It's true - another month has already passed.  Four more months and I'll be throwing a birthday party.  Craziness.

This month has brought about a lot more of Henlie's personality and independence.  She's growing into such a little person :)

Speaking of personality - she loves to stick her tongue out now.  It's pretty cute.  And silly.  And cute :)  She also blows lots of raspberries, especially when she is tired.  I think she uses it as a way to help keep her awake.


She also reacts to social cues.  She'll smile and laugh on her own, sure, but if you are playing with her and laughing, she'll smile right back at you.  Sometimes she'll even laugh.  She has the cutest laugh and smile.

She experienced a lovely growth spurt this month.  Last month, Dr. Fullmer said she was maintaining her growth rate where other kids start tapering off.  We took her in for another weight check on the 5th, and she is now 15 lbs.  That is almost 3 lbs in the last month!  Who knows, she may actually end up on the curve after all!  As for height, I measured her at 25.25 in. this month.

We've had some sleep struggles this month.  I'm pretty sure it was a three-part issue. 

1) Growing.  Seriously - constantly eating (and that's how you gain nearly 3 pounds in a month!)  

2) Going to bed too late.  Previously, she was fine with getting to bed by 7:30/8pm.  Now I have started putting her to bed between 6pm and 6:30pm.  She is usually asleep by 7:30pm.  I think by the time bedtime (set at 8pm) rolled around, she was much too tired to actually sleep.

3) Developmental milestone.  She is soooo close to crawling.  Plus, if she could actually balance, I'm sure she'd just be walking.  All of this movement development I think has disrupted her sleep.  (Why does this happen?)


So, moving - if she's sitting on a chair or the couch, she is pretty immediately moving forward trying to get things and go places.  She has fallen once.  She was fine, and I was right there to help break her fall.  Silly girl.  Usually she gets up on one knee and one foot.  Once she has gotten both knees under her on her own. (She usually lets them spread out so her pelvis is on the ground instead of her knees.)  She rocks, but she hasn't actually gone forward.  A little backwards, though.  And with all of this trying, she can move around a little bit and get into things.


She still loves standing and walking (with help, of course).  She's getting better at her balance, but still can't stand on her own for very long.  She can pull herself up now, at least if she can actually grab something, like the side of her bassinet where we change her.  So mobile - and it's only going to get worse.... :)

As for eating - she really can just eat and eat and eat.  Sometimes she gets three actual meals in, but usually just two.  We nurse four to five times/day.  Usually she does get to help eat whatever we're having, though, so I guess it's kind of like three meals.  (Usually it's bread related, too....)  I was shocked at how much she'd gained, though.  Her pattern has been around a pound per month.  Almost three is pretty crazy!

She's eating all sorts of new foods and food combinations, too.  No signs of food allergies so far, and she has had a little bit of the more allergenic foods (a little bit of a peanut butter cookie, anyone?)  We still try to go two or three days between new foods, but I've become a little lax since she has been doing so well with new foods.  (Plus, there are a lot of mixed foods available, and it's hard to find things with nothing new in them....)

Part of these new foods would be Cheerios.  She still hasn't developed a pincer grip to feed herself.  Although, she does grab food (like Cheerios or bread) and plays with it....  Cheerios have been great.  That's my new go-to at church to keep her quiet.  That's probably not a good habit, but when she's just chatting and not doing anything that really warrants taking her out, I don't want to take her out....  She loves Cheerios.

We've also tried ham (the only meat she has tried).  She is not a fan.  We haven't tried again beyond a couple days.  Meat is supposed to be used sparingly anyway, right? :)


This month has also been one of firsts.  Henlie went to her first movie.  Camile and I took Henlie and Charlie to the movies in Spanish Fork.  They do a family/children's special on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday each week in the summer.  They do kids' movies for $1.  Since our girls are so little, they are still free, so it was $2 for the four of us.  We saw Kung Fu Panda 2.  Henlie did really well for most of the movie.  Then for the rest of it, she did pretty well being held in the back of the theater.  I'm just glad I got to see the rest of the movie since I hadn't seen it before :)

I finally managed to get her hair into a ponytail, too.  It has been long enough for a little one, but every time I'd try, she'd move and I just couldn't get it in.  We were finally able to do it, and since then, we've gotten better at it.  Her hair just keeps getting longer, too.  I'm a little excited for when it is long enough to do different styles, but at the same time, it is a little annoying having to do her hair every day.  It's only going to get more involved the longer it gets.  Oh well, maybe she won't be mistaken for a boy anymore. (Yeah, that has happened all too often. Curse not wearing pink in public I guess.)


