Thanksgiving...and first Christmas Tree

Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures of Felicity's first Thanksgiving, but we spent the day with the Cleveland's with over 20 family and friends! Here's Felicity enjoying some of her Thanksgiving-themed baby food. 

The next day we loaded up so Felicity could pick out her very first Christmas tree. 

 All bundled up...

We wanted to put the tree in our den this year so we could enjoy it more, since we are never in our front room. That meant we had to get a tiny tree so it would fit and it worked out perfectly! Here we are with the little guy we chose. He looked a lot smaller on the lot than he did in our house.

All ready for Christmas!

 

8 months

We have arrived at 8 months! Man, time flies...

You'll have to excuse her slightly red nose in the pics. Fe experienced her first cold and had a runny nose for about two weeks. I am to blame, as she caught it from me. Mine turned into a full blown sinus infection, so we were cooped up in the house for a bit, but now (fingers crossed) we are all better. So, here's what's going on in our world right now:

• She says "mama" and "dada" all the time. Since she learned "dada", that seems to be her new favorite and it is a bit of a rarity to hear "mama" come out of her mouth anymore. That's okay with me though - especially since she wakes up every morning, standing in her bed, screaming "Dada, Dada, Dada, Dada..." and then I can say, "Justin, she's calling for you!"
• I think we're going to need to put her in some sort of gymnastics soon. Seriously, pulling up on things and walking holding on to the furniture is pretty much all she's into these days. She's a bundle of energy and completely fearless.
• She's started feeding herself a bit now. I'm still nursing and feeding her fruits and veggies baby food, but she now regularly eats puffs. I've also given her bits of cheese, bananas and grapes on occasion too. I probably need to be giving her more finger foods and working on the sippy cup too. Oh, and she doesn't like meats at all - at least not the nasty kind in the jar. I must say, I don't blame her - they smell revolting. I'm going to have to figure out some way to incorporate some meat or protein into her diet.
• She loves to wave. Not always when you ask her to, but she often waves back when you wave to her...or whenever she gets the urge. Her wave is so precious and dainty. Her arm is way above her head and she sort of twists her wrist so it looks like she waving at her royal subjects. It cracks me up. Let's hope she doesn't develop a diva attitude to go with that wave.
• One thing I never thought about before I had a baby, was what to do with them while you go to the bathroom. That might sound really weird, but you have to keep your eye on them at all times, you know? So anyway, I only bring this up because for some reason, Felicity thinks it is hilarious when anyone goes to the bathroom. I usually put her in her highchair or playpen, but where we can still see each other...and she really gets the giggles when you go. It's pretty funny actually. TMI? Oh well, I've lost a lot of boundaries in becoming a mom.
• She loves to dance to music. I guess most babies like music and Felicity definitely falls into that category. Her "dancing" is usally either banging her hands up and down or bending her knees over and over if she is standing.
• She's still in size 3 diapers and size 12 months clothes
• Sometimes I think she is starting to learn what the word "no" means. If she's getting into something and I tell her "no", she will usually stop, turn around and look at me and then continue to get into whatever she was into...I'm guessing it probably won't be much different when she actually does understand what it means. 

The monthly pictures posted above were a minor miracle. The wiggle worm absolutely refused to sit still. I have dozens of shots that look like this:

Also, for some reason, I feel obligated to say that -- I am solely posting these bullet points about what Felicity is doing right now for my benefit. I'm probably not (I haven't fully decided) going to do a separate scrapbook, so this is really my only record of her baby years. I fully expect noone else (except maybe the grandparents) to be interested in these monthly updates of what Felicity is doing. Just incase it ever appeared otherwise (and I'm hoping it never did), I wanted to clarify. Ok, that's all - thank you. :-)

First Halloween

Felicity celebrated her first Halloween as an elephant!

For the most part, she seemed pretty comfy in her costume, even the hat. She wore it for two days straight...although, I think the ears started to get to her after awhile.

On Saturday night, two moms in our playgroup, Angela and Mary Katherine, were so sweet to put together a Halloween cookout for all the families in our playgroup. It was so fun to see all the kiddies in costume and finally meet the daddies!

Felicity and a few of her friends hanging out at the party...

(Shark - Wesley, Dinosaur - Bentley, Elephant - Felicity, Pebbles - Emery)

Babies and Daddies

Babies and Mommies

You can't really tell from the pictures, but Felicity, Emery (Pebbles) and Sloan, who couldn't make it, are the only girls! They have lots of little boyfriends. :-)

And we're up

On Sunday, the little lady surprised us by pulling this move all by herself -

Taking care of her is now a whole different ball game, but it's so much fun watching her explore. She is trying to pull up on everything!!

Fall

Fall is here! I'm pretending it is at least. I light all my pumpkin candles, surround myself with autumn decor and try to ignore the 90 degree weather.  Here's a few pics of Fe on our front porch enjoying her first fall...

 Here comes brother Olive.

Party on, Wayne

As I mentioned, I finally got my hair cut. I still feel like I don't have a great pic of it, but here's a few recent shots:

Overall, I really like it. The bangs were a total surprise. It takes a bit more work, but I think its a nice change and something I don't mind for the cooler weather. I think the bangs might cause major frustration during the hot, humid summer, but who knows if I'll even have them by then. Anyway, there is one downside to this hair cut...and my sweet husband definitely called it out.

Now, let me preface this by saying that Justin does really like my haircut; however, the other night when it was not fixed and had just air dried into a total frizz mess, he looked me and said, "You look sort of like Dana Carvey."

"Who's she?" I asked. Well, as it turns out - she is actually a he...this attractive fellow:

Yes, that is Garth from Wayne's World.

I have to say, at the time he made that comment, I absolutely agreed with him. So, in the words of Garth, "Party on, Wayne."

I'm getting smarter

...well, not sure if that's entirely true, but I was pretty proud of myself for thinking of this:

I'm sure millions of other moms are doing this and have been doing this for years, but when I figured it out, I felt a little smarter. Since Felicity is on the go now, I'm finding it more and more difficult when I have to move from room to room or work on a project for a while. The other day I was in her room putting her laundry away and was having to pause every 2 seconds to prevent her from getting into something. So...I plopped her in the laundry basket with some toys and voila! One content little chick-a-dee!! (At least for a few minutes while I was able to finish what I was doing). Technically, I guess it is just a smaller, more uncomfortable version of the playpen, but it's a quicker fix and much easier to move from room to room. Anyway, as I said, I suspect this is old news to everyone, but just wanted to pass along!