Big (as in grown up) Girl

Here are some pics from our day with our big girl, as well as some I forgot from this weekend…

Doty, Caroline, and HG at our FTM Christmas party last weekend. It looks like HG is whopping poor Caroline, but I swear she was behaving…. This is Helen Grace’s favorite position these days, and I think she is trying to tell me that she’s tired of all these fancy holiday outfits. ”No more bloomers and tights, Mama!” Sitting up like a big girl at FTM this morning. And no head trauma this time- whew! Playing with her friend Lilly…I wonder what they say to each other in their baby language. We have finally outgrown the sling that fits inside her baby bath tub, so we tried a bath in the baby tub today. She did well, even when the water went right over her head rather than across the top (when she was laying in the sling). We are fighting over the washcloth these days though- she doesn’t want to let it go. I will have to think ahead next time, and get one just for her. She is getting to be such a big girl. Although she was full of energy and loved the ExerSaucer at FTM, she wanted nothing to do with her Jumperoo, so we spent most of the day going back and forth between playing on the floor and sitting up on the couch. Oh yeah, and sleeping (HG, that is). Happy birthday, CB, Jeanne, and Peggy! Tonight we had our Rolling Hills Drive traditional coconut cake and ice cream for all December birthdays at the Browns. Since I don’t like coconut cake, Chef Ted through together Pineapple Upside-down Cake AND his famous Banana Pudding. MAN! I felt like it was MY birthday! Peggy needs some baby love. Geggy, HG, and Grandma Meet our sweet little billy goat- she will try to eat anything. Speaking of eating, one of my mommy friends introduced me to Mum-Mums, a snack for babies made out of rice rusk (so far we can only find them at Wal-Mart). Helen Grace loves to hold one and glom it until it dissolves. We are entering a whole new world of foods!That's my girl!! Hang on tight to Daddy's credit card! 

We have a slow weekend coming up, thank goodness. We are having a family dinner at the Hollywood on Saturday to celebrate all of our December birthdays, including Bubba’s, so that ought to be a great night. Also, I’d like to get our tree decorated (the top half), hang stockings and our wreath on the front door, and maybe attempt to meet Santa.

Another new development—we are planning our first trip without baby girl (two nights and a plane ride away). I hate to even write that sentence because it makes it more and more real and my heart starts to pound, but I do think it will be nice to have some grown-up time with John and our friends. We are going to Dallas in January to see the Rebs play in the Cotton Bowl in the Cowboys’ stadium. We’ll finally get to see an Ole Miss game this year- we just have to go a long way to see them! We are staying in the Opryland Texan. The Nashville Opryland has always been a getaway for us over the years, so we’re looking forward to exploring this one in Dallas as well. And the spa is a dream! I am psyching myself up for this time away from Helen Grace. I can do it; I can do it!

This Is Why I Wake Up Happy

I am so blessed to be able to wake up to this smiling, beautiful face each morning- even if it is at 4 a.m. (which is a big deal if you know me!). I took this video this morning when I went to get Helen Grace out of bed. It's a little dark in her room, but you can still see that contagious smile spread across her face!

Also, I've been trying to find a program to make this video turn to the side so you don't have to break your neck to view it, but no luck so far. It's too cute not to share as is- if you don't mind turning your head to the side. In the video, we had found a new noise that made HG cackle, and John was kind enough to crop me out of the frame since I had some major bed head. We have such a happy baby girl. We love you to the moon and BACK, sweet pea!

Waving

We have realized over the last few days that our baby is trying to wave to us! After seeing her get better and better with the coordination of her fingers, the video from a week ago with her rubbing the fabric on the booth and staring at her wiggling fingers now looks like she was just trying to get her fingers going in the right direction. Yesterday when we walked in the door at our FTM party, Helen Grace was moving her fingers like that, and one of the moms mentioned that maybe she was waving rather than just checking out her fingers. Then today when I picked her up from Ms. Jeanne’s, she has made HUGE progress, and it’s obvious that she’s really waving- how fun! Of course, most of the time she’s waving at herself and she won’t do it in response to us yet, but she’s so stinkin’ cute. Here’s some video of her newest trick.

All I Want for Christmas

One of the most important things on my Christmas list? Other than unlimited cuddle time with John and my baby girl? A “blook”…I commissioned my dad to find a way to print my blogs and put them into a book format so that one day HG can read through them. As many of you know, I am scared to death that all the websites I now use on a daily basis (Blogspot, Shutterfly, etc.) will no longer exist when Helen Grace is grown. (For my paranoid friends, Shutterfly does guarantee that they will store your pictures forever; Snapfish only guarantees that they will hold on to them if you spend $1 a year I believe.) With Emily’s steering him in the right direction, my dad found the blog below which describes how this blogger turned her blog into a “blook.” He has been pleased and impressed with how easy the process has been. Just wanted to pass all of this along to my blog friends in case you might want to let Santa know you’d like one for Christmas too. :)

http://lotsofscotts.blogspot.com/2009/09/look-its-blook.html

Weekend Warrior

We survived our jam-packed weekend and had a great time with wonderful friends and family. We were even able to squeeze in a Christmas card photo shoot this afternoon, and I believe we might have found a winner (and got at least the bottom half of our tree decorated). During our shoot, we realized that Helen Grace is able to sit up on her own for a few seconds at a time, and we had only one minor tumble (scared me to death though- please promise me that you won’t let me be one of those moms that run out on the field when my baby trips- geez!). Very cool to see her excitement over her new talent! We are gearing up for Uncle CB’s and Grandma Jeanne’s birthdays this week…and maybe we’ll finally get the top half of our tree decorated!

