10 Months!

I can't believe that summer is here and we are well on our way to Abby's first birthday. Plans are obviously in full swing. I think I mentioned before that we'd be at the beach during her birthday and I am trying not to wish away summer while getting VERY excited for my first long beach trip in quite some time.

Taking the month to month pictures has become somewhat interesting now that Abby is on the move. She has also started making these incredibly cute/ugly faces which are hilarious, but not so good for picture taking.  I did my best, with the iPhone, on a crazy Saturday. At least I got one good picture:

How many? 10! Double digits!

Unintentionally seductive. Yet hilarious.

Stats? No recent stats to share. But she's definitely growing!

Diaper size? Comfortably in 4's. Hoping to stay here for a while.

Clothes size? 9-12 but mostly 12.

This picture sums up life lately!

Eating? We are getting so much better at solid foods.  Abby finally decided she wants to eat with her fingers and she has gotten very good at eating cheerios, puffs, pieces of cheese, various berries, pieces of banana, avocado, etc. I have been so cautious with foods because I am so afraid she will choke.  And you know what? She did choke.  And instead of freaking, I grabbed her out of her high chair, turned her over, slapped her back a few times and she coughed and was fine.  And that was it. Won't be the last time she chokes on something I'm sure.  And I'm just glad I knew what to do. She has also started to get MUCH better at actually chewing her food.  For the longest time, I was breaking up her puffs into pieces and now she is eating whole ones and chewing them up. Improvement!  We have also been embracing the sippy cup, although she drinks only water out of it. She still drinks formula every ~4 hours or so from a bottle.

Sleeping?
Abby has pretty much dropped her 3rd nap at this point, although sometimes she needs a quick one. Because of this, her bedtime has moved up from 8pm to 7pm.  It is crazy putting her to bed when the sun is still shining! Her morning naps are usually around 8am and her afternoon is at 1pm.

Milestones?
Another month flew by and Abby made incredible strides once again!
This month, she mastered getting into a sitting position from laying down.  She also began crawling normally (as opposed to the tummy slither).  Besides eating finger foods, she likes to "share" her food with the dogs by intermittently tossing things off her tray. She is actually OBSESSED with the dogs and actually says "Dog".  Well, actually she says "Doc".  We did a good job of confusing her since Dog and Doc are so similar.  She also calls Chloe "E Doc" (Chloe Dog). She also says "Dada" and has even said it a few times when he's walked into the room so I know she's got it down.  Today I asked her if I could take out her paci before lunch and she reached up and took it out herself.  Made me wonder what else she understands! Another crazy thing we did this month was put peanut butter in her mouth.  I was TERRIFIED. Our doctor told us to go for it.  And we did. And she didn't have any reaction at all. (Not that I was expecting one.) Another fun thing is that she discovered our belly buttons.  Not hers, just ours.  She's always pulling my shirt up looking for it. Awkward.

How I feel on Mondays

Mom's Corner:
Not much else to add this month since I just did a little write up of how working at home is going. (See previous post!) We have been having a ton of fun this summer and I hope I can get around to blogging about some of it!!

Til then, enjoy your summer!!!

~SG

Working At Home

I'm just finishing my second week of working at home part time while simultaneously taking care of Abby.  It has been an adjustment for both of us, but we are starting to get into our routine.

Something that has surprised me (and this is because I am a total idiot, I guess) is that I haven't had the time to feel lonely or bored.  I worried that I would feel so lonely, being here with only Abby every day.  But working 6 hours a day and taking care of Abby really does not leave much time for that!

Another adjustment that I've had to make is dealing with my a$$hole dogs.  Min Pins bark when a leaf blows down the street, so I've had to work on keeping them quiet (or outside) during phone calls, or during nap time when I know the mail man or UPS is coming. They also bark at trash trucks, school buses, neighbors, children, loud vehicles, etc.  Honestly that has been a bigger adjustment than Abby.  She's really easy going.

Most of the time, she is napping while I am in meetings or working on important things.  When she is awake during my work hours, she plays in her pack and play or watches Mickey Mouse from her walker or jumperoo.  Now that she's mobile, I can't just plop her on the rug anymore!

