8 month -Baby Totoro

Oh, who doesn't LOVE Hallowee!?! It and Thanksgiving are pretty much my FAVORITE holidays. (Oh, and Easter too, but mostly because of the egg hunt.) Anyhow, this year I got to win twice and stress twice. I got to figure out two outfits. (stress and win).

Fielding originally wanted to make her The Coon from South Park, but that fell through when he switched up his shift and wouldn't be able to dress up. That got me thinking though and I decided on Totoro! (Don't worry. I don't know a lot of people who know who Totoro is, but I love him anyway.) Not to mention just how quickly my idea developed of how I could make the perfect Totoro costume out of things I already had in Serenity's closet. 1 short sleeved onesie, 1 long sleeved onesie, and a tiny hat with ears.

hmmm...insert a dash of crafty insight and I figured out how to dye the cloth. Bam! A litt cutting/sewing and perfect. It wouldn't be tricky at all. (Yeah, you do realize all that happened in my head, right?)

So I got it figured out in my head. Putting it in to action was a little trickier though. I had to figure out how to dye the cloth and hat. Hopefully they'd end up the same color. Well after researching natural dying options (Walnut and Grapes) I wasn't really sure what to use as the prepping solution. Salt or vinegar. *Sigh* So I went with Salt. Two dye sets later...perfection (or at least close enough). After that I headed to my mom's for some sewing help. I figured I could serge the circle/oval out of the tummy and glue the markings on. Thank goodness for my mom's help. She did it in no time and even came up with some great improvements. Bam! Done. Now all I had to do was buy a tiny top hat and bake a cake. (Fielding told me three days before that he'd told people in his office I'd make a cake. *sigh*)

(Yes, it was delicious.)

So yes, Halloween was a success and I think the Totoro outfit was pretty much nigh perfection. Except the makeup. I think she looked a million times better without the makeup.

Wyatt, Ella, and Serenity
They love hanging out together playing.

                        Note: This is Totoro                                       This is Totoro too.

 This is Totoro eating a fortune cookie.

(It was the only way I could get her to hold still while I grabbed some pics.)

 This is Totoro's fortune.

This was my psuedo Steam-Punk look for the office. Not too shabby for the night before.

Totoro with her makeup.

Crazy Kelli. One day she'll learn not to make weird faces.

Ella kept saying Ren-Ren (Serenity) was a kitty.

Yes, I'm a bad mom. I gave her an oreo to munch on. She seemed to like it.

Chilling at home with mom trying to fall asleep.

Oh my goodness! It's a bear! And yes, this is pretty much the cutest outfit on the planet. I wish it came in bigger sizes. She loves it and THIS is the FIRST picture I took of her in it the FIRST time she wore it.

She can sleep in it.

 

She's a bear! This is what a tiny hibernating bear looks like.

 Okay, maybe not in the wild. Only in our house.

Thank goodness we have such a happy tiny bear!

7 month -Standing tall

Okay, so part of me feels like I'm a bad mom because I didn't document Serenity's growth well enough. On the flip side, life is a bit hectic when you're a wife, mother, employee, sister, sister-in-law, friend, and yes, the occassional individual. You're busy running around trying to make sure all your stuff gets done.

Anyhow, I'm sure Serenity has been standing up more than just now, but that's what most of the pictures are of.

Duh! Oh, and my sister and I were working on arranging family pictures. Not just our family, but 4 generations worth. *sigh* What a headache. It was madness. There was madness about the cost, the date, the location, the outfits...pretty much anything you could think of has one issue or another.

Luckily, Kelli got some great advice and nothing blew up so we did pretty good all in all.
(I'm mostly just glad it's over.)

Anyhow, here she is at seven months.

Lounging in her crib.

Yes, I break the rules.The boppy is NOT supposed to be in her crib.
She is a strange kid though. It elevated her while eating and after she was done she'd burrow down practically under the boppy to sleep.
Yes, I worried that she might sufficate herself, but found that it didn't matter what I did. She slept how she slept. Sometimes with blankets, boppy, flipped onto her stomach or something. *sigh* I gave up fighting it.

At least she's happy with her friends. -She chews on them or crawls over them.

Oh, she makes such amazing faces. Yes, these were taken in succession.

She was watching Super Why.

I've read the articles that say TV is just a glowing box, but she recognizes particular characters, songs, and yes, herself on screen. Might be just the noise, but she likes it.

The week before the pictures she had fun crawling around Jeniece and Taylor's bedroom floor.

Jeniece showed me some AMAZING makeup. Expensive, but SO worth it.

Sleeping with Dad's teddy bear from when he was a baby.

Ella is being sucha good helper.
I'm lucky enough to have siblings who help out when I need it.

The 'twins' taking a nap. At least Kelli got a break.

Chewing. Must be working on more teeth.

She LOVES her jumper. She freaks out and jumps A LOT. It's hysterical.

-And yes, I remember my jumper. It was awesome too. It's like you're flying.

It amazes how BIG of a cheeser she is. It's also one of the greatest things.

We don't cringe when she wakes up from a nap. She might cry for a bit, but typically that is because she just woke up and she's letting us know she's ready to get up.Fielding is ALWAYS excited to go in and get her (unless he's sleeping) because she give you the BIGGEST smile when you walk in the door.

Yes, I can honestly say that is one of the greatest parts about my day.

Thank goodness Kelli's floor is clean. We made banana cream cupcakes for the family pictures since they were happening on my cousin's birthday.

Nothing better than kids and kitchenware.

See...they turned out pretty good. Yes, that's home made Whipped Cream.

Kelli said they looked lame so her husband added more to them. And yes, it was still fluffy the next day.

She layed down for 2.5 seconds in the sleeping bag and then had had enough of that.

Awe, precious. I like holding her on my knees. Way easier to bounce her.

Bundled up in her blanket with her bumbo.

Yes, I have one of those too despite the recall. I just don't set up high unsupervised. No hard surface behind her either. In case she decides to throw herself back, which inevidably a baby does at some point. It's the beginning of there tantrum phase. (Or at least that's what I think.)

Yum! Pickles!

A) You hope your kid doesn't choke.

B) Scares the beejeebers out of you when you notice a HUGE chunk missing.

Luckily, if/when you find out it's because a cousin took a bite of it you feel moderately better. It did keep her entertained though. Hopefully there isn't any issue with babies chewing on pickles. Otherwise, that's another strike against me. Oh well.