Week Forty Six

Well it was time, your baby shoes no longer fit, and the slippers that your Dad has you in all the time are falling apart.  We have been trying to find shoes for you for a while, but it has been really hard.  In a moment of inspiration I took you to Walmart and decided to look in the shoe department instead of the baby aisle and there they were shoes for toddlers.  I bought two pair, knock off crocks for the pool area and bright pink sneakers.  Then I went crazy buying you swim suits and new outfits.  You look so cute in everything, and have gotten so many clothes as presents that I hardly ever get to shop for you.  You also seemed to enjoy selecting items.  My little fashionista.

You also started making kissy sounds and smacking your lips together.  It is off the charts cute, especially since you like to do it when eating.  I have a video that brings a smile to my face every time I watch it of you squinting and kissing.

You decided to expand from sipping from you Dad's hand to drinking from a glass.  You love having what we have.

Thankfully you also decided this week that the one nap a day schedule was not working for you, so we are back to two naps per day, one at 10 am til noon and then one from 4 pm to 5 pm.  You have never gone down for a nap with so little fuss and had such a regular schedule.  It has been AMAZING.

Week Forty Five

Oh my baby, the things you are learning.  Your Dad discovered that you can sip water from his palm.  I am still not sure how he realized this, but it so cute to watch you sipping water this way!  You also had egg yolks for the first time.  I thought you really liked them since you kept putting pieces of yolk in your mouth, but you weren't swallowing and at the end you spit out massive amounts of egg!

You slept through the night for the first time this week.  I woke up very rested at 5 am, completely panicked since you hadn't woken me up at 2 am for your feed.  Now this hasn't happened since, but it seems that a full nights sleep maybe in my future soon.  I have to say I will miss sleeping with your little body curled up to me.

The other downside is that with less nursing I am making less and less milk. Pumping at work gets me an ounce to ounce and a half max.  I know that our time breastfeeding is coming to a close and that makes me so sad, but it is the natural progression of things and something that you are choosing.

You also decided, big girl that you are, that you only need one nap per day.  We were very much hoping that you would continue on a 2 nap schedule until you were over 1 year.  It makes getting anything done almost impossible during the day since you are so active and not happy in your play pen for more than about 15 minutes.

Week Forty Four

You keep crawling for real more and more.  It is exciting to watch you develop and learn all the amazing things your body can do, but you also seem more and more like a little girl and less and less like a baby.  I miss your baby self, even though your little girl self is amazing too, you are just more independent now.

We had to go back to the doctor, again, for a urine collection.  This was the fourth visit for urine collection (9 month well check, follow up that we came too soon for, follow up the following week where you would not pee after an hour and we went home with the diaper on and then collected a contaminated sample, and now one more time).  It took more than 2 hours for you to pee in the plastic diaper: I nursed you... twice, we fed you lunch, we walked, we danced, we sang, we read books, and finally you Dad made you cry, by folding you like a V until you screamed so hard you peed.  Success!  After all that drama we had to go back to the doctor two days later when your Dad was worried about a red eyelid (it was nothing more than some mild irritation).

Last, but not least.  You ate meat for the first time this week, stealing some turkey off my dinner sandwich.  You loved it, but oh my word was your poop the following morning stinky!

Week Forty Three

You loved to sing in the car this week.  It was hilarious to hear this baby voice, singing nonsense words in the back of the car.  I love to sing in the car too, so maybe you get this from me.

Remi went on a destructive rampage, actually several this week.  He chewed a hole in your new jersey crib sheets, he got out of his crate and ate the tubing from my breast pump, a Barbie doll from Liz Camerer, the nursing necklace, a box of Graham crackers, one of Lakota's blankets and a whole bunch of papers and cans from the recycling bin.  It looked like a bomb went off!  Your Dad was NOT happy about this.  Oh he also chewed up your stuffed taggie dog.  We now have clips to reinforce the door on the crate.  I was most upset about the nursing necklace, but what can you do he is a puppy and things like this happen.  Maragaret worked on repairing your dog, I fixed Lakota's blanket and patched your sheets.

