Bath Time

Our sweet girl loves her baths! 



Meredith Rose - 6 Months

 6 Months!!!!!

Happy half birthday to our sweet girl! Meredith Rose, at 6 months you are happy  smiley and so much fun! You jabber like crazy and are perfecting your high pitch scream and fake whine. You are loving books and baths and play well independently. You practice pushing up on your arms and can scoot on your stomach in every direction except forward. We can't imagine life without you!

Two days after your 6 month birthday, you had your doctor's appointment and were 15 pounds and just under 27 inches long! You are still tall and skinny but now are down to the 83% for height.



This was a month of so many firsts and so much development! Some big first included your first time swimming in a pool and your first time on a swing. You loved both. We started to flip you around and you love it. We think you are going to be a gymnast ;)



Your hand coordination is getting so much better and you now can swat at your toys and splash your hands in the water. You love your books and would prefer to read eat them on your own.



You started saying "momma" and "mommy" in your cries and we weren't sure if you really knew what you were saying. The day before you turned 6 months, you said mommy so clear that we decided it was time to count it for your first word. You have said "dada" only a couple times as part of your babbling but your dad is determined to make that your next word!



You are still wearing a lot of 0-3 and 3 month clothes. We are just starting to transition to some 3-6 month and 6 month outfits. You basically still wear the same outfits we had you in at 2 months!

You are still eating every 3 hours during the day and are up 2-3 times a night to eat (and for a diaper change). We moved you up to size 3 diapers but realized they were huge and moved you back to size 2. You are just so long that we may need to go to the bigger size and put it on nice and tight!

You reach for everything and constantly grab out our faces. We need to keep those nails short because you pitch and grip tight!



Still no teeth but the drool continues!



We have also started putting you on the floor to let you slide around more without the rug or a blanket. You love exploring this way!



You push up on your hands really well but don't have any interest in going on your knees yet. If we try to help you, you kick out into a plank position!



You still love your zany zoo and your v-tech sit and stand noisy toy!



You are still a momma's girl and often times just want to be held by me or be right next to me. You are very generous with that sweet smile of yours :) We love you so much!



6 Months in Pictures

Meredith's 6th month in pictures from our phones. She is growing so incredibly fast. It is so much fun but also bittersweet at the same time. We are loving every stage of this little one.

 

 

Happy Baby

Meredith was in such a smiley mood the other day that I grabbed the camera and had a mini photo shoot with her. I am still learning how to use our nice camera and once I found a decent setting, I didn't take the time to play around with it more because I didn't know how long Mer's patience would last. So please ignore that half made bed and slightly blurring spots in some of the pictures. Tyler edited these for me but I am in the process of learning how to use Photoshop Lightroom as well. Meredith is 5 1/2 months here.

August Goals

Round two of monthly goals:

August-

1) Work related goal:

 I did not meet this :(  I realized that I need to separate my work and personal goals. After I published my May goals post, a friend from grade school reached out to me and told me about goal sheets that she uses. I love this idea! I am going to try to use it for my professional goals and hopefully that will get me to actually take some big steps.

2) Visit the aquarium:

We took Meredith to the Fort Fisher Aquarium and loved watching her take in all the sights. She loved looking at the fish but also loved people watching. She takes after her mother. Only luckily for her, babies can stare all they want without looking creepy ;)

3) Get to the beach every week:

I didn't technically meet this goal since there was one week that I did not step foot on the beach but I count it as a win since we made it to the beach 6-7 times and also swam in a pool 3 times this month! Meredith is definitely loving the outdoors and anything adventurous. I think we are going to have one little adrenaline junky on our hands!

4) Go stand up paddle boarding:

Finally I got back on the paddle board! It is a lot of work to drag all our gear to the beach with a baby but now that Meredith can nap at the beach and is a little more adaptable, it is so much easier to get out and about without worrying about her schedule. Tyler and I took turns paddle boarding one day and then I also was able to go again with my mom when she and my sister were in town. I am hoping to line up a babysitter so we can both go out together soon.

5) Pay off my law school loans:

Yay! When I had my loan exit meeting at the end of law school and learned that a ten year payment plan would result in paying an additional 2/3 of my total loan amount in interest, I made it a goal to pay off our student debt as fast as possible. We budget every month for our necessary expenses and any personal spending and then all of our extra cash flow goes into additional loan payments. Since my loans had the highest interest rate, they were our first target. Now onto Tyler's gazillion loans from undergrad and dental school.

6) Have Connie & Jim over for dinner:

My coworker, Connie, is the sweetest lady and I am so lucky to have met her. She hosted a baby shower for me, and she and her husband have invited us to dinner and their holiday parties. I have been saying forever that we were going to have them over but it seemed like there was always a project going on at our house. After our new floors were installed, we set a date and finally made it happen. We had a great time and I made my first pie from scratch!

7) Take a staycation:

I get the travel itch if I don't have something coming up. After we made the final payment on my student loans and my dad asked what we were going to do or buy to celebrate, we booked a night at the Holiday Inn at Wrightsville beach. We had a balcony with an ocean view, ordered room service and drank pina coladas and daiquiris poolside for two days. It was the perfect staycation and something that we plan to repeat the next two summers. You can read more about it here.

8) Plan a girl's night:

Three of our closest couple friends moved away this summer and it has been hard. Especially since two of them also had babies and stayed home during the week so we could plan play dates and outings. I love being a mom but I also think I am a better mom after having some "me" time whether that be work or social. I am making an extra effort to make sure I have a night out with some friends to do just that.

9) Date night:

We failed at this again :(  BUT - we have a date set for September!

More August Recap in Pictures

As if our August wasn't packed full of enough adventures, here are a few more fun times:

We had a play date with Avery - Meredith has major hair envy ;)



We visited Tyler at work - Meredith's first trip to the dentist!

Our new floors were installed!



Lots of snuggles for this momma's girl!

Tyler was asked to be in a retirement ceremony.

Officer and a baby

I made my first pie from scratch and it was a huge hit!

We enjoyed the last few weekends of outdoor church at the beach.

We also started eating dinner outside and spent our first evening with books in the hammock. We are looking forward to doing a lot more of this once the fall weather comes!