Cecelia at ten months

March 28 | Ten Months

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Likes: eating, chewing on shoes/dust bunnies/anything disgusting found on the floor, destroying her brother's train tracks, pulling items out of bags/baskets/bookshelves, opening drawers and playing with doors, crawling as fast as possible towards an open dishwasher, being mobile, making hilarious faces at all times

Dislikes: diaper changes, sleeping, teething, sitting still.

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Biggest Achievement of the Month: cut a million teeth and learned a billion new motor skillz (seemingly)

Biggest Challenge of the Month: Same as always: sleep. Has there been any other challenges in the past ten months? I can't remember. I'm too tired.

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The Mecca (aka Sleep): Erratic and maddening at best. She technically slept through the night three times since my last update (whoop-dee-doo). Her usual is still waking once. But there have been nights which boasted FOUR wake ups and let's just say I'm kind of at the end of my rope with nights like those. Since we've stopped giving bottles in the middle of the night I'm feeling it even more as I'm the one up with her nursing. Nate = more rested this month. Me = aged 10 more years from sleepless nights. Hoping we are on the upswing of things here. I'm letting her cry / fuss a whole lot more lately and she seems to be figuring out the concept of putting herself to sleep. In the past week I've even noticed that she will actually take a pacifier, which could help with the whole 'self-soothing' idea. I just recently realized that she doesn't really care about a pacifier, never really taking it for more than a few minutes here and there. But of COURSE as she is nearing the one year mark now she wants to use one. Fine by me if it helps her sleep!

Naps were pretty ridiculous all month long but we have had a few solid daytime sleep sessions these past few days. I'm trying to stick to a 9am and 1pm nap schedule for Cecelia since that seems to work so well at Lori's. The morning nap is usually easier and longer, about 1-2 hours and the afternoon nap might be non-existent, 20 minutes, or sometimes 1 hour. It's always a guessing game around here! I have decided that if my baby napped consistently every day that I'm home with her I would feel 1000x more balanced--especially if CC and Truman could manage to nap at the same time for even just a teeny tiny bit of time. Because then there would be 'me time' built into my day before the 9 pm hour which would make me a happier person in general. Let's work on this nap thing this month, alright Cecelia? The nighttime stuff will come eventually but daytime is what is kicking my rear right now, I'm afraid. Mommy needs a breather during the days home with you two, like woah.

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Temperament/Personality: Little sweetheart is still a happy, hilarious, content baby for the most part. She had a cold for over two weeks this month so we had some rough patches in there (snotty, grumpy, gross patches). But she seems to be better now! And now that she can crawl and pull up to explore her little world she is even happier than last month, it seems. Mobility is a good thing for this purpose;) She's still quite social and loves to people watch in public places. She's got a thing for her brother and I think she is going love giving him trouble as they grow up together. No other toy will do, except for the one Truman is holding. Uh-oh.

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This month she tolerated Tony, Lois, GoGo/Memaw, and Daddy all watching her at separate times without mommy present. I definitely feel more confident leaving her with someone else now, without worrying that she will freak out the entire time that I'm gone. Freaking out part of the time is a given but at least it's relatively short lived now. She's even holding herself together at daycare drop offs in the past week. Hallelujah.

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Talking/Communication: Sister can understand some of what we say now which is just so freaking cool. It's like she is a real little person that can kind of interact with us---something I still find so fascinating even though she hasn't been that newborn blob for many months. She definitely knows her name, she will do 'so big' upon request, will wave upon request, give high-fives upon request, will clap upon request....I suppose she is our little trick monkey or something. If I ask her, 'Where's daddy?' she will kind of look around and say, 'Dadadada'. I am not crazy enough to think she actually GETS that Nate = daddy = 'dada' but it seems pretty close to the truth sometimes. She can also mumble 'mama' and her favorite 'T' sound but nothing earth-shattering with words just yet. Also, just realized that we were baby-signing with abandon when Truman was 10 months. Sort of forgot about that with our second-born but every now and then I will attempt a 'more' or 'all done' at the dinner table. She looks at me like I'm a lunatic (awesome).

