A Short Relocation

Since Chris was forced to go out of town on business for an extended period of time, I was able to go to North Carolina for 3 whole weeks! It was awesome for so many reasons - kept me from being a single mother, was able to hang with the family, enjoyed real fall weather, attended my high school reunion, hung out with some old friends, just to name a few...Millie was a trooper. She did a great job on the airplane both ways and even got back on her sleeping schedule away from home. As always, I had a lot of great food, great times, and had a lot of fun. Makes me want to move closer to all the peeps...

Millie loves Aunt Stephie(She was so sick that night. Look at those red eyes!)

Millie loved climbing on Papa and having him give her kisses. He even taught her to wave.

We celebrated Papa's birthday while we were there.

Kylee and Papa at his birthday dinner

Kylee is SUCH a great cousin to Millie! They really love each other. Kylee was such a great help. She did whatever I asked (or before I asked) - diaper changing, feeding, clothing, holding. What a great niece!

Nana gave Millie a bath in the kitchen sink; it's tradition.

Millie loves to scrunch her nose and squint her eyes when she smiles.

Sometimes I was forced to let her crawl on the bathroom floor while I showered. Ick.

She found her toe during a bath. So cute.

She loved the dogs again this trip. She would yell to go see them. She tried so hard to get out of our arms, so she could go be with them. She touched their noses and petted them. She was not afraid at all!

She would even watch them when she was inside.

Random Cuteness

She and Gavin had a love/hate relationship. Gavin loved to give her kisses and pat her head, but sometimes he gave a little too much love. It was precious.

Collin is such a great cousin, too. He helped out so much and was so sweet to Millie.

We had to stop by Harrahs for some refreshing CocaColas - in honor of Chris. He claims the best Coke he's ever had came from this soda fountain.

She loves taking a bath. She especially loves trying to drink the water and eat the bubbles.

These three were all laying on their tummies on the floor, and we had to snap a pic.

Back in the Days of Shania Twain...

While I was in NC, I was able to attend my 10-year high school reunion. Has it really been that long? Apparently, it has. Anyway, I had a great time reconnecting with some old friends. It turns out we are just as silly now as we were then - just (a little) more mature, older, and have more kids. As always, I should have taken more pictures, but I did get a few; and, I'm including some from high school as a comparison. Props to the Class of 1999 Smoky Mountain Mustangs! Woot!

I'm 8 Months Old!

Millie is growing so fast. She has become quite adept at movement in the last month. We were in NC for three weeks and she mastered stair-climbing - up to 15 in one stretch. It took her about 15 minutes, but she did it without falling back at all. All of my siblings and my parents have staircases at their houses, so it is nice to be back in the land of ranch-style homes, where I don't have to worry as much about her falling down stairs. She has also started waving, which is very cute. Her Papa taught her how, and she basically holds up her arm and moves her wrist in circles - counter-clockwise. She even waved bye-bye to her Daddy when he tried to hold her after being away for 3 weeks. It was a sad experience; she cried for about 5 minutes and wouldn't let him hold her.

Her top front teeth broke through last week, which was a relief, because the poor girl had some major mouth pain. She has also recently learned to shake her head and thinks it's pretty cool, so she does it a lot. Luckily, she learned how to sit back down after pulling herself up a few weeks ago, so bed time is a much happier time! She is back to going to bed willingly and doesn't cry anymore. She rarely makes a peep after she goes to bed. I'm sure she will have future sleeping issues, but for now, all is well!

She loves all the food she has tried, with the exception of green beans. She will eat them, but she is not a huge fan. She LOVES peas. She is really starting to develop a personality and is becoming so interactive. What a cutie! She seems to be thinning out and getting taller. What do you think?

I'm Seven Months Old!

Millie is changing so fast and getting so big. She can now crawl and is pretty fast at it. She has also learned how to pull herself up to a standing position and how to sit back up after changing positions. We have discovered her standing up in her crib crying after not knowing how to get back down from standing up. I'm guessing she will be walking in the next month or two. How frustrating it must be to be learning so many new things but not knowing how to fully use them.

She says "mamama" and "dadada" when each of us is around, and we think she understands who is who. She used to be a great sleeper; we could lay her down in her crib for a nap or bedtime and she would roll over and fall asleep without a fuss. Now she yells when we start walking down the hall toward her room. She cries before every nap and bedtime, even though it is usually only for a minute or so. How did she go from being a good sleeper to a bad one? She still sleeps well at night though - about 10-11 hours straight.

She is also becoming more needy. She used to just play on her own for an hour or two without caring if anyone was around. Now she looks around a lot to make sure someone is in the room, if she is willing to play on her own at all. I hope it is just a phase, because it becomes taxing sometimes to not be able to do anything other than hold her all day (although I do like holding her)! She loves sucking on/playing with tags on toys/blankets/soft books. They are more fun than the toy itself sometimes.

