Seven Months Old!

My sweet baby girl, you are SEVEN months old!!!  SLOW DOWN!  This month has really shown us just how quickly you grow and learn.  It seems like last month you were still a little baby and this month you are becoming a big girl.  You are just SO much more advanced this month and very independent!  We love that about you but we wish you would stay our tiny little baby girl a little bit longer.  You are really becoming so much fun with each day. 

Hannah, here is what you've been up to in your seventh month!

Sleep: You are still a great sleeper and you had a big milestone this month, no more swaddling!  You took the change like a champ and seemed unfazed by it and are doing great in a sleep sack.  I tried around five months to quit swaddling you and you just weren't ready yet but this month you did great.  You are still going to sleep around 7:15-7:30 and sleep until 5-6am during the week and usually between 6-7am on the weekends.  As much as I'd love you to sleep in longer on the weekends I'm really happy that you're an early bird at night because that gives me time to get you ready for the next day after you're asleep so that I can spend all my time with you while you're awake.  You now have breathable bumpers in your crib since you're not swaddled and move ALL OVER your crib each night!  I didn't fully understand the importance of breathable bumpers until now.  Sometimes I will go check on you or look at the monitor and you have your face right up to the bumper.  It makes me feel much better knowing that you are able to sleep however you like while still being safe.  Daddy doesn't make fun of me for buying them anymore either now that he sees that. :)  You're taking better naps at daycare on most days.  Between 2-3 naps for a total of 3-4 hours each day.  Your teachers say that sometimes you fuss in the beginning but you always give in and go to sleep.

One of your positions that makes Mommy nervous.  I have no idea how this was comfortable to you.  After I took this picture I moved your head to the side.

Daily Routine: Your daily routine consists of playing all day with your friends and eating/napping. You are usually the first one to your class at 6:30am and I pick you up before 5pm. You have three bottles a day at daycare, eat breakfast that I send with you and usually take three naps (two short ones and one long one on most days). At the end of the day we head home, you nurse and then have a fruit and veggie that I made for you and then Daddy gets home and it's bath time (your favorite!) and then you eat again and you're out for the night.  Each night before bathtime your Daddy and I play with you on our bed for a few minutes. You love scooting across the bed to each one of us or to the remote control.  You just giggle and squeal, it's so cute.  On the weekends we just spend as much time as possible playing with you and enjoying our time with you because you are growing SOOO fast!! 

Feed: You still love nursing and love to eat pretty much at anytime. You get bottles during the day while I'm at work and you take those great. You get two bottles of formula each day in addition to your breast milk bottles (6oz each) and nursing. At daycare you hold your own bottle. You are just the happiest little baby when you're eating but definitely are moving around a lot more while I'm feeding you. Any sudden noise distracts you from eating and you turn your head towards it. You eat a fruit with oatmeal mixed in every morning and a fruit and veggie every night, sometimes I mix rice cereal into your veggies.  You get really excited when I put you in your chair and you watch me prepare your dinner and kick your legs around.  

Weight: 17 lbs 

Length: I'm guessing probably 27"

Diaper Size: You are in the last of your size 2 Pampers

Clothes Size: You're in 6 month sizes mostly.

Hair Color: We're still not really sure what your hair color is. It will look light brown/blondish but then in the sun it looks reddish, it seems to be getting lighter lately. You're eyebrows are still light and have a red tint to them so who knows! I don't think your hair is growing anymore.  Or it's just growing very slowly.

Eye color: Your eye color is kind of a mystery also, it's a dark gray color but they look green in the light.

Funniest moment:  Sweet girl you have SO many funny moments!  You make your Daddy and I laugh every single day.  You are just so silly and have so much fun!  Your teachers always comment on how happy you are and how you think everything is just so funny.  The other babies will just crawl over you (literally, just crawl over you like you're a part of the floor) and you just laugh so hard.  I love that about you, you don't sweat the small stuff.  Not really sure how much you'd be "sweating" at seven months but you're pretty easy going.  You get that from your Daddy.

I walked out of the room for probably one minute total and when I came back in, this is what I saw.  You are a quick and sneaky little thing!

You were busy trying to climb over our wedding scrapbook that has been in that spot for the last five years.  We will be finding a new place to display it from now on.

What's up Mommy?  I'm just trying to get to the kitchen, I know that's where you keep the yummy stuff!

Milestone: You can now pull yourself up in a standing position!  You are such a big girl!!  You will grab onto Daddy's fingers and just lift yourself up or pull yourself up while holding onto a toy.  We baby proofed the house this month for you so all corners are padded and all outlets are covered.  We just have to put the locks on the cabinet doors.