Also, I've finally started reading to her before bedtime. Trust me, any month before this would have spelled disaster because she knows when we are ready to nurse before bed and cannot.freaking.wait. See also: being overtired from lack of naps. But ANYWAY, I've started reading a few books before bed now that she can calmly sit in my lap without ripping my shirt off. She LOVES it and especially any of our touch-and-feel books. She is so good at feeling the various soft/fuzzy parts of each page, somehow knowing right where to grab. Watching her little finger touch the pages is one of the sweetest things ever and I'm glad she doesn't just try to eat the pages anymore. Baby girl is growing up and really 'getting' things these days!

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Eating: See my previous post about milk/nursing woes--but I will say that she is nursing like a champ lately, usually four times per day and 0-2 times at night. Right side only. But for at least 5 minutes and she doesn't even need to be in a quiet dark room anymore to pound some milk. Atta girl, Cease!

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Solids are her fave and she eats three meals each day with an afternoon snack thrown in there, too. Still doing some purees but she can basically eat any finger food we throw at her now. It's really fun to have one child that will eat the same meal as us;) She loves pizza, cheese, eggs, turkey dogs, cheerios, apples, and blackberries the most at this point. She doesn't seem to dislike anything but sometimes she will show her appreciation for my food offering by throwing it on the ground just to watch Henry scarf it in record time.

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Her most astonishing dinner was when she ate an entire Yo Baby carton (4 oz), an ENTIRE turkey dog (cut up into microscopic pieces and peeled), and a ton of shredded cheese, crackers, and yogurt melts. I'm serious when I say she can eat Truman under the table. I hope she continues to be our good eater!

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The Superficial: Red hair with abnormally long bangs (I am dangerously close to conquering her first braid, btw). Huge blue eyes. Still in 12 or 12-18 month clothing because of her long limbs, still in size 3 disposable diapers. Hilarious new 'grin' that reminds me of a teenager with braces that were recently adjusted. Like, 'oh hey, my teeth kinda hurt. Let me gingerly pull my lips back over them to resemble a smile while keeping my eyes completely still.' She looks kind of freaked out, kind of scared, and totally crazy. I can't really describe her new grin/grimace very well but I can certainly show you pictures.

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Teeth: She now has six total, three new ones came through with a vengeance this month. Her top two center teeth are my favorites because they are huge, gapped, and sort of uneven--I had to look back at old Truman pictures to remind myself that the giant rabbit teeth won't stay like that forever (I hope).  I can see three more teeth under the gums getting ready to make their appearance sometime soon. #teethingsucks

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Motor Milestones: Big dog! She officially learned to crawl on all fours, army crawl (and not just backwards), moving from floor to sitting, and pulls to stand. What difference a month can make--she is officially all over the house, as evident by the explosion of toys that always follows her. Also, she can dance to a killer beat now. I have yet to catch her bee-bopping on video but I shall make it a priority because it's too cute to miss.

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Out and About: She loves going places and will willingly/happily skip a nap in order to participate in activities. Truman's 'Paint and Play' class on Thursday mornings were a big hit with little miss this month and she secretly loves to go grocery shopping with her daddy. Anywhere that she can sit in the front of a shopping cart will win in her book. I think once it's nice outside she is going to be an outdoorsy baby girl---loving stroller rides and playgrounds and fresh air. Don't we all dream of those options at this point in March? ;)

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Firsts: crawl, pull up, entire slice of pizza.

Fave Baby Gear: Eh, I'm over this topic for now. I guess she isn't really a 'baby' that needs 'gear' since her favorite hobbies include hunting for dust bunnies and tearing apart our bookshelves. Can't buy that kind of entertainment at a store!

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Little Sis and Big Bro:

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Oh, how the mind plays tricks on me with time! Thank you, Julia of the past, for blogging about your first born. Because otherwise I would never remember any of the details of the ten month mark from the first time around. The only similarities I see between kids at this age? Both like to clap and open drawers, and they each boast 6 teeth. Otherwise I was shocked to read all of the differences: I was already mixing in a bit of whole milk for Truman since he was only nursing once per day now and loved his freaking bottle more than the boob. He would sleep through the night 90% of the time at this point (WHAT?!?!) and would nap at least 3.5 hours per day total (OMG). He was getting very finicky about solids and showed a major preference to carbs. Ha! Should have been able to predict my three year old's eating habits! Also, T wasn't even up on all fours yet or pulling up, so even if he had her beat in the sleep department, she takes the cake for motor milestones. And for nursing so well. Gold star to you, Cecelia. Now learn how to sleep.

