6 months!

I can't believe I am writing this post, but yes its true our sweet Randal Jean turned 6 months a week ago today!

She has turned in to such a little wiggle worm lately and wants to be on the move, but she really doesn't know how to get anywhere yet :) She sure does like to practice though and likes to stand and will rock back and forth in what is probably the early stage of crawling....note to self: childproof EVERYTHING ASAP!

She is such a great eater and will pretty much eat anything I give her. I am still making her food, with the exception of when we go out to eat because jarred food is simply easier on the go. So far she has tried apples, pears, prunes, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, peas, green beans, butternut squash, yellow squash, sweet potato, carrots, zucchini, nectarines, and avocado. She really doesn't have a favorite, but she does like sweet things so we do limit the fruit or hold it until after veggies. The one thing she was not too fond of was avocado...I don't think it was the taste but the texture, who knows!

So with all this eating she must have something to eat with, right?!?! WRONG! The child still has NO teeth! I feel like she has been teething forever but still no teeth. Since I am still nursing I am trying not to complain about this but I fear the longer we wait to see the first tooth the closer together they will be. This could be a good or bad thing.

Speaking of nursing, it has become a bit harder lately. No the time commitment, pumping at work, lovely nursing bras (ha!) haven't got to me, but Randal is just so much more interested in the world around her than nursing. Hopefully this will pass (fingers crossed) as she has gone through little spells of not nursing well before. With her decreased interest as of late I have started to scale down my goal of nursing for a full year. Now my goal is 7 months and if we make it there 8 and so on, but if she continues to refuse she might just be self-weaning :(

Randal Jean has turned in to a lil momma's girl as of late and developed a bit of separation anxiety. If she wakes up at night she will not be happy unless I am there and she likes for me to be in her sight. The girl can be perfectly content in her exersaucer while I am doing things in the living room but the second I step in to the bedroom she starts to complain. Lovely, I know. I probably shouldn't enjoy her attachment so much but I do. Being a working mom (ugh...I could totally go off here) I was scared that she wouldn't even know who I am so its nice to know she knows exactly who her momma is :)

Oh and because we are so slack in taking pictures of our beautiful baby girl (ha!) we took her to UNC-W the other night for some "official" 6 months pics. Our friends Carlie and Leah came along too to help us get some family shots. Thanks girls!

At the Park

We took Randal Jean to the park the other night. She is still a bit too small to really enjoy the park for all its worth but she always loves being outside so it was a worthwhile trip. Since she can't play on the jungle gym we brought a blanket and let her watch all the "big" kids run around. We also tried out the swing which she liked so much she tried to eat it! And that's just not sanitary so it didn't last long :)

I think she looks like the cutest lil monkey in the pic below

Mommy Made It!

I just recently got around to sewing again. I put the sewing machine up about 2 weeks before Randal arrived....I just knew she was coming early, but she proved me wrong. (I digress) Below is the second dress I have made for her (no pics of the first yet). I am pretty proud of this one because I also had to figure out my embroidery software that I got for Christmas and have been neglecting since. Hopefully there will be many more handmade dresses and outfits in her future as I know all my handmade dresses from my granny are items I cherish.

Randal is finally getting enough hair for a bow :)

Saturday Afternoon Downtown

We went down to the Farmer's Market in downtown Wilmington this afternoon. We didn't find anything at the market but we packed a blanket and some toys for Randal Jean so we did get to enjoy sometime hanging out by the water front. It was much hotter and humid outside than the weatherman had predicted so we didn't spend too much time laying on the blanket and sought shelter in Mixto to eat lunch. If you are in downtown Wilmington this is a great Latin restaurant. We split a crab, mango, and avocado salad with citrus vinaigrette and the Mexican hamburger. The food was muy deliciouso and they had awesome el Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) photographs on the wall that Matt and I loved.

