6 Months

Today is Delaney's half birthday! It doesn't even seem possible that it's already here! Time just keeps flying by! Delaney has been so fun lately! She smiles ALL the time and is starting to laugh on a regular basis, which is so fun for us! We will do just about anything to get her going. Of course, the little stinker stops as soon as we get the video camera out! She is also sooo close to mastering sitting up. She is a pro at propping herself up on her knuckles, which is pretty cute! Her favorite thing to do these days is stand up (of course while holding our hands). She would rather stand all day than try to sit. She loves to stand and look around. She locks her knees and just grins! She looks like such a big girl! At this rate, she'll take after me and walk at 10 months! Yikes!She is growing like a weed. We go to the doctor on Wednesday for the official measurements, but for fun I put her on the scale today and she weighed in at 18.4 pounds. Yikes! She has officially passed Parker and tied with Reed. She's a little chunky monkey. I'm kind of worried about what's going to happen when she starts eating big girl food. This is still a struggle for us right now. We've been slowly trying different things for a month now, and I don't think we're any better at it then we were a month ago. She is not a fan! She's a milkaholic! She is on the verge of outgrowing all her 6 months clothes. I think we'll be moving on to the 9 month wardrobe very soon, in fact I plan to get it all washed and ready this week. She has graduated to size 3 diapers in the last couple weeks. A few short months ago a Size 3 diaper would have completely clothed her. It makes me a little sad to see her outgrowing all these things!
She is still a rockstar sleeper. We are working on an earlier bedtime, but that's not going all that great. She does so well right now, I'm very hesitant to rock the boat. She sleeps from about 11pm to 7am every day. She cat naps in the morning, takes a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon, and then naps on and off in the evenings. I really don't think she's short on sleep! We are so blessed to have such a good sleeper! We really couldn't ask for anything more!
She's really starting to enjoy her baths--not that she didn't before, but now she like to splash and kick. It's pretty cute! The diva in her takes over when she gets splashed in the face, and she freaks out! That's also pretty cute, even though she's mad! She is still working on those darn teeth. She has about 3 that are soooo close to popping through. They seem to be dealing her fits tonight. Poor baby, I just wish she'd get some relief soon!
She has also started taking more of an interest in her puppy! She likes to grab at Izzy's ears. So far, Izzy has been so good with Delaney. She pretty much just sits there while Delaney does what she wants. Izzy likes to share Delaney's blankets and toys, so we're working on that. All in all, they get along very well! I'm sure they'll be best friends soon!
Happy 1/2 Birthday, Peanut! We love you so much! Slow down a little bit with these next 6 months...ok?

Our Latest Playdate

We had a super fun playdate with Delaney's boyfriends today. We hosted everyone at our house, so that Daddy could watch his Chiefs play. It was a lot of fun! The kids are all growing up so fast! They are all getting busier and busier so these pictures are getting harder and harder to get. Here's a few of the best!
Reed was a busy little boy crawling all over the place discovering all sorts of trouble. We were trying to talk Parker into joining in the crawling fun, but he's not quite there. His mommy is afraid he'll do it at daycare this week for the first time, and she'll miss it. We're all hoping he saves it for an evening at home with his folks!
As you can see, Delaney was quite the little diva today with the boys. Every single time one of the boys would touch here, whether it was just a little pat or trying to pull her hair, she screamed. It was quite the scene. She was definitely playing hard to get!

Grandma Pat

I don't know why, but lately my Grandma Pat has been on my mind a lot. She was my dad's mother for those of you who don't know. I'm not really sure what started it, but I find myself thinking about her and missing her a lot lately. It seems like I've been seeing a lot of things that remind me of her. Steel Magnolias was on last night for example, that was one of her favorite movies. I also find myself craving some of the things she used to make...home-made french fries, corn souffle, chocolate cake from scratch...I could go on and on! I have also been missing the piano recently, which was of course my major bond with her. She taught me everything I know about playing the piano. Delaney won't have much choice when it comes to lessons, she will have to take some--even if it's just a few from her Mommy!

She's been gone for nine years, which doesn't seem possible until I stop and think about everything that's happened in those nine years. I was 17 at the time and had just started dating Craig. It gives me some peace to know that she got a chance to meet Craig and know him a little before she passed. I distinctly remember a conversation I had with her after my Junior Prom when she told me that she thought Craig was a good guy--little did I know what she was seeing in my future . I got to wear her favorite sapphire ring on our wedding day, so she I know she was with us that day which was so special.

