9 months

Hallie hit 9 months--same time in as out.  She is a busy little girl and loves being on the move.

Crawling, eating, swinging and playing in the dirt of our potted plants are a few of her favorite activities of the month.

• She still way prefers crawling over sitting and is pretty good at getting around.  
• She is still eating 3 meals a day (breakfast of 4 oz pureed fruit with oatmeal and plain yogurt, lunch of 1 oz beef/chicken and 3 oz veggie, dinner of grain and 4 oz veggies.  All are accompanied with cheerios to keep her happy while we all eat.  This girl can put down her cheerios!) and nursing 4 times a day.  In fact, she just loves eating. Everything. including all the mulch and leaves in the backyard, and hudson small toys that I keep putting out of the way and magically make it back within her reach...like the 100s of puff balls he has. I have been a little concerned about my milk supply and her not getting enough.  With her weight percentile dropping again at this appointment, I knew it was time for a change.  I was so mentally prepared to switch to formula if needed, that when it was suggested, I was very on-board.  I am wanting to still nurse, so the plan is to nurse morning and night before bed, and give 2 5-6 oz bottles during the day.  It seriously is such a relief to do this.  I never had to with Hudson, but I just feel it is a great decision.  Hallie has honestly never loved nursing, which has made me feel the same. With our Havasu trip in a few days, this will make things there much easier as well.  
• Letting her swing in the backyard next to Hudson is such a joyous time for Hallie.  She has moved on a little from her door-jumper, and my theory is that we mainly used that for her during dinner time, and now that she eats with us, we don't put her in much.  I try and put her in it still, but she doesn't love it like she used to, but the outside swing is a different story!
• Hallie had her first moment of destruction.  We have 2 potted houseplants, and had a pretty funny experience one evening as Colby walked around the corner and found her reaching up over the top of the pot and just pulling loads of dirt out--mostly straight into her mouth.  It was hilarious because she made a huge mess and had a completely innocent look on her as she was covered in dirt.  Silly girl.  She unfortunately has done this multiple times now.  Hopefully she learns soon and we can keep our houseplants!

She pulls up on furniture and the bathtub.  She often will pull up on the couch when hudson is sitting on it, or pull up on the side of the tub while bathing. She is clearly obsessed with Hudson and loves playing with him until he becomes a little too rough, and then she gets fussy when he starts to come near.  There is a very fine line between fun and fear for her with him, but the love is strong. 

She lights up when anyone, especially Dad or Hudson, give her attention.  Going in to get her in the morning from waking up is sure to bring big smile to anyone who goes in.  She starts bouncing and kicking and is thrilled to have some attention after a long night of solitude. 

One of my favorite things with Hallie is seeing her crawl to the back flor length window in our office area and rest her hands against the window as she peers in the backyard watching Hudson and Colby. She really enjoys this, and doesn't appear to be feeling left out.  It is just her spot where she feels part of the action. 

Her favorite toy this month is her rubber duckie and she loves all things water. 

Her 9 months stats are:

Weight: 16 pounds, 9 ounces (10th percentile)

Height: 28 1/4 inches (75th percentile

Hallie-1 year

For the first time, probably ever, Hallie woke from her nap (on her birthday) with bed head! Her hair is so short that this has never happened. She woke up with wispy little curls on all sides of her hair. I had to get it wet before we went to dinner. I wish I got a picture as it was so cute! Her face looked as if she'd earned that bed head w a really good nap. People are now commenting on her hair and how it seems to be growing and how she is getting some curls. Time will tell if the curls stay. As a little girl my hair was curly, but went away with my first haircut.

Eats acorns from the yard

Sleeps like a champ (two naps) 7:30pm - 8am

4 bottles a day

Loves giving hugs and kisses

Lights up when you walk into her room to get her from her crib

Stands on her own, but not walking

The story of the pound of Strawberries

It all started Tuesday night.  I had a baby shower and left Colby to fend for the kids with the whole bedtime routine.  I came home around 10:30 to two sleeping kids and a husband crawling into bed.  I had a few things to finish up (pumping, planning meals and ordering groceries) before I could head to bed.  Right as I was finishing up, I heard little footsteps in the back of the house, and jumped up to calm Hudson and convince him to stay in his own bed.  With a few minutes sitting by him, he was back asleep and I just had to wrap things up before I could continue my much anticipated journey into bed. I crawled under the covers a little after midnight, and it took probably 30 seconds before i had drifted into dreamland.  And 10 minutes later, about 5 seconds to be wide awake again.  Hallie had woken up and was not happy.  She didn't want to nurse, didn't act like she was in pain, and simply was exhausted but wouldn't stay asleep.  After trying so many things to get her to sleep, including standing by her crib until my feet hurt because she simply wanted someone by her and would cry if I left, and rocking her to sleep, she kept waking up after 2 minutes of me being back in bed.  This is abnormal for her and miserable for me.  Colby joined me a couple times, but had a work meeting at 7:30 (much earlier than a normal day) in the morning so I tried not to disturb him.  The short story is that I didn't get into bed for the night until 3:30.  Not my kind of evening.  I snuggled up in a blanket, turned on my side and stuck earplugs in my ears.  I desperately needed undisturbed sleep if I was even going to semi function the next day.

