11 months

Happy 11 months! We're on the homestretch to one year. It has flown by! 

What's new?

*You may have started this last month, but you definitely reach for me this month. I love it!

*Proud recipient of 4 teeth- fully erupted (your first!) this month. The bottom two front teeth and the two top eye teeth. Just like big sis, you randomly got your eye teeth (fangs) before any other top teeth.

*Pulling up constantly and try to take steps to cruise

*Finished first music class

*First Hubbard beach trip

*First CFA kids meal 😆

*You have enough hair to wear a bow!!! I'm particularly thrilled about this!

On the food front:

*Nurse twice a day, eat three full meals, and snack throughout the day. 

*Finally drink water! You average about 1-1.5 cups a day. You drink from a straw cup, no problem!

*New foods- I only remembered to write down two: collard greens and eggs. You loved both and I fix scrambled eggs for you a few times a week now. That's right folks, I learned how to make eggs! 

*Generally, you eat what we eat.

You love:

*Moving and crawling everywhere. You are FAST!

*Pulling up- and do so every chance you get

*Water- from swimming to baths, you love to splash!

*Keys! Chewing on, shaking, etc...

*Pushing toys- cars or anything on wheels

*Flipping through books

*Remote controls 

*Knocking over cups

*Jumparoo

Not a fan of:

*Fireworks!!

*Being tossed in the air

*You have a bit of stranger danger, although not to the extent big sis did at this age. 

You still haven't picked up on the sign language. Big sis was way ahead of you in this category. Unfortunately, you grunt and whine loudly when you want something 😕 sigh..... I'm still signing and hope you'll eventually pick it up.

The beach trip was interesting this year. You definitely don't do as well as big sis did sleeping away from home. You woke up most nights around 9pm and wailed until either daddy or I came to get you and didn't quit until you were snuggled on my chest. You didn't make a peep and just snuggled in until I was ready to go to bed. You went right back to your normal routine when you got back home. 

Nope, they don't look like me. They look just like their daddy! And they are beautiful! But I may be biased 😆😆

It's about time to lower the mattress!

You are still a peanut and wear 3-6 and 6-9 mo clothes.

Pool time with the BFFs

Happy Father's Day to Daddy

Annual beach trip

10 months!

Wow! What a month for C! There were lots of big changes this month. 

What's new?

We have an official crawler. I held her off as long as I could...lol! She crawls on all fours, pushes with her left foot and goes forward (h crawled backwards at first). She can get anywhere she pleases, but is generally happy where we are. 

Speaking of motor skills, she is pulling up on everything and even trying to stand solo (without any assistance). She's extremely close to standing solo...eeeeee!! I have a feeling I'm in for it once she figures that out. She loves big sis and wants to keep up with her. 

C is getting two teeth! Both began popping through about the same time. They are her bottom middle teeth. The right tooth is coming in faster than the left.

New foods this month (again, still really eats anything): salmon, spinach, zucchini, hummus, ginger snaps....that's all I remembered to write down, but I think she's probably had a lot more. 

C is experimenting with her voice this month. She still mostly says dada, but she's playing with the inflection. It's fun to listen.

C is sitting in the shopping cart this month. Unless she's asleep, I take her out of the carrier. So far, she loves it and keeps herself entertained while I shop.

C went in the pool for the first time this month. She was NOT happy at first, but once she got used to it she loved it!

C went on her first boat ride! We feel so fortunate to have met a wonderful family since our move. We love hanging out with the M family. It's not often you find a family where everyone truly enjoys each others' company...both the parents and the children. From date nights, to family outings we always have a blast with them. They invited us down to their family vacation spot at the beach for the weekend this month. C enjoyed her first boat ride! She wasn't the biggest fan of the life jacket, but otherwise enjoyed it.

Loves: 

*Daisy-This girl is Daisy obsessed! She is always trying to get as close to Daisy as possible. Daisy is so patient, even when C takes her toys...which is often.

