5 Months Old

Wow! Kirksey, five months ago you were born! You have changed SO much since then. It has not always been easy to see the day to day change, but looking back it is HUGE.

Back then...

And today

So, what are you up to these days?

You still wear some of your 0-3 month clothes, but are starting to fill out more of your 3-6 month outfits. You are a petite little girl. I have so much fun putting little dresses on you, you always look so adorable in them. I love seeing you in the little smocked dresses!

You wear size 2 diapers. You are getting really good at having blow-outs too. It is funny how you don't miss a beat when you are eating to completely fill up your diaper. (You get that from your daddy!) Needless to say, we go through our fair share of laundry stain removing spray!

You have been sleeping so good the last couple of weeks. I don't have to feed you in the middle of the night anymore. Most nights over the past week you have even slept straight through to the morning! You usually get nap in the morning that last anywhere between an hour to two hours. We are still working on getting a good nap in the afternoon though. You like to take little cat naps later in the day.

You give the BIGGEST smiles and I absolutely LOVE them! You really do smile with your whole face and your eyes can light up the room, along with my heart. I mean, just look at you...

You are getting pretty good at sitting, but you still need support. You have started to use your arms to help prop yourself up.

You are getting closer to crawling. You will hold your top half up with your arms and start moving your legs, but you can only really get one end moving at a time so far. Don't worry though, you will be crawling around in no time.

You still love to be held while we are standing up. Somehow you have always known when we sit down and you immediately let us know that you want us standing instead. We have tried to trick you lots of times, but it never very rarely works.

You really like to stand up too. Your little legs are so strong. I think you are going to be athletic. You have so much fun the the baby einstein exersauser.

You have found your feet and toes. You like to get them up to your mouth...you like to get everything up to your mouth these days.

You are starting to reach for anything I happen to be holding or walk by. You have also started to reach out to your daddy and I when you want us to pick you up.

I think you are much closer to getting your first tooth. You are always sucking on your fingers, drooling a lot, and just over the past few days you have started to "grind" your gums. However, no teeth are in view yet.

You have been eating rice cereal once a day for about the last month. We are slowly adding in a second feeding of rice cereal everyday now. Soon we are going to try your first "real" foods!
You love music. It can almost always soothe you.

You are starting to laugh, and I mean belly laughs. It is definitely among the sweetest sounds in the entire world! We have only gotten you to laugh a few times. Daddy has gotten you to laugh by tickling you and sweeping the patio with a broom. I have gotten you to laugh by shaking a garbage bag. You keep us on our toes to figure out what will make you laugh next! Here's a little video clip from just the other day of you laughing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxKGGNkxCKg

We love you SO much! We are overflowing with the joy you give us each and every day. We love all the little moments we get to share with you. Your daddy and I talk about how fast you are growing up and how much we love the stage you are in, then you change a little and we say the same thing all over again!

Vacation

Wow, it has been a while since my last post. We went out of town the weekend before Easter and are just now getting caught up. We have had showings for our house 4 out of the last 5 days, and even have an open house tomorrow, so we have been busy.

Well, we took Richard's second week of paternity leave last week (we had saved it to use as a vacation/house looking trip). Our vacation did not feel much like a vacation though. Although we got to spend time with friends and family, which was wonderful, it was still a very stressful week.

We started off on Friday afternoon (April 15th) and headed to Knoxville, TN to see our sweet friends Ramey and Brent and their new baby boy, Hampton! It was SO good for all four six of us to be together! Here's a few pictures from our overnight stay in Knoxville. Ramey has some better pictures of the babies on her camera, so I will add those when she posts or sends them.

The first time they met...

You can't really tell here since the picture is so blurry, but Hampton looks so much like his dad!



The guys hanging out once again...just this time with babies. Notice Hampton in the chair on the floor, Kirksey in Richard's lap, bottle on the end-table, and the Baby Einstein video on the tv screen. Do you think they pictured this would be the case the first time we all were able to get together again?

Brent snapped this picture and I think it scared Kirksey!

Take two

All of us after brunch just before we got back on the road.



Our next stop was Memphis, TN to look for houses. We looked at about 30 houses over the 3 days we were in Memphis. We saw everything from brand new, really nice houses to kinda creepy houses, and even one that looked like it could be on the show "Hoarders". Poor little Kirksey got toted around for 2 of those days. She did well, for a baby in a car seat ALL day long. I felt bad for her though. We definitely wore her out and she did not wake up one time that Monday night. Long story short, we did find one that we liked and we made an offer on it, but that house is not going to work out. So the looking continues.

 (Some of these pictures were taken with phones, so they aren't the best quality.)

Mimi and Papa came to watch Kirksey while we were looking at houses on Sunday.

Emmy, Libby, Neely, and Cassie (Neely's friend) also came for a quick visit on Sunday.

Kirksey liked the piano at Madelyn's house!

Our next stop was Birmingham for a night. We had dinner with Mammaw, Michael, and my parents. It was a short stay in Birmingham this time, but it was really good to see everyone.

