Lunch is a battlefield

Some day I will get around to writing an awesome Pat Benatar parody and it will be a YouTube sensation.  It will feature our beautiful, happy daughter who is driving me absolutely crazy trying to eat her lunch these days.

After several weeks of successful consumption of solid foods, she has figured out how to do this:


Lunch is a battlefied from Ashley Heacock on Vimeo.

In the end (the end being when I am too frustrated to continue and she having too much fun to actually consume anything), she is covered in (insert vegetable of the day), as am I, her chair, my chair, the table, whatever else was on the table...you get the idea.

It does make for some amusing pictures though...

At least one of us is having fun.

This is how it gets up her nose #babyhitlerstache

Lest you think I am a complete parental failure when it comes to feeding my child, allow me to show you dinner.

 
Dinner is better from Ashley Heacock on Vimeo.

Phone photographer

After several weeks of hectic schedules and vacations and visitors in town, I finally had a minute to pull photos off of my phone - there were so many!  I carry my phone around constantly (part of working from home), which means I am always ready to capture fun baby moments.  Here are just a few!

I rarely turn on the TV while Hannah is awake, but at the end of a long day, sometimes we both just need to zone out :)

"Hey, he stole my blanket!  What's next - my toys?!?!"

She looks so big and so small at the same time sitting on the couch!

Caught this gem at the doctor's office - do they make baby bras??

"Really Mom?  Carrots??  Better luck next time."

Two baby teeth poking through!!

Dedicated

"Start children off on the way they should go,

and even when they are old, they will not turn from it."

Proverbs 22:6

Last Sunday, we dedicated Hannah to the Lord.  It was our opportunity as her parents to declare publicly, before our families and our church family, our intention and our responsibility to raise Hannah up to know Jesus as her Lord and Savior.  What an occasion.

Alex and I are both blessed by our families' rich legacies of faith, and our prayer is to pass that along to Hannah in the coming years.  May God in His grace grant us the strength and wisdom to do just that.

Look who's six months old!

Happy half-birthday to our sweet Hannah bear!  We went to the doctor today, and we discovered that she is officially the biggest girl on the block - 100% in weight, length, and head size.  She came in at 20 lbs 15 oz, 28 inches long, and 18 inches on her head size.  The doctor pointed out that on her height, she is the size of an average 10 month old - we love our big girl!

I haven't been able to catch a picture of it yet, but she has two teeth poking through.  She's sitting up by herself, and rolling around constantly, which made getting a good picture quite an adventure.  She's going to be crawling before we know it.  And, we're going to start introducing her to fruits and vegetables - carrots are first up on the menu!

She is the happiest baby - nothing but smiles and squeals these days.

Check out those baby boobies :)

That teddy bear is looking awfully small these days...

That smile gets us every time!

The face that reminds us she's still just a little baby, even though she's getting so big :)

Beach bums!

Last week we took Hannah on her first trip to the beach!  We packed up the car, grabbed great grandpa from the airport, and headed to the Outer Banks to meet the rest of my family for a week of boogie boarding, water gun fights, games, and an epic puzzle.  We all had a blast!

Looking cool with Dad

Family photo

"I got my toes in the water..."

Got some snuggles with Nana on the beach

Every beach baby needs a cool pair of shades

Dad and daughter enjoying the view

"Hmmm I'll bet I can grab this..."

Hannah loves a good game of peek-a-boo!

Uncle Scott got in on the peek-a-boo action

Even Great Grandpa gave it a try!

I think he loves his niece :)

Great Grandpa sings the best lullabies 

Happy half-birthday!

Today is our sweet girl's first half-birthday...six months old already!  Unfortunately, I don't have her official six month pictures to post, because I haven't taken them yet...but I couldn't let the day go by without wishing her the happiest of half-birthdays :)

Play time!

I have to say, I think five months is my favorite age so far.  Hannah can do so much these days!  She's super fun to play with because she responds with smiles and giggles and sometimes down right give-her-the-hiccups-when-we're-done laughter.  It's the best.

I couldn't resist this shot of her looking so grown up, sitting like a big girl.  Never mind the giant baby bald spot that gives her away :)

She spends a lot of time rolling on the floor these days.  She can't crawl, but she can get places!

Always keeping an eye out for that mischievous puppy of ours

Hey Mikey, she likes it!

At five months, we started giving Hannah a little bit of rice cereal every day - just a tablespoon or so, to get her introduced to her high chair, having a spoon in her mouth, and all of those things that go along with eating like a real person.

We're two weeks into this big eating adventure, and I think it's going well!  She's getting the hang of the spoon and she's only slapped the bowl out of my hands once.  Now I leave it on the table, well out of reach.  Lesson learned.

At first she wasn't so sure about her high chair...

And she still wanted her foot, instead of her cereal...

But then she got a taste, and she was interested after all!

Hey Mikey, she likes it!!