Watch Out! She Bites!

Wow. Babies do grow too fast! Hadley now has two little chompers on the bottom. She looks like such a sweet angel- but the other night when Daddy tried to put her down to sleep she got angry and lunged. She bit him! I wouldn't believe it, but my sister, Alyssa, who came to visit, agreed. She was here to witness. Where did she learn this?


My sweet sister, Alyssa was driving with my brother and some friends from Kentucky back to California a little less than two weeks ago. They stopped in to stay the night since they were only about an hour and a half away one evening. I was so excited! Well, Alyssa and I got to talking and we thought it would be fun for her to stay for awhile. She just left today, but she got to spend a lot of time with Hadley. And I must say, Hadley loved her! Alyssa made her laugh so much, and we even had to talk to Alyssa a bit about spoiling the baby too much! But every baby deserves a little spoiling now and then- right?

Alyssa and I actually got to have a day out to ourselves also! We played mini-golf here in Lubbock and got to enjoy some quality sister time!

And as for Chris and I we are plugging along. We live for the weekends- when we have a little bit of family time. With Alyssa here we actually got out and went on two dates! (Actually, I missed Hadley a lot during the second one because I hadn't gotten to be with her much due to work). I am now half way done with the coaching of one sport for the year. The more demanding of the two.

Some new things with the baby that we are having fun with here:

-Outdoors. Hadley loves to be outside. That is always the quick fix to grumpiness. Alyssa and Hadley spent a lot of time on a blanket outside on the lawn.

-Her new fun center on loan from Marissa (our friend who watches her). Her favorite is the musical keys that she hits to make noise and light up.

-Watching Hadley try to crawl. I don't think it will be too soon just yet, but it isn't too far off, either!

-Eating baby food! She started on some rice cereal a few weeks back, but mostly just in the bottle. We have done baby food for a few days now, and Hadley gets real excited to eat it! It is nasty when she pukes that up, though!

Back to the Real World...

Wow- do I miss summer! But reality has to return sometime, right? Well, since my life is not that fascinating right now I don't have a lot to write. It consists of working, working more, sneaking off for my lunch break to feed and visit with Hadley for an hour. But not to complain, because this is what I have wanted for a very long time! But, my baby is just much more interesting to write about than I am.

Hadley is now nearing five months. People have told me many times before that babies grow way to fast. I truly do feel that I have cherished every moment so far, but I never realized truly how fast they do grow. I just start getting excited about one aspect of her growth and development and then it passes and she moves on to something new.

She had her blessing day at church the last weekend of August. Chris' parents came in from Colorado to spend time with us and attend. I had games out of town that I had to coach- so Chris got more time with them, but it was really enjoyable to just have family here again. And Hadley really enjoyed playing with her Grandma Lisonbee. She wore a dress that my mom smocked and I sewed. I have yet to really learn to smock. But it looked lovely, and Hadley didn't cry during her blessing. She was pretty good. I have had requests to get those pictures posted ASAP.

Hadley changes so much, and each day I marvel that she is ours!

Right now she grabs her feet and just about gets them into her mouth. She LOVES to roll over and when she gets on her stomach and I can see she is trying to get her bum up into crawling position.

She still loves her baths. She can be in a horrible mood and then a bath makes everything wonderful again. She loves to kick and splash and try to catch drops of water in her mouth. I have to watch her head carefully because she tries to turn to the side and get to the water to sip some.

She has a little bumbo seat that she sits in while I get dinner ready and just whenever she needs to sit up. She loves it! She looks like such a big girl sitting up in her seat, looking around and grabbing things off the floor.

Hadley loves our little mirror game we go through before her bath, too. The smiles we get out of this are some of the best ever! We just hold her in front of the mirror- all undressed for her bath. We ask who that cute baby is and she stomps her feet on the counter like she is dancing and laughs and giggles. She likes to see herself in the mirror. And I like to see her smiles and hear her giggles from it.

Four and a Half Months!

