10 Months

My 10th month has been a big one! I finally decided to start crawling, and once I got going there was no stopping me! I'm all over the place now and into EVERYTHING! But Mommy swears she's loving this new stage. I'm also pulling up, and one of my favorite new activities is to pull up on the windowsill and look out into our backyard. And sometimes bang my head repeatedly against the window, which has Daddy convinced I'm a total weirdo.

You'll have to forgive my Mommy for this picture. She forgot about pictures until late in the day and then the camera was dying. This is the only shot she got before it died.

I haven't ventured any steps on my own yet, but I'm cruising along the furniture. Maybe I'll try walking soon. We'll see.

Now that I can pull up, I usually stand up in my crib when I wake up until someone comes to get me. Mommy and Daddy had to lower the mattress so I'm safe!

I have yet another tooth, bringing my total to 5! I'm working on the 6th. These two have been a lot nicer to me than the last two.

Here I am being silly at Buford Dam today. We had a picnic and played. Daddy stuck my feet in the water, but it was way too cold for me!

I sleep now from about 8:30 at night to 7:30 in the morning. Once I started crawling, I also started waking up again for my middle-of-the-night bottle that I had given up. Now Mommy or Daddy bring me one around 6:00am and I drink it and go back to sleep for a couple hours. As long as I've had that bottle I wake up very happy in the morning! Sometimes I'll sit and have a chat with my elephant for a good half hour or so before wanting to get up. But if I wake up hungry, watch out! I am NOT happy.

I still love to eat any and everything, including my vegetables which is more than I can say for Daddy.

I'm still refusing to say Mama, but I do love to talk! I babble all day long and love to chat with my toys and stuffed animals.

I figured out my hands are good for more than just holding stuff. I wave bye-bye, clap and can use some baby sign language. I sign "more" and "all done", but I'm not always sure that's what I want. Sometimes I mix them up.

The cuteness around here is pretty much non-stop! Can you believe there's going to be two cute baby girls in this house in a few months?

9 Months!

I am 9 months old now!

I'm still not crawling, but don't think I'm staying still! I've perfected two styles - the steamroller and the scootch - that get me everywhere I need to go. Mostly to the tupperware cabinet and the potpurri bowl. Mommy and Daddy are constantly telling me I'm not supposed to eat potpurri.

I just started pulling up on the furniture, and I love to drum on the couch and ottoman. I've also started using my walker, but I can't figure out how to go forward, only backward.

I've started consistently sleeping through the night. Mommy and Daddy are soo happy! Sometimes I wake up super early and cry for a while, but I usually will go back to sleep until 7 or so.

I'm still eating any and everything (can you tell?).  I just love food! And I think feeding myself is the greatest.

I'm saying Da Da Da constantly. And even though I don't realize it's his name yet, I'm also seriously in love with my Dada right now! I cry every day when he leaves for work.

I'm 3/4 of the way to my first birthday! This year is flying by!

I get her up at 7:30, change her diaper and head out to the kitchen to feed her breakfast like we do every day. Except today she doesn't want to eat. She screams, clamps her mouth shut, turns her head away. So finally I get her down and put her on the floor to play like she does every morning. But today she doesn't want to play. She just wants me to hold her. She's not too concerned about the housework I'm trying to get done and how difficult holding her makes my chores. So I carry her around and do as much as I can until I run out of one-armed chores.

We sit on the floor and play except she doesn't really want to play, she wants to climb on me like a jungle gym. Pulling my hair and covering my clothes in drool and snot, whining the whole time.

At 9:00 I put her in the bath. She's happy for the first time today, splashing in the bubbles and playing with her duckies, so I decide to wipe up the grime in the bathroom. My back is turned for .3 seconds. She poops in the tub and I turn around just in time to catch her shoving a handful in her mouth. I stand there for several seconds holding her awkwardly, trying to figure out how to deal with this mess. I clean everything up, give her another bath and get her dressed. She cries the whole time.

We go into her room and I lay her on the changing table and grab her nasal aspirator. She's still getting over a cold and needs her nose cleaned out. She hates it and screams and tries to get away from me. It turns into a wrestling match I eventually give up on. Her boogers will just have to stay put for now.

I sit her on my lap in the glider and read her a book. She cries, still not over the trauma of the aspirator. I eventually give up and lay her down for her nap, still crying. She fusses for a while and then finally, finally, falls asleep.

I sit down on the couch and grab my laptop, already needing a break 2 hours into this day. As I sit here reading blogs and sipping orange juice, I feel the little one inside of me moving, starting her morning workout. And I think, "I can't wait for you to get here, little girl!"

And then I realize I've completely lost my mind.

Just Call Me Santa Claus

I'm a giver. I just try to spend my days making those around me happier. Which is why today as I sat in the dentist chair I thought, "You know, I bet dental hygienist don't usually have good stories to tell of their work day. Deborah's been cleaning my teeth for a couple years now, and I like her. I think I'll give her an interesting story to tell her family around the dinner table tonight."

