10 Months

Sara Kate, you are 10 months old!! What have you been up to?

I can't believe we're in double digit months now!

- You still love going to school, although a few mornings there has been a bit of separation anxiety when I drop you off. When we walk into your classroom, the other babies come up to you and you just grin at them. I have also heard more stories in the last month about you and your 'best friend,' Grayson! So cute. You're schedule at school is usually something like this: breakfast (oatmeal mixed with fruit) between 8 and 9, nap time, you get a bottle of breast milk between 10:30 and 11, lunch is between 12 and 1 (oatmeal and fruit, separated), nap time, you get another bottle of breast milk between 3 and 4, and then daddy usually comes to pick you up. If you are there later, they sometimes put you down for a short late afternoon nap.

- Speaking of separation anxiety, you are a bit of a mama's girl. If you are playing with daddy, that's great, as long as I don't come through the room. Or if you are playing with anyone or anything and you see me, you want me. You hang onto my neck like a little monkey. :-) I love it when you squeeze my neck so tight...you give me good hugs!

- Moving: You are definitely on the move! If we set you on the floor to play, you try to crawl forward, fall on your belly, scoot backwards, roll all around (from tummy to back and back to tummy), go back to a sitting position, and the cycle repeats itself. It's funny to watch you when you get going like this.

- You love food! I still make all your food, minus sweet peas, which you won't eat what I made so you get peas from a jar. Here's what all you've had so far: butternut squash (love), sweet potatoes (love), zucchini (like...it purees really thin so I mix it with oatmeal and you really like it), green beans (aren't crazy about them by themselves but will eat them mixed with a little fruit), sweet peas (don't like homemade, like jarred), cauliflower (liked but it gave you horrible gas...need to try this one again), mashed potatoes (like), carrots (really like), apples (love), pears (love), banana (love), blueberries (love), peaches (love), mango (like), and cherries (like). During the holidays you had cream corn (like) and dressing (like). Some big people food you've had includes grilled cheese sandwich (love), chicken salad that is 'smashed' (liked it at first but then you weren't crazy about it...need to try this again), Cool Whip (like), the edge of a pop tart (not the filling part or icing part, only the edge...love), some noodles (you liked it but couldn't quite figure out how to eat it), graham crackers (love), and pancakes (love). You've had apple puffs, strawberry puffs, and sweet potato puffs, along with biter biscuits...you are really good about feeding your self this stuff. We haven't ventured out to letting you feed yourself baby food!

- I mentioned your schedule at school already, but here's your schedule for the day: I wake you up around 6 and you nurse, you go to school, breakfast (oatmeal mixed with fruit) between 8 and 9, nap time, you get a bottle of breast milk between 10:30 and 11 (around 4 oz), lunch between 12 and 1 (oatmeal and fruit, separated), nap time, you get another bottle of breast milk between 3 and 4 (around 4 oz), come home, you have dinner when we do between 6:30 and 7 (usually 2 veggies and a handful of puffs or a biter biscuit), bedtime routine starts around 8:30, around 9 you nurse, and you are usually asleep in bed between 9:15-9:30.
- You are drinking out of a sippy cup with no problems. You get water with your 'meals' and at school, and we've introduced a little apple juice mixed with water in the last week...you just get that every now and then, though.

- You LOVE bath time!!!! I think you are going to be such a water baby over the summer. When you hear the running water you get so excited. As soon as we put you in the tub, you grab your cups (toys) and start playing. You like to bend over and put your face in the water, which freaks me out, but I can't get you to stop doing it. You'll put your face in the water and come up at smile at us. You love bath time so much that you get pretty mad when it's time to get out...like as soon as I pull the drain and take your cups away you know it's time to get out.