 Mammaw rocking Kirksey

We had to get a picture of Kirksey and Maci together

Poor thing so worn out

Then we headed on to Brooksville, MS for the rest of the week through Easter. Other than me being completely tired and stressed over the house situation, I really enjoyed being back in the country! I got to ride on the mule again (which Kirksey loved) and even fished a little. I did catch one, but it jumped off at the last second (which might have had something to do with me not paying attention while fishing and screaming when it startled me that I had something on the end of my line) I guess I need more practice fishing, ha!

Emmy and Aunt Bee hanging out with Kirksey

I thought she looked so cute with her sun hat on



  

Chillin' with cousin Neely by the pond

Meeting cousin Audrey Neel

Our first Easter as a family of 3

Beautiful Kirksey!



MIA

On a lighter note, but still sad, we lost Kirksey's favorite toy. We were shopping today and it was in the carseat/stroller with her. Next thing I knew, it was nowhere to be found. Could she really already know how to toss something out of her carseat? And how did I miss it? I am still baffled. I was "that" mom searching the floors of Target and the other 2 stores in the mall that we had gone in. I even asked a couple of the employees at each place if they had seen it, but no such luck. I guess we will just have to get another one.

Accident

I know every parent has a first "scare" with their child. Well, we had ours last night. I was driving home from my soccer game when Richard called me to tell me that Kirksey had just fallen off the couch. She had been taking a catnap and Richard had really been watching her so carefully since she was on the couch. She looked like she was "out", so he took the opportunity to get her rice cereal ready for when she woke up. And then, he heard a thump and she started crying. We just know she scared herself with the fall. Richard looked her over really good from head to toe and she just had a little red spot on her head (which also could have been from the position she had been napping in). She was still acting completely normal. We called the pediatrician to see what things we would need to watch for, just to be on the safe side. We set an alarm to wake us up so we could wake her if needed throughout the night. However, she decided she was ready to eat earlier than when the alarm was set. Thankfully she was and is just fine!  I don't think I will ever forget how scared both Richard and I felt. Just the thought of something serious coming from it, makes my eyes start to tear up. I'm sure there will be plenty more times when something happens and we are worried about her. And that there is no way to protect her from everything. All we can do is pray that God will keep her safe throughout her life.

 

4 Month Check-up

Kirksey had her 4 month check-up today, which meant another round of shots. :(

She did cry pretty hard when she was getting them, but just after I got her back in my arms she stopped crying. (She sure knows how to make her mom feel good!)

Here are her stats:

Weight: 12 lbs 0 oz---15th percentile

Length: 23 inches---10th percentile

Head: 15 3/4 inches---21st percentile

The pediatrician said that she looks great! She is right on track developmentally! He even thought she is starting to teethe...yikes!

Richard took this video of Kirksey laughing the other day. It is precious!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8VdBuS88n8

Big Weekend

Go ahead and get comfortable, this is going to be one LONG post with LOTS of pictures. Stephanie and her daughter, Kate, came in town Friday night for a long weekend to visit and meet Kirksey. We did a LOT over the past few days. 

On Saturday morning we got up early and headed to Mt. Pleasant for the Bridge Run. This is the 3^rd year in a row that I have run it, and by far the hardest. (I guess having a baby 4 months ago has a little effect on the body, ha!) We still did pretty well. We ran all the 6.2 miles except the actual suspension of the bridge, which is only about 0.5-0.7 miles I think. Richard loaded up Kirksey and Kate and met us after the race downtown in Marion Square. He did much better than I expected him to do with getting two little girls ready, by himself, and down to meet us. I already knew that he was a wonderful dad/husband, but he keeps showing how awesome he truly is.

Cheering Mom on!

Stephanie and Kate

Nicole and Mills

Kirksey and Me

Our little family

Nicole, Me, Ashley, and Stephanie all ran together this year

Bridge runners!

The whole gang

Sweet friends and their girls!

On Sunday, after church, we went to Folly Beach for the first time. Stephanie and Kate had a blast playing on the beach. Kirksey liked the sand on her feet and standing in the “pool” of water. Of course, we already knew she would like the water since she likes baths so much. We didn’t try out the waves this time. We will wait for the water to get a little warmer for that.

I think she likes it!

Cute baby feet

It wouldn't have been complete without some spit-up

Stephanie and Kate playing in the pool of water

Kirksey and Daddy

So sweet

Then on Sunday night Kirksey had rice cereal for the first time! The first bite she seemed a little skeptical/curious, but then she started diving toward the spoon. She has had it one time each night since and is really getting good at eating from a spoon. Well, as good as an infant learning to eat “food” can be!  

"YUM!"

On Monday, we went down to the little pond in our neighborhood with the Wallace’s. We fed bread to the turtles and fish (well, the bread that Mills and Kate decided not to eat!). Then we played with sidewalk chalk and bubbles. We all had a good time. It is so fun watching little kids interact with each other. Kirksey was very excited with all the activities. She kept “stepping” with her feet.

Feeding the fish and turtles

Or eating the bread

Checking it all out

Sweet neighbors/friends

The kiddos had so much fun

The bubbles were a hit!

Kate got so excited!

Nicole let us borrow their Baby Einstein Exersaucer to see if Kirksey likes it...

Kate showing Kirksey how to play

 I think we are going to need to invest in one of these.

 Last picture before I had to take Stephanie and Kate to the airport today. Kate loved holding Kirksey.

We are so glad they came to visit!