I will get it out of the way at the very top. I am sorry that I haven't written for four months. Life got really crazy there. However, please know that although there has been a lack of record - there has been no lack of love or gratitude for my sweet baby girl. I will do my best to write down some of the highlights of these jam packed four months of your life, reminisce about all the ways I love you, and get ready to move on to celebrate another month going by. Because life doesn't stop...so I'm determined to enjoy every minute that I have as you grow.
7 - 8 months (This was a big month!!)
You got a little more mobile this month, bouncing around on your bottom and rolling all over the family room, eventually managing to get up on all fours towards the end of the month. After that, you figured out how to crawl backwards enough that you could crawl into a sitting position after being on your belly. You also learned to pull yourself up on your knees in your crib and bounce, bounce, bounce. You were consistently at least sitting up in your pack n play when I came in to see you in your bedroom/bathroom after naptime or in the morning.
You were still really "in love" with mama too. There were times that other people thought something was really wrong with you, but everything got better as soon as I took you. You had a runny nose on Mother's Day so the two of us got to hang out at home instead of going to church. I enjoyed some extra cuddles with you. We also had taken a little beach trip the day before together while the older kids prepped for Mother's Day. You fell asleep in the carrier and I was able to just sit with my feet in the ocean and enjoy the sun and calmness. It was a sweet memory for me.
We took a little getaway for a few days over to Orlando. You did GREAT while we were out at Disney. You maybe cried once or twice in four days while we were on the go. You would happily sleep in the Ergo, but you also were content to be awake and just look around while in there also. You were definitely not as happy if we weren't on the go. You stopped liking being left on the floor to play with toys more and more - wanting either someone there with you or to be held by someone the whole time. You did get to go in the pool for the first time. It was one of the really shallow entry kind, and you loved sitting in the water and kicking and splashing.
Another first....you got two bottom teeth this month!!!
As far as the particulars of you - you still didn't gain a lot of weight...but Lucille encouraged me to focus on the fact that you are happy and healthy, active, alert, meeting your milestones, and have chubby little legs. That seems to be what people would have measured a baby by before there were growth charts. You don't like a lot of solid foods. We are trying, but you usually spit them back out at me. You will take a few bites, act like you like it at first, and then you are just done. In fact, if you really didn't want something, you learned to blow spit bubbles or make a buzzing sound, backing your head up as far as possible to avoid eating it!! (even something yummy like pears)
(Oh, you mostly only got up once a night to eat during this month.)
Enjoying time with daddy and mommy at Disney
Loving the pool
A few last toothless and immobile pictures
Trying to get in that crawling position
Teething anyone?
Mother's Day Beach Trip with Mama
Mother's Day Snuggles on a Sunday Sick Day
First Time to Pull up to Knees
8 - 9 months
The first thing that I have jotted down about this month is that we finally started to make some progress with you and food (although the big breakthrough came at the very end of the month/beginning of the next). You figured out how to finger-feed yourself puffs, and continued that with some bread, shredded cheese, peas, and small pieces of cheese quesadilla. You still were basically refusing anything to do with pureed foods 85% of the time. Your pincer grip and ability to feed yourself small pieces of food was really impressive. And you really like to do it - getting pretty (loudly) annoyed that we will only give you one piece of food at a time. This prompted daddy to really really work on teaching you the sign for "more." He was determined you would learn (and you eventually would...but not this month).
After getting up on all fours and very seriously rocking back and forth for a few weeks, on June 9th, you figured out how to crawl! We were all here to watch and cheer you on. We tricked you into crawling for a small toy (something that was a "no no" for you to have) of Mackenna's. Somehow, the forbidden things are always the enticement to make that first leap. You also are beginning to learn to stand up holding onto things and wave "hi." You are so so so proud of yourself when you wave. You will do it on command, and it is clear that you are really happy when you can perform like this for your adoring public.
We spent a LOT of time in the car this month. We first drove for a family vacation in Georgia for a week and then on to Indiana. You did pretty well in the car...especially if mommy came to the back seat to entertain you! You took most of your morning naps in the car while we were out and about in Georgia, and this burned us when we got to Indiana as you refused on nap in your pack n play in the mornings, although you eventually caved. You continued to earn your weight in gold by being flexible 85% of the time. You slept in a lot of different places (In two weeks, you slept at 4 different houses...with three more coming later), and you woke up more than you would have at home, but much less than some babies would have. I tried to take a lesson from you, and roll with the punches also.
Daddy's Balancing Act Trick, Standing Up, Surviving the Long Car Ride
Georgia Mountain Hikes...varying degrees of success
Crawling and Eating
Some car trips left her happier than others!
