Sunday funday at the zoo!

This past Sunday, my hospital offered employees a free day at the zoo. I figured it was the perfect time to take her because I wasn't sure how she would act and we wouldn't lose anything if we needed to leave. I was also cancelled from work all weekend, so I actually had a weekend off for once. We ended up having a fantastic time. Haley really seemed to enjoy parts of it. Most of all, though, she loved to people watch. She must get that from me because that is one of my favorite things to do. Scott ended up carrying her all around so that she could see everything better and she loved this. She liked to bounce up and down with him as he walked and she could see Jenny and me behind her. She really enjoyed seeing the ducks in their pond and the big cats in their environment. She has really started loving the cats that we have at home which I call "kitty cats" so when we got to the big cats, I just told her they were kitty cats and she watched them in amazement. Then we let her ride on the carousel with daddy and she loved that. She just smiled and laughed and loved going up and down. The weather was perfect that day and we had a fantastic time. It's a good thing we did it when we could since it is now so cold.

Walking with daddy.

Tigers.

Lions.

Playing with daddy after the zoo.

Our Destin trip

This past week, Haley and I got the opportunity to go to Destin with my dad, my brother, my step mom and her family. We stayed in an amazing house with a beautiful beach. We had such a great time going to the beach and hanging out with family. Haley probably could have done without the beach part, but she loved all of the people. Every time we went out on the beach, she got hot, thought it was too bright, and for some reason, instantly got tired. She did a lot of sleeping on the beach after putting up an amazing fight to get to sleep. I tried to put her feet in the ocean a few times and she sort of tolerated it. I think it was a little cold for her at first and she got upset before she got used to it. It sure was beautiful though.

The house we had the privilege of staying in.

Lots of sleeping.

Fighting sleep.

Hanging out after waking up.

Happy for a few moments.

Loving her cousin Murphy!! He was so entertaining. She had such a good time with her cousins.

Having some fun with her Pop.

We did discover that she LOVED the pool. She was actually swimming with her arms and legs. She laughed so much and just had the best time. That is until I let her get too close to the water and she dunked her face. It was over after that. We had to go home and nap. I felt terrible, and of course, it was all on video.

Playing with her cousin Madden (with her mom and my cousin Suzanne).

On our last day, Haley got to hang out at the house with her Mimi and went swimming again in the pool. I got a chance to go with my dad and brother on a deep sea fishing trip. We had a fantastic time even though it was blazing hot. I actually caught some fish but had to throw both of them back.

We saw tons of dolphins. It was great until they started eating all of the fish everyone was catching before they could be reeled in.

The first fish I caught. It's a trigger fish. It was too small for the regulations, so it had to go back.

The second fish I caught. It was a red snapper. They are out of season, so it had to be thrown back too.

Eating, moving and sleeping

Well, I've managed to get behind again. It's very easy to do. We've been really busy lately going to the beach and the zoo. I'll post on those later. Right now I want to update on the eating. As you all know, I've been overly worried about Haley not wanting to eat. I've been reassured by several people that this is just what some babies do and I feel much better about things now. I'm just trying to let her try things so we can test for allergies and if she likes something then it is a bonus. So far, we have tried: oatmeal, avocado, banana, squash, peas, sweet potato, and pears. I have made most of it myself, but did try store bought squash just to see if she would take it better. I have tried thinning things out and thickening things. I have tried to feed her when she was hungry and when she wasn't so hungry. I have tried her in the highchair, in her Bumbo, and holding her. I have tried different spoons. I have tried a mesh pacifier with banana in it (she loved sucking on the pacifier until she realized there was food in it). I have tried rice teething biscuits. I have tried puffs. Now I just need to be patient and keep trying things multiple times to make sure she really hates them.

Well the bright side of all of this is that she has learned to love bananas and pears. She especially loves her puffs because they are hard food but dissolve very quickly so that she can swallow it. She also loves water! She tolerated sweet potatoes and avocado better than the other things. She still doesn't care for her oatmeal unless it is mixed with the banana. We still have lots of things to try, but up next will be carrots then green beans. It's going to come eventually and I'm not as worried because I am seeing improvement.

Trying but not liking the rice teething biscuit. She almost choked on it and it scared me to death. We will hold off on these for a while.

