7 Months and Babbling

 

We are now over the half-way mark of Anna's first year and she's made some big changes during the past month.  Let me catch you up on Anna's newest milestones, "tricks," and changes.  First, and foremost, Anna got her first taste of baby food!  And sadly, this was way more exciting for me than it was for her!  :)  I decided that I'm going to take a stab at making my own baby food this time around and went with carrots as her first option.  She took a few bites and was ok with it.  And by the 5th or 6th bite, she was in full gag mode!!  I'm sad to report that she even threw up from gagging so much!  WHAT??  She's already gagging on the first new food she tried?!?  It appears I may have an "Aunt Maggie situation" on my hands.  When we were little, Mom would make her eat 1 (YES 1) green bean and she would literally gag from the moment it touched her lips until she swallowed it!  Maybe she'll somehow learn to survive on only fruity pebbles and hawaiian bread dipped in BBQ sauce like Aunt Maggie too!!  WAHAHAHA!!    

Anna is now sitting up on her own for the most part.  Just over the past few days, we've let her sit up without the boppy around her for support.  She's doing really well, but still has an occasional face plant!

No little, snaggle teeth have popped through yet.  Although, she has become a big fan of her paci lately and that can only tell me that some are on the way.  Her hair is getting thicker and longer and now hangs over her ears.  Her little, bald spot is even filling in on the back of her head! :)  Misty, we may have to come see you soon!

She's starting to show signs that crawling may be in her near future.  She leans forward to reach for toys and ALMOST pops up on all fours.  She will rock back and forth but hasn't made it into full crawling stance yet.  Her feet go a mile a minute when she's laying on her belly (and really anytime for that matter).  Something tells me when she does get mobile, she's going to be a "Flo-Jo" crawler going at 25mph!!  Baby gates, I can hear you calling our names!!   

Bath time in her big girl seat!

First "campout"

Anna LOVES music and even has her own "move" established that involves rocking and bouncing while sitting indian style.  I found a nursery rhymes section on our On Demand.  When I turn it on she gets excited and starts her little dance!  I've tried to get it on video but I've had no success so far.  Hopefully, you'll get to hear that soon!

WHOOPS!!

Anna is NOW SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!!!  HALLELUJAH!!!!  She had a brief relapse when she got a cold/cough, but is now back on the wagon!!  Ahhhhhhh!  She usually falls asleep around 8:30 - 9:00pm while I'm feeding her, wakes up for one last tap-off around 10pm, and will sleep until 8:00 - 8:30am!  She takes 2-3 naps a day depending on what time she wakes up from her afternoon nap.  If she wakes up after 4pm, she's usually good to go for the rest of the night.  She's VERY easy to put down!  I simply lay her down, give her her "me" and paci, turn on her music, and she's usually asleep within 5 minutes with little to no fussing!  Sure she still belts it out every now and then, but for the most part, she's caves into exhaustion within minutes.
Something that I find hilarious is what happens when she looks at herself in the mirror!  I'm not sure if I talked about this in her 6-month update, so sorry if I did.  I'll stand her up and let her look at herself in the mirror after I change her diaper and her reaction usually goes a little something like this:  Ohhhh great big smile, are you looking at me, great big smile, maybe I'll do a little jig to show off a bit, great big smile, oh there's mommy, great big smile, mouth wipe open and babbling, great big smile!  I'll have to get that on video for you as well!
Oh, Harding's you are going to appreciate this one!  Anna has officially started doing "strong girl!"  YAY!!  Matt and I noticed it a couple weeks ago and she's now doing it more and more often.  The "strong girl" expression that I'm referring to is when she puts her arms out to the side, holds her breath, her face turns bright red, while she's concentrating on something.  Grace used to do it all the time and still whips it out every now and then.  It's hysterical and cracks us up every time!
That about does it for now!  We'll see you again in 4 weeks!!

Loves snuggling with Mommy's old "me"!