Present day is really fun with both kids because CC is all up in Truman's biz now. Most of the time he handles it well and is really sweet with her---'helping' her pull to stand on the ottoman, reading books to her, racing her on these riding toy thingies we pulled from the attic. But sometimes it's really hard to be a big brother to a curious little sister. I just tell Truman that Cecelia loves him and wants to do everything that he is doing---something I'm sure to repeat through the years.

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I love you so much, Cecelia. Ten whole months. Wow.
Mommy

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milk drama

Sigh. I don't even feel like typing about this because I've ridden the emotional roller coaster with nursing this week. And I'm exhausted from all of the over-analyzation in my brain. But I still want to blog about it so that I don't forget this little blip in the journey of breastfeeding Cecelia--at least, I hope it's just a blip. Maybe it's the end of the road. Cue the anxiety because I'M NOT READY TO BE DONE YET!

Let me just say here before I go on: I realize this is not the end of the world. The bottom line is that I've nursed Cecelia for almost 10 months without supplementing. I am proud of that and I'm grateful and appreciative of this gift. If we are ending this nursing relationship then obviously I will live and it will all turn out fine no matter what. But humor me here and let me tweak out about this for a second, okay?

Remember how I mentioned that I had mastitis last week? I felt 100% better after two days but apparently there are some lingering effects sticking around. On my pumping days this week, I took a major hit to my breastfeeding pride and watched as those bottles collected HALF of what they normally catch for me. Maybe even less than half. One of the days I only got six ounces total from all three pumping sessions. WTF?! Any mom who's ever pumped knows how the numbers game can be brutal if you are on the wrong side of the ratio---when baby eats more than you pump, it can make you feel like you literally aren't giving enough. You're falling short. And (at least for me) panic ensues. Pumping just six ounces in three sessions is shocking for me, not because I have a hefty oversupply normally---but because I've been matching Cecelia's bottles for the past few months. Even if I'm not stocking up more frozen milk at least I was breaking even. I mean, really? Six ounces? I used to get that or more with just one session, and was getting 12-14 total each day before this. Gulp.

So my supply took a major dip and luckily I have about 150 oz of frozen breast milk to use. But if I start plowing through my frozen stash, giving bottles instead of nursing, I feel like I'm basically throwing in the towel for breastfeeding. My supply is already dwindling and if I offer bottles instead of trying to put her to the breast, aren't I just asking for trouble?

We stopped giving CC a bottle in the middle of the night because I wanted to nurse instead, just to keep my supply up and help out with the clogged duct that started this whole thing. One night while nursing her at 3 am I started to go over all of my options. Because I am flying to St. Louis with Cecelia in three weeks and I will not have access to my freezer stash. Which means if we are using mostly bottles at that point, I'm going to have to get a little creative.

I thought about shipping some of my frozen bags to Missouri with dry ice. I thought about packing as many as I could in a small cooler with me, taking it on the plane. I could bring fresh milk that I pump the week prior, since fresh stuff stays longer than frozen. But if I'm pumping a measly 6 oz per day then that's out. I could buy formula for that week and give it to her when we are St. Louis. But I'm not even sure she would take the formula since she'd finicky and hasn't ever had it before. I could use whole milk for our time away and hope that she takes it.

Or I could just pray that she continues to nurse like nothing is wrong so that we can nurse while in St. Louis and forget about the dumb bottle all together. I mean, there is nothing wrong with adding in a bit of whole milk to my frozen supply in bottles for daycare and before bed. I'll have to do that soon anyway. But this trip is really making me analyze my options to no end.

