random day of pictures

wednesday was the birthday of my favorite eldest sister.  this is how i celebrated...

i still really love those cheese eggs on toast (have i mentioned that i add cream and it makes them simply to die for?!) but i have another breakfast favorite too...  oatmeal!  a half cup of oats, one cup water, 1/4 cup flax seed (i'm currently out, and so is costco, and i'm really not happy about this... it's healthy but really, it adds amazing texture) and microwave for 2 minutes.  then stir in a few shakes of cinnamon and some brown sugar.  a little whole milk, a little whipping cream (not whipped), and one whole peach cut up (or a cup of diced strawberries).  it is knock your socks off incredible.  i guess you could make it healthier if that's your thing but i like sweets/dessert for breakfast and this hits the spot.  i might even prefer it to peach cobbler.  similar but doesn't give you that gluttonous nauseous ioverate feeling.

abigail plays with her dollhouse all day long.  sometimes brady and i join in on the fun.  when we do, we all like to play with "our" dolls.  i'm the mom, abigail is the blonde big sister, and brady is the little baby boy (sadly, his doesn't come in blonde but he doesn't seem to mind).  and when christopher gets home, he's the dad.  we all know our place.

i gave abigail a haircut.  i love and hate it.  mostly hate it but it was necessary.  her hair barely grows (it's been the same since she was 18 months old) and so thin and fine.  it was growing longer on the bottom but not on the top and since it was so thin, it just looked like a stringy little mullet.  as her mother, i thought it was cute because it perfectly resembled my hair at that age but honestly, if i looked at her through unbiased eyes, it looked just plain bad.  so i cut it.  i evened out the bottom and gave her a little bob.  i kept as much of the length as i could (the right side was significantly shorter because she doesn't ever twirl knots with her left hand) while evening it out as much as i could.  chris says she looks like a boy and i say she looks like she has a helmet haircut.  anyways, it was necessary and so even though it totally changes her look and makes her look so much less like my baby pictures, i try not to cry about it too much.  someday it will grow, right?!

my friend, jodi, dropped off a few new nail polishes for me on friday (she's always getting fun stuff for abigail and me and dropping off delicious treats so even though my toes looked absolutely horrendous all week, i'm going to pretend it was just a coincidence).  as soon as abigail saw my freshly painted toes, she begged me to paint hers too.  it took a few days but finally happened and i painted her fingers too.  she looks so adorable with painted fingernails and it's such a flattering color.  so i'll try to forget the fact that she "ate off" all of the polish on her right hand.  it's just her toes and her left hand that are blue but it's still pretty cute.

 

i can't stop sneaking into brady's room to take pictures of him while he sleeps.  i hit the timer button on my baby app when i put him down and then when it's been between 15 and 30 minutes, i sneak in and take pictures of him.  he's just so adorable i can't help it.

abigail is all over the place.  there should be a support group for parents with three year olds.  em said her three year old is only good or bad.  abigail is allllll over the map.  good, bad, and every single thing in between.  lots of in between.  i am comforted though that she said her little girl was terrible at three but it completely awesome now.  it may be a long tunnel but there is a light at the end!  also, abigail would sooo greatly benefit from learning to tell me not to yell.

i'm an idiot.  my three year old still wants to sleep in a crib but i occasionally push her to try out her bed.  three times in the space of forty five minutes, she came downstairs.  three strikes you're out, so i put her in her crib and she came downstairs again.  it wasn't even until fifteen minutes later that it clicked and i realized she must have climbed out.  ha.  not a successful nap day.  (today started out with tantrums to nap in bed, getting out of bed, tantrums because i insisted on the crib, and then i broke down and gave her a binky and she fell right asleep.  struggles.)

this guy's naps have been shorter... like an 1h20 instead of 2h20.  my days have been much less productive as of late.

i put brady in his bumbo and then ran to my room for a minute to look up a recipe on my computer.  while i was doing that, i heard a thump from the kitchen and thought to myself "oh no!  brady fell out of his bumbo!" but when i listened, i didn't hear any crying.  so i thought maybe he'd just grabbed the thomas book that sits on abigail's little wicker toy basket and the book falling to the floor was the thump i'd heard.  umm nope.  it was definitely brady  jumping out of the bumbo.  and he was just happy as a clam about it.

monday morning my honey left for salt lake.  wednesday morning he flew from slc to st george for a quick meeting before coming home.  i wasn't expecting him until later and didn't have a real dinner ready so i told him i'd make him an egg salad sandwich.  he said yes, he'd like french bread and no, the bread didn't need to be toasted but he'd like his sandwich with a little bit of love on top.  that guy's texts always makes me smile.

i think greek yogurt tastes horrendous.  but that doesn't stop me from buying it when i find a good sale.  this time was my first buying the greek gods brand.  i got two containers... one plain and one vanilla honey.  reading the side of the vanilla honey container it said it was a good substitute treat in place of ice cream.  i scoffed because i know how bad greek yogurt tastes.  but when i tasted it, i was blown away (i later checked the nutrition label and it has a whopping 32 grams of sugar per serving... that's why it's so delicious) and repented... purposefully scooping it out to look like ice cream.  the funny part?  my christopher and abigail both independently made comments about how i was eating ice cream.  so delicious.  it is still "healthy" for you when it has 32 grams of sugar and 14 grams of fat per serving?!  because we polished off that 24 oz container of it in less than 24 hours.

