The Adventures of Crawling

Red knees. Bruised shins. Bumped noggin. In one week we went from Audra barely staying on hands and knees long enough to even rock back and forth to Audra wanting nothing to do with her jumperoo or being held because all she wants to do is crawl around. If she isn't chasing the cat she is trying to crawl into his cage. If she isn't playing with the drapes she is playing with our laptop cords. If she isn't trying to pull herself up on her walker toy she is trying to concur the hurdles of our dining room table. She is on the move and there is no stopping her. Mama needs a donut.

Dining room table hurdles.
(don't worry she was fine)

Last week was such a crazy week. I have to schedule housework around her to an extent. If she will stay in her jumperoo long enough for me to do the dishes or vacuum I'm a happy camper but most of the time I have to keep an open eye and ear on her. She is a level Ninja crawler. Sometimes I can hear the pat, pat, pat of her hands but most of the time she can go from one end of the living room to the other without a sound. She's good. Too good. And our poor cat, loves the attention that he gets from Audra constantly chasing him but I think he gets old even for him. Sometimes he can't find  a decent spot just to lie down and sleep without Audra seeking and finding him.

We've had to borrow a baby gate to put up to keep Audra out of the kitchen and baby gate hurdles are my latest form of exercise. I despise them but I secretly hope they give my stems a lovely shape. Probably not but I can dream. Other than the baby gate and some outlet covers (I have a ton of them so why not use them) we haven't done any baby proofing. Audra knows what "no' means and we have to tell her it often but she is learning what she can and cannot touch. It also helps that we live in a cozy 750sq ft in-law suite and I can easily keep an eye on her.

But sometimes I find her like this. Happily play and talking to her toys. And then I melt. 

Audra has perfecting her pulling-oneself-up act and even deciding that she will just let go and stand there. If her balance is good she will stand there for 1-2 seconds (or more on occasion). I am not ready for that to happen. I'm just getting used to her crawling, she's got to wait a few months before she starts walking but it'll happen in no time. This girl has been determined since in utero to move on her own as fast as possible!

Her cousin made her a paper crown a few months ago. It now fits...almost. 

I cannot put Audra to sleep at my parents ever. My mom has the Grandma touch. 

Riding in Pap's yard vehicle. Many memories to be made right here.

Well here's to another week with a crawler. I need a cruller to deal with a crawler. Happy Monday Friends.

100th Post!

Wow I cannot believe this is my 100th post on the blog. Where has time gone? I started this blog almost 4 years ago just as I was packing up my things getting ready to get married and move to a military town with my military husband. So much has happened in these past 4 years!

There is not a week that goes by that I don't reflect back. It's especially helpful now that Facebook has that "On This Day" feature that places a randomly selected memory of yours to post on your wall as if to say "if you didn't feel old yet, look, this happened 4, 7, 9 years ago". Just the other day it popped up a picture I took while my folks and I were apartment hunting down in North Carolina. 5 months after that I was in North Carolina with a husband unloading a truck full of our belongings with family members into our townhouse. It took me months to get my bearings straight in that crazy town. I used my GPS to get to Walmart for the first 3 months. No joke. I kept thinking "time is going so slow, I feel like I'm going to be here forever".

Fast forward a year in military life later and I had my dream job, with dream colleagues. I knew shortcuts for getting to Walmart. I was 1/4 mile from a coffee shop and 5 minutes from Target. I felt special going to the base where my husband was. We had a good life and then before I knew it I was driving those same roads that confused me in the beginning thinking "I cannot believe I'm leaving this whole town next week/tomorrow/today". I am forever grateful for that year we spent in NC.

Then we move home and I spend the next year living alone while my husband was deployed for the 2nd time. THAT was a rough year. Patchy phone calls, care packages, trying to balance it and smile through the tears. I kept thinking "this deployment is lasting forever, I'm never going to be reunited with my husband, no one here has any idea what I'm going through!" Then poof that deployment was over and he was home. FOR GOOD. He was home and had a good job. That year I kept thinking "ok he'll be called away for another deployment soon." "Oh wait, no he won't, this is our new lives. He's home for good. Forever" Then in May we found out we were expecting our first child and that whole rest of the year we spent preparing ourselves and our finances for a baby. I embraced and loved every minute of being pregnant becuase I knew "this won't last forever".

And that quickly brings us here today. Life with a 7 month old. I have to remind myself that "this won't last forever" because honestly sometimes it does feel like it will never end. But then I look back on every other time I thought something would last forever and it was over in a flash. bang. poof. And another chapter begins. This chapter has been the hardest yet because I liked our lives before having a baby and it took me longer than I care to admit to get used to life after a baby. I still wish I could sleep past 7am. I still wish I could prepare dinner in peace. I still wish for a longer shower. I still wish for a lot of things but the fact of the matter is this life is also what I wish and prayed for those past 3 years. In NC, in OH alone, in OH married I hoped for one day to have my husband home with a baby in my arms just living a Hallmark type life. And we are. A beautiful yet sometimes flawed Hallmark-esque life. Like a Hallmark knock-off. Maybe more of a Norman Rockwell painting which sometimes comes out Picaso. What a ride it has been.

