First Family Trip

Lissie's six month birthday coincided with the wedding of one of my best friends (who just happens to be Lissie's godmother) in Indianapolis. What better way to celebrate Lissie's half birthday than to take our first family trip?

Justin and I were very nervous about how the trip would go: How would Lissie fare with the six hour car ride? Can we fit all of her gear in our car? How would Justin handle being the sole caretaker for one night as I spent the night with the rest of the bridesmaids before the wedding? How would I handle leaving Lissie for a night, for that matter?

All that fretting ended up being for nothing!

Lissie did great during the ride both to and from Indy. I was nervous when we stopped an hour into the trip to feed her:

but we made great time as Lissie was content in her car seat, either playing with her toys or sleeping.

We did, though, end up renting an SUV seeing as it seemed like we packed up all of Lissie's belongings for our four day trip. But...ahem...guess who forgot the stroller? We ended up buying a small umbrella one and, as you can see, we did some other shopping as well:

The first night we were there, we met up with my cousin who just happened to live really close to the hotel that we were staying at. She met Lissie for the first time, and showed us what Lissie would look like in a few years when she grows her hair:

On Friday, after a yummy breakfast at Cafe Patachou, I said my goodbyes to Justin and Lissie as I left to hang out with the bride and the bridesmaids for lunch and a relaxing afternoon at the nail salon. I reconnected with Justin and Lissie at the rehearsal dinner before leaving them to stay the night with the gals at our suite. Justin enjoyed his one-on-one time with his daughter, while I enjoyed being daughter-free for a night.

(Lissie's mismatched Punky Brewster-esque outfit that Daddy put her in, despite the fact that I put each outfit in its own baggie!)

Pics from the rehearsal dinner:

The next day was the wedding! It was a beautiful, joyous ceremony and the reception was a blast. Despite wanting to eat her shoes at the church, Lissie, especially, had a great time kicking it on the dance floor and making new friends:

We woke up bright and early on Sunday to go to Mass and check out the H&M store (!) before heading home. Lissie had her first Mickey D's experierence en route:

We also stopped by the cemetery to pay our respects to Justin's mom.

All in all, it was a fabulous first family trip!

Dear Lissie - Six Months

Dear Lissie,

I apologize for being a few days late in my letter, but as you know we went on a family trip during your six month birthday and blogging just wasn't going to happen!

But, sheesh. I never knew that half a year could fly by so quickly.

I also never knew that someone so little could accomplish so much in six amazing short months! Here's what happened this month alone:

* You've turned into a rolling machine! You rarely stay on your activity mat anymore, and Daddy and I had to invest in a foam alphabet mat so that you won't hit your sweet head on our tough hardwood floors. Your mobility, though, made being diaper-less this past week (a recommendation by your pediatrician after you developed a nasty rash ) an extra interesting experience!

* You're also a talented sitter! I still get nervous and stay super close in case you topple over, but you've gotten the art of sitting down pat. I read somewhere that this means that crawling is next. Oh, dear - time to invest in those baby gates....

* You are a social butterfly! Somehow you manage to have some sort of activity planned every day...whether it be a playgroup, a playdate, storytime at the library, or a walk in the park in your stroller with your friends! I've had to add a special family calendar app on my phone to keep track of your schedule, haha.

And, of course, some of my favorite pics of this month:

You can sit up, empty out your toys, AND play the drums using your toy basket.

Relaxing in the park swing.

Sporting your new leg warmers with Olivia the Owl.

Tired after an exhausting workout in your jumparoo.

Tired after an exhausting jog in the park.

Oh, Lissie. You are too much. But we love you. So, so much. Seriously, though, slow down with the growing up okay?

Love,

Mommy

Officially a Sitter!

At Lissie's four-month checkup, the doc said that she'll be looking for Lissie to sit on her own by her next visit.

Challenge accepted.

Lissie and I have been practicing our sitting skills ever since then:

Propped up on her dino/dragon thing....

With Sophie....

With Pooh and her Boppy pillow

And, finally last Saturday, we started to make significant progress:



So much so that we tried sitting in the shopping cart on Sunday:

But we still weren't quite ready, as you can see by her lean.

Fast forward just three days later...

She can sit up AND empty out all of the contents of her toy basket!

She can sit up in the shopping cart without leaning! (She got startled/confused when an announcement was made on the loudspeaker.)

