11 Month Update

 

 

11 Months Old

 

Weight: At least 20 pounds

 

 

I still can't believe that this sweet girl is 11 months old. She is the best baby. Rarely cries, goes to bed on her own, takes a nap on her own, holds her bottle, crawls and pulls up on everything, is a professional cruiser, and took her first step on her 11 month birthday.

 

Last night, Josh and I were working with her, trying to get her to walk again. She is so close. If she doesn't think about it, she will take a few steps, but if she is focused on walking, then she will either sit down, or just dive towards you. Soon enough, we will have a runner on our hands.

 

A couple weeks ago, I bought her  a walker and she couldn't figure out how to go forward. She was going backwards so much, that I told Josh that we needed to have a back up beeper for her. This week, she figured out the forward motion. The only thing is, she hates the walker. I guess she feels like she is being held back. Miss Independent. So, I guess I'll be taking the walker back.

 

 

11 month favorites:

Still loves her Wub. She has one for 'on the go' and the other stays in her bed. I am trying to get her to only have it in the car or at sleep times... not going so great so far. But we just started.

 

She LOVES these Stacking Cups. I'm seriously considering buying more for her. She just can't get enough of them. She has a set that she plays with at the farm, and then some for the bath tub.

 

The girl is obsessed with books! She doesn't have many, and for her birthday we are requesting books with a special message on the inside cover, instead of cards. I figure, birthday cards will be read once or twice, but books will be read over and over.

 

She is also loving her 'my first photo album' that she got for Christmas.

 

 

The girl has a boat load of toys. I'm sad to say that some of them she is 'growing out of' and rarely plays with them.

 

All in all, she is fantastic and I couldn't have wished for anything better to happen to Josh and I. I feel like I am complete now. I have my wonderful husband, and my amazing baby girl. I'm feeling very blessed!

 



Serious Business

Today HG is 11 months old. I plan on taking her 11 month pictures tonight. Then I will update the blog, on time, with the pictures and monthly things.

I just needed to write a short post to tell the world (or my few followers), that HG just took her first step! She had just finished eating lunch, I was putting her down in the floor and she wanted to stand (like usual), so I let go of her and watched to be sure that she wasn't going to fall. She stood there for a minute or so and then it happened, one step forward. Which was followed by her laughing and sitting down. I think she got a little nervous.

I am doing my best to get it on video. Of course, now she doesn't want to do it and just keeps looking at me and laughing. Stinker!

My heart was pounding for her!! I'll update later!

Cake

This weekend I made a cake for the first time in a year and a half. It felt great. I have really missed decorating cakes. I was unsure of how it was going to go with having to care for HG and make a cake. Luckily, after we got home from the grocery store, she decided to take a two hour nap. That allowed me to get the cake baked, make 3 batches of icing, and get all the fondant rolled out and cut. Oh, and get all the dishes done.

When she woke up, I had her lunch ready and put her in her high chair. While she was eating, I iced the cake. Josh got home about the time she was done with lunch and he was able to take her and keep her occupied while I worked on the cake. I had to pause to give her a snack and then get her down for her second nap. The cake took me 6 hours and I am so thankful that he was there to help me. Otherwise, who knows how long it would have taken.

The cake was for a baby shower that was on Sunday. The theme was "Two Peas in the Pod". The mother-to-be is expecting twins in September. And she isn't finding out the gender of the babies. I love that more and more people aren't finding out what they're having. It truly is a wonderful surprise. If I had to do it over again, I would stick to not knowing. It was so exciting hearing the doctor say "It's a girl!".

Anyways, here is the cake! It was delicious!

 

9/10 Month Update -Late

Better late than never, right? Month 9 and 10 for HG have been busy. She has been talking up a storm, crawling in super fast mode, getting in to every thing, and still managing to be the cutest baby ever.

I will say, it is getting MUCH harder to take these monthly photos. Getting her to sit still is almost impossible, and then I have to try and get her to leave the sticker on her shirt. YEAH RIGHT! I just have to snap a picture as quickly as possible and hope it turns out ok.

