Happy 11 Month Birthday, My Spring Flower!

This will be the last monthly update before my little baby turns a whole year old. Once again, I can't believe how quickly the time is going. This month was a rocky one as Little Miss always kept us guessing. Will she sleep through the night or wake up hourly? Is she teething, or just fussy? Did she get a cold or is it allergies? While she continues to play independently, she is acutely aware of where I am and often joins me to just check in. She demands to be picked up more and more and I've spent several nights cooking in the kitchen while wearing her on my back.
She's also becoming my little 'helper.' One day I was transferring clothes from the washer to the dryer when I noticed a diaper cover in the dryer. I inspected more closely and saw that my precious girl took the diaper cover off the drying rack and put it in the dryer. Once I realized she also wanted to be involved, I asked her to add socks to the dryer one at a time. It was painfully slow, but I realized that she understood everything that I was saying to her and could follow simple commands. 'Can you put this in the dryer?' 'Oops. You'll need to pick it up off the floor.' 'Try again.' It blows my mind how quickly her little brain is developing. My baby is becoming a toddler quicker than I'd like to admit.
Here's the month, by the numbers:

March
Weight- 24 lbs (fully clothed)
Clothes Size- 12 mos (really pushing it, will be in 18 mo soon)
#oz drunk/day- 4 6 oz bottles (we were able to drop the night bottle. Yay!)
# teeth- 7, there's been a lower front tooth at the surface the entire month. I'm shocked it hasn't come through. We're also seeing an increase in drool and teething activity and wonder of molars are on their way soon
Road Trips- 2, Memphis and Atlanta
Foods Tried- brussel sprouts, mandarin oranges, olives, greek yogurt, graham crackers, strawberries (she did NOT like), rice cakes
Favorite things- carrying her socks around the house, playing with sponges, actually petting the dog, being in Mommy's arms
New Skill- signing 'more' 'all done', making clicking noises with her tongue, checking the pocket in her bib for more food.
A few times I've also seen her stand unassisted for up to 10 seconds at a time. She isn't doing this intentionally and by no means do I think she'll be walking next month, but she is getting closer. (sob)
Biggest Challenge- determining what's wrong. We have a hard time distinguishing if she's upset because of teething, allergies, stomach troubles, or if she just wants us there for reassurance
Biggest Success- stacking all the rings on her stacking toy. I've moved her to a harder one, but she's not interested yet.
Sweetest Thing- We're trying to encourage Little Miss to use teething rings. She enjoys watching me bite them with my front teeth and thinks it's hilarious when I wiggle them up and down. I then transfer the teething ring to her mouth 'Lady and the Tramp' style. She chews on it for a few minutes, then holds it out for me to take in my mouth again, and repeat. She now brings the ring to me when she wants to play that game.
'Animal' Impersonation:
Vampire- Little Miss is getting very affectionate. She loves to 'kiss', but hasn't mastered puckering up yet. I get open mouth kisses on the cheek, nose and chin all day long. Sometimes they're a bit aggressive and teeth are involved, but I appreciate the sentiment. I call her a vampire only because she's so aggressive in her 'kissing' and uses her teeth frequently. She has yet to bite my neck though.

I couldn't resist also putting in this picture.  Check out that adorable button nose and those cheeks.  Strangers compliment us on her cheeks all the time.

 

I also loved this picture of her checking out the Velveteen Rabbit.  She's been taking pictures alongside the toy since one-month-old, and yet it was as if she only really discovered it.

This month I really made an effort to record things as the month went by, and I think I was able to capture more.  I can't wait to see what the next month brings.

 

I <3 You

<img src="http://bricksidewalkbluehouse.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/photo19.jpg" class="size-full" alt="I

Little Miss has a message for you. Hopefully it brightens your day.

Restaurant Entertainment

Hubs and I made the decision last month that eating out was getting both too costly and too stressful. I enjoy getting breaks from cooking, but taking a baby to a restaurant is work. We have to go somewhere that won't have too long of a wait so that we can be sure to be finished by bedtime. We prefer to have things on the menu that we can share with her, and we have to keep her occupied while we're waiting to order and for our food to arrive. I have some items in the diaper bag that only come out at restaurants, but her favorite thing to do is simply throw them on the floor. Food seems to be the most effective and she loves eating puffs, but I hate filling her up with food while we're waiting for more food to arrive. My cousin gave us a leap frog something-or-other for Christmas. It doesn't get much use at the house (because we're trying to limit screens) and on a recent road trip we brought it along to keep her entertained in the car. Wouldn't you know it does the trick? We still try to limit how much we get it out, but we're happy that we have something that she enjoys doing, and doesn't immediately throw, for those times when we do make it out for a meal.

