U.S. Space and Rocket Center

We moved to Huntsville, AL about 6 months ago and we finally made it to the U.S. Space and Rocket center thanks to Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day Live! The Museum Day Live provided free admission to one person plus a guest. I had heard about it on a local mom's site and there were actually two museums in Huntsville participating. The other one is called Sci-Quest which is a hands on childrens museum, sounds like fun but maybe not for another year or two for Lillian. At the Space and Rocket Center Children 5 and under are free so it was completely free for us to go. Normally tickets for adults are  $20 and children are $15, but that's just general admission. They have an IMAX and 3D theater that costs extra. Military families do get a discount.

I decided to get the tickets for the U.S. Space and Rocket center and surprise Kevin because he has never been and with the missile defense work he does I knew he'd enjoy it. I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would since Kevin was able to explain things and tell how he has worked on certain projects talked about in the different exhibits. This is actually a missile project called THAAD kevin worked on.

One of the cool exhibits was the Red Bull Stratos Exhibit. This is about Felix Baumgartner who broke the speed of sound reaching an estimated speed of 833.9 mph jumping from the stratosphere, which when certified will make him the first man to break the speed of sound in freefall. Very cool. Unfortunately the exhibits final day is today.

We didn't have our nice camera so all the pictures are from my phone but they turned out good enough for the memories.

I made Kevin take a picture with the Astronaut

This is the Saturn 5.  Below is a 1/10 scale model. 

I never realized that majority of this rocket falls off and the astronauts sit in a teeny tiny portion at the top.

No wonder they switched to shuttles where the astronauts could actually float around

F-1 engines of the Saturn 5. Hard to tell actual size but they were HUGE. 

Don't remember exactly what this was but i'm assuming one of the engines.

Space Shuttle 

Lillian the future astronaut (if they ever let people go back into space again)

 We had a good time as a little family even if Lillian had no clue what was going on. If anyone ever wants to go you have a free place to stay. (Only one bed for now though) We live literally across the street interstate from it.

Lillian's 27th Week

I'm late on this post because I had better posts I wanted to share. lol. Lillian turned 27 weeks old on September 24th.

Sleep/Eating: Lillian has done okay this week. A few days she was off as far as waking early from naps and waking during the night often. It's disheartening at times when she's off her sleep schedule but she seems to always still be a happy baby so I can't complain. The doctor thought she may be waking at night because she is hungry so we added more rice cereal to her last bottle and have been giving her solids still but only occasionally. She eats for about the same amount of time she has been the last month but I think she just isn't getting the quality of milk she needs. I'm still taking the fenugreek and if i drink any more water during the day i'll be pottying every 5 minutes.

Other Happenings:
-Lillian is becoming more clingy lately. I don't hold her very often but after 20 minutes or so playing by herself she just starts to fuss and will not stop unless I pick her up then she has the biggest smile. If I am out and Kevin is watching her at home she is fine but as soon as she sees me and I walk into another room she starts to fuss. Kevin says she it seems like she is worried that her source of food is leaving so she cries.  We have never missed a feeding so you would think she knows she'll get fed. (side note after telling a friend of mine this, she pointed out that isn't that how we seem to be with God sometimes. We worry something won't happen and forget he has always provided for our needs and will continue to do so.)
- We introduced a couple more solid foods to Lillian and so far she loves apples the best and chowed down on some watermelon. Celery is a good teething toy but not easy to actually eat. She has gagged a couple times with the apple but works it out herself just fine.

- I decided to not buy her any toys because the newspaper kept her pretty content for about 20 minutes.

- Aunt Nina sent Lillian a half birthday present. I love her new little jeans but Lillian loves her new dalmation toy. 

- Kevin's parents came to visit this last weekend and we had a good visit.

Nena

and Poppa.

6 Month Photo Shoot

I wanted to get some more recent nice pictures of Lillian but didn't want to dish out the money to pay someone. I'd rather save that for  a family photo shoot when she is like a year old. We have a nice DSLR camera and Kevin has a good eye for pictures so he took some in our back yard. They turned out AMAZING! How could they not though with this beautiful face. Enjoy!

She loves looking in the mirror

love her little mouth here

Her lips are puckered in a lot of these pictures because she has been making a raspberry sound lately.

Momma was playing peek a boo behind daddy and the camera so she cocked her head to the side.

This is one of my favorites!

Typical Lillian chewing on her thumb

Sweet eyes and lips :)

Lillian's 6 Months Doctor Visit

Lillian turned six months last Thursday September 19th.

I'm getting good at getting the picture at the wrong moment

I am behind on this post because I was waiting for her doctor appointment we had today. Her appointment was at 8:45am. I thought this would be great time when I first scheduled it but it is not. Her morning nap is from 8:30ish to 10:30 or 11am. She was not pleasant when they measured her. I was able to get her to take a quick 15 minute power nap while we waited for the doctor to come in. After that she was wonderful. (normally I would hate to wait 15 minutes for the doctor but I knew it was better for all of us if she could sleep even just a little.) For some reason I thought they told me she wouldn't have any shots this time but I guess I was wrong. She had a total of four shots, normally there are just two but the vaccines are combined and this time they weren't. As usual she did awesome with the shots. She cries while the nurse pokes her but once they give her the oral vaccine she is back happy and smiling.

So sleepy...

Paci doing its job. 

She is now 16lbs 15oz 75th percentile. 27 3/4in. again off the charts. Here is her 4 month visit and 2 month visit stats. I always forget to ask for the head circumference and it's not written on her sticker but I think it was like 16 or 17 or I could be way off? I'm never concerned about that unless they are.