She also got her first balloon.  We went to Payson Market for groceries, and they gave her a balloon for being so darn cute :)  She wasn't quite sure what to do with it, but it was cute.  She got some play out of it.  She loves exploring new things.  It was so sweet of the ladies to do that for her, too.  There is something to be said of shopping at a small local market.
 

 

  The other first was on her 8 month birthday exactly.  We were at Jason and Camile's for Independence Day celebrations, and Henlie and Charlie played on the swing set.  Henlie wasn't sure what was going on at first, but once she got balanced and figured out how to work things while swinging, she had a great time.  She really loved it, even laughing at one point (although once I got the camera out, she stopped all of the giggling).

I can't believe how quickly time continues to fly.  It's pretty crazy.  I'm just glad my little girl is growing happily and healthily.  I'm excited (and a little nervous) for what the next month holds!

June 8th was the Utah Scottish Festival held at Thanksgiving Point.  Matt had solos in the morning, and we had decided we weren't going to make it to his first one because of how early it was.  However, Henlie had a really crappy night of sleep, being up at 2:30am, 3:30am, and then 4:30am.  At that point, I gave up and we just stayed awake.  We watched the sunrise on the patio with the dog and cat at 5:30am.  

We got ready and were able to make it to Thanksgiving Point in time to watch Matt solo his MSR.  It was a really nice day, considering how the weather has been the past few years at this games.  Matt was going to scratch his Hornpipe/Jig competition, but Glenn let him play it early so he didn't have to.  Mocha loved Glenn.  Henlie was okay with him.  But not sad or afraid, so that was good lol.

After Matt's solos and Vivian's solo (he was playing for her too), we headed back to the tent.  Henlie and I walked the booths and visited my cousin Ashlee at the Damsel in this Dress booth.  While we were wandering, I got a text from my other cousin Lindsay.  She had her baby girl that morning and sent a picture.  We had to go back to tell Ashlee and show her the picture :)

Since I've been to so many Scottish festivals, I didn't really care to go to massed bands.  So, Matt had me go get him and his piper lunch (he offered to buy him lunch since he has been playing for him :)).  We did this, and Mocha tried to ruin it all.  Dog, plus people, plus food, plus stroller = PAIN in the BUTT. Anyway.... Fortunately, there was an extra piece of fish on one of them, and Mocha only caused me to lose the two fish of the fish and chips.  So instead of being a three piece and a two piece, they became one and two pieces. Dumb dog.  Getting all of that back plus my food was also a bit of a pain, but we managed.

Watching Daddy solo.

 

We found out that Henlie warms up to other gingers pretty quickly.  I'm pretty sure Callin was her favorite.


We ended up leaving around 3pm.  We also took my cousin's daughter, Sydney, home.  She wasn't competing and didn't need to stay for closing massed bands.  She didn't have a ride home, so we fit her in and dropped her off afterward.

 

Matt is in a new band this year, so that means new performances.  Since Wasatch and District is based in Bountiful, they do northern parades.  The grade 4 band did the Layton parade, and the grade 3 did Centerville.  Mikey had Matt come to the Centerville one, even though this season he is playing with the grade 4 due to school.  That was actually nicer.  It's a little closer and started at 9am. (That meant leaving by 7am, but it should have been cooler than Layton, which started at 10:30am.)

Since Matt was gone, Henlie and I hung out at home.  Maybe one year we'll go to the Freedom Festival parade in Provo, or far north to watch Daddy.  After Matt got home, he took a nice, long nap.  


We usually get together with the Hadfield side for food and fireworks, but Matt's parents went out of town for a reunion.  If anyone else was still partying, we didn't know about it.  So, I asked Facebook (well, posted asking my family members) if there was anything going on.  Camile offered to host a BBQ at their house.  Since Matt still had the Sandy parade that evening, I suggested a lunch time of 3pm.  


It was lots of fun to hang out with the married siblings.  Matt got to eat some food and chat for a little bit before going to Sandy.  Mocha got to run around and beg for food.  Charlie and Henlie got to play (although Henlie was content to play with a cup or a plate :)).  Henlie got to swing for the first time.