And she can sit up on her activity mat and practice her boxing skills:



Way to go, Lissie! See? Practice makes perfect...and we're still a few weeks away from your 6-month doctor's visit!

Doggie Love

In the past month or so, Lissie has finally begun to realize that she shares a home with a dog. Whenever she hears the combination of his paw-nails clicking on the hardwood floors and the jingling of his collar, she stops what she's doing to stare at Rupert. She's even begun to reach out to touch him, and he's been nothing but accepting of this newfound love.

P.S. Don't mind that Lissie's just wearing a bib in most of these. She is very drool-y these days (we think she's teething, yikes!), and Mommy's tired of changing her outfits multiple times a day!

Dear Lissie - Five Months

Dear Lissie,

In this last month alone, you've grown up so much! How did you manage to do that? You met your friend Baby J who was born last month, and you look like you could eat her up, you're so big compared to her!

After seeing little Baby J, Daddy and I looked back at your newborn pics and couldn't even recognize that baby in those pictures. You've grown and changed so much!

Here are some things that have happened this last month:

* you love your toys. You didn't used to like toys that much, but now you can't get enough of them. Your favorites are your Sophie giraffe, your links, and your new dino that was supposed to be a Christmas gift but I couldn't wait.

* You can read. Well, you at least love storytime at the library and your crinkly cloth books. You even like to read to your friend Sophie. Sometimes you even fall asleep while reading. I think you're gonna be a bookworm like your mama!

* You've discovered, not only your hands, but your feet! The video below doesn't show it, but you've also gotten pretty good at putting your toes in your mouth.



* You can do the Hokey Pokey. You love this silly song/dance and can't get enough of it. Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes is a close second favorite.

* You met your future husband, maybe. You even tried to console him when he was sad. How considerate of you.

* The biggest thing, though, that has happened this month is that you were finally ready to sleep in your crib at night. A few nights ago we tried Round Two (click here if you missed the post). It only took a few days for you to sleep through the night completely (from 9pm-8am!) Sometimes we have to go in your room to give you a paci, but overall you're a Crib-Sleeping Pro!

Oh, Lissie, before we know it you'll be moving on to a big girl bed. Please stop growing so quickly.

I love you.

Love,

Mommy

P.S. Here are a few more of my favorite pictures this month.

Round Two

In case you need a refresher, click here for a recap of what happened in Round One of Lissie and the Swing vs. Mommy and Crib.

Since almost two months has passed since that first attempt, I was finally ready to brave Round Two. I thought that Lissie would be ready, as well, as she now has almost five months of living under her belt which would make her old and wise...right?

So, again, imagine boxing announcer Michael Buffer proclaiming "It's time for Round Two of...

Lissie and the Swing

vs. Mommy and the Crib."

Let me preface by saying that Lissie is now pretty familiar with her crib. She takes most of her naps there, ranging from 30 minutes to 2+ hours. So sleeping there at night shouldn't so bad, right? After all, she sleeps through the night (from 9pm - 7:30am) in her swing so it shouldn't be too much of a difference....

So last night, as per usual, we fed her at 8:15, gave her a bath, said our prayers, and she was in bed at 9pm. IN HER CRIB. No complaints!

Justin and I were ecstatic! Hurray! We did it!

Yeah. Well, I guess she thought that she was just taking an extra long nap because she woke herself back up at 12:30am. When we tried to view her on the video monitor, she wasn't anywhere in sight. Justin went in her room, only to find that she had managed to scoot herself out of view from the camera and in a 90 degree angle from where we had originally placed her. And, after a few shushes, Justin was able to soothe her back to sleep. Not bad, we thought.

Umm. She woke up again at 3:30am. It was my turn. Luckily, she just wanted a pacifier and went back to sleep right away. Okay, not the greatest....but we'll take it.

Hmmm....who decided to wake up at 5:30am and didn't want to go back to sleep AT ALL despite a diaper change, rocking, shushing, and, yes, even putting her in her swing? You guessed it: Lissie! She had somehow convinced herself that it was playtime and was practicing her rolling techniques. It's a good thing she's cute because otherwise it would've been very annoying.

So, yeah, despite the early wake-up call,this wasn't nearly as painful as Round One. And, I feel that after a few nights of this she'll eventually get back to sleeping through the night again in her new location.

We still made progress. Baby steps, right?