Our sweet baby is now four months, and I am beginning to realize that this blog has become ALL about her. But I am okay with that. I am posting some pictures from when she was about 3 months old, but she pretty much still looks the same.

I have gone back to work now, and I miss her so much during the day. If you have any comments to help make this transition easier for me- please post! I have spent the last 4 months with her by my side- often only her since Chris was in Houston most of the summer. She has been my constant little "companion," and now all of a sudden I am away from her all day and even most of the evening. I am seriously having separation anxiety!

She is growing normally, and she loves to roll over! It is her favorite! She still is fiesty- I guess I will have to stop thinking that will go away and just accept that this is her.

Hadley also laughs now! Full out bursts of laughter. The first time she did it was at Chris. It is one of the most beautiful sounds I have ever heard!

I think she may also be an early crawler because when she rolls over to her tummy she tries to get her legs under her and her legs go crazy. Yikes! We may be in for it!

But, despite crazy work hours, (and I mean crazy- until 10:30pm or even midnight a few times a week- don't even make me go into it) some setbacks and frustrations at work, etc. when I come home to my little family and see my loving husband and sweet baby, everything else falls by the wayside. Overall, these really are great times!

My Baby is Above Average

Okay- so the title of this blog sounds really conceited. Let me tell you why my baby is above average.

1. She throws up more than the average baby- or so I am told. Yesterday was the first day I can remember Hadley getting through the day is ONE outfit! Usually it is three. I think that she is such a piggie that she gulps it all down too fast and then up it comes. And I think she overeats sometimes. Seriously, she is the noisest eater. She eats like I starve her!

2. She needs more diaper changes than other babies. This is my way of sparing you the icky details. I guess this could be a result of all that she eats?

3. She is more needy than the average baby. Okay, so she is my first child, but I have grown up around LOTS of babies. I was kind of offended at first when Chris would call her fussy. This was soon after we brought her home from the hospital. I guess I took it personally. But, turns out, she is quite fussy! While other babies are full of smiles at this stage, Hadley, we will put it like this...is not. (But we get them sometimes).

Okay. So those are in no way complaints. This is just Hadley. On the upside- here are some things we have been doing lately that she enjoys.

We have been to the community pool here in the neighborhood where we are staying in Houston. We go a few times a week. Hadley usually sleeps for a little while in her carseat in the shade. Then when she wakes up she gets fed and comes in the pool. I do have a suit for her, but the one that fits right now (thanks Erin and Keiya) is in Lubbock. So she wears a long-sleeved onesie to keep her more covered from the sun. And FYI- the picture was taken and then I promptly put on her hat. I keep her pretty covered from the sun.

We go on walks sometimes towards the evenings when it is not deathly hot here. She likes to sit in the stroller (or slump) and she often falls asleep.

Once in a while I take a nap with her. I haven't though since the other day when she woke me up kicking me, happily, and I realized we were both covered in poo.

But, I have to get back to real life so we head out on Monday to return to Lubbock. Chris will follow two and a half weeks later. This means that I have to drive to Lubbock from Houston by myself with the baby. I plan on stopping in Ft. Worth for a day and 2 nights. If you have any tips for driving long distances alone with a baby please leave me a comment! Even here in town she gets upset after just driving for about 10-15 minutes.

Three Months!

Hadley is three months now! While she is still smaller than many babies her age, she seems huge to me because of the milestones she has made. Oh, I know that these milestones are nothing more than other babies have made, but they still never cease to amaze me! Here are some of the fun things she is doing now (well, let's be honest, they are not all fun.

-Hadley sleeps through the night, which she has been doing for quite a while now. She goes down around 9 p.m. and wakes up around 4:30 or 5:30 to eat. A few times she has even slept until 6:30! She gets up again between 7:30/8:30 and usually stays up for a few hours before taking an early afternoon nap.