"Ring Around the Hosies"

Grace loves to sing these days and it is SO funny to hear the words that end up in her songs, nursery rhymes, or her very own made up songs. Here is her version of "Ring Around the Rosy!" It cracks me up!!

3 Year Check-Up

We are now a full month into the "dreaded 3rd year" that so many people have warned me about!  I can't tell you how many times I've heard the phrase, "Just wait until she turns 3!" I don't know why we women do this to each other but it always seems to happen.  When you're married, "living it up" with your husband before enter into mommyhood, and get the flu, I always heard, "Just wait until your first trimester of pregnancy!"  Then when I was pregnant and in my first trimester I heard, "Just wait until you're in your 3rd trimester and you can't walk, breathe, sleep, etc!"  Then it was "Just wait until the baby is here and you're a walking zombie!"  Fast forward to the meltdown stage and all I heard was, "Just wait until she turns 3!"  What is it about this age that seems to take parents right over the edge?  I thought "the terrible twos" were supposed to be the worst of the tantrums, fit throwing, meltdowns!  I guess not.......at least according to what everyone else has to say.  I guess I have a whole 11 months to keep you all updated on my opinion of this 3rd year!
Grace had her 3 year check-up last Friday and here's a quick recap.  She's 38.5in long which puts her in the 90%!!  WOOT WOOT!!  Maybe my Papa John's height genes made their way into my girls!!  She now weighs 32lbs and falls into the 60%.  The nurse didn't write down her head size, but Dr. McColl said it falls into the 90% (no surprises there!) and "it isn't too big!"  WAHAHA!!
Gracie loves to eat and some of her favorites are:  ANYTHING with cheese (cheese slices, macaroni and cheese, cheese and crackers, string cheese, you get the idea!), ALL fruits, "chips" or cheese puffs, fishies (or goldfish), fruit snacks, strudels, ANYTHING sweet (she is my daughter after all), and she loves to dip food in ranch!
Some of her favorite shows include Mickey, Little Einsteins, Dora, and Scooby Doo.  She is currently on a Toy Story kick and this usually changes every time we make a road trip to Indiana.  Whatever movie she picks is usually her obsession for the next few weeks.  A few past obsessions have been "Memo," Charlotte's Web, and, of course, "Grinchy!"
Grace loves playing with any little toy that is accompanied by a "house."  For example, she will sit and play with her Little Pet Shop house and animals, Strawberry Shortcake house and accessories, Weeble treehouse and "eggs", etc. forever!  Candyland is fun but she gets distracted halfway through the game UNLESS she gets the cinnamon roll card which is pretty exciting in our house!  She LOVES to play "doghouse" with her daddy.  This is basically building a fort by putting a blanket over anything that will allow them to sit under AND it is extra fun when Pete joins in!  She can dominate anyone in a game of Memory any day!  Disney Princesses have made a killing off of us and Snow White is currently her front-runner.  At her check-up, an older lady came in and sat across from us.  Grace looked at her and said, "Hi, my name's Grace.  Who's your favorite princess?"  Sounds like a completely legit question to me!  WAHAHAHA!!  
She talks pretty plainly (or at least to me), but there are still some words that I just can't bring myself to correct.  A few of my favorites are "twalet" (toilet), "musgit" (music), "waterspout" (anything that has water coming out of it), "cataroni" (macaroni).
Grace LOVES making Anna laugh and we have been so lucky that she never went through the jealousy stage!  The two of them just play off each other and it is SO cute to watch!  Anna is captivated by Grace and watches her every move.  She has been a great big sister and an excellent helper for mommy!
Her personality is OUTGOING, OUTGOING, and OUTGOING!!  She NEVER meets a stranger and EVERY cashier in the surrounding grocery stores, Walmart, and Target now know her name, Anna's name, and my name!  She can turn from as sweet as can be to full of sass in half of a second!  She is very tender-hearted when someone is crying or upset and her little motherly instincts come out immediately.  Grace doesn't stop going, going, going from the second her feet hit the floor until she finally crashes at night after reading at least 15 books that she brings to bed with her.  I'm quite certain that Grace wakes up talking and continues talking all day until absolute exhaustion finally takes over!  She is a very animated child and gets excited about the funniest things.  For example, sometimes she still walks in her room and says, "Oh my!  I LOVE my green walls!"  Keep in mind I painted her room last May!  WAHAHA!  She also likes to have her toys/books in their specific places..........something that I secretly LOVE!!  She can usually tell you or show you exactly where something is.  Ahhhhh keep it up girl!  Matt and I often say that she really is a funny kid!  The things that she does and says are hysterical! I just ordered a journal-type notebook made for recording the things your kids say, and I can't wait to show it to her when she's older.
Grace has been a joy to have in our lives and I truly feel blessed to call her mine!  Hold on a second.....I just got a little emotional there!  I now understand when everyone meant when they told me to enjoy every second because time passes by so quickly.  The past three years seem to have flown by in the blink of an eye!  It still feels like we just brought her home from the hospital.  Yet, at the same time, it feels like she's always been with us.  I need to record her birth story, but that will have to come another time.  Until then, I'll keep you all updated on any new happenings during her 3rd year of life!

