Nine Months

Since Mallory turned nine months old last week, I guess its time for a 9 mo post. She is just more and more fun every day. We love her to pieces.

She got another good check from the doctor this week. She weighs 21 lb 5 oz so she isn't off the charts anymore. For whatever its worth, she's somewhere in the 75th and 100th percentile
She and I went to have dinner with my friend Monica last night. We met at Monica and Penny's apartment first. Penny is her bulldog. Penny and Mallory were very interested in each other. Mallory would have loved to kiss and hug Penny. She laughed big time when Penny licked her tummy!
Mal sill has just the two bottom teeth, but there are two on the top ready to pop through any day now.
Mallory is an expert at getting into tight spaces. Here she is under the kitchen table yesterday. Last month she and Matthew were in the living room. I thought Matthew was awake. I went to our room for just a second to put something up. When I came back I couldn't see her anywhere. I went into a quick "Baby Jessica in the Well" panic for a few seconds as I woke Matthew up asking where Mallory was since we could hear her but not see her. I think I even looked in the fireplace before realizing that her sounds were coming from behind a chair. She had crawled behind it and was stuck between it and the wall. I look at it now and have no clue how she got back there because an air conditioner filter is filling up the space now.
I'm just a sucker for any picture of these two together. Watching them play and laugh together is the best.
This girl LOVES to eat! If you put her in a high chair you better have some food. She knows what a high chair is for and is not happy if it is not being use for eating. Here she is eating a biter biscuit. They are soooo messy, but sure do keep her happy for a long time.
This girl does NOT like to be still. We have pretty much abandoned the changing table for diapers and dressing. The only way to get her somewhat still is on the floor with a leg across her like Matthew is doing.

Thank you Hannah

My mom gets A LOT of catalogs at her house. She had one from Hannah something. It has some cute things in it, but Mallory has gotten much more joy from the catalog itself this week than if we were to order the $30 sleeper for her.

She also loves this bookmark. I put it away, but she keeps pulling it out of Dee's books.

Happy Birthday Constitution!

With all of the Ike craziness you may have forgotten that today marks the 221st birthday of the US constitution. Mallory is so proud to be an American that she has been celebrating this important day for almost a week. My parents got a pocket sized copy of the constitution in the paper since we've been here. Mallory has been having a great time "reading" it.

I just couldn't keep this picture to myself.

In other news...I am now the owner of a fluorescent pink cast! I was supposed to go back to the doc at home today. Obviously, I wasn't going to make that. I was lucky enough to get in with a doc in Tyler yesterday and he gave me a pretty new accessory. I should only have to wear it for 3 weeks. The best thing about my new cast is that the doc said that I can run with this one. That would be even better news if I had packed my shoes. The worst part of the new cast is that it is scratching Mallory. Seeing little scratches all over her arm and leg make me so sad!!!

The Life of Refugees

Mallory and I are still here at my parents after the storm while Matthew is back home working. He said the storm was pretty rough and that a hurricane is not something he wants to experience again. Thankfully, our apartment seems to be ok. Several other buildings in our complex were damaged, so we are very blessed. Watching the coverage of all of the damage is just amazing.

There is very little power in our part of town, so we don't know how long we'll be here. Until then, Mallory will keep enjoying all of the attention she is getting here from me, Dee, PaPaw, and Aunt Ruby while we miss Matthew.

I thought she was too cute in her blue jean skirt!

One of my favorite pictures ever!

Mallory getting some wisdom from PaPaw...or was it the other way around?

Mallory has been very interested in the end table between mom and dad's chairs. Her she is squeezing to check things out.

I gave Mal some banana tonight for the first time. She had to work VERY hard to pick the pieces off of her tray. I never realized bananas were so slippery. i let her pick them off of my hand and things went much better.

Dad was standing behind me getting some big laughs and smiles from Mal.

In Case You Are Wondering...

Mallory and I left town this morning to get away from Ike.

We were not in an evacuation area, but Matthew will be working 12 hr shifts for the next several days. I did not want to sit through a hurricane with Mallory alone with one good hand. So, we left town this morning and made it to my parents house with no problems (except for the majorly poopy diaper in Conroe).

I'm not sure how long we'll be here. We had a steak dinner tonight where Dad even cut my meat for me (remember, one good hand), so we knows how long stay. Hope you're all safe.

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.