Month 11 Update

Eleven months ago we had a baby.

This past month it seems like she just grew and learned new things every day. She decided on November 8th that she would become a walker full-time. Crawling is too slow and the girl's got places to go and things to do.

This month she's grown out of most of her 6 month and 9 month clothes. We had headed into 12 month clothes for which I'm almost not ready. She has mastered the words "da da", "uh oh", "ball", "hot", and "bye" as well as others she repeats perfectly but will not say on command. She gives high fives and can find her nose, cheeks and ears with daddy's help. She loves to read books and pull all her toys out of her toy bin.

Her food vocabulary is also increasing weekly. Mashed potatoes, tomatoes, bread, cheese, eggs, cucumbers, noodles, fruit, and anything else that she can get her hands on. We still have a hard time giving her vegetables because we don't eat much of them anyway but anytime we have them they are on her tray and she always tries them. One vegetable we have had lots of luck with is tomatoes. She loves tomatoes so much I have to cut her off. I've never had to cut her off of anything before!

One thing that we are working on with her is walking while holding our hand. She was so independent in walking that we rarely ever held her hands and helped her walk so she never got used to it. And Little Miss Independent did not like it at first when we held her hand and walked with her but she is getting better. I am also working with her to do some basic sign language and one of these days she'll say mama right? The only sign she has partly down is "finished". If I ask her if she is finished or all done she puts her arms up and down a few times. Not really the sign for "finished" but at least she is consistent on it. But since she seems to learn new words quickly so I'm not sure how beneficial sign language will be if she can talk.

Shopping for Christmas for her has been fun but also a little frustrating because I don't want to just buy baby toys that she will outgrow in a few months. I want toys that she can grow into and continually learn from. We did buy her the Little Tikes Activity Garden for Christmas because I know she will grow into it and use it until she is at least 2 or 3 years old. We also bought her a couple books and a music toy which she can carry around the house.

We had Christmas with her one set of Great Grandparents over the weekend and while she did enjoy it she was exhausted and could not enjoy it to it's fullest extent. Out of all her toys she got her favorite was the plastic candy cane filled with Hershey kisses. Chocolate IS a girls best friend right?

We are so excited for Audra's first Christmas this Sunday. I see her eyes fill with joy and excitement when she sees all the fun...boxes and scraps of paper and plastic ties and tags. So glad we spent money on all those fun toys. ;)

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Almost Hibernating

Well reader friends apparently I've been almost hibernating lately because it's been about a month since my last post. Maybe I could blame it on the Thanksgiving holiday and I was in a turkey coma for a few days. Or I could blame it on all the mommy and me things Audra and I have been doing lately. Lastly I could blame it on the fact that I use nap time to work out or shower or prep dinner but that's only half true. The real truth is I didn't feel I had much to write about and I didn't want to put all the effort into opening a new post only to write a  few sentences and then get distracted and quit.

The last few weeks around here have been consumed with a walking baby, sucking snot out, and Christmas prepping. Yes Audra is a non-stop walker. I don't even remember the last time I saw her crawl more than two seconds. And yes we are in the midst of another cold. Babies with colds suck. No sugar coating it. I hate it. Going thru boxes of kleenex, sucking out snot, slathering vicks, cleaning and refilling the humidifier,  having smears of snot on my shoulders, knees, stomach, calves, etc. I thought I was seeing the end-of-tunnel light but now I don't. She's holding on to this one as tight as her last cold. I've tried everything I did last time and then some but nothing is kicking it. Maybe for Christmas I should just ask for kleenex and saline drops because were going through that stuff faster than anything. But I know I know I should not complain. Audra is healthy besides that and life could be so much worse.

Christmas less than 20 days away can you even believe it? We always add a million things to our Amazon list and then push "complete order" around now. Then I have everything thing delivered as it becomes available so I get single items almost every day for a week and a half. I just love getting packages in the mail.

Last but definitely not least is our town finally got a coffee shop and I'm trying not to go every single day. But if you're going to go into debt, go into debt buying good coffee, can I get an amen? No? Ok just me then.

Audra turns 11 months in 2 days and I will try and put together a separate post for that before it gets too late. Happy December reader friends!

Enjoy some recent pictures of Audra and Daddy.

Daddy was tightening the cabinet pulls. Audra wanted all the things in the cabinet. 

Cannot. Stop. Swooning. 

Ten Month Update

"Goodbye" October and "Hello" November aka the holiday season! I'm incredibly excited for Audra's first Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and then birthday. It's going to be a whirlwind of excitement!

