Amelia's 9th & 10th Months

Stats: (Measurements taken 9 month check up)

• 19.5 pounds (70%)
• 30 inches long (99%) 

Eating:

• She eats 4-6 ounces of formula every 4ish hours, along with breakfast, lunch and dinner
• Ritz crackers, graham crackers, yogurt melts and veggie puff things (we call them baby cheetos) are her favorite snacks. She loves taco soup, alfredo with peas, black beans, and scrambled eggs. She says "Mmmmm" when she eats those. Steamed butternut squash is her least favorite food. She shakes her head adamantly "no", and seals up those lips like Fort Knox every time I've tried to give it to her. 

Sleeping:

• At 9.5 months, she started squirming when I tried to rock her to sleep for naps. And sometimes for bed. So, I gave her a bottle, set her down in her crib with her stuffed animals/dolls and she put herself to sleep. I turn on an electric fan for white noise, and she'll sleep for an hour or two. Nap time is around 9:30 AM and 2:30 PM.
• Bed time is around 8:00-8:30 PM. I still rock her to sleep at night, but if she's too squirmy I lay her down with her bottle and she takes care of the rest. She might cry out a few times, but as long as its just her "I'm tired an want to sleep cry" I leave her alone and she's asleep in 5 minutes. If its her "Why have you forsaken me, and everything in this world is terrible" cry, I go get her and let her play with us for a while longer. 

Wearing:

• Size 3 or 4 diapers, kind of in between right now.
• 9-12 month onsies, 12 month dresses, 18 month sleepers, and 18 month pants. Those legs will not be contained. (I don't have enough size 18 pants for her to wear all the time, and when I put the 12 month pants on her they are ridiculously high watered. Like, up to her knees. Sister rocks the cropped look.)

Tricks and Miscellaneous Skills:

• She hit 9 months and it was like a switch flipped. She started crawling, pulling up, and growing teeth all at once. Her bottom two teeth came in at 9 months, and her canines are coming in at 10 months. She'll look like the cutest little vampire if her top two teeth don't fill in soon.
• She loves her toys, especially stuffed animals. She hugs and kisses them all the time. Her favorite is a little stuffed frog named Pierre, and when she grabs hugs him I say, "Oh Pierre, you shouldn't have come!" and we both laugh. Cultured baby.
• Her hair is dfinitely blonde, and it still sticks up most of the time, which I love. Its starting to curl in the back, and it is the cutest.
• Still loves peek-a-boo, and she'll chase you if you run away and hide from her. But you gotta be fast because sister can book it.
• She can say "wow", "whoa", "wooo" and uses them when situationally appropriate. She can say mamama, and dadada, and we think she said "herro"(hello) the other day (we should stop saying "herro" to her, I know...). She loves to jabber when I talk, and she has the highest little screech that I might regret encouraging one day. She loves to mimic sounds, so its lucky Cory has a never ending supply of weird, loud beeps, boops, and swishes for her to copy.
• She gives the sweetest wet kisses, and waves hi and bye when she wants so. She can give us five too. Smarty pants.
• She got her first goose egg, and it was enormous, and it was totally my fault, and I don't want to talk about it.
• She loves to stand and look at the back window.
• We call her "Amelia the Plunderer" because she likes to plunder. She loves to open things (cupboards, boxes, trashcans) and fling things out of them as fast as she can. And she is fast. I'm not even mad. I'm just impressed.
• The stranger danger is strong with this one. When well meaning people come up and say hi to her at stores, she'll give them the most offended frown and start sobbing. It can be a little awkward, but safety first, right?
• The other day I pretended to be a pony while Cory put her on my back and she laughed hysterically about it. We maybe did that for a longer time than I'm willing to admit.
• Dancing. Whenever she hears a song she likes, she starts jumping in time to the music. It doesn't even have to be good music. We sang a horribly off key version of Old McDonald the other day, and she went crazy for it. And she jumped through our whole rendition of Happy Birthday to Aunt Mackenzie the other night. Those legs just won't stop.
• My money is on her walking any day now. She can stand up all on her own, and will try to take steps but her balance isn't quite there yet. Where did my tiny baby go??

A Little Vintage Nursery for Amelia

I finally took some pictures of Amelia's nursery. She's almost 9 months old, so I'm right on track.  I definitely didn't do this while I was pregnant. I was just going to put her crib in the corner of our room and call it day. But, 3 months after she was born nesting finally kicked in, and I just couldn't help myself.  Anyway, good things come to those who procrastinate because I am kind of in love with it.

Details:
Let's see, the crib was new from Target, and I used some of our Amazon textbook trade in credit to order the rocking chair. My mom bought the armoire for $30.00 or so from a neighbor and we painted it with Annie Sloan Chalk paint in Coco. Freya spotted the knobs in the clearance bins at Anthropologie-they were marked down to $2.00! 

The changing table is an antique sideboard my mom found at a thrift store and gave to us for our wedding a few years ago, but I swear it has found its true calling now. The drawer is the perfect size for diapers and wipes, and the changing pad fits like it was made for it. Lucky.

The book case was a project I did way back in the day. My mom and I salvaged it from an old building, stripped the many layers of paint, and then sanded for days. We stained it, sealed it and it's lived many lives since then (but none were nearly this cute).

And for the nick nacks, of which there are many. Most I already had, collected from thrift stores and garage sales. I've been buying children's books at thrift stores for quite some time. It definitely felt less creepy once I was actually expecting a child. My baby shower was book themed, and everyone brought a book instead of a card which really beefed up our selection. (Side note: that baby shower was so great. See it here.)

 My sister made the pompoms, and my cousin crotcheted those little hearts. I strung them on some yarn and they make me so happy. The alphabet cards were designed and printed by Freya (for my baby shower). The rug is from Urban Outfitters. The crib bumper was made by Joanna; the fabric is called "Fly a Kite"by Riley Blake. The little frog was a gift from my mom years ago. She makes them out of rocks...they're called rock pals...the seventies were good for her.

Whew- that should cover it! I love her sweet little room. I think she likes it too.

Christmas Night to New Year's Eve 2013

This should probably be broken up into at least 2 separate posts but...ain't nobody got time for that.

After spending the day with Cory's family, we drove over to my parent's house that for Christmas night.

We ate our second delicious dinner of ham, potatoes, and all the fixings (And I totally felt like a hobbit. Second dinner! Elevensies!) and then did our Secret Santa gift exchange. We missed Jackie's little family like crazy, but it was so nice to have almost all of us together. We spent the week afterwards at my parent's house hanging out, and playing with babies.

My Dad's birthday is on Christmas Day (random fact: my sister Jackie was also born on December 25th, totally weird, right?), so one night of vacation we had a little birthday shindig for him. We had fajitas,  and a bonfire. My mom had them set up a projector and screen outside too. She said something about having us square dance at some point, but we ended up just watching funny Youtube videos for an hour or so. I'm pretty sure the neighbors loved hearing us watch Katy Perry's music video for ROAR around 9:30 PM that night.

The boys did a lot of man stuff. Cutting down trees, making bonfires, cooking outdoors, and using power tools. It was all very impressive. 

We celebrated New Year's Eve a few days early with friends. Our outside plans got rained out, but we moved the party inside. S'mores, hot cocoa, party hats, Sam made sushi, pretty much an anything goes kind of vibe. At one point the dog was in a hat, so you could say things got crazy. Even though it was pouring rain outside the boys still managed to get quite a few fireworks off. And, per tradition, the police showed up. When will they learn? 

All in all, we had a pretty good week together. I'm so excited for a sister's week in Texas this April :)