Johnson & Johnson: 10/01/2009

Just Too Cute

Let me start this post by saying that there are so many cute pictures of Piper, too many to put all in her 6 month post that I have made many new posts. I stayed up past midnight, I hope I don't regret it tomorrow, but I pretend that there are many readers of this blog (or just obligated family members) so please scroll down and read all the new posts.

Just lounging in the bouncy chair. Most days she is not this calm in this chair. If she drops her toy she will lean over to get it almost flipping out of the chair if it weren't for the safety strap and the balance designed legs we would have had an accident by now. We also put Piper in this chair to keep her bowels moving. The vibration button is great.

You have to click on this picture and zoom in to check out her crazy hair. These curls go all over the place, except where she has bald spots. New growth is coming, but I think the fact that she lays down for the majority of her day is stunting her hair growth. Usually when we pick her up from daycare they are tight little ringlets, I guess she sweats a lot over there or it's really humid there. Other times we have major frizz. In the back it gets so matted and then just sticks straight out in knots. Chris is really good at getting the knots out. We have tried baby oil and this Dove curl product, but neither really work at making the hair curl and not frizz or tangle. If anyone has any suggestions we're open.

Girl pajama party - my mom sent Piper and I matching pj's to wear the weekend Chris had a boys golf weekend.

Oh the tongue - starting solid foods has really brought out her attitude. She makes it very clear now when she's happy or mad, if she likes what you're doing or she doesn't. I know we've been very blessed to have had such an easy, happy baby, but I hope this personality isn't a sign of what's to come.

She also enjoys pursing her lips together and blowing right after a bite of food so food goes spraying in her eyebrows, up her nose, dribbling down her chin and bib, across the tray, and all over mommy. Sometimes more food is sprayed than ingested.

Yum - Socks!

Piper is currently fascinated with her socks and loves to pull them off and stuff them in her mouth. She is just crazy sometimes!

Uck - fuzz in the mouth

What are you looking at?

This look reminds me of my dog Colby when she's snatch a sock. Piper doesn't seem to care at all that we're watching her put a sock in her mouth. Many times she stuffs it so far in her mouth that she gags. We have used it as a distractor when changing her diaper, which was the case when these pics were took. Hope she doesn't hate us later for these naked baby shots.

Western Festival

A few weeks ago we went to the Western Festival in old downtown Lewisville. It was on the last hot day of fall, we were sweating out there, but we had such a great time. Chris dragged us out of the house leaving behind chores, studying, and school work to have some quality family time. His main attraction was the Los Lonely Boys performance, that we missed because we were so hot we couldn't stay outside any longer, but we enjoyed fresh squeezed lemonade, corn dogs, and wearing our sunglasses. Also we found the perfect piece of art for our entryway. Sorry I don't have a picture, but it's a rusted old cross on a glazed frame. It's really cool and just perfect for the space.

Now some people think Piper's sunglasses are dweeby, but I have to argue with them and say that she looks super cute and stylish with pink shades. And I believe she loves wearing them because she never pulls them off or even touches them when they're on.

Moving Around

Piper has started moving around and Chris and I have to be very careful where we put her or things. She can grab stuff of the table and when she sees a toy she wants so can get it.

Here she is on all fours. She rocks back and forth like she's revving up to go, but as soon as she lifts a hand her knees slide out from under her and she ends up on her belly. She's getting a little better at lifting one hand and then lunging before landing on her belly. She does this 3-4 times to get across the floor and retrieve the desired toy. Chris said she did one crawl this weekend, of course it was while I was in the other room, so I'm sure we'll soon be posting about her crawling once we've both witnessed the miracle with our own two eyes.

Sitting up with assistance. The doctor told me this is the tripod. She is working very hard to get to this position on her own. She will lay on her side for a long time trying to time it just right to bring her knees up and push off her elbow to sit up. This girl is working out her core muscles.

Pushing on her arms.

Now she likes to roll over multiple times and back and forth. It's amazing when you lay her down and turn away for just a second and by the time you look back she's two feet from where you laid her.

Napping

Piper is so cute when she naps now. She is always flipping over to her stomach or side. She moves all around the crib while she sleeps. When she wakes up and you walk in to get her so slaps the mattress and pops her head up. It is so fun to go get her up. The not fun part, although it's a good thing, is that she really doesn't like to be rocked to sleep anymore. She fights you like she's a baby alligator, twisting and turning, arching her head and back, moaning and squirming, until you lay her down and then she rolls over, settles herself and falls asleep.

Favorite Fall Activity

Watching football on a Saturday afternoon!

These two love to hang out on the couch and root for their favorite teams ( Texas Tech and Notre Dame). If the teams are playing badly (which happens most weekends - at least for Tech) then they take a nap together.

6 months old

Piper is 6 months old, actually 6 and 1/2 months as I type this, but it doesn't matter. At her appt. she was 15 lbs. 1.5 oz (25%) for weight, 25 and 3/4 inches for length (45%), and 42.25 cm head circumference (40%). She's moving out of the 25% in some categories, but people always comment on what a petite little girl she is. She is so much fun these days, rolling everywhere, scooting on her belly to get whatever she wants, rocking and trying real hard to crawl, loving paper and ripping it to pieces, laughing and giggling, playing peek-a-boo, making the B sound and blowing spit/food all over the place, settling herself down and going to sleep, trying to wave to people, and just being all around super cute. She has gotten her first fever. This past week at daycare they had a picnic on Monday and Piper was sneezing really bad so we thought maybe it was allergies. The sneezing lead to runny nose and congestion and a 99.3 fever on Tuesday which we thought might still be allergies or teething. Wed. morning was the same story, but Wed. night the fever spiked to 102. I gave her two doses of tylenol that night and when we went to the doctor on Thursday the fever was all gone. He ran a flu test just to be sure, but it came back negative. Each day Piper had very little appetite, was super fussy, and very clingy for me. On Saturday I noticed a sharp little corner of her bottom left front tooth has poked through. So who knows what the reason was for the fever, but we're all better.

Our pictures with the lamb chair weren't that great this month as Piper really wanted to look at the lamb not the camera.

She's definitely our sweet little pumpkin!

Pumpkin Carving Party

We hosted a Pumpkin Carving Party with our small group the first weekend in October. It was a perfect fall night and we had so much fun with everyone. The guys with their pumpkins

Then the girls

It was dark when we lit the candles so all the pumpkins looked so cool in the yard, but the camera flash ruined it.

Jarod helping Chris remove the stem from our pumpkin. It was about 3 inches thick so Chris had a really hard time carving it. Guess that's what we get for buying a green pumpkin, but Chris turned it into an alien complete with golf tees for nostrils. Of course Chris would find some way to incorporate golf. Also we thought our carved pumpkin would last longer being out side (because our school has a pumpkin carving contest for students and the halls smell like rotting pumpkins for three days which I thought was because of the heating system), but it had flies after three days on the front porch.