- You are starting to share things with us. The other night you were sharing your biscuit with daddy and this morning you wanted to share your paci with him. You also like to share your water cup with us. You are a sweet girl.
- Sleeping is back on track!! YAY!! You had gotten in the habit of waking up around 12:30 and needing me to rock you back to sleep. We let you cry it out one night and that's pretty much all it took for you to go back to sleeping through the night. I wake you up during the week at 6, but on the weekends you can sleep until 7:30 or so.

- You still just have your 2 bottom teeth. Your drooling and chewing on your finger seems to have picked up lately so maybe more are on the way.

- You now say dada and mama (you said mama for the first time on Meme's birthday). You babble with the 'b' sound and 'g' sound quite a bit, and you say something that sounds like 'giggle' or 'gong' and 'bye.' You make an 'l' sound and 'h' sound. We're working on 'ball' and 'dog.'

- You have experienced more snow in the last month than I probably did my whole childhood! You were so cute all bundled up and wanting to eat the snow!

This was taken earlier today. Sara Kate is sitting on many many inches of snow...so far we have about a foot and a half!!

- Other things I want to remember are you clap quite a bit, including mimicking daddy when he does it, sometimes you wave, and you are still super ticklish. You also like peek-a-boo.

- It depends on the brand, but you are in 6-9 month clothes (like Jumping Bean), 9-month clothes (like Carters), and 6-12 month clothes (Baby Gap and Old Navy). You are still wearing some 6-9 month sleepers but most of your jammies are 9 months.

- You are in size 2 shoes, and still have tiny feet.
- You are in size 3 diapers.
- Overall, you are such a happy baby, and I think that has really helped us over the months in adjusting to life with a baby. I could look at your beautiful eyes, kiss your sweet cheeks, and cuddle with you all day. I can't believe how fast the time is flying, but we absolutely love having you in our lives!

New Trick

Hey ya'll! It's me, Sara Kate!

I know what you're thinking! From the title of this post you think I finally figured out this crawling thing Mom and Dad keep trying to get me to do. Well, SIKE!! I'm still not budging there, but I did finally figure out how to roll from my back to tummy! Once again, you are probably thinking that I learned how to roll tummy to back a few months back and I should have figured this roll out by now, but I am stubborn and want to do things at my own pace. Want some evidence of my new skill? You're in luck because my mom had that weird camera thing in my face AGAIN. So here ya go!

And here are a couple more cute pictures that Mom took of me earlier while we were playing!
I guess I'll pass this computer to my mom. She said she has a few things to say. Peace out, ya'll!

Yeah, so all of a sudden, Sara Kate figured out how to roll from back to tummy. Like everything else she does, she's been close for a while now but I guess she has just has lacked the desire to completely flip over. Chris said he thought he said the tail end of her doing it this morning, but we officially saw her do it this afternoon...a few times so it wasn't just a fluke! And I just happened to have the camera and was already taking pictures...yay!! So voila, there's her latest 'trick!'

In other news, we are seriously in the midst of Snowmageddon around here! It snowed AGAIN today, on top of the 6ish inches we already had on the ground from Tuesday. What's funny about today's storm is that we were only supposed to get a dusting and then it started snowing between 10-11 this morning, and it hasn't stopped. Good job weather forecasters! My office let out early so I headed home around 2, and by the time I got to Fayetteville, the roads were crappy once again (they weren't completely cleared to start with), and it was snowing really hard. I went outside to take a few pictures and to measure (of course) and I measured about 8 inches, with several more hours of snow still to go.
And a few more, just because. I know you haven't seen enough snow pictures on this blog lately. HA!!!
Check out this super ice block coming out of the drain off the house!! Would you call that an icicle??
Apparently, there's no end to Snowmageddon in sight. We watched the news before dinner and we have another storm coming in Sunday and another on Wednesday, which is supposed to be another major snow event. Lovely. I think I'll give a snowman another shot tomorrow...this looks like it's wetter snow than what we got Tuesday. Wish me luck! :-)

Snow Day 2

Today brought more of the same for us here at the Casa de Michaels. We did manage to get out of our pajamas today, though. :-) Well, Chris and I did. Sara Kate stayed warm and toasty in her fleece jammies. I attempted a snow man this afternoon, but it is so stinkin' cold that the snow is still just way too powdery. How cold is it? Well, it's been around 10 degrees with a wind chill in the negatives all day, and our low tonight is -9. Wow! Turn up the heat and pile extra blankets on the bed!! I took some cool pictures today when I ventured outside...well, I think they're cool, you can think what you want. :-) Oh, and I measured and our snow totals seem to be between 6 and 7 inches.