Your favorite toy: You still love your jumperoo and play in it every day for quite a while.  I think right now you enjoy your piano the most out of all your toys.  When I pull it out for you to play with you get really excited and squeal with excitement.  Your very favorite thing right now that's not really a toy is the TV remote or Mommy's phone.  You LOVE both of those things and crawl over super fast to them when we put them down for you.  If I'm nursing you and you spot the remote you will stop what you're doing and immediately lunge for the remote.  We stayed at a hotel this weekend and we made sure that you did NOT touch that remote!  Everything that you touch goes directly into your mouth.  EVERYTHING!!!  So basically, anything that goes into random strangers hands is off limits to you sweet baby girl. 

Not really the correct way to play the piano but apparently she thinks it tastes good upside down.

Some of your firsts this month were:

First rodeo cookoff (blurry phone pic)

Roadtrip with Haley

First hotel stay - it was apparently very sunny in the hotel room

First (and second) time with a babysitter (two different sitters on different days)  You did great with both of them!

Pulling yourself up and standing against a sturdy object

We stayed a night with Lainey and Pops while Daddy was gone and that was when I discovered that you could pull yourself up on your knees.

Here are some outtakes from your seven month photo shoot.  These are getting harder each month to do!

Giving your lamb some sugar

Lots of sugar...

I took the lamb away to try to eliminate the distraction.  Yeah....she just decided to try to lunge off the chair instead.

Sweet girl about to move

Daddy wouldn't let her fly off the chair.  She got upset.  Check out that face she's giving him!  Ha!

My life is SO unfair!


So mad!  This lasted about 10 seconds and then she decided she wasn't mad anymore.  She probably saw Brody walk by, she's easily distracted.  ;)

Hannah Lee you are just the sweetest thing I've ever seen in my life!  Your Daddy and I are constantly being complimented on how happy and sweet you are wherever we go.  We love you more than words can say and we thank God for you every day. 

H + L = BFF

We had a great weekend!  Hannah, Austin and I got to spend lots of time together around town.  We all went to a friends boutique opening on Saturday morning (where I actually won a basket with lots of goodies in a door prize!  Woo hoo!) and then we went to lunch where Hannah entertained the tables around us.  While Austin spent the afternoon golfing with some buddies Hannah and I ran some errands and when I put Hannah down for a nap I made muffins and lasagna for our neighbors who had a baby girl this week.  It was non-stop but lots of fun.

Sweet girl at lunch checking out the other diners.

Eating some Mum Mums while we ate our lunch

One of the errands Hannah and I ran was to the meat market to get some yummy goodness for dinner that night.  Whenever Hannah goes in the car she always has two things with her; her book and Sophie.  This was the scene as I stepped out of the market.

Assailant: Hannah Lee Townsend

Victim: Sophie the Giraffe

Crime Scene Investigator: Mommy

Medical Examiner: Mommy

Cause of Injury: It appears the assailant was tired of playing with the victim and threw her out of her car seat while Mommy was walking them into the store.  Upon investigation it was determined that the victim was possibly run over by another vehicle due to the markings on her body.  Once the Medical Examiner got the victim in her hands and took a good scrub to her it seems she will be in good health.  Until next time....

After we returned home from the crime scene I put Hannah down for a nap while I was in the kitchen making food for the neighbors.  This is what I saw.  Napping???  Not at all, but at least she was quiet!

About 30 seconds later this is what I saw. Little legs.  Baby girl is a MOVER!!  She was clear across the crib, it's a good thing our monitor has a pan feature so we can move it around to see what she's up to.



Saturday night we had our friends Liz, Chris and Lina over for dinner and I think Hannah had the most fun out of everyone!  She was SO excited to see everyone and "play" with little Lina!  Lina is four months and one day younger than Hannah and we've already decided they will be BFFs growing up.  By the looks of Lina's face Saturday night, it may take a few years for our plan to actually happen...

Hannah checking Lina out, she needs to show her the ropes, they eventually are going to be in the same daycare class together!

Lina is giving her Daddy the "what's up with this girl??" face.  Oh Hannah....she's used to daycare and there being absolutely NO personal space between all the babies.  They just climb/crawl/grab all over each other.

My point exactly....Hannah just grabbing poor Lina's ear like it's a toy.  Lina's little face is saying "O.M.G what's going on and why are you big people all standing around laughing?!?"  Don't worry, about one second after this picture was taken the hand was removed from the ear.

But the damage was done....

And Lina clearly thinks Hannah is one crazy wild little girl.  Ha!

Lina, don't be mad at me!  I just want to play!