Anyway, here are some pictures of our sweet babe who is now crawling and trying to pull herself up on anything. Her favorite activities these days still include being outside, being in the jumper play set thing and exploring everything at crawling eye level.

 

For Christmas all we're getting her is a magazine subscription. 

We recently had a play date with Audra's second cousin who is 3 months older than her. Audra stole Liam's toys. Liam stole them back. It was adorable.  

In other recent events of eating, Audra has enjoyed a cracker. Besides gagging on the larger pieces she would not put it down for nothing. 

And back in the beginning of Summer we tried out this swing and she was not ready for it at all. I just kept thinking "OK by the end of Summer she'll be ready for it" and here she is. She still leans a little but she loves it. 

When you have toys but grass steals the show. Every time. 

                                  Stripes AND tie-dye. Be still my heart. 

To wrap up this 100th post I'm so glad I started this blog 4 years ago. I love that I can look back and reflect back on my life at any given point. As can anyone reading this blog. Thank you all of you who follow along with me in this life. From those of you who I met in NC to those of you I've met after becoming a mommy and all of those who have been around a lot longer than this blog has. I look forward to many more posts about life with a baby and balancing life as a mom and life as a wife and life as myself. Join me if you wish!

Seven Months Strong

I almost hate that Audra is 7 months old. Not in the "I can't believe how time flew" way but in the "I don't want her to be done with being 6 months old yet" way. Yes I admit I want her to stay 6 months for a few months longer. I'm not ready for her to be 7 months old. I not ready to tell strangers she is 7 months old, I want to keep saying she is 6 months old. Weird right? I prayed to hit the 6 month milestone for weeks and months. I prayed that I would survive until then but now it's come and gone and here we are at 7 months. I don't like the number 7. It's an odd number, I don't like odd numbers. But somewhere inside me is trying to convince my heart that the 7th month will be even better than the 6th month. I just find it hard to believe. Prove me wrong Audra?

At 7 months Audra is just cruising along. Loving life. Loving her activity jumper. Loving this Summer weather with all her might. If we stand by the sliding door for a moment and then walk away...she fusses because she realizes we are not going outside. This child is serious about being outside. Cannot get enough of it. I used to bring us a blanket and half a dozen toys so she wouldn't get bored easily but now sometimes we just walk out without anything but maybe a sun hat and just sit in the grass. The grass (that is not dead from lack of rain) is her toy. Clover flowers are her jam. She is a pro at picking them and putting them in her mouth. No first-time-mom syndrome here. If she wants the flower in her mouth and doesn't gum it off the stem and the flower is not dried or covered in bird poop then she gets the flower. It keeps her occupied and happy. Who am I to complain or take it away? Hashtag crunchy momma wannabe.

But when my child is not chewing on leaves and flowers she is loving the Move and Crawl Ball from V-tech. We borrowed it from my mother-in-law and she loves it. She also loves tupperware in the same manner. She's easy to please like that. When she isn't rolling all over the floor trying to get a toy or the cat she is begging for me to sit down with her so she can pull herself up on me. Shirt, knees, hair, anything that is grab-able she grabs. She will just stand and sit for as long as I sit there with her. She is also rocking back and forth on hands and knees these days too when she is in the mood. And if she is near anything with a tag, she will find it, she will talk to it and she will suck on it...forever.

"Hey, you've got a different number on your tummy today"

This is a glimpse of my future. At.ti.tude. 

Weeeeee! This chair moves!              Holy zebras...this chair moves.     

Tags. Nom. Nom. Nom. 

In other news we are 7 months into breastfeeding and I'm still proud of myself for making it this far but sometimes it's still so frustrating. When it doesn't hurt Audra moves non-stop. Scratch that, it still hurts sometimes AND she moves non stop. Some babies may prop up a leg or an arm on mom but Audra tries to grab her feet when she eats. And then she tries to grab my hand and pull it down in between her legs and then hold it there while she again, grabs her feet. If I lay my hand anywhere on her body she pushes it off. It's a circus. A breastfeeding circus. And she, of course, is the ringleader. 

I guess I can finally say that Audra has been sleeping through the night for about 3 months now. I still hope I'm not jinxing myself but lately she gets up at least once every other night from either bad dreams or hunger. I try my hardest not to nurse her at night anymore. I've only done it twice so far. It's time to fill her tummy super full before bed so she is not waking up at night. And also so she is not waking up at the crack of dawn starving. I would love to sleep in past 6am these days! But either way I'm getting a full nights rest and that is nothing to complain about at all. 

And just for fun...I love looking at how she's changed and yet stayed the same

Happy Tuesday Friends. Smile, just because you can