I was awoken the next morning at 6:10 to hear not one, but TWO kids chattering in Hallie's room.  Hudson was in her crib and they were both awake.  Considering the amount of sleep I had had and that Hudson normally sleeps till 7:45 or 8:00, I was livid.  I couldn't believe Hudson had gone in and woken her up.  As I expressed my frustration to Colby (remember I was on just over 2.5 hrs sleep at this point) her calmed me letting me know Hallie had been crying and he had left her hoping she'd go back to sleep.  Hudson most likely woke to her cries and went into her room and climbed in.  Her said if I were to just listen, I would her Hallie start crying then Hudson would say, "It's ok Hallie, it's ok" and then she would calm down.  Sweet Hudson was not waking his sister, but trying to help.  My heart softened, but I still wasn't happy that the were both awake.  I went in, grabbed Hudson and sent him to bed with Colby hoping he would go back to sleep. I fed Hallie, and in her exhaustion she promptly feel back to sleep.  I crawled into bed.  Hudson was not asleep.  Colby got up to get ready for the day and I begged him (with not much convincing needed) to watch Hudson as I desperately needed more sleep.

Hudson came into my room a little later (7:15?) saying he wanted more juice, and I told him to go ask Dad and that Dad would turn on a show for him. I knew Colby had a conference call, so couldn't tend to much and TV would be a good distraction.  I heard him pulling a chair up to the cupboard, and didn't think much of it as Colby could help him. Not much later, probably around 7:45, he came in with a red mouth and empty strawberry container.  "Mom, these are gone, I made a mess and I want more juice." What??  I got out of bed and followed him to the living room.  He sat on the couch where he normally sit to view his TV shows and I saw a pile of strawberry tops sitting on the couch armrest.  Thankfully it was leather and could easily be washed off.  Before i could even take all that in, he walked to the kitchen and crawled under the table showing me his "mess."  He had pulled the trader joes granola from the cupboard and spilled it all over the floor.  Thankfully there was probably only half a bowl remaining. I swept it all up and asked Hudson if he was still hungry.  For probably the first time in his life he told me that no, he was full.  I counted the strawberry tops.  There were 26. He ate a full pound of strawberries.  Colby was nowhere to be found and I realized that the conference call he had at 7:30 wasn't actually a conference call, but that he must have needed to be IN the office by 7:30.  A quick phone call to Colby confirmed that I was right, and that Hudson was devastated that he couldn't watch Colby drive away to work from the bench on the front porch.  It was probably at that point he had cement my room to say he wanted more juice.  I later noticed an empty juice cup on my nightstand which he had undoubtedly brought me and later realized an empty MILK cup in the living room, which was left out from the previous night half full, along with the remains of his dinner that were still on the kitchen table and probably snacked on this morning.  Colby forgot to finish up dishes the night before with having two kids to get in bed on his own.  Whoops! No telling what, if anything, Hudson ate from his dinner plate from last night.

As I've told this story, most people have asked about his bowel movement or said they hope it isn't bad.  Luckily, there were no accidents and everything was normal.  This kids has a healthy little digestive system.

All in all, this was a pretty funny story.  I got a little extra sleep, hudson got in his fruit for the day (week!) and Colby made it to work on time.  At least we know Hudson would fend for himself in an emergency and he would choose strawberries over snacks. We love that kid!

8 months

Hallie is 8 months old...2/3rds of a year...and I basically just have to come to terms with how fast she is growing up.  There is simply no time to waste contemplating it because then it just goes by even faster!  

She gives kisses and they are the sweetest, slobberiest, open mouth kisses.  She plants them right on your mouth or nose, most often right when you pick her up from her crib after she's been asleep and is so happy to see someone. Sometimes she will give kisses when asked and it is just too cute.

She fell asleep in her crib with a pacifier for the first time this month, basically by accident because I laid her down and had to go grab it, and then got distracted with hudson's nap time and before I remembered, she was asleep. We are now working toward not being so dependent on it and for the most part I leave it in her crib when I get her up from bed.  She mostly just has it when she sleep and when we leave the house.  Heaven forbid we leave to house somewhere without it!  Also, if she is fussy, I don't resit going and getting it for her.  This all started when she started scooting and I hated it being clipped to her and dragging across the floor.  Yuck. We have ended up away from home without it probably 3 times this past month and after I had a brief panic attack, I realized we were just fine without it.  She is enough interested in other things that we can distract her with toys, etc to keep her happy.

Went her first night sans dream feed on Mother's day (she was 7.5 months) and it was the best mothers day gift ever for me. :) She occasionally wakes in the night still and sometimes needs to nurse at those points, but for the most part doesn't eat at all during the night.  She nurses 4 times a day.

Her schedule is still a basic 4 hour schedule (and so I remember later...)

• Awake 7-7:30 and nurse
• eat 4 oz pureed fruit and cereal then playtime
• nap from 9-11
• Nurse
• lunch- typically 3 oz pureed vegetables mixed with 1 oz pureed chicken or beef
• nap from 1-3/3:30
• nurse
• occasional catnap in the evening for 45 min
• dinner- 4 oz pureed veggies and cereal
• nurse and bed around 7:30

She has started eating puffs this month. She picks them up but can't quite find her mouth all the time.  We find a nice stash in her lap, on the floor, or in the seat of her carseat when she's done eating. I think she would eat the whole container of them at once if we let her. I now make sure to take a small container of these with me when we head out and when she's fussy, these are guaranteed to make her happy.

She also has started eating meats (pureed chicken and beef) and doesn't seem to notice anything different.  we mix them with her veggies.

She is really getting quick with her scooting!  despite my predictions based on how fast she is scooting and how she gets up on her knees, she still isn't technically crawling by 8 months, but she's close.

She is mostly a solid sitter now, but won't sit with a straight back.  She is always in position to most easily transition to a scooting position, because she would much rather be on the go than sitting still.

While Hudson had 6 teeth by 8 months, Hallie still has a cute toothless smile.  Apparently the later teeth come in the less prone they are to cavities, so I'm good with that.