11 Months

It was slightly strange to realize that this will be the last "month" celebration of significance... next up 1 year old! Holy. cow. ... Ok, past that, we officially have a toddler on our hands - Addie started to toddle around somewhere around 10-10.5 months... and started taking steps somewhere after that.

However, her preferred method of transportation remained crawling... until Thursday. 12 consecutive steps later, she know prefers to crawl to something, pull up, and then walk until she falls again. She's getting pretty good at it too.

Her favorite things to crawl to are...the puppies obviously. (what, did you think I would say Lee or I? ha!) no such luck, Addie waaay prefers the pooches to either of us.

In other news, she's learning to use a spoon - I use that term loosely. Mainly I mean her stubborn streak is apparently here to stay and she refuses to allow us to feed her... but it takes about 2 times the amount of food with her "feeding herself". Oh well, what extra we spend on her food we are making up by less to have to feed the dogs.

She's around 30.5 inches and 23 pounds. Stats to come for the grandparents after she turns ONE YEAR.

In and Out

No, I'm not about to quote Kevin Kline's 90's movie "In and Out" . Today marks Addie being "out" in the world a few hours longer than she was "in" me. It is crazy ridiculous to believe that she has been on the outside longer than the time it took her to "bake."

It has been the craziest 9.5 months... I didn't know that I could be so tired, happy, and terrified at the same time. We have been so blessed by a generally happy and social baby and can't imagine life without her at this point! The past 9 months have completely put our lives in a 180 degree turn - it is almost funny to think of what I did before I had her in my "spare time."

In other news, she had her first case of pink eye last week, cut 2 teeth, and has learned to blow kisses back to you. She has got a stubborn streak like no other too - no idea where that could possibly come from. She is proving to be a charmer though, she has already learned that if she caught doing something she is not supposed to - she will crack a smile or blow a kiss to see if that will change your unpleased facial expression. ha! We are in for it!

9.25 months old

Apparently I am only going to be updating at month milestones, or at least that's been the pattern thus far. As much as I wanted to be "that mommy blogger" that we all read, I'm ok with sporadic updates on here so cherish this for what it's worth! Ha!

Addie is now 9 months 1 week old and it has been quite a ride since my last post. At almost 8 months to the day she began to crawl, and then within that week began to pull herself up to standing. By the end of the month she was completely pulling up and holding herself up on everything...crawling still has an appeal and she is pretty good at it - but standing is apparently where it is at! Then, at just over 9 months, she started to stand on her own and can now walk behind pretty much anything. Of course she likes to walk behind her walkers and stuff, but she works with what she has and has been spotted pushing her highchair, bumpo seat, and even the dog's toy basket around the kitchen.

She continues to be social and smiles and sometimes waves. Her current favorite food is Gigi's baked ziti which is where one of these pictures came from :-) She is her daddy's daughter and pulls her shoes and socks off at a moment's notice.

Now for the important stats:

21.3 lbs (75 - 90 %tile)
29.5 inches (95%tile)
44 cm head circumference (50%tile)

7 Months

Well I have been struggling with the whole blogging thing (if anyone even reads this thing any more). I remember watching my friends who were pregnant and then had their babies. They blogged the whole way through it and I remember loving to read their updates and trying to make mental notes of things that I wanted to do once I had a baby of my own. Namely, monthly updates, funny anecdotes, you know... the stuff people actually care to read.

Flash forward to 2011. Addison is 7 months old... the last blog post I wrote was when she was 7.5 weeks old... I barely have any video of her (although Lee likes to say that my facebook is "littered" with Addie pictures).

I have had many a blog post in my head.... some even witty I might add. But somewhere in the shuffle I kept not posting... and then it was too late... who posts a 6 month update 3 weeks afterward?

I started to feel really guilty... I'm not really a "cute" scrapbooker - I did do Addison's first scrapbook with her birth, NICU, and her first week at home... but it all stopped there (as evidenced by the massive pile of "keepsakes" that are on my ever growing scrapbook pile!)

I'm not one for New Year resolutions... mainly because my ADHD self hardly ever keeps to them after the first day or so... what can I say? But if I've learned anything since becoming a parent - it's to try to chill out and just enjoy life.

I can say that though I feel guilty because I didn't blog like I set out to - but I did spend the last 7 months thoroughly enjoying Addison and our new life together.

I've loved watching Lee become a Dad and how enthralled he is with Addison.

I love walking into her room on weekend mornings and seeing her smile when she sees me and kick her feet.

I love taking time to do things with Addie - go shopping, cook, roll around on the floor with her.

I can see all of the blog posts that were "meant to be" in my head anyways... and have countless amounts of pictures to catalog the first 7 months anyway.

So suffice it to say that I am probably going to continue to choose to spend my free time with Addie - and not feel guilty for not blogging or doing more of the things that "the good moms" do. I'm not a real fru-fru/granola-y type anyways :-)

But I would be remiss if I didn't post some info about our baby girl...

7 Months:
28.5 inches
19.2 lbs
still has a little "peanut" head

learned to hold her own bottle around 6 months
eats pretty much anything but especially likes black beans, peas, prunes, bananas, avacado, teething biscuits, alphabet crackers, and baby cheese doodles.
can almost pull herself up to standing from the floor
can pull herself up to standing when sitting on a toy
sat up 3 days before 6 months
tries really hard to feed herself but is doing more to bond with the puppies than gain any sustenance

sleeps from 730/8pm until 8am
takes 1-2 naps a day

laughs, giggles, plays peekaboo, likes to be tickled, and loves her jumperoo still, loves the puppies and smiles and laughs when they walk by; coos and babbles when she is excited, bored, or happy

3 Months Old!