A quick photo session with Abbey before she grows up right before our eyes!

Abbey is almost 6 months old. That is right.....SIX MONTHS OLD!   On July 3rd she will be at the halfway point to her first birthday.   Ahhhh!  This hit me hard a couple of days ago during Luke's nap time.  I was spending one-on-one time with Abbey and I suddenly felt the urge to take lots of photos of her.  I realized it may be a while before another photo session, with as busy as we have been lately.

So, here are some of the results.  She was in a pretty serious, somber mood during the session.   But, in my mommy-opinion, she looks cute in any photo--smiling or not.   We will try for a six-months old photo session in a couple of weeks.

I love this face..makes me want to give her many smooches.

And later, we had to get a photo of big brother...who absolutely ADORES his little sister.

Abbey's Giggles!

Abbey's giggles really crack us up.  It is hard not to also laugh out loud when she does.  But, the person that can make her giggle more than anyone or anything else has to be her big brother!  Here are a couple of videos of her brother making her giggle.

Abbey's First "Solids"--a family affair

Abbey taking her first taste of rice cereal.

 
I can't believe our baby girl is ready to eat solids!  Actually, at Abbey's four-month well-check, I expected her pediatrician to give us the green light on giving her solids.  We started Luke out on the rice cereal/breast milk blend around 4.5-5 months of age and then introduced new foods weekly thereafter.  However, Abbey's pediatrician recommended waiting until Abbey was 6 months old.  She said that actually infants really don't need anything more than breast milk for nutrition and that introducing solids is for introducing different textures more than anything else.  One of the risks for introducing solids too early is eczema--since Luke had eczema, we were more than happy to wait.

Actually, kellymom.com, an awesome parenting and breastfeeding website that I like, states the following:

"Health experts and breastfeeding experts agree that it’s best to wait until your baby is around six months old before offering solid foods. There has been a large amount of research on this in the recent past, and most health organizations have updated their recommendations to agree with current research. Unfortunately, many health care providers are not up to date in what they’re telling parents, and many, many books are not up to date.

The following organizations recommend that all babies be exclusively breastfed (no cereal, juice or any other foods) for the first 6 months of life (not the first 4-6 months):

• World Health Organization
• UNICEF
• American Academy of Pediatrics
• American Academy of Family Physicians
• Australian National Health and Medical Research Council
• Health Canada

Most babies will become developmentally and physiologically ready to eat solids by 6-9 months of age."

The web page goes on to list all sorts of reasons why one would want to delay introducing solids to their infant.  I honestly had no idea that was the recommendation by so many organizations--maybe something changed since Luke was an infant?

Abbey will be six months old on July 3.  But, the doctor said we could start her a couple of weeks prior on rice cereal so that we can discuss any issues she may be having at Abbey's six-month well check visit.  So, we are going to stick with the rice cereal/breast milk mixture for a while and not be in any kind of rush to introduce other new foods as we did with Luke. 

Luke BEGGED to try some of Abbey's cereal.  I told him that he would not like it, but he still wanted to try it. We let him.  This photo was taken right after his bite.  Unfortunately and to our surprise, he loved it and wanted more.

Drew and I figured that our 19-lb, 5.5 month old baby girl would probably be a good eater.  She did not disappoint.  In fact, after only the second day of eating rice cereal, she was literally begging for more.  Or, perhaps it was more of a "yelling" for more.  We started teaching her the sign for "more" and "eat".  I have a feeling she is going to try to learn those signs as quickly as she can! Here is a video of the "family affair" of feeding Miss Abbey her first "solids".

Bathtime Photos

I now completely understand why the second child (or latter children) gets jipped when it comes to having photos taken of them.  As a parent, you are extra busy with life with the addition of the new baby, and the camera always seems to be too much of a chore to go find/get/turn on.  We are really trying to be a lot more intentional about taking photos and videos.  Our Luke baby pictures from birth to 6 months far outnumber our Abbey photos.  Today I looked back at videos of Abbey during her first couple of months.  I was saddened to see that, besides the video of her being born, there really were not but a couple of others.  And, they were taken with my smart phone.  So sad.  :-(

So, I brought the camera into the bathroom for Abbey's bath to take some bath photos.  Some of my favorite baby photos of Luke are his bath towel photos.  I don't know what it is about a baby in a towel that is so stinkin' cute--but it is!  Here are some of my favorite towel photos of Luke:

And here are some of the photos from Abbey's bath towel photo session last night:

Vacation Time!

