6 months

Time is going way too fast.

This last month was even better than the one before.

-We finally got around to feeding her real food for the first time.

She had carrots first and has liked and eaten everything since then, except chicken and peas.

-The very same day she started to sit on her own without toppling over for a little bit.

Within the week she was a master at sitting up, although occasionally she still falls over.

-That same week she started pulling her legs up under herself while on her belly and has been working so hard to crawl.

I flip-flop on whether I am excited for her to crawl or not...

-Also the same week (everything happened in one week!) she got her first cold and is on to her 2nd :( Boooo.

-She had a doctors appointment and she is in the 99th percentile for height and 88th for weight.

-She has a STELLAR mohawk growing. It looks ridiculous.....ly awesome.

Hopefully one day the hair on the sides of her head will grow.

-I don't know what happened to my awesome sleeper! She wakes up 2-4 times a night these days and I have no idea why.

-After 5 1/2 months of refusing any kind of binky, she finally takes one!!

I've always been wishy-washy on whether a binky is a good thing or not, but I am officially SOLD to the wonders of a binky.

With Grandma and cousin Quinn

working on the crawl

loves to sit up in the shopping cart

piano prodigy 

Mmmm. Eye drops are yummy.

 

 Chasing Mom around the kitchen.

Londyn is such a good baby. I can take her anywhere and she will be good for hours.
People are always commenting on how calm, quiet, good, etc. she is and it's mostly true :)

Blowout city.

nasty shots

It's hard to believe how much she has changed since she was born!

Sometimes I hardly recognize her in her newborn pictures.

How?
At around 5 months I wanted to cry when I thought about Londyn turning 6 months old.
Once you reach halfway to something, the second half almost always goes faster than the first.
So that means...if these 6 months went by in a blink, the next six are going to be gone in half a blink.
And I'm not ready for my baby to be a year old yet!
Not to worry, I just checked and she's still 6 months.
For now.

WANTED

Age: 5 months

Height: 27 inches

Weight: 17 pounds

Hair: Blonde, Red, or Brown depending on the light

Goes by: Londyn, Londy-Lou, Lulu, Lolo, or Sweetie-pie

CRIME: Growing up too fast

Can be seen: rolling over (back to stomach), eating rice cereal, grabbing and eating her toes, yelling, and giggling.

How can it be possible that Londyn is already 5 months (and 8 days) old?!

It seems like she was a newborn just yesterday, and then I blinked and suddenly she is 5 months.

People aren't kidding when they say that kids grow up too fast and time flies.

This past month has been a big one for Londyn and it seems like she has "grown up" so much!

• She started to grab her toes (and eat them) when she's getting her diaper changed. Apparently that's the only time they're fun to grab.
• She learned to roll from her back to her stomach and now she won't stay on her back! For a few days she would just roll one way, back-stomach-back-stomach until she got stuck....but she seems to have forgotten how to roll onto her back again.
• We started feeding her rice cereal this last month too. She has been dying to eat real food for about a month so her first feeding of rice cereal she devoured. We've given her tastes of other food as well and she loves to grab your finger and put it in her mouth to get the food. 
• She is SO grabby and grabs at anything in front of her or around her. And then it goes straight to her mouth.
• She still drools a ton and we can see teeth buds, but her teething seems to have stopped...not      complaining!
• I have no idea why, but Londyn went through a few weeks of waking up 3-4 times at night!! Ahhh it was killer! Those couple of weeks were awful and I was ornery all the time from being so tired. She is down to 1-2 times a night now, which makes for a much happier mama.
• Londyn LOVES to stand. I'm afraid that she will never learn to sit because anytime she is sitting she arches her back and straightens her legs to stand.
• Londyn has always been a good laugher, but now she has become sooo giggly! And Daddy can get her laughing SO good. Scaring her gets a big jump, pause and then burst of laughter.
• Her hair has been growing ferociously....in a mohawk. Gotta get the back and sides growing!

First bites of rice cereal.

Loves spinning (and sometimes jumping) in her jumper.

We absolutely love having Londyn in our lives and can't believe how much joy she brings!

back to the seasons

We are DONE!

 Done with L.A, Beverly Hills, outrageous traffic that makes you want to swear, limited parking that always costs (and makes you want to swear), constant noise in the neighborhood (that makes you...yep, want to swear), 12 hour work days (that...you get the picture), one car days (yep), earthquakes, helicopters always flying over....

But that also means we are done with beautiful, perfect weather and daily walks around our great neighborhood.

Oh well. I'm ready for chilly air, hot chocolate, sweats, warm soup, and fireplaces.

Our move back was ridiculous. 

We got delayed 2 hours to start the drive and then hit rush hour traffic, spent an hour trying to get out of L.A., left the crowds for about 20 minutes before hitting an hour and a half of 5 mph traffic, all the while Londyn screamed in the backseat.

We spent the night in Vegas and the rest of the drive the next day went much better, thanks to Londyn sleeping most of it.

It feels wonderful to be back in the land of seasons, to see the colorful leaves, feel the crisp air and be in the comfort of home again. 

(Except for the GIANT spider that I almost touched and then it disappeared behind our bed).

A few memories that didn't get blogged about:

This hideous couch and creepy voodoo-y doll.

One of Chris' patients heard he had a little daughter and went out to her car to grab this doll and matching beanie to give him. She made them both herself.

So nice, yet soooo creepy.

It's the nubs. And the face.

After taking this picture we sent the doll back to his office for decoration. No WAY were we keeping that creepy thing lurking around.

My daily walks.

They saved my sanity and I enjoyed every minute in the beautiful weather and neighborhood.

And who doesn't love a bright pink house?

Crazy socks.

The doctors' "thing" was crazy socks so they gave Chris a pair to join in. 

There were some pretty beautiful sunsets from our balcony.

Weekend #8...

Which consisted of general conference and going to a Brazilian supermarket.

Chris is holding a cheese roll and soda from Brazil.

Please ignore our hideous (and messy) apartment.

Love it when she sleeps with her arm over her face. 

Love a little baby in a big bed.

And don't worry, the bed bugs disappeared mysteriously about 6 weeks ago.

No bites or sign of them since, yahoo!

Rolling.

Londyn learned to roll onto her tummy and that is all she wants to do now.

Again, please ignore the gross rug/apartment.

Uh oh, caught red handed rolling during "nap time."

Halloween.

Since bringing a big puffy cow costume to Beverly Hills to be worn once did not seem logical we dressed Londyn as a ballerina with what we had on hand. 

A pot-bellied ballerina that is.

Weekend #10:

Bob and Minnie came to visit!

We loved having them here and so did Londyn.

We played games, went to the Santa Monica pier, 3rd street promenade, Sprinkles cucpakes and Trader Joes.

Lulu smiling at her Grandpa.

This was a unique experience and we both learned a lot (in different ways).

After a really rough 6 weeks in the beginning, things got better and we survived.

Many prayers were answered.

We all stayed healthy and safe, the bed bugs went away, Londyn's lopsided head evened out, and I learned to survive 12 hour days without a car.

I learned that even though things suck and life isn't perfect, you can still be happy!

I learned to live in the moment so I wouldn't feel like I missed out on Londyn at 2-5 months.

And I learned to make the days count instead of counting the days (thank you pinterest).

It was fun but mostly hard....but we did it.

We survived!

And now we are 2 rotations and 6 months away from the day that will make this all worth it = GRADUATION!