We went out to brunch a Petit Four with Emilie and Eric and you were so well behaved!  Then you bit me on the finger during a walk through old town Scottsdale so hard it almost bled.  Then when I screamed in pain you started crying and I had to comfort you!

Drum roll please, we also FINALLY got your wall decal up.  With the help of the Woodson's it went up and looks great.  It was not really very hard and I wish that we had done it so much sooner.  At least it was up before your first birthday!

Week Forty Two

Still on yucky antibiotics and not happy about it, but you are sleeping better and seem happier in general so we think that they are working.  You started real baby crawling, which I never thought that you would do.  I was getting you ready for your bath and you were naked on the floor of the bathroom and you got fully up on your hands and knees and made a bee line for the hallway.  I yelled for your Dad, who could not understand what all the excitement was about until he saw you.  You still prefer to inchworm, but if your knees are bare you will start to real crawl.

You also discovered how fun it is to feed the dogs this week.  You fed Lakota a graham cracker and laughed like crazy when she ate it.  Lakota now sits at attention near your high chair hoping for handouts.

Your Grandma came for a visit and you had a lot of fun playing with her and she loved helping take care of you.  I never thought that my Mom would be so attentive to a little baby, since she is not very maternal, but she loves you so much!

Week Forty One

As usual, as soon as I have caught up this baby book I end up weeks and weeks behind again.  You are keeping us so busy that between cooking, cleaning, shopping, playing and taking pictures there is no time left in the day to blog.  I have to say that I love it and would not change a thing, other than having your sister here to add to our chaotic life.

This week was the beginning of the UTI, plastic diaper saga.  You went in for your 9 month well visit, and we discovered that your poor sleep the past two nights was not due to teething pain, but a urinary tract infection.  You were in the 8% percentile for weight, which for you was amazing, but you dropped to the 25% percentile for height.  Dr Chang thinks that you may take after your Dad and be shorter than average instead of like me, taller than normal.  It doesn't really matter, we love you no matter how tall you are, but I was hoping that you would be tall like me.  So you started some nasty tasting antibiotics (Bactram) and we waited for culture results, which grew an E coli.

I was trying to work on sleep training some more this week, hoping that we would get closer to you sleeping through the night, but it was a massive fail and I am pretty sure this was the week I just started sleeping on the floor of your room with you.  It's not that I don't love being close with you, but I do sleep better in my own bed!

Margaret also got you a cordless phone this week as a toy.  You are so smart though, you know that it is not the real thing, so although a great idea, you don't play with it as much as we hoped you would.

Week Forty

You are my super big girl this week.  You can balance better and better while standing, and you improvised a baby walker with an upside down laundry basket, so you have taken your first assisted steps.  I know that you will be walking all by yourself soon and I am so proud to watch you discover how your body works.  You turned 9 months old this week and I am trying to take more pictures of you again.  I have had to resort to videos since you are always on the move!

You said your second word "baby" and you know that is means you.  You are so verbal and I am breathlessly awaiting for you to say Momma.

I was officially adopted this week,  babies aren't allowed in the courthouse and it was your nap time, so you could not be there.  So Grandpa is legally your Grandpa now.  I am so happy about this.  It was so important to me.

You slept so well, in your crib, from 7:30 pm to 3 am last night.  It was amazing for me to sleep that long, although I miss having you in my bed.  I love nursing you right before putting you down for the night.  I think of that time as a perfect moment.  I try to drink it the feeling of it, the smell of you after your bath, the warmth of you curled into me nursing.  I want to make a perfect memory of it so I can go back to that perfect time again and again.  I love you so much baby.

Week Thirty Nine

Okay I have been trying to down play how often you say "Dada"  I told myself that it was just meaningless babbling, but I cannot deny your first word any longer.  You looked right and your Dad and said "Dada."  You also now say Daddy as well.  Sometimes you say it to me, so Mark tells me that it means parent to you, but I think that he is just sparing my feelings.  It is nice in the middle of the night when you are crying and you say "Dadda, dadda, Daddy." I just tell Mark you are calling for him and I get a little extra sleep!