At her 9 month doctors appointment, we got nothing but compliments, and warnings. The compliments were on how well she was doing. The doctor was concerned that she wasn't clapping her hands, that is until I told her that she knows where her head, belly and feet are, listens when we ask her to go get a toy and plays 'bashful' when she is near a stranger. Apparently, all these things are things that happen between 14-18 months. So we got praise on how smart she is, and then came the warnings. She told us that when babies are 'ahead' and catch on quickly they are harder to break of habits, and will throw temper tantrums sooner. Great. Taking the wub away is going to take an act of congress. I just know it. Oh well. Those are minor things. Until the temper tantrums happen in the toy aisle at the store. At which point I will still claim this oh so cute child of mine.

This year is going by fast and first birthday party planning is in the works!

Easter 2013

This week has flown by and before ya know it, your Easter post is late!

HG's first Easter was a success. Easter Sunday is spent with Josh's granny and family. So we got up Sunday morning, and got ready for church. We headed over to Josh's parents for our fun family photo session. Followed by HG getting her Easter gifts from her grandparents and Aunt Lindsey. Then we headed to church. Josh and I were a bit nervous about HG sitting through Easter service. She isn't a bad baby, and doesn't cry a lot, she just likes to... scream. All the time. She is so loud! We got there at 10:30a and got seated. HG was entertained by all the people coming in, and everyone coming up to her and talking to her. Family was ooing and aahing her and she was loving every bit of it. Right before the choir got ready to sing, I whispered to Josh "I sure hope no one coughs during the service", (since our child likes to mock coughing). When the choir started singing, HG's booty started moving. She loved it. She danced and smiled and had a great time. Then it happened. Unknowingly, Josh's cousin, who was sitting in front of us, coughed. And sure enough, HG coughed too. You could see shoulders shaking from the giggles.

Once the service started, I kicked it into high gear, we had toys out, I let her crinkle up the program, and she played with the Bible. We had communion, which Josh had to hold my biscuit and 'wine', otherwise, I'm certain she would have taken it and eaten it. But she continued to do so good. Her and her cousin Oliver (who is almost 18 months old), had a starring contest at one point. It was cute. Just watching them check each other out. When the preacher began preaching, I got a little nervous. The choir singing, and everyone else singing kept her entertained, but I wasn't sure how she would do with just the preacher up there. Luckily, there preacher gets loud. He gets into her sermon and he does a wonderful job. Josh and I truly enjoy granny's church. At some point, HG started getting antsy, still not a peep from her, she just didn't want to sit still. I got out the cheerios, and it was snack time for her. About the time she was done snacking, the service was ending and all were singing again. Service was over at almost 12:30 and we didn't have to get up and take her out once. I was so proud of her!

After church we headed to granny's where everyone got changed and visited with each other while lunch was being prepared. We ate, until we couldn't eat anymore and then headed to the living room for games and then an Easter egg hunt. Hg discovered that there was another 'little person' (Oliver) in the room with her and so she crawled over to him and they starred at each other some more. HG got close enough to touch Oliver's shoe with her finger and then kept her distance from there. I think at the next holiday, she and him will probably be best buds.

We ended our day at home, just the three of us. HG went through her Easter basket, we played in the floor, and dyed Easter eggs.It was a perfect day!

 

 

 

Who Needs Sleep, Anyway?

Yawn. For the last week or two, HG has had some issues falling asleep. On a normal day, we could lay her down sleepy and she would roll over andgo right to sleep, then sleep for 12 hours. (7:30p-7:30a) Last week she had some issues falling asleep and would just stand in her crib and cry. After a while I would go to her and rock her to sleep.I know it is a bad habit, but she is only this small once.         