abigail has never liked baths.  as a baby, she rarely cried and rarely laughed.  friends would always tell me how their kid was soothed or excited by bath time but abigail always seemed pretty indifferent.  that's the same story now except it's accompanied by an intense fear of washing her hair.  so imagine our surprise when chris was showering and asked abigail if she wanted to shower.  i wasn't there but apparently, she just immediately stripped down and got in!  chris called me in to see it.  you can't see the water in this picture but seriously?!  all over her hair, face, ears, and she was enjoying herself!  is it weird if your three year old still sleeps in a crib but has already graduated from baths to showers?  not conventional... we'll see how this pans out longer term.

 

sooo, although my very favorite part of the day was actually talking to liza on the phone... which i didn't get a picture of... because were talking.... the rest of the day was pretty great too.  happy birthday liza!  i'm glad your birthday was so awesome!

solheim cup

this morning, honey took abigail to a pretty major women's golf tournament here in parker.  it's only held every other year, which in my book makes it pretty rare, so i find it amusing that it was held in little old parker (the previous one was in ireland).  anyways, it was usa vs. europe so i got abigail dressed in her most patriotic outfit.  my christopher said it had a similar feel to the olympics and that it was insanely fun.  he and abigail left around 7:30 this morning and then he brought her back at 1 and left again less than an hour later to go back and watch the rest of it with his brother.  so my day felt oddly like a weekday.  except with just brady.  which was so. insanely. easy.  brought back all the memories of being so completely bored out of my mind all day when abigail was this age.  it was glorious.  brady and i watched golf, and just hung out.  he is a perfect pet rock companion.  and he chases puffs... which is always amusing to watch.  then sometime around 7, my christopher got home and we got ready and went to a birthday.  it was an oddball sort of saturday.

such a happy baby.  and he thinks i'm the most hilarious person ever.  it's awesome.

she wore sandals.  and they did a lot of walking.  i actually carried her from the kitchen and placed her directly in the bathtub where i semi filled up the tub, scrubbed her down, and then filled up the tub again and gave her a real bath.  like pre-treating a stain, it was just that bad.

what excellent company!  i didn't dance.  but other people did.  and it was a lot of fun.  

raise your hand if you're going to be so excited about life 13 hours from now!  tomorrow is ward conference and i'm going to be doing church stuff from 7am until 2pm.  so i need to wake up extra early to pack a lunch... that'll i'll hopefully get to eat sometime second hour while i'm nursing brady?  who really knows... sundays are always a bit of a crapshoot.

another day of purple

today was one of those days where i got to the end of it and thought to myself, "what have i even been doing for the past 12 hours?!"  so i looked at these pictures for a little refresher.

when i went to get baby girl up this morning she kept repeating some long and unintelligible phrase about what she had been doing in her crib.  finally she said "i'll show you" and put her legs in her pj's to do this mermaid amputee thing again.  ha.

baby girl decided brady was cold.  also, she strongly prefers this purple side of the blanket.

and since we had no plans of leaving the house, i let her pick out her outfit, which went like this...
do you want to wear your purple pants and skirt?
yeah! and thomas!
this thomas? (as i held up her shirt)
yeah! and a sweater! the purple one!

oh hi there.  i still can't stop staring at your eyelashes.  which will be even more gorgeous if your blocked tear duct ever clears up.

"i'm on your way!"  on your way, in your way, whatever.  i got the message.

i frequently put my phone on silent when i'm taking pictures of abigail... being stealth is important to good kid photography.  sometimes i forget that i have it on silent and then i feel really loved when i see that i was missed for a few minutes.  

add a purple hat and grab diesel... it's time to watch some thomas.

look who found her little bag of long lost dress up accessories!  tiny santa hats, beaded necklaces, and pink/purple floral dora sandals.  i think she's a girl.

this literally made me laugh out loud.  i looked up from what i was doing and was so caught off guard by this cow driving a pink minivan.

naptime!  in purple pj's!  with a purple blanket!

we were hanging out while i gchatted with weed.

then i ran a few things to the mailbox. (does it look like we had a "blizzard" two days ago?)

while i was gone, brady fell down a little.  don't worry, he was still perfectly happy, despite his horizontal positioning.

we were reading this richard scarry book when abigail kept telling me "it's like elle's busy town!" and pointed to this character... "elle has that!  in her busy town!"  i texted jodi and sure enough, her name is hilda and she's part of elle's busy town.

bath time with two kids always makes me feel like i'm great at multitasking. 

when i lifted him out, abigail's towel happened to be laying on top.  i think he makes a pretty cute pink bunny.  he can be a tough guy next time.