Sleep is something that has been in short supply.  You want to practice pulling up to standing all the time, even in the middle of the night.  You don't want to sleep in your crib, in the big family bed you try to crawl to the edge, so I was at a complete loss for what to do.  I actually started sleeping on the floor of your room, so that if you wanted to crawl and practice standing you could, but I could take little cat naps too.  Not the most comfortable, but at least you have a sheep skin rug that is pretty soft for a bed.

We have been walking more, at least once a day we pack you up in your stroller and off we go.  You love it, you hold on and look at everything.  The weather has been perfect and I love the time outside with you.

Week Thirty Eight

Well Bob is back.  You starting talking about him again,  I wish I knew what you meant by Bob...  We started feeding you organic O cereal this week.  I don't think that you like how it tastes, but you love to bite the pieces and crunch them.  You also love to pick up the cereal and try to put it in your mouth.  Unfortunately you aim is not so good and the cereal ends up all over.  It is so cute to watch you eat and try to feed yourself.  You amaze me.

This week was also your sister's 2nd birthday.  It was emotional and hard and so sad.  I wish that she could be here.  I wish that you could know her as more than some pictures and an urn.  I wish that I could have watched her grow, like I get to watch you.  We had a picnic and I made a cake.  Next year I would like to go on a Day trip to the arboretum or up north to the woods.  I hope that you love Grace too.  She was so special and she protects you from afar.

Week Thirty Seven

This week Remi had his first big hip surgery.  We had a mini veterinary hospital set up in the bedroom.  The noise and the fluid pump did not keep you up and you were a good sleeper despite all the chaos.  Poor Remi has to be kept on cage confinement for 2 weeks and it is hard to keep him quiet during your naps.  If you tell him "the baby is sleeping." He actually settles!

You are more and more verbal.  Babbling away in your baby language that no one understands and likely has no meaning.  Every once in a while you end up saying a real word, which is very exciting for us, even if it does not count as your first word.  We have decided that your first word has to be something that you say and know what it means.  You have said "okay" "haiku" and "I love you."

Your physicality is also improving by leaps and bounds.  You are pulling up to squatting and even standing all the time.  I am afraid that you will be walking soon and you will be such a big girl and my little baby will be gone.

Week Thirty Six

So much has happened and no matter how hard I try to dedicate a few minutes every week to blog about you and your adventures I seem to get more and more behind.  I have decided that I am going to try and enjoy you and everything about this first year and then if I have time to write about it.  Perhaps for your second year, which is coming up so fast, I will try and write once a month!

This week teething continued and I thought that your 5th tooth came in, but with a few more weeks under my belt I think that this tooth probably was just starting this week!  It was your left central incisor and it is so big, much bigger than your other teeth.  You decided that you no longer want milk in a bottle.  You Dad had to give you the bottle first, before solids, to make sure that you drank it all.  You still love to nurse, although you get distracted easily.  I guess that I am relieved since I am able to pump less and less, I can only get one session in most days, but sad too.  Sad  that this phase of your babyhood is coming to a close, sad that you are becoming such a big girl.  I want to bottle up the incredible babiness of you and be able to hold on to it forever.

Week Thirty Five

What a crazy busy week with so many developments!  You officially turned 8 months old, you are starting to sit without support, you got your 4th tooth and you can STAND on your own holding on to something.  It is like every day you do something even more amazing.  I was nursing you before work and you said "Hi, Hi, Hi" and then "I love you."  I nearly fell off my chair.  I know that you don't know what you are saying, but you can mimic us so well.

Also the sitting thing is huge for me.  I have been freaking out a little that you could not do this.  It seems like all the other babies were sitting around 6-7 months old and here you are flopping onto your tummy every time I would try to get you to sit.  I was starting to get phobic about developmental delays.  You just did this at your own pace, and although you are not as stable as other babies when sitting you can do it!