This week has been the same, until Wednesday night. It was a normal night, dinner, bath time, a massage (for HG), a bed time story and then I nursed her before putting her down for the night. Josh and I went to bed about 11:00pm. Next thing I remember was waking up to HG crying at 12:45a. As a reflex, I jumped out of bed and headed to her room. She NEVER cries out in the middle of the night unless something is wrong. When I got to her room, she started crying harder, I guess to let me know that she was really unhappy. I picked her up and gave her back her Wubbanub and she just squirmed all over the place, and felt a little bit cold. I sat down and covered her with a blanket and tried rocking her back to sleep, but she just kept squirming around. She would sit up, lay down, roll to one side, then back to the other side. She didn't have a fever so the only thing I could think of was that her teeth were bothering her. Finally, at 2:30a she went back to sleep. I put her down in her crib, adjusted the heat and before I could walk out of her room, she was crying again. So, I picked her back up and we went through the same routine. I tried to get her to sleep and she just squirmed around everywhere. We ended up laying on the couch, her laying on my chest, and I think I ended up getting an additional 1.5 hours of sleep. HG decided that at 6:15a, she was ready to get up for the day.

Thursday, we were on our regular sleep/play/eat schedule as usual. I was a little lot tired but she was in a good mood, so that made things easier. I knew that I wanted to make sure that she was in bed on time. Well, my parents came to visit and HG was up until 9:00p. But that was fine. I gave her some Motrin (because her gums are really swollen) and when they left she nursed, and settled down, and went right to sleep. I rushed and got a shower and was in bed by 10:00p on the dot. Then, it happened again. At 2:35a, I heard her in her room whining. I just laid there hoping, and praying she would go back to sleep. After 10 minutes, she was still going strong, so I got up and went into her room. She was sitting on the edge of her bed, legs throught the rail just kicking, and her Wubbanub had made it to the floor. She immediately laid her head on my shoulder and started whimpering. I didn't try to rock her to sleep in her room and put her back down, I just knew that she would wake up again and I was so tired that I just went into the living room and laid down on the couch, with her on my chest, and she squirmed for a few minutes and then we both fell asleep. I woke up at 3:30a to my cat making some annoying noise, and listened to her, trying to figure out what in the world she was doing (I still don't know what she was up too). At 4:00a, I laid HG down in her bed, snuck out of her room, and got comfortable on the couch (I didn't want to disturb Josh). At 4:35a, she was awake again. I quit. I got her up, and went throught the same routine. At 6:15a, she woke up for the day. I feel like a zombie.Josh got up at 7a and watched her while I got ready for work. I. am. exhausted.

I told one of the girls I work with, that it makes it ok not sleeping at night because she is in a good mood during the day. ...spoke too soon. She is in SUCH a mood today. She doesn't want me to hold her, but she doesn't want me to put her down. It's 11:00a and she is on her second nap. I sure hope that this changes her mood a bit.

(Note: That is not snot/drool on her face ( I would die), this is her unhappily eating her breakfast this morning)

Tomorrow I have my very first 5K. So much for being well rested for that. Josh says that if she wakes up tonight, that he will go get her and sit up with her so that I can rest. We will see how that goes. Usually when she is tired, she wants one person. . . me. I can't say that I am mad at her for that. She's so precious that I can't be mad at her for any of this.

We have narrowed down the possible causes of her not sleeping to three things 1) Sleep regression. I have been reading online (because I am DESPERATE for her to get a good nights sleep) how at 9 months babys go through a sleep regression. Good news, it's temporary, bad news, by temporary, they mean 4-6 weeks. HELP! 2) her teeth. This child CANNOT do one thing at a time. When she started crawling, she crawled, got into a sitting posistion from her stomach, and pulled herself up in her crib in one week. So, naturally, she is cutting not one, but FIVE teeth right now. 4 on top one on the bottom. Her gums have been so swollen, and I know that, that has to be painful for her. 3) I took the bumpers off of her crib. Yes, I know, you aren't supposed to use bumpers. But by the time she was sleeping in her crib, she was 3+months old and was rolling over like a champ. I took them off because now that she is pulling up on everything, and acting like she wants to walk, I don't want her to use that as a step to fall out of her crib. And I think not having the bumper in the crib, makes her feel like she's not snug in there. I told Josh that I wanted to put it back in there to see if she sleeps better, but he said that since we already have it taken out, that we just need to leave it out and let her get used to it. He's right (boy that was sour). We will have to take it out eventually so why not just stick to it now?

I really hope that this passes soon, for me, but mostly for her. I know that she is tired and her teeth hurt. It's so hard growing. And none of this is her fault. We love our little boo boo!

