Ten Months.

Spring has finally spring, and I feel like you have as well.  You are all over the place.  It is never a dull moment.  You can’t even walk yet, but it doesn’t matter to you because you climb on everything, and I mean EVERYTHING.  I don’t understand how you can be coordinated enough to climb, but not walk yet.  You blow my mind every day.  We never really had to baby-proof for Quinn, but you are a completely different story.  You are a tiny terror.  We have a tiny pink sofa chair that you just love to climb into, stand on, and clap your hands excitedly.  You make me so nervous because you lose your balance easily, but now that you’ve fallen a million times, and most of the time you seem ok, I try to just wait and see what your reaction is, which is SO hard.  I want to bubble wrap you up so you can’t get hurt.

You’ve started to stand while you dance now.  You still just way from side to side (usually you’re standing on that pink chair, making me nervous) while you dance, but you’ve also added in clapping.  Speaking of clapping, that is something new for you.  I love the joy you get on your face when your two little palms come together.  Sometimes I have no clue what you’re clapping for, and sometimes you’re just happy when someone claps at you.  You are still happy most of the time.  While you have eight teeth now, I still think you’re teething because you are chewing on everything, and can sometimes get pretty cranky, usually later in the day.  You poor thing.  I feel like you’ve been teething forever, and I bet you do too.

You have made a miracle discovery this month: Tags.  Out of nowhere, you started to find tags on things, and rub them on your face.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a paper tag, a satin tag, or a Tyvek type material, if it is attached to something, you will be rubbing it on your face.  It’s a little weird, but Daddy used to do something similar when he was little, so just know, it runs in the family.  For whatever reason, it seems to comfort you, so I’m ok with it.  You rubbing tags on your face, and moaning and grumbling a lot are a sure sign that you’re tired, so it’s always a welcome sign of a break for me, because I won’t have to chase you around, or pull you down off of furniture, or out of harm’s way, because you always seem to find it!

Last month, we visited the Easter Bunny at the mall, this month was actually Easter.  You didn’t really seem to get it, which is understandable at your age.  You didn’t care about finding the eggs, but once you found them, into your mouth they went.  You really tried to cram some in there, you were determined.  You also had little interest in the goodies we got you (books, candy, and a small stuffed bunny) but you really wanted to eat that Easter grass, along with the plastic wrap that came around the Peeps.  You didn’t mind when I put the bunny ear headband on your either, which was great because you were so cute!

I feel like this is extra short this month.  Things are starting to become a blur, chasing you around on top of chasing your sister around is more exhausting than I could have ever imagined.  I guess I was naive to think that you two would just place nicely together, and not play nicely AND plot against me together.  I love you anyway.

Love you so much baby girl.

Love,

Momma

Nine Months.

Well, it’s official.  Out as long as you were in!  Where is the time going?  I felt like I was pregnant forever, probably because I was constantly uncomfortable, and it seems like you just got here yesterday.  Excuse me while I have a sobbing momma moment since my baby is growing up so quickly.

There were LOTS of things going on with you this month.  The biggest of them all was probably the fact that you figured out how to stand up.  You first did it in your playpen, then your crib, and then the couch.  Peeking over edges everywhere.  You love to see what kinds of new things are going on that you never got to see before.  You still mainly stick to crawling though.  You are pretty speedy with that.  It’s amazing to me because Quinn never really crawled, not like you do anyway.  The way you do it makes me laugh from time to time.  You point your little hands in, and when you smile, you look like a little bulldog.  It is so stinking cute!  I love it.

You’ve recently discovered the joys of dancing.  Quinn does it all the time, music playing or not.  As we were getting ready for her birthday party, we had some music going.  You sat up, and started swaying back and forth side to side with the rhythm of the music.  Both of my daughters have some sort of movement skill!  It’s amazing, because neither daddy nor I are skilled in anyway.

