Eight is Great

Happy birthday to the boy who made me a mom!

I can't believe it's been 8 years, love this kid beyond measure.

To many, many, many, many, many more! XO

Currently

Current Book

July's book club selection

Current Song

In the Blood by John Mayer

Current TV Show

Need to get on season 5!

Current Drink

All.the.wine.

Current Shame-Inducing Pleasure

I wouldn't say this is necessarily shame-inducing, but my biggest pleasure is that it's summer and the kids aren't in school, so I get to sleep in until 8:00 every morning that Paige lets me. Glorious!

Current Outfit

A v-neck tee from Target and pajama pants

Current Celebrity Crush

Major girl crush on Gal Gadot {Wonder Woman}

Current Mood

Tired. I stayed up way too late last night watching TV with Brent and reading Behind Closed Doors. And then Paige was up several times. Oof.

Current Anticipation

Brent's cousin is in town and we're going out on Lake Travis!

Current Wishlist

To lose the Zoloft induced weight I gained

Current Movie

Allison and I still need to hit this up! When are you free, A?

Current Picture

I dare you to tell me she isn't THE CUTEST

Long Lindemann Lake Weekend

Whew! We had a great vacation at the end of last week with my mom's side of the family at a rental house on Lake Whitney. We went up Thursday and came home Sunday. Normally, a lot of my cousins come, but this time it was just me and my sister {and our families} of the 12 grandkids, and 3 of my mom's 4 living siblings came. The house had 8 bedrooms, so we were able to spread out and it was great!

Before we get to the trip, I have to share how I started off my Thursday - with my first {and hopefully last} root canal! I had 2 cavities when I was 7 and then none until I was 30. But each time I stopped breastfeeding a child, I end up with a mouthful of problems. With Trent, I had a tooth literally crumble in my mouth plus 4 cavities, and with Drew, I had 4 cavities. So it turns out when you have a deep filling, over time it can cause nerve damage...who knew? One of those fillings {from Trent} was the culprit, and I was having major pain in half my mouth from Sunday onward.

Hey tooth #15, let's get you fixed up!

I love numbing shots that take away pain!

I don't love looking like I have bells palsy afterward though. {grin}

So we were able to load up Thursday about 4:30 {after Paige's marathon 3.5 hour nap} and head out. A quick stop at Starbucks and we met the rest of our family at a restaurant a few minutes from our rental house. {My mom rode with me, Brent stayed home to take care of some stuff around the house in preparation for some of HIS family coming this week!} We got our food to go because Paige was DONE, went to the house, put her down, and then the rest of the family arrived and the kids went WILD. The 5 big cousins were SO HAPPY to be together and they all, of course, wanted to sleep in Babs and Pops' room. #nope #theyweretooexcited

Trent was my bed partner Thursday night!

She slept SO good the whole trip, yay!

And got to try food! Bananas and avocados

Babs and her baby

We played so many games {which I LOVE}:

Uno, Skip-Bo, Spades, Spoons, Pie in the Face, Dominos

My mom and sister broke open the champagne at 9:00 AM on Friday!

Such a goober!

Trying to get some sun on my pasty white legs

Assemby line bathing {awesome tilework, no?}

Saturday it rained a lot so it was more card games and drinking

The house we stayed at wasn't ON the water and didn't have a pool {which I liked with little babies} but we were about 2 minutes away from the water.

YUM

I know with babyled weaning you can feed your kid anything,

but they probably didn't expect a playing card to be a snack!

OMG, the love between these 2 {and no idea how Drew got a black eye}

Washing dishes and dancing to Jay-Z

Sleeping sweetie

My Saturday night bed partner

Finally a picture of my parents with all of their grandchildren!

#theSwopesix

We stopped at the lake for the kids to swim one more time {they got to go for a few hours Saturday after the rain left} and wear them out even more

Drew found 'tuna fish' {or bait...whatever}

Paige trying to eat grass

Tired girls!

We stayed up too late, ate too much junk, drank too much, and made some amazing memories!

6 Month Comparisons

Man, I've got some cute babies! Looking at these pics, I still think Paige favors Trent the most, but I can definitely see some Drew in her too {floppy ears much?}. Now let's see how they stack up against each other.

