Four Months

Oh, my little Margo. She is more perfect than you could ever know. She is so big! We had her measured yesterday and she weighs 19 pounds 4 ounces and is 26 inches long. Must be the rice cereal. She is wearing 9-12 month jammies, 9 month onesies, and size 4 diapers (diapers only go to size 6, as JaNae recently informed me. That could get interesting). She has gotten so fun, especially in this last month. She is learning to grab things around her and stuff them in her mouth. She will do just about anything to stand up straight and tall, she thinks that is great. Every time I pull her up to her feet, she gets a big grin on her face and looks around like, "hey did everyone see my trick!".
Margo is talking up a storm. Lots of shrieks and screams and giggles and babbles. I'm pretty sure I've heard "mama" a few times... then again, it's just her and I home alone most of the day... I can't give my sanity much credit. My very favorite part of my whole entire day is when I go in to get her out of her crib first thing in the morning. She's always making sounds and looking around, and then when she finally locks eyes with me she gets the biggest smile on her face and kicks her legs all excited. It is so not hard to wake up to that.
It is finally getting a lot easier to leave the house. For a while, Margo would get so mad every time I tried to run an errand with her and it was crazy exhausting, so I kind of gave up. But thanks to her paci and her new interest in lights and sounds and new things, she is pretty mobile. Phew. She is also better at taking naps in her crib. Not always. I would say 60% of the time (works everytime. name that movie.), which is super helpful in allowing me to get Mo stuff done. Clean the house, paint my toenails, do laundry, take a nap. Although whenever I do try to take a nap, I usually just end up laying there, staring at the baby monitor thinking she's going to wake up any second.

I have to finish up with some Redding pictures, because that's where Margo turned four months.

This is Margo almost asleep on the OTTOMAN. My mom can get a baby to sleep anywhere, I have never seen anything like it. She also got her to fall asleep on the floor twice. Blows my mind.

More neglectaroo

This is a statue of my Grandpa Ray, who Margo Ray was named after. Isn't he a cute little bald man? My mom tells the most wonderful stories about him. I can't wait to get to know him better someday.

I figured we'd better get a picture of them together while she's still about his size. I love it.

This little series of photos is my favorite, it just shows Isabelle's sweet personality so well.

Taking a picture...

Realizes Margo is over there by herself...

So she holds her hand. I mean, really.

I love cousins. I cannot say that enough. Love love love them.

I also love sisters

This one is my personal favorite

Poor Margo. But how hilarious is her face when she cries. Look at those furrowed brows!

Redding was amazing for those short 8 days. The weather was absolutely perfect, 70s the entire time. We spent a few of our days in the backyard, where my parents have a giant, splinter-free swing set and a zip line for the kids (!). I just nursed in a rocking chair with the grass under my toes while the kids climbed around and Linc sat in a swing and the birds chirped and the fall sun beamed down on us and my mom sang songs from my childhood and, with the exception of my husband being absent, it really just felt like perfection. 

So my mom brought this giant bow to Margo when she was brand new and I have been anxiously awaiting the time when her little head would finally fit into it. And LOOK guys.

Probably my favorite pictures of her ever.

Another gem

BIG smiles!

This is how she fell asleep the other day. Too tired even for paci.

This was me rocking her to sleep last night. She knows her mama.

I wish I could tell you how much I love being a mom, but a hundred blog posts couldn't do it. I honestly thought that I would be too selfish to enjoy it, that I would feel constricted and tired and overwhelmed all the time, but I feel the opposite. It's so funny how hard it is to remember what my life was like before Margo came. What did I do? Shop? Work? Go to midnight movies? It all seems so trivial in comparison. Alright, I do miss my midnight shows, but I would gladly trade in every Twihard movie moment in the world for a tiny second with Margo. It's not hard to get up at one in the morning and entertain a baby for three hours before getting her to zonk out. Diapers aren't gross like I thought they'd be and I don't care that all my clothes are from Target because they have groceries there too. I love my life as a mom and I can't wait to see how Margo grows from here. (But don't grow too fast!)