I know she would have absolutely loved Izzy! She was always a dog-lover, and she used to have Basset Hounds way back when so Izzy would have melted her heart. She also would have loved the Basset Hounds Benny & June that live down the street from us!

I find myself trying to imagine what she would have been like with Delaney. She never got to meet any of her 3 great-grandchildren, but I know she would have been absolutely smitten with all three of them! I find myself telling Delaney about her and the things we used to do. It makes me sad that she will never know her except through all of us! I miss her so much!

I never knew any of my great-grandparents, so Delaney is very blessed to know the three she has that absolutely love her! Like I've said many times, Delaney is one very loved little girl!

It's football season!

Fall is finally upon us with all it's glory! We've been enjoying the great weather and some long awaited football! Delaney is becoming quite the football fan! It's pretty cute to watch her watch the games on TV! I'm having a great time getting her all dolled up for game day! We still need to work on some Packer's gear, but we're sufficiently stocked for the Huskers & the Chiefs!
The last week was a quick one with the Labor Day holiday last Monday. It seemed to make the rest of the week fly by, which was nice. We didn't have much going on aside from work and daycare, which was good because this weekend has been pretty crazy! Craig and I got to go to the Husker game yesterday! It was a fun day, and Delaney was sufficiently spoiled by Uncle Darin & Aunt Janna! She even got to go to her first soccer game and cheer on her Cousin Kayla!
Craig took off this afternoon for his boy's trip to Kansas City. They are going to the Royals game tomorrow afternoon and the Chief's game tomorrow night. He is so excited! He was like a little kid on Christmas this morning. He has been looking forward to this weekend since the Chiefs schedule was announced last Spring. We will miss him here!
I'm looking forward to this week too! We are finally getting our new refrigerator on Tuesday! I'm sort of geeking out about this fridge...I'm so excited! I'm also getting my hair done on Thursday night, which I'm super excited about as well. I haven't done anything to it since June, so it's time for some sprucing up! I'm torn as to what to do with it, any suggestions?

A weekend of poop

It seems like I spent the entire long weekend cleaning up poop. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration, but I do have a few funny poop stories! We started off with a massive lime green blowout at Scheel's on Saturday afternoon. Delaney and I were on a little outing with Auntie Buff while Daddy and Uncle Brent were priming for the big Husker game. All of a sudden I notice a little green peaking out of Delaney's Husker Red. I scoop her up and run into the bathroom. As I'm stripping her down to discover her up to her armpits in lime green poo, another shopper decided to wash her hands. Innocent enough, right? Well to say that little Miss D is terrified of the hand dryers at Scheel's would be an understatement. Delaney let loose screaming like I've only heard a handful of times. This lady found it quite amusing that Delaney was scared of the noise, so she allowed her daughter to use the dryers as well. I'm all for washing your hands after using the bathroom, but couldn't they have used the ol' air dry method out of common courtesy for my screaming child. Seriously! After about 10 minutes of screaming, wiping, and shhh-ing we exited the bathroom squeaky clean and continued our browsing.

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at my cousin Joe's house celebrating the September birthdays on the Hassler side. It was fun! Delaney was doted on the entire time, of course. After we left Joe's, we decided to swing by Brent & Buffye's new house because we were literally 5 minutes away. (FYI, they will be moving in at the beginning of December, so they are living in an apartment a few months.) As we were driving by, we find Brent, Buffye, and the kids hanging out in their backyard with some friends of theirs that live a couple streets down. Of course, we jump out and peak through their windows to check out the place. As we were loading Delaney back up in the carseat, Buffye notices that she's got a full diaper--just #1 this time! We do an impromptu diaper change right there on the sidewalk in the carseat with the breeze to our backs. Everything is good to go, and we get her loaded up.

