Wow, I'm a slacker!

So Betsy is 6 months old now and A LOT has happened since I last blogged (shame on me). We are back in Tupelo again and back to humdrum life. Eric is now working towards his bachelor's degree at Ole Miss. He's taking 15 hours this semester and works about 55 hours a week. He leaves for work at 4:30am and gets home around 3:30pm, with enough time to shower and get his books together for school from 6-9pm. This leaves Betsy and I with a lot of time to spend together! We miss him a lot during the day, but are really proud of him for working so hard for us!

Labor day weekend we went to Arkansas to visit family and friends. We got to see Celeste (who was just 3 days shy of having her little girl), Katie (who's daughter, Brynlee, is a month younger than Betsy), and even Britney (who we never get to see), and her little boy Pierce who is 4 weeks younger than Betsy. It was a fun weekend for sure! We even got to take Betsy on her first boat ride and she even rode the TUBE!!!! Granted she fell asleep during the ride, but all in all I think she was pretty excited. We also got her 6 month pictures taken by my ever awesome cousin Valerie. We just got to look at a few last night and are SO excited to pick a few and order prints.

(This stunt was performed by professionals on a closed course and should not be tried at home)

We also went for 6 month shots and check up. Betsy was in the 60th percentile for head, height, AND weight! That was quite an interesting doctor's visit. The electricity went out after we had been there awhile and they started sending people home because they weren't allowed to open the fridge to get out vaccines. Luckily, they came and told us they had already taken ours out. Unfortunately, when the nurse came to give them, she informed us she hadn't gotten one of them out and we would have to come back the next day to get the last one! Poor Betsy had to go through the horrible ordeal TWICE, but she handled it like a champ each time and never let it bother her after it was over.

You would never know this little girl was ONLY in the 60th percentile for weight by the way she eats! She eats a full jar of fruit WITH cereal for lunch and then half a jar of veggies WITH cereal for dinner. She gets so impatient between bites waiting for the slowpoke who is feeding her to get with the program!

She has become quite content to sit and play by herself on the floor with toys. Sunday Eric had to travel to another unit in the stake to speak, so I had her all by myself this week at church. During Relief Society I have to take roll and do other secretary duties, so I set Betsy down on the floor next to my chair with a few toys and she sat their the whole hour perfectly happy! She has also started to get on all fours in the crawling position, so we know it is only a matter of time.

My next project is getting her to hold her bottle and feed herself, giving me extra time to get things done. Not that I don't absolutely love the time we have together during feedings, but for example, Sunday mornings would be a lot less stressful, if she could feed herself while I get ready since Eric is gone to meetings every Sunday morning. So we'll see how long it takes her. I'm pretty sure she knows how, but now it is a matter of breaking her will. She would much rather me hold her and do it for her, because she has on occasion done it for herself. She just won't be consistent.

proof that she DOES know how it do it and is just being stubborn!!! Wonder where she got that quality.

And our last note worthy of mention... she FINALLY has a TOOTH! Just yesterday I was showing mom how you could see her two bottom teeth right below the skin. This morning I rubbed my finger across there and the right one had popped right through! So the other one should be right behind!

That was an extremely long post and if you made it this far go get yourself a cookie with milk! That is what we have been up to the past two months. Lots of stuff has happened, small stuff in the grand scheme of things, but exciting to us! Oh yeah, AND I've gotten pretty good at exercising regularly (which is HUGE if you know me) and I made drapes for our apartment!!! Eric was VERY excited about that. Have a good day!

Visitors and the end of summer

My cousin Valerie and her husband stopped in for a day or two earlier this week on their way home from their cross country vacation where they saw everything the United States of America has to offer (well at least the western half, they did the eastern half the past two summers). The day after they left Eric's sister flew in for a week visit and is with us until Tuesday. This weekend we are driving to Arkansas with a carload of stuff to meet my parents and trade for their suburban to be able to get all packed up next week. Betsy will stay with Heidi while we make the quick trip over so she doesn't have to endure too many long car rides back to back. It will be the first time we spend the night away from her and I'm a little nervous. I know everyone will do great, but still, I don't like the idea of leaving her, but it's in her interest. Eric last day of work is the 19th, then we finish packing and get home some time that weekend, and school starts for him on the 24th! I try not to think about it all or I get a little overwhelmed, but I am definitely excited to be back home and have a room and a crib for Betsy and get on a normal schedule. If I can just make it through these next two weeks I think everything will be ok...

5 months...

Betsy is a 5 month old now! Time is flying! She has mastered rolling from her back to her belly, which took her awhile. We were getting a little worried. She also sits up by herself now. She still tumbles to the side eventually, but can last for quite awhile. She's still as happy as ever and sleeps great. We're just wondering when those teeth are finally going to pop through, since she's been showing all the signs for about 2 months now. She chews on EVERYTHING like crazy and is a drool factory. She's funny to watch when she's just playing by herself with her toys, her tongue is always going crazy in her mouth rubbing her gums. So any day we expect to wake up to find a shiny white tooth poking through!

The other day I had her in her swing while I went to shower really quick and when I got out she was sitting forward in the swing playing with the buckle, like she was trying to figure out how to unsnap it! I'm not so worried about her unsnapping the buckle, but any father forward and she would have toppled out! So she's pretty much outgrown the swing and can only use it with adult supervision!