The pups had a little fun outside while I was attempting my snow man. And if you look closely, especially at the picture of Cody, you can see it was snowing again very lightly. It's done it off and on all day.

Chris walked up the street of our neighborhood to the main road to see what the road conditions were like and he said they look awful. He said the main road looked just like our neighborhood roads, which look a little like this.

I get the super fun task of venturing out tomorrow because I officially start my new job. It's a delayed start at 9, but still, the commute is gonna suck!!! I'm gonna be a nervous wreck! So say a little prayer for me and all the other crazies that have to go to work! Sara Kate had another fun snow day. She played and napped and ate and had crawling practice...still nothing new there. It's been so fun to just hang out with her the last couple days. This afternoon she seemed bored and Chris asked her if she missed her friends from school. Maybe, but she'll get another day at home tomorrow because all local schools and daycare's will be closed again. When I'm at work tomorrow, I'll miss hanging out with my little family!

She was being so cute after we ate dinner. I was cleaning up the dishes and Chris was talking to her and laughing and she started laughing back at him. So he laughed and she laughed back. It was so funny. She cracks us up sometimes!

Oh yeah, and I made snow ice cream for the first time today! I always think about it too late, but I decided to give it a try this afternoon. I got 4 cups of snow, added 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 tsp of vanilla, and milk to get it to the right consistency. It was pretty good, but pretty sweet, too. I remember my mom making it once when I was a kid (snow events in south Arkansas were few and far between!!!), and Chris had it as a kid, too. When Sara Kate gets a little older, I'll have to be sure to make some for her! I didn't give her any today because of it having milk in it, and she can't have cow's milk yet. I did let her taste the snow again. She's still a fan. :-)

All this snow day fun has just plum worn Sara Kate out! She sacked out on me last night before bath time. She's saying 'mama' now while watching her Baby Einstein video so I think I'll go join her!

Snow Day

After hours of sleet, starting sometime during the night, and many many many more hours of snow, our winter storm is wrapping up...although it's still snowing a bit outside. And yep, I got a snow day on my first day of work! And I get another snow day on my second day of work. Guess I'll have to wait and see what Thursday brings. Chris got a snow day today and gets another tomorrow, too. Pretty much everything is shut down...schools, businesses, city offices. We are covered in a beautiful blanket of white.

I measured about 5 inches earlier this afternoon, but it has continued to snow since then. Actually, I couldn't get the ruler all the way down to the ground because of ice under the snow. The weather man on the news tonight said that a 'dry pocket of air' came in sooner than expected so we didn't get as much snow as originally predicted.

This picture makes it look like things were clearing up and the snow had stopped, but the picture is just deceiving!
Don't worry, Sara Kate wasn't out like this but a second! And they were standing in the garage.

The dogs ran around like crazy puppies having a blast. But it didn't last long. Cora was done after just a few minutes!

The 3 of us have done a whole lot of nothing today. It's been a day of staying in our pajamas, getting caught up on some DVR'd shows (like American Idol and Glee), playing, reading, and napping. Glorious!
Sara Kate was watching Baby Einstein on my phone while I watched American Idol!

This picture says, 'I'm coming to get ya, Mom!'
I took these picture about an hour ago when I went out to feed the dogs.

So that was our day! What will tomorrow bring? Probably more of the same, but I want to go build a snowman! The snow was REALLY powdery today so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see if it will work!