May- Month Eight

I love love love the month of May. Not only is it our anniversary month (on the 14th, 5 years!!??), but Mother's Day! Oh, Mother's Day! Not because I got pampered, not to celebrate me at all, in fact. I love Mother's Day because I get to celebrate Winona, the fact that she has made me a mama, and the fact that I GET to be her mama. I'm just so grateful that she's ours for now, that I get to squeeze her, and kiss her as much as I want, and take care of her, and nurse her, and love her! Mother's Day is my new favorite, because...Winona Ann!

May was pretty busy as well, I feel like every month is busy?? Is it just me? I kind of think not..

-Winona finally started sitting on her own without flopping over to crawl somewhere! yay!

- Started ISR (Infant Swim Resource) lessons, LOVE them, LOVE this program, if you have babies who are around water...DO IT! PLEEEEEASE!!!! Water safety is SO important, and I am strongly of the opinion to teach your kiddies water safety skills, and to DILIGENTLY watch them around water: don't text, or talk on the phone, or read a book, or run inside for ANYTHING..there's my two cents.

- REALLY got into solids this month, Winnie won't eat baby food spooned to her, but WILL eat straight from the pouch, I try to give her chew able bits of whatever we're eating and then cap her off with a pouch at the end of the meal, it works well for us! She's got so many teeth already and she's so good at chewing and gumming her food she can handle pretty much anything that isn't too hard or crunchy! It's very convenient and a lot of fun!!

- Mother's Day! Best day ever! LOTS of Mother's Day photos below!! Beautiful flowers from Taylor, breakfast in bed, etc. etc.

- Our 5th Anniversary was on the 14th and we went out to eat at the restaurant Taylor took me to for dinner after he proposed (on January 29th 2010, if you were wondering), Flemings! We took Winona with us (we REALLY love our family dates over here, and I'm really not just saying that to sound nice or anything, we REALLY love taking Winona with us pretty much everywhere, and she's usually very well behaved when we do!) Taylor got me a beautiful Mother's Day/ 5th anni gift, too. It's a pretty gold ring with Opals (Winona's birthstone, to celebrate Winona/Mother's Day) and 5 diamonds (to celebrate 5 year of marital bliss) I LOVE IT. I LOVE HIM. 

- Has 5 teeth (with one more coming in!!)

- Grinds those teeth; nail on a chalkboard
- This post is a mess, is it not? Oh well...
- Threw a Memorial Day BBQ with the McKellar's and the Kunz's and the May's. **see photo dump**
- This post is a huge mess. Not even a question. Oh well, Taylor's probably the only one reading it haha, and the end of this post is just a photo dump that I didn't even take the time to organize. so, there ya go. I shouldn't have waited to blog so long. hah

^^I don't EVEN care if that's an excess of photos of me and Winona, not one bit. If you, too bad!^^

April- Month Seven

In April all Robinson sisters, and Daniels girl cousins came to Phoenix for our annual Girl's Weekend the weekend after General Conference/ Easter, so the first few weeks of April were slammed with house guests and activity! It was kind of insane, but mostly loads of fun! Winona had a little (okay, a lot) of sensory overload, but we came out better for it in the end, I think! The big things this month were:
- Perfecting the army crawl: she always pulls with her right forearm while holding something in her left hand!
- COUSINS COUSINS COUSINS: The Rail cousins ( Davis, Noah, and Addy), and the Owen cousins (Grace, Ben, Annie, Hank, Duke) came to town for Easter, and the ladies stayed for Girl's weekend, so Winona got A LOT of attention, she loved it, duh. She got that from Taylor, NOT...all me
- HER FIRST EVER GIRL'S WEEKEND, and she won't be attending another one until she's 18 ;) only nursing babies allowed!
- Started saying a very clear "Mommmmm ma" and "Dah Dah"
- Winona brought home a nasty stomach bug from church and infected the whole house, except me. I had to rush Taylor to the hospital, it hit him SO hard. He got so dehydrated he couldn't open his fists or stand up, was puking thick bile, and couldn't even keep ice chips down, poor guy. Turned out his kidneys and liver had shut down, I'm so finally let me get him to the ER. Luckily, no one else was hit as hard as him, and Winona was feeling better a couple days after she got it.
- LOT of pool parties with friends :)
- *cont ^^ my favorite thing, why? Winona wasn't sitting up on her own no matter what I did for more than a second at a time, but after playing with her BFF Phoebe and watching her sit..the very next morning Winona sat up on her own and stayed there playing with a toy for several minutes!! So happy we have little friends just barely older so she can watch and learn from them! That's also how she learned to walk along furniture and big girl crawl: she's VERY observant
- Grew two more teeth! Bit mama nursing for the first and last time (thank goodness! knock on wood, this is July now and it hasn't happened again!)
- LOVES computer cords, lip gloss, water bottles, red solo cups, remote controls, cell phones, dog food (so gross), and pretty much anything else you can think of that babies SHOULDN'T play with
- STILL nursing every 2 hours during the day, and I STILL had to rock her for about 20 minutes to get her to sleep for naps

