Here we go again

So, it was 9pm on Wednesday night and we were planting pansies in the flower bed while it was raining. Then, 10pm on Thursday night we were changing the door knobs and cleaning out the fire place! This can only mean one thing and no it’s not spring cleaning….we are putting our house up for sale! Crazy, I know! Everything is happening really fast and in about one weeks time, we went from casually thinking about moving to pressure washing our house and cleaning out closets! Whew, I am tired just thinking about it. Our realtor came over last week to give us a few suggestions and she said that we are ready to put it on the market. What??? We thought we would have time to think about things and leisurely get everything ready. Oh well, we are trying to put it on the market before the first time home owners credit expires at the end of April.

For those that know me (which is hopefully everyone reading this blog), you know that I am a habitual mover. I move a lot and Dan has made me promise that I will not keep this up the rest of our life. For memories sake, I’m including my moves since 1997 when I first stepped foot on Georgia Tech’s campus. Twenty moves in thirteen years. Thanks to everyone who has ever carried some of my stuff from one place to another and to my family for arranging furniture and hanging pictures and artwork more times than they can imagine. Do you have a few more in you? We will slow down one day, I promise.

Harrison Dorm
Hopkins Dorm
Moultrie for the summer
8th St Apartments
Phi Mu house for the summer
8th St Apartments
Phi Mu house for the summer
Mexico
Tiff’s Apartment (I can’t remember the name of it)
CCF House for the summer
Collier Ridge Apartments
Washington DC to intern for the summer
CCF House
The loft in the Hale’s house for the summer
Capitol Hill in DC
Silver Spring
Pentagon City - The Potomac
Pentagon City - The Ashley
Atlanta AMLI Apartments
5816 Spalding - Current House

Eight (and a half) months!

I'm way behind on this post since Mary Beth hit eight months two weeks ago. Oh well, I'll try to get you caught up on some of the happenings around here. I can't exactly remember what happened during the eighth month but I will try to remember since this is my on-line baby book.

- Mary Beth LOVES to eat. She is trying all kinds of things and some of the highlights are avocados, boiled okra, squash, peaches, mashed potatoes, prunes and apricots. She also tried some spanish rice at one of our favorite mexican restaurants. We gave her cottage cheese and yogurt and she broke out in a rash around her face so we are not giving her any dairy items for a while. The pediatrician said that she may not be ready for dairy yet and we hope that she isn't allergic. We are going to try to give her yogurt again before her nine month appointment to see if she breaks out again.

- She is on the verge of crawling. She spins in circles during tummy time and can get to most everything withing a foot or two of her space. It's like she hasn't figured out that she can go anywhere besides a certain radius. We are in no way rushing this as we enjoy that she stays in one area for now. We will have plenty of time to chase her later.

- She has started getting separation anxiety. If I go into another room, she falls apart, especially if no one else is in the room with her. We think she may be getting spoiled since Cheryl gives her one-on-one constant attention while she keeps her in the morning. She has a really hard time on Sunday morning in the church nursery. It's during her nap time and there is too much going on for her to sleep so we have been naughty paged once during the service. She just moved up from the Turtles class to the Bunnies.

- We think she weighs between 15 and 16 pounds but we will know for sure in a few weeks when we go back to the pediatrician again.

- MB thinks that Dan is sooooo funny. She laughs the most when he is around and they have started wrestling some too which has been fun to watch. She has a good choke hold and likes to pull hair so she is a tough competitor.

- This has happened in the past several months but she is so easy to dress now. She's got the routine figured out and helps us get her dressed and she no longer cries while we dress her.

- She loves to play games, especially peek-a-boo and she is getting into books.

- She only has one tooth but I'm guessing that another tooth is on its way.

- She is obsessed with the remote and our cell phones. I'm not sure what that says about us as parents but she can't keep her hands off of them.

- She is a super laid back and easy going baby. The things that she is most passionate about is nap time and food. When I start making her food, she gets really loud and in her mind, I can't make it fast enough. She opens her mouth all the way and voices her opinion.

- When she gets really excited she flaps her arms up and down and shows off her gummy grin.

- She seems to be a risk taker, she loves to be thrown into the air and the more dangerous the better. We think she will love roller coasters and probably will follow in my footsteps and sky dive before she turns 20!

We love this little girl more than words and are having so much fun with her!

Eight months with the lamb

She was laughing at her daddy...

he's hilarious!


We walked to a swing in a nearby park and she loved it!



She liked going really high which made Dan nervous

More swinging

Looking good in her shades, thanks Joannah!

Here's looking at you

Working the camera

Loving her bath time

Some videos for you

The grandparents have been requesting updates so here are a few videos. Check back in soon as I hope to post an eight month update any day now!

This video was taken earlier this month and shows how dramatic she can be about eating. She typically comes around and she loves mangos now.

Getting a ride from cousin Owen, they were having so much fun!

She has been working on blowing kisses and you can tell that she is very serious about perfecting it! We are amazed at how loud her smacks can be.

