Eight Months

Our baby girl is 8 months old now! I read a description of 8 month olds on a web site a few days ago. It said, "Your baby's now exploring objects by shaking them, banging them, dropping them, and throwing them before falling back on the tried-and-true method of gumming them." That perfectly describes how she likes to play with her toys these days. Here are a few other things about her.

• Mallory is a very speedy and sneaky crawler. We call her our little iguana because she kind of looks like one when she crawls.
• She is pulling up on everything these days.
• She does a pretty good job walking along the couch.
• She is always very interested in what Matthew and I are doing. We love to watch her peek her head towards yot to get a good look at you.
• She does NOT like to sit still. She especially does not like to lay still while getting her diaper changed. This is especially challenging for me since I only have one good hand. If anyone has any tips, please share. Yes, we've tried giving her a toy, hanging something over the changing table, and even strapping her down.
• I fed her some chicken baby food tonight. I'm considering her being a vegetarian for a while because the stuff is so stinky.
• She loves her bottle and her "puffs". We were relieved when we looked at the package and saw that it takes 90 to make a full serving since she will eat a ton of them. It is funny to watch her eat them because she grabs them and stuffs them in her mouth like someone is going to steal them from her.
  

Now what you really want...

Matthew decided to give Mallory a lesson on stairs when we were at Anita's.
Me and my princess at Abby's party.
The princess and her daddy.
Unfortunately Mallory got a cold for her birthday. It made for some very snotty days around here. She's doing much better now.
Dessert!

She discovered how to crawl into the bottom of her saucer this week. Yes, that toy in her hand is a syringe (is that what you call the blue booger getter thingy?). She loves the thing. If you look closely you can see a T on the bottom. That helps us keep the toy one apart from the one we use for snot in case you were worried.

Miss Me?

So, August was a slow blogging month for me. We had a lot going on. Even though it seems like ages ago, it was about a month ago that we moved. I think we are about as settled as we are going to get here in our apartment. Its a small little apartment, but its all we need. I guess it will just make us all the more thankful when we get back in a house.

So, for all who are wondering about my hand. I got to see the ortho last week and thankfully don't need surgery.

That's enough for this boring post. I'm moving on to a Mallory post.

MY CAREER AS A BOXER

So, its been a while since my last post. Our last few weeks have been filled with moving and all the fun associated with it. I could go on and on about all the fun we had moving, wont. we went a few until yesterday without internet at home, now i have a new reason for limited blogging. take a look at this.
I was out for a run last night and tripped. Yes, I am a klutz! Well, my hand was hurting pretty bad and was looking very swollen this morning so we went to the doctor just to make sure it wasn't anything. I had Matthew escort me so he could be my "Joey". (Joey went with Ross to the doc and filled out his forms when he hurt his hand.)

After the dr looked at my x-ray he asked who i punched, because i have a "boxers fracture" in my hand. he went on to tell us that this kind of break often needs surgery if i want my pinkie to work properly. so, i get to see an orthopedic surgeon Tuesday to see about that. until then i have a lovely splint to wear while i try to learn to be left handed while enjoying pain meds. in case you are wondering, i have to wait until Tuesday because of the holiday weekend. if you have any connections to get me in sooner, feel free to share.

when i was four and i broke my arm i thought it was cool that i got a latex glove blown up as a balloon for a souvenir, this time i got a lovely cd with my x rays on it to take to the ortho. after we left matthew said how he was excited we could look at my xrays. i got even more excited when it hit me that i would be able to put them on my blog. matthew said why not since tiffany had tonsils on hers.

sorry about the lack of capitalization. its just too hard one handed. you'll probably have to get used to it for a while.

I Just Can't Resist...

this face

or this sound.

All This For Flair

So, I cave this week and joined Facebook. I was so inspired (jealous) of Kara, Tiffany, and Ashley's flair that I had to join the party. I was very freaked out at first by FB's psychic powers. I couldn't understand how it knew who I knew. Anyways...here's my flair. Good thing my friends aren't into worse things since peer pressure seems to get me. Silly me didn't know all the ins and outs of flair. I signed in and when I saw all the flair, I started adding away. I quickly realized that you have to send flair to and from your friends. I felt a little like I was cheating on blogger by spending so much time on facebook. :)

Don't worry, I still found time to take pictures of Mallory even with all the time wasted on Facebook.
" C'mon Mom, I'll help you pack"

Just as I predicted, Mallory stood on her own yesterday. She's still pretty wobbly, but can get herself up to her leapfrog table all by herself.