You have made changing your diaper one of the most difficult tasks on the planet earth.  The second you get on the table, you do what I lovingly refer to as the alligator death roll.  Once I finally manage to get the diaper off, it gets even worse.  Trying to get you to hold still and not flip all over the place is sometimes an impossible feat, and if someone else is around, I have to drag them in to help me.  You don’t hate having your diaper changed, you just want to go, go, go!  The most frustrating time was when we were out somewhere.  There was a line in the bathroom (there is always a line!) and of course, the changing table was in the direct path of the line.  I pushed my way through to use it, and of course, you were impossible to even get on there, much less get undressed.  Once I got your diaper off (it was poopy, so I had to clean it up ASAP so you didn’t roll in it) you had already flipped over, and had tried to take off the table.  Here I am poopy diaper in hand, poopy-butted child trying to run away, and not many options.  I had to quickly wipe your butt, pick you up, hope you didn’t pee on me, and take care of things until I could get your back down.  No, I will probably never let you live that down.  Maybe if you’re lucky, I’ll forget.

You were pretty grumpy this month.  You got four teeth at once, over a few week period, and you were not happy about it.  Lots of grumpy days, and sleepless nights.  I wasn’t angry at you though, just felt really bad, not a lot of things seemed to soothe your pain, and you must have been in a lot of it, because the majority of the time you are a pretty calm and relaxed baby.  We even tried feeding you some baby food to maybe help cool off your mouth a bit, but you just make a horrible face, once you take that first bite, and refuse to let anymore in.  Harper: 1, pears: 0. You have also been grinding your teeth a bunch.  It drives Daddy nuts, but I am all for it, it helps get your sharp little teeth a little more rounded.  When you bite me (which you seem to do a lot), it hurts a lot less with teeth that have been ground down than when they first broke through.  You are a chompy little baby.

We happened to be at a mall in Tulsa one weekend, and the Easter Bunny was there.  We went to get a picture of him with you and Quinn, but it didn’t work out so well.  Once it was our turn, Quinn got scared, and didn’t want to go.  Once we plopped you on his lap, you didn’t seem bothered, but you weren’t smiling either.  I made daddy sing the song that he made up for you, and you had the biggest, cutest smile ever.  It was a really great picture.

On an endnote, we got you a new car seat.  It makes things a little more difficult when you’ve fallen asleep, because we can’t just carry you in it, but it gives you much more room, and you seem happier with it.  You are still the most awesome child I have ever seen in a car.  You never seem bothered by car rides, and while they often don’t put you to sleep, you just sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.  I hope you stay that way.  Both Daddy and I love to travel, and it would be nice to have at least one kid not screaming everywhere we go!

Love you my squishy little baby.

Love,

Momma

Two Years.

I can’t believe you are already two years old.

It’s hard to even wrap my mind around the fact that two years and a day ago I wasn’t a parent.  I wasn’t who I am today.  So many changes have happened in our lives in what seems like such a short amount of time.  Recently I found this snippet, and while it doesn’t all apply to ‘us’, most of it does, and it always warms my heart to read it:

I felt you. You were a pea. Then a lemon. Then an eggplant. I followed advice. I read twelve books. I quit coffee. Could you tell I was scared? I talked to you, sang to you... I wasn't ready. But then you were here. Ten toes. Eight pounds. Love. Big fat love. I held you. I fed you. I realized that I would spend my life doing things to make you happy -- and that that would make me happy. And then there are the times I want to give up. You've made me rethink my sanity. You've made me want to fall on my mother's feet and tell her that I get it. But then you smile and you say my name -- and you grab my hand with those little fingers. We're growing together. We are seeing the world like it's new. I will open my heart and love will rain down all over you. You'll giggle, and I'll do it all over again. And we will walk hand in hand. Until you let go. I made you, but you made me a mother."