Cecelia has actually been nursing really well all week--as if she has no clue that the pump is making me question my supply. She has plenty of wet diapers, is relatively happy, and doesn't seem to be extra hungry. On Thursday I tried an experiment like I did with Truman, when I was worried about my supply with him around nine months. After each nursing session I offered a bottle to see if she was still hungry or not. Well, I planned to offer one each time but a few of those nursing sessions resulted in an immediate nap. One time she took 1 more ounce from the bottle and the other time (before bed) she drank 2 ounces but then very obviously wanted to nurse (ie grabbing at my shirt with authority). So I can't really say she isn't getting enough from me. But isn't that the tough part about breastfeeding? You never really know how much milk they are getting. I never worried about it before but I'm worrying about it now.

I bought Fenugreek yesterday (yay for smelling like maple syrup!) and I am trying to convince myself to keep pumping, even on the days I'm at home. I know I need to keep plugging away at my supply right now but I'm just.so.tired of the freaking pump. I'm drinking plenty of water and plan to make another awesome batch of steel cut oats. I'll do everything that I can to keep her breastfeeding because I'm really stubborn like that.

A lot of friends on IG have assured me that they, too, had a drop in supply and they were able to make a comeback. I certainly hope I will be able to claim that, too.

Two more months. Just two more months until she is one and then I'm done pumping no matter what, hopefully still nursing even beyond that but we'll try to take it one day at a time. One bag of frozen breast milk at a time.

Please last me awhile, freezer stash. Please keep nursing, Cecelia. Please stop messing with my head, pump.

Dramatic, I know. Hopefully that's just me being my dramatic self and not end-of-nursing hormones talking.

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Boon Giveaway

So this isn't a giveaway specifically for my lovely readers (but I wish it were, do you hear that Boon?!) but it's something cute and fun that you all may want to give a shot. Side note: I did totally contact Boon to see if they ever work with bloggers for reviews and giveaways because I am becoming obsessed with the idea of getting their Flair Pedestal Highchair. Literally obsessed and I know I could buy it for myself but it never hurts to ask for a freebie, right? Apparently they have a lot of bloggers who want to sell themselves out in return for product, though---since there was an entire form for bloggers on their site. I suppose I will settle for getting emails about public contests for now, whilst dreaming of the highchair.

Anyway.

Boon is having a contest through Facebook right now and you better believe I already entered in my photo in hopes of winning, even though I never win contests. This one is called the 'Fearless Drinker' Facebook giveaway which promotes their new Modster sippy cup at Target.



You have to go here on Facebook and submit one photo of your kid making the best 'Modster' (get it? monster = Modster) face. They will randomly select the winner so I suppose there is no use in trying to pick a perfect image or anything. And if you win you will get $100 worth of Boon feeding products (Modster, Sip, Stout, Catch Plate, Modware, Grass, Stem and Twig). Pretty sweet, huh?

Cecelia does need new sippy cups....I looked at Target today and didn't see the Boon stuff but I am totally digging them from afar.



This giveaway prompted me to attempt a 'scary' photo shoot with Truman. Which is basically the only type of photo shoot he would allow at this point, anyway.

My selected picture? Along with my favorite 'monster' face of Cecelia's (which didn't get submitted since I play by the rules and only picked ONE)?
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SCARY kids!

But seriously, Truman really does have some creepster faces.
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And if you  have met him in person, no doubt he had done his patented 'eye roll' face for you. It's so disgusting and really does creep me out! How does he get his eyes to roll back THAT much?!?!
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Have no idea what he's doing here, but he requested me to take more pictures just like this.
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Ah, three year olds. Anything that involves a scary face is a win in his book. Let's hope that winning translates literally this time;)

Miscellany

I have too many random thoughts to share to create a cohesive post. So miscellany will have to do. Seems like my blog is becoming one giant miscellany lately, huh?

-Speaking of blogs changing/dying out---did everyone else have a major freak out last week over Google Reader 'expiring'? Like, woah. I'm now using 'Feedly' and it was seriously way too easy to make the switch---one click on 'sign in through Google Reader' and I was done. So easy and Feedly seems really cute and user-friendly. Now I just have to make the time to actually READ some blogs and comment....same tune, different day, right? But really, does anyone else get the feeling that blogs are kind of on their way out and IG is taking over the world? Makes me kind of sad in a way but I sure do love me some IG and can't seem to make the time for blog reading. I'm sure I'm not alone in this change.

