Happy Half Birthday! {6 months}

Anberlin is 6 months old! :)

Yesterday was a busy day for this little half birthday girl! But we will get to that in a bit... This has been a busy month in general for Bay. So much growing and so much learning, lots of "firsts" too!

Anberlin can still only roll from her back to her belly, but she is getting more comfortable about where she does it. She rolled over in her crib a few nights ago and slept on her belly. She seemed pretty confused when she woke up though, haha. She did roll over once from her belly to her back but we are pretty sure it was a fluke because she hasn't done it since.

Teething started this month and we didn't get just one but TWO little teeth coming in. I don't think we would have ever noticed until I ran my finger across her gums. She has been super good with them coming in, not at all the terror we were anticipating. Right now they are through the gums but not fully up. Getting a good picture of them is next to impossible because she doesn't like to show them off, though.

This is how we found them, two little white dots.

About a week later...

And this is them now!

She hasn't started crawling yet (Brad was betting that she would be crawling by the end of August, didn't happen!) but she can push herself backwards on her belly and her back and she can rotate in a circle on her belly to reach things around her. She sits up really well on her and can maneuver from sitting up to her belly if she wants something in front of her. It's not graceful, but it happens. She has found out how to make noises with her mouth. For a week she would make spitting noises with her lips and tongue that she thought was fun, then she switched to playing her lips like a banjo with her hand. It's super cute.

She got to meet a lot of family and friends this month. We got a group of people together to meet us at the Nationals vs. Diamondbacks game in Phoenix (of course) one weekend and she got passed up and down the row most of the time. It was a lot of fun to be rooting for our old "home team" the Nationals while in Arizona. ;) We also stopped by my Uncle's restaurant and she was able to meet her great Uncle Brett, great Aunt Rose, and her Great Great Grandpa! I think she is officially caught up on meeting family now!

Sleeping in the hotel.

Supporting our Washington Nationals!

Her great great Papa.

We have had a few play dates with some friends who had a baby boy a few days after Anberlin was born. It's nice to get together with friends who not only share our interests but have a baby that Bay can play with. They have met about 4 times now and it's so cute to watch them just stare at each other and talk back in forth in their baby babbles. 

Roxas & Anberlin

We spent a weekend in Vegas doing things for our house that is getting built. We had a 4 hour long appointment to do things like picking tile and granite and all the other specifics about the house. Bay did really well for the most part. She was pretty cranky by the end of the appointment but we survived. And then we went and saw our lot where they had the trenches dug and some of the foundation put down. We are really excited to watch this house be put together for us and our little family. :) We spend a lot of time now furniture shopping and walking around Lowes looking at things we want to upgrade and picking paint colors. 

The start of our new home <3

 We are pretty much back on a solid schedule with Bay. She is sleeping through the night 99% of the time so that is good. Unfortunately if she does wake up in the night it is normally 20 minutes before Brad's alarm goes off for work so he gets up a little early on those days. ;)

Bay did have her first cold last week. :( Luckily, it only lasted one day but it was pretty bad. She woke up with a fever of 101.3 and naturally we did the "new parent move" of calling the doctor and getting her an appointment, which confirmed her cold, but at least she didn't have an ear infection or something. Better safe than sorry. It only lasted a day and she spent most of it sleeping. We gave her tylenol before bed and she felt much better the next day. But there is nothing worse than having a sick baby that you can't make feel better with lots of kisses.

Sleeping, sick Bay...

But like I said at the beginning, yesterday was a busy day for our half birthday girl! We started the day with a quick boat ride on the lake with family. At 6 months babies are finally allowed to wear sunblock, so it worked out perfectly. She didn't know what to expect at first and she seemed to like it until we put the life vest on her, haha. Then she got a bit fussy. But once the boat started going she fell asleep in my arms. Hahaha, of course. I don't blame her, I love sleeping to the motion of water!

Styling!

Sleeping...

Hanging out with Anna and Kathy.

Looking up at Daddy :)

Then we decided that since she has been so interested in food and watching us eat, that yesterday was the perfect day to introduce her to "real" food! We have a plan set out for her first foods for the next month. We started with avocado yesterday and she will have that for 4 days until we introduce the next food, to ensure that there are no allergic reactions. She didn't seem to mind the avocado, I think she was perplexed by the texture and flavor since it's so different from sweet breastmilk. This stage is so much fun and I can't wait to get her to try all different kinds of foods!

Bay vs Avocado

And then finally last night we had her in her jumperoo and this is the first time she has actually jumped like crazy in it! Watch her gooo!

She is learning new things every day and I am so happy that both of us get to watch her learn them together. I can't wait to see what this month brings us!

