9 Months

Wow, wow, and wow.  Molly is 9 months old.  We are slowly creeping up to her 1st birthday and I am so excited and want to stop time all at once.  I can't believe I dropped the ball and never wrote a post for her 8 month birthday.  Actually, that's a lie.  I can totally believe it.  Her turning 8 months old was in the middle of the fall semester ending, finals, traveling to Austin, Grandma and Grandpa Rooks visiting, Thanksgiving, and me generally going crazy.  I did attempt to write one and even started a post, so I hope to go back eventually and at least update with November's pictures and general happenings.  If I don't, I don't.

I feel like I'm always saying how each month just flies by...but two months just flew by, like nothing, as have her whole 9 months of life in general.  Granted, the first three were a general blur of sleepless nights, sleepless days, never ending nursing sessions, and hours spent in bed bonding and cuddling.  But she never stops changing, she is ever evolving, and her little world keeps expanding right before her beautiful blue eyes.

We went to the doctor last week for her well child visit.  She weighs 15.2 lbs. and is 27 in. long.  So long and skinny!  But she does love to eat.  I still have yet to find a food this child won't eat.  Her favorites still include bananas, sweet peas, black beans, and cheerios.  But honestly, I think that's only because she can eat those by herself.  Sometimes she scarfs and sometimes she takes her time.  She is now completely bottle fed and has been for a little over a month now.  She didn't even seem to notice the transition which was helpful for me because I noticed.  It has taken several weeks, but we have finally found an organic formula that I can afford and settles well in her tummy.  She loves her bottle though.  If it is anywhere near feeding time and she sees a "Ba" I better be ready to give her one or she will lose it.

Speaking of which, she is a very dramatic baby.  Sometimes it is down right funny, other times, not so much. She is overall an extremely happy baby but when something is not right to her in her little life (such as being in the car too long, being in bed and not wanting to sleep, not being allowed to crawl on the floor of a store, not wanting to lay still long enough for a diaper change, or there are no more cheerios on her tray) she has no problem letting you know exactly how it makes her feel.  I'm telling you, she has it rough...

Otherwise, she is like I said, I very happy and joyous baby.  She loves to "talk" and has started to say Momma.  I love it. love it. love it.  Sometimes she says "mamamama" just to say it just like she does with "babababababa"  but there are definite times where she says Momma and is distinctly referring to me.  She understands a wide range of words and phrases though.  She has also started to use signs to some degree.  She more or less waves "bye-bye" and will mimic the "all done" sign after dinner, though they look very similar right now.  The only difference is that bye-bye is done with one hand and all done is with two hands.  I want to start working with her to learn more signs for the both of us.  I will start introducing her to "more", "water, and "I love you" in the coming month.  I imagine "I love you" will take a lot of time due to the nature of the sign, but it's a great one to have!  Not only will sign language help her with this early communication, but she has a cousin who is only one year older than her who wears hearing aids and is going to be learning sign language himself, so I am hoping that some simple signs can help in their playing together in the future.

Sleep is a constant up and down for us.  Had I written a post last month, I would have gone on about how she was starting to sleep all the way through the night.  She would wake up at 5am, have a bottle, go back to sleep, then be up at 7am to start the day.  Sometimes she would sleep all the way until 7am.  But then she cut her top two teeth (giving her four teeth in total!) and got a winter cold only a couple of days after that.  For about two weeks we endured 2-3 night wakings but finally last night she slept until 6am had a bottle and then didn't get up until 8am!  So I am hoping that we are back to sleeping through the night at least until more teeth come through.

Most of her development this moth has been mental.  She is at a whole new cognitive level than ever before.  I love watching her face as she learns and discovers something new.  The other day she was in the bath tub and got on her stomach and started letting the water touch her lips.  She was very thoughtful and deliberate about the whole experience, very careful not to let the water inside her mouth.  She was discovering for the first time how it felt.  I then showed her how to blow bubbles and even though she is unable to do it herself yet, she was amazed by it and I could see her moving her lips, trying to form them like mine.  Love her.