Hocus Pocus

We were eating out at a restaurant earlier this month when Little Miss began waving the pen like a magic wand. Could these muggles have produced a witch? Should we be looking for a letter in about 10 years? What will we do now that Olivander's is closed? Stay tuned...

Burgess Falls

A few weeks ago we actually got some decent weather so we packed a lunch, got the family into the car and headed out East to explore some state parks.  After some initial debate, we wound up at Burgess Falls.  None of us had been there before and we didn't know what to expect, but they allowed dogs and had some hiking trails so we were up for an exploration.  As we began our hike, we first came to this fall:

We knew that there had to be more on offer, but it was the first waterfall we came to and easy enough to jump off the trail for a photo, so we went for it.  After a little while longer we arrived at the Middle Fall.  Little Miss was more interested in the noise than anything, but she looked at it for a while.

 

We continued to hike and found a larger waterfall, but it was really crowded so we didn't take a photo.  We did decide to hike down and have a picnic lunch at the top of the fall.  This was our first family picnic.  It was a bit awkward eating on the rocks, but we made it work.

Little Miss Hungry ate her food, still was able to share some with Huck and finished up satisfied:

(Hope you also enjoyed the closeup of some of her teeth:) We had the option to take some stairs down to the bottom of the fall, but I didn't want to have to climb all the stairs back up so we passed on it this time.  That seemed to be the only hiking trail we could find, so we made our way back.  Because of our initial confusion as to which park we would go to, we spent a lot of time in the car, but it was an easy hike and a good place for a first time picnic.  There are several other state parks with waterfalls (one with a great swimming hole) that we hope to explore this summer.  If it ever becomes summer again- I'm beginning to feel like we're living in Narnia.

New "Toys"

With the winter being so cold and so long, we spend a lot of time at home. It's a lovely home, but I've really begun to wonder how our Sweet Pea isn't completely bored with the toys and activities on offer day in and day out. I fret about it, and yet I don't want to go out and buy a bunch of stuff that she'll outgrow in no time flat.
On a related side note: everyday I need to wash the bottles. To help ease tension on my back, the physical therapist recommended opening the cabinet door under the sink and putting one foot on it. This seems easy enough so I've been doing it. This, however, grants Sweet Pea access to everything under the sink. Our cleaners are kept elsewhere (and I'm standing right there supervising) so this isn't really a big deal. Sweet Pea takes this as her daily cue to come over and explore underneath the sink. Her most exciting find? These green Scotchbrite sponges. She loves them, looks at them, carries them around the kitchen, but has never taken them out of the packaging. Here's hoping she'll find more 'toys' like these to keep her occupied and save me having to shop.

Helping Daddy Work

Cupcake is obsessed with anything with a screen, which of course is the exact thing we're trying to limit. One day hubs had to work at home and he set up at the dining room table. Our dining room is at the front of the house and other than meal times, we don't spend much time up there. However, once our little darling discovered Daddy was on the computer, no matter how boring the Excel spreadsheet, that was exactly where she wanted to be. We really had no choice but to promote her to junior financial analyst, for a few minutes anyway.

The Clean Up Crew

Upon first glance, this picture looks really gross. No, Little Miss didn't get sick on the table, although I'm sure Huck would be happy to clean that up as well. We had a lentil dinner and Little Miss is starting to get pretty adamant about feeding herself. It was way messier than spaghetti.
When we finish eating dinner I say to hubs, "baby or table?" as a way to determine what our evening cleanup responsibilities will entail. He varies his choice and on this particular night he chose table. When I finished cleaning up the baby, this is what I found. Rest assured, he went in afterwards with a washcloth to really clean the table, but this was how he started. I'll give him 350 points for creativity, as well as making the dog happy.

