Mary Pushing the Walker

This video is from the middle of November and now she pushes it really fast.

Thanksgiving

At our house we had all of the Romney Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins over for lunch. There were a lot of people and Mary loved it. Here is a video of Mary’s first Thanksgiving on YouTube.

San Diego

The day before Thanksgiving we drove down to San Diego on the motorcycle (Mary was in the car with Brian’s parents). It has been a while since I rode on the motorcycle. Here are some pictures I took as we were riding.

We took a quick stop at the Mission San Luis Ray de Francia on the way. It is a nice place.

We also visited the Mormon Battalion museum. It was really cool. During the beginning they have pictures on the wall and then they start moving and talking to you. They look completely like just regular pictures and then you move through all kinds of cool looking rooms while watching videos about the journey they took, one of the children get to try on their uniforms and at the end we panned for gold.

We had a great time visiting with family at Uncle Rick’s new house and enjoyed a wonderful BBQ of hamburgers. It was a nice trip.

Halloween

Mary helped us carve pumpkins for the first time. We got a big daddy pumpkin for Brian and a regular mommy pumpkin for Laura and a tiny baby pumpkin for Mary. She loved her little pumpkin and all the pieces of newspaper. She got so messy when we were scooping out the guts. She even tried to eat them and it was hard to keep her away from them. We had a ward trunk or treat on Wednesday so Brian dressed up as a doctor, Laura was a zookeeper, and Mary was a giraffe. We decorated our car and showed off our great pumpkin carvings. It was such a fun night.

Mary loves the Underhill girls. They are great friends. We took Mary around the cars to collect candy and she was so interested in what was going on with the candy. We also let her eat a lollypop and she would not take that thing out of her mouth. She loved it!…until she dropped it on the ground. Us parents ate the rest of her candy except the pretzels which she thoroughly enjoyed.

Thursday morning Mary had a photo shoot in her costume. I think it turned out pretty well with just my little camera. I like these pictures because it looks like she is in a jungle or something. I set her on top of Brian’s pumpkin and surprisingly she just sat there and didn’t fall off. She enjoyed eating the top of her little pumpkin.

Mary: 7 Months

Mary is getting so fast at crawling. It is harder to run away from her when she chases me around the room. She has gotten braver pulling up on things and then reaching for something else. One time she found herself standing without holding onto anything and she got so scared! But she still goes for it. She enjoys playing with the box the blocks came in, my little ponies, books, and phones. She hates getting her diaper or clothes changed. We moved her crib into the guest room now and she does great falling asleep. When I put her down she cries for 10-20 minutes and then falls asleep. She takes about 3 naps a day for about an hour each and at night will go to bed about 6:30 or 7 and wake up around 6:30. She enjoys eating rice cereal, mush vegetables, and fruits. She doesn’t really like the mush baby meats. Crackers are her favorite finger food and we also got a mesh bag thing that she can suck on bananas or strawberries with.

We went to the Placentia Heritage Days parade on our bikes and Mary loved seeing all the bands walk by. We try to walk to the park everyday to play on the swings for a little while because she LOVES the swings. It is so fun. It is a nice thing to get out of the house for.

I finally made Mary a hat and she likes it but HATES to wear it. She would rather suck on it. She finally got into the phase where she doesn’t want to wear hats much. Especially ones that cover her ears. She also likes her box house. I will peek in from the handle hole on the back side and lure her into the box and then close the door. She loves to play that game. Somebody gave us a pair of sunglasses and we were surprised when she didn’t pull them off. They look pretty cool. She can now say mama, dada, and baba. She will say mama when she cries because she has gotten more attached to me and she will say dada when she wants to play with him. Sometimes I will listen to the baby monitor when she gets put down for a nap and listen to her talk away.

Zoo & Irvine Park

Each month we try to do something fun and we usually go camping but this month we decided to go to the Orange County Zoo. It is really small and only costs $2 each. Mary wasn’t very interested in the small animals like the snakes and owls but she did like the bears and big turtles. They also have a petting zoo and she liked that a lot. She loved touching the goats and looking at the furry bunnies. Afterwards we took a walk around Irvine park and saw some peacocks and took a ride on the swings. That is Mary’s most favorite thing to do. She always gets so happy.

Then Mike, Shari, and Evelyn showed up and we all had a great time at the pumpkin patch. The babies seemed to enjoy sitting on the little tractor. After we had a nice picnic with hamburgers, fruit, and chips. It was delicious! We are glad that they came and had a great outing.

Mary 6 Months

Mary is already 1/2 year old. That is crazy to think that time has gone by so fast. At her 6 month checkup she is average on height and low on weight but not too low to worry about. She has learned so many new things this month. Now she can crawl, sit up, and pull herself up to standing. We fed her fruit (applesauce) for the first time and she had a lot of crazy energy the whole rest of the day. Now she eats mush cereal and fruit for breakfast, a vegetable for lunch, and a vegetable and maybe a meat for dinner and is still breastfeeding throughout the day. She is still getting used to the meats. She loves everything else especially the vegetables. She also likes to eat saltine crackers and does pretty good most of the time. She has only choked on them once or twice. I only give them to her when I will be right there watching. We got her a bicycle trailer that is supposed to be for Christmas but we can’t resist using it because it is so fun. She enjoys going for rides to the park and playing on the swings.

She thoroughly enjoyed our camping trip with Mike, Shari, Evelyn, and Murri. She has always loved camping and being outdoors and doesn’t mind her lifejacket that much. She had a great time swimming in the water with us.

Her favorite toys are wooden blocks, dominoes, kitchen bowls, a short rope, and anything that had a drink in it. She doesn’t like getting her diaper changed anymore because she gets so distracted and wants to do other things. She likes taking a bath but loves playing around in the shower. After her bath one day I put my swimsuit on and she played in the shower while I washed my hair. At one point she even sat her bottom right on the drain so the water wouldn’t go down and she loved splashing in the puddle of water that accumulated. We had to get a new TV stand that has doors so she wouldn’t knock over the shelf with the PlayStation. She will crawl around and follow me wherever I go but she gets frustrated when I clean up the room because I keep walking back and forth. I think she thinks I am running away from her. It seems like once she catches up I walk away in the other direction. It has also been too hot for clothes a lot lately. I try to at least put a onesie on her so her diaper won't fall off though.

Bicycle Trailer

We wanted to get Mary a bicycle trailer for Christmas and found a great used one on craigslist so we got it last week and just had to try it out. She can unwrap it at Christmas and still be surprised. She even has a tiny infant helmet with giraffes on it. We love to go on rides to the park to play on the swings or to the grocery store.

Lake Piru

We had a great time camping and boating at Lake Piru with Mike, Shari, Evelyn, and Murri. The babies were so relaxed on the boat. Shari commented that Evelyn is a light sleeper and was in such a deep trance on the boat it was shocking. It seemed like a relaxing day at the spa for the babies even though we were driving so fast. Brian and I did some waterskiing, we each took turns on the tube, and then everyone enjoyed a nice swim with the babies too.

Square pancakes!