I do feel bad about her watching TV.  Earlier this week, I was working on a huge project and she was stuck in front of the TV watching Sesame Street and Baby Einstein while I sat on endless phone calls. I also feel bad when I am on a call and she is crying and I can't go comfort her immediately.  That is a hard pill to swallow.  I'm hopeful that won't happen too often.

But with these negatives there are so many positives.  We can take our time in the morning.  Eat breakfast, drink coffee, go for long walks in the stroller. I don't have to wake her up if she is still sleeping at 6:30. I am getting more exercise and eating less junk. I'm not sitting in the car for 3 hours a day, or paying $200 a month in tolls to avoid that traffic.  I get to see my baby girl all day.

Overall, I am happier.  My paycheck might be smaller now, but the trade in my happiness makes it 110% worth it in the end.

9 Months Old

Yet another month has flown by and here we are at 3/4 of a year old! The past month has seen a flurry of development and changes.  I feel like she is a completely different baby than she was just a few weeks ago.  Abby is flourishing at her new nanny's house.  She and her new friend (our nanny's 5 year old daughter) love to play together.  Abby rides along when they take the little girl to pre-school and gets to participate in fun events, such as a recent performance by DinoRock.

Abby learned to do so much this month that I actually had to keep a list on my phone so I would remember it all.  It started with a cute little Monkey See, Monkey Do game which I think I wrote about last time.  She would tilt her head to the side and wait for you to copy her, and then move her head to the other side.  Then, one day she was holding her Taggie blanket in front of her face and jamming it down into her lap.  Over and over.  We realized she was playing peek-a-boo!!! I about died the day she played Peek-a-boo with Chloe. She held the Taggie in front of Chloe's face and pulled it away, laughing, over and over. She also has mastered clapping her hands.  Clapping her hands is one of her new favorite tricks.  She also knows what to do when we say "clap your hands!".  There is a bit of confusion, however, with the word "quack" (like a duck) vs. "clap". Playing with her little rubber duck sometimes gets confusing when we say "quack quack!" and she claps her hands... but hey... it's cute.

More recently, she has started waving "bye bye", but I have only seen her do it a few times.  She and her nanny wave bye bye to me every morning as I leave. My favorite recent development is that Abby now gives "kisses"!!!! She leans in with her mouth open and kind of just puts her mouth on your face... super adorable until she leans into Chloe with her mouth wide open and gets a mouthful of nasty dog tongue. She still loves her doggies but she wants to be all up in their grill and they really don't want her anywhere near their grill...

Lastly, Abby isn't exactly crawling but she definitely isn't staying in one place.  She can easily get to the floor from a sitting position and she can army/belly/awkwardly "crawl" across the room to whatever it is she wants. She hasn't mastered getting up on all fours, or sitting up from a laying down position.  But I'm sure it's coming.

Also, I know it's bad for babies to watch TV but you haven't seen anything until you see her face when Mickey Mouse comes walking up the path and invites everyone to play at his clubhouse.  I have the series DVR'd and I put it on for her in the mornings while I'm packing my lunch.  She doesn't usually make it past the Roll Call in the opening credits but she LOVES Mickey Mouse.  I also put on Sesame Street for her sometimes.  I mean, I'd rather her watch that than Castle...

How many? 9! NINE!

Stats? Abby now weighs 20 lbs 8 oz and is 28.5 inches long. She is in the 80th percentile.  Last appointment (at 6 months) she was in the 60th percentile.  Her Doctor is really happy with her growth and development!

Diaper Size? We recently moved her from a 3 to a 4. It was a suggestion from her nanny after a few blow outs and I think we made the right call, even though they start at 22 lbs and she's not quite there yet.  I also tried Pampers cruisers instead of swaddlers and I really like them (thanks, Melissa!).

Clothes Size? 9-12 months. Some of the 6 month stuff still fits on top. She's wearing a 6 month onesie today. It's a little tight, though. The 9 month pants are a little short but now that it's hot out I just act like they are capri pants...  I also started putting her in shoes. She likes to stand up and hold onto the coffee table and I feel like she needs support on those little ankles.  Plus baby shoes are so cute.  She's somewhere between a 2 and a 3 with 4 inch long feet. I read that bare feet are best when learning to walk, so she doesn't wear them all the time.

Mom. Take this stupid thing off.