One major even that I have not mentioned that happened this month was her very First Christmas!  And oh how exciting and fun it was!  For the first time we put the Christmas tree up in the dining room instead of the living room, fearing that it would be a constant battle and hazard.  It is a huge tree that, at its very least, has an ornament on nearly every branch.  She loved the tree though.  She loved to touch it, she loved the lights, but mostly she loved the presents underneath and the bows that adorned them.  She managed to rip a hole in one of her Daddy's gifts, rip the corner off of her Mimi's gift, and ripped off several bows from her gifts.  I am glad we had the foresight to put the tree out of sight.

Her gift ripping and bow snatching was a useful skill come Christmas morning.  We were all up with her at 6:30am.  Santa had left her a 3-in-1 tricycle with a dolly riding on it.  She was so happy when she saw the doll with everyone (including me, Austin, my parents, Brian, Cassie, and Brian's friend Trapper) standing around watching her every move.  After we all moved into the family room to open gifts, she sat on the floor with Austin and I.  The presents kept piling around us and she was very eager to help open...for the first 2 maybe 3 presents.  Then she was done and Austin and I were left to open her presents while she played with the toys that were previously opened.  She had so much fun though....mostly with boxes!  No joke.

But without further ado...pictures!  For the past two months, I have not done any actual photo shoot with Molly.  At the end of November I did her Christmas card picture which took the place of her monthly shoot as far as planning and execution went.  For december, I just decided not to do one because I have so many daily pictures and moments that turn into mini shoots.  So, here they are...

First Halloween!

Today is Molly's first Halloween!  Halloween is a funny holiday though because there is not much for a 7 month old to really enjoy.  Regardless, it is exciting and we do what we can!  There are so many cute halloween outfits out there but I am proud of myself for avoiding them!  They are so cute and technically can be worn even after the holiday is over, but the truth is I wouldn't put her in it after the holiday passed and I didn't want to spend money on something she would only wear a few times.  

Of course, I have a complete double standard and bought an adorable costume for her to wear!  Once. Maybe twice.  But she is the cutest tiger ever.  When I bought the costume, she was making growling sounds and I just so happened to see this at a resale shop and thought it was perfect!  Naturally, she stopped making the growling sounds soon after I bought it but she was adorable nonetheless.  

We celebrated Halloween by going to the Fall Festival at our church yesterday.  It was a lot of fun.  Molly enjoyed being outdoors and looking at all of the people and the ponies.  She even got to do one of her favorite things...bouncing!  They had a baby sized bouncy house and I held her and bounced her on the side.  I was too paranoid to let her in the ball portion of it.  She would have loved it...but the balls were dirty and she eats EVERYTHING. 

She hung out in her costume for most of the rest of the day.  She looked so cute in it I couldn't bear to take it off.  Plus it looked super comfy, kind of like her sleepers, or a snuggie.  I kind of wanted one myself.

I do after all have to get some use out of this costume since she is not trick-or-treating this year.  I wonder how long I can get away with the "It's past your bedtime" excuse?  Hopefully we will get some trick-or-treaters coming by before she is in bed for the night.  

Then it will be a usual evening for me.  Red wine and homework.  Only tonight I will be getting up every five seconds to give candy to adorable kids in costumes.  Not a bad night if you ask me! 

In my last post, I mentioned that Austin and I carved a pumpkin when he was here.  This is our Molly Pumpkin.  It's pretty accurate, complete with a headband and bow and two front teeth!

I hope everyone has a fun, safe, and responsible Halloween!

7 Months

WARNING:  This post has a ton of super cute baby pictures :)

Well, another month has come and gone.  Molly is now 7 months old and what a month it has been!  I am always amazed at the changes a month brings.  Sometimes I just look at her and wonder where my little newborn went and how I ended up with this super adorable, happy, wiggly, independent, amazing BABY.    Before I know it, she will be a toddler, then a full fledged child, and then....well, we'll just stop there before I freak myself out.  Though I look back at her newborn stage with cloudy fondness and I look towards her future with both excitement and fright, I always cherish the new stage a short little month brings us.

Let me just start by admitting I may be a typical mom in saying this, but seriously, Molly is the most amazing, smart, and beautiful baby I have ever laid eyes on.  She is absolutely perfect.  She never fails to amaze me each and every day.

So, what exactly has this month brought us?  The biggest milestone she reached this past month was pulling up!  We were visiting her daddy in Austin.  I was sitting on the couch eating an apple and she wanted it really badly.  So, what does she do?  She reaches her little chubby hands to the top of the couch and pulls herself up on the first try like she had been doing it for weeks.

