Miss C is 9 months old today!

Wow. How amazing! Has it really been 9 months already?

Ok, I am busy as a one legged man in a butt kicking contest so here goes:
1. Miss C talks. Not all the time and not sentences but she says things like "kitty cat", "clock", "dada" etc. She also signs. The other day when I was at work, Miss C crawled over to DH, pulled on his pant leg and signed milk. Yep. She has been signing it to me and to her but this was really the first time DH realized she knew what it was.
2. Miss C is a speed crawler. She chases us around the house and laughs when we stop and give her a "boo" or a "peek a boo!"
3. Miss C practices standing up everywhere! Yep, her crib, the floor, holding on to the stairs, everywhere. She terrorizes the cat because she stands there at the bottom of the stairs hollering at the cat "hey!" "hey!" and that wonderful giggle while standing on the floor holding on to the second step. Eventually the cat gives up and hides up stairs!
4. Miss C loves mac and cheese. She is so her father's daughter. DH introduced her to mac and cheese for snack the other day since she was already good for pasta and cheese. Wow! She loves it! She gets such a cute yellow/orangey face when she eats it. She started out licking off the cheese and kind of spitting out the mac but then she realized that there is cheese on the inside and Woo hoo! She eats the whole thing now.
5. Miss C likes "baby food" much less than before. She puts up with us giving her cereal for about 1/2 of her meal then she fusses and demands finger foods. I guess this is the transition point, eh?
6. Miss C naps less now than before. Bummer. Actually, it’s not horrible. She tends to take one nap around 9 or 10 and one again in the afternoon around 2 or 3. Her naps are a little longer, between 40 and 60 minutes, than before. She basically combined the two am naps into one.
7. Miss C is testing us. She has started to "cry" for attention. I say "cry" because she is making the noise but there are no tears and nothing wrong. The problem is, she does this and we respond. Any ideas?
8. Miss C loves her swim class! Well, it’s our swim class but she has been hopping into the pool and just having a great time. We are scheduled to go on Tuesdays and Thursdays this month so hopefully we will be able to make most of the classes. They are offered here at the pool in town. I like the Mommy workout too! It’s so much fun to see her grow and develop.
Well, that's pretty much it. I am jammed with work and another project coming due so I have to be quick. If you have any suggestions or recommendations, we would greatly appreciate it. Even if the comment is only "yea, that's the normal transition."

Sleeping Beauty

My oh my, what a busy day!

Today was a very exciting day. It was Miss C's first swim class. We signed her up for Mommy and Me Swim classes; they are every Tuesday and Thursday at 1000. It is one of the benefits of being on a silly watch rotation, I get to spend lots of time with Miss C during the day when I am either off or on an eve watch. So.. she had a great time! Apparently she is quite the natural. She used her arms to go and retrieve a floaty buddy we were playing with (I think this is primarily since she is crawling but whatever, right?) and she had no major issues with me putting her head under the water. I did it with her each time so she knew it was ok. She enjoyed floating on her back and splashing with the other kids. There are three of us in the class so it was fun for me to get to meet other local Moms too.

After our lesson, Miss C went in for her nine month check up. It was about a week early but it was the only one we could get that worked with our schedule. Her most recent stats: 29 1/8 inches tall (yep! That's my tall girl!), 21 pounds 5 ounces (she seems to have slowed down her weight gain a bit, probably because of her crawling). She is 90th percentile for height and weight (same as before) and her head circumference is in the 50th percentile so we are tracking right along from the same place we were before. I will give her 9 month update on Sunday.

That's pretty much it for now. Since we had our swim adventure then the doctor adventure right after, Miss C decided to skip lunch and have me schedule it for after her nap. Poor tired little one.

We all had a great day! Hope ya'll are having a great day too!

Just a minute

Hey all,
I have just a couple of minutes to post. Miss C is doing great. DH got home a couple of days ago to hear Miss C perform her latest "trick." She is in the "dada da" stage where her conversations are primarily using the syllable "da" with changes in inflection that reflect how we speak. DH, like other dads of course, thinks she is simply in love with his name! Too funny!
Miss C is crawling like a fiend. She is so fast its crazy. We've found that there are both pluses and minuses to this. One plus is that she no longer freaks if you leave the room, she can follow. One minus, however, is that if you do leave the room, she might be in a completely different room when you get back. You always have to look down before you move because she might be just behind you. In any case, its so exciting!
I just got her down for her second nap today. This morning, after 12 hours of sleep, two nursing's and breakfast, she took an hour plus nap. She got up, played, nursed a couple of times, had her mid-morning snack as well as some lunch then went back down for another nap. I think that she might be going through another growth spurt. I know for sure that she has that third tooth on the bottom breaking through (ouch!) so she is sleeping a lot!
Well, that's about all I have time for. Miss C is waking up so I have to get. Be sure to check out the updated photos on the flickr and the new videos on our you tube page (the links are to the right). I will try to update again soon!

Change of priorities

It used to be that when we had an extra day off or just a weekend together, DH and I would enjoy a sleeping in, go out to breakfast or possibly lunch, wander around, goof off, whatever.

Since having Miss C, all of our priorities have changed. We no longer sleep in. That luxury is not around because we have her on her school schedule where she has to get up at 6 to be able to leave in time to get to Mrs J's so I can get to work on time. Try explaining to an 8 month old that she (meaning you) can sleep in because there is no school that day. Yea, right.

We go on "adventures" now, to the grocery store, to Walmart, occasionally out to lunch. They are adventures because they are all pretty new to Miss C. We don't go occasionally because she doesn't do well, quite the opposite. Occasionally because she wants to be involved so badly that she chooses to stay awake rather than nap and wants to talk and watch people just like grown ups. She is shifting from the baby two am and two pm naps to one in the am and one in the pm. That is, unless she exhausts herself (not entirely uncommon), then she wants a nap either before or after dinner which makes the rest of our evening routine a little more challenging.