As soon as Craig snaps her back into the truck, we hear this huge crash. There was a car accident on 168th street. Naturally all the men take off towards the scene. Meanwhile, we pile all the kids into our truck and I slowly and carefully drive the few blocks down to Holly (Buffye's friends) & Mike's house. Delaney was screaming the entire time, so I start getting her out of the carseat as soon as we pull in. It was then I discovered that familiar lime green creeping up her white romper. Holly graciously says she'll take me inside so that I can clean Delaney up. I follow her into this immaculate, gorgeous, massive home that looks like a scene from Pottery Barn. I was scared to walk in there, let alone take my child covered in poop in there. I carefully spread out the changing mat on her gorgeous, new carpet and manage to get Delaney changed and cleaned up without transferring any poo to anything else. It was a close one! What a spectacular home!

Today, we decide to venture out to Super Target to scope out some convertible carseats that were in the ad yesterday on sale. As we stand there debating between a few of the models, we decide that we'd actually try Delaney out in a couple of them. I take her out of her carseat, hand her off to Craig , and get a huge whiff of something nasty! I make myself a makeshift changing area on an empty display shelf and get her changed. We managed to catch it before we had a blowout, but it was a close one!

Poor girl, I don't know what I ate (back in mid-May) to upset her system so, but it sure got the best of her this weekend! Other than these few times, she's been it pretty good spirits. She's still fighting those darn teeth though. Man, I wish those suckers would just pop though!

Daily Dealing with Diva D!

Time seems to be getting away from me lately. I go into every day with a "list" of things I want to accomplish, and when it's all said and done at the end of the day very few things are crossed off that list. It seems like there is so little time to do so many things. I'm also very easily distracted by a little Diva named Delaney, so that may explain a few things. She's so worth it though!
We are still battling with these darn teeth. She has been working on them for almost 2 months now. Every morning I wake up and think I'm finally going to see one has popped through, but so far no luck. Poor baby, she has had some really rough days. It just breaks my heart to see her suffer. I hope they pop through here soon!
We are still working on "big girl" food, and boy that's a challenge. She wants no part of it! She hates cereal and veggies. I'm going to try a little fruit in a couple days to see if it's a taste thing. We'll see. We have her 6 month check up with the pediatrician in a couple weeks, so we'll hopefully get some guidance then. I can already she that she's inherited the stubbornness from her many family members who are seriously stubborn.
She is still growing by leaps and bounds. It's almost as if we are literally watching her grow, she seems bigger and longer every day. She now has some serious thunder thighs--she finally has something that resembles me! Ha! In the last 2 weeks, she has lost a lot of her hair. I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty sad about it. She had such beautiful full hair, and now she's balding. I am excited to see what color grows back in...maybe blond? I doubt it!
She is getting good a sitting up. She still does the whole balance on her knuckles thing, but that's progress! We get comments all the time about how strong she is, little do they know we work out all the time! Ha! It's so hard to believe she's old enough for all these things. Where did the time go? I'd be okay if it just stopped here for a bit!
FYI: All these photos are from an impromptu photo shoot last Sunday. She was just too cute! I had a little fun with a setting on my camera that lets me accent certain colors. This one right above may be my all time favorite picture I've taken of her. I just love it!

Waiting for the 3rd thing...

They say things happen in "3s", well we're sitting here waiting for the 3rd thing to happen. Last Thursday, our summer roommate text me to say that she couldn't get into our house because our garage door wouldn't go up. Luckily, we had a key for her to use, but we still had a problem to deal with. Craig got home from work that day, and he could barely manually lift the door up. Upon further inspection, he discovered one of the coiled springs had split into two pieces. 24 hours and about $200 later we have a functioning garage door!

The same day we realized that our ice maker wasn't making any ice. For the first time in two years of living here, our ice tray was completely empty. Craig did some research and decided to order a replacement piece from an online store, as he wasn't able to find a GE brand valve at Lowe's or Home Depot. The piece came today, and after all that and about a week's worth of waiting, the piece was worthless and cost us $30. He called a local appliance repair piece, they advised us to purchase a whole new ice maker, but couldn't promise that would fix our problem. We'd be out the $200ish to attempt that. Our refrigerator is over 10 years old, so now we questioning how smart it is to put hundreds of dollars of work and parts into it if it could go out on us completely any time. We may be doing some refrigerator shopping this weekend...

So, we're waiting for the next thing to happen with the house. After 2 years, I guess it's bound to happen as we haven't hand any self-induce house expenses thus far. Oh, the joys of home ownership. Let's just pray the third thing is something simple and inexpensive, we've got a hungry little girl to feed!