*food

*music

*books- loves flipping the board book pages and loves story time

*paci- it truly pacifies her

*crawling- she is on the move!!

*baths (really water of any kind)- splashing is her favorite!

What else is C up to?

We have a great little play group on the neighborhood. C enjoys and gets excited when these kiddos are round. 

C is still doing great on the food front! I've discovered she doesn't really like cold foods, unless it's watermelon or cheese. If I put cold fruits on her plate, she'll wait until they warm up before eating them. For example, if I put a peach that's been on the counter in front of her, she will eat it right away. If it's been in the refrigerator, she waits. She won't drink cold water either. Funny, huh?

Aunt Susie and Megan came to visit on their way to MD. 

C is still taking two naps a day and sleeping a full 12 hours at night. She is nursing 3x's a day.

It's hard keeping her still for pics these days!

C has been buddies with these two since birth. They will be in the one's preschool together in the fall. The first of her buddies just turned 1!

Happy 9 months!

Time please stop! How can my sweet baby be 9 mo? 

Collins has really developed and changed this month. 

What's new?

*We are fully on finger foods! I still have a few pouches left that I throw in the diaper bag for the church nursery and any other emergency situation. However, C prefers to feed herself.

*Speaking of foods, we've thrown a lot of new things her way this month including: garbanzo beans, rosemary quinoa, yogurt, tilapia, Brussels sprouts, roast beef, brown rice, blueberries, avocado, lemon chicken, and cantaloupe among many others. She really eats what we eat now, so it's been much harder to keep up with all that's new. She loves everything and is a great eater! She does not like peach cups. They are the only things she's refused.

*Before this month, C could turn from her back to her front intentionally, but never really cared to use that skill. This month, she is such a wiggle worm and flips around all over the place!

*Going from laying down to sitting is a new and favorite skill this month. The first time she sat up, she couldn't figure out how to lay back down. Lots of crying ensued from her crib. I was shocked when I clicked the monitor on to check on her. I helped her lay down and she went right to sleep. Poor girl. That's not an issue any more. She's mastered it!

*C pulled up for the first time this month! What!?! She grabbed onto a bar that was chest level and pulled to standing. I was not expecting that! It hasn't happened since, but I have a feeling more of that is right around the corner. 

*She still isn't crawling, but boy is she close. She CAN scoot herself.

*Rolling balls back and forth to me.

*Her hair is really growing this month and is definitely blonde!

*We started a music class this month with a few of her friends from the 'hood. She loves it!!

Loves:

*Hannah and Daisy. She BELLY laughs with the two of them around. It's so much fun!

*Splashing and bath time.

* The remote control

*Anything with a tag on it

* Looking in the mirror

*Stroller rides and being outside

*Jumparoo

*Pulling things out of bags and boxes, turning over said boxes and banging on them

*Putting EVERYTHING in her mouth

*Being read to

*Momma's milk

*Being held and cuddled

Not a fan of:

*Drinking water. Cannot get her to drink it! 

*Diaper changes

C had a major cold this month. Sleeping was hard, so falling asleep on momma was a comfort....I'll take it! Babies don't keep 😢

She wiggled her way over to Daisy.

C loves Sis and Sis is beginning to tolerate C.

Grand mommy came through town on her way to visit a cousin. C enjoyed seeing her!

Schedule: 

C is sleeping about 12 hrs at night and generally wakes around 6:30-7. She's taking two naps a day that range from 1.5-2 hours each. She's eating two large meals and one smaller one during the day and nursing 4xs. I'm about to drop one. I just need to get her drinking water!

We love you Collins and can't wait to see what the next month has in store!

March Madness!

I We had the pleasure of keeping my sweet niece, Megan, for almost two weeks back in March. H and M love spending time with one another. We went on so many fun adventures together! We spent a few days in GA before heading down to AL to celebrate Smooth's 70th birthday.

Our days in GA were spent in a fantasy world of princesses and all things royal!

May I introduce you to our princesses.....

Our little artists creating their works for B & S!