Sickling

Strawberry Shortcake

It's been a long week of sick, sick, and more sick in our house!  On Sunday, Grace woke up with a horrible cough that progressed into a fever on Monday and eventually a visit to the doctor's office on Tuesday.  When she looked at me during lunch on Tuesday and said, "Mommy, my neck hurts" I knew it was time to call the doctor!    Come to find out she had an ear infection AND a viral infection!!!  No wonder she didn't have much energy and just wanted to lay around over the weekend!!  The doctor took one look at her and said, "Awwww I can tell she doesn't feel well!"  Poor baby!!

She would start coughing and couldn't get to sleep or back to sleep making for LONG days with a tired, grumpy, sickly little girl.  Sooooo we had A LOT of time to play indoors this week.  We played with what seems like EVERY toy she has ever gotten:  Strawberry Shortcake, Lite Brite, puzzles, Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, read at least 5000 books, watched our new favorite movie Toy Story 3 a few times (we'll be getting the first two this weekend!), played with stickers, had a picnic with her Weebles, and that's just what comes to mind right off the bat.  We had beautiful weather all week and finally got outside to play with play-doh for a little while yesterday morning.  She still has a nasty cough today but she hasn't had a fever for a couple days now!  YAY!!   

I was keeping my fingers crossed that Anna would stay clear of the viral infection.  Grace was really good about staying out of her face and not touching her toys.  BUT this morning it happened........DUN, DUN, DUN!!!  Yep, she woke up with the same nasty cough!  NOOOOOOOOOO!!!  I knew something was up when she got up 3 times last night!  Here's to hoping it doesn't take ahold of Anna like it did Grace!!  Feel better little babies!!

Sick Bed

Watching Toy Story

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Ohhh it has a tag!  BONUS!!

We had a low-key (but fun) Valentine's Day!!  Grace woke up on Sunday with a horrible sounding cough so we decided to take it easy on Monday.  When we came downstairs first thing on Valentine's Day, Matt had surprises sitting out for the girls!  SO sweet!!  He got them a little heart pillow and heart "me" (blanket).  And as you can guess, Grace LOVES it......and is currently rolling around on hers.  I laid out the rest of the stuff during Grace's nap so she would have some surprises to wake up to.  Since she wasn't feeling too great, I wanted to spread out the fun!
I never really got into Valentine's Day UNTIL I had kids!  They just make everything more fun don't they!