She is now eating cereals. She likes rice cereal, oatmeal, and whole wheat cereal. She will start a veggie at the end of this week. She caught on quickly and loves to sit in her high chair and eat. As soon as we put her in her high chair, she starts banging her hands on it and grunting. Luckily, she doesn't try to put her hands on the spoon anymore when we put it in her mouth, and she likes when we play airplane with the spoon.

Here are some pics I took yesterday. She is really starting to change and look older.


I think she looks like my baby pictures in this one, except for the hair color (I am in the white/red dress). What do you think?


Pics from the last month:

I Must be Exuding Sweetness...

...because the mosquitoes love me. I was at the stake youth activity last Saturday and got over 6o bites on my legs alone. I wasn't thinking ahead when I put scented lotion on them that morning. Luckily, they are gone now.

A Mommy Brain Moment?

Since I became a mother 6 months ago, I have been trying hard to keep from losing things - leaving toys at people's homes, leaving blankets at church, etc. I now have at least 10 more things to keep on my person than in my pre-mother life. And, I have been doing a pretty good job until this morning. And, what's ironic is that I wasn't even rushing around or stressed out. Here goes...

Today was Millie's first day at her new sitter's house. (Her old sitter was great, but she is moving, so Millie is going to be watched by another great sister in the ward from now on.) So, last night I made sure everything was ready for today - the diapers and wipes were in the car, the diaper bag was ready to go, and the pack n play was in the front seat. We were ready to leave early this morning, so at 9:35 (I start work at 10), I loaded Millie into the car. I wanted to help the sitter set the pack n play up and answer any questions she had before I headed back home to start my workday. (For those of you who don't know, I work from home 3 days a week.)

However, just as I pulled onto the Loop frontage road from Midkiff (about a half mile from home, for those of you who aren't familiar), I hear a "badumpadump" sound. I checked my rear view mirror to see the black cooler bag containing two of Millie's bottles full of breastmilk and 2 nipples bouncing on the road. I had obviously left it on the roof of the car when I strapped her in. I thought, "oh dang, I better hurry back around and get that out of the street." Those of you who don't live here might not appreciate how annoying it is to turn around. You have to circle the block because of all the one-way streets. So, I circled the block only to discover the cooler bag was further down the street, so I had to circle back around again.

By this point (a matter of 2 or so minutes), the cooler bag is nowhere to be found. I stopped the car (with Millie in the backseat), locked it, and walked up and down the street. (Don't call CPS; it was only a minute thirty or so.) I was getting mad at myself at this point. I don't know why it was bugging me so much, but it was. So, I finally relented to going home and getting more milk out of the freezer and headed to the sitter's house. I realized along the way that I only own 3 nipple attachments because the only time Millie takes a bottle is at the babysitter's house, and the only one that was not in the black cooler bag was at the old sitter's house from last week. So, I called a friend who lives across the street from the new sitter to ask her if we could borrow one of her's, and luckily she said yes. I finally got there at 10:00 (when I am supposed to start work), so there was no extra time to chat.

I was so flustered at this point that I went back down the street looking for it, and of course did not find it. I called another friend, who sent her strapping boys to look for it, and they didn't find it. I called McDonalds and the two gas stations on that street to see if anyone had turned it in. They hadn't. I even called the DOT, who had a guy going to pick litter up out there, and he walked up and down the street 3 times and did not find it. (As a side note, he said that if the item has any value at all, someone usually takes it. A cooler bag? In a matter of minutes? What are the odds? Did it get caught underneath someone's car and drug away?) So, I had to accept that the cooler bag, along with the 2 bottles of milk and nipples were never coming home. Why does this bother me? I don't know. Is it some weird attachment to a stranger getting my milk? Possibly. Is it the $20 I forked out to get more bottles and nipples? Don't think so. Either way, my first major mommy brain moment wasn't THAT bad, luckily.

Do you guys have any good stories? (Laura, I'm counting on you to produce a great one.)

This was a really long post. Congratulations if you made it this far.

I'm 6 Months Old!

Millie turned 6 months old a couple of weeks ago. She is 18 lbs 7 oz (85%) and 27.5 in long (90%). She is becoming a lot more mobile and despite a couple of weeks of sickness and general fussiness, she is a happy camper. She is now sitting on her own, has 2 bottom teeth, rolls all over the place, rocks back and forth on her hands and knees, says "bababa" and "mamamama", is starting to army crawl, loves her Exersaucer, and is sleeping 10 hours at night. She has also begun loving her bath, so we look forward to a lot of fun bath times in the future.

My New Teeth

Loving My Exersaucer

A Common Face (Tongue in mouth and drool on chin)

Hanging out with the Binky

Trying to Crawl

Looking Cute

Looking Cute Again

Being Happy