Baby Showers Galore

In the month of November, I attended three baby showers (and hosted two of them!). All three for very special friends from completely different circles of my life. I'm so blessed to have all of these amazing women in my life and could not be more excited for Peyton to have some new friends! 

Baby Shower #1 - My childhood best friend, Lindsay

Remember back in May when I was 36 weeks pregnant and a bridesmaid in Lindsay's wedding? Well, guess who is rocking the baby bump now?! 

I am super excited about Baby Speer's arrival because I always wanted Lindsay and I to have our kids grow up together. We have been friends since birth (I'm only 2 months older than her) and our dads have been friends since middle school. When I got married 5 years before her, I thought for sure that our first born babies would most likely be far apart in age, but God has a greater plan for us all and now we get to have babies close together after all! 

My mom and I helped host Lindsay's baby shower and it was absolutely beautiful. 

Even Peyton got a fancy new pink outfit for the occasion. Baby Speer's gender is going to be a surprise, but I think that Peyton is guessing that she's getting a new girl friend! My guess is a boy, and this anticipation is so exciting! I can't wait to find out :) 

Congratulations pretty mama!

Baby Shower #2 - College friend and wife of Jared's fraternity brother, Emily 

Emily is having a baby boy, Harrison, who Peyton has already claimed as her boyfriend/future husband. Just kidding. But really, as long as he is tall enough for her :) 

Kappa Sigma Wives Club...aka: now Mommies Club! 

Peyton loves any opportunity to see her auntie!

All dressed in blue to celebrate Harrison's impending arrival! We brought Emily some practical new mommy necessities and some monogrammed goodies as well. I simply can't resist adorable monogrammed baby gifts. There were tons of cute baby games and fun at this shower...and of course donuts, which made me nostalgic of my pregnant days spent binge eating those delicious powdered munchkins from Dunkin Donuts. 

Baby Shower #3 - Church small group friend, Rebecca 

This wasn't really your typical baby shower at all, but rather an adoption finalization party to celebrate Miss Lorelei being "officially" adopted. So even though Lorelei joined our church family back in July when she was born, we waited until now to celebrate her officially becoming apart of her family forever.

The party hostesses! Since Lorelei loves books so much, we made her party book themed. Everyone brought gift cards for mom and dad as well as a new book for Lorelei's library.

Each component of the shower was themed with a children's book!

The ladies who love Lorelei!

The proud mommy and daddy. God could not have placed Lorelei with a more loving and deserving family. She is truly blessed with some amazing parents.

Peyton and her sweet friend. We are so happy that you have found your forever home, Lorelei.

Peyton's 1st Thanksgiving

Baby's firsts are so exciting, which makes every holiday extra fun this year. It also gives me a good excuse to buy Peyton an adorable "My 1st (insert name of holiday here)" outfit for every single occasion. Although Peyton isn't big enough to fully enjoy this glorious day of food, football and family that we call Thanksgiving quite yet, I was excited that she was big enough to sit in a high chair and eat some of her own real food with us anyways.

Peyton hopes everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with their families!

 Grandma's little turkey!

Auntie Erika feeding Miss P some sweet potatoes for her Thanksgiving dinner. This was the first time she ever sat in her high chair and she loved it. What a big girl! 

 We enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with our families at my mom's house

 Miss P with her Auntie Erika

 I'll give you one guess as to what I'm most thankful for this year :) 

 I'm very blessed to be her mommy. 

 Miss P and her Grammy

Every family get together now revolves around what we call "pass the baby"...and Peyton loves every minute of it. I don't think this child gets enough attention. 

These are Peyton and Daddy's "mommy you are taking too many pictures" sad faces. 

Happy Thanksgiving from The Roche Family!

Peyton Brooke {Five Months}

Peyton turned 5 months old on November 13th. She's learned all sorts of new tricks in the past month and is gearing up for the holiday season. While I can't wait to celebrate the holidays with her, I can hardly believe that half of a year has almost gone by since she was born! Too fast, slow down please!

This is my "mom please stop taking pictures of me" sassy face 

Weight/Length: Even though we didn't go to the doctor for a check-up this month, I still have my own scale at home so that I can keep track of her weight. Go ahead and judge me. At 5 months old, Peyton is 15 pounds 14 ounces and 26.5 inches long.

Hair: Light brown, or maybe blonde? She has such little hair that it's really hard to tell what color it actually is.

Eyes: Sometimes I feel like her eyes look greenish, but then they always go back to blue-gray. Perhaps a change is coming soon?

Diapers: Still in Size 2 Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive. I swear by these things.

Clothing: Peyton is wearing all 6 month size clothing now. Some of her sleepers are even 6-9 months because her legs are so long. Her favorite outfits are still whatever has the least amount of fabric. She is so hot-natured like daddy, so even when it is actually a little chilly out she still gets too hot in pants, long-sleeves, socks or hats. I'm sure that all the other moms are judging me when I'm out shopping with my baby in 50 degree weather and all she has on is a short sleeve onesie. I've decided that pants for babies is simply the most ridiculous idea ever. Peyton has worn pants like 3 times total and I'm already over it. They are such a pain to get on and take off. Plus, it's so difficult to check the diaper and when your kid pees every 5 minutes like mine does, this is a real inconvenience. Therefore, I'm boycotting pants for her until it is truly freezing outside. Honestly, I think she is on my side too. Every time I put pants on her, she takes a giant poop and ruins them so that I have to take them off of her. Honest truth.

