Six Months of Millie

Another month has come and gone. But this one, this 6th one? It feels a bit different. 6 months. Half a year. How does it happen? Everyone said it would go so fast. Everyone said that before you knew it she'd be a year. And here we are half way there. Today was filled with reminiscing. I kept glancing at the clock thinking "6 months ago I was..." I woke to nurse at 5 this morning-about the time she was born. I saw the clock at 7:00 am the time I called my parents. Then again at 11:30 the time we left the birth center. 

How does it feel like yesterday and forever all at the same time? 

Enough with the sappy stuff. This month has been BIG. 

Five days after her fifth month Millie sat up on her own. We had been sitting with her helping her balance but it was literally one day she couldn't and the next day she could. It was incredible. By day 2 you would have thought she was born doing it. About a week later she was officially crawling. No more splats or belly flops. Unless she was super impatient or excited. Now she pretty much understands the effectiveness of the crawl. 

This is one of my nightgowns from one of my Great Grandmas. The "gown" slows her down a bit. 

My little bully, beating up her uncle. Kenzie seems pleased with it though too. Millie is so rambunctious. She climbs everyone, she pulls hair, she's on to the next thing or the next person within seconds of arriving at the current distraction. She can kinda be a pill actually. 

We celebrated Uncle Evan's birthday and Mom's birthday this month with a trip to Cunningham's each. We are getting to be regulars there. 

Baby girl fell asleep during dinner...

But woke up in time to take a peek at the cake. She wanted to tear into it so badly. She could tell it would make a mess. 

Sliding glass doors are fun and provide a good two minutes of entertainment. 

Hi! I'm Millie. May I pull your hair? 

Our house is becoming one big jungle gym. Everything can and will be used as a toy. Especially the laundry basket. 

She is also getting a bit destructive. If there is a thread to pull she will pull it. If there is paper to tear she will demolish it. It's entertaining to see the damage she can do generally.

I love watching her be tactile. Using her sense of touch to learn about things. I think I can see the wheels turning sometimes. It's so much fun to watch them learn and explore. 

Millie my puppy. 

So after mastering the sitting up thing in about a 4 day span, then the crawling thing, we decided to climb. It started with just lifting our self to our hands and knees at the fireplace. It has since evolved to pulling up on furniture and crawling all the way up on the fireplace. 

At 5 and 6 months they don't understand "no." They just smile back because every interaction before has been fun. Babies also have very little depth perception at this age. She lets go and reaches for things much farther and they are in actuality. This is a challenge we are dealing with.   

Huh? You just said this wasn't for me? What does that even mean Momma? I'll just smile and act like I know what you are saying. 

 I found this tunnel at the thrift store for $3. I figured between Millie and Jerrel I'd definitely get my money's worth. It took a little coaxing to get Millie to climb through be she did and now the tunnel is good fun for us all! This is her "I'm going to get you and your little dog too." face.

I still do little baby photo shoots because I'm the Momma. 

They are fun. We giggle.

We coo. 

We smile pretty.

We move our arms like a crazy person.

We suck our finger.

And we get the camera.

Then we move on and we pull ourselves up to the ottoman. If you notice here her leggies are bit far from the ottoman. Don't worry now she has figured out how to "walk" herself closer. Any bets on first step dates? Girlfriend is on the move! 

Then there is Dad. Pops. The old man. Millie still adores him and when he gets up on his days off they have "Daddy-Daughter time while watering plants and picking produce. Then they come in cook supper and finish the evening with rough housing-quite the pair.

We have affectionately nicknamed Millie, "Skeeter" because she is EVERYWHERE always busy, always pestering something. And she works so hard at it. She huffs and puffs, grunts and groans while climbing, rolling, or even sitting. She means business, all the time.

Did you say my name? 

All that climbing is tough work.  

Here she was trying to touch Gramacita's flowers from the inside. Still working on that whole "glass" thing. 

Jerrel's Grandma gave us one of these obnoxious bouncers. It's crazy big and it can be noisy but we avoid that feature. Millie sits in it when she will tolerate it while we cook. But the second we leave her sight she's cranking her neck and turning to see where we went. It works great for camping and doing things in the flower beds outside.

Left the room for a minute. Find her under the table. Soon she will be too tall for this. Funny little girl.

Again with the "I'll get you look." 

Help! Get me out of here! 

Look Mom, One hand! One! Such a happy morning girl! 

I have caught her on more than one occasion using an empty box or the laundry basket has walker. Slowly making her way across the room until she is tired then she cries and it's my duty to rescue here.

