"They say I'm old-fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast!" — Dr. Seuss

My little girl is growing up right before my eyes. She is just the cutest thing in the world. She smiles at anything and anyone. She truly is a very happy and good baby. She only cries when she's hungry or tired. She's still sleeping 12-13 hours a night.

In less than 2 weeks she will be 8 months old. This year has gone by so fast. Since I'm going back to school (starting Monday!) I've already planned her first birthday party :) It's going to be magical. We will be having a party for her in Indiana and Logan. I hope she remembers it! Ha!

The most notable thing she has done is crawl. She just woke up one morning and started doing it! I caught it on my cell phone... but I'm not sure if I'll be able to upload it on here.

She jibber jabbers all day long. The girl loves to hear her own voice. She says dada, mama, baba and all sorts of noises that sound like she's a dinosaur or something!

She laughs so hard she snorts.

When the radio is on she continually goes "ahhhhhhh....ahhhhhhhhh.....ahhhhh" really softly. It's adorable.

She had a new silent laugh. It's hilarious. It kind of sounds like she's hyperventilating, though! She kicks her feet and raises her eyebrows really high while she's doing it. She does it to every person she see's in the grocery store. Cory and I just laugh and laugh.

A couple weeks ago we had to lower her crib cause she can pull herself up on her feet. I'm so glad I was in the room the first time she did it. She totally could have gone over the crib had I not been in there.

She will "walk" if you hold onto her hands with her feet on the ground. (Does that make sense??)

She is literally devistated if Cory or I walk out of the room.

She loves the zoo. There is a little one a couple blocks from our house and she just loves the monkeys, turtles, and ducks.

She is a bouncing machine. We have a jumper and an activity gym. That girl could bounce all day. Actually, sometimes, she does.

Food she loves:

Pancakes (no syrup :))

Muffins

Avacado cubes

Mushed Bananas

Sweet Potatoes (real, not jarred)

Little graduates finger foods

Beans

Mashed potatoes

I could just go on and on and on! But I'm sure no one cares about these little facts except me :)

Anyway, I've started keeping a little book. It's supposed to be a sketchbook. I got it from Borders for $5. It's not like a journal or anything, but things I want to do when raising my children.

For example, section one is family traditions. I just jotted down my own family traditions, new ideas and different things I've heard. We're not going to necessarily do them all but I like having them all written down. One I recently heard was Back to School Feast on nieniedialogues.com. The Sunday before school starts they have a Feast and she makes each one of her children a "crown." The homemade crown has pictures and all sorts of things that are interests of that specific child. I think it's a wonderful idea. So, I put it in my book... cause I'm sure in 6 years I'm not going to remember it! Another tradition is keeping a journal for my children. Growing up, every night my mom and dad came into mine and Brooke's bedroom. We would get out our journals and tell our parents what to write in them or my parents would ask us questions and write in our journals what we said. I love looking back and reading them! They are sometimes hilarious and sometimes so sweet. Once I told my mom that I hope one day Satan can have a family of his own. Ha! I was 5!

Section 2 is cute decorating ideas for bedrooms... either for the next baby or when Sophie gets older. Even ideas to make our house more kid friendly/functional...

Section 3 has fun snack ideas. I get parent magazine's in the mail all the time, I flip through them and cut out ideas for food or activities I think would be interesting.

Section 4 has "rules" I have for myself when raising my children.

Anyways, you get my point. I'm very excited about it and I hope I keep it up! If you have any fun family traditions or anything you think I'd like to add to my book... let me know!

P.s. Doesn't this look like a cheesy school picture? Haha :)

Best 7 Months

January 2010: 1 Day Old

February

March

April

May

June

July

For her 6 month birthday Grandma, Grandpa and Brooke made her a flamingo at the Build-A-Bear workshop. It's so cute! It has a grass skirt, coconut bra, sandals, and a lei! She also got a Little Einstein's bouncer that she LOVES.

August

What a cute little stinker. Everyday I love her more and more. Even the mornings I get off work and she doesn't take a nap all day :)

Here's another way to show you how much she's grown...

she's wearing the same bow in both pics!

Goodbye July! See ya next year...