On a side note, HG is NINE MONTHS OLD TODAY!!! She is going to the doctor on Monday, so I'll do her 9 month update/pictures then.

A Sick Baby and Hello-Goodbye Spring

Well, Harper Grace had her second bout of a sickness, and her first round of antibiotics. She woke up one morning and sounded a bit stuffy, and then she coughed. Not her usual fake 'look at me' cough, a real one. Of course my first response was "we MUST go to the doctor RIGHT NOW!" Josh on the other hand told me to wait until around lunch time and then call the doctor. ...I made it until 9am and I called and left a message with the nurse. The nurse called me back around 2pm (apparently she was in a training all morning). She said that they would see her the next morning, because their schedule for the afternoon was booked. Didn't bother me.

I no sooner hung up the phone with the nurse, explaining to her that there we no other symptoms besides this 'wet' cough, and I picked Harper Grace up and she was BURNING UP. So after waiting 3 minutes (yes 3 MINUTES) for this stupid thermometer that we have had to take her temperature, the thermometer made the special "you have a fever" beep. I knew then, that the cough, wasn't just a cough. The rest of the afternoon/evening I nursed a sick baby with pedialyte and tylenol, and a nice cool bath. Her temperature only got to 101 at it's highest, but still made for a pitiful baby....

 

And even though I felt bad for her, I loved every second of the clingy, cuddly baby that she had become with this fever. I'm having a hard time getting used to this "don't touch me I can crawl, pull up, and cruise" independent baby attitude she has developed. Isn't she supposed to be a baby forever? I didn't quite get the memo about how fast this would go.

 

The next morning we headed to the doctor. They were VERY busy. The doctor told us that they hadn't been this busy with sick kids since Thanksgiving.

 

I wasn't too worried about what she had, I knew that it wasn't croup. Her cough wasn't THAT bad. So I was SHOCKED when the doctor said that they were testing for RSV, along with the flu. I was thinking 'How could she have gotten RSV?' LUCKILY, both tests were negative. After looking in her ears and throat, she said that they were red and prescribed Ammoxicillin and Zyrtec, for her 'crusty' nose. She wasn't going to do a strep test, but we asked her too so that we would know for sure. That test was negative. I took my sick baby home and we played.

 

She did good through the weekend, but Tuesday morning, we found ourselves back in the doctors office. No fever, but the cough wasn't improving, and she just didn't feel good. Her ears were cleared up, but they decided to put her on a stronger antibiotic to get her throat to clear up. Worked like a charm! My baby is back to her happy, non-clingy, independent self. 

 

 

With the warmer weather that we have been having, I was sure that Spring was here to stay. Boy was I wrong. It's been cold the last two days. I am so ready for Summer. But I'm not rushing it, because that means that we are closer to my baby girl turning One. The last 8 1/2 months have gone by so incredibly fast. It's unreal.

Anyway, back to the Spring weather. We took Harper Grace to the park on a warm-ish day. This was her first time at the park. We made sure to keep her ears covered because she had been sick and one of her problems was her ears.

 

 

 

She. Loved. It! She was all smiles while daddy pushed her. I LOVE how she has a death grip on the metal part and the leg part.

 

 

Aunt Lindsey and I snapped pictures while daddy pushed. We were all enjoying watching her swing, and watching her watch other kids, and then it happened... before we could stop her, she started chewing on the swing. I almost died. SO DISGUSTING! Who knows what other kids' germs are on there, and environmental nastiness, and .. just ew! I quickly removed her from the swing and we went down a few slides. We eventually ended up back at the swings, but I was on high alert for possible mouthing. It's a good thing she was already on antibiotics.

 

 

And just as an FYI, any time someone tells you 'You HAVE to try this sandwich' and then tells you that the sandwich is a grilled peanut butter, marshmallow fluff, and bacon sandwich... just take their word for it and don't try it yourself. It wasn't worth the $8 that's for sure!



** 8 Months Old **

 

According to our scales at home, she is now 18 lbs.

