9 months

Well baby girl, you are now 9 months old.  I thought I was going to have to say that we're still waiting for you to do real crawling, but you finally did it today!  You got up on your hands, one knee and then used your foot on the other leg to push.  It was really cute and I got so excited that I just about threw you a party.  You were quite proud of yourself and so was I.  Of course I don't know when you'll do it again, but hey, you did it!

Your other big accomplishment over the past month was learning how to go from laying on your stomach to sitting up all by yourself.  You are a pro at that now and do it all the time.  Although you did have a few face plants during the learning process, you managed to keep trying and figured it out.

You love to talk and have so many sounds now that it seems like you have your own baby language.  You can say mama and dada and you know what they mean.  Dada is a happy word for you; I guess you think he's the fun one.  You usually say mama in a distressed voice when you want to be picked up or rescued from whatever horrible thing is going on that you think you need rescuing from.  I still like hearing it though.

You love to eat just about any kind of pureed baby food, but you don't like anything thicker or textured.  You stick your tongue out and gag, so we need to work on that.  You can pick things up and put them in your mouth, you just don't like to eat anything firm enough to pick up.  Unless it's paper!  Also, you have two teeth now, so you should put them to use.  By the way, it's almost impossible to get pictures of those teeth.  This is what we resorted to in trying:

And it still didn't really turn out.

You love taking baths and have been playing with your washcloths, so we decided it was time to get you some bath toys.  I picked out a really cool fish toy for the bath that I thought you would like and I was right.  You did not want to let go of that toy even after your bath was finished.

You are such a happy girl and I love that I get to spend my days with you.  Happy 9 months baby girl, I can't wait to see what the next month brings.

8 months

Mommy is so behind.  You have been 8 months since the 22nd and I am just now getting around to writing your update.  You are so close to crawling that we keep expecting you to do it any day now.  You get up on your hands and knees and rock back and forth like you're winding up to go.  However, when you do go, you just flop forward and crawl around on your stomach.

One of your favorite activities right now is to tip over the recycling box and go through all the papers and cardboard.  You love paper and there's always something new in that box every time you tip it over.  I let you play until you start eating the paper, then I have to take it away.  I'm sorry, but you really can't eat paper.

Your favorite toys are the rubber beaded teethers.  You have three different ones and love them all.  You almost always have one in your hand and you take them everywhere with you.  You hold on tight to them and won't let go.  When trying to change your clothes, I have learned to get you to switch hands because it is almost impossible to pry one from your hand.

Right now your favorite food seems to be pears.  You also like sweet potatoes and peaches.  You did not like squash!  You also love to drink water from mommy's cups.

You had your first trip to the pumpkin patch and you had so much fun.  You were looking all over the place at the people and the pumpkins.  It was so fun to see you enjoying it all.

We moved you into your own room and you are sleeping much better now.  I only have to nurse you once or twice instead of 5 times!  I miss having you in the room with me, but I do enjoy the extra sleep.

I love you so much baby girl and will try to do better at keeping up with documenting all your achievements.

*I forgot to mention that you have your first tooth now =)

My monster baby

I just had to share this video because it is way too funny to keep to myself.

7 months

Baby girl, you are 7 months old.  The more time goes by, the faster you seem to change.  You are so mobile now.  You don't crawl on hands and knees yet, but you can get all over the place.  You do a version of the army crawl, but you don't pull yourself with one arm at a time.  You put them down one at a time and then you hold your hands together and pull with both arms.  Your legs started out doing this funny swim kick thing, but now you are using them much more effectively.

There were a few days recently when you decided that you would just roll everywhere you wanted to go instead of scooting.  But you are very good at scooting now and I know real crawling is coming any day.

You say dada and are working on mama, but haven't connected what you're saying to the people it represents.  You do love to talk though.  It is absolutely adorable and I love your sweet little voice; however, I really don't need to hear you talking at 3 am!

You are generally a very happy little girl and you just started waving to people when they say hi and wave to you.  It is the cutest thing ever and was quite entertaining for mommy and your auntie Sara.