My Little “Rein-dear”Lunch with some mommies and baby friends after our last Kindermusik of the semester. She’s still getting used to sitting in a high chair- the big challenge is keeping her entertained. Meeting Braden Grace, baby Allison was napping So fun to visit with Ang who was in town from Little Rock Happy Birthday, Remle! And Daily too! I love the way Remle says “Baby He-len.”Did you know that Mr. Frank is a baby hog?  At least he kept Helen Grace busy…paper plates, plastic cups… “Give me that baby!!!” ~Big Red Happy 3rd Birthday, Courtlyn! Aunt RaychThe life of the partyWorn slap out after a full SaturdayFirst Time Moms Christmas Party- how fun to get to see the moms’ other halves and watch the babies interact with their daddies!On couch:  Eryn, Tyler, Graham, Drew, Camille, Caroline, Emsley, Helen Grace; Standing:  Callum, Lilly

I Have a Tooth!!

Breaking news…Helen Grace has a tooth coming in!

John was playing around with her tonight and found a little tooth breaking through. I can’t believe it just popped up like that, and it already feels kind of jagged. You can barely see the little white line in the pic below. This is the best pic I could get as she really doesn’t like her mouth to be pried open- I am sure I wouldn’t like it either! She has been drooling and putting anything and everything in her mouth for the last few months (really since four months old or so), but she hasn’t been any more fussy than normal recently. The only thing I can even think of is that as she has been going to sleep in the last three or four weeks, she will occasionally wake up with a short but loud cry. I can quickly soothe her though and she goes right back down. That’s the only thing I can think of that might be attributable to teething. After seeing Helen Grace’s gummy smile for all six months of her life, it will be so weird to see an itty bitty tooth in there!

Monkeying Around

Ok, before you get started reading this post, you need to settle in and get comfortable. We had a busy day, and looking back on my massive amount of pictures, Mama has a photo addiction! Read on for more about our fun day.

This getting dressed thing is becoming more and more difficult by the day. HG is quite the wiggleworm and does not like to stay still! Our sweet little monkeyApparently, a sleepy monkey! Helen Grace was rolling up a storm at FTM this morning…I haven’t seen her roll this much ever! She still gets one arm stuck under her though, but her legs are flipping over well. She had so much fun rolling back and forth, flirting with her friend, Callum. He was good motivation- this boy-girl stuff starts way too early! ;)Here is a video of her rolling. Please excuse her crazy mama for the unfortunate narration.

Bubba fixed us lunch today, and boy, did she go all out! All of my favorites (chicken spaghetti, cream corn, deviled eggs, rolls, oreo dessert) and even served us on fancy china! Bubba was all decked out in her festive holiday attire, and Helen Grace loved her light up Christmas lights necklace. I’m relieved she didn’t pull it right off Bubba’s neck! The food was delicious, and the company was even better! Our next stop today was Oxford to work on some Delta Gamma transitioning with the new officers. HG just ate up all the attention and did pretty well through my meetings…we tried a variety of sleeping, eating, playing on the floor, and sitting in my lap to keep her entertained. Of course, we had to take a pic in ‘the chair’ before we headed home. John was so sweet to put up our new fake tree this weekend, but we haven’t been able to get our hands free long enough to get it decorated yet. I wanted HG to put on the first ornament (Rebel and Mocha are sad they have fallen from glory), and tonight was finally the night. She loved the shiny, glittery ornament- I still can’t all the glitter off of her!We tried squash again tonight, although it’s been a while since we last had it. John and I were dying laughing, watching her face as she tried to get it down! Oh, she was HATING it! Now that Helen Grace is comfortable sitting up in her high chair, we are finally having somewhat normal family dinners. John and I can each use both our hands to eat and are able to have a pretty decent conversation- wow! HG thinks she’s pretty cool because she can sit up on her own and she can kick her feet up on the tray thingie. Such a big girl!

Two other things that I’ve thought about since I put together her six month post…she is really reaching with purpose. You can hand her something, and she reaches for it and hangs on to it. It surprises me every time. The best part is that she will put her arm around your neck or your arm and will pull you into her. She even kind of snuggles into you. Gosh, that makes my heart melt, especially knowing that she now does it intentionally and it’s not a result of a random flail. ;)  Also, I’ve caught her a time or two  in her bed, holding the top and bottom of her bumper pad and hanging on to it. Once, she was even glomming it! Poor baby girl must be starving!

One last tidbit..HG and I ate dinner with my parents earlier this week, and while sitting in my dad’s lap, HG started rubbing her hands against the fabric of the booth and realized the texture made a noise. She would then take her hand away from the fabric, move her fingers around, and look at them like she had never seen them before as she tried to figure out where the noise was coming from. We were laughing like crazy- she was so funny!