7 months old...

I had a great weekend! My friend Elena came down to visit me, which is always so much fun... we always have a blast together! We did lots of shopping, talking, she cut and colored my hair, we went out for sushi... good times with good friends! :) Even though we don't get to see eachother very often, when we are together it's just like it was when we were in high school, which is one of the marks (I think) of a true friendship. No matter at what point we are at in our lives, we can pick up right where we left off! Needless to say, I had a lot of fun (and thank you to Kyle for watching Payton for me!)

Payton is 7 months old... ALREADY?! What's crazy to me is pretty soon the holiday season will be here, and that always flies by... 2011 will be here before we know it! Payton has recently decided that she wants to touch absolutely everything, and not just touch it; grab it, bang it against something, chew on it, throw it... the possibilities are endless! Gone are the days when I could just hold her in my lap while I did something, now she wants to grab it out of my hand and isn't always happy when I take it back :) She's starting to get a stuffy nose, so we bought a humidifier for her room, which will hopefully help loosen some of that gunk up. They've had a couple fire drills at Wee Care recently, I guess they usually do them about once a month. They put the babies in evacuation cribs and roll them outside. Now that's a sight I would like to see! The first time she had one they said she just laid there and looked around, but the one they had yesterday interrupted her nap, so she was not a happy camper! Recently she's tried green beans and peaches, and really seems to like them (she certainly didn't get that from her momma). The baby she seems to interact with the most at Wee Care is a boy named Fletcher, who is actually only 3 days younger than Payton. All of the other babies were born in April or later, so Payton and Fletcher are little buddies. Cheryl was telling me that today they were napping at the same time, eating at the same time, even pooping at the same time! Pretty funny.

The shirt says it all :)

I love it when daddy tosses me in the air!

Mom got me a sippy cup to practice drinking a little water out of, but I only wanted to chew on the handle...

I figured it out with a different cup though!

Sitting and playing like a big girl :)

As many of you may have heard, Payton's formula got recalled. Apparently some of the powdered Similac formula tested positive for beetle parts and larvae, so they recalled all powdered formula in containers greater than 12 ounces. Needless to say, I was extremely grossed out... and extremely disappointed. I felt like "what do I do now?" She was doing so well on it, and although I still struggle with the idea of formula (the fact that I couldn't breastfeed still haunts me), I was finally in a good place about it because she seemed great, and that's all that really mattered. Now I feel like I'm back to square one, which is not a good place for me to be. I changed her formula a lot in the early days, which I really regret... but for some reason I tied any problem she had to the formula she was drinking, thinking if I were able to breastfeed, we wouldn't have any problems. As unrealistic as that probably is, it's the way I felt at the time. The mom guilt was overwhelming, and I was forever searching for the "cure" that would make her better. Now that I'm doing research again, it's bringing back a lot of those memories. I had always wanted to try an organic formula, because I'm a freak about reading the nutrition labels and it always bothered me that the first ingredients in her formula were corn syrup solids and table sugar... all I can say is, thank goodness only five more months of formula. It's really been a challenge for me! I've decided that even though it's more expensive I'm going to try an organic formula, and if she doesn't do well with it then it just wasn't meant to be and I need to stop reading things that scare me. Trust me, I have never been "granola", organic, or even very environmentally friendly, but when it comes to what Payton eats I want only the best and healthiest. Who would have thought they would have seen that type of behavior from me? :) Formula is her main source of nutrition, so it's important to me that she have whatever she needs to develop into a happy, healthy girl. As parents, you assume that anything that's marketed for babies and your doctor recommends must be great, but a lot of what I was reading was really concerning for me... Kyle thinks I read too much, I think it's good to be as informed as possible. We're trying to find that balance :) I saw this quote online the other day, and I loved it; I thought it described motherhood perfectly...