We took our first "vacation" as a family of four a couple of weekends ago.  I put vacation in quotations, because we have taken several trips as a family of four to visit family; however, we have not really gone to see special specific vacation sites on our trips.  So, our first official "vacation" was to the Houston area, where we not only visited family, but also took some time to visit some fun "vacation" spots.

My brother, Jeremy, and his family (Brandy and Traber) were visiting us from Oklahoma and came along with us to vacation in Houston.  Jeremy and Brandy are both teachers who have the summer off.  They are enjoying it this year by taking several fun trips.  Drew's parents were AWESOME hosts for all of us.  They went out of their way to make us feel welcome and make sure we had a good time. We all had a blast there!

On Sunday, our first day there, we visited the Houston Zoo.  One of my best friends from High School, Jennifer, and her family reside in the Houston area too.  We were able to meet her at the Zoo as well.  We had so much fun and I absolutely loved getting to know her family better.  (I haven't seen her in about 9 years).  We had a great time at the Houston Zoo.  It was super hot though.  We were so glad they had a splash pad within the zoo so the kids could cool off after lunch.

On Monday, we visited Galveston beach.  The kids (minus Abbey) really enjoyed playing in the sand and experiencing their first beach.  Abbey wasn't as much of a fan--but she will love it in about a year, I am sure.  We visited the Strand Historic District in Dowtown Galveston for lunch and enjoyed walking in and out of the cute, unique shops.  After that, we headed to the Kemah Boardwalk.  The Kemah Boardwalk is home to waterfront restaurants, amusements, charming retail stores, festivals and seaside shows every day.  While we were there, we let the kids ride a train, a carousel and an airplane ride.  Also, Papa gave the "big kids" a gift--he bought us some tickets to the roller coaster.  It was SO much fun!

On Tuesday, we visited the Children's museum.  The kids had a blast trying out each of the exhibits.  It really was a fun Children's Museum.   On Wednesday, we let the kids play at a nearby park, had some lunch and then headed back home.  

Here are some photos with some highlights of our trip.  We are finding that when we are having fun, we tend to take a lot less photos.  With one of us watching/holding/nursing Abbey and the other chasing after Luke, sometimes taking photos is not easy.  But, we were able to capture some fun moments in pictures:

A Memorable Memorial Day Weekend

Over the long Memorial Day weekend, we had a visit from a lot of our Oklahoma family.  We had so much fun together.

From visiting our favorite park:

Uncle Jason, Brody, Luke and Kaylee

all the cousins hop aboard the fun merry-go-round.

sisters

Jason, Emily, Brody and Kaylee

Lilly and Luke

Luke liked holding hands with Linnea.

and Kaylee..he always seems to find a girl's hand to hold.

To visiting our favorite splash park:  (these pics are from my cell phone)

Grandma and I tried to keep Miss Abbey out of the sun.

Waiting for a turn on the stone water slide.

burying uncle Jason in the sand.

We also ate at some fun places.  But, the most fun I think the kids had all weekend was probably during our backyard water fight.  We used water guns and balloons and the kids had a great time trying to get their uncles and dads soaked!

Better watch out guys--Brody's gun is loaded and ready!

Here comes Luke!

Lilly is contemplating where her next balloon will be launched.

Here are a couple of videos from the water balloon games:

Abbey is 5 months old!

Another month has flown by.  As of yesterday, Abbey is five months old.  I think I say this every month--our little girl is growing up too quickly.  We weighed her last week--and she weighed in at a whopping 18 lbs!  When she was born at 7 lbs, 6 oz, I had no idea she would soon be in the 98th percentile for height and weight.  She is super tall too!

Drew snapped a few photos of Abbey this past weekend:

In deep thought.

I've also captured a few videos recently. She has really been loving her jumperoo lately.  She goes to town on that thing!  She actually leaps pretty far off the ground!  This video is from a week ago, and doesn't show her great leaps.  But, it does show how much she enjoys it.

Also, here's a video that shows how Abbey prefers to play:

And lastly, here is a video that show's Abbey's most recent goal: to crawl so she can chase after her brother.