You were not too sure about food when we started solids.  You looked at me like I was crazy and let the food fall right back out.  Each time we tried though, you got more used to it.  We tried sweet potatoes, green beans, and peaches.  When we got to peaches, you finally started to think maybe this food thing was ok.  Then we tried sweet potatoes again and you ate almost the entire jar.  I think we will try carrots next.

Your days of being the newest and youngest cousin are over.  Your new baby cousin was born on September 20.  You haven't met her yet because mommy is still working on getting rid of this horrible cold, but I'm sure you two will be great friends.

I love you baby girl and can't wait to see what new accomplishments you will have over the next month.

Oh, and your hair has grown so I can stick it up and make you look silly =)  You still look beautiful, even when I give you crazy hair!

Time Flies

Baby girl, you have been 7 months old for two whole days and mommy didn't do your monthly update.  I caught a very bad cold and haven't been doing much of anything.  You have changed so much in a month and I will get that post done this week, but right now I need to sleep so I can continue to get better.  I have so much to share, so stay tuned...

6 months old

Baby girl, you are now 6 months old.  You have become quite active.  You can't sit still for a second!  You learned how to roll over from your back to your tummy shortly after turning 5 months old and haven't stopped since.  You started figuring out how to scoot over at Uncle Jeff and Auntie Jessica's house and Grandma bought you a big rug so you can practice at home.  You like to roll back and forth from your tummy to your back to your tummy etc., but since you can only go in one direction for each and they are opposite directions, you don't really get far.  You can sit by propping yourself with your arms, but you'd much rather be on your tummy so you can try to go somewhere.

You love to talk and will babble away, mostly saying bababababa.  When I try to teach you to say mamamamama or dadadadada, you look at me and smile.  Or you move your mouth but no sound comes out.  You also learned to blow spit bubbles, but you tuck your bottom lip under your top lip when you do it.

You don't laugh very often, but when you do, it is the most infectious giggle and I do just about anything to hear it.  I'll do something that you find hilarious and when I try it again you are so over it.  Keep it fresh mom!

It's late, so I'm going to end this post.  I'll do a part 2 if I think of anything else to add.  I love you baby girl, more and more everyday!

Being a mom is a messy job

When I said I would have a more interesting post, this was not quite what I had in mind.  I guess the universe took that last post as a sign that I needed a challenge.

So, Wednesday I go to get my daughter out of her car seat to go to Baby & Me and I smell poop.  I cautiously remove her and see that it has already started leaking through the side if her outfit.  It had been a whole week since she last pooped, so this would be a fun one!  I now carry her awkwardly into the building and up to the 2nd floor because I don't want it getting on me.  I have clothes for her, but I don't have any for me.

I get to the group and tell the facilitator that my baby who only poops once a week decided the ride over would be a good time to go.  She offers to hold her while I get everything ready.  I don't know that I would be offering to hold her, but I definitely appreciate the help.

I get everything ready, lay her down and prepare to open the diaper.  Another mom at the group said she had never seen such a full diaper.  I didn't really even know where to begin.  It was everywhere!  I didn't want her hands in it, but I couldn't hold her hands and feet and wipe at the same time.  That other mom very nicely held her hands for me so I could try to conquer my messy job.

The facilitator then asks if I just want to give her a bath in the sink.  Yes!!!!  That is a great idea.  I was afraid I was going to run out of wipes and still not have her clean.  I had been wiping away and was nearing the end of the pack!  So my baby got a bath in the sink at Baby & Me with the help of the facilitator.  We used paper towels as wash cloths and baby blankets to dry her off, but we got her all cleaned up.

Who knew a diaper change could turn out to be a three person job!  At first I was a little upset to have to deal with such a mess at Baby & Me, but then I was actually thankful to have the help.  If she had done it at home, I would have been on my own.

So there you have it, just another day in the life of a mom.  I'm going to think twice before ever saying there's nothing too exciting going on again!