I'm very grateful for Camile offering to host a BBQ so we could still celebrate.  That is what holidays are all about, right? Eating and hanging out with family? :)

When Henlie and I got home, it was time for bed.  (She had actually napped on the way there and the way home.)  After Matt got home, I picked up some Arby's and we watched House.


I was off of work Friday as well (something about my babysitter being at a reunion :))  Matt only went in for a few hours, so we got to spend most of the day together.  I wanted to try to make it to see the hot air balloons, but Henlie was still sleeping and I'd shut off my alarm, so we didn't make it.  Matt made breakfast before going to work, and then we had a pretty lazy day.  We did make it over to the doctor's for Henlie to have a weight check, and then we stopped at the post office so Matt could take care of some stuff for WUSPBA.  On our way home, we picked up a Papa Murphey's pizza.  And we finished House lol.  (So if anyone has season 6 they'd like to let me borrow, let me know!)


All in all, it was a fun holiday "weekend."  We kept it low-key and ignored the fact there were fireworks lol. They only minorly disturbed Henlie's sleep on Thursday night.  I love getting to spend time with my family, and I'm glad the holiday provided an opportunity to do just that!

My friend is getting into Bridal and Wedding photography with her photography business, so I offered to model for her to help out her Bridal portfolio.  It was lots of fun getting all dressed up in my wedding dress again, nearly 6 years later.  Not fun was trying to drive in it!  It was also kind of fun to redo my bridals because, honestly, I was less than excited about my real bridals.  Plus, this time I had my actual wedding jewelry.

My cousin (Sarah's niece) Elisabeth also came to help out.  She's such a good little photographer's assistant.  It was fun to hang out with them.

I got smart for the drive home and took the petticoat off - less bulk was much easier.  Then it was home for a quick outfit change and then to Matt's mom's house to pick up Henlie!

Sarah truly does some amazing work, so you should all go visit her and then pay her monies to take your picture! (She did my maternity and Henlie's newborn photos too!)

This year also marked Matt's first Father's Day as a dad :)  We decided to make him breakfast, since we would be pushing getting to church on time anyway, and he was still asleep.  We made French toast - and it was yummy :)  Mostly, we had a lazy Sunday.  I texted Denise and Whitney and told them I wasn't going to make it to Primary either. (Matt turned on House while we were eating breakfast - don't worry, I didn't have any actual responsibilities like conducting or sharing time to worry about.  I would have gone to church if that had been the case :))

That afternoon, we went to Matt's parents' as usual, and Jason and Camile made chimichangas for everyone.  They were super tasty. (Fun side note, we left our tapatio and cholula there accidentally, and they are still there, almost a month later lol)

Lynell and John also came over to visit, and the boys got new ties.  Now Matt needs a new shirt to go with the tie I picked out for him.  (It's a tan colored tie. I quite liked it, but he has nothing to match! :))

Henlie sure is lucky to have Matt as her Daddy. He is so cute with her.  I know he loves his little girl very much.  And she sure loves him!

Just when I was starting to feel like milestones were slowing down, baby girl decides to pick up the pace.  This month has seen lots of new and exciting things in terms of Henlie's development.  I sure love that girl :)

We branched out to a second meal and sometimes a third (although we're not very consistent in getting it, and numbers two and three are much smaller than her morning oatmeal).  New meals means new foods!  Since I had decided to introduce new foods to her starting at 6 months, I let Grandma give her watermelon on May 5th at Sunday dinner.  Henlie thought that was the best thing ever.  After dinner, we let her suck on the rinds of our slices, and she went to town.


Shortly thereafter (waiting a couple days for allergy purposes, of course), we started on bananas.  She did okay at the very beginning, but soon decided they weren't that great. We put bananas on hold, and we moved onto sweet peas.  She loved peas.  Since peas ran out, we went back to bananas.  She still pulled faces and wouldn't eat much.  They say it can take a baby like 12 times of trying a new food to decide if they're going to like it or not.  Crazy.  When 'nanas were a no-go, we broke out peaches.  She started pulling the same face as with the bananas, and I was a little worried she wasn't going to eat peaches either.  However, on day two, she decided they were worth it and ate three times as much as I had initially gotten out for her.  She still pulls faces on occasion, but at least she'll eat them!  A few weeks later, Grandma gave her some fresh banana mashed up. After that, she was okay with the stuff in the jar, too.  We've also had squash, which she loves.  This makes me happy, as it is something I enjoy as well. :) 