-Let's discuss Downton Abbey for a second: I realize I'm way late to the game here, but OMG. I just started season three last night and can't stop smiling when I think about DA. It took me about 3 episodes of season one to be hooked. I just adore the complex story lines with numerous characters and Matthew Crawley is getting dreamier by the minute. Except I saw this article on Facebook and am a little upset with him right now. I sort of love Mary now (used to hate her) and truly despise Thomas (who doesn't?). And woah to 'His Lordship' and his shockingly sneaky side! Didn't see that one coming. Old Lady Grantham kills me every time, too. Okay, that is all the rambling I'm going to do because I don't want to give anything away to those who are even further behind than me, but I love it so much! I haven't had a 'show' to watch in years, it seems. Downton is filling the void in a major way;)

-Meanwhile Nate is becoming addicted to his own show of choice, Breaking Bad. I watched a few episodes with him in the beginning and was all about it for a bit. Until I realized that it's freaking dark and depressing and gruesome as can be. Ick. When I started to have nightmares at night involving meth and chemistry I knew I needed to be done, and got back on my Downton kick. But Nate is still watching BB on Netflix on the TV while I shriek away on the laptop watching DA. It's pretty hilarious to see us so excited about two shows each night since we never used to watch TV before. It's soooo hard to be productive when all we want to do is escape to our respective TV worlds each evening after the kids go down. Rough life/first world problems to the max;)

-Where in the heck is spring? It snowed all day yesterday, has been in the 20s consistently, and today it was 13 degrees last time I checked. I'm totally over it and this has to be the worst winter I can remember in Wisconsin. I take back anything nice I ever said about snow being pretty. It is not. It's dumb and not welcome here anymore. I shoveled our looooong driveway last night with Truman's 'help', listening to CC on the monitor since Nate didn't get home until after 9pm. My back hurts today and I have decided that shoveling snow at the end of March is pure misery.

- Big news on the home front: my parents have made a HUGE decision to move from Missouri to Colorado. My dad accepted a job in Fort Collins, CO and my mom has put in her notice at work so it's pretty much official. His job starts on May 1 and they are moving out there at the end of April. So wild and scary and CRAZY to think about this, especially if you know my parents! They have lived in my childhood home for 27 years and it's so hard to imagine them living anywhere else. The house needs some updates to make it market-friendly, so I guess my mom is going to get her new kitchen and new carpet RIGHT as they are leaving the house---so unfair, right? But I suppose whatever house they buy in CO could just have everything she wants right from the start this time;) I'm so happy for my dad and his new adventure with his career. And I'm excited for my mom, too, since she plans to look for a job but has no idea what she will do. Besides being a little sad about not seeing my childhood home after a final visit I'm making with Cecelia next month, I'm also sad that my biggest dream of having my parents move up here is probably not going to happen. They assure me that they will visit just as often since they will now live 1 hour from Denver's airport instead of being 2 hours from St. Louis's airport. Nate is already dreaming up a huge family vacation to Colorado over Christmas which includes skiing, staring at the beautiful mountains, and drinking warm drinks by a fire with family. I'm in! But this big move is definitely still sinking in for me, even though I'm so proud of them for taking this next chapter in their lives. Colorado is a pretty freaking sweet state. We will miss the excuse to visit Missouri a few times per year, though;(

-We set Cecelia's first birthday party date: June 1. Point one: I'm kind of freaking out that we are even discussing my baby turning ONE and I can't really handle it just yet. Point two: June 1 has been a pretty important date for the past two years, so it's ironic that Cecelia will have her party on that date. In 2011, I was in the ER with hemorrhaging after my miscarriage on June 1. I'll never forget the thousands of dollars of hospital bills that showed up dated 6/1. (grrrr) In 2012, it was the date that my OB scheduled an induction for Cecelia in case she didn't come out on her own. And of course, she did and we ended up being at home with our new baby on the first. I'm kind of a sucker for dates with stuff like this so I'm really into the symbolism of celebrating an entire YEAR of life for our girl after a crazy journey to get here. Sniff.