Eating? Still going strong with our eating schedule.  Oatmeal with fruit in the morning (dumped into a bowl and mixed w/formula), Gerber veggies for lunch (level 2 and she is starting to want more than just 1 container), and Gerber meat with veggies for dinner.  (Same thing, level 2 and yes I know it is gross but I'm a little weird about feeding her. Plus I only really give her the ones with turkey and chicken because...the beef one was absolutely disgusting.) She still does not do well with finger foods like little pieces of banana, avocado, cheerios or puffs. Just doesn't want them. Not interested.  But she LOVES rice rusks. (Baby Mum-Mums are her jam right now.)  I'm, of course, terrified she will choke because she loves to bite off a huge hunk of it, but it gets mushy really fast and she is starting to get better about "chewing" and she does a good job feeding herself. So I think there is hope for the future after all.  She actually just started letting me put little pieces of food in her mouth. Slow progress. We haven't done too much work with sippy cups but I will start working on that this month. She is also still taking 3-6 ounces of "milk" (formula) 5-6 times/day.  Finally, she has four teeth now. All on the bottom.

I LIKE YELLING

Sleeping? Still a rockstar sleeper.  ~3 naps per day but sometimes more and sometimes less.  She usually has a good, long morning nap and a long afternoon nap and sometimes a short evening nap. If her morning nap wasn't long enough (i.e. the dogs woke her up) she might need 2 morning naps.  We just never really pushed a nap schedule with her. I'm kind of indifferent about it. She sleeps well at night, although she does wake up between 5 and 6am.

Milestones?
-Extremely vocal. New one is "DoiDoiDoiDoi" but she'll blabber on to anyone that will listen (or to herself...) Also loves to be LOUD.
-Pincer grasp- got it down! (picks up all the little pieces of dirt on the carpet and makes me feel like I should vacuum more) (but doesn't put them in her mouth!...yet)
-Sitting to tummy/laying down (but can't sit back up again and gets sooo mad)
-Tummy slithering ("army crawl")
-Has started climbing on me (i.e. to get across my lap to the remote control) and pulling up to her knees on things she can reach. Great.
-Loves to stand up and hold onto things (only stands with help)
-Fart noises.
-I don't know if she understands "no" but she definitely knows tone of voice.  You should see her face when Joey yells at the dogs.

Mom's Corner
Well, enough about Abby.  Here's a fun fact about ME! I am very excited to announce that starting at the end of May, I'll be a Part Time Work-at-Home Mom. In the government contracting world, there is always uncertainty.  When our customer wanted to scale back our contract a little bit, I volunteered to work part time in order to help out.  Bonus- I get to do it from home.  I know it will be a bit of a juggling act at first while I figure it all out.  But I am so excited to get to see my daughter all day.  I am also a little sad, as I absolutely LOVE her nanny. We will not be ending our relationship with her and we plan to get the girls together often. I'm thrilled about this opportunity and I'm really lucky to be part of a company that has had my back for 6+ years. So everyone just wish me luck.  And I know there are some work-at-home Moms that read my blog so please let me know if you have any advice!!!

Here are some more pictures from the last month! :)

She loves putting things in her bucket.

We had some HOT weather this month! Hello, Summer!!

Practicing standing up and being a boss and not holding on, either.

This outfit is so cute.

Nobody puts baby in a corner!!! ....except baby.

Chloe didn't see it coming...

T-r-o-u-b-l-e

You may have noticed that our living room got a bit of a makeover.  It's not ready for a blog post yet, but here is a sneak peek.  I re-did the cornices, we got new furniture (new coffee table not pictured), and soon all the A/V equipment will go to its' new home in the basement.  We also re-did the side porch. So I guess I owe a house post at some point to show off all our fun activities.

Hope everyone has a FABULOUS start to their summer.  I can't believe it's summer once again. We're counting down to our beach trip for Abby's first birthday.  Don't even get me STARTED on that... where has the time gone?!

~SG

Shamrock Half Marathon

This is a little month late, however I went to delete pictures off my phone (don't worry, I have backup!) and I realized I never did a little write up about our trip.  It really was a nice little weekend trip.  I looked forward to it and enjoyed looking back on it, even though I did have to run 13.1 miles somewhere in there!

We left Saturday morning in a caravan with our friends Amanda and Ryan and first stopped at Bass Pro where we picked up this sweet hat for Abby:

She's also wearing pink camo overalls.

