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.