Hadley Marie: 7 Months

Bring on the warmer weather and some more chunky baby skin!  Hadley's got the chubby baby thing down cold.  I don't have a weight for seven months since it was just an immunization visit for the pediatrician.  She takes her shots like a champ - only crying for a moment and then going right back to her happy-go-lucky self.  Love this baby! 

She's sitting up on her own and still working on crawling.  She can move in just about any direction she wants by rolling, spinning, or scooching - - except forward.  When she tries to go forward she just sort of teeters on her tummy and kicks her legs.  If it wasn't so frustrating for her it would be hilarious.

Both my girls have crazy thick and long eyelashes - most definitely not from my side.  Don't you just love a sleeping baby?

We've added Cheerios and some small soft foods into her repertoir.  She thoroughly enjoys picking them up and getting them into her mouth, but she's not at all sure she wants it there once it's in.

I did a six month photo shoot, even setting up a little natural light studio in Arden's room.  The backdrop is pink fabric that I used as a tablecloth for Arden's third birthday, and I piled up a few mattresses and some fuzzy blankets for Hadley to sit on.  Pink polka dots might be a little busy for a backdrop, hmmm?

Chubby baby fingers!

She was a little over the photo shoot at this point, so as proof that she does cry on occasion I threw this one in.

Shots on the quilt are getting a little more challenging.  Hadley finds playing with her feet or rolling over to be much more interesting than holding still and looking at me.

We went for our first family wagon ride and Hadley did great.  She sits so erect that she did fine, but it was a pretty chilly April day so she was all bundled up.  Arden was so pleased to be on a ride with her sister.

And finally the seven month collage - Yay!  PicMonkey added collage functionality so I was able to put one together at long last for this month.  I tried my darndest to use Photoshop Elements, but that just wasn't happening, so then I had a passable collage crafted in Picasa, but it wouldn't let me add the text so when I went to take that collage into PicMonkey I saw the collage feature.  They've got some nice shape stickers that Picnik didn't have, so I'm warming up to it a bit.

Butterfly House

I took the girls to our local garden's Butterfly House this morning.  Hadley started out with a little snooze in the car to build her energy for the big outing.

These big butterflys were more than willing to perch on the visitors.  Arden wanted nothing to do with it, but Hadley didn't seem to mind.

It sort of looks like a big hair bow!

Still there!

And proof that Arden went along and I exist - here's a group shot of us; butterfly still included!  One of the staff from the house went to grab her camera because it was so cute and offered to take one of all of us with my camera.  I'm still getting used to handing my DSLR to people - everyone's so accustomed to being able to preview the image on screen that going back to the eye piece requires explanation.

I have done some sewing (other than nautical flag banners!), but Arden has been reluctant to model my creation even though she says she likes it.  Maybe tomorrow...

Entering in the spring challenge at:

Hadley Marie: Four Months

Time just keeps flying by with the craziness that is having two little girls in the house!  Hadley is four months old, and Arden will be turning three in a month!  We officially had to say goodbye to the yellow/green onesie, but now we get to see her in the cute orange sweater I had originally knit for Arden.

Hadley continues to be the World's Easiest Baby, or WEB for short.  She's still sleeping through the night, and for the last couple of weeks has been going down around 7 PM and staying asleep until around 6 AM with the exception of a dream feed around 10 or 11 PM.  She's still working on rolling over, having done so successfully once about three weeks ago.

I did a little photo shoot for Hadley just after three months.  I took them in her nursery and used a reflector to bounce the light coming in through a small window to the right.  I think they turned out pretty well, and I should be able to do even better next time after taking the DSLR photography class - I can shoot on manual now!  Previously I was mostly using the action or the aperture priority setting.

This one is my favorite - I love how it shows her little pointy chin and the alphabet wall art behind her without being distracting.  This is edited in Picnik.

... or maybe this one is my favorite - little chubby belly and chunky thighs!  This is edited in PhotoShop Elements with a free action from the Pioneer Woman called "seventies".

Hi there, cutie!

She spends a lot of her time with her hands clasped together in front of her.  If they're not there then she's trying to cram her thumb or her whole hand in her mouth - I'm trying my darndest to prevent having a thumb-sucker!  I want to be able to take pacifiers away when it's time.  She's got an awesome belly laugh and she smiles so big when I go to pick her up from daycare.  She still gets chatty in the evenings and we swear she's saying "hello" to us.  She's getting better with her hands and grabs onto to toys in her floor gym, or a toy on the Bumbo tray.  She also grabs a fist full of hair at every opportunity, something Arden is not too thrilled about!

I don't have a weight for her right now - not even an at-home one.  I forgot to do it over the weekend, and I work Monday-Wednesday and it's too hectic in the evenings to try to do it then.  We have our Dr. appointment on Thursday so I'll update her stats then.  I think she might be leveling out a bit, but I could be surprised!