A poor attempt at a family picture using the timer and the stroller to prop the camera :)

Topsail Island

Last week my family took our annual beach vacation. This year we stayed at Topsail Island and we had a blast! It was Randal Jean's first family vacation as well as the dogs first time joining us on vacation. Having a 5 month old and 2 big dogs certainly meant a lot more work while on vacation but it was worth it to have all my family there :)

Packing for our first vacation was ridiculous!!!! I think we will need a U-haul in the future (seriously, I'm not kidding). Traveling with the dogs means we lose the back of the suburban so we had to take my car as well. Randal Jean might be small but she has a lot of stuff. Some of the larger items that seemed to fill up our vehicles included: diaper pail, 2 large laundry bags of cloth diapers, high chair, exersaucer, pack and play, and jogging stroller. I think just Randal's filled the interior of the suburban.

Once the stress of packing and unpacking was over I was ready to relax and enjoy a full week (away from work!) with my family. The house we stayed in this year was on the canal so our house had a dock, but it was also a very short walk to the beach. I loved being on the canal and hope we can go back to the same place (or somewhere similar) next year.

Randal is still a bit too young to spend large amounts of time in the sun due to risk of overheating and sunburn...even though she was slathered in SPF 50 every time we went out. We didn't get to spend too much time outside but we made the most of the time we did have. Early in the day we would take Randal and the dogs out on the john boat to a little island and let the dogs run free and swim. I loved watching the dogs get to run free and frolic in the water, plus Randal gets a kick out of watching them too:) Most days we would have to scope out an island that no one had claimed as we wanted the dogs to have free range, but on Thursday we discovered our own temporary private island! We set off on Thursday a little bit later than the other days so the tide was getting really low and as we were scoping out a place to anchor the boat we found an island that had just started to form. The island was shaped like a donut with clear shallow water in the middle. This was my favorite time at the beach. It was just one of those times that I thought to myself "this is the life." I had my baby, my husband, my dogs....life was great (and Riley and Kacie were there too). I was so bummed that we didn't discover this temporary island until Thursday as Matt had to leave the vacation a day early :( Oh well, now we know for next year. We also took Randal to the ocean, but we didn't spend too much time there. She wasn't a big fan of the waves crashing near her. I hope this will be one of the differences we will see next year. Other than her distaste for crashing waves she didn't seem to mind the ocean water (without waves in the canal or on the islands) too much and the sand didn't bother her either.

Being away from the house meant Randal was away from her normal environment so we had to be creative in getting her to nap....napping for Randal is non-negotiable! My very pleasant child can be far from pleasant if she doesn't get enough sleep. After not napping well the first day and the effects of less sleep showing on day two I decided something must be done! So in to her car seat and in to the dark bathroom with the fan running Randal went. Think what you will of my parenting but I didn't do this every nap and we don't do it at the house. It was what got Randal to sleep and made her happy so if nothing else I am glad that I thought to do this and highly recommend this trick to other traveling parents.

Oh what else to share?!?! It was a Till family vacation so there was lots of good food cooked by Chef Randy and lots of dominoes played, but really I think I've rambled enough but I'll close with saying this was the best family vacation yet because I finally had my own child to share it with. Watching Randal experience new things is just the most awesome indescribable feeling.

Below are some pics from our vacation...Enjoy!

Play Ball!

One of Randal's favorite toys is a "T-Ball." She swats at the ball and the toy makes sounds of a crowd roaring or fans yelling things like "homerun." Its the perfect size for her to practice her sitting and grabbing. She especially likes to try and but the baseball in her mouth :)

A Family First

We went for our first walk as an family tonight.  This means the dogs came too!  If you have met our dogs you might realize this is not an easy task.  I hate to admit it but our dogs don't get to go on many walks because they tend to go bananas when they see other dogs.  They did GREAT! tonight.  Hopefully this will be the first of many nights we are able to take a stroll with our entire family.

My Little Distraction

Randal Jean is such a little distraction! Case in point...I pulled the laundry out of the dryer yesterday, laid her on the bed with the laundry, and 20 minutes later all I have accomplished is playing with Randal in the laundry pile...no folding! Oh well, tomorrow's laundry pile will be the same as today's; however, my little girl is changing every day so I try and savor every moment I have :)