Aria Grace: Six Months

Six months.  Your half-birthday is here and I can hardly believe it!  So many smiles, cuddles, and precious moments since that great day in December.  God is so good!

Dedication at church

Weight: 18 lbs, 8 oz
Height: 27 inches
Wearing size 9-12 month clothes.

(For curiosity sake, I looked back at Lyle's stats.  At his six month check-up, he was 19 pounds and 27 inches.  So pretty close!  Although you plot higher on the growth charts since you are a girl!)
 

Visiting Grandma.  Sorry honey, this is not the most flattering picture of you! LOL

Sleep-  Still doing great.  We moved you into your room at the beginning of the month, and you transitioned without a problem!  Typically you take a couple short naps in the morning, and a little bit of a longer one in the afternoon.  Sometimes you'll need a short one when you get home from daycare at 5, otherwise bedtime is 7:30-8ish.  Up twice a night to eat usually- I keep thinking I should cut these out, but honestly it seems more trouble than it's worth.  When you are up at night you take about 10 minutes to eat, then go right back down without any rocking or fussing.  So to go back in several times to give you a pacifier or fight through the crying isn't worth it at this point. 
 

The sound that accompanies this pictures is a high-pitches "whooo!"



Eating-  Still all Mama's milk!  Work has been a little crazy lately, making me miss a few pumping sessions, so we've had to pull some milk from the freezer.  Glad I spent the time early on, getting stocked up.  By this point I think we were supplementing Lyle with formula, so I'm pretty proud we made it to the six month mark on just breastmilk!!

 

Aria's version of a sleep mask.  Gone are the days you leave your bows in place!

Giggles with brother!

Likes-  Little girl, you are wanting to get up and go!  You can turn yourself in circles on the floor on your tummy, and are scooting backwards.  Sometimes you will pull your knees under you, but get so mad when you can't get anywhere.  I have a feeling you will be working hard on that this next month, so you can get your hands on Lyle's toys!  We got a new johnny jumper for the doorway, and you go to town!  It is so much fun to watch.  The other day I put on music while I was cooking in the kitchen, and you were jumping and dancing to the music with me! So many smiles!  We are back on the pacifier love, although you don't need it, it just helps when you are fussy. 

Paula sent this to me from daycare, and said you were happy singing!

Lunch with family!

Fun Firsts- We have two teeth, and they make your grin the cutest thing in the entire world!  You are almost sitting by yourself, just a bit wobbly at times.  We sat in the kiddie pool in the backyard for a few minutes one night, and you were having a ball splashing.  You also went on your first zoo outing.  Even though it was pretty sticky and hot, you didn't fuss at all, just laid in your stroller the whole time.

Lyle Update: Your brother gets the best giggles out of you.  It might be my favorite sound in the whole world.  You've got some grabby hands, and sometimes you get ahold of your brother's toys.  We are working with him on trading and giving you something different instead of just taking his toy back.  Honestly you couldn't care less at this point, just give you something you can chew on.  But I'm sure you will care soon enough. :)



We are looking forward to some fun this next month.  Father's day is next weekend, and we will be going up to Kansas City for July 4th weekend.  And hopefully we will be able to fit in some rides in the combine for harvest!  I can't wait to dig out Lyle's pearl snap cut off shirts for you! :)  We love you sweet girl!

Memorial Day Weekend

So this poor post has been sitting, almost finished, since Monday.  And now it's Friday and time to start another weekend.  Ooops!  That's how my whole week has been, sigh.  Well here is LAST weekend's recap, so we can get on to THIS weekend! :)

I know I've said this before, but three-day weekends are my love language.  It just spreads out the timeline of resting/being productive/having fun out.  It makes you feel like you have time to do all!

We started Saturday morning out with a trip to the coffee shop and to get donuts! 

I got some sewing projects done while the kids napped.

We spent lots of time in our pajamas, watching Castle, and trying on boots....

Haircuts for the boys... NOT Lyle's favorite thing.

Selfies on our extra morning off!

Strawberry picking at Sweet Berries and Brambles, our local strawberry farm.

Don't let him fool you, I picked all of those in ankle deep mud with Aria strapped to me!  But he had fun playing! 

So so much mud!

Fresh strawberries on our waffles for lunch. Oh my goodness...soooooo good! 

And painted piggies!!! Lesson learned, to only attempt this when she is asleep!  HA!

Such a nice weekend with my family! 

Aria's Dedication

Look at those baby blues!

We had the most special Mother's Day on Sunday.  Aria Grace was dedicated in church.

My parents came down (and brought my nephew Weston who they had snagged for a few days), my sister Carrie and her family were there, Zach's parents, and we were greeted with a great surprise when Kodi and Shawn walked into the foyer!  It was so sweet that everyone would take the time to come celebrate with us!

It was so incredible to stand up on stage, having our pastor bless and pray for Aria, while looking out and seeing our church family and personal family supporting us.  How wonderful to know she will grow up with Christian influences everywhere in her life and that they are supporting us as parents too.

So fun to see Weston!

We love Uncle Shawn!