Don't get me wrong. I am not complaining. I know we have it lucky. Luckier than most. Miss C sleeps like a champ, 11 hours a night, pretty regularly unless she gets woken up by something then, well, you all know how that goes. The teething isn't an issue either. Other than the near constant drooling and snot nose, she is great. No complaining, no fussing.

Its just that I have noticed that our priorities have really shifted.

Last semester I took classes, I was all over school work. Too much, according to DH. This time, with Miss C, I admit I am not working as much as I used to. I am doing as well or better work but I don't try to work on anything until she is down for the night. Its just that my priority is taking care of her.

Work is different too. I would normally jump on travel opportunities and all that. Now, well, I prefer not to. Its harder because DH has to travel and I am not supposed to so I choose not to. More priority shifts.

As I type this, the house is practically silent. There is only the sound of my typing and, if I walk by the laundry room, the occasional sound of the latest load in the washer. I sit with one ear trained towards the door leading to the office because Miss C has finally succumbed to her after noon nap, having been playing for the past few hours.

Its nice but I have to admit it, the sound of my little girl giggling when she chases after the cat is music to my ears!

From slow to GO!

Miss C has been going through some serious changes these past few months, none so radical as those we witness this past week.

As I mentioned when she turned 8 months old, Miss C started to crawl. That start was, as expected, slow going. She would go forward a couple of moves then stop and play, whatever. This morning, after we hung out in DH's recliner for a little while, Miss C wanted to go play. She has a Fisher Price kitchen in our family room that she likes to play with.

Today, instead of putting her next to it, I put her down at my feet and said "go ahead, baby, go play." To my shock and amazement, she went. She apparently figuerd out drive and an even faster gear!

In addition to her mobility, Miss C has two seriously sharp teeth. If you zoom in on this picture, they are quite clear!

We have been working on finger foods (carrots, peas, gerber baby finger foods) and have discovered a love of Cheerios. Anyone who has a little one knows that this cereal is apparently a favortire among babues. Miss C likes to have them after I feed her breakfast. We don't do fingerfoods well enough yet to make a whole meal out of them so we have them after our cereal and some veggies or fruit so we are getting enough to eat.

That's pretty much it for now. Just wanted to catch ya'll up! I will try to post another video when we get a break around here.

Until then, as always, drop a line and say ya'll are still out there!

Miss C is 8 months old today!

***Edited to add*** Miss C started to crawl this afternoon!!! Whoa boy are we busy now!!!
Wow! What an amazing adventure we have been having!




























Ok, let's start with estimated statistics:

Miss C, based on home conducted evaluations, is now approximately 28 1/2 inches long and 20 1/2 pounds.

Recent accomplishments:
1. Miss C is very communicative. She talks, babbles, signs, constantly. Her only "real" sign is milk, which she uses sparingly, but she also puts her arms over her head to signal that she is done and ready to be picked up (we started this when she started eating in a chair; we would tell her "arms up" to get her ready to get out of the chair!). She talks to her pooh bear on her crib bumper when she wakes up at night which leads up to number 2~
2. Though Miss C sleeps throughout the night, if she does wake up for some reason, she generally talks to Pooh or her pacifier or whatever else she sees and then goes back to sleep.
3. Miss C kneels to play with her toys. I posted a video showing this and she does it whenever she wants to get into something slightly higher than the ground.
4. Miss C "teleports" (thanks Alphagal!) herself around the room. She is really trying to crawl but as it stands, she she goes from her butt to her hands and knees and moves herself around the room by leaning forward then sitting back down.
5. Miss C slides across our wood floor. She wants to get around faster and faster and explore her world more so this is her method.
6. Miss C has two pearly white teeth coming in on the bottom. She drools like a champ still and chews on everything, bolted down or not!
7. Miss C points! She noticed a wind chime that DH's sister (Auntie J) got us ages ago. Its a group of beautiful butterflies and we hung it up over her changing table. Every time she sees it, which is every time she wakes up or gets changed, she absolutely has to make the chimes sing. She points up at it and grunts until I pick her up high enough to smack at it and stares intently as the chimes play their tune.
8. Miss C tries to stand up, kind of. In her attempts to crawl, Miss C pushes up to feet and hands. Today she let go of one hand. I swear I thought she was going to stand! She has tried to pull herself up a couple of times. I think that she might crawl like e-baby, thump swish!
9. Miss C helps aroudn the house. After she eats, be it a meal or a snack, she holds her bib and puts it in the laundry basket we keep in the laundry room. We started this habit a couple of months ago, but now she gets mad if you even try to pick up the bib for her.
10. Miss C washes her hands. I have to credit Mrs J for this one. She apparently picks Miss C up after a meal and takes her to the kitchen sink where she helps her soap and rinse her hands. When I saw this, I started to do it at home and oh my gosh, Miss C knows what to do! She even looks for the towel so she can dry her own hands!
11. Miss C loves to brush her teeth. A couple of months ago, we started brushing Miss C's gums after her bath. At some point she decided that she was going to do it herself. I use this to help calm her after her bath when we read. Apparently she is able to better pay attention to the book if she is chewing on her tooth brush. So, she sits on my lap and brushes her teeth while we read a book before bedtime.

That's pretty much it for now. I can hardly keep up with the tremendous changes.

Before I go, I have to give a hearty "Thank you!" to Mrs J, the contributor of all of the photos we are using today.

Thank you for making sure we get to be in on these experiences as well! thanks for taking the time to read this and keep up with our wonderful adventures!