I haven't posted in a while because life has been hectic. I went to Indiana for what was supposed to be a 5 day vacation but turned into 3 weeks. I thought our flight departed at 8:37. We got to the airport at 7:30 and found out our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:50. I had read our departure from our layover in Denver, not Indiana.

We secured us a flight for 7 am the next morning and stopped by Donato's Pizza on our way back to my parents. I had been feeling pain for a few hours but kept ignoring it. We ate pizza, got ready for our flight the next morning, and I layed down to get 4 hours of sleep. I tossed and turned and no matter what I did, I couldn't get comfortable or ignore the pain in my chest. I went down and woke my mom up and we went to the ER. I called my dear husband who was immediately worried about me and stayed up all night to receive updates from my mother.

I had multiple test done and found out I had gallstone and needed my gallbladder out. My doctor said fatty foods trigger gallstones. Dang Donato's Pizza! But... can you believe it? All this would have happened on the plane had we not missed it! Anyway, as soon as my husband found out I needed surgery, he got on the next flight to Indiana. My surgery went great. However, most patients leave the same day- but I was in a lot of pain so they kept me over night. My dad went and got Cory from the airport at around 10pm. Cory walked into my hospital room literally shaking. He was freezing cold in 90* weather with 100% humidity! The poor guy had a fever. Our wonderful nurse tended to both of us during the night, even bringing Cory medicine :) His fever finally broke around 4am and he slowly started feeling better.

We left the hospital Thursday morning and booked flights to return home Monday afternoon. On Sunday morning I was in pain. I thought it may have been a side effect from my surgery. My pain medicine wasn't helping and the pain was unbearable. Cory brought me back to the ER. They were worried I had appendicitis so I got a CATScan. Luckily, I only had a kidney stone. However, it was too big (5mm) to pass.

They scheduled me a lithotripsy for Wednesday morning. So, we had to reschedule my flightagain for July 24. Lithotripsy is a procedure where they break up the kidney stone with an ultra sound. You have to be put under cause its very painful and its like they are literally beating the stone to break it up. My back was bruised and in so much pain afterwards! Right after the procedure I started passing tiny stone particles. We got Sophie and I a new flight for Saturday the 24 but I was still in pain and it was hard to take care of Sophie alone while I was on the pain medicine.

We rescheduled my flight for Tuesday the 27th and we actually made the flight! We had a window seat and during the flight I, of course, had to change Soph's diaper. I asked the couple next to me if they would let us out so I could take Sophie. When the woman stood up, her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she fell on the kid in the seat in front of us. She started seizing. They almost landed the plane but decided to keep her lying on the ground for the rest of the flight. I felt horrible. I apologized to the man when the med crew boarded the flight to assist his wife off the plane.

We finally made it back to Logan and the next day Sophie had her 6 month check up (at almost 7 months old). We found out Sophie had a yeast infection and the doc prescribed her "pink cream" that the pharmacy makes. We went home, applied Sophie's medicine, and an hour later checked on an ornery babies diaper. The poor girl had an allergic reaction to something in the medicine and had a rash everywhere the medicine touched. GEEZ. We called the doc, got some new medicine, and I got the stomach flu.

I am so glad the month of July is OVER. We were seriously bad news! I'm so glad to be back home with a happy, healthy baby and my sweet husband that I missed like crazy. I'm so lucky it did happen in Indianapolis, though. My mom, dad, and sister helped me out so much. I couldn't ask for a better family. My lovely mom spoiled Sophie and I bad! Before we went to Indiana my family had come the week before. So I was with them for 4 weeks total! My mom did our laundry everyday, bathed Sophie twice a day, woke up in the morning with Soph and let me sleep in. It was wonderful! However, now that we're home she wants to be held all the time! Between my mom, dad, Brooke, and then Cory coming... she was rarely put down. Oh well, she is well loved :) I'm hoping August will be a much better month :)

P.S. Sophie is 7 months old today at 8:37pm :)

Here's some pics from the good times on our trip! There's about a gazillion more but it's so annoying uploading pictures on the blog. The rest are on FB. Enjoy :)

The girl LOVES water.

Getting an airbrushed butterfly

Touching a shark!

With her Great-great grandma GG... she's 95!