6 Month Pictures

Happy 6 Month Birthday Tessa!

She's mostly sitting up unasssisted in these pics and even tried the big girl highchair at Chili's today!

Here's our attempt at trying to include the dogs in her 6 month pics..

We went shopping with Mom and Becky today (they are on fall break) The Christmas shopping has officially begun!

Tessa Vision

By popular demand- another video. Here' proof that Tessa takes after her Mom in more ways than one, she loves to eat!

Fun Weekend, More Pics

Hey everyone, Tessa here! We've had a fun weekend. Mommy's friend Blythe got married yesterday, so Friday night we all went to a pre-wedding hayride and party. I was all bundled up in my hat and sweater but it was still cold, thank goodness there was a warm fireplace. Daddy made smores while I stared at the flames, they are so cool.

Then yesterday Mommy and Daddy went away to Blythe's wedding and I stayed with Mamaw! Mommy was gone for 7 whole hours...the longest she's ever been away from me. Mommy was so excited to have grown up time, they stayed out late and drank a bunch of wine. Grown ups are weird. I don't know why they would want to go out when Mamaw and I were having such a good time....she gave me bananas, took me on a walk and brought me a sack full of new clothes. She's a pretty cool lady.

Mamaw brought me leopard print pants and a pumpkin hat- I'm now officially the cutest baby in town

Lunch time- I like avocados, bananas, sweet potatos and butternut squash...all homeade by my personal chef

I can roll around backwards nowadays, until I get backed into a corner and have to scream for help

Mommy and Blythe and the hayride party

Introducing..

Zackary Alexander
Born 10/9/07
7lb, 15 oz- 19.75 inches
Tessa's new baby cousin who lives in Seattle (son of Jeremy's sister Carrie). We can't wait to meet him in December! Mommy and baby are reported to be doing well.

Seasons and Families Keep Changing

Wow this weather has been crazy. Just two days ago it hit 90 degrees here in Indy...in October! Well a cold front has come through and according to the weather man it's here to stay, so it's finally Fall weather!

Tessa wanted to show off her cute fall outfit she wore to stroller aerobics this morning. There was a picture with me too but given the baseball hat and lack of makeup I decided against it :)
There's a radio station in town that has started playing Christmas music already, can you believe it? I guess it's coming sooner than we think!

Tessa has a new cousin Zachary in Seattle who was born yesterday. We're awaiting pictures- will post as soon as we get them! And I hope I'm allowed to say this but she's getting another new cousin soon too!! Yes my brother continues to add to his brood- blog regulars know our nephews Mark and Bob from their occasional pictures. Becky will be having another baby sometime around June 1st. Yay!!

Go Boilers!

Tessa is sending good vibes for the Purdue v. Ohio State game :)

ARGH!

Well we were finally affected by one of these flipping toy recalls. We have these Baby Einstein blocks and when I entered our cereal number into the website (www.kidsii.com) it said remove the blue block...yes only the blue one...from our home immediately.

All I can say is..what the french, toast??

More Videos?

I just deleted my last post with Hayden licking Tessa's face off. I didn't think it was too great so I've replaced it with a better one here. How many videos can I take of Tessa sitting in her walker and squealing at the dogs?...probably a hundred a day. You just let me know when you get tired of it ;) ....

Another Day at Our House

I was hoping to get Tessa to giggle at the dogs which she likes to do from time to time. After about 10 videos I decided this one was pretty cute anyway. Excuse the poor quality as once again this is shot on our regular camera. I don't think it's too bad but Jer insists it's horrible and warrents the purchase of a video camera for Christmas. We'll see how that goes for him.

New Blender

This is seriously an exciting day here at our house. Behold the new wonder of wonders, and I didn't even have to wait until Christmas.

**Insert angelic choral crescendo**

Is it sad that this beautiful commercial grade blender has made my week, perhaps my entire October? Perhaps but when pureeing sweet potatos yesterday with the old one it began to make the most obnoxious mechanical grinder noises and I thought for sure it was going to burst into flames and burn down the kitchen. Thank goodness for the good timing....eventhough he's in CA Jeremy new we would need a new one soon and this amazingly showed up on our doorstep this morning.

Mealtime Pics

Now that the camera is back home I had to capture some of this cuteness. Tessa is loving her avocados and is eating more and more every day. She's really getting the hang of this eating thing!

Tessa's First Meal

...well first meal not at the 'breastaraunt'.

That's right- Tessa is officially eating! After research I decided to forgo the rice cereal (it can cause alot of constipation, colick, etc) and go for veggies and fruits.

So today I got the highchair out of storage, broke out some never used bibs and our new baby spoons and Tessa has some pureed avocados for lunch. Avocados are really nutritious and bland and a first food that alot of folks recommend. She loved it! She would have kept eating had I not cut her off, and I think she was equally as interested in gnawing on the spoon as actually eating.