Then we trucked down to VA Beach, stopped at the expo to pick up our stuff, checked in at our hotels, and then went out to Olive Garden for dinner. Our friend, Mike, also joined us!

Perusing the OG kids menu

Amanda's salad. Just for her.

Sunday morning Abby woke us up at her usual time (~5am) so I was up in plenty of time for the 7am start.  It also helped that our hotel was RIGHT by the start line.  It was so convenient and worth the extra $$$ to stay right there.  Mike met me at the hotel and we walked to the start line together. Ryan was also running but we didn't see him at the start.  It was a little chilly but warmer than in years past so I wasn't too upset.

My outfit laid out the night before. I decided to do pink since everyone else was wearing green for St. Patty's day

The race went okay.  I admittedly did not train as much as I needed to and I knew it was going to be a slow race for me. My legs were tight and I was a little fatigued but I knew I could finish and I just kept trucking.  I knew Joey was going to be up near the finish with Abby and he was really excited about the sign that Abby had made "all by herself" and he wouldn't tell me what it said.  Apparently it was a huge hit with other runners.  They were right outside our hotel which was around mile 12.5 and I booked it to the finish from there!

Even though it wasn't my best, I'm pretty happy with how I did considering I didn't exactly run 10 miles (or anything close to it) in training and I had a baby in August ;).

Sent this to Joey as a joke when he asked for a progress update (the marathon course partially runs along with the half)

The lead marathon runner passing me at mile ~12. He had about 13 more miles to go (the rest of the course I just ran).

Side note: I would really like to be done with half marathons given the fact that I'm not going to have the time to really train to get a respectable time ever again.  But then I went to our "medal wall" and counted my half marathon medals.  Wouldn't you know I have 9!?!?!  So I guess I'm doing one more...uggh.

Anyway, we met up with everyone on the beach (Ryan had finished an entire hour before me. Sigh.), took pictures, and decided to forego the smelly beer tent and head back to shower/hang out in the hotel and have some adult beverages.  After that we went to a beach front restaurant and later, a Gordon Biersch before it was time for Abby and I to hit the hay and the boys went out and partied a little bit.

Monday morning we woke up and shipped out.  It was fun to have a little getaway weekend, to be by the beach (our hotel room looked out over the ocean) and to be with friends.  If you are ever considering this race, I HIGHLY recommend it.  There is a full, half, and an 8K.  This racing company is awesome and their events are well organized.  The courses are flat and the swag is top notch!

Abby's St. Patrick's Day outfit

She didn't get to wear it ON St. Patty's Day because she was sick. But luckily we had a reprieve with marathon weekend!

Sleeping in the hotel bed like a big girl

Breakfast all over her face. Eating in the bumbo was difficult to say the least.

For more info about the Shamrock Marathon Weekend check out:

www.shamrockmarathon.com


~SG

8 Months!

Time for the 8 month update!! Hooray!!!

It has been a really fun month saying goodbye to winter and hello to Spring!

The biggest thing that happened this month is that we switched daycares. I don't talk about daycare details too much on here for safety reasons obviously. But we switched her from a center to an in-home where she is the only baby and so far we LOVE it. Her new nanny is the bees knees.  We are hoping being around less children will keep Abby healthier. It has been a rough winter for all of us.

Now that the weather is getting nice, I am hopeful that we can get Abby out and about more often. I'd like to take her to play in the park on the baby swing.  I have not gotten her out very much since she was born and I see all these people taking their babies places and it makes me feel bad.  I mean, don't get me wrong, she rolls to Target and Babies R Us like a champ. But she's never been to the park or the library or the pool. So I gotta work on that.  But then again she is 8 months old. A big day for her is going in the stroller around the block. ;)

How many? 8 months!

Stats: Heavy. I don't have any stats because (thankfully) she hasn't been to the Doctor since her 6 month appointment. Let's hope it stays that way for another month.

Diaper Size? Wearing Swaddlers size 3s. I'm considering switching to Cruisers, although I hated Baby Dry so maybe I won't like them either.  Who knew there were so many different types of diapers?