Trent: 
Weight: 17 pounds, 1 ounce - gained 8 pounds, 8 ounces
Height: 26 5/8" - grew 6 1/8"

Drew:
Weight: 14 pounds, 10 ounces - gained 5 pounds, 10 ounces
Height: 25 1/2" - grew 5 1/2"

Paige:
Weight: 15 pounds, 11 ounces - gained 5 pounds, 12 ounces
Height: 26 1/2" - grew 6 1/2"*
*I actually think they measured her off a little here. I had measured her the Saturday before and got 25 1/2". Given how closely she and Drew have been in height, I think this one is slightly off.

I find it so interesting how closely Drew and Paige are trending with what they gain each month {minus the height discrepancy}. 

Typically, a baby is expected to double their weight by 4 months and triple it by 12 months. I think it's funny that Trent had BARELY done this by 6 months, and Drew and Paige were a LONG way off from it!

Grow Baby Grow {Paige} - 6 Months!

This little ball of sunshine is 6 months old! Just when I think she can't get any sweeter or cuter...she does! This has been such a great month with Paige - lots of new skills and changes, and she just remains the sweetest baby. LOVE.

Stats:
Weight: 15 pounds, 11 ounces {50%}
Height: 26 1/4" {50%}
Head circumference: 41 cm {25%}^
Diapers: finishing up size 2 in disposables, size 3 at night, no change on cloth
Clothing: 3-6 months, probably will go up in the next month
Nicknames: Smooch, Paigey, Girlfriend, Little Love
^This is the same measurement as 4 months - I think this nurse measured it a little too low. Curious to see what 9 months is!

*Paige can sit independently! We have entered my absolute favorite baby stage - where a baby can sit up and play without falling over BUT can't go anywhere! She is the earliest of all my kiddos to sit independently.

*But she is my latest to roll over. It took until well into her 6th month for Paige to roll over. She now rolls both ways, but for a long time, we only ever saw her do it in her crib. Just yesterday she did both ways on the floor for me!

*She is officially a thumb sucker, and I LOVE it. She also sucks her tongue sometimes. Typical of a 6-month-old, everything goes in her mouth! She loves to suck on tags!

*I think Paige's favorite sound to make is a growl. Sometimes she growls for HOURS in the middle of the night. It is her 'I'm tired', 'I'm bored', 'I'm unhappy' sound.

*Paige has 2 teeth! I felt the first one {bottom left} on Saturday, June 17 and felt the second on Tuesday, June 20. 

*She has some stranger anxiety but has quickly warmed up to our nanny, Morgan. I love that she reaches for me!

*Like her sister, she loves to eat paper. Unlike her sister, she loves to read. Drew was never very interested in books until about 1 or later.

*She is a breastfeeding champ. We haven't tried food yet, but we will start that soon with baby-led weaning.

*Paige's sleep is decent. She is awake for usually 2 hours between naps which typically results in 2 naps/day, sometimes 3. She goes down usually between 6:30-7:30 and nurses to sleep most of the time for naps and bedtime {which is super easy}. The last few days bedtime has been tough, and she's been up more at night - is it the teeth or a sleep regression? And it's been super tough to get her down at night. She usually nurses to sleep but the last couple of nights it's taken me several attempts to get her down.

*She LOVES her siblings. It is so neat to watch their interactions and see Paige just staring at them as they do things. You can just see the awe in her eyes. 

*Paige is still very wary of water, but we've made some significant progress with the pool! We still either have her in the shower with us or I will bathe with her. She SCREAMS if you make her bathe independently. BUT we have taken her to the pool several times, and she seems to like it. She still never smiles, but she loves to splash the water.

*We also made a lot of progress in the car - she doesn't cry anymore in the car which is AMAZING!

We get comments all the time about how sweet Paige is. I can't really explain it - she is just happy and content most of the time. I am so glad that I never gave up convincing Brent for another baby, Paige is just pure joy, and I'm so, so, so thankful she is ours! Happy 6 months, Smooch!

Suck Up

I get some comments about Paige sucking her thumb to where I know some people either think I'm a weirdo for liking that she's a thumb sucker or they think I should stop it before it becomes a habit or both, ha. BUT I might be biased to thumb sucking based on these pics. {grin}