I scream - you scream - we all scream for sweet potatoes?!

So today was a big day in the Andry household.  I set up Blake's highchair and she not only sat in it for the first time and loved it, but she had her first baby food.  We started her on sweet potatoes and surprisingly after just a few bites she caught on and really liked them!  It was so funny to watch her.  She seemed like such a big girl.  And before someone yells at me, I know it's not recommended to start them on baby food until 6 months, but I bought the organic food labeled 4 months and she has been opening her mouth for my food the last few days so I thought we'd try it.  I don't foresee her developing food allergies after all I ate while I was breastfeeding.  Another big discovery today is that she likes when I sing the blues to her - I have finally found a use for my random rhyming words - THEY MAKE HER LAUGH!

Cinematic moments.

Blake LOVES her new dragonfly toy that Grandma Sarah brought her.  She gets SUPER excited about it:



Talking is now a hobby that takes up about 50% of her day.  She wakes up and talks for about 20 min. and this is her after her nap this afternoon...

She's also just started to figure out her exersaucer 

It's so fun to see her changing and growing and learning everyday.  I feel so so blessed to be home with her to witness it all and spend this time with her that I would never get back.  It's so great to see her developing such personality! I can't wait to see the person she is going to become some day.

Baby Talk

I've always been one of those deeply cynical people who never understood or appreciated baby talk.  I always scoffed at "those people" who would baby talk to their pets, or children. I always secretly thought to myself how weird they were and swore I would never be one of them.  Here I am 4.5 months into my daughters life and I find myself unable to talk like a normal adult when I interact with her.  I AM A BABY TALKER!  What is wrong with me?!  Or should I rephrase that and say, "What changed?!"  I have come to the conclusion that once you have a child God takes you and overnight changes you into one of "those people."  You don't see it coming -  it just happens.  The absolute most entertaining part of it all, is I like speaking with her in the sing songy baby talk manner that I always ridiculed - it makes her smile!  I never claimed to be cool, but I have officially come to the realization that I am a nerd, a parent, a softy and I am one of "those people" and I like it!  I whole heartedly accept what I have become and am running with it.  So when you are out and find yourself also making fun of that parent talking baby talk, or acting silly to entertain their child, also think to yourself  - I am making fun of Alicia and someday I will be doing the same thing!

These are a few of my favorite things....

The smell of brownies baking, a good steak, Mediterranean food, sushi, snuggling up by a fire, scarves, puppies, being covered by warm laundry fresh out of the dryer, driving with the windows down on a nice sunny spring afternoon, laughing so hard you cry, a good glass of wine, a REALLY good meal, spending time with your best friends, impromptu dance parties, new clothes, getting your hair cut, lounging all day long in your pj's, watching movies in bed, kisses from the love of your life, gelato, traveling to new places, discovering your new favorite song, rainy days indoors with a movie, hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipped cream, the state fair, boats, hearing the crash of the waves at the beach, relaxing on the lake, chickfila, spicy food, having great friends that love you no matter what, meeting "the one," experiencing God's grace, doing something nice for someone else, giving presents, surprises, tex-mex, marrying your best friend, seeing your baby for the first time, a babies laugh.....

This rambling hodge podge of items came to me as I was trying to write a letter for Blake to give to her when she's older of things in life that gave me true pleasure and joy.  I want to give her a list of things to try to experience in life and a list of things that express a bit more who I am.  This idea came to me after my dear friend Whitney's mother passed away last year and when going thru all her things we found a letter that she had written to Whitney when she was a baby.  I knew after reading that and both our eyes filling up with tears that I wanted to have something like this to give to precious little Blake to always be able to hold onto no matter what.  

It ended up being much harder than I thought to come up with my favorite experiences, things, moments and words of wisdom, but the funny thing is - for the most part - many of my favorite things were simple.  Items that we often take for granted and overlook if we go thru the motions of each day too quickly.  It made me realize that I need to really take a step back and take in every single moment of life and enjoy it to the fullest.