- Unknown

I feel like you have grown up so much since the last time I wrote.  Some things are still the same.  You still love your sister with all your heart.  Even when she has your toys, she is your favorite person in the entire world.  You two share these magical giggles that is almost like your own secret little language.  No one can make either of you laugh as hard, or genuinely as each other.  I love it.  You love taking care of your sister too.  If she has fallen asleep on the floor, you will put a blanket, or anything close to resembling one, over her.  If you find her binky, regardless if she needs it or not, you will bring it to her, and try to give it to her.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.  If she is crying, and you can see that I am stressing over it, you will try to comfort her.  Throughout the day, you give her more hugs and kisses than your father and I get on any given day in the week.

Size wise, you don’t seem much different to me, but according to your doctor, you have grown, so I guess I have to believe them.  You are still very petite and slender.  You and your sister are about the same weight.  You have dirty blonde hair that is getting longer—another thing I don’t notice really, until I look at pictures of you a year, or a month ago, and wonder when it all grew to be so long.  The ends have started to curl up, and leave you with precious little ringlets.  I love them.  I fear that they won’t last much longer than your “baby” stage in life, but I can hope.  Your hair, much like you, is a force to be reckoned with.  You hate it being brushed, and you hate it being put up into any sort of pony tail, but you also hate it being in your eyes, and you are always brushing it away.  Your hands are always in your hair, and your hair is always a mess.  There isn’t much I can do about it, so I just let it go for now.  Your eyes are still big and beautiful, but they are changing.  They are no longer blue.  There are starting to be little flecks of some other color.  I can’t quite tell if it is green or brown, and only time will tell.

You have (mostly) graduated from your highchair when we go out to eat.  For a few short months, you allowed us to use a booster seat with you, but now you refuse.  You don’t care if sitting in a regular chair means that your nose can barely rest on the table top, you want to be a big girl!  Most the time you stay seated, and are pretty well behaved.  You’re still trying to master eating with silverware, so it’s still a mess, but even a highchair couldn’t fix that.

The places that we frequent for dinner often always remember you.  When we go to Chili’s we have a waitress that we request every time.  She has literally watched you grow up.  She is one of the reasons that you started to finally chill out at night when you were a few months old because she suggested a remedy that seemed to work.  You sometimes get toted around the restaurant, and sometimes taken near the kitchen, so you can be shown off.  You love the attention.  Another place we go, Daddy always takes you to the counter to pay.  You stand on his knee, and hand them the bill and credit card.  Once the receipt is printed, Daddy fills it out, and then you sign it, and hand it back to them.  When we leave, you say (scream) goodbye to everyone and wave.  We didn’t know that they even remembered you until we were getting ready to leave, and overheard one of them say, “Watch this, this little girl pays the bill every time, it’s so cute!” Everyone loves you. 

You are tough as nails.  You fall down, you get back up and brush it off, if you can even be bothered to do that much, and just keep on going.  You only really cry when you don’t get something you want, or you get in trouble.  Usually a lot of high-pitched screaming is also involved.  No one likes that.  Unfortunately, you seem to have inhabited your parent’s klutziness.  I’m hoping that a lot of it is still you getting to know your body.  You love to run, and dance, and jump.  Well, kind of jump.  It’s more of a hop if you’re on your own, or you really nail it when you get to hold on to something.  You love to be thrown around, and rough house with us.  You love to go to the park, and climb on all the equipment, but you seem very hesitant to go down the slides.  You love the swings though.  When you see them all we hear is shrill screams of joy, “Wings!  Wings!”

Your vocabulary has expanded a lot.  You can now form sentences, and sing songs.  I could go on for hours with all the cute things you say now.  It seems like writing them out, loses a lot of the cute though because I just can’t get the same effect of when the words actually come out of your mouth.  You have turned out to be amazingly polite and giving.  You know ‘thank you’, and ‘you’re welcome’, and sometimes you even say ‘please’.  We’re still working on ‘you’re welcome’ a little bit because sometimes you say it before you say ‘thank you’, when you’re not the person that is supposed to be saying it, or you say, ‘I ‘melcome.’  If someone sneezes (or coughs, or makes any noise, really) you always say ‘bless you!’  Sometimes you will even check to see if they are ok.  Such a sweet girl.