 

New things:

Crawling

Pulling up in her crib

Gets into a sitting position from her stomach

Says mama

(All of the above started in the same WEEK!)

Two teeth

 

Words:

Dada

Mama

Baba

 

Nicknames:

HG

Baby H

Whistle britches (She whistles while she is playing)

Boo Boo

 

Her favorite things

Wubbanub

Sophie the Giraffe

Activity Table

And a rubber ducky she is always playing with.

 

It is getting A LOT harder to take pictures of her!!

Hi Ho Hi Ho Off the AQUARIUM We Go!

This past weekend HG and I, and a couple friends (Heather, Felicia, and Hunter) went to the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga. We had a great time! It was HG's first time and I think she really enjoyed it! Towards the end, I think she had a bit of scensory overload, but all in all I think she enjoyed herself. I just wish I knew what she was thinking when she was nose, to nose, with a fish that was bigger then her!

 

Hunter and HG on the way to the Aquarium. They weren't one bit concerned about the snow flurries outside! HG was so smittened with Hunter! I think she has her first crush! And he's a great one to have a crush on. He's SO polite! He would make sure she had her wubbanub, and made sure her toys were within reach at all times.

 

 

So, So sleepy!

 

Big H, And baby H checking out the fish. At this point HG was beyond tired. But she was still in such a great mood!

 

 



I was trying to take a picture of HG in the buttefly exhibit and didn't realize that my camera was set to video. This is a cute little video though (I hope you can see it). She was trying to be bashful with me!

 

We ended our day out to eat and then headed back home. It was a really good day. I can't wait to take her back when she knows what fish are and can remember the trip!

7 Months! LATE

HG turned 7 months on February 5. It is now exactly a month past due for her update. I'm getting there! Updating the blog is becoming part of my habit again.

 

 

HG has her first tooth! She hasn't bitten me on purpose yet, which is a great thing since I am still nursing! She has accidentally bitten my arm a time or two. She is growing so fast!

She can officially sit up on her own, and now doesn't want to be laid down. Kind of crazy to think that before long she will be walking!! Time is flying by and I know that it is just a matter of time before she is off to school. I am so greatful that I work at a job that allows me to keep her with me. I can't imagine how hard it would be to leave her with someone else everyday.  She is, if I must say so myself, a beautiful little girl and we love her so so much!

The View From My iPhone

I seriously cannot take enough pictures of HG. I feel like I have to have the camera, or camera phone, out all the time. Sometimes I just get shots of her just sitting doing nothing, and other times I capture funny faces. I love all of the pictures I have of HG. I'm sure if I printed them all it would not only cost me thousands of dollars, but I'd have to invest in a seperate home just for pictures. Here are a couple shots from my phone this week...

 

The girl LOVES chewing on her toes. She has even figured out how to do it while in her carseat. It amazes me how flexible she is. Then we have her VERY FIRST ponytail. I can't wait to be able to put cure bows in her hair, and braid it, and curl it, and just do all those fun girly things... if she lets me. This was taken after her bath and massage. Chewing on the lotion bottle while I dress her is one of her favorite things to do. In the bottom right picture she is having her afternoon snack, cheerios. I think she would eat an entire box if I'd let her. She is feeding herself like a champ and loving every minute of it.

 

Also, this week was interesting because, out of no where, without any warning, in the pitch black darkness of the night, my cat decided to attack me. She hasn't done this since before I got pregnant with HG. She has always been kind of aggressive, and some would say she sees me as her toy, but usually it only happened when provoked. This time, I was just minding my own business and she did it. . .

 

 

The top two pictures are from her claws, and the bottom two are from her teeth. Before I could even process what had happened, she ran out of the bedroom. I immediately got up and started washing out my new battle wounds. Josh decided to punish the cat, which is almost impossible because she is so fast. The punishment consisted of Josh chasing her around the house sayin "NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" and me in the bathroom giggling at how funny he was, and then telling him to be quiet because I didn't want him to wake HG. Eventually I think the cat didn't know why in the world Josh was following her around talking crazy, so she hid behind the toilet. HA!