Vogue cover model...well someday

We just got back from the 4 month checkup at the pediatrician's office and our freak of nature child is in the 95th percentile for height!  I mean seriously...where the in world did she get her height from?!  She definitely didn't get it from me and Chris is no NBA star...must be something in the milk!  I have decided if this keeps up we're just going to sign her up for modeling to bring on some extra income - ok seriously kidding here, but if she ends up being 6 feet tall I think modeling is more in her cards than sports b/c quite frankly if she takes after me at all she'll be way too clumsy for athletics!

4 month stats:

Weight: 12.7lbs  (25th percentile)

Length: 26 in. (95th percentile)

Head: 16 in. (40th percentile)

She also rolled from her back to her stomach while we were at the doctor's office!  Big day for little Miss Blake Salome!

Eat, Pray, Love

If you know me at all, then you probably know that Eat, Pray, Love is seriously my favorite book. Not because it was a best seller and not because it's well written, but because this author, Elizabeth Gilbert, did what I have always wanted to do: drop everything, pack up and move halfway across the world to experience life! I have ALWAYS enjoyed travel and lucky for me I have been very blessed to have had several amazing opportunities to take advantage of this love and passion of mine. I've been to Europe, Mexico, Costa Rica, across the U.S. and I still yearn to see more. There was once a time in my life, not so long ago that my goal was to become a fashion writer and travel around the world to cover all the top stories relating to fashion. I was offered an internship at Women's Wear Daily the summer prior to my last semester at Baylor, but passed on this opportunity to stay in Houston near my boyfriend who had been battling lukemia. Do I regret this decision - not necessarily, but I often wonder what would have been if I had taken that internship?

Unlike Elizabeth Gilbert, at the time of this story - I am happily married and would want to take my amazing husband and beautiful baby girl with me on my journey. I can think of nothing more exciting and fulfilling than to take my family and experience life eating new foods, experiencing new cultures and meeting new people. We could spend a few months in Thailand, hop on over to Russia and Poland to show Blake where our families come from. After a while we could check out the beaches of the Greek Isles (and stuff ourselves silly with food). There are so many places I want to see, so many things I want to do and shocker here - stay in the bubble of Dallas, Texas is not one of them. No offense to Dallas - it's a perfectly good place - it is just so cookie cutter and well quite frankly materialistic!

Just imagine - a life of simple pleasures - great food, great experiences all shared with my great family! Chris and I had talked several years ago about trying to find jobs in London and live there for a year or two. We looked briefly and then gave up. Here I am 5 years later still squashing out that desire. Why is it so scary to drop it all and go? Why do our heads often guide us instead of our hearts? Hopefully some day down the road we'll grow enough courage to do the unthinkable and sell our house, our cars, pack up just the necessities and just sail off to some unforeseen life adventure. Realistically I know this will probably end up some pipe dream or missed opportunity much like my fashion writing career.

How sweet it is...

I will preface this by saying I know I am horrible about keeping up with this, but truth be told, I often forget that I have a blog to keep up with. I am losing my mind...or at least my memory. I'm midweek thru my first week as a stay at home mom. I have to say I could get used to this gig. I love waking up to my beautiful girl smiling at me and knowing that I don't have to rush around to get her dropped off in time for me to get to work. I love just enjoying a morning cup of coffee in my ol' worn out jummies watching her play and giggle. Seriously - it is awesome! I also have to say the days go by surprisingly quickly. I have never been so busy in my life- I realized today when I sat down at 4:00 that it was the first moment in 3 days that I have really just sat down and relaxed with no pressing matter to attend to.

My grandparents are in town for the next few days and talk about perfect timing to arrive - Blake is starting to teeth and poor thing was up pretty much ALL night last day - so lucky for me Gigi was able to be here to help out with all those late night rocking sessions! I am praying that tonight is a better night for all of us though - sleep deprivation and me are not friends!

I know I have touched on this subject before - but I still don't understand those people in this world who can function on only a few hours of sleep. I am seriously borderline mental patient when I am sleep deprived.

In all seriousness though - I am so very grateful and blessed to have this opportunity and I plan on not taking any of it for granted.