Last week was Halloween. Audra's first and I originally was not going to do anything because I think babies "asking" for candy is ridiculous. But then I knew it would be a nice night out watching her cousins go from house to house in their costumes. We all dressed up but Audra did not go door to door. We in turn went to Walmart the next day for half priced candy - score! I also was not going to dress her up but I found the most adorable strawberry costume at Once Upon a Child and could not even resist. I bought scrubs at Goodwill (aka my new happy pants) to go as a nurse and daddy wore his homemade ghillie suit which was a hit with everyone, even the lady he scared halfway through our route. It was a fun but chilly night out and the first time I had been trick or treating in years and years.

So since my mind has been all holiday-filled I almost forgot about Audra turning 10 months. I literally remembered last night on the 7th "Oh dude I need to take your 10 month pictures..." Yes cannot believe I almost forgot. So here are the shots. I seriously couldn't narrow it down to my favorites. I love all these pictures.

Month number 10 has been very good to us. We sleep well at night. We eat well at meal times. We play well by ourselves and with others (unless they are in our face and then we just.can't.deal). Audra's favorite foods are any noodle with cheese, eggs with cheese, waffle with peanut butter and strawberries, green beans, pears, apples any processed puffed food and squeezy pouches are back in the picture - yay! We had cheesy Spaetzle the other night and she proved her German genes are in perfect working order. I could not put it on her tray fast enough, she gobbled it up in no time and fussed when it was all gone. Atta girl!

Her favorite toys are anything that make noise and light up. I have to confess that before having a kid I was as anti-noisy toys as one could be. I swore I would take all the batteries out of them. But now? Audra is a music fanatic and noisy toys let me know that she is playing and being entertained. It also let's me know where she is if the noise is coming from other room. Have noisy toy, will travel.

Audra crawls a lot still but it's usually to a solid or semi solid object she can hold on to while standing up. Table, yoga block, chair, stack of books etc. If it holds her weight without sliding she is using it to stand up and then promptly walk away. Her record as of yesterday is 10 feet of walking on her own. She has even tried running a few steps from me to the couch. It's adorable now but a few months from now when she takes off in the store or in the house I will be saying "hey remember those days when you didn't walk? That was adorable. Let's go back to that k?"

Audra continues to learn new things - sometimes all by herself. She loves music and dancing. She loves watching the kitty and standing at the back door staring outside talking about all the fun things to do out there. She loves to people watch and ride in the grocery cart. She loves to feed herself and sample what I have on my plate, "if you eat I eat mom". And I continue to stare at her in amazement that she is really ours and really thriving. Not to mention stare at myself and realize that I'm surviving this mom gig. 10 months and counting little girl. You are my world. 

Good-bye to Summer Photo Shoot

I received this dress as a hand-me-down from my dear sister-in-law. I knew the moment I saw it that I loved it more than anything and I either had to have Audra wear it for a super special occasion OR I needed to photograph her in it so we can really remember it. However since Audra is small for her size this dress being a 6-9 month is just barely starting to fit. I was hoping it would fit in the Summertime so it could be worn more but oh well. P.S. I know it's hard to see the dress because she is sitting and it somewhat blends in with the quilt. My apologies. P.P.S I wish this dress came in my size.

I took advantage of the last warm day that we'll have until next year and had a mini photo shoot session with my beautiful model wearing a beautiful dress from her Aunt, a hair bow from her Mom, sitting on Grandma's quilt, holding Great Grandma's pearls. Be still my heart.

Month Nine, Doing Fine

A apologize firstly that I have not posted in almost 3 weeks. The whole teething, no sleep thing really took its toll around here. Audra is finally sleeping through the night again after 7 long weeks of not. I had almost forgotten what a full night of sleep even looked like.

Our dining room table is her jungle gym. She gets stuck. A lot. 

But we've made it to nine months. Audra is getting so fun at this point. She plays by herself so easily these days. When she is not taking every toy out of her toy bin she is crawling everywhere and furniture cruisin'. She loves to play peek a boo by herself (sometimes in front of the mirror) and she still loves to chase the cat. She loves to stand at the back door and stare outside. With the weather getting colder our time outside is limited a little but we still try and get out as much as we can.

