Sunday, July 29, 2012

7 Months


Tessa is 7 months old and is just changing so fast!

She's wondering what kind of crazy thing I stuck on her clothes..."how do I get this off?"
 She's also on the move...taking these pics is getting dangerous :)
 She is weighing in at 13 lbs 8 ounces, is wearing mostly 3-6 month clothes, and is in size 2 diapers.  She fits into a few of her shoes so that's exciting for this mama!  She's been doing well on the "muscle milk" supplement.  The doc's original suggestion was to offer her a 2 oz bottle after each feeding but that just wasn't conducive to our schedule and since we were about to leave for almost a month to see grandparents I couldn't take any frozen milk.  She has never had an issue with formula so I wasn't worried about it but we worked ourselves into a pretty good schedule where she nurses in the morning, after her morning nap, after her afternoon nap, and before bed.  I give her a 4 oz formula bottle around 12:30 before her afternoon nap and a 2 oz formula bottle just after she eats dinner at 5:30 and this seems to be working great.  She's still eating just breakfast and dinner.  The doc said not to start introducing lunch yet because she needs the calories from the milk more than the food right now and once they eat more food the tend to drink less milk.  So she has yogurt for breakfast and some sort of veggie / fruit combo for dinner.  Since she didn't show any signs of allergies to any foods I have started just mixing them all together.  I have been making her food while we have been traveling and she is eating 4 cubes of food each night and loving it all!  Her current menu is a mixture of broccoli, sweet potato, squash, carrots, peaches, pears, bananas, and apples...yum!


Her sleeping has been great this month and she has worked herself into a nice little schedule since we have been traveling.  She is sleeping about 11-12 hours at night and taking two 1-2 hour naps each day..usually around 9 and 1.  She's been sleeping in a pack 'n play which is what she's used to and she was tucked away in a closet at both my parents' house and Jason's parents' house!  She's been having some even longer naps the last few days and I think she just might be in the middle of a growth spurt.  She has made it very clear this month that she is a mama's girl!  If anyone besides me puts her to bed...she is not happy about it!  Just before we left on this trip we had Madison babysit both girls for the first time.  Tessa went down ok for her but an hour later she was up...Madison got her back down once but then she was up again and no luck.  She had to call me to come home and when I got there Tessa was happy as can be and went right to sleep and slept all night!  She pulled this same trick on my dad while we were in Texas and she pulled it on DiDi when Jason and I snuck away for a night.  Silly girl!


She has really started giggling this month.  For as much as this girl smiles she makes you work for a good giggle fit.  She's always had this reaction that it almost seems painful for her to giggle and she hesitates.  Well that is gone and I am so glad because nothing can make you happier than a giggling baby!


She has also started talking...mainly saying "yayayayayayaya" and she just added "mamamamama" to her repertoire as well! This girl is LOUD...all the time!  She is a happy girl but a very vocal girl...screaming, squealing, talking away.  I think we are in trouble with this girl!  Our church doesn't allow babies in the nursery until 6 months and the few weeks before we could take her we literally couldn't go to church because she would have been so disruptive!

Well I've said all along she's a mover and a shaker and she's proved me right this month!  She started rocking on all fours while we were at my parent's house and she also pulled up on their ottoman all by herself one day!  I can't believe she will be crawling pretty soon!
 I love these girls so much!  Riley is really so sweet and the best big sister!  Tessa is still a pretty big mama's girl at this point but she sure loves her sister!  She has huge grins for her first thing in the morning...she's just not too sure about Riley holding her and sometimes for obvious reasons ;)  They have started playing together and it just melts my heart!
Here's the comparison for this month!


Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Off to Arkansas!

 When it was time to leave my parents I could actually see Riley struggle with being sad about leaving Grammie and JoePa but also being so excited to see Bubba, Gabby, DiDi and Doc!  She was also excited to see her Daddy...as was I...since he didn't get to come to TX with us since he had to work!   I had to explain to her that it was ok to be both sad and excited at the same time...her first lesson on bittersweet...and unfortunately it won't be the last!

The girls did great on the two quick plane rides to Little Rock and DiDi, Bubba, and Gaby were at the airport to pick is up! Riley was ecstatic!  My girls are so lucky to have the best and coolest aunt and uncle EVER!
 DiDi and Doc couldn't wait to get their hands on the girls either!


The day after we arrived Jason flew in and his girls couldn't wait to get their hands on him!

