Eleven Months

My sweet sweet BEAR!! My heart aches a bit as I write this. I no longer have any babies…you’re officially becoming a toddler.

First of all – let me shout something from the rooftops: YOU’RE EATING SOLIDS LIKE A CHAMP!!!!! And I mean all solids: you not only take food from a spoon (VOILA!!) but you eat chicken, beans, peas (sometimes), sausage, bagels, bananas, and your favorite…french fries!! It is such a relief to know you won’t be 4 years old taking only bottles of milk. Ha.

And though you may have been slow to start all your gross motor development you sure are making up time now! You went from doing nothing from your Larson Belly Crawl to “almost cruising” during the 2 weeks your daddy was in China! He was so amazed when he came home – you were a completely different baby girl! Oh – and did I mention you got all 4 of your upper teeth during this time, too? So your entire face changed! You’re adorable.

We’re less than a month away from the big FIRST BIRTHDAY! In fact, I ordered your invitations today. I want to put you in the freezer and cheer you on at the same time.

iloveyoumadly.
mama


BTW - did I mention that you fell down the stairs? Yep - that's right. One night while your daddy was in China the three of us were upstairs getting you ready for bath. I thought you were right behind me in the bathroom, but I turned around and both of you were gone. Hads opened the door to get something out of your room, and apparently you decided to take a trip down the stairs! You rolled ass over tea-kettle almost all the way down, but somehow miraculously stopped yourself in the sitting position on the second-to-last step. I almost threw up, grabbed you and started crying. I am such a delinquent mother. I still haven't told your daddy.....

Bottle Starving

In an effort to try to get you to eat more solid foods, we've started bottle starving you a bit. Nothing cruel or unusual, just eliminating your after school bottle so you'll be more likely to eat dinner. Apparently it's working! This photo is from last night - you were pounding down the pasta and broccoli! Granted, you needed help to get it to your mouth, but when you did - WATCH OUT! You almost bit off your daddy's finger!

iloveyoumadly.
mama

Ten Months

OHHHHHHHHHHH you are growing up so fast! You - quite possibly the most scrumptious baby on the planet. You discovered your knees. I mean, that you can get up on them to see what marvelous things have been out of your reach all this time. You aren't crawling yet - you still seem to prefer the Larson Baby mode of transportation on your belly. But you're THRILLED with the prospect of being able to reach up and grab the top of the busy zoo and all it's magical delights, and your new found affinity for crawling up and over our laps as we sit with you on the ground, and .... here's the big one.... THE STAIRS!! OH THE JOY!!! You love the stairs. Except you're not quite strong enough to navigate them by yourself. (Really - you're not even close). But oh how you'll try! If we aren't paying attention, you will scoot your way into the dining room and before we know it you are up on your knees with your hands on the first step contemplating your next move. Hadley loves this game! She scrambles up to the top of the stairs and tries to encourage you climb up. And since you worship her every move, you squeel with delight at the prospect of actually reaching her on your own. It's so great!

You're also getting what appears to be multiple top teeth. It's weird though - I can see them, but I can't feel them. I am so anxious to see what kind of smile you'll end up with.

One of the sadder developments of the past month has been that we discovered you are constipated. Or at least you have very.hard.poops. And as your mommy and daddy it is awful to watch. It isn't everyday, but quite often. So we've resorted to giving you a bit of prune juice in your morning bottle. We had to experiment with the amount..... let's just say I've done a lot of laundry over the past month. :-) But I think we've got it down now, and it appears to be working. We've decided to just keep this going for a while since you don't object and seeing you struggle in pain when you are constipated is just heart-breaking. I really hope you grow out of it!

You are such a beautiful little girl. Your huge blue eyes, silky blond hair and china-doll skin melt my heart. Well, that and your unbelievably advanced gift for understanding the power of a hug.

You are one snuggly girl.

iloveyoumadly.
mama

Nine Months

WHOAAAA! How are you 9 months old already? As you can see, it's been a while since I've updated this little journal of yours. The last two months have been a bit intense. One day after you turned 8 months old, I had major surgery. I spent pretty much the entire second-half of December on the couch unable to do anything but get up occasionally to go to the bathroom! I am recovering now - back at work and doing really well. But the worst - absolute WORST part about this situation - is that I am unable to pick you up or carry you. I can hold you in my lap if someone else puts you there, but that's about it. It was so emotionally difficult the first few days - I really had no idea how hard it was going to be not to be able to carry you and hug you and overall be your main source of comfort.

But on a really positive side, you and your daddy are now inseparable. Oh my, how you love him so. During my initial recovery, you - of course - came down with a WICKED ear infection. Your 4th ear infection. In 8 months. You were up all night for about a week, and poor daddy had to help all by himself. I couldn't do anything. So you were both up all night for days, rocking in the chair, singing songs and cuddling. Aside from being devastated that you were in so much pain and that I couldn't do anything to help you, it was so heart-warming to see you two bond. I have my 6 week check-up in a week and a half, and I am hoping he'll say I'm all healed and in the clear. But my guess is it's going to be until the middle of February...... in the meantime, your relationship with daddy is growing stronger everyday.

