11 Months!

Grace is 11 months.  Gah!  I know its been said before, but I can't believe how fast my baby is growing up!  Its exciting and bittersweet all at the same time. 

GRACE at 11 months:

~Hasn't started talking yet.  She seems to recognize that we're "Momma" and "Dada", she just needs to start calling us by name.  She will also repeat things we say, like Hi and Bye, Kitty-kitty and night-night, but I haven't been able to get her to say it consistently. 

~Has finally started smiling for the camera!  No more camera face for this girl.

~Does not do well when her routine is messed up.  She also doesn't settle back into a good sleep pattern very easily, either.  So if she's up late one night, we have to work to get her back to a normal bedtime.

~Likes to walk while holding onto our fingers.  Still no steps on her own, but I'm ok with that.  Since she turned 11 months, she's also been standing briefly all by herself.  Any day now...!

~Waves and claps!  (Technically these happened after she turned 11 months.  Oh well.)  She responds to Hi and Bye with a wave--too cute!  She also started clapping and was so excited that she woke up in the middle of the night to practice.  Dear baby, 4 am is for sleeping, not clapping.

~Is starting to pick up sign language.  During meal times she'll look up at me with her beautiful brown eyes and sign "more."  Melts my heart! 

~Is starting to snuggle.  She's always been so interested in what was happening around her she would never put her head on our shoulders.  Now she does it whenever she's getting ready for or getting up from a nap or bedtime.  I love her sweet hugs in the morning!

~Has started to throw minor tantrums.  If things don't go the way she wants, she'll either throw her self backward or forward onto the ground...where she usually gets distracted by licking the floor...

We love our sweet girl!  I'm amazed how much she has changed this past year.  Putting her baby book together has me looking at pictures of a much younger Grace, thinking "She was never that small, was she?"  We love you, Grace Ellie!

10 Months Old

10 Months Old! 

Grace is looking more and more like a little girl

 and less and less like my baby. 

-sigh- 

Where has the time gone!?

GRACE at 10 months:

~Hasn't started talking yet, but sure does like to babble and she is LOUD!  She's very expressive and I can't wait until she can really say what's on her mind. 

~Loves to walk around the house holding onto our fingers.  Her top half tends to get too far forward, so I don't think she's that close to walking yet.

~Has stopped sleeping well.  Gah.  She got all turned around again and has been waking up for several hours in the middle of the night wanting to play.  And going in to put her back down just makes her MAD.  So we've been going through the torture of letting her cry herself back to sleep.  But I'm hoping it was all caused by...

~Her new tooth!  After months of teething, we finally have something to show for it!  Her top left tooth finally popped through and the right one seems like it might be coming in soon, too. 

Yay for new teeth!

~She has figured out how to show when she wants to be picked up or be held by someone else.  I must say I feel pretty special when she chooses to come to her momma.  ;0)

~Has discovered the joy that is the bottom shelf of the pantry.  After an afternoon spent cleaning up spilled noodles and then spilled oats, I think I have it fairly well baby proofed, but everyday her reach gets just a little longer...  Pretty soon nothing will be safe!

~We've started stage 3 foods, but our little stinker has figured out how to eat the sauce while spitting out the chunks.  But she loves to eat her finger food!  So far bananas and avocados have been big hits.  Peaches and Sweet Potatoes are next on our list.

We find ourselves in awe of how much joy she brings to our life. 

What a precious little girl we love!

9 Month Checkup

Grace had her nine month wellness check last week and she's right on track! I was thankful that she wouldn't need shots this time, but she still cried big old crocodile tears as the doctor examined her. Oh well!

Speaking of her doctor... She's been seeing the same doctor since she was born. Great physician, but a very busy guy. We've been thinking about changing docs, to find someone who has fewer patients and can actually get her in when I call a month in advance. This checkup confirmed the need to find somebody new when the doc walked in and started asking me about my son, commenting that HE needed a haircut. I had to tell him that she was, in fact, a girl with long hair. He tried to smooth over his mistake and asked me several questions about how Kurt and I liked parenthood, but it was waaaay to late for that! If you can't take the time to read the big F on the top of her chart, then too bad for you. Luckily I have another doctor in mind and am very excited to have finally made the decision to switch.

So here are Grace's current stats:

~Height: 29 1/4 inches...still in the 90th percentile!

~Weight: 19.8 pounds...somewhere between the 50th and 75th percentile.

~Head: 18 inches around

The doctor did mention that when you couple her height and weight it actually puts her in the 25th percentile for weight, but since she's so tall, its perfectly normal. Basically, we have a tall, skinny baby. (Where in the world did she get those genes from...?)

