Saturday, January 8, 2011

9 Months

Sara Kate, you are 9 months old today!! What have you been up to??
- At school, you got moved up to the next room starting in January. You are now in the Pollywog room! The Pollywog room is for the crawlers, and they have more space to move around, some activity centers, and high chairs to eat in. You also now nap in a mini pack n play instead of a crib. When I dropped you off the other day, your teacher was holding who she called 'your best friend.' I said, Sara Kate didn't tell me she had a best friend. Miss Allison said they sit and wave at each other. Aww! When daddy picked you up the other day, you were sitting on the floor with a little boy and he was trying to take your paci. Then you snatched it back. Guess you guys were playing a little game.
- You aren't crawling yet, but you are close.
Somehow you manage to scoot yourself around, and we aren't sure how you do it. We put you down to play with your toys in one spot, and the next thing we know you have moved yourself to a different location. Here's an example...you started out sitting inside the boppy and you just scoot yourself around!
You can get one leg underneath yourself, and if you would get the other underneath you, you would be off!
- You love food!! The only thing we've found that you don't like is the sweet peas I made you. I tried giving you a jar of peas and you like them (that's the only jar food you've had), so it must be the texture of the ones I made. So far you've had 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 (weren't crazy about them by themselves but ate them mixed with a little fruit), sweet peas (don't like homemade, like jarred), cauliflower (liked but it gave you horrible gas), mashed potatoes (like), carrots (really like), apples (love), pears (love), banana (love), blueberries (love), peaches (can't decide if you like them or not...you like them mixed with something else), mango (weren't crazy about at first but really like now), cream corn (like), and dressing (like). I just remembered that I gave you some chicken salad that is 'smashed' (liked it at first but then you weren't crazy about it) and you've had Cool Whip (like). You have started getting organic apple flavored puff's and you love them! You are really good at feeding them to yourself, too! You've had graham crackers, too.
And to celebrate your 9 month birthday, you had pancakes with us this morning for the first time! You loved them!!
- Your schedule is a little something like this (during the week): I wake you up around 6:15 and you nurse, you have a bottle of breast milk 10:30ish, you have lunch, which is usually a fruit and oatmeal noon-ish, you have a bottle of breast milk somewhere between 2:30-3:30, you have dinner when we do between 6:30-7, and that is usually a couple of veggies or a veggie and fruit and water, and you nurse at bedtime, around 9. You also get a snack of puffs at school, and we give you some in the evenings.
- I mentioned you drinking water, and you are drinking water out of a sippy cup!
- You're sleeping in the last month has been totally off. You have been waking up several nights in a row and then sleeping a couple nights in a row. There's no real pattern, except there for a while you were waking up every night between 12:30 and 1:30. I would go rock you back to sleep, and you would sleep the rest of the night. I have to imagine teething and maybe a little separation anxiety has been the reasons, but who knows. On the weekends, you can sleep in until 7:00-8:00. Over Christmas break, you even made it to 8:30 one day!
- Speaking of teething, you got your 2 bottom teeth! The bottom right came through Dec. 29, and the bottom left came through on Jan. 1! We can see them both, too!
- You are loving all the new toys you got for Christmas! We have a couple 'play centers' set up, including your pack n play, and a blanket on the floor. You also still like your activity center, and you like the Jenny Jump-Up! You love books, too!
- I guess we can say that you have officially said your first word, and it is 'dada!' Granted, you don't associated dada with your daddy yet, but Meme said we can call that your first word. In this video, it sounds like you are going between 'baba' and 'dada' and it was taken when you first started saying it. Now we can definitely hear the 'd' sound. I'm certainly working on 'mama', but when we are 'talking,' and I say 'mama,' you look at me and say 'dada.' Nice, sweet pea! :-)

