4 Months Old

Dear Aria,

Today you are four months old!  Where has time gone?  You are getting too big, now you can stop growing.  I truly love you at this age.  You have the biggest gummy smile and "talk" to us all the time.  You are so happy and bubbly.  If I could freeze time, I think I would keep you at this age forever so you could just snuggle in my lap, play with my fingers, and smile at me.  Here are some things about you right now...

-You have a major Gene Simmons tongue thing going on.  You stick your tongue out all the time.  You even lick your shirt.
-You are in size 3-6 month clothes.  Well, you are in length.  You are so skinny though that the pants fall right off of you.  You are my tall skinny girl.
-You have this new low grunting noise that you make.  It's hilarious.
-You like to chew on your hand.  You put all of your fingers so far in your mouth that it makes you gag.  Silly girl!
-You are starting to slobber.  I just had you on my shoulder and you slobbered all over my shirt!
-You can sit in your bumbo, but you don't like to be in it for long.
-You still have a love/hate relationship with your swing.
-You love your wubbanub.  Daddy calls you wubbanub too!
-You are still sleeping pretty good at night, but you do wake up to eat once or twice.  I knew the days of you sleeping all night were too good to be true!
-You love bath time.  You just kick your feet like crazy and smile.  Big brother takes a bath with you whenever he has the chance.  He loves you so much.
-Whether it's someone you see everyday or a complete stranger, you greet them with a big ol' smile!
-Everyone thinks you are adorable!
-You don't sleep straight through breakfast anymore.  You still hang out in your carrier with no problems though.  You just look around and play with wubbanub.
-You wear your bows like a champ, but they sometimes fall into your eyes when Mommy isn't looking.
-Your fingernails grow so stinking fast!  I swear I just cut them and they are already scratching your face again.
-Your hair is getting really thin around the sides and back.  However, the top is still really long.  It is in your eyes when combed forward.
-You still have crazy monkey toes, that wrap around our finger.
-You have the biggest blue eyes that are so beautiful!
-You like to watch TV.  Daddy and you watch shows together during the day and you actually watch the TV.  A few times you have sat in your boppy and watched Color Crew on Netflix and you like it.
-You still dislike your carseat and would prefer not to be locked in.
-You can roll from tummy to back!
-You like to hold Daddy's hoodie strings, Halie's hair, Antonio's fingers, your burpcloth, and anything else you can grasp.
-You can lift your head up during tummy time now!
-Your Grandpa May loves to come visit you and hold you until you start fussing.
-Gammy Shackelford can make you stop crying instantly!
-You like Mommy Baby Sing Song time!  You like Wheels on the Bus, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes and Jesus Loves Me.
-You are the most precious little girl and we love you so much!!!

                                        Love,
                                        Mommy and Daddy

Illuminations

On December 9th, we took the kids to Illuminations at Botanica.  We really lucked out because they weather was really nice.  Unfortunately, this made it really busy, but at least it wasn't freezing!

Before we went, we ate at River City Brewery.  Aria's first time there!  Daddy eats here every Wednesday with Auntie Amanda.



Both of the kids were looking adorable all bundled up.  Antonio in his snowman hat, and Aria in her sweet furry suit that Melanie and Donna got her.




The lights were awesome.








We took a break to get a funnel cake and hot cocoa.



Poor Aria just gets milk.



Antonio enjoyed playing the instruments in the children's garden.




My sweet snuggly baby!



Antonio was hilarious when we got to the dancing lights.  He just wanted to dance and dance.  Buckner has really taught him a lot about dancing!



We finally pulled him away to go see Santa.



Then he wanted to go back and dance some more. At least there was a bench for Quentin and I to sit on and watch our crazy boy.



We got there so late, we barely made it through before they closed.




Aria loved looking at the lights!



I love making memories with our little family!

Christmas Card

Luckily Aria is a super good sleeper, so I didn't have to do much sleeping during the day while she napped.  I was able to spend a lot of my maternity leave playing with my embroidery machine.  One big project I took on was making all four of us Christmas pajamas to wear in our Christmas card pictures.  We went over to my parent's house to pose by their tree and have my dad take the pictures.

If I'd known my mom would be in her pajamas too, I would have made her a matching pair!

There were a lot of bad pictures....like glowing Quentin...



...Antonio with his leg on me for some reason...



...and drunk Quentin.



There were some adorable ones too!






Finally we got one that was good enough for our Christmas card.  Then  we had to get one with the grandparents.


This little hat is off a snowman decoration.  My mom thought it would look cute on Aria.  Too bad it barely fit!



Our little present!



I'm sure everyone has seen the viral video about "stirring the baby" to make them stop crying.  Quentin and my Dad were stirring both of the babies in hopes that they would stop whining!



Merry Christmas!

My Big First Grader

After I got settled in to the groove of having a newborn baby, I got to go pick Antonio up from school one day.  I went in to latchkey and he was on the climbing wall!




He had been studying penguins and was super excited to show me the penguin he made that day.



After we left, we went to Joann's to buy fabric to make a craft with his class for Christmas.  While we were there he found many things that he wanted.  He had me take a picture so I could remember to get them for Christmas.  He's so funny.




Antonio was grounded from Minecraft until Christmas break at this point.  He is just too obsessed with it!  The good thing about this is that he actually did something else!  When we got home, he helped me with dinner and helped me make oatmeal cookies.



After bathtime he asked if he could pose for some pictures with "sissy."  He sure loves her!  It was all his idea for them to lay under the tree together.  I love his little personality.




One more snuggle with sissy before bed!



One of the teachers at his school had sent me this picture of Antonio performing in music class.  He's getting too big!

Where are we going today?

Aria is such an easygoing baby that we can pretty much take her anywhere!  Grandma came with us to her first doctor appointment.




They told me to undress Aria and put her in a blanket.  Silly mommy didn't bring a blanket.  Luckily they had one.  Great job Mommy!  At least she had her Grandma there to snuggle her.




She wore her cute Princess Leia onesie from Auntie Amanda.



A few days later, Quentin and I took Aria with us to go get massages.  Sweet little Aria slept through both of our massages!



Quentin's massage therapist got Aria this awesome Stormtrooper towel.


Afterwards we took Aria to meet her Great Grandpa Nelson.  She's so lucky to have such a sweet Great Grandpa!