Sweet Mae Flower

This year some friends came up with a cute Halloween theme for Mae and me-- Jason doesn't dress up... but he might want to next year since we were so cute this year :) Mae was a May flower and I was April showers. I figure that I'll only have a couple years where I can dress her up in whatever I choose. She surprisingly did well with the petals sewed onto a headband. I thought she'd rip that off after a few minutes, but she didn't seem to mind it.


We actually had a little get together over at our house on Halloween night and Mae had fun watching all the other kids...maybe that distracted her from the headband. Next year, we'll actually go trick-or-treating which will be so fun to see her running around.

Mae also had her 9 month check-up last week. She weighed in at 19 lbs 4 oz and is 26 3/4 inches. I thought surely she'd be 20 lbs, but I guess the crawling has slowed her weight growth a little. Her head is still in the 90th percentile though...a Dallas trait. Everything else checked out great, and our next appointment won't be until she's 1 year! I can't believe it!!

Growing up

Mae has been achieving some more milestones these past few weeks. Most notably, she started crawling last weekend! She is getting better and better at it every day. She's not crawling all over the place just yet-- mainly just when you give her an incentive, like holding out the remote or cell phone. I tried to capture it in a picture below. We have a video but I don't know how to post it on here..sorry.

Mae also now eats "real" people food and can feed herself. She loves avocados, chicken, turkey, fruit and likes peas, carrots, squash okay. She loves drinking water out of her sippy cup too. She's trying to master drinking from that by herself....most of the time she drops it but she's getting better. It's so nice when she can just sit next to us and feed herself while we eat. She hardly needs us anymore :)

We bought her first pair of real shoes a couple weeks ago. Some good ole Keds! We think she'll need them since it's starting to get a little cooler here and she'll want to walk around while holding our hands. Here she is modeling them. I think she is starting to really look like a toddler in this picture.

Here she is "playing" with Tex again. He is still her favorite toy...although I don't think the feeling is mutual.

Here are a few more shots of our happy girl!

Beach trip

We went to Rosemary Beach in Florida a couple weeks ago with my family and had such a great time!! It was so relaxing and so much fun to all be together with no real agenda. It was also Mae's first time at the beach and she loved it! She especially liked all the attention she received from her doting grandparents and aunt and uncle. Hope we can return soon!

Dinner at Bud & Alley's on our last night. It was SO good!

Dinner at the Red Bar.

6 months already!

We had a great six month check-up last week. Mae is now 17 lbs 5 oz and 26 inches long-- I knew she was getting bigger as I can hardly carry that carseat anymore!:)

She also had her first sickness the week before that. We've all pretty much recovered now, but that was not a very fun time around our house since we all ended up getting it. Since then Mae has been waking up at 5-5:15 every morning. yikes! Luckily, Jason has been up too so I've been able to get another hour of sleep. Hope that doesn't last too much longer....

Mae is showing more and more independence these days as a six-month old. She loves playing with any toy/ remote/ cell phone as well as with her pacifier and trying to put it in her mouth all by herself....she can almost do it. It's just upside down in this picture... although she doesn't seem to mind!

Mae's first two teeth are definitely here and visible now. Here's the happy girl showing them off.

This is actually the second time we fed her real food (or, rice cereal if you call that real food). She loved it and downed that whole bowl! She also liked "helping" me feed her.

Bath time is also getting more fun for her since she can sit up by herself and play with toys. You can see the two bottom teeth pretty well in this picture too.

Many firsts!

We have been very busy around here lately...and Mae has been experiencing lots of "firsts" over the past couple weeks. I tried to capture pictures of most of them. We've been having so much fun with her lately. She really seems to change every day!

She also has two teeth already!! I haven't been able to get a good picture of them yet but will soon.

As you can see below, she's now able to sit up on her own...or at least mostly on her own. You still have to be right there since she's not too stable yet, but she's doing pretty well!


Fourth of July! First parade...although her nap went long, so we kind of missed it. maybe next year.
Again sitting up and the first time staring/playing with a friend (adorable Saylor Smith)

First plane ride and trip to Memphis! She did great and slept most of the time.

First time at the pool..and wearing her shades. :)

First swim/ float in Memphis

Just thought this was a sweet picture with her granddaddy.

So happy!

First time holding her bottle all by herself!

Grabbing her feet...this has now become a very regular occurance.

Rolling over all the time!

Starting to really like the jumper

New Slideshow

Kady Dunlap took some more pictures of Mae last week. Jason and I were also able to be in them so we could get a good one of all three of us. I think they turned out really cute. Click the link below to watch the slideshow.

Thanks again, Kady!

http://www.kadydunlap.com/MaeDallas/index.html

4 months already!

Mae had her 4 month check-up yesterday and is "perfect" according to the doctor...I just love him! :) She now weighs 15 lbs 2 oz and is 24 1/4 inches long. So, we can all see she's definitely eating well and growing fast!

Here's a picture of her on Memorial Day in her most patriotic outfit on the way to the Rangers game.

still loving those fingers...when she can actually manage to keep them in her mouth.

Mae and Tex are becoming fast friends these days...she just smiles and stares at him as he walks around the house and laughs if he actually comes up to her to check her out. She loves him!

And, actually, Tex reciprocates these feelings. Last night when Mae wasn't feeling too great after getting her shots at the doctor's, Tex went into her room two different times and just laid down next to her crib like he was worried about her. Then once he even stood in there whining next to the crib....it was like he knew she didn't feel great even though she wasn't crying or anything. He wanted me to come in there and check on his baby!! I thought that was kind of amazing.

Update

Here are some pictures of what we've been up to with Mae lately. Really, it's just more of the same but she has been so much fun these days. She's just smiling and laughing all the time-- really, she even chuckles at us sometimes. It's so great!

I also started back to work a couple weeks ago-- just 3 days a week. The first day was hard but we've gotten into a routine now and it seems to be a really good balance. Mae is staying with this really sweet lady in her home, so that made all the difference in leaving her. I feel like she's in a good place and having fun during the day when I'm not with her. Hope we keep feeling that way!

Okay-- here are some new pics. That's all anyone cares about anyway....

so strong!

one of her new favorite hobbies...trying to eat her shirt.

At our first family meal at Houston's. It was a special occassion, although Mae was definitely more interested in the candle at the end of the table than anything else.

Can you see all that hair she's getting these days?

Mae's still in the stage where she'll fall asleep when I'm out running errands and strolling around. I don't want that to end!

Nice nap on the couch after church...nothing better!