6 months old

Today Ansley is half a year old! I must admit this is when I really start to enjoy the infant stage. Ansley is giggly, smiley and loves to explore on her own. She sleeps like a champ at night (11-12 hours), is happy when she's awake (most of the time) and loves to eat.

Although I just updated you on what she's doing lately on a previous post, there are a few new things. She got her second tooth and now has two bottom teeth (look closely in the picture and you can see her teeth).

She has also improved her crawl and does more crawl than bellyflop now.

And lastly, she has learned to pull up on things (mainly her crib rails and us if we're sitting on the floor). The only problem is she doesn't know how to get back down. The picture below shows how she looks when I come rescue her. She is usually crying hysterically by this point but climbs right back up until she wears herself out and finally goes to sleep for her nap. Crazy girl.

wedding

I just got back from my "little" brother's wedding and what a great celebration it was! Congratulations J and ML!

belly flop

So this may only interest the grandma's and aunties...or those that don't mind watching a couple of videos that are a minute and half long on how Ansley belly-flops-crawls around. But this little girl is a mover and we find her all over the place. So of course we had to document it on video.

we've turned a corner

These past couple of weeks have brought great changes in our little Ansley. The biggest is that she can finally flip over from her back to stomach. WOO, HOO! Why is that so great? If you have been following my blog you would know that, for a while now, at night she would flip over and cry until we flipped her back over...kind of like a turtle on its back. She was just paralyzed with fright. So thankfully we have no more middle of the night flipping over problems. So with this new feat brings another 1st for Ansley....moving. Now when we lay her on the floor we always come back with her flipped over and across the room. She loves her new independence! This morning she just did her first scoot through the living, dining, kitchen and back to the living room.

Here she is having fun with her little friend from downstairs.

Another 1st Ansley had this past week is her first tooth. She had been fussy the past week or so but we just chalked it up to her being a little feisty and just a little high-maintenance. But thankfully it was a tooth and now she's back to her happy, smiley and a little kick of feisty self again.

And Ansley's other new development is being able to sit up. She's not super steady about it but she's working on strengthening those core muscles.

So fun to see her growing and learning new things. It just keeps getting more fun from here.

fast friends

It's so fun to get together with old friends...and to see all of our kids laughing and playing as if they have always known each other. Somehow I didn't get more pictures of our fun together but this picture made me laugh because Huntleigh kept saying "banana pudding" and making my boys laugh for the picture...who knew banana pudding was so funny. So this is just a glimpse of our time with the Hager's and hope they come back soon because we loved the time we had with them...catching up on the past few years since we've seen them last.

camping out

Jason took the boys camping this weekend while Ansley and I had some girl time at home. This was Jude's first camping experience, which he loved...Jason, though, thinks maybe Jude's not quite ready for camping yet. Apparently the bugs loved Jude and he was up a few times throughout the night scratching bug bites, peeing in his sleeping bag (which he never has a problem with but I think he was so tired he wasn't able to wake up to use the bathroom) and not sleeping very well. But besides that, the roasting marshmallows and fishing (no fish were caught this time) were the highlights. Jude definitely loved being a part of the experience and said he wanted to go again.

big brother

Ethan loves his little sister and always asks when we're having another baby so we can have two boys and two girls. His greatest accomplishment is to make her laugh, which he does really well and with little effort. There is something about her older brother that makes her light up and giggle without Ethan having to even look in her direction. She just thinks he's hilarious. I look forward to seeing Ethan care for his little sister as they grow up together, and for Ansley to continue to think she's got a really great big brother.

another mohawk

It looks like Ansley is going to have some good mohawk hair once it grows a little more...just like her brother Jude had.

one little, two little, silly little indians

Apparently when I say "smile" their interpretation is "ham it up for the camera". Crazy kids!

back to business

Thanks to my friend Val, who encouraged me to advertise at our MOPS group, I am back in business with my sewing. So far I have sold 4 bears and a burpie set. It's a little tricky trying to find the time but I have enjoyed having a "project" to work on.