9 - 10 months
We spent a big chunk of this month in Indiana too - seeing family and soaking it all up. Some kind of light switch turned on inside of you this month - and you decided that eating food was really fun. You started eating rice, banana chunks, chicken, canned peaches, baked potato, green beans, brocoli, lunch meat, hamburger meat, watermelon, and probably more. You feed yourself like a champ, and it is honestly so great in my opinion. Because you refused pureed foods, we kind of skipped the "me sitting there and feeding you and not getting to eat my own food" stage and jumped right to the "giving you some food to eat actually buys me some time to get something done and gives you something to do so you aren't bored while we are eating" stage. Thankful.
You learned to pull up; right before Daddy left to go back to Florida and then to France, you pulled up on his leg. Glad he was able to see it. You then figured out how to pull up on the one step up into Nana and Papa's kitchen, and also climb the step if you really were feeling adventurous. You really enjoyed pulling up on the fireplace mantle at Grandma and Grandpa's house.
You were still pretty obsessed with waving this month. You will only do it when someone says "hi;" you don't seem to realize that "bye" is the same motion. You also love to shake your head in a "no" position. It is funny because sometimes the questions that you respond to really do have a "no" answer - so we like to pretend that you are really really smart.
As with your brother and sister, going to Indiana always marks a big change to your feeding schedule. While I had been nursing you before your morning and afternoon naps (not as a sleep crutch but as a way to get more feedings in you), with a busy schedule and places to be, these kind of went out the window. You fell into a new routine of nursing in the morning, after your morning nap, after your afternoon nap, and before bed...and then whenever you woke up at night. I wouldn't have forced this, but I do like how easily it came.
I was the main "constant" in your life in this month filled with so many new faces, and you really clung onto me - literally. If I was holding you on my hip and it was clear that someone else was going to try and take you, you would bury your body against my chest as if claiming your territory. It was pretty precious, and I happily enjoyed you being my sidekick. My cousin Anna helped me while Daddy was gone on two separate occasions, and you seemed really excited to see her on the second time. So, you liked other people too...it was just clear that I was your preference. It was also clear that you didn't forget daddy in his two week absence as you quickly warmed back up to him when he returned.
Coming home from Indiana reminded me of making the same trip with your brother and sister at your age. You did okay for awhile, and then you would reach a point of "I'm done." Not sure anyone can blame you, and thankful that you won't remember it!
Once back here, you reached a couple of more developmental milestones. By kind of a complete fluke, while giving you an applesauce pouch at the park, thinking that I would need to squeeze a little bit in your mouth at a time, you figured out you could suck it down, and in so doing, taught yourself how to drink from a straw. You also figured out how to sign "more" - daddy is so proud - and "all done." Thankfully, we have been able to move from only giving you one piece of food at a time on your tray, to being able to put quite a few on there at one time and you will work your way through them without shoving them all in and choking. So, I guess you don't have to show off your "more" sign as often as you would have in the one bite at a time phase! You are pretty into blowing zerberts on people's arms...usually mine. It is always funny when people think that someone made a "rude" noise, just to see it was you and your slobery mouth! Another thing you learned - you can put a ball in the giraffe tube toy. It is so cute to see you figuring these things out.
We also successfully moved you from your bathroom cave into sleeping in the kid room at home. There were some rough nights, but we survived - mostly. It seems the key is making sure that M&M don't nap during the day (they listen to audio books on mine and dad's bed) so that they are really tired and just go right to sleep at night, not keeping you up. If they keep you up, then you will happily stand up in bed and scream, and they love to come tell us, which makes you scream more, etc. etc. etc. Joy.
At the very very very end of this month, while back in Florida and having a cold, you went on a complete nursing strike, starting on a Friday morning. I could say more about this, but the gist of it is that you really were refusing to drink any liquids. You weren't very good, or interested, in a cup yet, and you definitely still said "no" to a bottle. You would happily nurse at 6 am in the morning - but you totally screamed and pushed me away if I offered it at any other time. We tried to give you as much pumped milk as we could, but figuring out a way to get it in you was a challenge. You would happily eat the baby food pouches, but I knew that wasn't as good as getting you milk. It was a hard three days. We were really heading down a dehydration route on Sunday night. You thankfully had a wet diaper when you woke up on Monday morning, and I opted to go ahead and go to VBS that day and take you to the doctor in the afternoon. Apart from a virus, everything looked ok with you (no ear infection, throat infection, or wheezing), but you had lost a half a pound in one week (it had taken you about 3 months to gain that half of a pound - you little half pint). The doctor was concerned. Well, I guess that is all you had to hear, because you started nursing again after we left the doctor and have been happily back in your routine ever since. We just now own a lot of sippy cups of all trial kinds...and I try to soak in each nursing session knowing it always could be my last! (even in the middle of the night....)