-Baby girl will be ten months next week and we are still nursing, which is awesome since Truman was not that interested at this point (but I wouldn't let him give up until he turned a year because I'm psycho like that). BUT, at nearly 10 months of breast feeding I figured I was safe from The Big M considering I had it three times with Truman and never with Cecelia. I was wrong. On Friday morning I woke up with a clogged duct. Total bummer because those babies hurt like the dickens, but I figured with pumping three times that day at work and nursing Cecelia on top of that I should be fine. After work, at home with the kids before Nate arrived, I started to feel like pure hell. Freezing cold, body aches, chills, headache, and a fire boob. Oh, the fire boob. As soon as Nate got home I collapsed on the couch and couldn't move, other than to nurse Cecelia to sleep, which involved me sobbing from the pain. Not in a great mental place at that point, my friends. I hate mastitis SO freaking much! Luckily my OB was the one on call at the office and she called in the prescription for antibiotics without an office visit. I'm not sure I really even needed them since I did feel much better in the morning after only 1 of the 40 pills I'm to take, but whatever. Better safe than sorry. I am clueless as to why I got hit with mastitis this late in the game.

-When I was spiraling down into the depths of despair Friday night, nursing and crying, I panicked thinking that this could be it for nursing. So I got the rest of my frozen milk from my in-laws and holy hell, I have a LOT more than I thought! Like, 5 gallon bags filled up and I assumed I had about 1 gallon bag left. Score! I could start mixing in cow's milk to her daycare bottles but I don't think I need to just yet with all of this frozen milk. And she IS still nursing well (from the right side only---leftie is pretty much out of the game at this point and it's a sad lopsided sight, let me tell you) and I am not throwing in the cards just yet, still pumping three times a day at work and also once before bed each night. I find it rather startling to see my supply drop after mastitis and I pray it bounces back somehow. The numbers game with pumping can be so freaking depressing during something like this. But it's amazing to think that I won't have to pump in two more months. You better believe I am going to go buck wild after my last pumping session. Hate it so much lately. Such a time commitment! But I love that my girl is still nursing and I cherish it every single time she latches on, even if it's a quickie little snack session (her favorite lately).

-Awesome discovery: about 4 months ago I lost a pair of my black work pants. Could not find them ANYWHERE and it was bugging me to no end since I knew I never took them off outside of our house. I ended up buying new work pants and moved on. Then I 'lost' my sports bra the other day and refused to run in anything but my 'big breastfeeding' boulder holder. So I looked every where, including looking up into our laundry chute from the main level up towards the bathroom. Want to know what I found? My missing black pants. Don't worry, my sports bra was behind a drawer in my dresser, too. But those pants! So happy to find them, and let this be a lesson in the pitfalls of a sneaky laundry chute.

-Speaking of running: we are well into our half-marathon training program, and our longest run has been a smidge over 6 miles so far. Can I just say that training AND breast feeding means that I have an appetite that rivals a 400 pound man. For reals. And I'm not complaining because I know this amazing calorie-burning will not last forever. Might as well live it up while I can!

-I'm a total freak but I cannot decide how many pictures I want to share in this post, versus waiting to share next week in Cecelia's 10 month post (not even close to writing it, of course, but still thinking about which images to share). So whatever. Here are a lot and we'll see how many others from these 'shoots' I even share. I love Blogstomp so much!!

(new outfit from Target, total of $3 for both the top and bottom!!!)
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(St. Patty's Day--dug around in the attic to find an old green onesie from Truman's baby days. Definitely didn't make a big deal out of this holiday and I'm totally fine with that, just like this awesome blog post mentions. Also, love my red headed girl in green. Also, Truman refused to wear green and refused to be in pictures. Go figure. Headstands are one of many new tricks, in case you were wondering.)
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(she officially has 5 teeth now! And can pound a full slice of pizza cut up into little bites. Go, baby girl!)
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So much miscellany in this post. Now I'm off to finally read some of YOUR blogs in Feedly before the kids wake up. FRANTIC!!!

Oh, Cecelia

Like I said before, Cecelia is changing SO fast now. Although I don't particularly love to do the monthly update-type of posts, I feel the need to do a tiny update here so I don't forget all that is happening with our girl right now.