So she gets avocados this week and sweet potatoes next week (assuming I get a new blender that can actually handle sweet potatoes without catching fire....hint hint Jeremy :)

Sorry no pictures- Jeremy still has the camera in Canada. I'll get some soon!

Tessa goes International

Tessa made her first international trip this weekend, well if Canada counts as international. Jeremy is in Ottawa for business this week so we joined him for a long weekend. What a beautiful city! We walked around and saw the sights, took a river boat tour, and ate good food (note to self- babies who like to scream and squeal with joy shouldn't be taken into romantic style restaurants).

Tessa and I travelled back by ourselves yesterday which made for a long day but was not bad at all. We of course spent many more hours in airports than on planes! Yes Tess had to get a baby passport with a tiny passport photo- so cute! And the funny thing is that it lasts until she's 5 years old.

We're all very tired today but getting back to normal. The dogs were very happy to be picked up at 'doggy jail' this morning!

Fun with the hotel crib

We forgot to take Flat Stanley sightseeing with us so our pics for Room 42 included some 'Fat Baby' shots instead


Showing off some of her fall clothes!
This COULD be a good pic- anyone know how to Photoshop my eyes open?




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New Ducky Pics

Yes I realize that I have been pretty bad about keeping up on the Ducky pics....Oops! I will try to do better in the future. But for some perspective here' a look back you might enjoy...

Tessa with Ducky 1 week

5 weeks

And taken today at 5 Months! Can you tell who's teething?

5 Month Photo Shoot

Well now that Tessa is 5 months old (can you believe it!) we had to get some official 5 month photos, again foregoing the expense of a real photographer. The pink dress is actually my baptism dress from when I was a baby. Enjoy!

Tessa and I attended our first MOPS meeting this morning, which just restarted with the school year. It was really cool, there were alot of ladies that I already knew from church. Today was just an introduction to the group and some crafty things. Tessa hung with some of her baby friends in the church nursery. Click here to read more about MOPS International.



You can see the main reason Tessa doesn't wear many dresses- they end up in her mouth!
By the time we got to this outfit it was meltdown time....

Roll Over

It doesn't get much better than this

Cry It Out- Night #4

With Tessa's recent sleep occassional sleep issues (ocassional meaning sometimes she sleeps through the night, and sometimes she wakes up 5 times!) we decided to pick a bedtime strategy and go with it for consistency.

We know she will wake up between 3-4:30 hungry for a feeding, that's just a fact. We also know that if she wakes up and fusses before that that she's almost never hungry...just awake and unhappy, usually chewing on her hand because her paci has fallen out and she wants it back.

So our new strategy is this. If she wakes up and starts to fuss we let her cry for 2 minutes (the idea is then build up to 4 min, 6 min, 8...). When we do have to go tend to her we will NOT get her out of her crib unless it's a dire situation. We rub her tummy, plug in her paci and sing to her.

And guess what- it's working! The first night she wimpered herself back to sleep the third time she woke up- before her two minutes was up. In the two nights since she has been doing well- a couple times she's needed tending to and a couple of times she's cried herself back to sleep. Yay!

I've tried to implement the same technique at nap time and have decided it's really best for her to nap in her crib if possible (instead of in the swing, carseat, pack n' play or on the couch) because she sleeps longer. Twice this week she's taken a 2+ hr nap and you know what?...on those days she's super happy and not fussing much. nappy baby = happy baby....why did it take us so long to figure this out?

Tessa also watched her first Baby Einstein this week. She was mesmorized by it- it's like baby crack! I don't want her to watch it too much but I think we will start to add it in once in a while. And maybe it will make her a genius...who knows.

Sorry no pics. I should have gotten one of her yesterday in her hoody sweatshirt. Fall is here!

Signs You Might be a Country Boy...

Finally!

...I stepped on the scale this morning and the baby weight is officially gone! I now weigh what I weighed at my first doctor's appointment last August. It sure took long enough!

As you can see I've got a long way to go still but that's all my fault, I can no longer blame Tessa for it :) I've been going to the Thurs morning WW meeting faithfully every week and there are quite a few ladies who look forward to seeing Tessa and fussing over her. I think doing WW while nursing makes it alot easier as I get 10 extra points (about 500 calories) above the average member, so I really can't complain. So I'd like to use that to my advantage and get off as much weight as I can while still nursing.

Now I don't feel so bad about skipping stroller aerobics this morning. Tessa had a rough night last night so we just didn't make it! She was chomping her hands pretty hard yesterday so I think it's her teeth. I gave her some teething drops this morning now of course she's snoozing away. I guess it would be smart to sneak a nap while the moment is opportune.

Just had to brag :)

Tee Hee

Funny video about breastfeeding...Enjoy