We did have one glitch while in GA. H came down with a raging case of Strepthroat. You haven't lived until you spend two-three hours in urgent care with 3 kids, 4 and under. I'm pretty sure we used all the medical supplies available to us to play games with. I will say, all three were really well behaved! As a side note, nobody else caught it, hooray! 

We also enjoyed the thrill of a morning snow flurry and a trip to WH, Collins' first!

Scattered, covered, and smothered...stat!

We had a wonderful weekend in AL celebrating Smooth! M and H were soaking up the attention of the big kids and enjoyed dinners with the entire Vance clan, playing at the park, watching Tinkerbell, and playing with marble runs 😃

14 folks diving in to great italian!

Our return home was long, but uneventful. The girls really enjoyed having each other to play with and talk to in the car. The dialogue between 4yos is quite funny!

The rest of our time with Megan was spent exploring and getting out and about! 

I kept H in preschool, so I was able to have some fun time with just M and C. I took M to paint her mommy a special gift early in the week, so it would be ready for pick up by her last day with us. I let M have her pick of anything in the store and she chose a heart. It was so sweet and she really took her time painting it to make sure it was perfect! We also headed out to our local bookstore's Storytime. It was really cute! The reader picks a few books to read and then the kids get to create a craft based on one of the books. This week's was City Dog, Country Frog.

We lucked out with fairly decent weather during M's visit. We were coming off of the heels of a few weeks with ice and snow, so these girls loved being outside. A popular activity with these two is riding scooters. 

M was able to tag along during H's dentist appointment. She enjoyed watching H and entertaining C. No cavities for H!! The girls enjoyed comparing dentist notes. Ha! Afterwards, we had a play date with one of M's buddies who moved to the area last fall. 

It did rain a few of the days M was here. That didn't keep us down. While h was in school, we attended another story time, M helped me grocery shop, and after school I took the girls to An indoor bouncey place. That was a huge hit! 

Susie left a small gift for the girls to open each day of M's trip. It was such a sweet gesture and one the girls really looked forward to each day. 

One of my favorite activities was taking the girls to the museum of art. They have a "what's in the box" class for preschoolers. This particular class focused on movement and the theme was sculptures. The kids seemed to enjoy the class and learned to bend and shape their bodies like different sculptures. They also learned to look at art from all sides because each angle provides a different interpretation. These kiddos really listened. After the class was over, we walked around the museum until we found our sculpture from class. The kids promptly formed their bodies into said sculpture and also walked around and viewed it from all angles. 

My favorite conversation was overheard while looking at a painting about a shipwreck. Apparently, it looked eerily similar to a scene from Frozen..... And there you have it, everything relates back to 

Ana and Elsa!

The big girls loved dressing alike. Thankfully, we had enough of the same or similar clothes to make it work!

More princess shenanigans and dance parties to boot!

M joined us for family pizza night! It's a fun weekend tradition and we love making our pizzas from scratch! H and M helped Wes make the dough and put the pepperonis on. 

And finally, my very favorite day! It was actually unexpected how it worked out. Our last day with 

M was dreary and a 100% chance of rain. We'd planned on going to the natural history museum for amphibian day. When we got downtown, it was barely misting....spitting at best. The St. Patty's day parade had already started. We heard the bagpipes calling us and knew we had to stand outside even if just for a glimpse of the parade. We ended up standing there for quite a while and the girls LOVED it! The had fun collecting beads, candy, flowers, stickers, and even dinosaur hats. We saw everything from Celtic dancers to dogs wearing pillbox hats! 

When it started misting, we decided to head indoors. Amphibian day was quite a hit with these two! They have no fear and thought it was cool petting snakes, watching a rattle snake shake its tail, touching salamanders, knocking on turtle shells, and holding "frog eggs." They got to create a few crafts. We didn't make it through the entire museum before having to head back to the house. Megan was most excited about seeing a TRex, so that was our last stop. 

The girls hated saying goodbye! H has truly asked about her every day since she left. I love their special relationship!