Swimming and other summer adventures

It's officially summer and Faith had her first trip to the pool to celebrate! Our friends Tori & Kate invited us to their pool earlier this week and Faith got to take her first dip. Her first time in, she wasn't quite sure about the whole thing. But by the second swim with Daddy she was an old pro at kicking & splashing and loved every minute.

The beginning of June was SUPER busy with Daddy's school year ending, traveling to Erie for Aunt Sandy's big day with the Ladies Auxiliary, and a week of Senior Games in York. We were away from home & living out of a suitcase for twelve days, but we all survived. And Faith did great on the long car rides and during the long days of Senior Games. This week we finally got some down time while Daddy has a break before his summer teaching begins.

Faith is still "growing like a weed" as they say. I can't believe she'll be 6 months old next week. Half a year!! Wow! She is so close to both rolling over & sitting up. I wouldn't be surprised if she does both within the week. We had this hilarious moment today where Faith was lying on her play mat and Randy & I were secretly watching her from the kitchen as she almost rolled from her back to her front. We were quietly cheering her on! Her favorite thing to do these days is play in her exersaucer. She can really get that thing rocking and rolling. She also has discovered her feet & toes and is constantly grabbing onto them. 

We've got lots of fun planned over the next month including many more Orioles games, fireworks to celebrate the 4th of July and a trip to the beach! We hope you all have lots of fun planned and we'll try to keep posting pictures of all of our adventures. 

Much Love,

The Groves

PS - The 6th picture below is for all of Jess's fellow Tar heels. And hopefully someone shows it to Matt & Bobby too since they have poor taste in college sports teams :-) 

5 Months Old!

Faith is 5 months old today! Only one more month and then she will be half a year old! Yikes! I decided her very cute ballerina outfit and ballet slippers would be perfect for her 5 month photo shoot. You can see after the first picture that she got ahold of the sign, which is why it's all wrinkled in the next picture. She even tried to eat it - since everything goes to her mouth these days. I keep waiting for a sign of a tooth, but nothing yet. Just lot's of drool. We don't really have too much that's new to report. She is so close to rolling over. We practice & with help she does it very easily. Actually she's strong enough to do it by herself, but she has absolutely no interest in it right now. She'd rather stand up on your lap or sit on your lap at the table like a big girl. Oh well! No need to rush things. I'm sure she'll be on the move sooner than we think and then we'll long for the days when she couldn't even roll :)

Happy weekend!

With Love,
The Groves

Summer Fun!

I can not believe it is June and that Faith will be 5 months old later this week. As they say, time flies when you're having fun and we are sure having a lot of it! And our summer adventures have only just begun. We took Faith to another Orioles game over Memorial Day weekend - this time with Daddy, Uncle Josh & Pappy. Of course it was the hottest day of the year so far, but she did great. Probably better than the rest of us. With her fair skin I think you'll see MANY more pictures of her with her sun hats on this summer and we are planning to take out some stock in baby sunblock. 

As you can see from the photos below, Faith is a really happy girl. She is pretty much smiling all the time (she is a baby so she has her limits, but the tears are few & far between). The best part of my day is going into her room and getting her out of the crib in the morning. She is usually just hanging out talking to herself waiting for someone to come get her and then when she sees you - her whole face lights up. Seriously - it's the best moment of my day! I almost feel bad that Randy only gets to experience it on the weekends since Faith is still sleeping like a champ. Yes - I'm knocking on wood as I type this. Speaking of sleep, we just gave up swaddling her at night. I was very reluctant to do this because she is such a wild woman in her sleep. But this past weekend I thought we could try. And of course - she continues to amaze. I was up once to give put her paci back in her mouth, but other than that she slept her usual 9-10 hours. And it's been smooth sailing ever since. 

We have lots of fun summer plans including a trip to the beach with cousin Connor, spending more time with Daddy during the week since he'll only be teaching some summer school & camps, hanging out in the back yard as much as possible under our canopy (my new favorite place to work during the day), and hopefully introducing Faith to the pool some time soon. She has quite the bathing suit wardrobe and is a total fish! We've abandoned her "infant" cradle in the bath tub. She is too much of a wiggle worm. Instead we just let her lay in the water where she proceeds to kick, splash and move her arms in every direction. Like I said - she's a fish. 

It won't be long before she's rolling over - she could totally do it now if she wanted to, but I don't think she's learned the perks yet - ie getting out of tummy time when she's tired of it or getting closer to that toy she wants. It's been so much fun to watch her start to take interest toys. Just in the last two weeks she has grown by leaps and bounds. She prefers standing to sitting and we are taking bets on how long she'll crawl before she walks. My bet is on days not weeks! 

One last update before I sign off for the night. We took Faith back to Hopkins today for a follow up. And as we guessed they told us "Wow, she's amazing! There is nothing we need to worry about right now. Please come back when she's a year old just so we can see how she's doing." Yay!! Then we headed over to see our friends at Bayview. I was so excited about that part that I could hardly sleep last night. We couldn't get that close to the hospital without stopping by to see our Bayview family. We had so much fun seeing everyone and of course they LOVED Faith. There were lots of hugs, pictures, and screams over how stinking cute she is. I was flooded with flashbacks & memories of spending every day there for almost two months by just pulling into the parking garage. But now that seems like a blip in time and you couldn't wipe the smile off all of our faces as we walked out of that wonderful hospital after our visit, so grateful for every single person there and the role they played in bringing all of us together. They are definitely a part of our family and always will be. 

We'll try to post updates more often - at least pictures. Enjoy your summer - wherever you may be and know that the Groves are sending love and would love to see or hear from you any time!

Hanging out in the backyard with Mommy & Daddy

One of many morning naps with Daddy

Our first O's games as a family

Let's go O's!

I love my exersaucer now that I'm tall enough to touch the bottom

Those big eyes don't miss a thing

Nap time with Joey