Saturday, April 17, 2010

Ninth month recap..

What a fun age this is!  Baby Girl lights up our house with her smiles, giggles, and squeals and continues to be the greatest blessing of our lives. 
Weight: 19 lbs 5 oz
Height: 29 1/4 inches

Napping: Two naps a day.  She typically goes down for her morning nap anywhere from 9-10am, depending on when she woke up that morning.  Her afternoon nap begins in the 1:30pm time frame.  Her naps last anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours, with her norm being about 1 hour 15 minutes.

Night:  Praise God we have a sleeper again!!  It took one gut-wrenching night for Mommy (Daddy didn't seem so bothered by it), but we survived and we have had a "through the night" sleeper ever since!  We decided to go cold turkey and let her cry it out, and it worked like a charm!  Andy went in every 30 minutes to verbally comfort her, but we never picked her up or fed her. (He then returned to bed to remind me that I was not a bad mother!) She persisted for 2 hours that first night, but she eventually fell back to sleep and has only awoken in the night sporadically since then.  Bedtime remains 7ish and she wakes in the 7-7:30am timeframe to start the new day.

Food: This is a fun category now!  Finger foods have become a staple in her diet and she loves to feed herself.  Things she feeds herself (in small chunks) include: banana, pineapple, cantaloupe, watermelon, Cheerios, Rice Krispies, avocado, cooked chicken, crackers, puffs, sweet potatos, green beans, and carrots.  We are adding new foods each week and she loves it!  She also still eats homemade and jarred baby food, Yo Baby yogurt, oatmeal, and barley cereal.
Nursing: Four times a day, approximately every 4 hours
Skills: crawls while holding toys in her hands, puts balls into small spaces very well (e.g., into the spout of her ball popper), opens cabinet doors, pulls up to her knees all of the time and stays up on her knees without support, puts self to sleep for all naps and bedtime most nights, will look for an item when we hide it from her (e.g., under a blanket), remembers exactly where the cat food bowl is and goes looking for it all the time!, will wave in response to us waving at her,  says 'hi' whenever I talk on my cell phone, has begun to show preference for certain books
Language: says three words 'dada', 'mama' (which warms my heart!), and 'hi' (which is her favorite right now and I hear it hundreds of times a day, along with her adorable wave!), says 'ba' for ball and 'ku' for cat.  She loves to babble and squeal.  Is beginning to sign 'all done', although it is sporadic.
Fun Facts: wears size 3 diapers, likes to chew on her toes, smiles and races over to Andy when he walks in the door from work each day, has begun to eat A LOT more food (we wonder where it all goes!), dances when she hears music, likes to have her ears cleaned out - she just lays still, smiles, and closes her eyes as if thinking 'ahhh, this feels good', we have to trim her nails every single week!, her favorite books right now are 'Elmo - SO BIG!', 'Row Row Row Your Boat', and a Nemo book that makes music (she will give them to you over and over and over to read...), loves balls of all colors and sizes, wears size 12 month clothes and size 3 shoe, sucks/chews on the corners of her blanket to sooth herself to sleep, likes to be outside and go for walks, frequently gets told she looks like the Gerber baby, really likes to have songs sung to her, still only has her two bottom teeth, empties her book bin daily, has begun to play the shy card by burying her head in our shoulder when people greet her in public, and thrives on consitency and routine.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

wrestle mania...

It doesn't matter if you are a bear or a balloon, the take-down and pinning tactic is the same....


forgetful...

More evidence that I am getting OLD.....I forgot to embed the beach videos into my last post. 

They aren't terribly exciting, but I know the grandparents will still love them.  Note her toy of choice in the first video (a ball and a cup).  Ever since the night of the plastic egg and ball video (remember the squeals and giggles?!?!), putting small balls into cups or eggs has become her new obesession.


Beach baby from Stephanie Allen on Vimeo.



Discovering the sand from Stephanie Allen on Vimeo.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

a family vacation...

We made it to Florida and back! We had a great time and I realized this was our first "vacation" as a family.  We have been LOTS of places since Baby Girl was born, but this is the first time we weren't visiting family or friends.  There is something to be said for time away as a family and we thoroughly enjoyed our time together, even if it was just a couple days.  Baby Girl had a high time and is already a seasoned pro at the beach! 

I see many more days at the beach in our future this summer. 
Ahhhh, let the beach fun begin!
Baby Girl tries eating some sand...

There is a smile under there, can you see it?!?
The view off of our balcony. It was a great feeling to fall asleep and wake up to the crashing of the waves!  We realized we didn't even need to bring Olivia's sound machine because the waves took care of it for us!
Getting the sand washed off with Daddy. 

I had to share this one because the look they are giving one another just melts my heart!  I think they are smitten with one another, what do you think?!
A quick self-portrait of our little family.

Another highlight of our trip was a waitress making the following comment while smiling at Olivia, "Aww, look at those teeth. She has more than me!"  (Keep in mind, Olivia only has two). However, the biggest memory had to be the realization that we are OLD!!  Andy and I were ready for bed each night just as the Spring Breakers were getting geared up for a fun night out.  It as a tough lesson, but we accepted it as gracefully as we could.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

not enough time!

I had big intentions of posting some adorable pictures from last weekend that included our afternoon at the beach.  However, time has not been my friend this week and I will not get to it before we head out the door in a bit. 

Where are we going you ask?   Edgewater Beach Resort in Panama City Beach, Florida!

Andy has to be gone a few days so we are tagging along.  I would like to say that I will spend the next few days relaxing at the spa and losing myself in a good book on the beach, but we all know the truth.....I am the mother of a 9 month old, after all!  However, lucky for y'all, there should be some great pictures of Baby Girl to share upon our return! 

Monday, April 5, 2010

Need a smile?

Then watch this video!!  The smiles and squeals should make even your worst day better!


Plastic egg and ball from Stephanie Allen on Vimeo.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Olivia's First Easter

We began the day with searching for any treats that the Easter Bunny had left.  Lucky for Baby Girl she found her basket with some bubbles, spinach puffs, and some bright colorful eggs (that just happened to be filled with candy for mommy and daddy....how's that for irony;)
Despite arriving twenty-five minutes early to church, the line to get in was around the block and easily several hundred people long!  WOW!  Seems that others were just as excited as we are that Jesus had risen!  We ended up watching the service on a television out in the courtyard along with everyone else that couldn't squeeze into the sanctuary.  Thank goodness the weather was great! 

Then we met up with the Liegl's for brunch and got to spend some quality time with good friends.  Upon returning home, we all three took a nap!   What a blessed day!
Our first Easter as a family of three!
Just the mommies and their babies!!  Pictures like these really make us miss the Steinforts!  California couldn't feel farther away on a day like today...