Valentine's Goodies

Do you see that little box of chocolates that is sitting next to Anna's caterpillar??  It seems to have gone missing from our house!!  HMMMMMM!!  Now normally I wouldn't consider this to be much of a mystery because the maximum amount of time it takes me to eat any kind of sweets in our house is generally 5 minutes or less.  However, I can honestly say that this time it WAS NOT me!  Poor Anna!!  She won't get to eat her chocolates!  I did pick them out just for her after all!  :)  It's a good thing I went ahead and picked up that box of frosted, sugar cookies on my way out!  SHEW!!

Happy

Valentine's 

Day!!!

Poor Pete!

Poor Pete was our baby for five years before Grace came along. I always wondered how he would react to having a baby in the house. I even put a baby doll in our papasan chair a few times before she was born just to see what he would do. He, of course, gave the doll a good sniff and looked at me as if he was saying, "What kind of dummy do you take me for?" After Grace came home, he didn't pay too much attention to her unless she cried. I remember he jumped up on the changing table during her first diaper change at home after she started crying. And once she became mobile, he just kept his distance! If Pete saw her coming, he would take off in the opposite direction. He decided she wasn't so bad after she started eating solid foods and more would end up in his mouth than hers! But ever since she started walking, the two of them fight like they're siblings! It's like nothing I've ever seen! One will annoy the other and then the tattle fest doesn't stop until I break it up! It's ridiculous! AND THEN Anna came along. Pete has gone down yet another notch on the ol' totem pole BUT he seems to be ok with #2 (and no I'm not talking about poo)! He has been Mr. Protector of her since she was born. After we brought her home, you can bet he was standing right next to whomever was holding her. One night while Matt was playing with the girls, Anna was laying on the floor kicking her feet. One foot was kicking him in the face time and time again but he just laid still and didn't make a peep. THEN Grace came over, touched him, and he "griped" at her and walked off! I'd have to say Anna is DEFINITELY his favorite......until she is able to taunt him as much as Grace does! :) This is a video that I got today of Grace and Pete showing a little "sibling" love. For those of you who don't know Pete too well, don't worry! He barks like that to get her attention BUT would never hurt her! In the video, Grace is trying to get Pete "nice and warm" with his "me" and, as you can see, he LOVES this game! WAHAHA! Watch how he comes over to where I'm sitting to tattle.....and give Anna a little kiss! Oh and, yes, Anna left me a nice surprise after the first couple of grunts you hear!! WAHAHA!! Good times!!

"Jumpy, Jumpy-Boo"

Anna got a jumperoo for Christmas and to say she loves it MIGHT be the understatement of the year! She can get that thing a flyin' when she's fired up! Here's a peek at her in action!

Confessions from a Sleep-Deprived Mommy

You all know by now that it has been a rough 6 months in the sleep (or shall I say lack thereof) department around our house.  And quite frankly, you're probably tired of hearing about it!  BUT before you start spitting venom from your mouths, I would like to share a few ridiculous things I've done here recently due to the lack of sleep (or at least that's my excuse).
1.  While driving home from celebrating Christmas with our family and watching Charlotte's Web, this came out of my mouth, "What is the name of the spider?"  Ummmm, yeah!
2.  While sitting and feeding Anna, I was looking around the bonus room for the boppy pillow for a good few minutes before I realized..........it was on my lap!!  DUH!!
3.  Getting extremely upset with an appliance because it wouldn't work.  Yep, it was unplugged!!
4.  Several people have asked me a question only to get the ever-so-present-these-days "deer caught in the headlights" look!  Sorry!
5.  While shopping at Walmart, I dug through my purse (or the never ending black hole) for what seemed like FOREVER searching for my phone only to realize I was ALREADY HOLDING IT!!  Seriously?!?
6.  I have no idea why I was going to search for it, but I couldn't remember the name of "that place out west where people go to hike in deep valleys, go white water rafting, you know....that national park."  Ummm THE GRAND CANYON!!  WOW!
7.  I completely forgot my social security number for one whole day!
8.  I speak "sentences" that no one in their right mind can understand.  Grace has looked at me a few times with that, "WHAT???" look on her face!  Poor thing!
9.  During our trip to the zoo last summer, I forgot to wear deodorant!!  OMG I can't believe I just shared that one!  WAHAHAHA!!  And you all know last summer was NOT a good one to forget that!  Ok, ok, it wasn't as bad as you think!
10.  I was having a phone conversation with someone and was asked a question about it when I hung up.  I had NO IDEA what the answer was!  Don't get me wrong.  I was listening and paying attention to every word BUT I couldn't repeat a dang thing afterwards!!

