6 Months

Wow! Recovering from the holiday season and getting back into the swing of things is no joke and has been keeping us busy over here! Therefore, this little blog has been neglected and I am almost exactly a month behind with posting this 6 month update! Even though Audrey will be 7 months in 4 DAYS (Oh, good grief!) I can't ignore this month which has been stuffed full of development for our girl.

At 5 months, Audrey was pretty much crawling around but at 6 months she became a professional crawler. She is so stinkin' fast and we can't take our eyes off her for one second without her finding something she shouldn't (despite my best efforts to baby-proof our house!). With that being said, it's worth noting that Audrey would rather play with anything but her toys (who needs toys when you have electrical outlets, right?). Luckily my husband baby-proofed our electrical outlets but she always manages to get to a lamp cord or something of that sort. Another favorite past time of Audrey's is hanging out by our fire place. I think she knows it's mom's worst nightmare, having her bump her chin on that brick and cutting her lip with her teeth! I'm constantly having to reign in my anxiety when she's hoisting herself up on the brick hearth and calmly move her away.

Speaking of "hoisting," 6 months marks the time when Audrey has decided she has two legs for a reason. As soon as she master her "speed crawl," she was on to bigger and better things. This girl pulls herself up on EVERYTHING! She almost pulled my pj pants down in the kitchen one morning as she was trying to stand up using my leg! She loves holding our hands as her little feet flail around beneath her, trying to get coordinated. Still no kisses and waiting on her first "da-da."

Yes, this is my 6 month old, holding herself up while wearing mommy's uggs. There was no parental assistance with this (minus putting her little feet in the boots)!

I may not win "Mom Of the Year" with this photo but how stinkin' cute is this? Baby plumber butt with her baby jeans!

In other news, the Midles Family is officially going to Europe in May! We may be crazy taking an 11 month old across the world on a marathon flight but it's too late now, tickets have been booked! We'll be visiting England to introduce Audrey to my mom's side of the family, as well as visiting friends in Germany, Switzerland, and Rome. Can't wait!!

Also of note, after the holiday season, I really started ramping up my workout routine to get rid of these last 10 $%*&^ stubborn lbs. After many friend's recommendations and reading about it on LittleBabyGarvin, I started doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred, as well as running a couple times a week. Holy cow, this woman is NOT messing around. It's just 20 minutes a day and it's a "butt kicker," especially when you get past level one. I already notice a huge difference and I'm only half way through. Then yesterday after getting off the treadmill, my knee was killing me. This morning, I am hobbling around like a 90 year old without a cane...lets hope this is only for today!

Have a happy day, everyone!

A Belated "Merry Christmas"

It is January 7th (11:32 P.M. at that!) and I'm just recapping our Christmas. Good grief. Although I'm not surprised. I drive my husband nuts sometimes all the time with my amazing procrastination skills. What can I say...I work better under pressure...?

Our tree before we brought all the gifts to their Christmas gatherings.

For Audrey's 1st Christmas I was really confident that I would be easy going and didn't set expectations too high for certain things. I mean, come on, a 6 month old isn't going to be able to open all her gifts by herself, stay awake for every holiday meal, or keep her dress on for more than a few hours. Turns out I got a heavy dose of reality for Christmas.

Audrey barely slept all day on Christmas Eve. I guess all the anticipation that Santa was coming really got to her. About 15 minutes before my whole family arrived at my parent's house for Christmas Eve dinner, she finally fell asleep (go figure!). When she woke up from her super short 30 minute nap, she was in no mood to eat and refused her Christmas feast avocado and oatmeal cereal combo, screaming in protest. I finally gave in and took my husband's advice and just gave her a bottle.

I was so excited to get her into her sparkly dress and headband I had custom made to match, but Audrey had different plans. I managed to get her in it for about an hour before she got the sparkles from her dress in her eyes after rubbing those tired baby blues. She did enjoy opening a some presents  eating some wrapping paper with the family. We went to Midnight Mass with my parents and instead of her fancy outfit, I sadly admitted defeat and put her in her Christmas PJs. We ended up leaving Mass early so we wouldn't have a tiny version of the Grinch in the morning. She still slept through her 1st round of gifts on Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve, before we ditched the dress

Please note that her adorable headband switched sides a few times, no idea what happened here.

Ok, so I feel like I'm complaining now....let me explain myself a little better. It's no lie when I say that our daughter is seriously one of the easiest babies alive and yes, I know every parent says this, but I really mean it! She is always super happy and easy going (albeit, energetic and curious as ever!), but all the Christmas cheer proved to be a bit overwhelming for our tired girl, that's all. And apparently, although I felt like I had really low expectations going in, turns out Mommy was a little too aggressive with all the "Christmas-ness" for rookie-Audrey.

On Christmas Day we drove south to be with Zack's family. My husband and I have always loved the movie, Elf so for the first part of the day we chose to wear our Buddy the Elf and Jovie costumes (yes, we are that cool!) while Audrey wore a "Raised by Elves" onesie. Unfortunately, I don't have any pics of us dressed like this on Christmas but this pic is from Halloween...you get the idea.

Audrey was still tired and slept through gifts from Santa a second time but later had a blast playing in the boxes with her 1 year old cousin, Abby. Grandpa Midles entertained the girls for quite some time pushing them around the living room in their boxes. It's totally true that kids care about the boxes more than what's in them! The girls were moving too fast in their race cars boxes to get a good picture from my phone but here is one of Audrey trying to swipe Abby's toy. Seriously so excited for all the years of fun with these two growing up together!

Adorable "cat-hat" was a gift.

This girl just LOVES to be in boxes!

It is totally true that Christmas is a million times more fun with kids...even if they aren't seasoned veterans yet. Zack and I agreed to make a contribution to Audrey's college-fund instead of getting her Christmas gifts this year. We figured she was going to be spoiled by grandparents and aunts and uncles and she wouldn't remember this year anyways. But after making this deal, I figured she needed her stocking filled at our house in addition to her other stockings from both sets of grandparents. She also just couldn't go without some new clothes for her closet (because it's just sooooo empty). Finally, this 6 month old is obsessed with our cell phones so I found her a toy phone that was designed to look like our iPhones. I never thought I would be that mom, but oh well. What's done is done :-)

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and that this New Year is full of blessings, health, and happiness! Can't wait to do it all again next year...351 days to go!