-Sister has been so much fun lately. She is giggling all of the time now and has the HUGEST grin I've ever seen. It is like she is somehow getting happier by the day and maybe with those top two teeth out of the way, she just feels better? My cheeks hurt just from thinking about how much she is smiling.

Whenever she sits in her highchair she will do 'So Big!' non-stop until one of us tickles her armpits. Truman taught her this and it never gets old. (And yes, that dark drink would be prune juice. It worked it's magic a day later!)

-Watching Cecelia with her great-grandma is one of the sweetest things ever. I love thinking about how Memaw was once in my shoes as a young mom, caring her for her daughter just like I'm doing now. (Except I'm not really that young, but we'll go with it here). And to see Memaw love on my girl is very special and I realize how blessed I am to have my grandmother around and in SUCH great health. She's a natural with both of my kids and the chaos of our loud home doesn't seem to phase her too much, even though it's so far outside of her norm. I know she remembers these days well and I can see why people have fond memories of the 'little baby' days. Glad that we can share in the chaos with other generations.

Tell me she isn't going to be a total firecracker. We are in trouble!
-Some HUGE motor milestones have been met since my last monthly post. In the past 10 days, she has learned how to CRAWL for real, to push herself into a sitting position from laying down, and she is even pulling to stand all of a sudden. That was fast! I am not kidding when I say that watching my second-born hit these milestones is every bit as exciting as the first time around. Probably because Cecelia is just so darn proud of herself when she learns a new trick. It's hilarious and awesome and I love this part of the first year so much!

Learning to crawl on all 4's like a big girl!
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Still with the planks
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Pushing into a sitting position, so proud
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Next up? Walking. But thankfully not even close, obviously.
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-Did I ever show you this hilarious video of CC planking and then screeching? It's classic.




And then there is this one I took of her pulling to stand for the first time. My big girl! You can tell we are both so proud.






-Teeth, oh teeth. She had just sprouted the top left tooth at my last update and now she has the top right and the side left already through. There is another one on the verge, so that would be 4 teeth that have come through in a matter of 2 weeks-ish. No wonder we have sort of been in teething hell lately. Those buggers have to hurt! But man, the sight of her top two nubbin teeth poking out in her smiles is enough to melt me. I have yet to get a good picture of them but think gap, uneven, and HUGE for those two butterbeans.

Also, I am still toying with the idea of a Baltic amber teething necklace, but I'm basically too chicken to actually buy it. Nate is a huge skeptic and I'm sure Lori would be, too, which means I'd have to feel pretty strongly about it if I really wanted to be that crunchy granola. Two weeks ago I was ready to buy 100 of them in the name of getting my happy baby back. But the past few days she has been more content so maybe I can push it off even longer. Any big success stories I must read?

-I posted these pictures on IG but had to post here, too. (are you following me yet? mrsjuliagoolia). My baby at 3 weeks versus 9 months. Still the same child, for sure, but she just looks so grown up to me now. Sigh. I suppose this was bound to happen, huh? ;)
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-This is sort of about Cecelia, but also about Nate: a few weeks ago I had to take a course for my PT license on a Thursday. Which meant that Nate was alone with both children for almost 8 hours. This was HUGE because although Nate is an amazing dad who does his share of solo-parenting for a few hours at a time, he hadn't tackled the monumental 'full day' with both kids. Truman was bound to be pretty easy on daddy, but Wild Card Cecelia? You never know how she will handle being away from mommy. I know Nate was nervous and I was, too! But of course, he handled the day like a freaking professional and was even a little bit cocky about it. Like, 'Mister Mom is rocking this thing like it's NBD' type of bragging. I mentioned that if it was so easy I could easily find a way to pass a few more hours before I came back home and he quickly texted back, 'Nice try.' Doh! But seriously, he did great and both kids did, too. Their outfit choices were questionable to say the least but I got a good belly laugh at seeing how he dressed them. Let's just say this: Cecelia has never worn more pink or more polka dots than the day Nate chose her outfit. Amazing!! ;)

That's it for now. I guess 9.5 months is a big time for change with this babe.

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