I think I'll stop right there (I guess I can't say while I'm ahead......WAHAHA!).  I just thought I'd share some of funny (or slightly scary) things that can happen to a brain on very little sleep!  Maybe some of you can relate.  OR you might just think I'm a wackadoodle!!
Oh and shhhhhhh don't let Anna hear this.  I don't want her to hear and decide I've had enough sleep.  She is now (and has been on a good two-week streak) sleeping through the night!!!!  WAHOOOOOOO!!  I can't believe I just said that out loud!  And, yes, now every extremity is now crossed hoping that I didn't just jinx myself!

Man Down "Mitchuation!"

Anna is doing pretty good sitting up by herself.  However, I still put the boppy pillow around her because she tends to lose her balance from time to time.  Yesterday, she was desperately trying to follow Matt and Grace as they played around the bonus room.  Once they went into the playroom, she couldn't quite get herself turned around and..........WWWWHHHHHOOOOOAAAAAA!!  Down she went and we had a "man down situation!"  You'll hear this a lot around our house.  If I run out of the room for a quick second, occasionally I'll hear Grace yell "man down!"  It sounds a bit like this,"MMAAAAAAAAANNNN DOOOOOOOWWWWWWWNN!!!"  This has since evolved into me saying, "We have a man down situation, people."  So Grace (being the parrot that she is) now says, "We have a man down "mitchuation!"  WAHAHAHA!!  She is pretty good at helping Anna sit back up as you can see in the picture.  She even pushes the pillow up against her back for support!  HAHA!
I know what you're thinking........do I just sit around and order Grace to do the things that I should be doing???  Well......YES!!  No, in all seriousness she loves to help with "mituations' like this.  AND if she's a little too fired up from having one too many gummy hearts, she does not get to help with a man down mituation!  Poor Anna is likely to go flying across the room!  Ahhhh sisterly love!  Let's hope this lasts through their teens!!  :0  

Stats

 Anna had her 6 month check-up last week and her stats are looking pretty good!  She weighed in at 16.6lbs (50%) and is 27in long which puts her in the 90%!!!  WHO HOO!!  We're going to start practicing some volleyball drills here soon so you can look forward to those videos!  :)
Her head size was in the 90% (which goes without saying).  BUT in her defense, Nurse Carol didn't have the tape pulled tight around her head.  Look, we don't have any room for slack when it comes to measuring our heads!  You've GOT to pull that sucker TIGHT!  WAHAHAHA!!  
She had to get 4 (YES 4!) shots.....poor baby!!  She did SO good and only cried for a minute!  This was quickly followed by a LLLLOOOOONNNNNGGGGG glare towards Nurse Carol!  :)  She always turns her back after she gives the babies a shot and asks if they're glaring at her.  The answer is always YES!  :)  How quickly they learn!
We got clearance to go ahead and start introducing veggies and fruits!  YAY!!  I'm sure you'll see a few hundred pictures of that in the very near future!!

New "Trick"

Anna is always blowing bubbles these days (which cracks Grace up for some reason). Here is a little video of Anna and Papa showing off her new "trick!"

Belly Laughs!!

This is what happens when you put a 3 year-old who hasn't napped together with a 6 month-old who is sleepy and ready for bed!! Anna almost always gets the hiccups when she starts laughing.....poor baby. And now Grace does her new spin move every day to try to get Anna to laugh again! I wasn't kidding when I said Anna thinks EVERYTHING Grace does is funny! Enjoy!!