“Making the decision to have a child – it’s momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” — Elizabeth Stone

Payton only has one doctor appointment in October, with her dermatologist. It's been REALLY nice to not be going to the doctor all the time, but I'm also anxious to hear what he has to say. It's not until later this month, and then in mid-November she has a follow-up with her opthamologist. I'm really anxious to hear what he says too, I'm hoping Payton's eyesight has improved. It's hard for me to believe sometimes that it's so bad, because she recognizes us just fine and reaches for objects close to her and grabs them accurately. Who knows, but it will be interesting to hear what he has to say. Then after that she doesn't have an appointment until the beginning of December... for her 9 month check-up with the pediatrician!

Our little family may not get to spend too much time together this weekend. There's a big duck game on Saturday vs. Stanford (#4 vs. #9 in the rankings!) and Kyle is heading down to Albany to watch it with the family. I'm going to be hanging out with my friend Kali... to make a long story short, Saturday was supposed to be her wedding day, and so me and another girlfriend are going to try and keep her distracted. I don't want to go into detail, but it did not end well so we want her to have the best day possible!

Happy birthday Grandpa Book!!

I love fall! The weather gets a little cooler, football starts, and so do most of our TV shows... Kyle and I were counting the other day, and we were shocked when we realized that together we watch 10 shows per week. Yes, you heard that correctly! Thank goodness for DVR, because there is NO way we have time to watch all that TV! Another reason I love the fall is because it's when Kyle and I got married. In just one week, it will be our 2 year anniversary (and Payton will be 7 months old!). Amazing how the time has flown!

Our little Lions fan :)

This last Saturday Kyle and I took Payton down to her grandparent's house in Albany for the night. We were going to a wedding in Salem which is less than half an hour away, so it worked out really great. Unfortunately for the bride and groom, the wedding was outside and it poured! It was still beautiful though, and the reception was indoors so it was all good :) It was so fun to see so many old college friends in one place, it was like a reunion!

With the beautiful bride Pearl! Kyle and Pearl were roommates with a couple other friends during Kyle's sophomore year, which is when she started dating her new husband Ryan. Congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Green!

We drove back to Albany late Saturday night and had a laidback Sunday visiting with friends and family. She got to see a lot of people who haven't seen her since she was really little, everyone was amazed at how much she's grown!

Sitting up like a big girl at Grandma and Grandpa's house. I'm THIS close to being able to do it on my own!

I laugh now when I'm put on my stomach because I think it's hilarious to roll over!

Walking with Mom and Dad



Payton had her flu shot today. It was one combined with the regular flu shot, and also H1N1. I guess the first year she has it she has to get it twice, 4-6 weeks apart. Bummer! She was awesome though, didn't cry or even make a face. Kyle and I didn't even think it had happened yet, but the nurse said we were all done! She continues to do really great at Wee Care. Everyone keeps telling me how great she's adjusted and that she greets everyone with a smile. When I went to visit her at lunch the other day she was visiting the dragonfly room, so I have a feeling she may move up soon. The only thing we really need to work on with her there is her nap schedule. She takes really good naps at home, but there is so much going on at Wee Care that she doesn't want to go to sleep. She usually passes out the second I put her in her carseat to go home because she's so exhausted! Still no teeth, but I'm wondering if one is about to come in really soon... she's usually a great sleeper and doesn't make a peep all night, but the last couple nights she's been waking up a lot very irritable. She seems to calm down with a teething tablet though. Who knows, I've been fooled before! We've had our own little bedtime routine since she was about 3 months old. She usually eats some dinner, gets a bath, a massage with some lotion, and we've just started incorporating a bedtime story in before we put her in her crib. Her bedtime is 7:30, and she sleeps until we get her up in the morning for Wee Care. She's tried squash and turkey lately, so her diet (and appetite) is continuing to expand. Now that she's really figured out rolling over, she'll stay on her stomach for maybe 2 seconds before she flips. She thinks it's hilarious, the second you put her on her stomach she starts to giggle and then slowly make her way over. She's also started reaching for you when you're about to pick her up, which makes me melt. Growing more everyday!

Right now my day off is Monday, and although it's nice to have 3 day weekends, working 4 ten hour shifts in a row is pretty exhausting... by the time Friday rolls around I am definitely glad it's the weekend! Here's to hoping the week just flies by... :)

Ok, I know I've been posting a lot of videos lately, but I didn't think anyone would mind...

