Taylor Joy- Nine Months Old

Confession... tonight I folded this little 9 month onesie and as I put it back in its box I realized that there were only three more little onesies left until our baby is 1. It made me want to cry. Ughhhhh, why does the first year have to go by so dang fast? My love for this precious girl runs so deep. 

Tonight when I got home from work I immediately pushed my face right up to her chunky cheeks and kissed them a dozen times. Then I moved on to kissing her soft baby forehead and smelling her perfect baby smell at the top of her hairline. I just never want this baby phase to end! Which, can I say, the baby fever is so real right now?! 

Don't get too excited, Mom. I'm not getting any younger and the rooms in our home are at capacity... but I think I will always, always want just onnnnnnne more baby. For the rest of my life. Anyone else get that? 

Now the moments with Tay aren't always rainbows and unicorns. This weekend she was fighting her first real cold and boy was she unhappy about it. The poor thing was so congested. I tried to take her pictures in the morning and she was just not having it. 

Thankfully after a nice, long nap she was back to her angelic little self. (Stuffy nose and all). Taylor has had another fun month full of new tricks. She is crawling! It seemed to happen over night. She went from army crawl scooting around to slowly crawling across the room. Now she's crawling quickly and she darts after all of the things she is not supposed to get to, of course. 

Tay also loves to clap all the time and wave "hello" and "bye-bye" to everyone. She swings her arm up and down from her side. It's so cute. She is babbling away but hasn't quite said any recognizable words yet. Although a week or so ago she started to say "yaaaaaa" all the time. It made us laugh so hard, one night on the way home from church we were all sitting in the car and I asked the kids, "Do you guys want to help me decorate for Halloween tomorrow?" Taylor literally was the first to respond in the loudest voice she screamed "yaaaaaaaa!" That one had us practically in tears. 

Her other favorite new trick is pulling herself up in her playpen and crib!

I haven't been very creative in the food department for Taylor yet. She is still eating fruits and veggie purees and lots and lots of Puffs. I laughed though at Emmerson's soccer party on Friday when a mom friend had her 6 month old literally eating a piece of pizza at the party. I thought, hmmmm.... maybe it's time to branch out from our steady diet of pears and carrots. To be continued for a time when I have a bit more energy and can give more effort. 

Tay Tay is most comfortable wearing 6-12 month clothing right now. She is still in size 3 diapers. She has lots of hair growing in under her longer baby hairs now. Her two top teeth and bottom teeth are fully growing in now with the other two top teeth coming along soon.

Taylor is still napping twice a day with one little cat nap in the evening. She eats solids 3 times a day and bottles in between. She is still exclusively on breast milk bottles but my supply seemed to drop off quite a bit last week so we'll see how much longer I can keep it up. 

Taylor started going to bed for the night at the same time as her big brother and sister which has been really nice for us. That means that the evenings after kiddo tuck ins is a whole lot more mellow around here. 

Taylor's very favorite people seem to be her brother and sister. She is just non-stop smiles when they are nearby. She loves any attention they give to her or simply just watching them in action. It is so fun watching them all interact together. She is also a big fan of her grandparents. She spent a lot of special time with her BFF Grammie this month and she also lights up whenever Oma, Grampie, and Oma Oma come by for a visit. She is so lucky to be so loved by so many. 

Taylor Joy, 

In case you didn't know it already, your mommy loves you more than anything! You make my heart so full, little one. I am the luckiest to call you mine. 

xoxo

9 Months

Emmerson Grace is officially 9 months old. Where did our little baby go? This has been an especially fun month with our girl. 

 It seems like Emmerson has changed a lot this month. Her personality has blossomed so much. She is silly as can be and loves to engage with anyone and everyone. She has started to wave at people. She waves when we say "bye-bye" and also when she catches herself in the mirror.

 She's still not quite "crawling." She rocks on all fours all the time, but when she's trying to get somewhere quickly she just army crawls across the entire room scooting herself along with her tummy still dragging on the floor. She's become pretty efficient with this method and is quickly becoming completely mobile. Time to baby-proof again. 

 Emme loves to clap… although I think she was doing that last month, too. Her eyes light up when we say, "Yaaaaay" and she happily claps along with excitement and squeals. Emmerson has been saying "Da-da" for quite some time and really seems to be attaching it to when she sees Dustin now. If he walks in the room, she'll shout out, "Daaaaa da!!!" She has also started to say "Ma-ma" too, but less frequently. Sometimes when she wakes up in the morning, I can hear her saying "Ma-ma. Ma-ma. Ma-ma" over and over again as she lays in her crib. It always makes me laugh. She babbles a lot now, which I love. She's super interested in the couple of things I sign to her, too. She watches me with such curiosity and then her face lights up and she'll laugh. 

Emmerson now has four teeth. You can just barely catch a glimpse of her two upper teeth in the picture above. This child was a HORRIBLE teether this month. She wouldn't take any teething toys, just her own fingers and she would spend hours upon hours screaming and crying. The only thing that seemed to do the trick was Infant Motrin, which I know is not ideal… but praise The Lord that she responded well to it because I nearly lost my mind for a while. Thankfully, the day that her teeth finally cut through, she was back to her happy going self. 