**photo dump**

^^zoo with cousins! so fun!^^

March- Month Six

I can't believe it's the middle of July and I'm only just now posting from March. Pretty lame. March was a fantastic month, and because I waited so long I mostly forgot everything that happened...so, go Kelcie. I know Winona got her first two teeth in March, and they tricked us, they came in overnight with no warning, leading me to believe that all her teeth would follow suite, NOT the case. She started army crawling ON her 6th monthday, and if you follow me on Instagram I posted a hilarious video showing her flawless technique (insert cry-laugh emoji). She had this funny side pose she was doing too that was pretty durned cute, in everyone's opinion, and overall it was just a really cute, really hilarious month, watching Winona Ann grow. It's so insane how fast everything changes, this was also the month she stopped snuggling, it was the month she tried avocados for the first time; it's like she hit all these huge milestones (for her and me) all at once, and then it just kept going, and it's hard for me to believe that 6 months old was 3 months ago now.

**edit** up until this appointment Winona was on the bigger side, but her growth evened out and at 6 months she was "average" as far as height and weight go. Other things I remember now from March:
- Winona started making the BEST dinosaur noises you've ever heard! I'm not joking, it's amazing (she still does this, we call her a Winonasaurus)
- Rolling and Scooting were her go to's most of the month of March, and she would strike this silly little side pose all the time, it was hilarious, there are photos of it on my IG and in our Chatbooks
- She did this crunch thing a lot, like she was working on her abs. She would just lay on her back and crunch for several seconds at a time, it looked like she was trying to do boat pose, it was awesome.
- Always wanted to be moving, wouldn't sit on her own for more than a second or two, because she would just flop back, roll over and start trying to go somewhere
- Would pull all the pots and pans off their shelf if I let her, and anytime I started cooking she would immediately go get "her" pot and carry it around in her race-car/walker like she was helping me cook
- STILL nursing every 2 hours, on the dot.
- Started solids: Avocados, chocolate chip pancakes (to celebrate her first two teeth, of course!), didn't like bananas...most just milkies though

Winona Ann at 6 months:

25.5 inches tall

15 lbs 7 oz

16.75 inch head

February- Month Five

     I feel like the months are just flying by, February came and went so quickly, and now my baby is 5 1/2 months old (I'm a little late posting this) and she's rolling all over the place, and scootching all other the place, and super loud, and super observant, and I feel like just yesterday she was a newborn and sleeping all the time! She is so beautiful, and so much fun, and I can hardly stand it!

     At the beginning of February, Winona figured out how to blow raspberries! It was THE cutest thing ever!! One night she blew raspberries in her pack-n-play until she fell asleep (it took her an hour, she was having so much fun with it!). She also learned how to walk forward in the baby walker, which is so fun! She tries soooo hard to keep up with her cousins (those crazy Ning boys), and gets really frustrated when they're too fast for her, poor thing, I think she'll be an early walker just so she can hang with the boys!! She's already scootching and trying to get her knees under her, so it's only a matter of time before she's crawling!
   
    She also figured out how to fake cough, and fake cry, oh joy. It's so funny though, guys she takes after her mom! Not the fake crying, I haven't quite got that down yet..But she LOVES tickles! Not rough make-you-pee-your-pants tickles, but the soft nice kind, like back tickles. Oh, and if you tickle her face? Coos, and smiles, and her eyes do that slow blink, you know the one. And the easiest way to get her to giggle is raspberries on her neck, she loves it!

     Every day when Taylor gets home from work the dogs go crazy when they hear his truck pull onto the street. Winona figured out that when they start jumping at the door and wagging their tails (and ignoring her) that means Daddy is home. She stops whatever she's doing (even if she's nursing!) and watches the door until either he walks in, or we walk out to meet him. She always has the biggest gummy grin on when she sees him, and it makes me so happy that they love each other so much!