Bath time has become more fun and out of nowhere she started splashing like crazy. We have to stop her at some point because she would splash all of the water out of the tub if we would let her. She has to come up for air occasionally but she loves it!

Snow!

We spent about two minutes outside taking some photos, it was the fastest photo shoot ever. Dan came home early to enjoy the snow with us and I couldn't wait to get some pictures.

What is all this stuff?

Our little family

The happiest she was during the two minutes we were outside.

Cute bunny suit but it's not waterproof

Not the best idea I ever had

Sorry Mary Beth, this didn't play out quite like I had planned. She was wet and freezing her buns off!

What we've been up to lately

Hibernating,

making new friends,

and dreaming of warmer weather.

Seven Months!

I feel like this month has brought so many changes in MB. She's becoming more of a little person and is no longer an infant. She is pure entertainment and cracks us up. I have thought many times over the past month about making more of an effort to soak up the little moments that we share. I find myself getting caught up in trying to meet all of her needs that I forget to stop and enjoy her and play a little peek a boo. I am proud to say that I snuck in her room late at night and took my sleeping baby out of the crib. It was so much fun snuggling and breathing in her sweet smell while she slept on my shoulder. (It's especially sweet since she doesn't smell like spit up anymore.) Since we put her down in her crib when it's time for her to go to sleep, we hardly ever rock her so I rocked her to sleep several times this month because I wanted to hold my baby close. These are sweet times and I am enjoying them. (Feel free to skip straight to the photos if you haven't already.)

Highlights of the month:
- Waving, sitting and saying Mama all seen in an earlier post
- Eating solids - Peas, Bananas, Carrots, Sweet Potatoes, Pears, Green Beans and Mango. I am still making all of the food and it has been super easy so far. We have discovered that she doesn't like anything the first time that she tastes it. She shivers in disgust and makes gagging noises and we have to try so hard not to laugh. Normally she likes everything the second time around.
- She has a new growl that is low and kind of scary like. Maybe she's trying to imitate a lion? We have no idea.
- A tooth poked through a few days ago! It's jagged and very sharp and you can feel it better than you can see it. It's on the bottom right.
- She is drinking some water and a little bit of apple juice through her sippy cup. She's improving and starting to be able to figure how to hold it and drink at the same time.
- She isn't crawling yet but is spinning in a circle while she's on her tummy and doing the superman pose. She also scoots backwards but nothing major yet.
- We are thankful that she hasn't hit the clingy stage yet. She will go to anyone and will smile all day long at them.
- She is enjoying bath time and has started liking the duckie. The first time we put him in the tub she gave him the worst look and started making loud noises like she was telling him to get the heck out of her bath tub.
- Hallelujah the spit up is almost gone! The other day we drove into downtown Atlanta and when we were getting out of the car I panicked! We had driven the entire way without a bib on her which hasn't happened since she was a month old. We have come a long way and I have a million burp cloths to prove it.
- We have been playing little games like peek a boo with Mary Beth and she loves it!
- Her favorite thing is when we clap and praise her!

The Seven Month photo with the lamb

went downhill very quickly!

Sleeping with her legs straight up in the air

This makes my heart smile

Talk about a getting a crick in your neck, ouch!

Proud to be a sitter

I have been dying to go to Flip Burger (one of my favorite Top Chefs from several seasons ago owns it) and here we are enjoying a Krispy Kreme milkshake, yes it is as good as it sounds.

Proof that you can never have too many accessories. Sweet Lucy let MB borrow her shades and they were a big hit. She even knew how to slowly lower them and look over the top of the rims.

First GT basketball game with the Doyals. MB did not love all the noise of the band/crowd/air horn and everyone looked at me like I was the worst mother ever while she screamed. We may wait a few years before we try it again. Lucy on the other hand loved the game and slept through most of it!

Two of MB's biggest fans, Mimi and Papa. They adore her and the feeling is mutual.

Welcome to my world

My dream is to actually have one

Dan and I were talking about big dreams for our life and he asked me what would you want to accomplish if there were absolutely no limitations? I'm embarassed to admit that the first thing that came to my mind was to win the Biggest Loser! What??? How funny/sad is that??? That dream directly conflicts another dream I have which is to be my wedding weight. I am hoping that this was my first thought becuase I love watching that show. So, that was when I knew I was in big trouble in the dreaming department. I guess I'm too realistic and logical but I want to think bigger than my current capabilities. I am jealous of people who know what they want to do with their life and know how to use their God given talents to do amazing things! We are going to start practicing coming up with big and small dreams for our family so I can become better at this. I will keep you updated with my progress as we go!

One guy who has had a dream for a while and who is seeing his dream become a reality is our friend Ryan Kiesshauer. He is a very talented guy that we had the pleasure of going to college with and he released his very first CD! Check out his music and buy a copy, you will be very glad you did! www.kiesshauer.com I am so pumped for him and can't imagine having such a big dream and seeing it happen at such a young age! I'm inspired!!!!