- A couple other things you started doing recently is clapping and waving. You were waving and then you stopped. You've kind of picked it up again.
- We have figured out you are super ticklish...everywhere!!
- Depending on the brand, you are in 6-9 month clothes (like Jumping Bean), and some 9-month clothes (like Carters), even though they are a little big. Baby Gap and Old Navy 6-12 month clothes fit you good. You are in 6 or 9 month jammies.
- You have little bitty feet! Size 2 shoes, which I think are usually 6-9 months, are too big. You even have a pair of 3-6 month shoes that are a little big.
- You are in size 3 diapers.
- Your eyes are just a beautiful blue, and you have quite a bit of super blonde hair. Actually, it sticks up at the crown of your head, and you have enough hair to get bed head in the morning. Ha! You have a perfect, beautiful smile, too, and you are such a happy baby!-This has been such a big month, and you've learned so much! And I cant believe you are 3/4 of a year old! You are such a joy, and we love you so much! We look forward to what new things this next month brings!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Happy New Year

Better late than never, right?!? Hope everyone had a great New Years! I'd say we kept things pretty low key. We went to a friends house and Chris, Phillip, and their band (Wade's Not Coming) jammed a bit. The guys were supposed to have a New Years gig at a bar/restaurant but at the last minute the place ended up double booked so WNC took a rain check. It was a fun evening. Chris' mom was kind enough to stay at the house on New Years so Sara Kate could go to sleep in her own bed and she wouldn't have to drive home late. The girls had a good time. Meme said Sara Kate was such fun that night...good thing! I hate leaving her and then finding out she was a pill. Ha! I have no pictures from New Years but I'm going to back up a bit and post the last of the Christmas pictures I wanted to get on here.

Actually, first I want to do a little 'Best of 2010' Recap...or maybe just a 'Month by Month' Recap (because going back to work doesn't fall under the 'best of' category!)!

January - Started working on Sara Kate's nursery and super fun snow days!
February - Our niece, Hannah's, 2nd birthday and our baby classes at the hospital
March - More super fun snow plus my baby shower
April - Sara Kate's arrival (duh!!)
May - My first Mother's Day
June - I went back to work after maternity leave, Chris' first Father's Day, and our 5th anniversary
July - Chris' 30th birthday and Sara Kate's first 4th of July, which included meeting her Texas family for the first time
August - Sara Kate started school
September - My 30th birthday and Sara Kate's baby dedication at church...oh yeah, and the start of Razorback football!!! And how could I forget, my best friend came for a visit, which means Sara Kate got to meet her Georgia 'family!'
October - Sara Kate's first Halloween
November - Our first big road trip for Thanksgiving and having Sara Kate meet her Alabama family for the first time; finding out we're getting a nephew
December - Our first Christmas as a family of 3!

Ok, that was fun! Now for the rest of our holiday pictures!
Sara Kate on Christmas Eve in her dress from Meme!
Church on Christmas Sunday
The end of last week Aunt Holly was in town and she gave Sara Kate a few Christmas gifts, one she absolutely loved!!!
That would be 'Tara the Tiger,' if you couldn't tell. I've never seen her go so crazy for a stuffed animal before, but she loves this thing. She hugs it and scruntches her face into it...it's cute. Definitely a good gift!

Chris got some new camera equipment for Christmas and he's been having a good time playing with it!
This is just a funny picture. Sara Kate is like, 'This is my puppy dog, and we're just chillin'!' Cora is such a good girl!
Finally, if you'll recall, my last post was about Sara Kate getting her first tooth (which was Wednesday and it was her bottom right). Well, not 3 days later, her 2nd tooth came in (bottom left)!! I am very confident it came through on New Years Day (Saturday) because I checked on New Years Eve and it wasn't there!! So Happy New Year Sara Kate! Not only can you feel the 2 teeth, we can see them, too! Chris has been trying to get a picture of them but with not much luck. However, we think he actually did manage to get a picture of them the other day. Look closely!
Upon closer inspection, that might be drool. Oh well. One of these days we'll get a picture of them!

Hope everyone is having a great 2011 so far!

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Surprise!

All I want(ed) for Christmas is (was) my two front teeth
My two front teeth
See, my two front teeth!
Gee if I could only have my two front teeth
Then I could wish you
"Merry (late) Christmas!"
And what does this post mean? Somebody's 1st tooth finally broke through! We are guessing it broke through in the last 24 hours, maybe even this morning (around 5:30 am) when she let out some horrible screams like she was in pain. Maybe? Guess we'll never know exactly, but I know that tooth wasn't there when I was feeling around a couple days ago. We can't see it yet, but we can definitely feel it!