Trying to eat my feet... yum! Even got a few "dadas" in there :)

Bouncing, rolling, talking...

I figured out how to get the bouncing video! Sorry it's kind of long... she LOVES this thing!



This morning was a really fun morning! Everytime I've put Payton on her stomach, she rolled over. She rolled over at least 15 times this morning! She finally figured out that if she doesn't want to do tummy time, she can just roll over and be on her back, which makes her much happier. Now I don't know if I'll be able to keep her on her tummy!

She also started making a couple noises that sound like words. This morning she started making a "da da" noise, and even one that sounds like "hi". I'm sure she doesn't know what she's saying, but it's super cute and exciting nonetheless!

I love my day off :)

Fall is here...

What a busy week it's been! On top of it being Payton's first full week at Wee Care, I've been sick most of the week, and so has Kyle. I started to get sick while we were in Reno, and I think I gave it to Kyle a couple days later... Payton hasn't seemed to have gotten it though, thank goodness! So by the time we get home, get her fed, bathed and put to bed, we pretty much went to bed ourselves. I'm finally starting to feel a little better! I don't get sick very often (last time I can remember is a couple years ago) so when I do it takes me a while to recover. But enough about me; it's been busy around here!

First on the agenda: Reno. Kyle drove down with friends last Thursday, while my mom, Payton and I flew really early Friday morning. I'm really glad my mom flew with me, I had NO idea how much work it takes to get through security with a baby and all their gear! I only had my diaper bag, the stroller, and the carseat, but it was much more work than I anticipated. After collapsing everything and stuffing it in the x-ray machine, security searching my bag (and running explosives tests on the bottles of formula I brought for the plane), then getting myself put back together and finding our gate, I was exhausted and our trip had barely begun! Payton proved to be a great traveler last weekend. She only cried for about a minute during descent each time, but you could tell her ears hurt because she kept grabbing them. Other than that she was a happy camper! She played a little, slept a little, and before we knew it we had reached our destination.

The hotel we stayed at was HUGE; it had a casino, several bars, restaurants, a movie theater, bowling alley, a pool with cabanas... there was tons to do! We just kind of hung out and relaxed during the day, and went out with friends at night. We didn't get much sleep, but we had a lot of fun! We reserved adjoining rooms so that the grandmas and Payton could be in one, and the "kids" could be in the other. We reserved them, but when we checked in the rooms were down the hall from eachother... My mom had a little talk with the person at the front desk though, and we got adjoining rooms after all :) We wanted them to be adjoining so that Payton could take naps in one and we could be in the other room so we didn't wake her up. Her naps still weren't as good as at home, but I didn't expect them to be. If there's a lot going on, she doesn't like to miss out! We really appreciated our moms going with us to watch her, it was so nice to go out and not have to worry about her, and even get to sleep in a little bit! I was really sad I missed this though; Bryan taped this Friday night while Kyle and I were at rehearsal dinner...


So stinking cute! She thinks it's hilarious to play peek a boo!

I'm almost ready to sit up like a big girl!



Saturday was the big day... Tom and Crystal's wedding. Tom was Kyle's roommate in college, and many of you may remember him as the groomsman who fainted at our wedding :) I love going to weddings, always brings back memories of my own and what a special day it was. Their wedding was at a beautiful old church, it was even a historical landmark. It was quite the experience getting there though... we almost didn't make it! Kyle was gone most of the day doing wedding stuff, and I didn't know that when he left the hotel he took our car... and when he came back he parked it in a completely different parking lot. So when Bryan, Lindsey and I went down to go to the wedding (in 95 degree weather), I told Bryan where the car was so he could bring it around for us. When he came back and said he couldn't see it, we started looking... and looking... Finally after about 10 minutes I called Kyle (who was ushering people to their seats at the time) and asked him if he moved the car. He said he had and that it was in the other parking lot. Let me paint you a little picture... this giant hotel has like 10 parking lots! He tried to give us directions to it, but we still couldn't find it and were getting really frustrated. Finally after like 40 minutes of confusing directions, we gave up looking for it and Bryan ran to get the keys for Lindsey's car. The ceremony was supposed to start in 10 minutes, and we were just leaving the hotel... plus we were hot, sweaty, frustrated, and Lindsey and I had acquired some new blisters from our shoes. We were a little late, but we made it!