We all gathered at our house for lunch after church.  A wonderful gathering of (most) of my favorite moms!!!  A special shout-out to my sister Kristen, who has been super-mom after sweet Summer had surgery last week.  And to the expecting mama's in our family...Kodi and Stephanie!!!  You don't even know how excited I am for you!!! Hooray for babies!!! :)

And an extra added fun to our weekend, Jeff came Saturday to hang out with us!  We had supper, enjoyed a fire on the patio, and played!

Aria Grace: Five Months

Five months old.  (A week ago, sorry, life has been ca-ra-zy!!)  You are still the sweetest and happiest little girl.  Here is your latest and greatest!

Playing in the morning while Mom gets ready.  Lyle loves to lay with you under your play gym.

Lyle picked out your socks and bow on this day! :)

Weight: No doctor apt. this month, so no new stats here! But your thighs keep getting chunkier and your cheeks even more pinchable!
Wearing size 6-9 month clothes.

Enjoying the fresh air

Sleep-  You really are a pretty good sleeper.  One of the best things, is that if you are sleepy I can lay you down in your bed, and you go to sleep by yourself!  It is amazing.  You still get up twice a night to eat, but I am hoping to cut one of those out pretty soon.

Lyle's Birthday

Eating-  You are still completely on breastmilk.  I have continued to cut out dairy and caffeine and it keeps you pretty happy.  We had a babysitter one night for a couple hours and she fed you formula instead of my milk in a bottle and your tummy was not a happy camper.  I pump milk for you while I am at work, and one extra time after you eat in the morning, and most days it's juuuust enough.

Likes-  You are such a happy baby right now.  You love talking to people and will carry on the best conversations.  You have found some great strength in your legs and love to jump, jump, jump.  We have started to put you in a bouncy seat where you sit up, and you are loving it.  You are getting much better at holding onto toys and are putting everything in your mouth.  Lyle cracks you up.  You love it when he comes and sits next to you, or helps you play with your toys.  You are back to liking your pacifier, mostly in the evenings when you are tired.

You stick your tongue out like this ALL the time right now!

Probably my favorite picture of you!

Fun Firsts- You started daycare this last month and you have been doing great!  It was a little rough on Mommy, but you rocked it.  You adjusted quickly and have done really well taking bottles and naps.  You got your first tooth last week, and the next one is about to poke through!  You also have found your feet and love to play with them when you are lying on your back.

Snuggles while watching cartoons.  Apparently you are not impressed with Lyle's choice.

Lyle Update: So much love.

Playing with Uncle Jeff!

These months are going so incredibly fast!  It sounds so old to tell people that you are five months!  Looking forward to the next few months of summer fun!

Life Lately

Life has been full lately.  Full of meetings, work, beautiful weather, playing, and even some kid free time!

This past week we started Tuesday with a visit to the doctor for Lyle's three year old visit.  He did awesome, and always entertains the doctors and nurses with his silliness.

We took a seek-and-find book to look at while we waited.

His stats:

33.8 lbs (72nd percentile)

40.5 inches (97th percentile)

Who knew he was tall for his age?  I totally thought he was a shorty!  All of his friends I compare him too must be older!

Playing with new birthday toys

Tuesday afternoon I headed to Wichita to attend the Governor's Public Health Conference with co-workers.  The sessions at this conference can be hit-or-miss sometimes, but I thought this year's sessions were great!  I came back to work with a lot of new ideas and topics to dig into a bit more.

Wednesday was a long day, leaving at six in the morning and getting back 12 hours later.  We headed to church that night for the ending night of youth group for the year.

Thursday started just as early, but I decided to take Aria with me for the day.  If you can imagine she made friends wherever we went with her big happy smile.  She did awesome and made the last day of conference fly by.  One of the other nurses from a neighboring county we work with had her 5 month old son there, and he and Aria were having quite the conversation.  He would talk and she would giggle, then tell him something. So cute.  We got home a little early, so I put Aria in the ergo and walked over to the garden center, then to pick up Lyle from daycare and walk home.

Blurry but I still like it!

Friday we had another early morning and went out to the community health fair to help the hospital draw blood.  I only draw blood once a month or so, and the fairs are always good practice for me.  Although I'm never to proud to send someone down to the experts who draw blood everyday if I can't find anything.

Since we had so many extra hours from conference days, I was able to get off at noon on Friday.  Zach and I took advantage and went to Wichita on a date!  It was our first kid-less outing since Aria was born and it was so nice to spend time together!  I picked pedicures and a little shopping, and Zach picked a movie.  Win-Win!  We went to see the new Avenger movie in IMAX and it was so good!  Since it was opening day we got there about an hour early, and there was already a crazy long line!  We ended the night by picking up On The Border to take home, so we could get the kiddos.  Big thanks to Grammy for watching them!!!

Saturday brought beautiful weather, so I took the littles to the park in the morning.  Lyle has grown so much since last year!  He was so excited to show me around, swing, and go up and down all the slides by himself!

And Aria mostly sat in her strolled and chilled, enjoying the fresh air.

Flowers from my boss for Nurses Week!

What a busy fun week it has been!  Zach's grandma is in the hospital, so we have been making trips there in the evening to see her after work.  I know it brightens her day to see Lyle and Aria! Looking forward to another weekend of fun!