<3

Summer in the desert! {5 months!}

 Anberlin is 5 months old! <3

{Thank you Anna for this gorgeous blanket you made for Anberlin!! We love it!}

Anberlin has survived her first month of living in the desert after surviving her first road trip across the country. (If you missed that blog, click here!) Since we moved during monsoon season, the weather in Arizona was pretty similar to the weather in Maryland. Hot and humid. Blech.

We are slowly getting settled and into a routine. We are currently living in Brad's parent's pool house. Our move was a completely nightmare. Since we knew we would be staying with someone when we moved, we had all the things we wanted with us put into the nursery for packing. We told them to make sure all the nursery boxes were labeled with "nursery" so we could easily find them. (Something you don't think you should HAVE to say...) Well, the guy who took apart Anby's crib a) put the "feet" to the crib in a random craft box that was in the room next door to her nursery (which we didn't notice until it was delivered) and b) didn't keep the hardware to the crib with the crib or the nursery stuff, Brad just noticed it in a bag on the living room floor at the end of the move day and then had them put it in a random box and label it "nursery". Fast forward to our delivery day... we wanted most of our stuff put into a storage unit and then the things labeled "nursery" to be left out so we could take them. You would think that would be an easy task for movers, especially since they didn't have to unpack anything or put anything together. But no. No matter how many times me and Brad would tell them to look for boxes labeled "nursery", they still missed some and so did we. In the end, we didn't get a lot of the things we wanted or needed. We got crib pieces, but no hardware and so we had to buy a new crib. Yup. That's about how well this move went.

But we are here now and moving forward... And by that I mean, we knew we couldn't stay with family forever so we made finding a house our top priority... And we did! After debating between staying in Havasu or moving to Vegas, we decided that Vegas would be a better move. More job opportunities for us and more things for Anberlin to do as she gets older. So we signed some papers a few days ago to get a house built in a nice community in Henderson, NV. It starts getting built August 20th and we should be able to move in at the end of November! :)

Anyways, back to the Bay... because I know that is the real reason you all read this blog!

She had her 4 month appointment once we got to Havasu, finally! It went very well. The PA who saw her said that she was happy to see such a healthy, breastfed baby. And that she is! On the day of her appointment she was 4 months and 10 days old. She weighed 18.13 lbs and was 26 inches long. No other concerns were mentioned and then she got some shots. Brad held her and when she cried, I cried. Haha.

Happy before her shots!

Sleeping after her shots...

She is growing up so fast and hitting (most) milestones sooner than she "should be". With that being said, we finally have a roller-over-er. She can only go from back to tummy and she only rolls to her right, so we don't have to worry about her rolling across the living room... yet!

She can pretty much sit up on her own now. She will still topple over after a few minutes, but for the most part she can sit up, unassisted, and even grab for toys while sitting. She actually prefers sitting up now, so we need to get her to figure out how to get there on her own. I think we still have a while for that though.

Her hair is still a reddish brown. But from what I can see, in the places that the hair fell out, it's coming in a light brown. Her eyes are turning a greenish brown color. I am so anxious to know what she is going to look like because she is such an adorable baby. Really it's the almond shape of her eyes that makes me swoon. We are also still adorably toothless. And there is really no signs of them coming in anytime soon. We are completely okay with that because we love her gummy little smile. I keep telling her you have teeth your whole life, no need to rush on getting them now! ;)

Anberlin with her "auntie" Shannie.

Anberlin with her great Uncle Mike.

 She loves the sound of her voice and she loves it at all octaves. She has found her outside voice but using it mostly inside. And it gets LOUD. And she is also babbling a lot more. She likes to babble the most when she has things in her mouth, like her hands or toys. She is a cliche baby and says "gagagaga" a lot. It's pretty stinking cute. I can't wait for her to say her first real word!

One of the most exciting things that happened this month for Bay is that she went SWIMMING for the first time! Grandma bought her some little swimmer's diapers and we took her in the pool. She didn't even mind it at all! In fact, I would even go as far as to say that she loved it. No crying, just splashing and swimming! It must have been all the Olympics she has been watching!

First time in the pool!

Swimming with dad!

Splashing was her favorite!