Showing off eating and standing skills
Sleeping during Fourth of July Parade
Waving!
Pulling Up!
10 - 11 months (whew...the current month)
What personality you have been showing this month! You love to say "dada" - it is definitely your favorite word, although you will say "mama" and "baba." When you do the sign for "all done," you also sometimes say "ah-duh." You also love to clap and will do it either when I ask you to clap or when I ask you if you want to do pattycake. We are working on teaching you to hold your hands up with "so big" and hold up one finger for your soon to be age - we'll see about an update next month. You love to buzz with your lips back and forth when someone will do it to you.
You made some changes this month with kissing. First, you learned to lean your head in to get close when I would pucker up to give you a kiss. Then, you started giving open mouth kisses whenever someone would ask you for a kiss. Then, just a few days ago, you learned to blow kisses and will definitely do it whenever anyone blows you one (it is your new favorite trick), but sometimes you will do it when I just ask you to.
You really love to explore the house. You still like to play with your toys sometimes, but you would prefer to calmly crawl over to something and just pick it up, study it, and then move on to something else - usually something that is not yours. You don't put a ton of stuff in your mouth, which is nice. We do close you into the family room - with a ton of toys - quite a bit of the time - and you don't love this. You also don't love time in your jumper or exersaucer, would much rather be out and about, just exploring. You are a FAST crawler, expert puller upper, but still not a cruiser or a walker. You are learning more and more what causes toys to work, knowing where to put balls into openings and hit buttons to make music start.
You seem to have a really sensitive little spirit (or maybe just really opinionated). If we tell you "no" for something in a stern voice or bat your little hand when touching something, you will take a second or two, then turn your entire face upside down, and then just scream and scream and scream. Tonight I told you "no" for throwing your food on the floor on purpose, and you did the upside down screaming face routine. You then kept screaming and didn't really want much to do with me for awhile, making me "pay" for my "meanness." One day, you had your back to dad when he came into the family room. You were holding something that you shouldn't have. He calmly said "Jocelyn" and you jumped and turned around with a sheepish look on your face. It was baby guilt if we have ever seen it!
You got a third tooth this month, your upper left middle, and the upper right middle is really working on breaking through.
You are still taking two good naps a day - this has been your routine for the last few months. You are flexible with your start and end times, which is nice, but they are about an hour and a half each or two hours mostly. You sleep through the night 85% of the time - from about 8 to 7.
You eat a ton of food - the list is seriously huge. (grapes, cheese, cheerios, mashed potatoes, corn, broccoli, green beans, peas, carrots, bread, pizza, mac and cheese, meatloaf, pot roast, plain pasta, scrambled egg yolks, yogurt, pears, peaches, strawberries, watermelon, banana, kix, blueberries, freeze dried apples/bananas/strawberries, chicken nuggets, tortellini, rice, lunch meat, hot dog, chicken and noodles) You have maybe eaten a pureed food from a spoon like two or three times. You do, however, like to drink homemade yogurt smoothies through your straw cups (yogurt, baby food - fruit and/or vegetable, and water). We are trying to fatten you up...trying, trying, trying. (You do still nurse four times a day, and have started "searching for food" if you are in the mood to eat. Since you will drink from a straw cup now, you have been able to drink something from that and go to sleep if I'm not home to nurse you at night - that is a big change.)
Buzzing Raspberries
New Wake Up Position
Well, I think that about covers the big stuff. You are obviously an entirely different baby than you were when I last wrote about you at 7 months. You are crawling, pulling up, have more hair, have more teeth, communicating more, sleeping better, eating more. But we still love you just as much. I am so thankful to get to be the mama to another girl - to you. You keep me guessing at times, but I really do feel like I know you so well. I spend a lot of time with you - you are much more my sidekick then the twins ever were. And that is okay - you are flexible and "easy" so much of the time that it is pretty natural to incorporate you into my daily routine and just have you with me (especially since you still let me wear you...yay!). I love seeing you figure out how to communicate with your words and movements. I can't wait to learn more and more about how that brain of yours thinks. I love to sneak in and see you sleeping (I don't get to do it a whole lot because you tend to wake up - a light sleeper - and are usually standing up by the time I get in there), but seeing you with your fingers in your mouth, usually on your belly, and so peaceful just melts my heart.
I have no idea what this next month will bring as we round the corner to "one year old." And beyond that. I can't wait to see what God has in store for you, and for you in our family. Again, I am so thankful God has entrusted you to me for this time,
Love,
Your Mama
Photo by Daddy
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