 

The conversation while laying in bed immediately went to whether or not to keep the cat, for fear that she could do the same thing to HG. We decided not to jump to getting rid of her just from this one incident, but if she attacks me again then we are definitely going to consider it.

 

 



 

 

 



Virginia bound!

After Christmas, since we were in Tennessee, we headed to Virgnia to check on our house. It was so bittersweet going up there. I miss Virginia, and I miss my home so much. Not to mention ALL of our stuff is still up there. We literally packed a few bags and headed south after HG was born.

HG did so good in the truck. This girl HATED to ride. Even it was just right down the street. So I was dreading a 6 hour trip. She slept, and played, and was just SO GOOD! She was even good during her very first traffic jam...

 

The traffic was due to snow. People were off the road EVERYWHERE. We just couldn't figure out what the problem was. I mean there was hardly ANY snow...

 

I guess people were panicking. Increase traffic due to the holidays and then the fear of the roads being icy. Didn't look like there were any injuries, just people sliding into ditches.

 

The rest of the trip was easy peasy. 



Baby's First Christmas!

I have been waiting on this day since I found out I was pregnant. It wasn't what I has imagined though. We are currently renting a home, while our house is for sale in VA and so I didn't have ANY of my Christmas decorations. It just didn't feel like Christmas. No tree, no wreaths, nothing. But that doesn't mean that we didn't go crazy buying our sweet girl tons of gifts!! She really enjoyed tearing apart all the paper. The gifts were just a nice gesture!

 

I couldn't resist putting her in her santa suit to open her gifts at home. For Christmas eve and Christmas day we were in Tennessee with Josh's moms side of the family. It was a lot of fun. Games, presents, good food and family.

 

 

Next year, we are staying home. Santa will come visit, the house will be decked out, and we will wake up, just the three of us on Christmas morning. I love being with family, but I want to start traditions of our own.

 





We hadChristmas with my family on New Year's day. HG probably thinks Christmas is a week of opening gifts!

Thanksgiving

You don't have to be a math whiz to know that this past November was Harper Graces' first Thanksgiving!

We spent Thanksgiving with my husbands family at his aunts house. Harper Grace was a hit in her personalized turkey onesie with her name across the bottom and her tutu. I can't help but dress her up in the most decked out attire. And tutu's are up there on the 'mommys favorite outfits' list. If I could get away with putting her in one EVERYDAY then I would. But  I know that they probably aren't so comfy for her.

HG has just started eating outmeal no long before Thanksgiving so she didn't get to indulge in all of that good food! I'm sure next year, she will giving us a run for our money.

That weekend we went to my mom and dads for Thanksgiving. I am so glad that we decided to do Thanksgiving with my parents on another day. I just keep thinking about all those years when we would do them both on the same day. Talk about eating until you are sick! My goodness.

HG got to meet family that she had never met before and that included her cousin Oliver! I think that as soon as she is mobile, they will become fast friends. As long as his momma Miranda doesn't hold HG. Mr. Oliver didn't appreciate that AT ALL! Can't wait to see HG to get to play with her cousins!

How Time Flies.....

Wow, long time no blog. HA! Harper Grace is now 7 months old but I will catch you all up to date.

I must say, this little girl is getting cuter and cuter everyday. She is so much fun. She laughs, and talks up a storm. She LOVES to growl. We have been so busy just watching her grow and change right in front of our eyes. I cannot believe how time has flown by. I feel like we just brought her home from the hospital last week and here we are.

HG's is growing right on schedule according to her pediatrician, and despite being big when she was born, she is now starting to be lower in her percentages (Still in normal range) because she is a breastfed baby. Although, she has a pretty serious bull frog belly!

She is eating solid foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And she LOVES to drink my water. Makes me glad that I am not a Coke, sweet tea or anything else, drinker.

Her favorite word... DADA! I know there is a momma in there somewhere... I'm sure she is just waiting on the right moment. haha.

Well, Hello!

I'm back! I have been a TERRIBLE blogger lately. Life just got crazy around the holidays, and then I just, well, forgot that I had a blog. I am working on a post to bring you up to date on everything since November! Until then, enjoy this cuteness!

 

I'll be posting my update ASAP! See you then!