We recently started taking you to baby story time at the library.  You love it.  It is only half an hour, but a few stories are read, and songs are sung.  Afterwards, you get to color and play with sensory items.  You aren’t super social yet, but you really seem to enjoy it, even if we don’t know any of the songs, or the people there.

Today we had your birthday party.  It wasn’t anything big, just a few friends, and a few family members.  You wanted Tinker Bell, so that was the theme.  I worked for a few days to make you Tinker Bell, and you loved it.  I made you a little green dress, and very glittery tutu that you strutted around in.  There was glitter everywhere.  You were the most perfect little birthday princess.  I think really enjoyed yourself this year.  You were so sweet when opening your presents.  Most were in gift bags, so you would take out the tissue paper, and hand a piece to everyone around, telling them “thank you” every time you did.  It took you forever to open your presents, because every time you took one thing out of the bag, that was it, you wanted to play with that thing right then, but there were more presents, so we had to keep taking things away from you, and show you that there were more!  We did cupcakes this year, instead of a cake for you.  I think that was better.  It was a lot less messy, but you still ended up in the bathtub after.  We had been practicing singing ‘Happy Birthday’ for a week or two before your birthday, but you seemed unfazed when it was sang to you.  When we went to dinner, a while later, we had them sing to you then, too, and you didn’t seem to enjoy it then either… but you still love singing the song.

I love you my messy-haired little girl.  I can’t wait to see where the next year brings us.

Love,

Momma

Eight Months.

Eight months.  Wow.  (Here is where I will skip all the stuff I write every month about how I can’t believe how fast you’re growing up on me!)

You are a force to be reckoned with.  That is for sure.  You are incredibly mobile, and all over the place.  Your favorite place to scope out is the DVD shelf.  That is probably the biggest no-no in this house.  Daddy takes a LOT of pride in his DVDs (cases and organization included) and you just looooove to take them off the shelf and chew on them.  He pretty much freaks out if anything is wrong with them, so you are moved often, but you always go back.  You don’t like to be moved either.  You realize your hard work and you get super angry when we move you away from whatever it is you are doing.  You also love to chew on wires, and pretty much anything you can, so you are moved a lot.  Lucky for us, we can usually distract you with cuddles and love, and you calm down pretty quickly.

Every morning I put you in your playpen in front of the fish.  You love to watch them swim around.  This allows me to get Quinn changed, get her situated, get myself situated, and get you taken care of in that half of the house.  It’s nice.  I hope you continue to love fish when you get older.  They are so relaxing to look at.  We have a few baby fish in there, Quinn likes to point them for you, and tell you how cute they are.

Recently, you have started babbling and making a lot more noise than you used to.  Most of it is just coos and caas, but there are some mommas, dadas, and nanas in there.

You have had a few milestones this month.  You finally figure out how to sit up on your own, and you can now sit up, and stay up unassisted.  Because of this, we finally ditched your baby bath tub, and you could not be happier.  You love to splash and slide around the full-sized bathtub.  Sometimes I wonder who is more wet when the bath is over, you, who has been sitting in the water, or daddy, who was bathing you, but in the direct path of your constant splashing.  I can’t wait to get you into a pool, I think you will love swimming.  The way you sit yourself up is hilarious sometimes.  You put yourself into the full splits, and push up from the middle.  Maybe you will be a little gymnast someday, because I’ve even caught you sleeping in the splits.  We have also tried giving you food, because you seem really interested in whatever we are eating.  Since your digestive system still isn’t in full form yet, we can’t quite just hand you what’s on our plates, but every time we’ve tried to give you food, you’re not a fan.  We’ve tried avocados and bananas, and you will take one bite, crinkle your nose, and not let any more in your mouth.  Your sister, however, has tried to feed you her food several times, and you’ve had a taste of a French fry or two, and while you seem to enjoy them in your mouth, your stomach doesn’t appreciate all the grease, and you end up sick.