Clothing Size? 9 months. I put her in a 12 month outfit this weekend but luckily it was a little big. Some of her 9 month clothes make her look like a stuffed sausage though. I think we will be in 12 month size long before we hit the 12th month ;)

Feeding  Abby is a rockstar when it comes to pureed food.  She eats 3 solid meals a day and eats the entire bowl at each sitting.  I have given her puffs but she basically picks them up, inspects them, and then drops them off the side of her high chair (to the patiently waiting dogs below). She has not brought them to her mouth by herself and when I put them in her mouth, she makes a terrible face and spits them out. One time, I put a puff in her mouth and she gagged on it.  And now I'm terrified that she's going to choke on everything. How is she going to learn to eat? How big/small do the pieces need to be?  I have also given her cheerios to play with but she has no interest in eating them (fine by me) and she will hold onto and nibble a rice rusk maybe for a minute or two before it too becomes a sacrifice to the Min Pins.... I've been reading up and I'm looking forward to discussing this stuff with her doctor but any gentle advice is welcome. Otherwise Abby will be 10 years old and eating pureed sweet potatoes.

In terms of formula consumption, she still drinks 4-6oz per bottle and she has 5-6 bottles per day.
I have tried with several different kinds of sippy cups and failed with all of them.  The best one I have found is the Avent soft spout, which she will gnaw on but hasn't shown much interest in drinking out of.  I stopped wasting formula and started putting water in there to get her used to it. I don't think she has consumed much, if any, water though.  Anyway, she can hold her own bottle if she's laying down and she prefers to feed herself. But she hasn't mastered putting her head back to drink while she is sitting up.

Sleeping Now that Abby is the only baby in the house with her new nanny, she gets all the sleep she wants and needs.  She was not getting enough sleep at the daycare center and I'm SO happy she is able to nod off whenever she wants now.  She also sometimes needs help going to sleep (i.e. to be rocked) and she is able to have that too.  The individual attention is so nice. She is napping about 3 times per day- morning, afternoon, and late afternoon.  No set times. At night she still goes to bed around 8 and she wakes up around 530am when I do.

Personality Abby is such a happy baby.  She is ALL smiles. Even when she has a cold! She really really loves her Dad.  She cries when he leaves her. It's sad and cute at the same time.  She also loves her doggies.  We have noticed that she verbally acknowledges them every time they walk into the room.  It's a very definitive "Duh!" sound.  I swear she is trying to say Dog. That was my first word so I will of course, die, if she has the same first word as me. :)

Milestones
-Sits up by herself and can get to the floor (mostly by leaning over/falling backwards) but can't sit up from laying down yet.
-Teeth: She has one and a half. But there are at least two more coming in. All on the bottom. All at once! Poor babe! She's constantly chewing on her hands and drooling like crazy!
-Can roll all directions and creatively move to reach things on her belly but I wouldn't call it crawling or anything close to that (although I think we are getting there. Give us another month.)
-All consonants, stringing sounds together, being loud, laughing, etc.
-She has surprised me a few times with her talents when it comes to her toys. Like putting a ring over the stacker, or putting a ball in her Dinosaur toy.  Or, ya know, picking the entire thing up and holding it in her lap sideways even though it's pretty freaking heavy!!!

-We are still doing basic sign language and she definitely knows what the signs mean (I get a huuuge smile when I ask her if she wants her milk). But she has not done any of them herself. Yet!
-We have started learning about the word "no" and what it means.  Mostly when it comes to the dogs.  "No, Abby, you can't grab Doc's butt."

Caught untying the breathable bumper...

We have not baby proofed yet and we really need to get on it. We also need to lower the crib mattress. Crawling is right around the corner.  I am using the "baby proofing" as an excuse to re-do the living room and subsequently create a man cave in the basement with everything we are moving because it is too dangerous (the speakers, ladder shelf, etc.).  New couches are on the horizon.

I know that this is an Abby post but there are other house projects that deserve a shout out. 1. the side porch has been in limbo all winter but we are working on finishing it so we can have a fun place to hang out in the summer nights that is bug-free. 2. we really need a new refrigerator and I'm excited about getting a new appliance.  3. speaking of appliances, I finally figured out how to turn off the obnoxious beeping on my Bosch dishwasher. If you have one you will understand that this is a big deal!!!

Back to your regularly scheduled programming:

Hangin in Abby's room

But first....

This Princess mirror is the greatest toy ever

Ridin' Dirty in Target

Watchin' Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, chillin with my feet on Cinderella

Happy Monday!!!

~SG