Bathtime Giggles

For some reason, we decided to bathe Autumn in the kitchen sink this afternoon. She thought it was pretty hilarious. And no, she's not a super giggly baby. We can get about half this much out of her by scaring her over and over again, but this takes the cake.

Also, in preparation for her upcoming trip to Santa Cruz -- where Grandma Jones is waiting to take her to the pool for the first time -- we decided to introduce Autumn to her first bathing suit. She wasn't thrilled about putting this on before reaching her beach body goal, so we told her that her thighs will look thinner once she gets some sun on them. What she doesn't know won't hurt her.

Seriously though, where did this chunky baby come from? We're loving the new rolls!

Photo Dump

When I uploaded Autumn's five month pics onto my computer, I also uncovered a treasure chest of pictures from as far back as before I was pregnant. See, before having a kid we were even more terrible at doing anything with our digital pictures. They seemed to just dissolve into a black hole of random memory cards laying about the house. Since there wasn't much going on with this blog while I was pregnant, I figure it's better now than never to dump some fun blasts from the past. Enjoy!

Somewhere around 22 weeks, maybe?

Autumn's room, before

Brian hard at work. That's one level chair rail!

This is weird. I know I was around 24 weeks while we were doing this, and I vividly remember the "bump" being in the way. Really? Maybe I just ate too much ice cream over the summer.

Brave Wally

 Autumn's room -- after. Well, sort of. There are things on the walls now. My mom made all of the window coverings, bedding, cute pillow and more!

We'll call this 25 weeks

And this, 29 weeks

Then, just about 7 weeks before Autumn was due, we decided to destroy the basement. This is where the new hallway and bathroom would soon be.

Future laundry room/storage area

Bathroom, isn't it nice?

This would soon be a new bedroom

Hallway, closer to finished

Bathroom, closer to finished

Bedroom

At around 34 weeks, we went to a Broncos pre-season game. I had to pee a lot, and it wasn't that easy to squeeze by everyone in the aisle.

This was fun. At their 20-week anatomy scan, Heather and Jeremy had the tech write down the sex of their baby and put it in an envelope. They opened it up at The Elm, appropriately. Here they are finding out that Sam would be a boy!

Excited about the weenie.

Probably two days before Autumn's birth. Ok, this is gross and disturbing, and a terribly washed out picture. But for some reason, I couldn't stop myself from including it. Every time I catch a glimpse of this, right after I throw up in my mouth, I thank God that I will  (most likely) only ever experience that one more time, and (hopefully) not for quite a while.

  This was the next picture on the memory card. And then...

Well, there were a few gross ones of Autumn being cleaned up between there and here, but I don't think she'll complain about me choosing this one.

 This makes me happy.

A trip to the zoo

On Friday, Brian's parents came into town and Brian went with them for Autumn's first trip to the zoo. I'm not bitter at all, really. I had an incredibly awesome day in my windowless cubicle inside the dreariest building in downtown Denver, while they hung out with the zoo animals in the beautiful 60 degree, sunny weather. Good for them.
Sounds like everyone had a great time though. Autumn apparently loved the fish, and kind of liked the snakes and other reptiles.

Brian said she looks Russian here

On Saturday we headed to Grandma & Grandpa Boyd's for a little 60th birthday shindig for Doug. I was bored on the way home -- sitting in back to keep Autumn entertained. I must have done a damn good job, because she quickly did this...

While Wally did this...

And Brian did this....

5 months

These months are going by so quickly! Wasn't I just writing her four month blog a few days ago? And how is it already mid-March?
Well let's not dwell on that. Autumn is still busy growing up these days. I'm going to indulge myself in another list-style rundown of what she's doing these days -- as if you care what size diapers she's wearing or how often she's eating. I do though. So, with that:

Little Booger

--Wears size 2 diapers. We might be starting an entire blog of diaper reviews, for the record. Brian took it upon himself to embark on a mission to find the miracle diaper that will not only hold in her blowouts, but will somehow make her stop smelling like an ammonia factory by 4am every day. So far, he is not winning. We do have about 564 size 2 diapers of various brands lying around though. Maybe it's time to get Charlie Sheen on that mission.

Hanging out in bed with Sammy. Dad says this is the last time she gets to be in bed with a boy until she's 30!

--She's eating a lot, and chunking up quite nicely (see cheeks in pics below). After discovering that she had two amazing nights of sleep following being only bottle-fed those days, I've pretty much gone to just pumping. We mix the bottles with about 4-5oz breastmilk and 1.5-2oz formula. Not sure how long I'll keep that up, but I'm really glad she doesn't mind the formula. She is also eating rice cereal once a day. Not too exciting, if you can't tell by the look on her face.

--Sleeping -- winning! Well, for now at least. We started putting her in her crib after her last appointment, about 3-4 weeks ago. The first 2 1/2 weeks were unbelievably rough. Like, waking up every 45 minutes-1 1/2 hours rough. This type of behavior was somewhat acceptable when she was a newborn and I didn't have to go to work, look presentable, or say anything intelligible all day. But now that I'm back at work, doing my best to change the lives of other children? Not ok. So anyway, she has finally gone back to waking up just once to eat, around 3-4am -- and maybe one other time just to talk to herself or try to find her paci.

We love this. Bedtime is around 7-7:30 and we can count on her to wake us up at 6:20am on the dot, every single day. Also, we are all still 100% addicted to her Miracle Blanket swaddle. The geniuses behind the Miracle Blanket hold a special place in our hearts, but they seem to have failed to recognize how easily they could expand their business to make twice as much income if they only made the swaddle blanket in more than one size. Sure, this is probably because the Miracle Blanket is designed for newborns, and not for squirmy, rolling 5-month-olds who are trying to learn to crawl. Well folks, we refused to let that stop us! Poor Autumn's little legs have been scrunched into that pouch for at least a month or so now. So the other night I grabbed some scissors and solved the problem in about two minutes. See picture below. Now we can swaddle her until she's twelve, aaaaaaah.

--Wearing 3-6 month and 6 month clothes. Just upgraded to size 2 shoes.
--Cooing, babbling, yelling, squealing more and more every day. When she wakes up in the middle of the night we can hear her talking to herself for up to 15 minutes before she starts crying or yelling for us. Lately she's been practicing "puh" and "tuh" sounds, usually whispering them to herself. "Buh", "gih" and "nah" are also mastered.

I look like a little troll!

--As far as activity and skills go, she's still active and trying to learn new things every day. She can sit up by herself, sort of, but has terrible balance. She's trying her darndest to become mobile in a more effective way than steamrolling across the room. She can do a push up where only her hands and toes have contact with the ground, but it doesn't get her anywhere...yet. She loves her new doorway jumper and still the Jumparoo. And she still really loves putting everything in her mouth. She also really likes to try to swipe at Wally, and he rejects her every time. So sad.




So without further adieu -- my impromptu five month photo shoot of Autumn. I somehow managed to get her into this adorable party dress that Aunt Kellie bought her for Christmas. She doesn't have many (or any) parties to go to, but she really likes eating the dress, so it turned out to be fun for everybody.

Can anyone tell me why Blogger uploads pics upside down sometimes?