Fun in the SUN....(Sort of)

Here are some pictures of Tatum from this weekend. I went to the store and bought this pool and the idea was to blow it up Friday night and get outside with it on Saturday, but when Tatum got up Saturday morning, I put her in the pool inside so she could get used to it and play. That is as far as we have gotten so far. We may try it out tomorrow though, but I thought these pics were too cute.

Proud Aunt

This past Thursday night my niece, Mckayla, graduated from her Early Childhood 3 Class. Tatum and I were lucky enough to be able to make it to the graduation ceremony. The 3 classes sang songs and did little dances. Then when all the classes were finished singing seperately, they all got together and sang two songs in Spanish. I was impressed with how well everyone did, but I was so proud of how great Mckayla did. She tends to be shy from time to time, so I wasn't sure how well she would do, but she knew all the moves and words to the songs. Here are the pictures from that night.

Busy Weekend Recap

We had an awesome weekend. The weather was great, family was in town, and Tatum was in the best mood all weekend.


Here is a fast recap with TONS of pictures! Friday, I didn't get home from work until 6pm, so we just chilled out on Friday night. Saturday morning, we all got up and went to breakfast at Bryant's on Summer. It was so good!! Tatum enjoyed entertaining the crowd at the restaurant with her smiles and talking. She ate a bitter biscuit with us and even tried to share it a couple of times with the older ladies ooo'ing and aahhh'ing at her.(I don't think she knew what she was doing, but it sure looked like she was trying to share.) After breakfast, we all headed to Lowe's to get some supplies. Antonio decided to put up gutters on the house on Saturday. We did have them when we moved in, but when we got the new roof on the house last year, they were torn off and were not put back on. While Antonio was working HARD, Tatum and I had fun playing outside. Here are lots of pictures. The first ones were taken when I had the bubble machine out. She loves her bubble machine. (We got it at Target for less than $10 and it is one of the best purchases I have made as far as toys go.) You just pour in the bubbles and the machine does the work for you. Anyway, here are some pictures of Tatum sitting up with the bubbles behind her.









Next is a picture of Mommy (me) and Tatum.
After the bubbles got boring, Tatum went for a ride in her car and I got to push her. She LOVES this car. It was another great purchase. I got it at a consignment sale for $15 and we use it pretty much everytime we go outside to play. Now that it is warming up and so pretty out, we spend LOTS of time outside! She is a PRO at the driving. Look at how she looks both ways before proceeding on. She even has a great grasp on the steering wheel.

Saturday night we grilled out and had a few of our neighbors over. They were amazed that we could just put Tatum to bed and she went to sleep with no problems. Antonio and I are very blessed and spoiled that Tatum is such an easy baby!

The next picture is from Sunday morning. We went to church with my sister and her family because Mya and Mckayla got dedicated on Sunday. This meant that we didn't have to be at church until 11:15 instead of the usual 9:30, so we had extra time to play. You can kind of see Tatum's two teeth in the picture below.
After church, we went over to my sister's house for lunch. We got lots of playtime in and ate a wonderful meal! Here are some pics.

Tatum always rubs her eyes now when she is sleepy and within 5-10 minutes she is out. Below is proof...



Below is a pic of my mom and Mya. My mom kept closing her eyes, but this was the best one.

Happy Mya....
Scared Mya after Grandmommy (my mom) scared her with some loud noises.
Happy Mya again. She recovered quickly!

Next are a few pics of Mya standing up with a little help from her mommy.

Tatum got some special attention this weekend from her Gran (my grandmother). Tatum talked and laughed and had a blast playing with Gran. Gran talked back, sang, and laughed with Tatum. Tatum just loved the attention!

Little Tatum has a thing for necklaces. Below, she is grabbing Gran's necklace. I have to warn everyone because I know every baby loves necklaces, but Tatum broke the necklace that Antonio gave me on our wedding day by pulling on it. I just need to get a new chain for the charm before I lose it!
Next, Daddy is trying to tell Tatum not to pull on Gran's necklace. I don't think she understands all of that right now.

Finally, Tatum LOVES her cousin Mckayla! She just laughs and laughs when Mckayla is around.

Tatum is beginning to crawl. She gets up on her all 4's now and moves a little before dropping to the ground.

Finally, I want to post Tatum's routine (more for myself) so that I can look back and know what she was doing at 6.5 months. So, here it goes.

Tatum goes to daycare all day and we pick her up between 5-6pm. When we get home, we play for a bit, take a bath around 6:45pm and get a bottle around 7:15pm. Bedtime is at 7:30pm. She puts herself to sleep and we don't have to go back in her room or anything. Sometimes we hear her playing and talking for a bit, but she is out within 10-20 minutes. Tatum then doesn't wake up until around 7:30-8:30am or whenever we wake her up. She gets 4 bottles a day of 7-8 ounces of formula.(I mix 3 scoops of formula with a little extra water.) and she just moved up to 3 containers of 2nd stage Gerber foods during the day.

Tatum is wearing 6-9 month clothing for the most part. She has a few 3-6 month Gymboree outfits that she can wear because they run bigger. She is in a size 3 diaper and still in a size 1 shoe. Her poor little foot just isn't growing too fast. I can't wait until she gets to a size 2 because that is when I can get her some cool tennis shoes. Nike and New Balance don't make them smaller than a size 2.

Tatum has the most beautiful blue eyes (if I do say so myself) and a very contageous(sp) smile. I think she is at the PERFECT age right now because she is very interactive, she can sit up, but she is not mobile yet, so I don't have to worry about her getting into anything if I have to run to the bathroom for 30 seconds! I am going to be in trouble when she starts crawling! She wakes up in the best mood every morning. I get the biggest smile when I get her out of bed! She smiles when I pick her up from daycare (which makes me know she is happy to see me.) but she doesn't cry when I leave her at daycare in the morning(which makes me know she likes her daycare too.)

We don't use her swing or bouncy seat at home at all. We rarely use her exersaucer these days, but we are using her walker a little more these days since she can touch the ground. If we are at home and inside, we just put down her blanket and play in the floor. If it is nice outside and still light out, we usually try to stay outside since Tatum likes it so much.

I can honestly say that I can't remember what life was like before Tatum. I love every minute I spend with her and Antonio. I must admit, Tatum is a Daddy's girl, but I love it! I think when I was gone on training for 3 weeks, Antonio bribed her. (I am only kidding). Antonio is such an awesome Daddy and Tatum loves him so much.

Well, enough rambling for now.

Until next time....