6 months...HALF A YEAR!!

My little baby is not so little anymore. Folks, she is already a half of a year old and I can feel my smothering grip tighten on my baby girl! Though her 6 month birthday should be an exciting one, I am pretty sure the six month of her life was her least favorite. She has traveled a LOT, battled two infections (one she is currently fighting after 2 weeks), has another clogged tear duct and had the most brutal 6 month appointment at her doctor. Ugh! Even though our little booger is so sick, she is still a gem and giggles daily, which in turn make her mommy and daddy giggle as well.

Here goes all of the fun details of her appointment:
She weighs 18 pounds (as of yesterday) and is in the 90th percentile for both height and weight and her head is starting to finally catch up in the 85th. She is doing wonderful developmentally and sitting up on her own and grabbing at anything and everything and passing between her hands. She has taken a brief hiatus from rolling due to the fact that she loves to experience the world sitting up! :) We reintroduced solids after taking a break when she wasn't quite ready, but now she is goobling up cereal like crazy!
I tried to introduce peas and she was not impressed, but hopefully will enjoy our new adventure with sweet potatoes tomorrow. We had her eyes checked to make sure that she doesn't have a lazy eye and she passed that test, but came out of the test with battle wounds thanks to the nurse ripping the patches off her forehead and back of her head. The yappy dog in me was begging to come out and tell that woman a thing or two, but I kept calm. Kind of. :) Then she had her two shots, her flu vaccine and they had to swab for strep throat and RSV since she's been sick so long. Silver lining is that the tests came back negative, but poor girl was so upset that she let the whole office know and she left with giant crocodile tears. Broke my heart, so she got a new toy at Target for being so brave. I'm wrapped around her finger, huh?

My moments for her 6 month all centered around her new love for music and dancing.
My funny moment is one the way home from the grocery store, I knew she was due for a nap, but if she falls asleep in the car her nap is shot by the time we get home and she is wide awake. So, I have learned that if I keep her awake in the car then her nap can be saved. I turned on my "Mamma Mia" c.d. and began my attempt to keep those droopy eyes from winning. I guess I didn't realize that as I am singing and flamboyantly dancing to the song that another car had pulled up to the stop light and was enjoying the enertainment. They were actually laughing and staring and there was nowhere I could go to hide because it is the longest light in the history of the world!! I was so embarrased that I stopped my personal mini-musical and Hensley fell asleep.
While she doesn't dance herself, she loves it when her silly mom and dad dance and sing to her. She is fascinated when people clap and has recently learned how to clap herself. It ends up being a bit of a "fist bump", but she is so proud of herself! Today she actually was clapping with me and it made a noise because she is opening her palms. She is really becoming attached to both of us and is starting this new shy thing where she buries herself in your chest and giggles. Between the adorable claps and snuggles, her daddy and I are truly enjoying these moments, even when the last few weeks have been brutal for both parents and baby!

 Adorable outfit- thank you Uncle Bryan and Aunt Katy!

 I need to confess that I use a special trick to help her perform for the camera...our dog. It is obvious in the next picture because he wouldn't move his fat head for my camera!

 She lunges for him and maybe 5% of the time she can get him!

Happy 6 month birthday Hensley Rae!

Happy Halloween!

Hensley had her first Halloween and even though she is full of snot (literally!), she still had a pretty fun day! We carved our pumpkin and I let her play with the goo... until she tried to eat it.

Then, we got dressed for the day in Halloween cuteness and went out to run some errands. Hensley has three fabulous Aunts and many "Aunties" (what we call my best girlfriends), so the shirt is very fitting.

Then, the best part is Mia came over! She spoiled Hensley with kisses and hugs and having the extra set of hands felt FABULOUS for me! I was able to make dinner and dessert and even see some of the trick-or-treaters! Now, if we could only convince Mia to move in forever, then maybe I could get some more sleep!!

 I love this face she has with Mia- it looks like her grown-up face and makes me want to squeeze her!

                                                      Introducing..... OUR LITTLE PEACOCK!!

 Even with the shadow I still love this picture with Hensley and Daddy!

 Bruce got jealous of the family picture and plopped himself down in the shot. Notice there is nothing in the world that could be more exciting than our dog to Hensley Rae.

It was such a fun night for us to celebrate her first Halloween and to dress her up! Thanks Mia for coming over and playing with our little baby peacock and making it an even MORE special night!!

Vacation in Louisiana

Once we got back from Abilene, we had a couple of days to rest before we got back in the car and drove to Louisiana. We did the trip later at night, which was amazing because we only had to stop once, but night driving won't happen again after a close-call with a crazy driver. We made it and it was so good to play with Bee and Grammy. We rested (I was basically in a sleep-coma for the first 2 days!) and Jon played lots of golf with his dad, and Judy and I did some shopping! Jon and I even went out twice that week on dates and it was fabulous getting to hold a conversation with my sweet husband. Hensley always becomes obsessed with her Grammy, but it was fun to watch her bond with her Bee. She was loving her play time with him, and one of my favorite memories was when she was getting sleepy, she pulled his arm close to her and layed her head down on his arm and cuddled. So sweet!! We also drove to a pumpkin patch and Hensley explored all of the pumpkins and got her very first pumpkin to carve.

                                         

                                                                     She loves her Daddy!

She looks so tiny compared to those pumpkins!

Thanks Bee and Grammy for the great week!

Planes, Car Trips and Kojies...Oh My!!

