Sunday, July 31, 2011

Happy Birthday GP!

Tonight we all got together at the Pita Stop in Cahaba Heights to celebrate my mom's birthday.  Her birthday was actually yesterday but we weren't able to all get together to celebrate it until tonight.  For those of you who don't know my mom, she is such a great person!  She is very thoughtful, giving, and is always going out of her way for other people.  It was really nice to be together as a family to celebrate such a wonderful woman on her special day. Unfortunately, my camera died and I wasn't able to get a lot of pictures from tonight.  However, I did manage to get a picture of our family (including my mom's sister Carol and her husband Frank) and my mom's birthday cake before the battery died.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!  WE LOVE YOU!



Sunday, July 24, 2011

Playing with my Cuz!

Matt's sister Holly and her little boy Sean came into town this past week to visit with everyone.  Sean is exactly one year and a day older than Peyton, so I am hoping that even though he doesn't live here he and P will be best buds!  The last time they came home Peyton was still pretty young and wasn't really able to interact much with Sean.  Now that she has gotten older and more interactive, she was able to sit on the floor and play with Sean instead of being held and watching from the sidelines.  Matt's parents and Holly and Sean came over this past Thursday afternoon to visit with us, and as they were getting ready to leave they told Sean to give Peyton a kiss and this is what happened...



On Saturday we headed over to Matt's parents' house to visit some more with Holly and Sean.  I kept trying to get a cute picture of Peyton and Sean together but it was nearly impossible to get one where they were both looking at the camera and smiling.




Thursday, July 21, 2011

9 Months




Some months seem to go by faster than others, and this last month was one of them.  I feel like I was just sitting here yesterday writing a post for P turning 8 months old.   Every month that goes by, I get a little bit sad because I know that it means that she is getting closer and closer to turning 1.  It is so bittersweet to think that she is only 3 months away from having her first birthday.  I have to admit though that also with every passing month, I fall more and more in love with her.  I am having so much fun watching her grow and change and reach new milestones.  With each new month she shows us more and more of her sweet (and curious) personality.

Peyton is such a laid-back, happy, and loving baby.  I think that last month I wrote something about how busy she was, well boy I had no idea what was to come as she mastered the skill of crawling.  In the last week and a half our lives have drastically changed.  She no longer will stay in a room for more than a few minutes before she has crawled her way out to find something to get into.  She is completely unfazed by crawling on the hardwoods that make up 95% of our house.  She is also unaware of heights and has no fear about crawling onto the edge of our bed, the chair, or even her changing table.  She is about as curious as she can be, crawling around EVERY inch of our house and checking out anything and EVERYTHING.  Her new favorite discovery is Ellie's food and water bowl.  She loves to sit and splash her hands in Ellie's water bowl and as soon as I tell her no and move her away from it, she crawls right back to it.  I have also caught her picking up pieces of Ellie's food and trying to put them into her mouth.  We are working on understanding the meaning of "no" but so far it's not working...  Peyton continues to love Ellie and my parents' dog Zack, and has no problem letting Ellie lick her hands and feet.  She can easily pull up onto her knees but hasn't really started pulling up to standing yet.  She will however push up onto her feet with her hands still on the ground---I call this her downward dog position.  Her vocabulary consists of "byebye," "momma," "dadda," and "no no no."  She still loves her baby food and we have slowly started giving her some table food but not much.  She LOVES LOVES LOVES water and is getting better at drinking it out of a sippy cup.

We had P's 9 month check-up on Tuesday and to my surprise our pediatrician said that she can have anything to eat but honey.  When I asked him about peanut butter and chocolate he said again "she can have anything but honey."  I was shocked!  He also said that we can start giving her milk.  Of course I second guessed him again because surely I misunderstood him...everything I have read says that you have to wait until they turn one to have cow's milk, but again he said that it was fine to start giving it to her.  We haven't tried to give her any just yet.  Peyton had to get one shot during her check-up.  Why is it that as she gets older the worse I feel that she has to get shots?  Maybe it's because I think that she is more aware of what's going on.  Well anyways, she was such a trooper! She didn't even cry! She was getting ready to start fussing after the nurse had finished giving her the shot and was putting the band aid on her thigh, but as soon as I picked her up she was fine.  I was so proud of my little baby.  Her stats are below:
Weight: 20lbs. 6.5 oz (75th - 90th percentile)
Height:  28.25 inches long (75th - 90th percentile)
Head Circumference: 17.25






Friday, July 15, 2011

Peyton and Ellie

Peyton was playing on the floor earlier today when Ellie decided to come and join in on the all the fun...

Peyton thinking about reaching for Ellie's bone
Still thinking about it...
This looks like the face of trouble doesn't it?!?!
Peyton crawling backwards into Ellie


It's official...she's CRAWLING!!!