 Her Grampie taught her this trick. Every time he asks, "How big is Emmerson?" She'll reach her hands up while Grampie says, "Soooooo big!" Notice she is also holding her hair clip in her hand… Yet another trick she's taught herself this month. I can't seem to keep anything in her hair anymore. She always discovers it much too quickly and then it becomes a toy. 

She is still wearing her size three diapers. Her 9 months clothing is getting a bit tight, but it's still working for the time being. She continues to be a fabulous eater. She eats anything we give her: veggies, pureed meats, all her fruits. She is also a huge fan of eating puffs. Her sleep has been a little inconsistent lately. We're back to getting up one time a night. Sometimes around 1:00 and other nights around 4:00. I know she should be sleeping through the whole night at this point, and she was for a good long while. So I'm not quite sure why we regressed… but I'm looking forward to a full night's sleep in the near future. (Fingers crossed!) Thankfully her naps remain consistent. She naps in the morning around 9:30 for 45 minutes and then takes a longer nap (1 1/2 - 2 hours) at 1:00. 

I am pretty certain that Donovan is still her favorite person in the family. No one makes her laugh and squeal like he does. (Which is why he was the perfect addition to our photo shoot this morning.) But as much as she loves him and carefully watches every thing he does, she is still very territorial about her toys when they're playing. She definitely has a stubborn side and I see it most often when they're playing together. 

 Our Beautiful Emmerson Grace,
We have had such a fun month with you. I love your bath time giggles as you splash and splash contentedly. I love that you find so much joy in everything you do and see. I love that you perk up and flail your legs like crazy the second I tip-toe into your room in the morning. It's been such a blessing seeing how you interact differently with each one of us. You are so shy and sweet with your Daddy and so silly with your brother. I can't help but praise God for you (and your brother) every single time I pray. You are such a gift to our family. We love you more than you can imagine, baby girl.

xoxo, 

Mommy

9 Months

I think that they should probably sell these little monthly onesie stickers with tranquilizers because by month 9 the cute little photo sessions are over. Let me walk you through today's attempt. While Dad was outside mowing the lawn, I changed Donovan into his onesie, pasted his little tie sticker on his chest, and set him up against his ottoman where his quilt was... 

And off he went. First to pull on the string from the window shades. 

 And then he was pulling himself up and trying to pull open the doors from his little cabinet. 

2 seconds later he was playing peek-a-boo behind his glider. 

And then I finally got him to sit up against his quilt. But only with toy bribery and it didn't last long. 

 Out the door he went. 

 I threw in the towel and took him downstairs to eat. Where he let me know very blatantly that he does not like to eat carrots!

 This stubborn boy will fight me to no end to ensure that carrots do not go into his mouth. They end up on his hands, in his hair, and all over his face instead. 

 And when Daddy was done mowing the lawn he came in to help play the part of the distractor. 

 I finally got a couple of shots showcasing his 9 month tie. 

 A behind the scene shot of the photo shoot chaos. 

 Silly boys!

 And he's off again. Maybe next month he'll be more cooperative, yeah right. 

This last month has been so much fun and I have noticed so many huge developmental changes in our little guy. Donovan can navigate himself all over the house and mainly to the areas that we adamantly do not want him to go. He'll dash straight for Molly's food bowl, or to knock over a house plant, or he's always b- lining for any kind of wire. You must be on your toes 24-7 when you're watching Donovan go, go, go. He knows the word "no" and laughs to himself when he keeps doing whatever it is that you've asked him not to do. 

He is unbelievably stubborn. It use to be that if he were playing with something you didn't want him to have, you could introduce a new toy and he'd be immediately engaged in whatever was handed to him. Not the case anymore. When he has something he wants and it gets taken away, he completely throws a fit. He'll sob and try to reach or crawl to whatever it is over and over. There's no giving up. He is so determined. He's such a boy. He'll make 2 fists and then tighten  up his whole body and grunt just to let you know how frustrated he is. 

But he is also incredibly sweet. He has become a total Momma's boy this month. He's constantly saying MommmMommmMommmm and even Momma. When he sees me he just lights up and laughs. His favorite thing is to pull himself up to a standing position using my legs and then put his head in between my knees and laugh. He just cracks me up. He is like my little shadow. 

He's still chasing after Molly whenever he gets the chance and smiles the biggest smiles whenever he sees his Daddy. He says Ta Ta Ta... which we're certain is the precursor to Dada. 

Donovan now has 6 teeth. He got 4 on the top in what seems like it was overnight. His sleeping schedule is still great. 7:30-6:30 at night with 2 long naps in the day time. 

I say it every month but I am sooo in love with this little boy. He is the biggest joy in our lives. Dustin and I went on a date night tonight and we just couldn't stop talking about Donovan and how much we love every little thing about him. 

He's the best and I just can't imagine our lives without him. 

I can't believe it's been 9 months already!