   She's still eating every 2 hours, and sleeps 12 hours a night, waking up once to eat around 4am. She's getting really fast with her rolling and winds up in the craziest places, and oddly (and unrelated) she still has a bruise from her umbilical cord clamp, which I was concerned about but the Dr's not. It's been 5 months, you'd think it'd be gone by now?

     Sometimes, I look at Winona and just can't get over how beautiful, and perfect, and amazing she is. I can't believe how lucky we have been to have her in our family, she's made the last 5 months the best months of our lives, and I'm so grateful that our Heavenly Father has trusted us to take care of her!

January- Month Four

    The months are FLYING by, its so not fair! I saw a little 8 week old baby at the gym today and I literally got tears in my eyes, TEARS! Winona was that little only a few months ago, and now look at her! She's growing too fast, and its wonderful, and fun, and exciting, and if we're being honest..a lotta bit sad at the same time.

    January was just so much fun! And so busy! For some reason I thought having a baby I'd be less busy because I'd be stuck at home or whatever I thought. It has been SO busy! Zoo dates, park dates, mall dates, family dates, Gilmore Girl dates (obviously with Winona, not Taylor). Honestly, I feel I've made some of the best mama friends around and I love having girl friends! And I love that Winona will grow up with little baby friends! SO. FUN. The beginning of January we were in Jackson Hole for New Years and family time and it was perfect! 

    This month also brought a lot of firsts, and a lot of changes!

- First tummy to back roll-over (1.25.2015 at 16 weeks old)

-First back to tummy roll-over (2.4.2015 just before her 4 month birthday (monthday? also, I know I say January, December, whatevs...I count from the 6th to the 6th, so you'll get a little of the next month in each post..just simplifying things)

-Started REALLY chewing ON EVERYTHING, especially her ball toy, sophie, and her fists, and its not sucking, its gnawing, biting. I guess she was doing this in December, but it turned a little obsessive this month.

-THE wiggliest! She's moved several feet just wiggling, not rolling, or crawling..just squirming, its pretty impressive!

-She is super hyper observant. Loves to watch me eat (like, she tracks the food from the plate/glass into my mouth). And really pays attention to picture books!

-Loves her squats just like her mama. Her favorite games are peek-a-boo and airplane! Sometimes she'll pull her wubby over her face and literally shake in excitement waiting for someone to ask "where's Winona??", I LOVE IT!

-Graduated out of the swaddle! She was breaking out of EVERY swaddle (we tried all those fancy velcro ones and everything) within minutes, so we decided it was time. At first she had a hard time falling asleep without it. Crying it out didn't work, she would cry for 10 minutes and then just start playing. But she's a champ now! And actually I think she's sleeping better without it! It takes her a little while to fall asleep, but she can, and then she's only been waking up around 3;30-4am to eat, and then not again until around 7:30.

-Is the best conversationalist around, loves to chat, and squeal. She's been compared to a dolphin, and a hot tea kettle. Both are accurate.

- I CAN EAT COW'S DAIRY AGAIN! She grew out of her reflux issues and we have ZERO issues when I eat butter, or milk, or milkshakes, or cheese! It's fantastic!

-Has to wear a bib every day (this isn't new, I just don't think I've documented it before.) to catch all her spit, drool, etc.

-Size 6-12 month clothing, depending on the brand

-Size 3 diapers (she has a big booty)

-Loves everyone, doesn't have any issues with strangers and loves to be held by new people (have had one or two exceptions to this, which have been so odd..I don't know why, it's really only happened twice.) LOVES puppies, her own and Auntie Stephanie's two goldens!

-Her feet are so freakishly long I had to go buy 1-2yr old socks because every other pair won't fit over her heel!

    At her four month appointment, Winona had to get more shots. Boo. But she did okay! I took some great advice from my cousin Michelle and right when we got home I filled the bath up and let her kick for a good half hour. Then I massaged her legs with lotion afterwards to help the medicine move out of her chunky baby thighs. It seemed to help a lot! She was still a little clingy/cuddly, but without the screaming, which made mama so happy! This photo was taken before the shots, but it was like she knew what was coming, poor thing. 

Winona at four months old:

14 lbs 13 oz

24 3/4 inches

16 1/4 inch head