Meal time has finally become mostly hassle free. Audra is anti pureed baby food all the way and prefers to eat what I'm eating. She even gives me THAT look when she is eating something different than I am. For her snacks she likes puffs and yogurt melts and dehydrated green peas from Aldi (a good snack for momma and baby!) For real food she loves eggs, noodles, breads, peanut butter with cheerios and fruit. I am trying to bulk her up a little bit so at her 9mth appt next week she weighs more than her 6 week appt. She has not gained much if anything since then. The girl never stops moving!

We are down to 2 naps a day. 3 naps if one is really short or taken in the car. Our bed time routine now includes a baby smoothie (squeezy pouch plus water) or 2oz of formula to keep her belly full through the night.

Audra has taken 3 steps on her own. Single steps at separate times but very intentional steps. She has been to a restaurant twice now but it is hard because she hates to sit for long periods of time. Long meaning 10 minutes or more. She is a champ in the church nursery as well.

Here are some recent pictures of our trouble maker.

With her walker toy and giving me a look that she inherited from her father. 

A stealth picture of Audra chowing down on cheerios with peanut butter and then chilling in her stroller.  

This was the morning I just let her go. No restrictions (until she picked a mushroom). She would crawl from dandelion to dandelion to snag and suck on them. This was also before the sun dried the heavy dew so her pants we soaked but she was happy so I couldn't of cared less. 

My favorite morning view. I feed her then sip on my coffee while she plays by herself. 

Happy 9 months my dear sweet girl. You are amazing in every way!

No Sleep Just Snot. The Perfect Storm.

*Please note I am writing this instead of taking a nap. I need a nap but I also feel a need to document this so I can look back one day and say "I can't believe I survived"*

When your a new mom you hear things like "4 month sleep regression" and think psh..."I'll get through it no problem." or even worse "it won't happen to me". Sure there are babies and moms out there who gracefully embrace life without too much hassle but if you like most moms, you probably have a baby who will go through tough crap like sleep regression. When Audra was headed into 4 months old I went to bed with a permanent cringe in my body. We had a rough 2 weeks but then all of a sudden she was sleeping through the night and everyone was honky dory. Enter the 8-10mth sleep regression, baby's first cold, a new developmental leap, possibly teething, possible growth spurt. Good bye sleep. Good bye sanity.

The Lord has a sense of humor for sure. I prayed for more moments spent with Audra asleep on my chest because it hadn't happened in so long. Now it happens a lot. Usually before the sun comes up. 

Now I do consider myself pretty lucky. Seeing as Audra was born smack dab in the center of cold and flu season she never had anything more than a runny nose for only 24hrs. She is truly a happy baby. Or according to the lady at Aldi's yesterday "the perfect baby". Follow by the question "does she EVER cry?". Why yes nice lady, she does cry but she chooses to do it at 4am. Because...why the heck not?

I mentioned before that Audra has been waking up before the crack of dawn and I typically have to nurse her back to sleep. Add that to everything aforementioned and you have the perfect storm of all things dreadful.

Our nights consist of going to bed when Audra goes to bed but now I have that permanent cringe again. She now will wake up several times during the night. The first one or two she is happy to be rocked back to sleep but if it's near 4am she's hungry and will not be satisfied with anything but eating. If I'm lucky she will then go back to sleep for a while. This morning I was not so lucky. The girl was up and babbling at quarter till 6. It was still dark outside. "The sun ain't even warm yet" as Lorelai would say. She was at least happy. I was only happy there was coffee brewing.

Our days consist of lots of saline drops, booger sucking, and vicks rubbing. I am honestly so tired of hearing the snot in her nose and sucking it out. Or worse yet, hearing it and going to suck it out to find that there is nothing in her nose and it's more in her throat and chest. I finally gave her some Tylenol and a steam today which seemed to help. We've also raised one end of her crib so she sleeps at a slight angle. I am still in doubt that it's working but I'm too lazy to lower it yet.

I have read in her Wonder Weeks leaps that she is at the point where she may temporarily resort back to her newborns habits. Being more fussy, eating more frequently and sleeping less. Whether or not this is really what is happening I feel like the mom of a newborn again. Sleep deprived and filled with thoughts of "why did I have a kid again?"

Oh yeah because moments like these are amazing. 

And moments like this are exciting and hilarious. 

First perogies and with her frenemy Sue the cat. 

But at last we've made it to Friday. I find joy in making it to Fridays, immense joy. I continue to pray over this sweet child that her cold will disappear and that sleep will resume. I pray for patience and strength because nobody likes a child who whines. And I pray for a coffee cup that stays full so I can stay sane.

And when all else fails you put on a pretty bow and make it through the day.