9 Months Old

Our sweet girl is 9 months old. Wow! She's fully mobile, full of smiles and cute noises, and so much fun. It blows my mind that she's been on the outside as long as she was inside. =0)

GRACE at 9 months:

~Has discovered how to make the "G" sound. She crawls through the house making a guttural G noise, sounding an awful lot like static.

~Still refuses to smile well for the camera. Makes it really hard for us to get a good picture!

~Laughs hardest when she's playing with Dad. Melts my heart!

~Has figured out how to pull into standing and cruise along the furniture. She'll stand with only one hand on the furniture; one of these days she'll take off walking!

~Is sleeping a bit better. She goes to bed between 8 or 9, wakes up early in the morning to nurse and then starts her day around 9.

~At last weigh-in she was 18 pounds, 11 ounces. (9mth appointment is later this month.)

~Has been been having a heck of a time teething. She was so crabby for about 2 weeks that we took her to the doc to make sure she didn't have an ear infection. The verdict was teething. However, her teeth have not come in, but she's in a much better mood so I won't complain!

~She's really eating solid food! We're on stage 2 foods, eating solid food 3 times a day and nursing before naps and bedtime. It makes me wonder if she was just hungry during her crabby period...

Funny story: Grace has recently figured out the head shake. The other day we were trying to check her mouth for any new teeth (an impossible feat). After much squirming and fussing, we gave up. We were discussing how that does not bode well for future visits to the dentist, so Kurt asked Grace if she was going to like going to the dentist. She looked right at him with an impish grin on her face and shook her head no! We busted up laughing, asked her again and got the same result! Too funny! Gotta love this girl!

8 Months and on the move!

Grace is on the move and I am frantically trying to keep up.

Life just got really exciting around here!

GRACE at 8 Months:

~Says both Momma and Dada, especially when she's having fun. We're just waiting until she realizes what they mean...!

~Is still one of the smiliest babies I know.

~Has completely stopped rolling when she's on the floor...which is nice, because it means mom has a way to keep her in one spot for a while!

~Is an absolute pro at sitting, which has made for one very happy baby! She loves to see what's going on.

~Crawls! She is a baby on the move, especially when Mo is in the room. She had been army crawling and creeping for a while, but she finally mastered the true crawl June 21st.

~Can pull herself into standing, which we discovered for the first time Father's Day morning (June 19th). And her crib was lowered 5 minutes later...

~Is no longer sleeping through the night...sigh. Since returning from vacation, her sleep schedule has been ALL over the place. Bedtime is a crap shoot, as is whether or not she'll wake up during the night. Gah!

~Is finally eating solid food! YES!!! On her 8 month birthday she finally got things figured out and now she eats like no body's business. She's also an extreme fan of puffs.

~Spent her first Sunday in the nursery, which means mom actually got to go to church! Yay!

~Had to go to the doctor for the first time because of a sickness. Boo. After a low fever for several days, we took her in and found out she had viral stematomas, basically little blisters in her throat. We think she most likely picked it up from touching something during one of our plane rides.

~Weighs 18 pounds, according to the doctors office scale!

Life is so fun right now. I love this age!

Her sweet and silly personality is shining through and we're having a blast. =0)

North Carolina

This June we were able to get together with my whole family for a reunion down in NorthCarolina. My sister and her family have lived over there for almost 5 years but we have never had the chance to visit them. But no longer! With both babies getting bigger by the day, we decided it was time to get our families together. Of course there was no way my mom was going to let both grand-babies get together if she couldn't be there, so we Idahoans packed up for a trip to the east coast.

We rented a beach house at Topsail Island for the week and it was heaven!
This is the view that greeted us from our back porch.

Total bummer, eh?

We had a fantastic week sight-seeing, playing in the waves, and loving on these two things.

We went to the North Carolina Aquarium and saw this ravishing creature.

We also visited the Battleship North Carolina,

and found this little monkey hanging around.

And we climbed all the way to the top of this!

I have never enjoyed a vacation more.
So thankful for all the wonderful memories!

7 months old!

Seven months old! We are having SO much fun!

GRACE at 7 months:

~Is starting to babble. I've heard "da-da" sounds and even the occasional "hi"!

~Is trying to crawl! Much of nap time is spent on her hands and knees, rocking back and forth. (One of these days she's just gonna take off and it will shock me!)

~Is sleeping completely through the night. (Yipee!) I bought crib bumpers the other day, since she was getting her arms and legs stuck between then bars, and it made all the difference.

~Is sitting up on her own! Which makes for one happy baby since she can see whats going on around her.

~Manuvered from her tummy into a sitting position a few nights ago, although I haven't seen her do it again.

~Is eating solid food. She's still not wild about it, but she has decided sweet potatoes aren't that bad. We've also tried peas...not as much yummy, apparently. She's still only taking a small amount each day, but its something!

I wish there was time to write more, but we're getting ready to go on vacation.

See you when we get back!