Happy Birthday Brad!

We celebrated Brad's birthday with not 1, not 2, but 3 parties! We have pretty crazy schedules between Brad's night classes and my 12 hour shifts, and then to throw in family and friends schedules, there was no way to make it happen with 1 celebration. We started with a surprise party with friends on July 30th. Brad was so surprsed that after we yelled surprise, he thought the party was for someone else and I hadn't told him, lol! Then, we celebrated with my family on August 8th. August 10th, was the actual birthday and then last night we celebrated with Brad's family. His parents brought home made chicken wings, soooo yummy. That mixed with way too much cake made for full bellies today. Just in time for our cruise, lol!

Sounds of Pertussis

I attended a class today at work on pertussis, otherwise known as whooping cough. This illness is on the rise. There has recently been 2 cases in Leon County. Apparently, all us adults were last vaccinated in the 7th grade and recent studies have shown that the vaccine wears off after approximately 10 years. So the majority of adults in the United States are not vaccinated and are able to contract and potentially spread whooping cough to our little ones. The CDC started its campaign in 2006 to vaccine adults in the United States. 3% have now been vaccinated. Those are scary statistics! Children are vaccinated for this illness starting at infancy, but are not fully protected until around the age of five. This is a totally preventable illness. Ask your doctor for the adult pertussis vaccine, also known as the Tdap vaccine. It's especially recommended for people who live with or take care of infants less than 1 year of age, women who might become pregnant, new mothers, and health care personnel. Most babies are infected by their parents or close family members. I was vaccinated last week, how about you? Have you had your vaccine?

So easy baby food and six months stats

We are making Raelee's baby food and are loving it! We made this decision based on two reasons:
1. Cost, it's waaayyy cheaper.
2. Health, did you know baby food jars can be 3 or more years old before you're feeding it to your baby? Also, all the preservatives that go into the jars, yuck!
Now I am not a cook, Brad usually does all our cooking(lucky me). So I was a little hesitant and overwhelmed feeling when it came to making Raelee's food. Plus, there are so many foods that can't be introduced until a certain age, etc. I took a class at Best Beginnings
and bought the so easy baby food kit there. This book breaks it down and really does make it so easy! So far Rae has had bananas, apples, sweet potatoes, pears, oatmeal, and tonight she'll start butternut squash(which I had never tasted in my life until today. It's pretty good). I have so much fun cooking her food, maybe I'll start cooking grown up food too, maybe :)
Raelee's 6 month appt was Wed. Here's her stats:Ht 25 inches-20%, Wt 14lbs 15 oz-30%, HC 43.8 cm-90%. This girl sure has a big noggin! At least its down from the 92%, which is what it was at 4 months. She has hit all her developmental milestones. She loved going to the appt, everyone was giving her so much attention. And she barely even cried with her shots! Such a big girl

I can' t believe little Rae is 6 months old today. She's growing so fast, everyday it seems like she's learning a new skill. She is so much fun, I'm so lucky to be her mom. She has such a little personality, it cracks me up all the time. She's the perfect little girl for Brad and I. These are some pics we took over the weekend. I can't get enough of her little chubby cheeks and smile. I love you Raelee!
P.S. I still can't get this underline thing to stop. Anyone have any suggestions?




















Raelee with her new hat.




















Grandpa put her britches on her head. Raelee thought it was soo funny.




















With her sock monkey, FiFi.




















Chillin on the porch.

Braids

I've been trying to create this hair style from this lady here, http://thepolishedpickle.blogspot.com/2009/06/hair-style-tutorial.html for about six months now. She always has the cutest hair(and clothes). Well, I have not been able to successfully do a french braid in my hair since I was nine and fractured my wrist. I have tried and tried and tried. Well.... this morning I was able to fix one side in a french braid part thingy! I was soooo super excited and wanted to braid the rest, but it was 6am and I have to be at work clocked in by 0645am.Tomorrow, I'm going to try to braid the rest, that's a good goal for a Friday I think. I would post a pic, but any hairstyle does not look so great after twelve hours working in a hospital.

Happy Weekend!!!

Raelee has a favorite toy. Her Sophie Giraffe. She loves to chew and drool on it. So fun! She started sitting up by herself almost 2 weeks ago, and it has changed her world. She thinks she's the coolest now. She just sits there and grins, its so cute. On a side note, I don't know why everything I type is underlined and I can't get it to stop, so sorry! Enjoy the weekend, I know I will!!!

















On her new play mat from IKEA

Catch up

I'm in a blog funk. I feel overwhelmed cause I've let so many things pass that I haven't blogged about. Sigh... where to start...Raelee has started on solid foods and loves it! She had started acting like she was chewing whenever we would eat and was always hungry acting, so we decided to try solids. She so far has had baby oatmeal and bananas and LOVES them. We're going to try sweet potatoes next.
She loves sitting in her bumbo that her friend Miles is letting her borrow.
Rae loves her new play center. She has a hard time pushing the buttons to get the music to play, so one day she started using her head to push the button! Such a funny girl.
Our good friends, Danny and Stephanie White came to visit with their little cutie patootie Parker. We were so happy to see them and meet their little boy.