Monday, December 27, 2010

Christmas 2010

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I had this great plan to write a post on Christmas day, one that I had been thinking about while rocking Sara Kate when she woke up around 12:30 in the wee hours of Christmas. But Christmas day ended up being crazy busy and I never got around to it. My thoughts included how could a pregnant woman (Mary) be sent to a stable to bear her child? Would a pregnant woman in labor in today's time be sent to a stable to have her baby? I can't imagine that would happen today, but who knows. And I wonder what the inn keeper thought when he learned that that baby born in his stable was the Savior of the world. Anyway, just a few thoughts I had while rocking my sweet baby.

My parents got here Christmas Eve in the afternoon and I finished up a little baking, including a few family favorites like buffalo chips and getting the cornbread made for the dressing. I got soup in the crock pot for dinner and we headed to church at 6. Our church packs the people in on Christmas Eve (maybe most churches are like that??)! It always amazes me to see how many people come out to celebrate Jesus' birth.
Sara Kate says, 'Wa-hoo!! It's almost Christmas!!'
Church was very nice, and Sara Kate did great during the service. She wore her cute little Christmas tree pillow case dress Meme made her (I got no pictures of her in that, oops), and she looked adorable as usual. We came home and had dinner and hung out for a bit before hitting the sack. Like I already mentioned, Sara Kate woke up during the night so we spent some time rocking, which I actually didn't mind that night. Along with my other thoughts that I already mentioned, I was thinking how grateful I was to have Sara Kate here with us this year. She's just such a blessing and a joy.
Apparently, we were very good this year...my parents came bearing wonderful things for me, Chris, Sara Kate, Phillip, and Holly. They are so good to us.
All decked out in our Christmas jammies!
Sara Kate was way into the bows!! She loved them. She was also very interested in pulling paper and eating it. And luckily Chris caught that she had bitten off a piece off a rather large piece of tag and had it in her mouth. Whew.
Stocking time! From Gran and Pop
From mommy and daddy
Sara Kate got a tea set, books galore, some old school toys from my grandmother, and a hat she had NO interest in (and I don't blame her)! :-)
I got a new coat
My mom got the best wrapped present of the day. Yep, that's duck tape and a trash bag. Ya think we are from Arkansas?? :-) It was a Wii.
After all the damage was done here, we had breakfast, finished up cooking a few things, and headed to Bentonville for Christmas with Chris' family. It was a big turnout, including, us, my parents and brother, Chris' parents, his sister and her family, his grandparents, and his aunt, uncle, and cousins from Texas. Grandpa and Grandma live in a community where they can 'rent' out a club house and that's what they did since there was so many people. It worked out great.
Sara Kate looked like a cute little baby Clause. This is the only picture we got with her wearing her bow.
Brandon...we decided him and Sara Kate could be brother and sister with their blonde hair and blue eyes!
Sweet cousins
Sara Kate giving sweet kisses to Aunt Jenny...actually she was biting her chin. Good thing there are no teeth in that mouth! We were all getting a kick out of this!
Present time
Brandon helped Sara Kate with hers. He really took to her...it was cute. And of course she has another bow!!
Playing with daddy
Overall it was a great day. Sara Kate came home with some fun toys, books, and clothes. It was nice to spend time with both of our families together.
Chris' family
We didn't get a picture of my family on Christmas day but we did on Sunday at church. The pictures are on mom and dad's camera so I'll have to get them to send a few to me.

We did our last Christmas at Chris' parents house later that night and we forgot the camera so we have no pictures of that. :-( My favorite thing of the night was a book given to Sara Kate (Hannah got one too), and it was one of those recording books. It was the Christmas story, read to the girls by their Meme and Poppa. So sweet. It made me get all teary. As you can tell, we had a great day. I'll have to do another post later with other random pictures from our weekend, including a project here at the house that my dad helped Chris with. :-) Merry (late) Christmas!!