those details and for Keith's six month blog (she will be 6 months on Wednesday and I refuse to believe it).

24 weeks, Grammie Sue & Gramps visit, solid foods and other dinner table fun!!!

Dear Lizzie Sue,

Yesterday you were 24 weeks old...just two more weeks and you'll be 6 months. Just the idea of that is still crazy to Daddy that you'll be half a year old...geez the time really is flying by. So as mentioned in the last post, Grammie Sue and Gramps were up visiting from Pittsburgh. It was a great week for everyone involved. They got some quality Lizzie Sue time, Mommy and Daddy got some "here take her" time too! Daddy does miss walking downstairs, handing you off to Grammie Sue, going back upstairs to get some coffee, wake up, shower and eventually coming back down stairs to find you just chillen with Grammie Sue.

Daddy does have a suspicion you have learned your concept of time from Gramps. Daddy says this because every time he would hand you to Gramps to just hold you for a minute while Daddy did something, it usually took 30 minutes to get you back. Ever since then if you want to be picked up and Mommy or Daddy takes a minute to get to you, you scream like we've left you alone for 30 minutes...Thanks Gramps!

One of the great things that came out of Grammie Sue and Gramps visit is you starting solid foods. After sitting in our laps at the dinner table and even playing with a plastic spoon and copying us by scrapping the spoon on the table and putting it in your mouth...we all agreed you might be ready to try solid foods. So Mommy picked up some avocados, we magic bulleted them up for you, and you went to town. Of course this video is from your first attempt at it...you've gotten a lot better about it over the last 2 weeks. To this point you've had avocado, rice cereal, bananas and watermelon with plans to attempt sweet potatoes tomorrow night!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXRQOdt2GnI (first solid food)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8TwRDfUyQk (laughing after first solid food)

After Grammie Sue and Gramps left a wonderful package arrived a few days later. Grammie Sue ordered you an awesome toy that you love sooOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!! These soft stacker rings. What's great is each ring has an animal on there, all making different kinds of noise. By far your favorite ring is the little ring from the top that has a bumble bee on it. The bee is kind of crinkly so you love squishing him and chewing on him. Although pretty much everything picked up goes into your mouth lately, the bumble bee seems to spend more time there then any other toy.


Also in that great package we picked you up a high chair that clips right onto our dinner table. You love being at the dinner table with us and this way Mommy and Daddy can eat dinner with 2 hands each while you just sit in your chair and chew on your bumble bee. Normally when you are hanging out in your chair, you are pretty vocal and like knocking your toys off the table...yet the other night Mommy and Daddy were both talking and realized at the same moment you weren't making as much noise as normal. We both looked over to see you with this very intense look of concentration on your face. You then proceeded to take both hands, grab the front of the high chair and hold on like a lap bar for a roller coaster...you continued to concentrate...Daddy started to see your grip leaving indents on the table...and then the most unlady like noise, to ever be made at our dinner table, came out of you. Needless to say, we rushed you off for a new diaper and still needed to change your onesie.


You've had a busy last couple of days and will continue to have busy days as Mommy is soon done with work for the year...she'll have all summer to go on some great adventures with you. Also this visit from Grammie Sue and Gramps really reminded us how much we are looking forward to our trip to Pittsburgh in July! Oh and on another positive note from their visit, they brought Daddy some Yuengling beer...and as everyone can see...you seemed to like it too!

We Love You,

Mommy & Daddy

P.S. No Children Were Given Any Beer During the Making of This Blog