A Gated Community

After Little Miss Curious decided to climb and then fall down the stairs last month, we decided that it was high time to install some baby gates. Hubs got right on installing the one at the bottom of the stairs, since that's where the problems are most likely to occur. After some instruction, the gate is easy enough to manage and it seems to do the trick. Actually, truth be told, Little Miss isn't really interested in the stairs at all. She was just here because I ran upstairs to get something and she wanted to see where I went. The person it causes the most difficulty for is Huckleberry. He often likes to snooze in bed once Pumpkin and I get up and he's been locked on the other side of the gate and whimpered for rescuing more than once. Now, when he hears Sweet Pea and I make our way towards the stairs, he's out of the bed like a rocket and follows us down pretty closely. I'm pretty sure he misses his freedom to lie on our bed whenever, but those are the shakes for the next year or so.

Happy 10 Month Birthday, Lucky Charm!

10 months!  I have a 10 month old baby!  There is so much truth to the saying 'the days are long but the years are short.'  I'm so blessed to be able to stay at home with my little ray of sunshine because even though there are days that she absolutely exhausts me, there's no place else I'd rather be.  And to be honest, hubs and I lucked out with our baby.  She's really independent, plays by herself for long stretches, copes well in new situations and can easily be distracted when she's getting into things we'd rather she not.  

Without further ado, here's her last month by the numbers:

February

Weight- 24 lbs (fully clothed)

Clothes Size- 12 mos

#oz drunk/day- 4 6 oz bottles a day and some of a 4 oz bottle at night (we're looking to drop it soon)

# teeth- 7 (She now has all four teeth on the top and three on the bottom. That's right, she grew 5 teeth in one month for an increase of 250%.   It was awesome. Actually, apart from her sleep being disturbed, she copes with teething really well.)

Road trips- 0

Foods Tried- almond milk, eggs (quiche), polenta, popcorn

Favorite things- keys, glass bottles, her house toy, my iphone

New Discovery- putting toys into and taking toys out of their containers , the home button on the iphone, sticking out her tongue

Biggest Talent- getting off her shoes and socks in no time flat

Biggest Challenge- Sleep.  Always sleep.  This month, it was heard in the house, "It's like you value sleep above all else."  I think it was meant as an insult, but I just took it as an affirmation of my priorities.

Sweetest Thing- when I get her out of the crib after naps or in the morning, the first thing she wants to do is cuddle.

Animal impersonations:

1.  lemming- I've witnessed her crawl off the side of a couch and the end of a bed without hesitation

2.  cat- girl loves to pounce

TGIF- The Arrrr Edition

Isn't she the cutest little pirate you ever did see? I've started putting hair bows on since she has a definite lack of hair and I'm tiring of people complimenting me on my son. She must've worked the hair bow down over her eye and then fell asleep in the car. I grabbed this shot while she was waking up and as soon as I opened the door to get her out. That may account for the stink face she's giving me.

The Activity Cube

The bad news is that I threw out my back on Sunday.  Fortunately, it wasn't nearly as bad as last time and essential oils have been making a huge difference.  Today I had an appointment with my old neighbor, who is also a physical therapist.  I took Tater Tot over to her house for a session.  Her work area is actually set up in the garage, so out there we went to get to work.  She put a blanket on the floor for Little Miss and I reached into the diaper bag for some toys for her to play with.  My neighbor then placed this activity cube on the blanket.  I mentioned that I was looking for one of those for Little Miss and you could literally see the wheels spinning in her head.  Her youngest is 4 1/2 years old and she was looking to get rid of it.  We quickly arranged a sale and I walked away with a really cool activity cube for a steal of a price, as well as getting my back tuned up and cleared again for running.

When we got home I put the cube in the family room, showed Little Miss a few things she could try and let her go to town.  At first, she was more interested in using it to pull up on:

However, she then got interested in one of the sides.  She was particularly fond of opening and closing the door- she must've spent at least 10 minutes on that one activity.  You can tell how focused she is just by looking at her tongue:

 

I haven't seen her really explore the other sides yet, but there's always tomorrow.  

Mommy's Little Helper

Now that she's getting older, Corn Pop likes to 'help' me to chores around the house. One of her favorite things to help with is putting together her diapers. When I put the liners and the covers on the couch, she helps pick them out by throwing them on the floor. She tends to keep them in the same area, so I usually let her do it and then choose the ones she isn't currently playing with (or eating) to put together. Eventually she looses interest and then I'm able to put the final ones together when she leaves the area. This is what it looks like as she helps. The other day she also started helping me hang the diapers on the drying rack in the laundry room. Almost as soon as I could hang them, she took them down and left them on the floor. I could see myself getting annoyed by this if I didn't think it were so darn cute. I'm appreciating that she likes to be near me and involved in what I'm doing.