Pics for Grandma

My mom requested some new pictures, so here they are:

Just chillin' in my car seat.

What a messy eater!

Mmm...Carrots!

Do you like my green bean goatee?

I'm so cute!

Motherhood Confessions

Well, now that Noelle has successfully been eating solid foods for a few weeks, I thought I would let everyone in on a secret. Noelle really had her first solid food when she was about 2 months old. Although, it's not what you are thinking. She ate a booger. It's hard to explain, but I was trying to get a booger out of her nose with the nasal aspirator thingy. Apparently I wasn't too coordinated, and the freshly extracted booger accidentally went into her mouth and she swallowed it before I could get it out. Oops!

Unfortunately, her next experience wasn't rice cereal. It was soap suds. I'm not sure if that would qualify as "solids", but that was the next thing that made it into her mouth. Chris is normally the one that bathes her, and so I'm not too good at it. Washing under her neck is especially challenging, and I got a whole bunch of suds on her mouth. Oops, again!

Since then we've had the normal foods: cereals, pureed baby food...until last night. I was at a church party and had a plate full of food & was trying to carry Noelle at the same time. She went straight for my cupcake! (Smart girl if you ask me!) She got chocolate frosting all over her hands and then made it to her mouth. I've heard that chocolate is one of the "food no-no's" for the first year. She seemed to enjoy it though. Plus, I learned that frosting is really hard to get off of little hands.

She just woke up from a way-too-short nap, so I've gotta go! Hope you all have a good week & got a laugh out of my short-comings as a mom. :-)

Happy 6 Month Birthday (a couple of days late)

On Thursday, Noelle turned 6 months old. We can hardly believe we've been parents for half a year already. Noelle is continuing to do great, and as we look back on the last 6 months, it's incredible to see how much she's grown and changed in just that short amount of time. Here's what's new with her:

• Her latest stats: 15 pounds & 10 ounces (50%), 24 3/4 inches (25%), her hair is about 3 1/2 inches long :-)


• She's starting to sit by herself a little bit. It's funny to watch her concentrate really hard to sit up and try to get a toy in her mouth at the same time!


• No teeth yet, but she's chewing on everything.


• She can now roll to the left and right. She still gets stuck against the side of her crib and forgets that she can roll the other way, but she's getting better.


• We've stopped using the sleep positioner at night because she can now roll out of it. So far, so good. Chris hopes that her bald spot will start growing back since she isn't laying on her back as much. :-)


• She's started some veggies now. Squash was her first one to try, and she suprised us and ate the whole jar! I'm sure we'll have many more food pictures to come.

Have a great weekend!

My Aggie Ring

Today I had an unexpected delivery to my front door. It was my Aggie Ring. I sent it off a couple of weeks ago to be resized and it came today. Yea! One of the weird pregnancy things that happened to me is that my fingers got wider. I had to have my wedding ring resized, too.

For those of you who aren't Aggies, the Aggie Ring is a very special tradition. All Aggie Rings are the same (except for your class year.) They have lots of symbolism, but what is cool is that you can spot them pretty easily. You might be standing in line at the airport and have someone come up to you and say, "My name is so-and-so, and I'm class of such-and-such." It's pretty cool.

Appetizing, huh?

Noelle was not such a big fan of oatmeal cereal, but she did enjoy playing with the spoon.

Deep Thoughts

The other night Sarah and I were watching an NFL playoff game when Sarah turned to me and said, "I wouldn't be a very good NFL coach."

It was obvious that she had been thinking about this for a while, and I clearly wanted to learn more. "Why's that?" I asked.

"Well, I don't really know all the rules. Also, I wouldn't want to yell at the players, and I'd probably cry if they yelled at me. The last reason is that I wouldn't really care if we won. Tying is fine with me."

I agreed with Sarah that those were all good reasons that she wouldn't make it as an NFL coach. I was taken a bit off guard by the whole conversation and thus didn't really have much to say. So, I just noted that she should cross that off her list of future professions and concentrate on being a mom.

Another Ice Storm

It seems like the meteorologists in Texas forecast ice storms & wintry mix a lot more often than it really happens. Therefore, when they were saying it would sleet this weekend, I didn't pay attention to it very much. My bad.

We're out of Diaper Genie refills and running dangerously low on wipes. I can make due without the Diaper Genie...but wipes? What did people do before they were invented? I could never have been a pioneer mom. Also, we ran out of size 2 diapers, so we temporarily switched to size 3 while we are iced in. You would think after 6 months I would be used to having a baby in the house! Plus, I am the person who is notorious for keeping some emergency supplies like canned food and bottled water. I guess I need to add diapers into my stash. :-) Thank goodness Chris went to the store for me on Thursday or else we wouldn't even have milk!

Stay warm!

Did you hear that, too?

Noelle's babbling is actually sounding a little like words now. I know that she isn't really talking yet, but yesterday she babbled and it really sounded like "mama." She's also babbled words that sound like "uh-huh" and "the." Chris and I are getting a kick out of it, although I'm sure he's ready for her noises to sound like "dada." :-)

Here's a funny picture of her with her Uncle Dave. He visited us from Pennsylvania this week and gave her a few tips about how to style her hair.

A Makeover Story

One of my favorite shows in college was "A Makeover Story" on TLC. My roommate and I would watch it together. In my opinion, the best part of the show was always the haircut. What a difference it can make! Anyway, we had our own makeover for Noelle during the Christmas holidays.

Here's the before:

The during:

And the after:

I cannot believe that she already got a haircut! (Her hair had been down in her eyes for a few weeks. I figured it was driving her crazy.) Going to the beauty shop was so fun. Noelle did really well...no crying or anything. I don't think she really knew that anything out of the ordinary was going on. She was very interested in the cape, and chewed on it most of the time. My hair-dresser in Carrollton was the one to cut her hair. That was really special because she cut my hair for years and did my hair for my wedding. Thanks so much, Lynn--her hair looks great! Next up...pig-tails and french braids. :-)

Happy New Year!

Noelle's New Year's Resolutions:

1. Put on a few pounds.

2. Take longer naps.

3. Spit up less.

4. Quit the paci habit.

5. Play with toys more.

6. Have more clothes than any other baby.