HELLO
Mom to Iris. Wife to Todd. Our little family lives at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in Fayetteville, Arkansas. We love it here and I love sharing little bits of our life.

© 2014 sarahfortune.

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Category : Baby Blog

Baby Blog: Afternoons with Iris

Afternoons with Iris are my most favorite parts of the day. Walking through her classroom door at daycare is the usual highlight because once she spots me across the room, she literally cracks up laughing. I’m told that she smiles and laughs all day long, but I’m sure she has her fussy moments too. Lately on the drive home I’ve been trying to teach her to say “ma ma”… but because I’m working so hard on it, it will probably be the last thing she ends up saying. We recently started giving her a third meal of solids in the early evening, along with some little snacks. She’s gotten so good with eating! She opens her mouth for every bite and gets very impatient if you don’t feed it to her fast enough. Once she’s eaten her dinner, we try to spend the rest of the evening outside if the weather is nice (lately it’s been amazing). Whether it’s on our front porch or on a blanket in the backyard, Iris loves rolling around, scooting backwards, babbling ,and trying to put everything she can in her mouth. She is damn determined to have a fist full of grass for dessert.

Backyard Iris

Iris & me

Iris & Todd

My babes.

Iris' new thing is to smile on purpose. It's totally exaggerated & I love it.

We ain't afraid of no imposter blogger. Update: Tumblr contacted me & they're looking into it. Hopefully it will be down soon!

She has an audience.

This suit. I'm dying.

Cold chillin at Grandma's.

6 Month Baby Portraits: Benfield Photography

There are two things that I really, really love.

Iris.
And photos.

Okay, I love a few more things too… like my husband, family, friends, and mashed potatoes. But let’s go back to the first two, which are combined to bring you one of my favorite posts of all time.

The week Iris turned six months old we were lucky enough to do a session with Benfield Photography. If you live in Northwest Arkansas, chances are you’ve drooled over their photos – I know I’ve been following their blog for a couple of years now. Excited is an understatement for how I felt when I found out they would be shooting Iris. Todd and I even got in on some of the shots, so now we have some really great family portraits that we’ll cherish forever. Iris was quite the ham during the shoot, which made for lots of cute (and pretty funny) photos.

Here are a few of my favorites, which they posted on their blog here and here. Very special thanks to Dale and Meredith, who are as sweet as they are talented.

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Baby Blog: 6 months old

Took the afternoon off to be with this. Can you blame me?

My oh my where does the time go?
(My theory is into Iris’ chunky thighs.)

Baby girl is getting bigger by the minute and now that she is officially six months old, I feel like she’s turning into a little girl, rather than my dreamy little baby.

Here a few things Iris has been up to lately.

+ Rolling and rolling everywhere she wants to go. She tries to crawl, but only manages to scoot a little backwards (pretty frustrating for her).
+ She throws her arm up and down to wave “hi”.
+ Iris is eating like a champ! Besides bottles, she eats a fruit with oatmeal in the morning, a veggie in the afternoon, and we’ve started introducing her to fun snacks too. I never knew watching a baby try to put a little puff to her mouth would be so entertaining.
+ She weighs 18.7 pounds and is 27 inches long (still in the 90+ percentile for everything).
+ The amount smiles and laughter that come out of this girl is unreal. She really is such a happy baby. Of course, we have our share of the grumps too.
+ At six months she FINALLY started sleeping through the night. She was still waking up one to three times a night to eat, but after reassurance from our doctor, we finally decided it was time for her to give up all nighttime feedings. Even though I was hesitant, we tried the Cry It Out Method (which actually involved a lot less crying than I anticipated). She now sleeps between 10 to 12 hours straight every night. Halle-frickin-lujah.
+ Iris had her first overnight at Grandma’s house. My mom watched her while Todd and I had our first night out in well over a year. Note that this was BEFORE she slept through the night. Sorry, Mom.
+ She’s at the age now where it’s fun and pretty easy to bring her places. She goes from silly Iris, to serious Iris taking in all the sights and sounds (very quiet and very observant).
+ Overall, she is so sweet and so much fun. All I ever want to do is hang out with her, so blogging has definitely taken a backseat (as you can see).