One night this we were sitting at our dining room table going over house selling issues with our realtor, Vicky. Mallory was hanging out in her jumper right next to us. Before we knew it, we looked over and found her resting her head on the toys sound asleep. Too bad the flash of the camera woke her up.

SEVEN!

Today marks Mallory's seven month birthday. Life with her just gets better and better. Her biggest accomplishment these days is that she has started to crawl!!!!! On Thursday, I was in her room packing for the weekend. Matthew put her down and started talking to her. She immediately crawled a few feet to him. We were so thankful that we were both home from work to witness this big moment! There is a video of her crawling at the bottom. (I didn't want to move it up and risk losing it).

I love her expression in this picture! Don't let the picture fool you, she is not standing at the leap frog table. But, that might be her next accomplishment.

Anyone want to wager who won this wrestling match?

We weren't sure if Mallory was intentionally sitting herself up or just doing it by accident with all her wiggling. When I found her sitting up in her bed chewing on her flower instead of napping, I knew she knew what she was up to!

This is what her bed looks like most times when she wakes up. She loves to cuddle up in the corner with her arm wrapped around the bumper. I think she must be imagining that the bumper is her mommy! She also like to sleep curled up with her bottom sticking up in the air. Her doctor told me this means she is ready for a sibling. Better keep waiting for that one Mal!

" Just lookin' cute and lovin' my paci!"

TIME TO CHANGE

I’ve been trying to write this post for a while, but haven’t been able to make myself do it. So…here goes. We’re moving! We put our house on the market back in the first half of June. We got an offer this weekend and after going back and forth a bit, we have a contract and are scheduled to close on August 15th. That is sounding really soon to me and there is so much to be done to move, so if you don’t hear from me for a while now you will know why.

We love where we live now. We have great friends and a great church. We love our house. Unfortunately we are 40+ miles from where Matthew works. So, we’ll be moving to an apartment in the “stinky” city where he fights crime. The good thing about this move is that I will get to stay at home with Mallory! Matthew will get to have more time at home with us too since his commute will be so much shorter.

So, like Peter and the rest of the Bradys sang, “When its time to change, you’ve got to rearrange”.

Do-Nuts in Heaven

This morning Harriett brought some do-nuts to the office. As several of us were gathered in the kitchen eating the sweet warm circles of perfection, someone asked "are there do-nuts in heaven?" We quickly decided that YES, there must be Shipley's Do-Nuts in heaven because they are just that good. So what do YOU think is so yummy that we will be enjoying it with God in heaven someday?

Just so you aren't concerned about your church staff, we also decided that if there are no do-nuts in heaven we won't miss them one bit. Who could miss do-nuts when you are spending eternity with God?

What A Catch!

My dad went fishing a couple of months ago and was very proud of his catch.

I went fishing last week and caught me a cutie too!

Now just a few pictures of Mallory looking cute this week.

The Fourth

Mallory and I spent the holiday weekend at my parents house. It was a great weekend full of Fourth of July decorating, watermelon, ice cream, fireworks, and more. The only sad part of it was that Matthew had to stay home and work. We all missed him (and I think he missed us a little too)!

Its getting late, so here's a slide show of some of the highlights from the weekend.

A Whole Half a Year

Mallory turned 6 months old on Saturday. She checked out great at the doctor. She weighed in at 18 lb 10 oz. That is somewhere past the 100th percentile in case you are wondering. She sure has grown a lot since she entered this world at 6 lb 13 oz! I think that was around the 10th percentile.

Since she's 6 months old, here are 6 pictures from the last week or so.

