Breckenridge Bound

The Barnes clan headed to Colorado a few weeks ago with the goal to hike a mountain for my Dad. Our climb to Boreas Pass was a wonderful experience for all of us, and I hope we can go back year after year to visit. Carlyle, however, did not make the hike this time. But she did fly on her first airplane! She did great... granted, we had a team of 6 as backup. But she sat in our laps and napped for the majority of the flight!

Summer flights: 1 down, 4 to go!

Snoozing in her safety harness

Eight Months Old

Cruising the Couch

Her new favorite thing to do is to pull-up on anything and everything... preferably your hands giving her the assist. She can cruise back and forth (slowly) along the couch! I swear this girl is going to walk before she crawls!

Sidenote: check out Zuzu's latest creation. I love this dress made of vintage linens!

My Mom and I engineered this little ropes course for her to pull-up on and cruise along (with our supervision, of course).

Pulling Up

Carlyle first pulled up on her own a couple of weeks ago (7.5 months). She has since perfected the art, but here is the video I took of one of her first attempts. Check out her grunting noise!

Unca Chad

Uncle Chad and Shauna provided hours of entertainment for Carlyle the other night while Justin and I went to see our first movie in 8 months (Iron Man). We have been fortunate enough to get a date night once or twice a week since her arrival thanks to Chad & Shauna, our dear friends Sarah and Neil, and the frequent visits from Zuzu.

Chad provided hours of entertainment (as you can see), but the flying pig proved to be her favorite! She laughed so hard, she almost threw up!

What are Uncles for, right?

Motivation

Motivation = Remote Control
These days, Carlyle doesn't mind taking a tump or a face plant to get what she wants. She will flip flop and roll herself across the room, no problem. Her main motivation being things that she isn't supposed to have. This remote control is a "fake", de-batteried and washed just for her.


I see it.

I want it.

SO close.

Got it.

Well Hello There

SO Cultured...

and SO friendly!
She flashed this smile to everyone she encountered at the DMA a couple of weekends ago.

More First Swim

Just enjoying the finer things in life.

Lots of Firsts over Memorial Day

# First Fever

Carlyle unfortunately had her first fever, 101.3 for most of the weekend in Natchez. Thank goodness for Zuzu who was able to stay home with her and get her well by the time we had to drive back to Dallas. Justin and I had quite the social calendar (essentially a party for every meal that we were there!) to celebrate Richard and Sarah's engagement. We had a blast, but it was hard not to feel very guilty leaving Carlyle at home sick... but my mama friends coached me through it!

She has started sticking out her tongue when she's in the water. I think she wants to taste it.

# First bath in the sink

# First spin in the new walker

# First swim!

(And she loved it. Not to mention it helped bring her temperature down)

You wouldn't think this little bird was sick in these photos, right?

Family Photo

My new favorite family photo of the three of us, taken over Memorial Day weekend.
(Carlyle, 7 months)

For my birthday...

Carlyle decided to give me the gift of eating solids, and more importantly... enjoying it! Thank you!
For the past couple of months, we have unsuccessfully tried eating rice cereal, oatmeal, then apple sauce, other pureed fruits, mixed cereal and fruits, sweet potato, squash... essentially following the book on the order of foods to introduce. And finally over the last couple of weeks, she decided to cooperate! I essentially started from the beginning again, then tried feeding her in the afternoon instead of the morning hours. She finally took to the rice cereal, and we have moved on to rice cereal mixed with pear this week!

She is obviously more interested in the spoon than the food in the spoon.