The ceremony... Kyle is the third groomsman on the right

The reception was at the hotel, which worked out great because I got to go visit Payton before all the festivities got started. We took her down to the reception for a little while so the moms could eat some dinner and we could show her off :) She was really sleepy though, it was close to bedtime!

Looking good Uncle Bryan!

Hall family

Good food, good friends, dancing... it was a fun night! Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Nix!

Sunday we decided to rent one of the cabanas by the pool. It was called "The Beach" which was very fitting because the cabanas were surrounded by sand. After she had a nap and some lunch, we brought Payton down in her swimsuit for her first dip!

She didn't really know what to think about it! I'm thinking of getting her started on swimming "lessons" in a couple weeks, I think once she gets used to it she will love it!

Swimming with mommy

Daddy had a great time

From left: JJ, dad and I, Tom (groom), mom, Crystal (bride), and Sharlie. Mom looks super short standing between the 6'5" people :)

Everyone who knows me knows how obsessed I am with my camera, I have to capture every moment. Well, my camera stopped working last weekend! I have a memory card error, and can't get any of my pictures that I took the whole time. I'm going to try and recover my pictures, but unfortunately all of the pictures that you see are from other people's cameras. I'm bummed because I took pictures of her sitting in the sand, on her first airplane ride, etc. Hopefully I can get them all back!

We left Monday afternoon, and even though it was a great weekend, it felt really good to be home. Back to the real world...

Payton is doing really great at Wee Care. Her teachers love her, I had one tell me that she's such a friendly baby, and when I picked her up one day another asked me "is she always this mellow?" I love being able to visit her during my lunchtime. It totally breaks up my day, and I can tell she's happy to see me too :) She loves looking at the other babies, and she smiles at all the decorations they have on the walls. Her main teacher Cheryl told me that people were talking about her already moving up a class, but she told them they couldn't have Payton yet... she just got there! I guess babies move up from the ladybug room to the dragonfly room around 7 months, but Cheryl said probably the earliest she would move would be October. She's been trying lots of new food lately, the newest additions to her diet are pears, peas, bananas, and chicken. Sweet potatoes are still her favorite though. She's reaching for everything these days, and likes to bat at people's faces with her hands. She figured out how to really bounce in her activity chair last week, and goes nuts when we put her in it. I got a really good video of it, but am having trouble uploading it to my computer, so when I do I'll definitely post it :) We discussed with her doctor last week about continuing her prilosec, and she suggested maybe giving it to her every other day to see how it goes. We did that for a couple days, and she did fine so we stopped giving it to her altogether. She hasn't had it for a week, and is happy as can be! So it looks like introducing solid foods has really helped, and she's finally over the reflux stage. Yay! Now the only medicine she gets is the propranolol twice a day, and eventually that will be over too... speaking of propranolol, she's been on it for 3 months now! Comparison time...

3 months old...

... and 6 months old! Amazing huh?

Next weekend our good friends Pearl and Ryan are getting married in Salem, and so we're going to leave Payton at Grandma's for the night. I've never physically spent the night away from her, so I'm a little apprehensive about it, but I know it will be fine. I will suffer much more than she will :)

Happy birthday to Grandma Book! (and happy anniversary as well!)

