2 Months

Rylie is two months old today.  I cannot believe another month has gone by since our sweet little girl came into this world. 

She was pretty excited during her photo shoot today.

Are you ready for me, Mom? 

 

 

Ok, lets get started Rylie!

 

Yay!!

How was that?

 

Insert plenty of goofy faces and a high squeaky voice on my end.

 

Please stop, you're cracking me up!!

After a few shots on her pretty quilt, I wanted to get a few with the Boppy pillow so I could compare exactly how much she has grown in the past month.

 

Really, Mom.  We have to do this all over again.  Can't you see I was amazing in the first set?

 

Alright, if I must.  Woo hoo...Yippee...

 

Wait.  This is kinda fun.

 

 How's this, Mom?

Yep, who can resist this smile?

 

That's a wrap! 

Are you proud of me, Mom?

 

Here is the side-by-side with month 1 and 2.

 

 



 It looks like she has grown 4 inches taller.  I think she got her daddy's genes in the height department.

 

So, besides growing like a weed, what else is going on this month?

She is more alert. 

She coos and "talks" when you talk to her.

She is starting to laugh a little here and there.

She loves to smile.

She is still sleeping well at night.  Her longest stretch has been almost 8 hours, but she usually sleeps about 6 hours, eats, then goes back to sleep for another 3 hours or so.

She naps off and on through the day.  Some days, she takes really long naps (about 3 hours).  Other days, she takes short (30 minutes-1 hour) naps.

She is starting to take interest in toys, especially ones that hang above her head.  She is starting to reach for them and sometimes grasp them.

She loves listening to music, especially the songs from her "Back to sleep" bear from Great-Grandma Puckett.  The songs have more of a classical sound (with stringed instruments and such).

She seems to be right hand-dominant.  She reaches and grasps with that hand the most.

She loves going for a "swim" in the jacuzzi bathtub.

She still loves getting her hair washed.

She still loves to snuggle after eating.  She still loves to lay on Daddy's chest.

She is a great traveler.  She has been on three 7.5 hour car trips and took it like a champ.

She still doesn't like tummy time.  She occasionally rolls to her back to escape it...or just buries her face and cries.

Her hair is still getting longer and even a little thicker, but most parents as well as our pediatrician say babies' hair tends to start falling out between 3-4 months, so next month may be another story.

Her eyes are brown but sometimes have a greenish tint...maybe we should call them hazel.

She is getting heavier.  I am guessing she's at least 11.5 pounds, if not more.  We will find out next week at her check up.

She is wearing size 3 month clothing and size 1 diapers.

 



Gatlinburg Food and Beverage

One of my favorite parts of any vacation is the food.  We made a point not to eat at any chain restaurants while we were in Gatlinburg, so everywhere we ate were places original to the area.

On our first night, we ate at a restaurant called the Old Mill which is technically in Pigeon Forge.  It boasts old fashioned southern cooking with family-style sides.  I'd have to say this was one of my favorite places to eat.  Between the atmosphere and the food, you really get a feel for the area.  You better come hungry because every meal includes soup, salad, corn fritters, and desert in addition to your main course and sides.

Here we are at the Old Mill.

 

Another highlight in the Gatlinburg food world was the variety of pancake places.  In case you haven't heard, I love pancakes.  With a pancake joint on nearly every corner, Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge is where I belong.  

 



 

At the Log Cabin Pancake House, we had a pretty basic breakfast.  Eggs, bacon, and traditional buttermilk pancakes.  It was nothing too exciting. 

 

Here is Rylie on their front porch.  She slept right through breakfast.

 

On our  second morning, we visited Flapjack's Pancake Cabin. 

 Now, these pancakes were something special.  I think they called them cinnamon bun pancakes.  I don't really care what they were called because they tasted like a slice of cinnamon heaven. 

 

On our second night, we ate at the Applewood Farmhouse restaurant in Pigeon Forge.  The cuisine was similar to the Old Mill.  It was another Southern-style restaurant.  The highlight of the meal was the complementary serving of apple fritters and apple butter...yummy.