I finally got daddy home early enough to feed her. He got to work on peas. This was how it went.

She thought it looked like a good idea when daddy does it.

This was his idea and not something I regularly do.

Oatmeal is awful!

Here she is trying sweet potatoes. She swallowed some of it.

On a different note, Haley is moving all around using her arms and legs. She can eventually drag herself anywhere she wants to go. Yesterday, she was able to get herself up on her knees for a moment and rock back and forth. She can sit up unassisted for a minute or two before falling to the side, but can sit for a while if I hold one of her legs steady. So, she has the strength, just not the balance.

Here she is today getting up on her knees.



Here she is on the move.



Here she is sitting up today (she has had a big day).

As for sleeping, she has good nights and bad nights. Some nights she will go to bed early and sleep most of the night. Other nights, she will go to bed late and wake up a few times. It's a nightly struggle, but it will get better. We are letting her cry it out some. I was so excited to find the paci in her mouth one day after a nap. I left one in the crib in case she wanted one and she was able to figure it out for herself. I didn't think she liked the paci, but she let me know I was wrong. I'm glad for that because I didn't want her sucking her thumb.

Well, Haley went down to sleep without any problem tonight at 7:30. She has had a huge day with all the sitting up, getting up on her knees and scooting. Not to mention, she has only taken a few short naps. Hopefully she will sleep longer through the night.

6 month stats

I forgot to post Haley's latest length and weight from her doctor's appointment earlier this week. She is 27 inches long (90th percentile) and 15 lbs 3 oz (45th percentile). Therefore, she is still long and lean. She got four shots plus her first flu shot. This made for a very long and miserable night. She had a fever all night and kept waking up. It was so sad and pitiful. I felt terrible for her. I gave her lots of Tylenol and TLC. I even had to let her sleep in my arms at one point. She started to feel better and was fever free the next afternoon. I think this was the last time that she will get so many shots at one time, thank goodness.

Squash wasn't the answer...

Well on Monday, we tried the pureed squash that I made this past weekend. It started out really well and she took several bites even seeming to like it. Then after a few bites, she started to close her mouth and wouldn't let me put any in. Then she started gagging and spitting it out. That led to her screaming instead of eating. I was so hopeful that this would go better than the oatmeal has been going. Now we are stuck with squash because you have to wait four days after introducing it to make sure there aren't any allergies to it.

So Tuesday, I tried the same thing hoping that she just needed to get used to it. No such luck. She barely took any before she started gagging and trying to throw it all up. Then started screaming.

Today (Wednesday), I broke down and bought some baby food squash from the store. I thought maybe, just maybe, she would like it better. Well, it smelled terrible and I couldn't really blame her when she didn't like it. She did take a few bites though. I'll try one more day before we move on to something else.

Right after her first bite of squash.

Not really liking it and starting to close her lips.

She decided she hates it.

She pretty much refused it after that.

Here she is after we tried the store bought stuff. I think she was wearing more than she took in.

Here are some pics of her with her daddy. She adores her daddy. It's so much fun to watch them together. He makes everything better. Where is he when I'm trying to feed her squash? Well, at the gym, of course.

Haley's 1/2 birthday

Yesterday was Haley's 6 month birthday. I took her monthly pictures and got some cute ones, but she was so tired that it was hard to get her to smile. Here are some of my favorites.

She was not really that excited about having her picture taken this morning.

She, of course, had to try to eat the sticker. EVERYTHING has to be put in her mouth these days.

I had to get a funny face!

This is her new Auburn cheerleader outfit. It's a bit big, but I want her to wear it some before it gets too cold.

I got cancelled from work, so I decided it was time to try my hand at making some baby food for Haley. I did peas, sweet potato, and squash. The peas were super hard and time consuming. I don't know that I'll be doing those again unless someone has some good hints on them. Sweet potatoes were a little easier, and squash was the easiest. I think I'll start feeding her peas first this coming Monday. I made a little of each and will freeze it until I'm ready to use it.

My pea mess.

The whole mess of dishes (not too bad).

Well, this was all I got out of my first attempt. I learned a lot, though, and will continue to work on it once I get some hints from fellow baby food makers. I only hope Haley will like it all because I invested a lot of time into it.