The downside of all this activity and all these developments is well your sleep, or lack thereof.  You are refusing naps on a fairly regular basis.  Which leads to a cranky little miss and tired Mom and Dad, since your nap time gives us time to get things done or mostly just recharge ourselves.  Luckily so far your night time sleep has still been good.  We thought that it was teething at first since you have three teeth all trying to come in at once, but even after your upper right lateral incisor cut through there was no improvement with your naps.  I think that you just want to practice all your amazing new skills instead of sleeping.

The upside of the nap problem is that your Dad is finally not swaddling you since you just scream when he tries.  I mostly end up just putting you in your crib when you are tired and letting you fuss/cry until you fall asleep which takes less than 5 minutes.  The more I try and rock you, pat you or nurse you the more you cry when I try and put you down!

You have gotten so good, so quickly at pulling up we have had to retire your co-sleeper bassinet, it is just not safe for you any more.  We ordered a second crib for our bed room that you can sleep in at night (until you wake up and come into bed with me).  I should be assembling it right now, but I wanted to write a little something to you first.

Another funny story and then I have to get back to work!  I had some minor surgery on my toe this week and I took you to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription for this.  You were flirting so much with the pharmacist and her assistant they were laughing and could not stop looking at you!  It made my consult not very informative, but I love watching you charm every one you meet!

Sitting!

OMG STANDING!

Week Thirty Four

You have been working so hard at pulling yourself up this week.  You grab onto anything that is within your reach and PULL.  The dog crate has been an absolute favorite, although the railing of your bassinet is a close second.  You seem so big when you do this, more like a toddler than a baby.  I feel like your babyhood is ending and I am soooo not ready for that.  I have been thinking more and more about having a little brother or sister for you, but yikes I am so tired already!

This week we also adopted a new dog, another reason for feeling tired.  We got him at the local animal shelter and he is only 1 year old so I hope that he can live and be healthy to be the dog of your childhood.  He has severe hip dysplasia and will need several surgeries to correct the problem so there is some risk that he might not grow up to be the dog that I dream of for you.  However he has a wonderful personality and is so patient with you and just wants to kiss you and love on you.  I think that he is worth the risk and I am pretty sure that no one else would have adopted him.

You keep randomly saying words and phrases, which I know are likely just mimicking us and not real talking.  However sometimes you say the neatest stuff.  One night this week, after a diaper change, your Dad brought you back to bed, and as I pulled up my sleep top to nurse you looked at my breast and I kid you not said "Oh Yum!"  Baby I love you even if soon you won't be a baby anymore.

Week Thirty Three

I am caught up with your blog now and that feels really great.  I love writing about you and your adventures and how you change and grow and make our lives amazing.  I need to make time for it every week, instead of these marathon sessions.

You got Christmas presents from Aunt Sally and Uncle Jake this week.  Including this crazy cute owl hat.  We make you wear it all the time, but you don't seem to mind.

Your sleep has been really erratic again and we suspect that you are teething.  I can feel three teeth moving down, but none are super close to the gum line yet.  I hope that they all break through around the same time so that you will have some relief for a while.  The teething tablets help some, but you are having a hard time.

You officially love solid food.  You open your mouth so wide when we feed you, like a baby Grackle and eat 1/4 cup of food per sitting.  You have even decided that sweet potato is a good thing, as long as we mix it with apples or pears.  I love making you baby food and can proudly say that you have never eaten anything out of a jar.  Except your rice and oatmeal cereal I have made everything you have eaten.

We have started to look for another Shepherd and you are so amazing at the shelter, the noises and the smells and all the dogs don't bother you in the slightest.  You are your mama's girl that is for sure.  We have not found the perfect dog yet, and in fact I got so sad just looking we decided to take a break for a while.  I want you to have an amazing dog to grow up with.  I hope that someday you can have a relationship with a dog that was as special as my relationship with Audrey.  The dog of a life time.

You and Audrey the day before she died