Dear Ariani

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Your Eleventh Month - October 2014

(No height & weight for this month... I didn't do measurements!)

Sleeping Pattern:

By the end of October you are FINALLY down to two naps a day. You take the first one around 9:00 each morning and the second one somewhere between 1:00 and 2:00 in the afternoon. Each nap is usually only an hour long. (Not nearly long enough for Mommy!)

Eating Habits:

By the end of the month you were nursing only once each day - in the morning right after you wake up. I dropped one of your nursing sessions deliberately, and the other one you sort of dropped yourself. You were disinterested and wouldn’t even try some days. So now you nurse only in the mornings and have whole milk the rest of the day. You are eating three meals a day of purees and some finger foods and then you also have an afternoon snack most days after your nap.

Personality, etc.:

You are fun! Now that you are finally mobile you are fussy much less often, which is so nice! You love to play with your big sister and you follow her to her bedroom and mess with all her stuff. She is usually pretty good about sharing with you. You giggle all the time and it is the cutest giggle in the world.

Accomplishments & Habits:

YOU ARE SCOOTING! You don’t technically crawl yet, since you aren’t on your hands and knees, but you can army crawl with the best of them. You figured this out at the very beginning of the month. One day (October 1st) you tried and scooted a few inches and the next day you were all over the living room. It has been so fun to watch you!

You also learned your “m” and “n” sounds this month, which means you can say “mama!” You don’t say it as my name yet, it’s just a babble to you, but you’ll figure it out soon. (The first time you said “mama” was October 26th.)

You also said your first real word this month. You have said “Daddy” and “Mama” but not on purpose. So your first real word was… CHEESE. I think that’s so funny! You love to eat shredded cheese. Most mornings I give you some to keep you busy while I’m preparing your breakfast. On October 28th I was getting your cheese out and taking a video of how excited you get when I do and when I asked if you wanted some cheese you said, “Chee!” You said it twice so I knew you meant it. It was so cute and funny and I’m excited that I actually have the moment you said your first word on video. Yay! You also said “dah” for dog that same day. Super cute.

Photos & Videos

October 1 - One of your very first attempts at crawling

Early crawling attempt on October 2nd

Babbling on October 3rd

October 5th - Pumpkin Sunday!

October 12th - Playing with your baby

October 12th - Fall Festival Day at church - It was so much colder than we had expected!

"Footed jammers" for both girls!

October 15

October 21 - Playing outside! When Penny is out there you just want to be near her so you can yell at her! :)

October 27 - Just playing inside

October 28th - Your FIRST WORD!

October 30 - In your Halloween costumes! You were both fairies this year and you were adorable! Penny was Tinkerbell and she said you were Rosetta because on the Tinkerbell movies Rosetta is the fairy who wears pink. Works for me!

October 31 - We took a quick trip to Bixby to Carmichael's Pumpkin Patch. It was super cold but really fun!

Friday, October 3, 2014

Your Tenth Month - September 2014

Height: 28 inches (63rd percentile)

Weight: 17 lbs., 1 oz. (12th percentile)

*measurements taken at your well baby visit on September 5th

Sleeping Pattern:

You are still taking three naps almost every day! You crazy thing. Here is our usual weekday:

6:15 - Wake up

8:00-9:00 a.m.- First nap

12:30-1:45 p.m. - Second nap

5:45 - 6:15 - Third nap

Eating Habits:

You are still nursing three times a day and eating meals three times a day, with an afternoon snack of yogurt added in. I’m trying to get you to try more finger foods, but you usually make a face and spit the food out unless it’s cheerios, bread, or puff snacks. You do like shredded cheese, but not small cubes - so funny.

Personality, etc.:

You have been a very sweet and smiley girl lately. You are starting to babble a lot more and I can tell that you really think you are communicating. It’s so cute! You still don’t like to be alone, and I guess I can’t blame you.

Accomplishments & Habits:

You have started clapping this month. It's super cute too, because you always have a great big smile on your face when you do it! You also started saying "Daddy" this month, but I'm not sure you mean it. You have said it several times, but you are usually babbling when you do, so it may just be one of your sounds and not a real "word" to you yet.

Photos:

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Your Ninth Month - August 2014

Height: (no measurement taken)

Weight: approximately 16 ½ pounds (but my methods of acquiring this information are not very accurate)

Head circumference: (no measurement taken)

Sleeping Pattern:

Your sleeping is about the same as it was last month. Now that Penny has started school I have to get you up early. I usually wake you up at 6:30 on school days and you are back down for your morning nap around 8:30 or 9:00. Your second nap is usually between 1:00 and 2:00 and both of your naps last anywhere from one to two hours. If they are both short, you often end up taking one more half-hour nap around 6:00 even though you go to bed around 7:30 or 8:00. I wish we had a more scheduled routine, but that’s just not your thing.

Eating Habits:

By the end of the month you were nursing three times a day and eating three meals a day. You have started self-feeding with finger foods - Cheerios, small pieces of bread, puff snacks. I started serving you meals with pureed chicken this month and you love the savory foods! You also started having just a tiny bit of whole milk with your baby cereal and you are also enjoying yogurt most days. Yum!