So on the topic of health, yours is still all over the place! Like I mentioned above, you've now had 4 ear infections in your short little life. They've already started mentioning tubes. We'll see. COME ON APRIL!!!!! And right now you're suffering from your first round of constipation, which brought with it a ripe case of diaper rash from your hard little poops. If it's not one end, it's the other I guess.

You are now fully sitting on your own, and even learning how to stand when hanging onto things like your toy piano! It's so exciting to watch. You can go from sitting to your army crawl really quickly, and pretty soon I bet you'll be able to get your belly off the floor and really crawl! Though I don't think it matters much - your army crawl is so fast! It's really funny to watch. Your sister was the same way - so it's either that we have tile floor which makes the army crawl really easy, or it is some genetic thing that made neither of you decide to get up off the floor.

Because of my surgery, you were really fortunate over the past month to see all of your grandmothers! Nana came first, then Grandma and Grammy, Gramps and Uncle C just left today. You loved all of them so much! Gramps thinks you might be one of the funniest babies he's ever met. He's convinced you look at us all like we're fools - especially when you throw that knowing smile. You don't give up the smiles easily. Most of the time, you smirk at all of us trying to get you to smile - as if you're sitting there going, "Seriously, people. You're not funny. Bring your A game."

Man I can't wait to see what you're going to be like in a few years.

iloveyoumadly.
mama

Seven Months

Oh my sweet baby girl. This has been a really rough month for you! You have essentially been sick for the entire month. It all started when Nana and Papa were here. You got a cough and a super stuffy nose. That turned into a really bad cough and a really runny nose. Which turned into a fever. Which turned into pneumonia. We are now 3 1/2 weeks into you being sick. I think you're on the mend now. Nothing like a giant dose of gross-tasting antibiotics to kick it to the curb! (by the way - you really HATE the antibiotics. You gag and choke every time we try to give it to you!)

But on the positive side of things, you also managed to reach a few key milestones. You started solid foods (cereal, mainly) - but due to the aforementioned illness, you haven't really progressed much in that area. And you can also sit up by yourself now! Every once in a while you topple over, so we keep pillows around you when we're not sitting next to you, but overall, you are one strong little girl. You love playing on the toy piano - especially because you can sit upright and play it all by yourself now!

Even through all the stuffy noses and late nights not sleeping, you still manage to be one of the cutest, sweetest and most loving little girls in the whole world. Your little toothless grin would drag me out of bed every hour on the hour if you needed me.

iloveyoumadly.
mama

Six Months...and a few weeks

I can't believe I forgot to post on your 6 month birthday! You are really starting to become a little person. You can sit up by yourself for a good minute or so before teetering sideways, and you've started pushing your butt up in the air to scoot backwards when you're on your tummy. You can move all over the floor now! You've also started solids - rice cereal, mainly - but we've added a few pureed goodies. Your favorite so far is sweet potatoes. You actually lick you lips and waggle your hands when you see the spoon coming toward you! It's adorable.

We've been suffering through a pretty nasty cold the past week. Hads had it first and then apparently passed it onto you. Baby colds are the worst - you can't tell me you're miserable so all you can do is fuss and cry. Which is terribly unlike you. Your poor nose is so stuffed I can't even use the bulb syringe to get anything out! And the cough - oh man. That just keeps us up all night. I'm so afraid you're going to choke like you did in the hospital the day you were born. It's probably irrational to feel that way, but I can't help. Needless to say, I'm not sleeping so well.

Nana and Papa came out to visit this past weekend. They couldn't believe how much you've grown since this summer! Even with your little cold you were so sweet and loving, and so full of smiles for both of them. You are such an affectionate little bug. You love to hold people's faces in your hands and then gum them to death with your wet little mouth.

Grammy is flying out tomorrow to spend Halloween weekend with us. She's really excited to see her little girls again. You are so lucky to have grandparents that love you so much!!

iloveyoumadly.
mama

PS - the pic is courtesy of your big sis.

Wake Up Call

It's Saturday morning. You woke up at 5:30 a.m. You never wake up that early. I decided to bring you into our bed to feed you in the hopes that you would fall back to sleep. You didn't. You decided you wanted to chat and play with my face. So we hung out a bit in the bed. We finally went downstairs and made coffee around 7. At 7:30 you decided you were hungry again, so I fed you as we sat on the couch and watched t.v. You peacefully fell asleep in my arms so I brought you back up to your crib and just as I was about to crawl back into bed with daddy to get a few more lovely moments of sleep, your sister woke up.

Sigh.

iloveyoumadly.
mama