We went and got our car seat checked to make sure we are installing it correctly and she is safe. We passed but they did say that she is so long and the car seat has a max height of 30 inches. I have a feeling by 9 months we will have to transition to a new seat.

The doctor also mentioned how beautiful her skin is and again said she is a TV baby. :) I have a feeling though as she gets older it will be filled with freckles like momma and daddy.

Kevin and I have grown more and more in love with this precious sweet girl (if that's even possible). Here is a list of things I love and remember about her these last couple of months.
Lillian:
- I love how your eyebrows raise up and down when you are exploring a new object
- I love that you feel a calmness when I pat you on your chest to help you fall asleep.
- I love your big smiles when you wake up from a nap and we come in to get you. How could anyone make you go back to sleep with that big smile grinning at us.
- I love that you bury your head into my neck when I pick you up.
- I love your personality
Momma and Daddy love you so much!

Lillian's 26th Week

26 weeks old!

Nursing: No new changes as far as feedings go. She is fidgety while she eats and sometimes give me "nipple lash" as my friend Kate likes to call it. We tried a couple more solid foods this week although I still don't think anything is really being ingested. Last week we had only tried bananas and eggs. This week we tried carrots which she loved gnawing on, celery which she seemed apathetic about but did nibble at, plain toast and an apple. She LOVED the apple surprisingly because it was a Granny Smith and I thought it would be too tart but she chewed on that thing for a good 15 minutes. We did have our first scare of gagging which then became choking. Kevin jumped up and I ripped the tray off the high chair and he leaned her forward and only hit her back once and she must have gotten it loose because she was fine and it didn't seem to phase her much. We tried eggs a few more times and eggs whites once but she spit it out quickly. Not sure if she didn't like the taste or just wasn't hungry that morning.

Carrot 9/12

She turns her head to the side and always eats from the bottom of her fist.

Celery raw

Apple 9/17

Sleep: Going down at night at about 7:15-7:30pm. She doesn't fall right to sleep but she lays there quietly and eventually falls asleep within 15 minutes or so.  She'll wake up anytime between 4:30 and 5:30am and we just put her back to sleep and she sleep until 7am. I am very happy with that and Kevin is great about getting her back to sleep if she wakes up anytime after 5 am before he heads to the gym. Some of her naps she has been really fussy at first so I have to pat her chest for a few minutes and it helps. Still taking 3 naps but that last one is only 30 minutes at about 4:30pm.

Other Happenings:
- We went to the park a couple times this week because the weather has been gorgeous. Here are a few pictures.

worn out from the park

- Lillian is becoming more inquisitive. I feel like she is learning more and more every day. If we give her an object to hold she just stares at it and her little eyebrows raise up and down.
- She does this thing with her legs when she lays on her back where she raises them and slams them against the floor multiple times. It doesn't seem to hurt her and she laughs as she does it. She does it at night time too but her legs bounce a little in her crib so i think she likes that and thinks it will happen all the time she does it. 
- Just today she has started this thing where she coughs, a lot, and it sounds fake.
- She grabs food well with both hands and has recently moved the object from one hand to the other.
- We noticed she tends to grab things or hold things with her left hand primarily but has used her right some too so we are waiting to see if she is left handed like her Papa or somewhat ambidextrous like her daddy.
- We have had to use her paci more often in public as she has become more vocal, primarily church.
- Speaking of church nap times are hard on Sundays. She usually goes back down for a nap at about 8:30am. We leave for church at 8:40 and worship starts at 9am and then classes are at 10:15am. Sometimes she'll fall asleep on the way to church but then wakes up as soon as we get out of the car.  10 minute power nap. She won't fall asleep during church because to much to see and hear so either I or my cousin will take her out to try and get her to fall asleep, sometimes she does and sometimes she doesn't. She doesn't go to class yet so she may fall asleep while we are in class but not likely. Then she has a bottle at 11am. Poor thing is so exhausted and if we go out to eat its another nap time she may miss. This last Sunday you could tell she was tired as soon as we put her in the car seat she fell asleep. We took her into the restaurant in her car seat hoping she wouldn't wake up and she never did. She slept for a good hour then when we got home we put her back down and she slept for maybe another hour or more.

- She loves music. She has a toy that plays baby Einstein music and lights up and it will keep her attention for forever. We have an Apple TV instead of cable and they have a radio app so I'll turn on top 40 hits and we have boogied down a couple times and she loves it. I'm hoping her love for music will continue and have Daddy's musical talents. (actually I hope she gets all of Daddy's talents.) When we are travelling and she is past her nap time I turn on Pandora on my phone and play it and she instantly calms down. She likes to hold the phone too while it plays. (i know she'll probably get cancer). but it is was funny to see her hold it.

- I finally got her a soft floor mat to crawl around on since we have hardwoods everywhere. I found this special gem at a consignment sale for only $10 and it came with 25 puzzle pieces. That junk is at least $30 everywhere else I’ve looked and for not nearly as big. We keep it as a 4x4 in our living room. I feel like she has be doing better as far as creeping around and rolling over since we bought it. Plus we can learn our colors and letters as she gets older. Here is a picture of me deep cleaning it since it was a consignment find.

And a picture of Lillian loving it plus some of her and Nana enjoying the view from the floor.

- I finally bought some bubbles (happened to remember while i was at Kroger and they aren't the best quality). Since I couldn't blow more than one or two at a time Lillian didn't seem too enthralled, but when she caught eye with one she stared it down until it popped.