Just chillin' in my saucer.
I have been setting my alarm to get up and run before work for several weeks and for several weeks I've been ignoring it the next morning. So, I found a new running partner tonight. She must have liked it since this is what she looked like when we got home. I don't think we will be running any marathons together, but she'll be a good partner for shorter runs. Pushing the jogger added a whole new aspect to running. Maybe running with her will make up for track workouts.
Mallory started eating baby food this weekend. I think she liked the sweet peas. You can't tell by the picture, but a lot of it actually went in her mouth. She REALLY likes the spoon. We play our own game of tug-o-war with it at each feeding.
This girl would love to crawl! She can get up on her knees and move them a little, but hasn't figured out moving her hands yet.
When you're this roly-poly, the bumbo tends to hang on to your bum!
Feet and toys, what else could a girl ask for?
(yes, the laundry in the chair is clean. i think i was in the process of folding it, but had to take a few pictures of this sweet girl before finishing.)

My New Favorite Show

I have a new favorite TV show. Matthew and I just watched Wipeout. I seriously don't know when I have laughed so hard. I was a little worried that we might wake Mallory up with our belly laughs.

Here's a little sneak peek for you until next week. You don't want to miss it.

Black Clouds Can Have Silver Linings

Even though we felt like there was a black cloud over our house this weekend, we managed to have some fun in the midst of the bad backs, little girls with fevers, truck break in and other not so exciting events. Here are some of the highlights.

PaPaw having a good Saturday morning with his sweeties.
Dad and Nathan proud of their Marble Works creation.
A tubfull!
Finally a picture of the three of us.
Mallory wearing her Astros outfit. They actually won, so she might have to wear it more often.

I Want a Do Over

This was going to be a really fun weekend. Unfortunately, this has not been a red letter week in my family.
The fun started last Sunday when Matthew worked until about 5 am on a missing children case. (yes, the one in the news around here this week. HORRIBLE).
Wednesday was one of his days off that he stays at home with Mallory. That morning he got a call that they needed him to come in to work. So, he and Mallory quickly loaded up and headed across town for him to go to work while she went to see Nana. That afternoon I got a text from him that his back went out. Thankfully, he was able to make it home with Mallory.
Thursday, he was basically S shaped when he tried to stand and unable to take care of Mallory. So, I took her to work for a little while. My parents were planning on coming into town Thursday afternoon, but they were nice enough to come earlier and take care of Mallory while I went back to work.
I had been looking forward to Thursday night for couple of months. Sunday is our 6th anniversary and we had been planning on my parents watching Mallory while we went out for a date. It would have been our first time out just the two of us since Mallory was born. Instead, Mom and I went to HEB. Fun, but not exactly what I had planned.
Meanwhile, Anita, Clay, Nathan, and Abby were supposed to be coming to our house Thursday too. Unfortunately, some sweet person in Dallas thought that he really needed Clay's computer out of Clay's locked truck. So, Clay was stuck at home working to get caught up after his computer was stolen and Anita and the kids came without him.
Today when I was on my way home from work I got a call from Matthew. I could tell something was wrong because he said I needed to get some vaseline before I came home. Since Abby is usually the sick one when we are together, I asked if she had a fever. Nope, our sweet little Mallory was the sick one this time. When I got here and took her temperature it was 104.3! I did not like watching the thermometer go up and up and up. So, we got to take Mallory to the after hours dr this evening. She really loved her time there, especially having her blood drawn. Everything came up clear and it looks like she just has a virus. I knew she would be sick some day, but I don't like it one bit!
Everyone was coming to our house this weekend so we could go to Laura's wedding tomorrow. Right now, I'm not sure if I'll get to go or not. So, can we have a do over for this week????

Ahhhh!!!!!

To the people bidding on the car seats on ebay when there are hours and hours left, STOP!!!! You are only driving the prices up for all of us!

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. I can go to sleep now.

Splish Splash

I bought a new bath seat for Mallory on ebay last week and we have used it the last few nights. Now that she is sitting up in the water, bath time is a whole new experience. I had been telling Matthew since then that I couldn't wait for him to be home and see her in the tub.

Sunday night, she discovered the water and was making little splashes with her hands. Tonight we added the bath toys that Nathan picked out and gave her for Christmas. She really liked them. I really liked them too, especially the cup with holes in it that I could use to shower her.

Mommy having fun with the bath toys

Mallory having fun with the bath toys.