Favorite Things: her giraffe WubbaNub, Oball, Mittens the Kitten, mirrors, daddy's beard,  her fists and feet, iPhones. *Disclaimer: I have never given her an iPhone to look at or play with, but whenever she sees someone using one she is immediately drawn to it, wants to look at the screen and steal it from them.

Likes: sitting in her Bumbo seat, banging objects on a surface, looking at pictures or videos of herself, being held up to stand and dance, peek-a-boo, the itsy bitsy spider, any songs with hand motions, sucking her thumb or WubbaNub.

Dislikes: outfit and diaper changes, being on her tummy for too long, socks, pants, hats, and taking her bottle away from her before she is finished.

Feeding Patterns: Peyton is still on a breastmilk only diet. She nurses 4 times per day at 8:00am, 11:00am, 2:00pm, and 5:00pm. She then has an 8 ounce bottle of breastmilk at 8:00pm before bed. I still pump before I go to bed and then wake myself up at 6:30am to pump as well. This way I have adequate breastmilk for her 8pm bottles, as well as a stockpile for emergencies or if we are going to an event and I would rather just give her a bottle instead of nursing while we are out somewhere.

Sleeping Patterns: Peyton sleeps for 11 hours at night. She eats her 8:00pm bottle, then has a bath, a bedtime story and goes to bed by 9:00. She then sleeps uninterrupted until I wake her up at 8:00am for her next feeding. I do not rock her to sleep or wait for her to fall asleep before I put her down. I put her down in her crib wide awake with her pacifier and her crib mobile on. She typically falls asleep on her own within 10 minutes. I know, I'm a lucky mommy. During the day, she normally takes two naps around 1-2 hours each and sometimes a short cat nap or two as well. We are still working on getting on a regimented nap routine. However, she sleeps so well at night that I can't complain about not being scheduled for our naps just yet.

Month Five Milestones: Peyton is well on her way to being independent. She can now roll from tummy to back and back to tummy all on her own. She sits very well with minimal assistance, and stands nice and firm when we hold her up. She reacts when someone calls her name and almost always turns toward whoever says her name immediately. She reaches her arms out to someone when she wants to be picked up and she gets upset when you walk away from her. She makes quite a few repetitive sounds such as, "dadadada", "yayayaya" and "heah". She hasn't said any actual words yet, but she can make all the sounds associated with normal first words so it's probably only a matter of time before we get that first word!

Mama's Thoughts: Peyton is such a sweet, calm and content baby. I could not have asked for a happier little girl. My whole world revolves around her and I am loving every minute of it. Everything in my life is different now and it's so much better than I ever could have imagined. Breastfeeding is annoying, I still have 12 pounds of pregnancy weight to lose and I get so much crap from people about "not having to go to work the next day" because I'm just a stay-at-home-mom, but I could care less about all those things because I am having the time of my life with my daughter. The dishes and laundry can wait, I'm busy making memories with my little girl.

Our friends from church hosted a pumpkin carving party at their house and our fabulous hostess even got the girls matching onesies! Can you say photo op?! 

Peyton went on her first visit to the pumpkin patch! This will definitely be an annual tradition in our family from now on. Read my post about it here. 

Peyton celebrated her first Halloween and even went Trick-or-Treating dressed as a little black kitty. Read my post about it here. 

This little girl is just rolling all over the place. I lay her down one way and when I turn back around she has flipped over to the other side. 

We celebrated a baby shower for Aunt Lindsay! Read my post about it here. 

Peyton got her first taste of chilly weather! 

We celebrated "Friendsgiving" with our church small group friends. 

Grandma DeeDee, Peyton and I participated in the Walk to End Alzheimer's in honor of my grandma (my mom's mom) who is currently battling Alzheimer's and dementia. 

We celebrated Aunt Emily at her baby shower! Read my post about it here. 

Peyton discovered that her thumb might actually be as delicious as her WubbaNub. Mommy loves this new discovery because now if she happens to drop or lose her WubbaNub and I'm not there to give it right back to her, she has a back up plan to self soothe. 

Peyton loves daddy's beard. Great. Now, I'm probably never going to be able to convince him to get rid of that thing. Thanks a lot Peyton. 

Happy 5 months sweet baby girl!

Peyton's 1st Halloween

I've never been a huge fan of Halloween, mostly because I don't like scary things, but I was super excited for Peyton's first Halloween this year. It think it's simply because everything is more fun when you have a kid. Getting to introduce a child to new traditions and first experiences makes everything like new again for yourself as well. I couldn't wait to dress Peyton up in a costume and show her off around the neighborhood, even if she can't eat candy yet or understand what is going on. I had so much fun just watching her take it all in...and documenting every moment of course.

 Peyton's first Halloween!

I saw this Hallween costume back in August and I knew that this is what I wanted Peyton to wear for her first Halloween. I was a little black kitty for my first Halloween too, so it was just perfect!

My mom kept my very first Halloween costume all these years so I just had to dress Peyton up in it for a photo. I love that my mom thought to keep these special outfits for such an occasion. This was so much fun for me. Thanks mom :)

Halloween 1987 to Halloween 2014

All ready to Trick-or-Treat!

 Grandma DeeDee joined us for the occasion too!

We've been going Trick-or-Treating with the Bush family since Jackson was a baby and now he is six years old! We just had to continue the tradition now that we have our own kid too!

Peyton could have cared less about the Trick-or-Treating, she wanted to be held by auntie and suck on her WubbaNub instead. I still had a great time enjoying this holiday with my baby girl. I'm discovering that every holiday is so much more fun as a parent. I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween. Now, it's time to start thinking about what I want to dress Peyton up as next year!