When things make you happy, you tense up, get a big silly grin, put your arms out, and shake.  I don’t know why.  It scared me the first few times, but it’s funny now.  A lot of things make you excited and happy, so you’ve been doing this a lot lately.  You seem to just love life in general, and not much can make you upset, you even (still) laugh in your sleep.

Love you smiley girl.

Love,

Momma

Seven Months.

Where do I even begin?  I feel like so much has happened in the last month.  (Don’t I say this every month?)

It’s official.  You were teething.  You have teeth.  Not just one tooth, but two absolutely adorable teeth.  Now that they have broken through, we have less of the miserable version of you, but you still seem to wake up often through the night.  Daddy says that thanks to the lack of sleep, I’m starting to hallucinate, and I’m pretty sure he’s starting to think I’m crazy.  Give me a little break, ok?  You are also biting with your little teeth, and it HURTS!  You bite so often that every time I go to feed you, and Quinn is around, she feels the need to remind you, “No bite!”  I appreciate her effort, but it doesn’t seem to phase you.  I hope you grow out of it soon.  I really don’t want to have to stop nursing you.  I’m trying to learn your “clues” but you’ve thrown me a curve ball this week, and have tricked me into thinking you’re hungry, so I go to feed you, just to have you chomp down.  Ouch!

You are well on your way to crawling.  You get up on your hands and knees a lot of the time.  Sometimes you even get up on your toes and hold it there, kind of like pushups.  You are a strong little one, that’s for sure.  You can stay in that position a lot longer than I can.  You are also sitting up for longer periods of time.  You no longer have to be propped up constantly, and you can usually last about a minute on your own before you slouch to the side, or ease back.  You are starting to try and catch your self as well.  When you roll over, you often try to prop yourself up, but you aren’t quite there yet.  You’re persistent though, so I have no doubts that by next month you will have it down.

You are finally big enough for the bouncer, and now that we have officially retied the swing, and you are too big and too wiggly for the bouncy chair, it has been a semi-relief.  You only tolerate it for short amounts of time, but it gets you less mobile.  I think that’s why you can only tolerate for so long, you start having fun with all the gadgets, and then you realize, “hey, I can’t get out of this thing!”  It at least gives me a little break.

You have clearly said “momma” and “dada” now.  Mostly it’s just babbles, but when you are upset, you always manage to cry out “momma” and not “dada” so that’s a relief to me!  At least someone says “momma” on a regular basis in this house!

You are growing like a weed!  At your 6-month check up (that was closer to you being 7 months) you were 19 pounds!  That’s only 3 pounds lighter than your sister is.  You are wearing mostly 9 to 12 month old clothes, so you are going through what I have stored quickly.  I have some really cute outfits for spring and summer, but this year the weather is super strange, so I hope they will still fit when the season is right.

You still aren’t the most awesome sleeper when it comes to the nighttime hours.  You are usually up every 2 hours.  Luckily, you are very easy to get back to sleep, I just wish I got more of it at a time.  You are definitely a morning baby.  Usually when 8 o’clock rolls around, you are up and at ‘em.  Cheery, and ready to play for the day.  Again, lucky for me, you at least take naps during the day to make up for what you’re not getting at night, so most days I get a few moments where I can take a deep breath.

You are still so full of smiles, and not many things can wreck your mood.  You still don’t like poopy diapers, and trust me; I don’t like your poopy diapers either.  I want to cry, right along with you, especially when you leak all over.  I thought I was doing a lot of laundry before, but it seems like I am doing laundry every day.  You just love to make messes.  Nothing gives you more joy than your sister.  I love walking into the room hearing you both squeal and squee with joy.  Nothing could ever make a momma happier.   Sometimes in the mornings when Quinn has come into our bedroom, both of you will be in the bed with us (sometimes with daddy, and sometimes he’s gone off to work.)  I love watching you two cuddle together.  Sometimes, even if I am super exhausted, I just sit and stare at the both of you.  You make me so proud.  Sometimes I have to fight the urge to scoop you up, hold you tightly in my arms, and tell you how much I love you.  You will probably never know how much I love you.  Even I’m amazed at how much I can love both you and your sister.