Let's hug it out!

That was the end of the Lina/Hannah pics for the evening.   

When I dressed Hannah that morning I said to Austin "she's borderline too pink/poofy today" and his response was "borderline??"  Ha!  Yes, he's right, she was definitely too pink/poofy but that's ok, she's a sweet little girl who likes it when Mommy dresses her that way.  ;)

Aunt Jan bought her this outfit and she was excited to wear it!

My sweet girl

She loved playing with Chris' sweatshirt

What's up Mommy?  I'm busy playing, I don't want to get in my jammies.

B even got to hang out!



On Sunday we got her picture taken (another post to follow later this week) and then we headed over to the neighbors to take the food and meet baby Mallory.  Hannah was all ready to go meet her newest friend!

Little girl, who are you and what did you do with my baby??  She looks SO big here!!  :(  She also spit up all over herself right before I took this picture.  Oops.

I hope you all had a great weekend!

It's Rodeo Time!

It's rodeo season here in Texas!  In our part of the state that means a HUGE cookoff (300 teams kind of huge with an EIGHT year waiting list to get your team added to the cookoff!) to kick off the festivities for the world's largest rodeo.  Austin has been on a cook team for the past six years and has been one of the head cooks for the past few years.  He takes it very seriously and Hannah and I spend quite a few weekends on our own while her Daddy and the Smokin' Amigos team are gearing up for the long cookoff weekend.   

Thursday night Katie and I headed up to the first night of cookoff while Hannah stayed with Lainey and Pops.  It's so funny how different cookoff is now from the past years.  Last year I was pregnant so obviously I wasn't partying it up and this year I'm nursing and Katie is pregnant so our experience was very different from previous years.  We were back home by 10:30.  And went to work the next day.  Usually I take off Friday during cookoff time but I knew with a six month old waking me up early I might as well just go to work that day. 

I only got a few pictures on Thursday night.

Katie and me hanging out enjoying the band in the tent

Katie, me and Julie (you can see part of the carnival behind us)

Katie and I took a ride on a rickshaw heading back to the car.  We were parked FAR!  We broke the rickshaw by the way.  Oops!  I swear all we did was sit in it but about half way to the car (which was waaaaay far away from cookoff) the guy's chain broke off the bike.  Soooo.....he just kept peddling us the rest of the way to our car without a chain.  It was like watching someone swimming for their life going against the tide.  We could not stop laughing at the situation and I swear, no matter what we said, that guy was not going to let us get off and walk the rest of the way.  He said he was taking us to our car and that was just what he did!  He got a nice tip to fix his bike later.  ;)

Enjoying a nice "relaxing" rickshaw ride with the wind in our hair! Ha!  We were laughing really hard in this pic.

Saturday morning Hannah and I headed over to my parents house to ride with them and my Godparents, Vernon and Lynda for another day of cookoff fun.

Hannah, Austin, Spam and Big Dan ready to party!

Mark and Cindy came down to hang out with us too!

Hannah and her CiCi

Papa Coach was making Hannah laugh by getting her to dance  :)

Smokin' Amigos!

The big tent 

We went on a walk to check out some of the other tents.  Our little cowgirl decided that was a good time to take a nap.

Hannah with her CiCi and Lainey.  We didn't get many smiles from her there since she was pretty much in awe the entire time of her surroundings. 

Hanging out with Uncle Chris!

Silly girl

Liz and me

CiCi giving sleepy Hannah some kisses

One of the team members was being interviewed by some media and a few of the guys thought they would "participate" in the interview.

Mommy and her cute little cowgirl.  She was definitely the cutest cowgirl at cookoff!  I LOVED her little cowgirl outfit, I had it made a few months ago just for this occasion.  If it's an important day for her Daddy then she MUST dress appropriately for it!  :)

The Townsend crew (minus Hannah who was napping) 

O.M.G. this guy was a trip!  There are several company sponsors for the Smokin' Amigos (it's a big production, sponsors are a must!) and the only thing we can think of is that the man below, Phillip, is a client or friend of one of the sponsors because NO ONE knew who he was.  He walked around all alone the entire time and basically became a carnival attraction.  He didn't need friends, he just walked up to people and started talking!  Just so you get a better idea of just how ridiculous is was (more ridiculous than walking around a public place with no shirt on looking like the cast of Jersey Shore with a cowboy hat on) it was about 50 degrees outside.  I found out later that Phillip is a FUNERAL DIRECTOR!!!  ?!?!  Haha!  Seriously, I don't know anyone in the funeral business but I'm guessing he's a one of a kind funeral director.

Fun times!