Let's back up the calendar and talk about 3 weeks ago...sorry. :)
Hensley and I were flying to Dallas together and staying with our friends Ryan and Alyssa and then the next day, the girls were all driving to Abilene for Homecoming. I was so nervous about flying with Henz alone, but she was awesome! She nursed as we took off and passed out the whole flight- I was obviously more nervous than her! This is the day Hensley slobbered so much into my phone that my blackberry's life ended that night. We had a great time playing with Lyssa and Ryan that night, but the best part for Hensley was meeting their dog Guinness. He loved to lick her and our anti-social dog has never licked her before so she giggled like CRAZY!

Then, we drove to Abilene and Hensley was fabulous and slept most of the drive- whew! We had tons of play time with the girls- Alyssa, Kasey, Emily, Calli, Kimmy, Brooke, Amanda, and some of the husbands came too! Calli, Kimmy, Brooke and Emily came in late Friday night, so in an effort to give them a warm welcome, Hensley woke up and decided NOT to go back to sleep until she played with our new guests.

 Meeting her sweet baby friend, Clarke. They were precious loving each other!!

We just wish Austin had been awake for the photo!
Hensley FINALLY went back to sleep and then us girls stayed up until 2ish catching up. My old lady self hasn't stayed up that late in so long, but it was worth it to chat and giggle with my girls! Unfortunately, we were going to Kojie breakfast the next morning and had to wake up at 5 a.m. boo! Hensley had a blast at breakfast and loved being passed and played with by so many girls.

My favorite picture! She loved to do the Kojie-famous pop!!
After breakfast, we did the parade, toured all the ridiculously cool new additions to ACU, and then went back to have some down time at the house. She played with her other friend Austin, and much to his dismay, wanted to invade his personal "bubble"!

 The next day we were enjoying our time so much that I lost track of time and we didn't start driving back to Dallas until later that afternoon...so I missed our flight. After rushing through ticketing, they told me that I could make the next flight if I hurried. So, we did everything short of knocking old women out of our way to get through security. BUT my sling was "suspicious" and they had to pat me down (in ways so innapropriate that I blushed!) and go through all of my things by hand. After quite the interrogation, they decided I was not a terrorist, but a stressed out mommy missing her next flight. And we did miss it. I checked with the NEXT flight and they were completely booked and couldn't guarantee that we could get on. This was the moment I lost every ounce of restraint. I cried with the ticketing man (who wasn't impressed), then I cried in the middle of the airport when Hensley pooped her outfit and I had to find the nearest restroom, then I cried again as I had to call Jon from a payphone. Yup. I lost it, and the dirty, germy payphone was the straw that broke the camel's back. Long story short (even though it's pretty long already), we got onto that flight and had a nice, cozy seat in between a large man and a man not so jazzed about children. Ugh. But Hensley slept and was super pleasant. ONE of us held it together, it just happened to be the infant. :)

Dad's Lesson Learned #3

Let's face it. Mom is really the only one keeping her alive.

So with Hensley traveling all over the place, ferberizing, teething, and fighting off her first cold, Lish's sleeping was a mess, so I promised her a morning off. We woke up around seven-thirty, and played for a while, but she's figured out I only know about three games. I figured it would be a good time to go out, so we went to baby paradise...Home Depot...in her pajamas...without a bow...sans diaper bag...and covered in what I thought was a blanket, but turned out to be her dirty crib sheet with poo on it.

Lesson learned...when Daddy is responsible for Hensley, she looks homeless. 

Apologies...

My life now consists of humidifiers, boogie wipes and sucking my poor kid's nose with an aspirator... Hensley has her first little cold! Boo. We got back from the last bit of our traveling and it hit like a ton of bricks, so this is my apology for being so tardy in my MANY blogs that I need to post from the last few weeks. Sorry, but with a face like this, she gets every little ounce of my attention!

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things...

I realize as a Mom, that I want to gobble up my child on a daily basis. She is perfect and her Daddy and I shower her with kisses often, so we wanted to share some of those things that make us know that God made her perfect and scrumptious just for us.

Her leg rolls. She has had those rolls since the day she was born and though they are time-consuming to clean at bath time, they tell me she is HEALTHY! :)

Her toes make me giggle- they are so unique and chubby!

Her eyes are absolutely gorgeous! She smiles with her whole face, but my favorite is when she smiles with her eyes and even wrinkles her nose to smile too! The blue is both Jon and I, and I remember in my last trimester praying for her to have our eyes- ridiculous I know to pray for an eye color.

Come on. Her little bum is just so sweet. She seemed to know I was taking a picture and stuck it out just for you!

Her hair is such a pretty light brown, and thankfully, her mullet on the back of her head is starting to even out with the top. It sure was business in front and a party in back, along with a bald line circling her head where she rubbed it by shaking her head so much during her sleep! :) Now she looks normal with a perfect little head of hair!

 I do kiss this belly button too many times in one day. It is yummy and she always smiles when we kiss or nibble on her belly!

I tried to take a picture of her hand dimples and was unsuccessful- getting her to slow down for a picture is quite humorous. Those little hands. I don't even know how to explain how much I love to hold her hand.

Her left cheek dimple. I remember the first time I saw she had a dimple and just BAWLED! Another ridiculous prayer when I was pregnant was for her to have my husband's dimples. Woo hoo! She also has my dimples at the top corners of her mouth, so every time she smiles we see each of us.

Well, the obvious one is her smile. She is so easy to make smile and even when I'm exhausted and would love to call time-out on life (and go into hibernation for 3 years!), her smile just reminds me that there is nowhere else I would rather be. Gosh, I love my kid!