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!