We can't believe that she is almost half a year old! Time really does fly when you have a kid! Speaking of, we want to congratulate our friends Tony & Andrea who gave birth to a baby boy, Antonio, on August 2nd! Congrats and love to you three. Having a baby is so much fun, if you look past the crying, not sleeping, and pooping. ;) <3

Going back home to the West Coast... #roadtriptoaz

Most humans, by nature, do not like change. When things are a certain way and seem to be stable, why would anyone want to change that? Well, sometimes we also put on blinders and those blinders make it seem like everything is okay, but it's not. Once Jenna got out of the Navy we soon realized that we had to make some decisions on what to do. Maryland was an expensive place to live and the only way for us to live there was to buy a house. But as we were just finally finding a house we could live with, Brad's parents suggested that we move back to Arizona. Naturally we hesitated because Brad didn't have a job and then by the grace of God, Brad's employer said that he could keep his job and working remotely from his laptop from Arizona! So the decision was made and nothing was keeping us in Maryland anymore. We contacted the Navy and they packed and shipped all our goods for free. Brad's dad came to Maryland and drove one of our cars back with our dogs. So all we had left to do was drive across the country... with a 4 month old! It wasn't as fun as it sounds, I assure you. But it also wasn't nearly as bad as we expected. Anberlin in seriously the best baby in the world.

Along the way we made plenty of stops and Anberlin was able to meet tons of family who she otherwise wouldn't have met. {There are LOTS of pictures coming up, just warning you...}

Obligatory picture in front of the first house Anberlin lived in.

Hope this thing is comfy...

Family photo during a stop on the 4th of July.

Anberlin and Great Grandma Sheppeard,

Hanging out with the girls!

Great Aunt Sally.

We had so much fun during our visit!

Sleeping on the way to meet Nana.

Anberlin and Great Nana.

Cousins.

Anberlin and Great Aunt Valerie.

Anberlin and Erin and Katie.

More sleeping.

Anberlin and Great Grandma Ebert.

Anberlin and Great Grandpa Ebert.

Yup! I got them all!

WHEW. That was our trip across the US. It took us 4 days and Brad drove the whole way (what a trooper!). We are thankful that we were able to stop and see family. And now we are so happy to be in Arizona with our parents and immediate family.

Tomorrow Anberlin turns 5 months! And yes, there will be a blog for that tomorrow! :)

<3

We've been busy! {4 months!}

 Anberlin is 4 months old! <3

This has been a busy month for the Bay! And really a busy month for all of us. So busy that I am late posting the blog, which really bums me out. And the longer I postpone it, the more that happens. But for the sake of keeping this info within her 3 - 4 month update, I am stopping at whatever happened on July 2nd, when she hit 4 months. Everything else will happen on her 5 month blog. And there *might* even be a little road trip blog in between if I can find the time.

Since the decision was made that we were moving back to Arizona, we started thinking about the few things we would miss from the DMV area. One of those things was watching the Nationals play some baseball. We managed to take Anberlin to a few games before we moved, but we had to leave early both times because she got fussy. I don't blame her. One day we were in a heat advisory so we hid out in a restaurant and enjoyed the game from there. Sometimes you have to do things for your kids and we are learning that more and more now.

Bay has been getting so much better at sleeping through the night. In fact, we had a 5 day stretch at one point where she slept through the night! Five. Whole. Days. It was awesome. But even just getting up once is better than multiple trips to her room. The only issue we have now is that she loves to sleep with her binky in and naturally it falls out once she is asleep. But if she wakes up and realizes it's gone she will start to cry until you run (as fast as you can) into her room and replace it (before she can full wake up and freak out). Sometimes that happens a few times a night. It's pretty annoying... Some days I wish we never introduced that thing. But I am thinking that a 4 day, across country road trip without it would have been hell. But that is for another blog... ;)

Father's Day happened this month and it fell on our anniversary weekend. We went out to our favorite pizza place in Bethesda and Anberlin slept pretty much the whole time, which is unheard of nowadays. But I think that was her gift to us. :) We also bought a new baby carrier and both Brad & myself tried it out during the weekend. Baby carrier is just so much easier than using a stroller at some things.

Our baby is growing fast! She is already in size 3 diapers and wearing size 6 - 9 month clothes. She is just healthy and her little chub is adorable.

We took a lot of trips to the park and even a trip to the beach!

Then, the biggest news ever, was that on July 2nd, the move happened. Movers came and packed up all our stuff. They were there ALL DAY. And we seriously could not have asked for a better baby during that long stressful day. She didn't fuss until the end of the day when bedtime should have been happening, so I took her for a car ride. I had to feed her in a bathroom on the floor, but she didn't mind. And then once it was way past her bedtime, she laid with me in an empty room on a blanket on the floor and just talked to me for a while and let me tell her stories until she fell asleep. She really is the best baby on the planet.

So, that was up until her 4 month mark. If we don't get a road trip post done, the 5 month post is going to be a doozy, so let's hope I can find some time to do that. Haha. :)

I will end on some pictures of Anberlin and people she met this month.