6 Months

And another month has come and gone. Last week Colette turned half a year old. We celebrated with a fantastic trip to the Knoxville Zoo and by discovering 2 more teeth coming in!




Weight: 17lbs 8oz

Height: 28"

Sleep: Hit and miss. I blame the teeth. Most nights she goes down at 9, wiggles around at 3, wakes to eat at 6, then sleeps until 8:30-9. Tuesday night was terrible and she was up every 2 hours (possibly something to do with the shots she got that day as well), but the next night she was out like a light from 9pm-8am.

Clothes/Diapers (Sizes): 6-9 months in clothes and size 3 diapers

Diet: Mostly milk. We started giving her pureed foods once a day about 3 weeks ago... and after a week of that and her not being terribly interested, we gave her a break. We're just now starting agin and will go full force back into it on Monday. So far she's tried sweet potatoes, bananas, and squash. Squash made her cry. She no likey the squash.

Milestones/Firsts: She sits up like a pro and she's so close to crawling I can't stand it. And neither can she. If there's something just out of her reach she gets up on her hands/or knees (not both at the same time yet) and gets sooo frustrated that she can't get what she wants. We also have 2 more teeth coming down as I mentioned earlier! (Top front teeth!) I was changing her diaper  in the back of the car and just happened to look up while her mouth was open and there they were! She's also really sounding out her consonants nows. The bababa's and the dadada's flow like the river.

Likes: Chewing, drooling, chewing, chewing, drooling. She loves to laugh at the dogs when they come around. Loves being outside, going for walks, and playing on a blanket with her toys.

Dislikes: Squash. Shots.

Things I Don’t Want to Forget: The way she's starting to reach out for her mom. So sweet.

As for me: I'm doing great! We're spending a lot of time out of the house when we can on the weekends which is nice since I'm cooped up all week. AND I actually read 3 books last week. (The Divergent trilogy) Every free moment, which is usually only around bed time, I had my nose in the Kindle reading because I couldn't put it down until I got to the end.. and then there was a lot of ugly crying. A lot. I'm generally a really slow reader because I go over every detail, but I started reading Allegiant before Colette woke up Thursday morning and finished it Friday night. Probably a new record for me.

 

Our pediatrician says she looks great! (We already knew that though ;) ) And Colette actually didn't do too bad with the shots this month either. She wailed for about 30 seconds and then it was over. And it wasn't as loud as it has been in the past. Poor sweet baby.

 







 

By the end of the summer, Colette will be a well traveled little girl. In June we'll be flying solo to Michigan for my friends baby shower. (YAY! I'M SO EXCITED!) I'm a little terrified, mainly because I hate flying. I think everything else will be okay. I don't have to take my pack-n-play or carseat and I plan to check a bag, so that's good news! It's certainly a plus that Lindsay already has those things and no baby yet so we can borrow them :) I just have to be prepared to deal with the crying when/if it happens. The flight is roughly 2 hours, so hopefully it'll go smoothly.

After that we've got 2 beach trips and then our big Disney trip. Lots to prepare for!

Here's some photos from the last little while: (TN Aquarium, Knoxville Zoo, Coolidge Park)







 

[caption id="attachment_906" align="aligncenter" width="560"] A day at the aquarium make for one sleepy baby[/caption]





 

















 

[caption id="attachment_917" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Probably one of the happiest moments of my life[/caption]





 

[caption id="attachment_920" align="aligncenter" width="560"] I'm pretty sure this bird just killed another bird and stole it's feathers[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_921" align="aligncenter" width="560"] First time in a high chair at a restaurant![/caption]

First Mother's Day and First Food

This past week has been pretty exciting. Philadelphia, my first Mother's Day, and baby Colette's first food experience. I already posted a bit about my trip to Philly, so we'll move straight into the other stuff!

The family came down to stay with us for Mother's Day weekend. I thought it was going to be an ugly weekend, weather-wise, but it actually turned out to be very nice! The main events of the weekend, as they usual are, revolved around food! Burgers from Merv's, gelato from Milk & Honey, Mother's Day lunch at Taco Mamacita, annnnd more gelato from Milk & Honey. Delicious.

Here's a few pictures from my mom:

[caption id="attachment_890" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Saturday at Milk&Honey[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_888" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Mother's Day[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_889" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Mom, Brother and Sister[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_891" align="aligncenter" width="560"] My momma and my baby![/caption]

 

A good weekend indeed! I also took some pictures of my niece and nephew while they were here. Here's a couple of those:













 

Sweetness.

 

Annnnd then Monday night we gave Colette her first taste of real food. There was a lot of confusion and some funny faces involved. She had no idea what to think about it. She definitely wanted to play with the spoon, but not so much interested in the sweet potatoes. Now that I've watched the video again, she looks more interested that I initially thought she did. I just think that maybe she doesn't have the whole swallowing thing down yet, so we'll keep trying!

Here's the video, it's sorta long and probably only really entertaining to me... and my mom. :)

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s59yyFZZ2nQ&w=560&h=315]

Homeward Bound

4:30 am and I'm in a cab headed to the airport. I'm so excited to be going home.