Three Months, Cereal, and a Birthday

JR had a birthday! We had a little gathering with some of his new Midwestern friends. I made a cake.

Came out a little more wedding-y than I meant it to. Boy cakes are hard.

The big 2-7!

Margo is SO CUTE I can't handle it. Here is her three-month update:

She was more than 18 pounds, wearing 6 month onesies, 9 month jammies and size 3 diapers. She started rolling over and thought it was the best new trick on the planet, until she couldn't roll back over and would cry for help. We still had to work really hard for smiles and laughs (come on, I am your MOM). Your best chance of getting her to smile is to talk really soft and slow, almost sneaky-like. She loved sitting in her Bumbo, but not down on the floor where there is no one to watch. She wanted to be up high, on the kitchen table or the counter. Don't worry, we always kept an eye on her since we have heard horror stories of babies tumbling out of their Bumbos. At about three and a half months she finally started to nurse less, about 30 minutes every 3 hours. Oh man, did it make a difference for me, I started to have some semblance of a life again! But really, who cares about that. She started figuring out how to stand in my lap. She was sleeping between 8 and 10 hours a night, which was amazzzinggg. However, I could not figure out how to get Margo to take naps in her crib for the life of me, so I would just bounce her on my exercise ball until she was asleep and then rock her gently for the whole two hours. Hello, DVR!

Picture time.

Rachel with Charlotte and Margo. Isn't Charlotte so pretty!

Sharon and Rach brought Margo a play mat and she LOVED it. For about two weeks. And then she was like "k mom, what's new."

Tummy time

I love how her little legs kick up in the back

Cutest. Outfit. Ever. Seriously, I was giddy this day. 

Those are my baby shoes!

Margo with Grandma Sharon (and Lola the Elephant. Name subject to change)

Richard and Mary came to visit and they were kind enough to drive all the way out to Glendale to meet Margo!

That's four generations right there

Margo and sweet little Ruby

And Charlotte

I get so weirdly excited for church because her fancy clothes are all so adorable. And obviously for all the spiritual stuff too.

This is a Linc face, if I ever did see one

There's a little smile!

Grandma and Grandpa Sumsion came to visit for Margo's baby blessing and it was the best weekend ever.

My mom is so magical with babies, you have no idea. That weekend, Margo ate perfectly, slept perfectly, and played perfectly. 

And Mom brought cereal! Margo loved it. Ate it all gone.

On September 30, 2012, Margo was given a name and a blessing in our church. JR gave the most beautiful blessing I have ever heard and I can't wait for Margo to grow and have those promises and blessings fulfilled.

The week after that, I flew to California to hang out with all my Redding family for a week. It was the best week ever, even Sabi got time off work to come and play and she never gets time off work. 

Margo was introduced to the neglectaroo. That's what we call these things

One of the reasons we wanted to make the trek so badly was for Isabelle's third birthday party! It was Minnie Mouse themed and oh man, it was crazy insane perfect amazing. I wish I took specific pictures of the party decor cause, dang. Micci's doing, of course. 

Aunt Sabi with Margo at the party

Here is Isabelle blowing out her little candles. See all the decorations? You should have seen the food table, the favors table (she had four favors for each child!), and the games she had set up. I am paying her to throw all of Margo's parties, of course.

Margo and Linc getting reacquainted. He is the giggliest baby I have EVER EVER met ever.

And here are all the Redding cousins, in a row! Everyone's dressed and nobody's crying, it's a miracle!

Madilyn, Isabelle, Kira, Linc and Margo

I love Kira in this one. I throw my hands up in the air sometimes!

So, in my mom's amazing house, there is this magical room upstairs. It is giant and carpeted and filled with thousands of toys and dress-ups and books and a slide and a kid's kitchen and a huge TV filled with Disney movies and a pool table and this tiny chair

For some reason, Margo was so content to sit in this chair for long periods of time. It was so cute

Can you tell she is a blankey girl like her mom? Mayyybeee

Kira came over to play

"Nooosseee"

Have you ever seen a cuter face in your whole life. I mean, really