October 12, 2011

When She saw me with the camera she tried to walk to me.  This resulted in her first fall while I tried to get the exposure correct.  Oops!

But she wasn't bothered by it at all.  She immediately crawled too me all smiles and giggles!

Also, I finally got a picture of her teeth while we were there.  She was very excited about eating breakfast on the patio!

 When we got home from Austin, she discovered that she could pull up on the dishwasher.  Now, it is impossible to load the dishwasher in peace.  I can put her in front of her toys and she is very happy.  As soon as I walk away, I hear her crawling into the kitchen and before I know it.  This is what I see...

October 19, 2011

 It was that very same day that she discovered there was more to the house than just the kitchen and front part of the living room.

She discovered cabinets.  

And that there was one just for her.

She discovered Mimi and Poppa's room.

Yes Molly, I see you.

And then, she discovered the stairs...

Yikes!

As you can see, she is all over the place now! Sometimes the crazy must be contained so that I can actually get something done.  Most the time she is quite content...other times not so much.  That's life.

But most of the time, I'm not doing anything but playing her her and joining in on her spit bubble making.  My definition of fun has changed.  Fun is now making silly animal noises, tickling a tiny tummy, singing crazy songs, and staring at my daughter while she figures out a new toy or finds something new to chew on.  She is perfect :)

Often times, while I have my camera out and a million pictures of her on my memory card, I attempt to take a picture of us together so I can prove to her one day that I did stay home with her and our days were fun.  While they can be humorous, I am usually unsuccessful and she is very uncooperative.  Here are some of the attempts.  The white balance is completely off, but I was working extremely fast to keep her attention.  Again, that's life.

Oops.. Cut my face off, but she's the cute one anyway! 

No don't touch the lens!

Yup, nailed that focus...

So I eventually give up and go back to taking pictures of her playing.

Her Daddy was here this week and we had lots of fall fun which included going to the farm to pick up milk, yogurt, honey, and a pumpkin.  Molly is now eating the yogurt and pumpkin and loves both!  We also carved a pumpkin, well Austin and I did, Molly is not exactly old enough, but we carved it to look like her!  I will post more about that in the Halloween post!  (I will start posting more in the near future as the holidays are coming up and I want to document all of those firsts separately!)  Also while Austin was here, he bought her a push toy!  We don't think that she has quite figured out that she is walking while she is using it yet.  She is very unstable behind it so you have to follow right behind her at all times.  She is also mostly distracted by the all of the toys and gadgets on it that what its actual purpose is.  But seriously, just giver her a week or so and she'll have it down perfectly.  In this picture she was distracted by her puppy.

They adore each other.

She has been showing signs of wanting to walk for quite a while now.  She practices her balance by letting go of furniture.  She has a little pattern going...slowly let go, fall on bottom, climb back up, and do it again.  It is all very methodical and purposeful.  She also loves walking while holding onto your hands.  She will go and go and go like that.  She also loves to dance!  And it is quite possibly the cutest thing in the entire world...amongst everything else she does, of course.  

In addition to all of her new mobility and exploration she has an abundance of new sounds and ways of communicating.  She has the sweetest giggle and is babbling more and more everyday.  I am constantly wondering what is going on in her little head.

Since I am a sucker for tradition...we went to the pumpkin patch for her photo shoot.  The whole time we were there I thought that she was tired and ready for a nap since we got a late start and just generally unenthusiastic about the whole experience.  When I got home and reviewed the pictures I now think that she was just more perplexed by it than anything else.  She is in a stage where she needs time to adjust to new environments and new people and the pumpkin patch was definitely a new environment.  There was hay...that looked delicious.  There was dirt...on her feet.  There were big, orange pumpkins...everywhere.  And there were farmers...who were not paying her any attention.  All very new to her.

She was wondering why the farmers were not paying her any attention here.

Looks like she's having fun...doesn't she?

Feet in the dirt.  First time that grass has not been involved. 

I don't think she gets the point of all this...

But these are interesting.

And they probably taste good.

Love. These. Feet.

By the way, have I mentioned how much I am in love with her?  Have I mentioned that she is perfect?   She is.  She is my world.  She is the light of my life.  She is my pride and joy.  She is my purpose.  She is everything.