I never get to see much of Philly when I'm here, but I do love a big city. Philly is one of those cities that doesn't actually seem that big to me, but then again maybe that's because I'm not able to get out much. If it's possible I always try to make it to El Vez, a trendy little Mexican place that has excellent guacamole... And that's the only thing I usually get. Hot crazy last night and ordered the crab salsa too. Hot hot hot.

Work went really well. It was nice to meet all the faces I work with on a daily basis and get a little more insite to the business side of what I work with. We all had dinner last night at Fratelli's Italian Bistro as well. Mmmm.

But now... I'm jut ready to be home. I fly to Atlanta then catch a connector flight to Chattanooga. I will be home by 10:30 to see this sweet little face:

Panic Button

I've hit my internal panic button a few times over the last couple of days. Especially Monday night. Whew. Spring is my least favorite season because of storms {and pollen}.

I'm one of those people who checks the weather channel constantly. So Monday when I knew the weather was going to be bad later in the day, I pretty much had it pulled up on my desktop all day. Waiting and anticipating. When the line of storms finally got here I was only moderately terrified until we got the tornado warning and the power went out. The moment the power went out I pretty much flipped my lid. Of course... Colette slept through the whole thing. Cory and I hung out in the floor of the nursery until it was all over.

Luckily the next 9 days look panic-free in terms of weather.

On the other hand, I have to go to Philadelphia for work Monday night-Wednesday morning next week. {*HITS PANIC BUTTON FRANTICALLY*} I'll be leaving my sweet little baby for the first time over night. Not only do I have to leave her, but I also have to get on an airplane. So pretty much this blog post is about my main fears in life. Tornadoes, planes, and leaving my child with the possibility of not returning. I know the likelihood of me dying in one of those things is slim, but it still petrifies me.

Like Cory says, "There's nothing you can do about it!" (Then there's that little voice in the back of my head that says, "Sure there is... you can get a storm shelter... you can opt to never travel by plane.. and pretty much never leave home...") Not irrational at all, right? :)

Some of you who get email notifications when I update the blog probably wondered what the "Letters to Colette" post was about since it was password protected. Basically it's just words of advice, love, encouragement, life lessons, and anything I can think to share that I don't want to forget later. Or if by some chance I do get whisked away by a tornado or my plane disappears, she'll also have a piece of me left behind in those words. It's the "just in case" file. Maybe one day I'll share them, but for now it's just between me and Wordpress.... and well.. anyone who's able to hack into my account and read them, I suppose.

 

And to make the post less depressing.. I completely forgot about our Easter photos until today. So here's something fun to look at!

 

[caption id="attachment_874" align="aligncenter" width="534"] Watching the dog with Granny Poore[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_875" align="aligncenter" width="560"] First Easter Basket![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_876" align="aligncenter" width="534"] Mom and Steve's beautiful yard![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_877" align="aligncenter" width="534"] More yard![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_878" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Sweet baby[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_879" align="aligncenter" width="560"] This one is for my sister![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_880" align="aligncenter" width="560"] D'awwww[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_881" align="aligncenter" width="560"] She's a celebrity[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_882" align="aligncenter" width="534"] Sitting with Grandma Betty[/caption]

5 Months Old

We're a few days late on this post! Colette is officially 5 months old now.



Sleep: Decent - could be better! We have days when she'll sleep through the night, (like last night), and then days when she'll wake up 2-3 times. Sometimes she'll put herself back to sleep, but occasionally we'll have to go in and calm her down.

Clothes/Diapers (Sizes): Generally around 6 months clothes and size 3 diapers!

Diet: Milk, milk, and more milk.

Milestones/Firsts: She's sitting up really well, not totally balanced and definitely can't pull herself up yet. But she will sit and play with things for several minutes at time without going down. I've also noticed her passing blocks and toys from hand to hand. And of course, as mentioned in my last post, TWO TEETH! They're adorable.

Likes: She looooves to sit outside with us on the front porch swing. She gets really quiet and just watched everything around her. She especially likes it when we let our beagle/terrier mix Ace sit with us. She thinks the dogs are hiiilarious. We spent a lot of time outside over the weekend and she was pretty happy about that - minus all the pollen.

Dislikes: Putting her clothes back on after a bath/before bedtime. We can generally count on her to not be happy about that.

Things I Don’t Want to Forget: Her excited little laugh that comes from no where when we're riding in the car. When she passes out unexpectedly on my shoulder. Mornings when I've brought her into our bed and she rolls over and starts playing with my face/hair. The sight of her face lighting up when I walk into the room and ask her what she's doing. Ahhhh.

 

Here's a few more photos from the 5 months session and some from the weekend.

 





[caption id="attachment_862" align="aligncenter" width="533"] HOW OLD DID YOU SAY I AM?![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_866" align="aligncenter" width="534"] Girl on Safari[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_867" align="aligncenter" width="534"] Sweet little Max[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_865" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Sunny puppy Ace[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_868" align="aligncenter" width="560"] The rare mommy/baby photo[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_869" align="aligncenter" width="560"] The even rarer leash-free Ace photo[/caption]