I don't mind.

Blue Eyes helping Daddy cook!

Making biscuits is so much fun!

From 5 months to 6 months.

Love our girl. Her chubby arms. Her blonde fuzz. Her friendly smile and her kind blue eyes.

Now to really freak everyone out-myself included here's 1 month to 6 month. Not sure I can handle it.

Holy guacamole! My baby!

She's my favorite.

6 months. How did that happen? I'm not sure but I'm thanking Him it did.

Blessings!

State Fair Fun

This past weekend we decided to take in the Nebraska State Fair. The fair brings back memories of 4-H, sweltering heat, and lemonade ice. 

We questioned if we should even go. I've said it before and I'll say it again-Millie isn't a traveler. Her temperament in the car make car rides sad, stressful, and long because we don't let her cry so we stop-alot. It has the potential to suck the fun right out of the event. But because the fair has moved to Grand Island and we had so much fun it's opening year, we decided to make the trip. We can't stay holed up forever. We need to get out, start traditions, and make some memories! One night in K-town with my Grandparents, a meltdown, and couple stops later we were at the fair and ready to grab some grub. 

Get some Cactus Jack's food if you have the chance. You will thank me.

I just now noticed the little boy and his mom in the bottom left corner of this picture. Apparently there is an important issue at hand.

Burgers and Bingo. We enjoyed lunch under the bingo tent with the Knights of Columbus. The weather was fabulous. After lunch we headed to the open class building. We are thinking next year we will do some open class projects. The produce was impressive and the handicrafts were beautiful. They had a rug making devision that had some stunning pieces!

They also had an interesting exhibit called "Bee Culture."

We are honey lovers in our family. We loved seeing the different kinds of honey and learning about bees and such. 

Then we got our caricature done. I was hesitant-girl thing. Then as it turns out Jerrel isn't thrilled with his depiction and I'm fine with mine. Funny how that works. I'm not sure he's ready for it to be publicized...someday...just trust me it's funny. 

Fair Food! Cotton Candy. Caramel Apples. Funnel Cakes. Lemonade. Fried Peaches. Fried Ho Hos. Fried Pickles. Fried Cheesecake. Fried COOKIE DOUGH. Basically, you want it? They got it.

While in our food coma from lunch and dreaming about snack and supper we moseyed through the buildings. We looked at the 4-H exhibits and the show animals. Saw a 3,400 lb stear. Yes. For real. Went to the petting zoo in which Millie all but jumped out of the sling in order to get her hands on a zebra-girlfriend loves animals. I waited around for 45 mins in hopes of a sow or cow to give birth in the labor pavilion, only to leave in disappointment. It's ok though, I would have waited until it was more private too.

Finally we ended up in the hog building for some reason and Jerrel wanted to watch a couple rounds of the hog shows.

Millie thought it was a good idea too. It was two against one. 

This chickadee had enough of the hog shows apparently. 

Soon we were hungry again. Ok, maybe hungry isn't the right term. But the clock said food time so we listened. We had another round of Cactus Jacks and decided for dessert to try...

Fried Cookie Dough-on a stick. Oh momma! It was good. So good. It didn't last long enough. 

Millie was starting to get sleepy and we decided to take advantage of it and start for the car. But not before a Millie selfie at the fair. First with the sky tram that makes momma incredibly nervous. 

Next, with a small line up of the food venders that someday baby girl will enjoy as much as the rest of us.

Wait. Did you see that? Let's look at that photo again:

Yup! First Tooth poking through. Thus far the teething has just resulted in a fussy girl one or two days, chewing, and a bucket of drool. But nothing major. Lets hope it stays that way.

For the record I like Millie's little baby gums. They keep her looking like a little baby. As does her bald head. Millie stay a baby. Just a little while longer. I love your gummy smiles.

On our way back to the car we caught the beginning of an Elephant show. It was neat, I guess. Jerrel and I both decided we are more of a National Geographic/African Safari Elephant show type of people. Oreo Eating Elephants? Nah.

We also left and both were thinking about the show "When animals attack." Each of us had our escape routes planned and knew we had the upper hand because we weren't in the bleachers. Weirdest and most paranoid people in America-right here everybody. This is why we don't get out much.

Next year the Carousel is on the list as is maybe one of those silly elephant shows. Soon we won't be able to be too cool for those types of things. Millie will know the difference. Dangit. 

She will also be well-versed in fair foods if her father has anything to say about it. I could really use some fried cheesecake right now. How about you? 

Blessings!