Pumpkin Patch

We took a family trip to the local pumpkin patch (aka a tent full of pumpkins) to pick out Mia's first pumpkin. Here are some pictures from the outing...

Independence

No, this is not a post about me and independence. Or about the 4th of July which was oh so many moons ago.

This independence is about the joy Mia is experiencing from getting stronger, bigger and more interested and alert in her surroundings. I can't remember now just why Mia was shirtless, but obviously she had just been changed out of some clothes and was playing around in her Bumbo seat and looking *purty* cute while doing it.

For your viewing pleasure :


Just needs a cup of coffee and she'll look a bit more natural


A close-up for her modeling headshots


"I'm the [queen] of the world!"

A slow down...

Mia is inching closer and closer to 6 months. Being the broken record that I feel/fear I am becoming, I am still in awe at how quickly we've gotten to this point. Just yesterday I took all Mia's 6-9 month clothes off their hangers in the closet, removed the tags, and washed them all. I started washing her clothes in 3 month increments, and even before she was born I wouldn't wash anything bigger than 3 months. It'll be nice to rotate in some new clothes now, but for whatever reason I have a hard time grasping we're already to the stage of these "bigger" clothes, and that we already need to retire some clothes I thought she'd be in forever. Aren't babies supposed to be small? Someone please explain this "growing up" phenomenon to me!


My mom, Mia's "Mommo," was in town for a few days last week, while Papa Jack was across the pond doing some work. She and Mia got in a lot of quality time, letting Greg & I get out and enjoying doing a few things sans child.



One of those things was traveling about an hour and a half northward to Ocala where I watched Greg drum with Colt Clark's band for a homecoming pep rally at Colt's former high school. They had an hour long gig and did really well! It's not too often Greg gets to jam out on the drums. They sounded pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Other than that, things around here are pretty calm. We seem to have our fair share of busy weekends and slow weeks, and vice versa!

Sleep, Precious Sleep

There are certain things you take for granted when babies are newborns, or at least, in my limited experience, from when Mia was a newborn.

For instance, while newborns may wake up frequently to eat, they go back to sleep almost instantly and with little provocation from their parents.
The trade-off seems to be that as they age, they can sleep for longer stretches without needing to eat, but falling back to sleep in the middle of the night upon feeding can sometimes be a very challenging task.
Like this week, if you will.

The last few nights, we've spent more time in the wee hours of 4-6am with Mia than we have in months, literally. I'm not sure who is really getting more sleep these days, if it be us or Mia. I think we're all a bit sleep-deprived. And slowly losing our minds.

The joy of parenthood is not lost on us, but we're a bit more weary and not, what I like to call, on our "A-Game." Hopefully better nights are ahead of us.
Like my high school senior t-shirt wisely quoted from the band Semisonic:

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

Good night, for now...