Personality, etc.:

You are still hard to figure out sometimes. You are sweet and happy a lot, but there are still times where you are clingy or unhappy and I just can’t figure out why. We will have a week or two where you aren’t very fussy but then when your teeth start bothering you, you fuss a lot!

You adore your big sister. You think she is hilarious and she loves to entertain you.

Accomplishments & Habits:

You are babbling a little bit more now. Your sounds include dada, buh-buh, vuh-vuh, gaga, a raspy “k” sound, a raspy “f” sound. I am still waiting for you to say “mama!”

You still don’t crawl or even move from your tummy to a sitting position. You are just so content to stay put! You do roll around some to get something that is out of your reach. You are getting better at standing when supported and you think doing that is awesome - you always smile and make so many happy noises when I hold you in a standing position.

Anything else:

You now recognize the word “no.” If you are doing something you aren’t supposed to do, I can say “no” and you stop and frown or cry. It hurts your feelings so much! But it has also helped you start learning some rules. Daddy and I have practiced with you and you now know not to touch your bowl and food while we are feeding you and not to take off your bib during meal time. We are still teaching you not to touch phones and remote controls - all babies love those things!

Photos:

I didn't do a great job of taking many photos this month and I'm sorry for that! It was a really big month for your sister - she turned four, she got saved (!!!) and she started school. I am ashamed to say that most of the photos I took this month were of her. So sorry about that! (Most of the photos below were taken with my phone, so they aren't very great, but they are what I have.)

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Your Eighth Month - July 2014

Height: 25 ¼ inches

Weight: approximately 15 ½ pounds (but my methods of acquiring this information are not very accurate)

Head circumference: (no measurement this month)

(*measurements taken by mommy at home on 7/10*)

Sleeping Pattern:
You are still in a great routine! You wake up a little before 7:00 most days and take two naps each day. I still never know if you’ll nap for 45 minutes or 2 hours. Usually it’s closer to an hour. You are sleeping about 11 hours each night.

Eating Habits:
You still nurse four times a day and eat three meals a day. Towards the end of this month you went through a phase where you almost couldn’t get enough food! Perhaps it was a growth spurt - but you’re still so tiny!

Personality, etc.:
You are the sweetest baby in the universe! It’s like you turned 7 months old, got a couple of teeth, and decided not to be fussy anymore - yay! You smile all the time and you make the funniest screaming squealing sounds when you’re excited. When we take you to a restaurant you usually make loud happy noises. It’s funny - we used to worry that we were bothering those around us because you were fussing so loudly; now we worry that we’re bothering others because your happy squeals are so loud!

At home, you are almost always content to just sit on your blanket and play with your little box of toys. You adore your big sister and smile and babble to her a lot. And you are definitely a Daddy’s girl. You prefer your daddy over me most days. It’s really sweet!

One thing that I have noticed that is really strange and kind of funny is that you don’t like to hear adults laugh. Any time your daddy or I laugh loudly, you get startled and then cry! For a long time we have joked with Uncle Jacob about how you don’t like him, but now I am starting to think it’s because he laughs a lot and you just don’t like to hear him laugh! The strange thing is, Penny laughs very loudly around you all the time and you usually giggle back at her. So apparently, it’s just adult laughs that you don’t like. So funny!

Accomplishments & Habits:
Your newest babble is “buh-buh-buh” and it’s very cute. You are very sturdy when sitting up and you can now lie down from a sitting position without just falling over and bumping your head, so that’s nice.

You got your first two teeth this month! Your first one came in on 7/12 and the second one showed up a day later on 7/13.

Now that you sit up so well, we no longer have to bring the car seat inside when we are out and about. You can sit up in your stroller, in a shopping cart, and in a high chair at restaurants. This makes me so happy! Neither of us enjoyed it when you had to go everywhere in that car seat. I really think this was the last milestone you needed to meet in order to become the happy baby you are. You hated being stuffed into that seat and you love being free from it! You don’t fuss in the car anymore either, perhaps because you know that you won’t be stuck in that seat for very long.

Anything else:
Apparently I was just being paranoid about your hemangioma growing once we stopped your medication. It hasn’t changed at all and if I had not known it was there I wouldn’t be able to tell. You are beautiful! I am so glad we had a doctor who was willing to let us try the newest treatment for that. We were able to avoid a lot of grief because of this easy and early treatment!

This month we went on a very short “family vacation.” It was just one night in Kansas City. (We were afraid to try anything longer with you!) You did great! I think the drive was about four and a half hours and you did cry for 30-40 minutes on the way there and again on the way home. But that was really better than we thought you would do! We stayed at a hotel that had an indoor water park and you really loved sitting in the little kid pool and splashing in the water! We also went to the Kansas City zoo and you did so great in your stroller! One thing that makes grips like this hard with you is that you don’t nap well anywhere other than your bed. So when we are out and about all day, you don’t sleep much, if at all, and that can get interesting. But overall, the trip was a success and you were a very good girl!

Photos:

July 1 - Seven months old!