milestones and sleep

this is our past 24 hours...

i just wanted to share what we've been going through here for the past day now. first i'll explain that i've been having penny take her naps in her pack-n-play for the last few days, because we're going out of town this weekend and i want her to get used to sleeping in there now, so that when we're on vacation i don't have one freaked out little lady who can't sleep because she's in a new place. now with that run on sentence all squared away, i'll explain what's happened in the above photo.

two days ago penny learned to go from laying on her belly, to sitting up. woohoo, so very proud of our little baby. we clapped and cheered, and were so happy... then bedtime came. she just couldn't get enough of her new trick, and in her squirmy sleep state would suddenly find herself sitting up, with no clue how to lay back down and fall asleep. our baby who was sleeping though the night was now suddenly waking up every couple hours sitting up, and had no idea what to do about it. so we tried to teach her to lay back down and go to sleep. only, when we go in to lay her down, it completely wakes her up out of her sleepy state, and now we have a fully awake crying baby on our hands, who still doesn't know what to do when she sits up at night. no bueno!

so we had to do what no mama ever wants to do, and let her work it out on her own. knowing penny's personality, i know that she's a quick learner, and she'll get it if i just leave her to it. so after some crying (i'll admit, from both her and i) she fell asleep. but alas, she fell asleep in the least comfortable yoga position possible. once she's out, i just go in and ever so gently shift her to her side. i say gently meaning, holding my breath the entire time that she doesn't wake up, because if she does it's all over! hopefully she'll figure out soon how to just lay down, because nap time, which was a breeze, is now taking an extremely long time to achieve these days!

it's so true what they say, once you've got a little routine down pat, they go and switch the whole thing up on you. thanks for keeping me on my toes penn!

recently... according to my iphone

days at home with this sweet girl just keep getting better and better. i'm one lucky mama for sure!

*currently penny is sitting on the floor next to me "watching" her very first disney movie. we opted for lady & the tramp to start her off. she's pretty into it!

6 months

a six month baby, yup we gots one!

these pictures were taken on penny's half birthday, and now, nearly 3 weeks later i'm finally getting around to posting them!

  this girl right here is growing in leaps and bounds lately. she's all over the place. not quite legit crawling, but definitely just a few short days away from it. she's more in army mode as of late. staying low, and dragging lower half wherever it needs to go. she's got the strength, the determination, and certainly the curiosity, yeah, she'll be full on crawling soon! she's eating lots of new foods, and so far we've yet to find something that she doesn't like. thank you little baby for making that easy on us! she's also got lots of new tricks, such as this little gem RIGHT HERE. her funny new faces and sounds just melt my insides every day. silly baby, yup, we got that too! 

  big news here though is that we now also have a through the night sleeper on our hands! i know these things change all the time, but for now, and for the past week and a half, our gal has been sleeping like a champ! i can not even tell you what a difference this is making in our days... or really, my day. up until now i had still been nursing her every 3 hours ALL. NIGHT. LONG! i was basically a zombie mama during the day, and i didn't even realize it until i got a full night sleep again. it's like the sun was shining brighter, the bird songs were sweeter, and i woke up missing my babe after not seeing her all night. to sum it up, it was glorious! and every morning she does it, it still is! 

so happy 6 months my sweet sweet lil' nugget. 7 months is just around the corner!

for my girl...

these days i've been thinking a lot. a lot about what it is to raise a girl today. about how everywhere you look there are images of what a girl should look like, and how they should act. it's a discussion that's been had many times before, but to be a mother of a little girl suddenly makes it all very relevant.

with summer upon us i can't help but be aware of my own self conscious body issues. they've been there for as long as i can remember, and i couldn't for the life of me tell you where they come from. the feeling has it's peaks and valleys, but by all accounts i couldn't say i've always been 100% comfortable with my body. this feeling, the one that shows it ugly head when i just can't seem to find something to wear that feels right, is not a feeling i ever want to pass on to penny. she's going to get bombarded by it when she's older, and i want to protect her from that for as long as i possibly can. i can't help but see myself through her eyes now, so i'm making a promise now to you penny...

i promise you will never here me belittle myself because of my appearance...

i promise i will never ever talk about dieting, or weight, in any way in front of you...

i promise to never not take you swimming simply because i don't feel like wearing a bathing suit...

i promise to always compliment you for your qualities that have nothing to do with your looks...

and above all else,

i promise to be a woman you can look up to. to never seem weak, to always be what you need me to be, and teach you to never, even for a second, doubt yourself. 

this is a lot to promise, but for you my little girl, i promise to try!

summer weekend!

oh don't mind that, that's just our little redneck baby swimming in a bucket!

with it being 90+ degrees here in NC the past few days, and us not having a swimming pool, i decided that our little lady needed a fun spot to splash around. not only did i opt for this sweet tub over a kiddie pool because of the insanely cute photo ops, but also because it's doggy proof! our pups have been known to chew a hole in a kiddie pool or two, and i wanted penn to have something that i knew would stand the test of time. also, once she's grown out of it, it will make a super cute planter. so yup, we're the parents who put our kid in a bucket...

my folks came up from atlanta this weekend to stay with penn and i while evan was out of town. my mama needed a baby squeeze, and i was more then happy to have their company. we had so much fun going to the park, out to lunch, and my dad clued me in to why our garden wasn't doing too hot, not enough water, who knew! penny was stoked to have her gaga & pop pop here, and after they left yesterday she was absolutely wiped out. she took a nap right away, and then even went to bed an hour early. thank you mom & dad for that sweet sweet extra hour!

today it's back to our regular routine though. the babe is currently napping and i've got some orders to stitch up... so off i go. happy monday friends!