For weeks now P has been getting more and more mobile.  It first started with her rolling from one end of the room to the other, then it was scooting backwards on her tummy.  This slowly progressed to getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth.  Over the course of the last two weeks she has mastered crawling backwards but has shown little interest in crawling forwards.  She will usually get up on all fours, take one step forward, and then either sit back down on her bottom or lunge forward for whatever toy she wants, and in the process, collapse onto her tummy....that is until today!!!  This afternoon while she and I were playing on the floor she finally crawled forward and didn't collapse onto her tummy.  She saw a toy that she wanted and she went after it.  I was so excited because after weeks of saying"I'm going to be surprised if she isn't crawling in the next few days" I had come to accept that this child of mine was just going to crawl backwards wherever she wanted to go.  It was such perfect timing that she would decide to show off her new skill today because Matt and I were both here to see it.  I keep saying that I need to baby-proof our house, but now that she is really crawling I guess I need to be doing it sooner than later!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Peek-A-Boo

I had stepped out of the room for one minute and when I came back this is how I found Peyton.  I guess that's what happens when you crawl backwards...


Monday, July 4, 2011

Did someone say "Momma"???

Tonight while I was feeding P her baby food before bed, she said IT!!  You know, that 5 letter word that I have been oh so patiently waiting to hear from my sweet baby.....MOMMA!!!  I am not really even sure where  in the world it came from, but she was sitting in her highchair, I was feeding her, and Matt was sitting in his recliner.  Peyton was in a pretty talkative mood while eating, babbling on, and then all of the sudden she just goes "Momma."  I couldn't believe it!  I thought maybe I was hearing what I wanted to hear, but Matt was sitting right there and he heard it too.  Of course, I couldn't let her stop there.  After she said 'Momma' the first time, I kept saying it back to her so that she would keep repeating it.  Now the true trick is going to be getting her to say it again tomorrow haha!

July 4th

This past weekend we packed up what seemed like the entire house and headed to my parents' lake house for a nice long weekend.  We met my parents up there on Friday night, had a nice dinner, and headed to bed hoping for a good night's sleep.  Boy were we WRONG!!!!  Peyton has been sleeping really good at home but at the lake it was a completely different story.  At one point it seemed like she was waking up and crying every hour until we finally gave in and put her in bed with us at 3 a.m.  I swore that I would never do this but during the middle of the night when you are so sleepy and it seems like nothing else is working it seems like the best thing to do.  As soon as we layed her down in our bed she was content and we were able to get a few hours of good sleep in. 

On Saturday, we set up P's baby pool and spent some time outside (in the shade) playing in it.  She sure does LOVE her baby pool!  The only bad thing is that as she gets more and more mobile, the harder it is becoming to keep her in one spot in that pool.  Before I know it, she has pulled up onto her knees and is looking over the edge of the pool.  She is definitely not afraid!  I am scared about what the future holds for us with this active little.  Once we were all cleaned up from playing outside, we headed to church in Trussville and then dinner.

We decided to celebrate the 4th a day early, so on Sunday Jamie and Will came up after Jamie got home from work.  Then mid-morning, Matt's parents came up, as well as Trey, Becky and the boys.  We had a big lunch of hamburgers and hot dogs followed by way too many choices of desserts.  Although all of the desserts were good, I think the most popular one was my dad's homemade vanilla ice cream....YUMMY!   After we were all stuffed from lunch, we lathered up on sunscreen and headed outside.  Everyone seemed to enjoy their time out in the sun except for Andy who came outside for a just a little bit and then decided he wanted to play in side with GP (my mom).  Jamie and Will bought some fireworks, so Trey decided he and his family would stay to watch them.   At first the boys seemed hesitant about the sparklers, but before too long they decided to join in on the fun.  Matt and Will handled the fireworks show while the rest of us, except for Peyton who was sound asleep inside) watched from the deck.  I was worried that the noise from the fireworks might wake P up but she didn't even seem to notice.  Poor Ellie, on the other hand, knew before we even got started what was coming and she wanted nothing to do with being outside.  In fact, when I let her in the house, she went straight upstairs to get as far away from the noise as possible.  After the fireworks show we all headed back inside for some more of my dad's homemade ice cream.  Did I mention that he missed the bottom step when he was going down the stairs from the deck and fell and scraped up his knee.  It's pretty sad that both of his daughters are in the medical field and he ended up with a homemade bandage of saran wrap and tape that he made himself.  I don't really think that the picture shows it justice!
Sweet P hanging out in the shade
Peyton with her Aunt Jamie
Andy and Will with the flags GP gave them
Andy and his WILD hair
Will having fun with the sparklers
Andy..not so happy about watching the fireworks
The fireworks
More fireworks
Becky and Will watching the show from inside
How I found Ellie after the fireworks were over
Will giving Ellie a "hug"
My dad's homemade bandage

It was a really great weekend spent with family!  I just wish that we could have stayed longer!!