Its A Small World

We have been talking about selling our treadmill for a while. This morning Matthew put an ad up on Craigslist for it. Shortly after lunch he had already gotten several emails about it. To be fair, he responded to the first one he received and sent her directions to our house. The lady called later and said she knew just where that was since she lives on the other end of our street! Out of the whole greater Houston area, what are the odds of that?!?

If blogger will ever cooperate with me, I'll share some funny pictures of Mallory from the bathtub.

What Year Is It?

On the radio this morning they were talking about how to win New Kids on the Block tickets. 104 will be at SplashTown doing some kind of contest to give away tickets sometime soon. Seriously, I felt like I was back in 5th or 6th grade! Gotta go find me some Hammer Pants...





For those of you not from around here, SplashTown was just a few minutes away from our house growing up and was very popular back then. I'm sure it still is, but I'm pretty sure I haven't been since the 8th grade.

Gimme Five

Mallory turned 5 months old last week. Sometime around then she really "found her voice"! She loves to squeal and shriek. Tonight while I was fixing dinner Matthew asked me if I brought home a stray cat today. Nope, just sweet little Mallory. Some nights she takes after her cousin Abby and will lay in her bed "talking" for a while before going to sleep.

Another thing she is into is sucking on her index finger and sometimes the middle one too. We think its pretty cute. She also likes to make raspberries with her lips. She was getting so loud with it this evening and the spit was flying. It reminded me of what one of my roommates in college always said when people (Matthew) sneezed really loudly, "do you serve beach towels with those ocean waves?"

I also learned this week that she is a very heavy sleeper. On Sunday night Matthew called me on my cell phone after Mallory had gone to bed. I ran into the living room because that was where I heard the ring coming from. I looked and looked, but did not see my phone anywhere. What I did see was the monitor all lit up. Yep, I had left my cell phone on the edge of Mallory's crib. I immediately dashed in her room and grabbed my phone. I think I saw her big eyes looking up at me, but I never heard a peep out of her. Maybe she thought it was just a dream, or she is just used to her mommy doing silly things.

Fun Fun Fun

We have just had two super fun weekends back to back. Last weekend my parents came in town for the holiday weekend and we got to have good times with them and lots of special friends. Unfortunately, I didn't get the camera out much that weekend.

This weekend, Anita, Nathan, and Abby came to visit. We had a blast!

Friday, they got to stay home with Mallory while I was at work. I couldn't wait to get home and get in on all the fun they were having with out me.


Friday afternoon Mallory came over and took pictures of the kids. She got some great ones and has a few on her blog. Man, is it hard to get three kids to all look in the same direction at the same time.

One of the big reasons they came to visit was so that Anita and I could do a run together. We had been wanting to run a race together for a long time. We were registered for a 10k last spring, but I found out I was pregnant a few days before and wasn't able to run it. This was my first race since having Mallory so it was special for two reasons. Here we are after finishing the Astros annual Race for the Pennant 5k. Thanks to Matthew for staying home with all three kids so Anita and I could do this together.
Saturday, the kids had lots of fun playing before having a gourmet lunch of hot dogs. I was proud because this was the first time I had used the grill myself, and nothing caught fire.
Saturday afternoon we went over to our friends the Erwins to go swimming. It took us almost 2 hours to get there. All I'll say about that is there were several stops and a Sonic that is definitely on my black list now. If you local friends want to know which one, its the one in front of a Target.

After we finally got there, it was great fun with great friends. Nathan and Abby loved the swimming of course. Mallory was pretty indifferent to the pool. I think we'll wait a little while before swimming again since it sure is a lot of work getting her in the pool for something she didn't care much about.
I got a few other pictures of Mallory by the pool, but I don't think the grown up holding her would appreciate her swim suit picture for all the world to see. There is also a lovely picture of Mallory and I asleep by the pool that may never see the light of day again.
Thankfully our drive home didn't take near as long, but it was long enough for all of our passengers to fall asleep. Don't you spend your Sunday mornings in the kitchen on your Barbie scooter wearing your Disney princess night gown while carrying your shiny silver purse?

Thanks for making the trip down to see us. We love you and sure had a great time. Now I'm off to clean up all the evidence of our weekend.