Love,

Momma

Six Months.

Half a year, already?  Stop growing up!

You are such a sweet girl, and still (even despite recent occurrences) the calmest baby I have ever known.  Everybody just loves you, and you have started smiling back at most people instead of scowling at them, as you will forever be known for.  (It’s ok to be cautious.)  Everyone loves your little chunky everything, and finally someone other than family noticed your little heart mark between your eyes.  I love it.  It some ways, I hope you keep it because it is a unique mark, which makes you stand out.  On the other hand, it’s a unique mark that makes you stand out, and people will pick on you for that, which I hate; there is nothing wrong with being different.

Your awesome little mohawk has finally made its last appearance.  Your hair is starting to be too long (or too heavy, I’m not sure) but now you just have normal baby hair.  We did get a few good pictures of it while you had it though.  You rocked it like a star!

You are so happy all the time.  When you were younger, you used to scowl at everyone all the time, even me.  Now you laugh and giggle all the time.  Most of the time, we (momma and daddy) can make you laugh, but no one can get your going like Quinn.  You laugh at each other and get into giggle fits every day.  I love watching you two so much.  You definitely love to laugh, you even laugh in your sleep sometimes, which is hilarious (even though it’s two or three in the morning.)  There are certainly worse sounds to wake up to.  If someone is holding you, and you get excited, you kick your feet like crazy.  Sometimes it is so difficult to hold on to you, you just want to joyfully squirm out of our arms!  Happy, happy girl.

You haven’t been sleeping so great lately.  Not really sure why, you used to at least give me 5 or 6 hours where I had a chance to sleep solid, but now it’s every few hours, if that, and its killing me.  Sometimes feeding you will satisfy you, but lately, it’s getting harder and harder to figure out what you want.  We’ve even resorted to giving you Tylenol when nothing else will work, and 90% of the time, that will work.  You are probably teething, but you’ve been “teething” (drooling and chewing on everything) for months, with no real progress on teeth.  Quinn was the same way though, and she didn’t actually get teeth until she was 10 ½ months old, but she never acted as miserable as you are.  We go to the doctor in two weeks for your checkup.  I doubt they will tell me anything is wrong, and they will probably just brush it off as teething, but I will mention it anyway.

You had your first Christmas last month.  We didn’t really know what to expect.  When Quinn had her first Christmas, she was almost a year old, and she barely enjoyed it.  You did ok.  You didn’t unwrap anything, but you seemed to enjoy the toys that you got.  Some, ok most, of your toys you are sharing with your sister, and she seems to love them just as much as you do.  At this point, it’s really hard to separate toys for one child or the other, I promise, it won’t always be that way.

You have finally outgrown the beloved swing.  This may or may not be the cause for your continued upset at night.  You don’t nap half as much as you used to, and sometimes you cry and cry, and cry for your swing, but at this point, it’s just an expensive chair.  They don’t make the weight limit on those things near where they should be.  It’s been a hard transition for all of us.  Trust me.  ALL OF US.  You have a bouncy seat, which is ok, by your standards, and I’ve been letting you play around on the floor a lot more, which is occasionally ok, but neither of those places is suitable for you to fall asleep at.  Usually I have to rock you for a long time, and transfer you to the bouncy seat, or risk walking through the house and getting you to your crib.  Both of those adventures have a 75% failure rate, and you usually wake up, but at least if I make it to your crib, you will stare at your mobile for a bit and pretend you are sleeping long enough for me to take a shower, or deal with the dishes or laundry.  You’re a good sport.  Thanks for that.

Love,

Momma