What Do You Do With Your Baby?

As I think everyone must notice pretty much all our pictures of Vi are inside. It has been a cold, long winter here in Michigan. We have ventured out a few times with Violet when it gets above 30 degrees outside. I feel bad that she hasn't had a lot of exposure to nature. But honestly there isn't a whole lot to do with her outside when it is that cold. So the indoor pictures will continue until we can get out more. She has been totally enamored when we do go out. She will just sit in the bjorn or her stroller and stare in silence at everything. It's so fun to see her take it all in. 

I am looking for suggestions of things to do with a 5 month old inside all day. Our typical day starts out with me feeding Vi and getting dressed for the day. Then Vi watches her baby Einstein wild animals DVD while I eat breakfast and clean and do whatever else I can get to in the 27 minutes of her show. She loves it. Honestly she doesn't even break eye contact. Then we do tummy time and sing songs and either do bumbo or standing. By then she is ready for her morning nap. She sleeps for about 1.5-2 hours. Then we read books listen to primary songs and bouncer time. Then she will eat again (she is on a 4 hour feeding schedule). After that it is a lot of repeat with reading or tummy time or play mat until her afternoon nap which is the same 1.5-2 hours. She will take one more power nap in the evening usually around dinner or a little after. She will also have tummy time before bed. I am just in need of other activities to do with her until we can go outside. That might not be for another month or so. So calling all moms. Please give me ideas of what I can do with her that are age appropriate.

Here is Vi this past Sunday. We did a little photo shoot with dad because they were just being so stinkin cute together. 

4 month Stats for the Bee Bop

(Did anyone else have a mom that called kids little bee bop? I don't know if that was just my mom or if that is a common nick name for little kids. I find myself calling Vi bee bop all the time.)

 Well it looks like my chunky monkey baby is not as chubby as I thought she was. Vi dropped down in some stats and stayed about the same in others.

14 pounds 1 ounce- 47th percentile

25 inches- 63rd percentile

All this time I seriously thought she was such a chunk but then I started noticing that she is still swimming in most 3-6 month clothes and now she is almost 5 months. I just assumed with all her rolls that she was pretty chubby but I guess I was wrong.

This girl is a gab fest. She is such a chatty Cathy. I almost always have to take her out in Sunday school and relief society because she can't stop talking. Some would say oh just give her a binky, but this girl just pulls it out and then proceeds to chew on her fingers and talk at the same time. It is about a 90 percent chance that you will catch Vi with her fingers in her mouth. She just chomps on them all day long. She has almost mastered rolling out of tummy time. She hasn't liked tummy time for awhile so I think she  figures it is more efficient to just roll out of it. She also arches her back all the time or tries to sit straight up in her car seat. You can tell she is just trying to figure out how to move this little body. She loves to look at herself in the mirror. She loves to watch the lions in her Baby Einstein movie. She always gets excited when they come on. she loves books. She will sit still with me for a long time just looking at book after book. She is still obsessed with the tub. She has started chewing on her tongue ( which is very long thanks to those Magleby genes). She has also decided that she loves to spit. She will blow spit bubbles and just straight up spit really loud out of no where. It is sick if you ask me but cute at the same time. She is our social butterfly. She loves to be around people and especially mom. She is totally fascinated with other babies. She hates to be alone in a room. She will start crying if she can't see anyone but as soon as I poke my head around and we lock eyes she smiles and is fine and she will go back to playing. She just always wants to be with someone. She still naps and sleeps like a dream and is making serious progress in the car. She is a happy baby, which I am so grateful for. She smiles a lot and overall has a really pleasant and sweet disposition. We feel really lucky to have such an easy going baby. She allows us to go and do things and get out a lot because we know she will be good. 

Here are lots more pictures of the bee bop. She gives us some really great faces.

 You guys remember the show Home Improvement ? I picture the signature Tim the tool man Taylor noise in this one.

A Sweet Dress

Awhile back my mom was in Vermont visiting my Grandma and Grandpa Magleby and they were cleaning out a lot of their things. My grandparents visit a lot of auctions each year and find tons of amazing pieces. I grew up in a home where a large majority of our furniture was antiques. I love it! My grandma knows I have a soft spot for vintage jewelry and clothes. For my birthday I can pretty much always assume there will be some antique treasure in there. My mom came home with a few baby pieces for me to choose from. This was before I was pregnant with Vi so it had been sitting in a little box for a long time . I pulled it out the other day and realized that it might be too small by the time that the weather warms up enough in Michigan. I tried it on her and the neck was already starting to get a little small on her. So we decided to just have her wear it anyway. She looked darling in it and I love all the perfect little hand embroidered details. You just don't see things like that anymore in children's clothing. I simply love this dress and I am so excited to try and find her some more sweet outfits like this one.

Snow Day

Violet is finally big enough to fit into all her winter gear. So over the past week we decided to get out and brave the cold with her. We had been wanting to take her in the snow but honestly it was too cold and windy. This past weekend it mellowed out a bit and so we threw on all her gear and took her out. She had mixed emotions about the whole thing. It was bright and cold and snowing. Her facial expressions in these pictures crack me up. Sometimes she can be so serious but just a few looks from Mom or Dad and this girl is hamming it up. She is such a little character. We already know we are going to have our hands full with her.

 Dad is already trying to embarrass her

 Whatever you do I will not smile

Just when we thought her face couldn't look any fatter 

  Look mom no hands

 This next sequence of pictures are probably some of my favorite pictures of Vi to date. It captures her range of emotions pretty well.

We survived !