-She loves to eat. She gets angry when she wakes up and realizes there is no food waiting in her mouth. She often over eats (she can't handle more than 3.5 of 4 oz., but she tries), barfs and then gets violent hiccups. We go through this about two times a day. I can't remember if this picture is before or after Hadley barfed all over my sweet Grandpa Lee's leg. -She smiles! She laughs and makes the cutest happy noises. It usually lasts for about 15-20 minutes at a time. Here she is content with my father, her "Papa." -She has a short attention span. She can lay on the floor happy for about 15 minutes and then wants to be somewhere else. She goes to the activity mat, bouncer, swing, etc. Then of course she wants to eat. This cycle can become tiresome.

-She has the little bald spot on the back of her head. I try and give her tummy time, but she gets frustrated.

-She holds her head up real well, but then after a bit it gets floppy again.

-She tried to roll over. Her arm stops her and this makes her mad.

-Watch out! She will suck on you if you get close! She things anything that comes near her mouth is fair game! This picture is of her and Natalie (baby of Ashely Veater, one of my very best friends). They are 9 days apart and Natalie just goes with the flow, is always happy. So Hadley took advantage and tried to eat her). -She still scratches her face a lot.

-She has to be swaddled at night and she pretends at first that she hates it, but I know that deep down she doesn't.

Our Vacation!

I know, it has been a while since I have posted anything, We left Lubbock when Hadley was seven weeks old and have been in Houston, Arizona and California. We just got back to Houston where we will be for a few weeks before Hadley and I return to Lubbock. Chris will come back there a few weeks after us.

We had a good vacation, getting to see lots of family and friends! In Arizona Hadley and I got to meet her Great Grandparents on Chris' side.We first visited with The Lisonbee's, who were so excited to meet her! Then right down the road we visited Grandma Lloyd, who showed us pictures of her kids and grandkids and jump started my imagination with pictures and stories of her travels. If I had extra time in Arizona I could spend days with her going through pictures of the world. She is a world traveler!Hadley had a few firsts on our vacation. She went to the beach (3 times), the county fair (twice), and even had two nights away from her mommy and daddy! My mother offered to watch Hadley while we went away for a day and night. So we went to Long Beach, CA, about an hour and a half North of where my folks live. We visited the Queen Mary, a huge ship that once transported passangers from England to the United States and back. During World War Two the ship was transformed into the "Grey Ghost," and transported troops, even having over 16,000 men on it at a time. It was super fast for its time, but when the war ended the city of Long Beach Purchased the ship and now it is a hotel and tourist attraction. It is stationary, but we did a tour and we even got to go on the "Haunted Tour," which I liked best. There have been a lot of ghost sightings on the ship in the past and numerous mysterious deaths, so we got to see some of the areas where these deaths happened and of course they hype it up for you, but it was pretty neat. It let you see areas of the ship that otherwise you would not see, like the boiler room, the pool areas, etc. I was pretty fascinated. I wished we had more time.

Two Months Old!

My sweet baby is now 2 months! She gets to see her daddy again in just two more days. This baby has truly captured my heart. I just can't give her enough kisses during the day, and I love to kiss those little toes, that belly, those chubby cheeks...She has started to try and smile now. Sometimes she gets it pretty well. Today she gave me a huge one and her eyes lit up huge and joined in on the smile, too. It is the most wonderful feeling in the world to have your baby smile so big at you, and I know she means it when she worked hard to get it out! I absolutely love to have her with me all day- every day.

I love to give her a bath in the evening and watch her skinny little legs kick about in the water. Anytime the water comes up near her mouth her little tongue goes in and out of her mouth a bunch and she likes it when she gets a little bit.

My sweet mother came for quite a bit and watched Hadley for 3 days. I now am certified to drive a commercial motor vehicle. I have 2 endorsements. I spent three days driving around Lubbock in a huge bus, learning to do turns, parallel park, backing up, 3 point turns, etc. And I took the test and passed! I secretly wished I had failed because then I might be able to weasel out of driving the kids, but the instructor told me that if I failed I would have to take a 4th day to try again. So I guess I was relieved to finish the third day.

I feel like my summer has officially started now that those tests are out of the way. I can enjoy my two months and the time I get to spend with family and friends!