Giving daddy (really slobbery) kisses

First day of school

My little baby is growing up! Yesterday was her first day of "school", aka Wee Care. I had very mixed emotions about it, I was excited and yet I dreaded it. Even though I haven't been staying at home with her for the last three months, it was still super hard to drop her off with someone who wasn't a friend or family member. I got there really early (I was so focused on getting everything set for Payton that I forgot to bring anything for myself like a lunch, coffee... whoops!) I put away all her bottles, binkies, set up her crib (she has her own crib), and then took her out of her carseat. I didn't want to let go and go to work! Finally one of the "teachers" suggested I put her down in a bouncy chair, and she just sat there and looked around. She's very observant in situations and with people she's never seen before, and yesterday was no exception. They put a little thing of toys in front of her, and she started playing while her mom was trying hard not to break down and embaress herself. I was only sniffling when I left, but by the time I got to my office at work, I was bawling... but, we survived. I'm sure it will get easier with time! Payton did great, they give me a little report card at the end of everyday that says when she ate, napped, pooped, and anything else interesting, and it said that she had a great first day. She mostly did a lot of looking around and observing, taking it all in. She definitely adjusted to it better than I did! :)

With mom on my first day!

Even though I had fun at Wee Care, I was definitely glad to come home! :)

Payton also had her 6 month check up yesterday... amazing that she is already half a year old. Kyle and I went to go pick her up, and she was SO excited to see us! She weighs 18 pounds 3 ounces and is 25.5 inches tall! What's funny is that she usually measures really big for height and average for weight, but yesterday she was in the 50th percentile for height and the 90th for weight! :) We have definitely noticed her getting a lot chunkier lately, so I have a feeling she's growing to grow again sometime soon. No teeth yet, but still drooling constantly. She's really close to sitting up on her own, but doesn't have the balance quite yet and likes to fall backwards. The doctor said her fine motor skills were very developed (she was grabbing her toes, her binky, my purse, my shirt... basically anything she could get her hands on) and that she is very social... which is a nice way of saying she likes to yell to get our attention :) She got two shots, and one oral vaccine. She didn't cry at all with the first shot, but the nurse said the second one would sting, and sure enough she didn't like that one! She got over it in about ten seconds though, and was smiling at Kyle when he picked her up off the table. We're slowly introducting her to more and more foods; so far she's had rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes (which is her favorite so far), apples, and carrots. I'm going to give her some peas tonight, and then in a couple days I might have her try a fruit. It's really fun to watch her reactions when she tries something new! It's probably what my face looks like too, but the difference is she will keep eating it :) She's having a lot more fun in the bouncer these days, and while she will occasionally bounce, her favorite thing to do is what we call the cannonball; she will push off hard with her legs and then tuck them in when she comes back down! You can tell when she's about to do it because she starts breathing really fast.

Enjoying my toys!

Eating breakfast + trying to stick out my tongue = a big mess!

Mom loves taking pictures of me during bathtime because I'm so much fun! She tried to do a mohawk with my hair last night :)

Kyle started school again last week... crazy to think that just one year from now he will be known as Mr. Hall teaching a class full of kids! He's also going to start working at Sports Authority again, so he will be a busy guy between school, homework, work, and Payton. He told me the other day that he has so much respect for single parents, he doesn't know how they do it, and I feel the same way!

We got pictures done of Payton last week, and they turned out really cute. I get to pick them up when I get back from my vacation (more on that in a minute!), so I'm really excited. We got the CD, so it will be really easy for other people to get them too and then print them for cheap :) She was great at the picture place, but it took a while to get an expression out of her, she just kept looking around with her mouth hanging open!

This weekend is our big trip to Reno for Tom's wedding! Kyle actually already left early this morning, him and a couple of friends are driving. I decided to fly with Payton, because I figured (even though it's a flight) that a 1.5 hour flight would be better for her than a 10-12 hour car ride. My mom is driving down tonight to fly with me tomorrow, so it will be really helpful to have an extra pair of hands on the airplane. Her and my mom in law Sue are coming to watch Payton, so Kyle and I can go out together. We are SO grateful! We haven't done anything like that together since before Payton was born, so it's a big treat for us to go out and not have to worry about her. Plus the grandma's get unlimited baby time, so everybody wins :) I also have a couple of college friends that live in Reno that I haven't seen for a couple years, so I'm looking forward to getting together with them and catching up. We'll be gone until Monday, then it's back to the real world once again...

I thought I would leave you with this little gem I found at Costco... flame resistant jammies! Who would have thought you need these?! I got a pair of course... they were cute! :)