Seven Months

Yesterday, Vivi turned seven months old. It amazes me how quickly time passes by and things change. Vivi continues to achieve new milestones and discover new things about the world around her. Here is what Vivi is doing at seven months.

• Has 2 teeth!
• Still likes to watch Wonder Pets! and LOVES the theme song. She starts to smile every time she hears it.
• Goes to bed at 9ish and wakes up at 8ish.
• Puts herself to sleep every night and at nap time. She really loves her crib, and her sleep, much like mommy and daddy!
• Takes 3 naps a day: one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and a catnap in the evening.
• LOVES food! Right now she is eating oatmeal and rice cereals, peas, carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, bananas, apples, avocados, pears, peaches, mango, papaya, and yogurt.
• Loves her blankie.
• Has great taste in music. She will kick her little feet to the beat. Don't know where she gets that from.
• Loves her brothers! She is very interested in Drake and Winston. Winnie loves her and loves the attention more. Drake is very protective of her, but not so interested in the hair pulling.
• Loves going for walks in her stroller. She is so interested in the world around her.
• Will lunge for your Blackberry if she sees it light up...and then puts it in her mouth.
• LOVES other babies.
• Loves reading books. We are making our way through the book of Haans Christian Andersen stories. We have a book worm on our hands!
• Loves to exercise her vocal chords. She is making all sorts of sounds, its only a matter of time before the words start flowing!
• Is learning baby sign language. We are working on hungry, sleepy, and diaper.
• Can sit up pretty well on her own, but is still pretty wobbly. It helps if she has a toy to distract her.
• Can roll over from her back to her belly and her belly to her back. She can move pretty effectively around the room and gets up on her knees occasionally.
• Can stand up when holding onto something.
• Loves to be outside.
• Still wears 3-6 month clothes and size 2 diaper.
• Loves when Daddy sings one of his many made up songs.

I love this little princess so much!

Teething

Vivi now has 2 teeth! She was such a trooper as these 2 teeth came in. We had some grump-a-lump-ous moments but for the most part she was all smiles as usual. Right now she is trying to chew on anything and everything. I have bought a lot of different teething toys in the hopes that she will instantly like one of them but she seems content to chew on whatever comes her way, although a human finger seems to be her favorite choice. Her favorite things include Sophie the Giraffe and her Taggies blanket. I have heard good things about the wooden teething toys but have yet to purchase one. We survived teething with Teething Tablets and of course handy dandy Tylenol. Hopefully the teething monster will not be back for a couple months, we are enjoying having our happy girl back!!

Nana Visits

This week we have been so lucky to have my mom, Vivi's Nana, visit for a week. It has been so nice to have her here helping out with Vivi and making our lives a little less hectic, if only for a short time. Trey and I are going to miss the delicious home cooked meals and Vivi will miss having her Nana to play with every day.

Mom got in on Monday afternoon, and after getting briefly lost on DFW's mazes of highways found our house. Vivi was so happy to see her that she reached for her as soon as she arrived, and proceeded to rest her little head on her shoulder. I love when Vivi does this to me, so I can only imagine how happy that made my mom. I know that it was the highlight of her day.

The rest of the week has gone by in a blur, unfortunately both Trey and I had to work all week. I was lucky enough to get Good Friday off of work, so Mom, Vivi and I headed up to Southlake for a little shopping. The Town Center is full of temptations, and JCrew ended up being my soft spot. We also found the cutest summer clothes for Vivi at Janie and Jack, who always has adorable children's clothes.

After our fun day of shopping we loaded up the car for the weekend and headed out of town. We headed up to the Lawton ranch, so that we could show my mom a new part of the country. This was her first trip to Oklahoma! The first time I went to the ranch I called her to tell her where I was going, and she couldn't believe I was driving "all the way to Oklahoma"! The weather was perfect for a ranch trip, the night sky was so clear you could see the stars. Friday night we grilled up some delicious steaks and played a lively board game, including the ranch manager, Tom, who always livens things up.

Saturday, Vivi and I woke up early and went for a walk outside, checking out the grazing cattle and watching Drake and Winston explore. The morning was gorgeous and Mom and Trey joined us for a walk up to Bathtub Canyon. The wet winter that we had kept bathtub flowing, and was Drakes heaven. It was sad to see the devastation that the ice storm had on the trees while we were on our walk. It will take years for the trees to recover from that storm.

Following our morning hike, we headed into Wichita Falls for the Annual Crawfish boil and Easter Sunday. It was fun to see everyone and Vivi was so excited to see Molly! We hope to have another playdate the next time we go to Wichita. The weekend was jam packed, but full of fun. We are already looking forward to Nana's next visit to Fort Worth!

Easter

Vivi's first Easter was such a fun day! My mom has been in town so we all traveled up to Wichita Falls and spent the night at Trey's parents house. The house was beautifully decorated for the holiday and Mary had been hard at work cooking for Easter lunch.

We woke up early this morning to make it to Easter Mass. Unfortunately, we were not early enough and spent the entire Mass standing in the back. Regardless, Father Hoa had a wonderful Homily as usual, reminding all of us what Easter is really about. Following Mass we headed back to the Mary and David's for Easter lunch. We enjoyed a lovely lunch followed by a festive Easter Egg Hunt. It was such a fun time with all of the kids running around finding the eggs.

Having children around makes you remember the excitement of the holidays. I have such fond memories of Easter Sunday's spent at Aunt Gail and Uncle Phil's. Usually it was raining and all of us kids would eat Easter dinner in the basement. There was always a fun Easter Egg Hunt involved, including the HUGE egg filled with change. I also clearly remember searching for the decorated egg with my name on it. That was such a fun and personal touch, a tradition that I hope to be able to carry on. Regardless of what traditions are in place, it is always nice to be surrounded by family on such a Holy day. This year especially, I take the time to reflect on the ultimate sacrifice that God made for all of us and for the many blessings that He continues to grace us with.