As she finished scraping my teeth and switched to the oh so fun polishing brush, I stopped her and said, "I don't feel very good. Can I go use the restroom?" Of course she said yes and we both got up so she could show me to the bathroom. That's when I decided a pregnant girl feeling kind of sick isn't all that exciting of a story. So I decided I'd just pass out right there in the hallway.

Yeah, pretty embarrassing. I passed out cold. Thankfully Deborah was able to get behind and keep me from whacking my head on the ceramic tile floor. My rear end unfortunately did not fare so well. In case you were wondering, bruising your backside is kinda painful.

After several minutes of sitting on the floor while the entire staff hovered over me offering snacks and drinks, I was fine. I was able to get up and call Jamie who came to pick me up. I called later to check in with my OB and they said it was nothing to worry about. Probably just low blood sugar from not eating or a drop in my blood pressure. Either way, I'm fine now. But oh my goodness, that was embarrassing! At least Deborah and her co-workers had a good story to tell of the fainting pregnant chick at work today!

Sugar and Spice

Baby #2 is a girl! We are so excited to be welcoming another little princess into the family!

Also, I'm excited to be right this time. I'm 1 for 2. Which is 50%. Which is still failing. But it's better than 0%!

Jamie wasn't able to go with me to my ultrasound yesterday. Since today is tax day and he's a CPA, taking off yesterday would have been tough. I could have rescheduled my ultrasound for later in the week but, um I didn't want to wait. Instead, I had the technician seal our pictures in an envelope for Jamie and I to look at together when he got home.

At dinner, Jamie asked me if I had any guesses. I told him I was pretty certain it was a girl which made me pretty sure it was a boy. Because I was certain Anna was a boy and she's a girl. So I was assuming my intuition is faulty.

After dinner, we left Anna with Rebecca and went to Sonic to get some ice cream and open our envelope. As soon as I pulled the pictures out I saw the very first one was the "money shot" and was labeled "It's a girl!" Jamie somehow missed that. I said, "Awwww" He said, "Can you tell? Don't tell me!" I said, "Are you serious?" He said, "Yeah don't tell me. Let's just keep looking." I said, "No really. Look at the picture." He stared at it for several more seconds and then went "Oh! I didn't see that." Dork.

Jamie and I were both hoping for another girl. I wanted a girl for the practical purposes of being able to reuse everything and for the fun they'll get to have together being so close in age. Jamie stated his reason for wanting a girl in this way, "When you have one baby, you think she's perfect and you want all your other kids to be just like her. If it's a boy it would be less like her and so less perfect." Haha He's a little bit smitten with Anna.

It looks like we'll be battling it out over a girl name! Yay for tea parties, baby dolls, and pretty dresses!! And for not having to repaint the nursery!

8 Months

You may notice this post is a little late. You may also notice I'm not sitting in my nursery like I have been for all my other monthly posts. That's because when I turned 8 months old, I was in New Jersey meeting yet another new cousin! Every time Mommy brings me up there, there's more cousins to meet! Lucky for me I can't talk yet so there's no pressure to keep them all straight. Meeting 4 cousins in 4 months is a lot to take in!

Now that I'm 8 months old, I'm pretty much all grown up. At least I think I am. Which is why I refuse to nurse anymore. That's for babies, and I would much rather eat whatever Mommy's having. She's usually pretty generous and gives me a taste. I have yet to meet a food I don't like!

I haven't started crawling yet, but I'm trying to. I can get from a sitting position to up on all fours, but I can't quite get moving. I usually end up falling onto my belly. Or once in a while on my face. Which really hurts!

I have four teeth now, two on top and two on bottom. The top ones made me really cranky when they came in! But now that they're in, I'm back to my normal cheerful self.

Mommy and Daddy say I'm a drama queen, which is just silly. Does it make me a drama queen just because I cry and scream over the tiniest little bump or fall? Maybe they're right.

I'm so glad it's warmer out now and I can play outside! I love to sit in the front yard on a blanket and watch our neighbors walk by. I always look for someone I can charm with my smile. I also love playing with anything that rattles! If you put a new toy in my hands, I will shake it to see if it makes noise and get excited if it does!

Well, that's what I'm up to now that I'm a big 8-month-old! See you next month!

Anna's Baby Guesses

Apparently we're pretty desperate for entertainment around here. This evening, Rebecca and I wrote words and numbers on slips of paper and made Anna pick out of a bucket to make her official baby guesses. She picked the gender, birthday and time and weight.

Making her picks

Here's what she picked
Sex: boy
Birthday: September 10, 9:17AM
Weight: 7 lbs. 5 oz.
Lengths: uhh, we sorta forgot that one. We'll have to get that later!

I like it. Septmeber 10th is a good day, nice even number. Not too far past the due date, but a little late like I expect. Nice and tiny, which I'm happy about. And not in the middle of the night, which is kinda nice. I guess we'll have to wait until September to see how accurate she is! But I'm rooting for her.