Hours of entertainment

Now that she is confident in this skill, she does it over and over and over again all day long!

Click here to see the video!

Playdate at the park

Today Piper and I met our friends Jenny and Lily at Centennial park for an afternoon playdate. We fed the geese and ducks, strolled a bit, and played on the playground. It was a wonderful way to spend a beautiful day!

This was Piper's first time on a swing. The look on her face shows that she enjoyed it! She really liked watching her shadow move across the ground as she swung.

How can she sleep like this?

Look what I did all by myself?

Mornings with Mommy

Mornings around here are pretty calm. There's always lots of playing, of course some eating, and today there was lots of cheesing for the camera.

searching for a favorite toy in her toybox

Got it! Off to show Mom.

Hi, Mom!

What's in here?

busy busy busy

Now that she's officially on the move, Piper never stops. The poor dogs don't stand a chance! McKenna keeps her distance but comes by for a few licks every now and again, but Ally is too old to move as away as fast as Piper comes at her. Luckily she's a wonderful dog.

She loves to play with Ally's tags.

You can't tell, but McKenna is giving kisses in this picture.

making an escape

if only you could tell how dirty she is...her face, her shirt, her hands, her legs

We had a playdate with Baker today. Poor guy was getting over an eye infection, thus the shine. Josh held Baker today and couldn't get over how still he was. We're not used to that!

Uh oh

Piper seems to be learning all kinds of new tricks this week. Here's what I found when I heard she was up from her afternoon nap today.

A better view

Life at our house just got much more interesting

New Stats

I took Piper to the doctor today to get her flu shot, and I had the nurse weigh her while we were there. She now weighs 15 pounds and 13 ounces! This means she has gained almost 2 pounds in about 5 weeks! Her average weight gain was 1 pound a month, so this is huge!

The rest of the family

We got Ali to stick around to photograph the entire Webb family. We're a pretty good-looking bunch, don't you think? And, Ali is incredible talented!

Photo Preview

While we were home for Labor Day weekend, we met my friend Ali at the Weir Dam for a family photo shoot. Piper did so well, which was amazing because it was so cold! Here is a preview of just a few of the shots from that morning.

Rite of passage

Seven Months

Piper turned 7 months old last Thursday! She is such a funny little girl, and we love watching her laugh and grow. So how's her life, you ask?

• Size: Since we haven't been to the doctor since last month (hooray!), I can only guess at her size. Piper seems to have chunked up a little more, so I think she probably weighs about 15.5 pounds. She is very close to outgrowing her summer clothes, which are all 3-6 month sizes. This is a problem because the only clothes she has in the next size up are for fall and winter, and it's still in the 90s here in Nashville! I've been obsessing over buying shoes for the fall, but I can't decide what size to get. Her feet seem to be freakishly small. I want to buy shoes that she can walk in (because I think it might not be too far in the future), but I can't find walking shoes small enough!
• Sleep: At last month's visit, her pediatrician said that Piper should not be waking up to eat during the night anymore. He told me I needed to let her put herself back to sleep (aka cry it out) in the middle of the night so that she could get the uninterrupted sleep her body needs. Thankfully, this only took about five minutes of crying one night. She now goes to bed between 7 and 8 and wakes up between 6:30 and 7. I'm trying to push her waketime to 7 to regulate her naps during the day. She is routinely taking two naps, and sometimes she needs a third one at the end of the day so she can make it to bedtime. When she's tired, no one should be around her. She's that cranky.
• Play: Someone remind me around Christmastime that this girl does not need expensive toys. At the moment, she's playing on the floor, happy as can be, with a plastic coat hanger, a magazine, a toothbrush, and a ball. I think she might have a credit card bill down there, too. Per my mother's suggestion, she now has a little toy basket on the floor in the living room that she pulls over to and rumages through. Everything she touches goes in her mouth, including lots of things that shouldn't. She also enjoys playing peekaboo.
• Move: She never stops! Full-fledged crawling is right around the corner. Piper still pulls herself around by her arms, but occasionally her legs and toes get in on the act. But make no mistake--she can get where she wants to quickly! Just tonight I was preparing her dinner, and she followed me all the way from the living room into the kitchen. She particularly enjoys crawling up to Ally and loving on her. One of my favorite scenes is when she's sitting up while playing with her toys, and her little legs are just pumping away while her upper body stays still. I don't know how she does that! She's constantly beating and banging on things and people, and she's learning how to "work" her toys instead of just hitting them. She's also trying to pull up to a standing position.
• Eat: Piper now eats pureed sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, white beans, zucchini, apples, avocado, peaches, oatmeal, carrots, and bananas. She's still showing an allergic reaction to milk products (diarrhea, wicked diaper rash, etc). We fed her a rice cake last week to see if she'd like to gnaw on something edible. This was a disaster that ended with two retchings. Apparently her gag reflex is not yet ready for solid food. I've noticed a slight decrease in her spitting up in the last week and hope that maybe she's learning to keep her food in her stomach instead of on me. She nurses 4-5 times a day.
• Teeth: That's right, plural! Her second tooth broke completely through the gum yesterday.
• Hair: She now has just enough hair to hold a little bow. This may seem insignificant to some of you, but it's this mother's dream come true.
• Tricks: Piper claps all the time. Seriously. I think she realizes the reaction it gets from people and does it to make people smile at her. She also waves alot, especially at the cute baby in the mirror smiling at her. She loves the mirror. She's started giving kisses that make you think she's going to bite your face off. And of course, she knows how big she is.
• Cuddles: Piper does not have time to snuggle. There are remotes to chew, bills to shred, and dogs to chase after. I have accepted this, but her Nana and the sweet ladies who keep Piper in the nursery insist on trying to rock and cuddle her. This only makes her mad.

See her latest video here!