 
Grandma Biggs has also been slipping her new foods in my absence.  I came home one night to find Henlie's onesie had two dark spots on it.  I asked Matt if he'd spilled on her again (because we've both done that :)).  He informed me Grandma gave her treats.... apparently there were root beer covered ice cream goodies.  Grandma did inform me that she didn't let her have any ice cream, just the root beer part.  And so it begins :)

Grandma was also the first to feed her bread.  Now, if I'm grabbing a slice because I have no time, or if I'm making a sandwich, I'll give Henlie some of my bread.  She's a fan.  The first day of peaches when she was less than enthused about them, I pulled out some bread to give her along with the peaches.  It worked for a minute.  I've also let Henlie try out feeding herself with small pieces of bread.  She managed to lick one.  She even got another in her mouth.  Mom had to help her with the rest, though.


This whole feeding thing has been interesting as I try to figure out nursing around real food.  I moved up her oatmeal (it was after her second nursing session of the day, but sometimes she wants a nap then.)  Now we nurse while I pump in the morning.  After that is my window to get anything done (shower, breakfast, whatever) while she is content.  About two hours after her first session, we have oatmeal.  She is eating quite a bit of oatmeal now, plus the remaining formula in her bottle, and then usually still nursing 1 to 1 1/2 hours after that.  Most days, she even naps after her second or third nursing session.  It's wonderful!  Sometime in the afternoon (mostly on days I don't work, although depending on times, she may get some before I go to work) or sometimes in the evening, we'll have lunch (dinner) of some fruit or veggie.  


I've been holding her off til at least 3, maybe even 4, hours between nursing sessions.  Real food has come in handy by letting me be able to do that without having a screaming baby.  Before, she was nursing every two hours.  When I'd go to work, it would be 3 to 4 hours since I fed her before I would go pump, and then another 3 to 3 1/2 hours before I'd pump again.  I was getting virtually nothing.  I still don't get as much as she eats in a feeding, but at least my supply during pumping at work has gone up now.  My body is more used to stockpiling more milk over a longer period of time.  Henlie is still nursing at regular intervals.  Also in order to keep my supply up, I'm nursing and then feeding her 1 to 2 hours afterward.  I still have no idea when we'll start cutting out sessions, but for now, this is working for us.


This month, she has also pretty much mastered sitting on her own.  Although, if she tries to reach for something a little too far away or turn to look at something too far behind her, she still falls over.  She had been getting better at sitting up for longer periods of time for a little while, but since I really noticed when I had her in bed with me, I thought maybe the increased time she stayed sitting was in part due to the bed being soft and supporting her more than the floor.  However, we went outside to play on May 21st, and she was just sitting in the grass, forever.  That was the day I realized she was an unsupported sitter now.  Craziness.


As for crawling, she's not there yet.  She's getting a little bit closer, though.  However, she would much prefer to stand.  She has tried pulling herself up too.  Now we're working on her arm strength.  She has pulled herself up in my lap using my hands.  I guess we'll see what happens next month!


Another milestone I'm not excited about has been separation anxiety.  Not so much with other people. . . . more when I want to put her down to do anything (like use the restroom.... sigh).  She has learned that her rocking chair and playpen are places she gets left, so as soon as she's in them, she starts crying.  In fact, she has started doing this when she'd rather be napping.  I'll lay her down in her crib, and she'll start screaming!  I like days she'll nap somewhere other than in my arms.  I hope those come back soon!


Another fun "milestone" was on May 23rd.  I went to the store with the baby and left the car seat in the car!  We've tried this once before (at Payson Market, even, where the carts are smaller than at Walmart), but they put the seatbelt so high up it didn't do much good.  However, since she can sit on her own, and since she was still awake when we got to the store, we tried again.  I'm so excited she can sit in the little child seat now!  Being safe and putting the car seat in the cart doesn't leave much room for any groceries..... Now we no longer have to worry about that!


Henlie also developed a bit of a rash on her trunk, so we asked Dr. Fullmer about that.  Apparently it was two rashes - some heat rash and then some very mild eczema.  You know, for as bad as eczema and cradle cap can be, Henlie looks pretty good.  This makes me happy.


Speaking of looking good, her hair keeps getting longer!  Her bald spot in the back is starting to grow back some hair, too!  If she held still long enough and I weren't such a chicken, I would be able to stick a little palm tree ponytail on top of her head.  Alas, it hasn't worked out. lol