Here are some of my favorite recent Instagram photos:

Our Irises are in bloom!

Hah! Look who found daddy's silly costume box.

Hammock time.

Well look who met the Easter Bunny!

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A lovely Sunday all the way around.

First timing "swimming"

Iris with Ryan Mallet
We saw him at a restaurant & Tweeted to him. He wrote right back and said to bring Iris over to his table!

Ryan wrote back & said to being her over. He just plays for the Patriots now. No big deal.

First Farmers Market.

She faught the nap and the nap won.

Easter bubbles!

Oh baby!

Supporting our Razorbacks.

Gettin messy with peas. By the way - she loves to eat solids now!

Play date with @ginrunner

Mornin!

Checking out our autographed copy of Owl Moon

First time sitting in the basket!

Just hangin around.

Sunglasses make her hold her arms like a weirdo.

Hangin on the front porch.

Short lived joy. Taken right before her first Jack in the box experience.

Friday!

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Iris & @runklescampbell. Headed to the Farmer's Market.

Iris jammin to Farmer & The Markets

Making herself at home.

Cute butt.

My dog is not pumped about the inevitable tail-pull.

Road Trip to Memphis

Earlier this month I spent a weekend in Memphis, where Iris celebrated her big six month birthday! I was a host for a dear friend’s baby shower in Oxford, Mississippi, so I went a couple days early to spend time in my old neighborhood with old friends. It was my first trip with Iris minus Todd, but my mom was brave enough to drive us to Tennessee and help out while we were there. Iris hardly fussed at all in the car on the five hour journey and did just fine adjusting to a new temporary bedroom. All in all, it makes me feel better about the future trips we’ll take as a family… except for the part where I pack up her entire nursery.

Trip highlights:

+ Staying with Kerri, Joel, & Penny who welcomed us with pretty much our own apartment upstairs – complete with a crib, changing table, and fresh Irises by the bed.
+ A trip the Memphis Zoo. I’ve been going to this zoo since I was a baby, so it was a big moment for me to bring my girl. Iris only cared about touching the fence posts though, not looking at the animals behind them.
+ Erin’s lovely baby shower in the charming town of Oxford and of course seeing Erin pregnant! I can’t believe our little circle of four girls are all moms now.
+ Baby Carhartt bloomers from Hillary.
+ Taking Iris to the coffeeshop where I worked for many years.
+ Getting tons of cute baby clothes from my pals. You woulda thought I was the one having a shower.
+ Iris pooping twice on the way home. We pulled over in Weiner, Arkansas to clean up where a train literally scared the — out of her.
+ Last but not least, swinging through Jonesboro, Arkansas on the way home to visit my dad and family.

Here are a few Instagram photos from our trip:

Road trip! #memphis bound

Excited to show Iris my hometown.

My first stop in Memphis. Always.

Fresh Irises by my bed. Never leaving @kerrisnead's house.

I miss midtown houses and midtown friends.

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Penny.

chub in a tub.

Porch swangin'

It's true. ❤

Panda!

Found this monkey at the zoo @hstrauss81

Hatched!

I ❤ my family.

One more from the zoo today.

Special thanks to @kerrisnead & @joelglasgow for hosting me & my mom's dog.

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@erinaustenabbott's baby shower!

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Penny & me.

Happy 6 month birthday to Iris!

Baby booty Carharts courtesy of @hstrauss81

Just a few of the sweet baby treats from @erinaustenabbott !

More goodies from @erinaustenabbott

Iris & my dad.

Hello from beautiful Weiner, Arkansas.

Headed home sweet home.

Baby Buy: Vintage Baby Clothes

So I know I owe you a 5 month update (and I promise I will post one very soon), but for now I wanted to let you know about my Etsy shop. Some of you may remember that I sold vintage (grown-up) clothes on eBay for many years. Well, now I am selling pint size vintage goodies on Etsy! I keep collecting pieces for both girls and boys, so I thought I would share my finds.

(You can visit my Bittersweet Styles shop here.)

Here are just a few items that are up for grabs… Enjoy!

Bittersweet Styles - Vintage Baby Clothes