He spent some time swimming with Riley!
 I got to go for a run with my man...it was super hot but we always love running together!

 We got to see lots of friends!

The girls and I had lunch with Megan and Milo!

 Riley played dress up in Gaby's flower girl dress from our wedding...and gave Jason a heart attack almost every time!  We joked how we are already saving for her wedding and what if she decided to elope...then we looked at each other and said "no way!"
 We had a great dinner out with friends and had our first night away from both girls!

Loved hanging with these lovely ladies!
 The guys and the gals...after a great dinner at Cajun's!
 We stayed at the Peabody hotel and rather than take advantage of sleep we went to a concert and stayed up until 2 am...CRAZY!  It was so fun though!
 We had our annual sleepover at the Welch's!  

Love this family!





 We were able to attend our old church, New Life, and it was so good to be back there.  We have a great church here but it's just not the same and we just love that church!

We headed to get pizza with all our friends after church...we filled up an entire party room with all of us and our kids...it was a ton of fun!

 We got to watch CJ play some basketball!
 The cheering squad!


We hung out with the Burns family!
 We took some pics of Tessa and Kade just like we used to do with Caleb and Riley!
 Me and Tara and our babies!

 Graham and Tessa got to meet and play...Graham is one month older than Miss T!
 Reed and Riley had a great time playing!!
 Deacon, Finley, and Ashley came over too to play...fun fun fun!

 After all the fun with our friends guys left to go to TX for some fishing and the girls got ready for Nani to arrive!!

Then it was meatball time!
 Nani with the big girls!
 Nani loving on Tessa!
 Got this great pic of my girls...oh how I love them so!
 The Burns boys got to come over to swim before we left...a little swimming, a little trampoline, and lots of fun!
 We visited the Museum of Discovery the day before we left and it was AWESOME!

Gaby and Riley had fun with the vacuum tunnels!
 Riley was so persistent in using the pulleys to pull her self up all by herself...and she did it!
 She even braved laying on a bed of nails...I look too happy putting her on their don't I?  HeHe!
Jason left from TX after the guys had a GREAT fishing trip and flew home to get back to work.


 Bubba and Doc came home just before we headed back to Cali so we were able to spend some time with them before we left!


 What a great trip!

We had so much fun seeing all of our family and friends on this "Tour de Grandparents"

We had a late night getting back in to Cali but the girls did great and it was worth it because it basically put them back on Pacific time pretty quickly.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Lake Time!

Riley had about 5 weeks off of school so we decided to take off on our "Tour de Grandparents" trip!!!  Almost 4 weeks of non-stop fun visiting Texas and Arkansas!

First stop was Texas!  Jason took me and the girls to the airport and off we went.  The flight to Texas is direct and about 3 hours so it was no too bad!  The girls were great!  We all were asleep for a small moment!  We sat next to a sweet girl who helped keep the girls entertained!

 We made it...an so did ALL of our belongings!  Geez...Jason thought I should pack lightly..haha!

 We had loads of fun at the lake...lots of jumping on the water "jumpoline"
 Lots of sweet smiles sitting by the water playing!
 Lots of boat rides...it was so sweet because Riley wanted to hold Tessa's hand for her first boat ride..melted my heart!
 Sweet Tessa in her life jacket!
 Tessa got to play with new toys from Grammie and JoePa!
 I got to do lots of swimming with my big girl!
 There were lots of kisses from JoePa!

 Paddle boating with Grammie!
Riley got to visit Kiddie Park with Grammie...a fun park in San Antonio that I used to go to all the time as a kid!

 We got to visit Uncle Jan and he was able to meet Miss Tessa!
 
 Grammie took Riley to a cooking class at Young Chef's Academy and she made nachos and cookies with her friends...such a fun thing!

 We got to see Uncle Jim...Tessa had a lot to tell him!
 He colored some pictures with Riley and she loved that!
 We got to hang out with the Hanlon girls!
 There was lots of homemade ice cream!
 There was tubing with my girl and I will never forget the giggles that went with every bounce...it was so much fun!
 Sweet cousins...Tessa June, Quincy June, and Riley
 Such a fun visit with my cousin Kassie and her sweet girl Quincy!
 Thanks Grammie and JoePa for so many great memories made at the lake...we can't wait to come back!
 Me and my sweet girls!
 My girls sure do love the lake!
 Next stop...Arkansas!