 

 

I will quickly mention the Alamo Steakhouse and Bennett's Barbeque. We ate at both places due to some great reviews. The food was good overall, but when it comes to steak and barbeque, we've had better.

 

You can tell Rylie shared our excitement as she slept through both meals.

 

My favorite meal was our last meal in Gatlinburg, and it was at the Smoky Mountain Brewery.  This microbrewery and restaurant offered a variety of locally brewed beer, traditional pub foods such as wings, pizza, and burgers, and also some delicious-sounding steaks.  We didn't opt to try the steak since we had just had a steak the night before.  I had a delicious calzone which tasted like it had been cooked in a brick oven.  Ryan had a massive burger and loved it.

 

 

We each tried a beer.  I had the Mountain Light which was an American-style light beer, and Ryan had a darker beer.  I think it was the Black Bear Ale .  Both were a great change from the usual mainstream commercial beers.

 

While on the subject of beverages. Rylie didn't like the idea of moonshine tasting.

 

 

We visited two wineries.  We are by no means wine connoisseurs, but we did find a few good wines at at both the Mountain Valley winery and the Apple Barn Winery.

 

The Apple Barn had apples as big as my daughter's head.

 

And caramel apples big enough for my appetite...and sweet tooth.

 



This is only a quick overview of our food and beverage experience.  I wish we could have had a few more days to try more places, but either way, I left Gatlinburg full and satisfied overall. 

 

Be sure to scroll down to see the fun we had in the snow yesterday!



 

Snow!

On Christmas night, we got somewhere between 6-8 inches of snow.  We were under a true blizzard warning all night due to the high winds.  Yesterday, the winds still prevented us from getting out and playing in the white stuff, but today was beautiful.  Yes, it was only 27 degrees when we headed outside around 10am, but there was no wind and the sun was shining which made it feel more like 50 degrees. 

This was the fence at the side of our house.  The wind caused these huge snow drifts as it accumulated. 

You can see how tall it actually is here:

Excuse the running tights.  I had just finished a run and these Cold Gear tights are probably the warmest item of clothing I have anyway.

We plopped Rylie right on the snow drift for a quick photo op in her first snow.

Then we headed to the back yard for snowman construction with the dogs.

 

 

After building the snowman, Copper forgot we had a new friend in the backyard and was quite shocked to see someone back there when he went outside just a few moments later.

He's usually not afraid of anything.

Frosty is his new enemy.

Finally, you cannot have this much snow and miss the opportunity for a snow angel.  I plopped right down and made a beauty. 

Copper destroyed it within seconds....

Tummy time for baby, Back time for puppy

 I have so much to catching up to do with our recent road trips, Rylie's first Christmas, and Rylie's first snow. December has been a busy month. 

While going through my photos, I came across these pictures from just before we left for Gatlinburg.  We didn't have internet in our cabin, so now it's catch up time!

Copper is always very interested in Rylie when she's on the floor. 

 

I think he also likes her fluffy blankets.

 

But mom, I want to play on the fluffy, pink blanket.

 

And so, while Rylie practiced her tummy time, Copper worked on his back time.

 



He's developing his ab muscles.

Or maybe he's just using his arm as a chew toy and landed on the blanket.

Bed Head



Lately, Rylie has decided 5:30pm is bed time.  She wakes up long enough for a feeding or two, but other than that, she's out.  Last night was supposed to be her bath night.  Well, she slept right through it, and I didn't have the heart to wake her up and stick her in a cold sink.

 

This, in turn, led to a morning bath.  So, after her swim in the jetted tub this morning (a new experience for her and she LOVED it), she dozed off for her long morning nap...wet hair and all.

 

Before I knew it, she looked like this:

 

Then she turned her head...

 

And I told her she looked like an elf.

 

I think she was slightly offended.

 

She got over it quickly, though, and stretched it out.

 

I wondered where she got the idea for this crazy hairdo.  Then, I saw her studying her daddy's hair.

 

oooh, I see...

 

They are a happy, spiky-haired pair.

 

And you gotta love that sleepy smile.