i can't remember if there was a reason for this picture... other than that i think he's beautiful.

remember when i found a tooth in brady's mouth?  i've been feeling it and watching it for the past two weeks, rubbing orajel on it and letting brady chomp on my fingers.  then yesterday, all i felt was gums.  after doubting my sanity and fearing hallucinations, i googled it.  based on the many forums i found, apparently i'm one of millions of mothers trying to figure out how their baby's tooth disappeared.

honey has been in texas.  of anyone i've ever heard of, he has the worst luck with delayed flights.  so tonight we texted while his flight was delayed over three hours.  how he functions on 4 and 5 hours of sleep a night is beyond me.  he really is turning into his dad.

so that was the day.  it wasn't productive (i just couldn't find my focus) but it included a lot of purple.  i got a few things done, i enjoyed my kids (brady was in a great mood today, napped really well, and didn't even get fussy tonight!), and ummm, y'know, i just did normal life... like reorganizing my freezer and wearing pajamas all day.  be jealous.

bath time

when life gives you a diaper rash..

 

take the opportunity to have a nice relaxing soak.

no gum necessary

tonight i had to cut baby girl's hair a tiny bit.

last night we got home late and she was the most tired i've seen her maybe ever.  then we had to wake her up early for church this morning.  so during lunch she's begging for a nap which isn't uncommon but i still knew she was tired from the travel.  normal naptime is 2 but i had her down by 1:30.  at 6:15 i still hadn't heard a peep from her so i finally went up to her room to make sure she was still alive (anyone else do that when their kid takes a super long nap?  i swear i can't be the only one) and i heard her in her crib just happily playing away.  i got her out because it had been almost FIVE HOURS and saw that she had the most ridiculous knot in her hair.  she likes to twirl her hair with her finger... especially when she's tired.  i think this must be a recessive trait in our family because my brother got it too... although he doesn't limit the hair twirling to when he's tired.  so i tried working it out with my fingers.  and i kept doing that while we played outside for two hours and then i decided i'd have to be done with conditioner so before bed i gave her a long bath (yeay for the beach because my baby went from dreading and crying during baths to begging for them and crying when i tell her it's time to get out!  crossing my fingers this lasts...) and let her play in the water while i massaged that knot with conditioner FOUR times.  it got better but not all the way.  so i got her out, dried her off,

and clipped out that little knot.

and that is the story of baby's first unofficial haircut.

and to liza: it's true that baby girl hadn't napped when we left your house after the zoo but i put her down for a nap when we got home and she slept for a few hours until i woke her up.  late nap better than no nap!

down on the farm

this will be short because emmy is sleeping and i'm typing on a keyboard with an extremely loud spacebar.  today baby girl and i picked my hasn't-blogged-in-a-while-sister emmy up from the airport and came straight to the farm (where my precious grandparents live).  we had a grand old time and now they are both fast asleep and looking so very peaceful.

my baby has developed a fear of and hatred for bath time.  any suggestions?  she doesn't like getting her hair washed... and now she's smart enough to know that that comes after the play/splash/rubberduckywatertoys time... so that's not good.  so since she's wised up she now screams all through bath time instead of just at the end.  this has got to be remedied.  she is the problem with having an insanely easy newborn.  things can only get harder.  and they have.  every day is more difficult than the last.  yikes.

my honey went to a hockey game tonight.  he sure knows how to live it up while i'm gone and it kinda makes me a little bit sad.  i need him to mourn and mope my absence.

and sadly, although i took some cute ones, there are no pictures because i'm on my grandparents computer.

goodnight!

welcome to atlanta

first off, have i mentioned before how much i hate packing?  because i despise it.

let me tell you i've had more pleasant flying experiences than the one i had today.  there was no crying or anything and she was really well behaved but my baby did not sleep even one second of our three hour flight.  it was like trying to contain an octopus.  an octopus with adhd.  i was ready to pull my hair out.  but you know baby with her hair pulling fetish did that for me.  luckily i was wearing a black shirt so everyone could see that half of my hair was attached to my head and half was not.  it was disgusting and painful.  also her diaper may have leaked on her, me, and my nursing cover, and before we even got on the plane, i did quite a bit of trucking around the denver airport because the security guy couldn't scan my text message boarding pass and i had to go back upstairs to the delta counter to ask them to print out a paper boarding pass so i could haul myself and my bags and my baby in her carseat back down through security.  and then since that took so long, by the time i got to the plane, everyone had boarded and they said i had to gate check my rolly bag because there wouldn't be enough room for it.  i hate that.

on a positive note, delta didn't even bat an eye at my "diaper bag" which is actually just a huge duffle full of all of baby's things for the trip, my rolly gate checked bag was waiting for me on the baggage carousel, baby finally passed out at noon MST (she'd been awake for almost six hours), and mother and i had a delicious lunch at the varsity.  i love being home.

other things happened but instead of writing about them, i'll just post the pictures.  it was never fabulous but lately, my photography has seriously gone downhill.

waiting for mom

my bag and my "diaper bag".  not pictured: my loaded purse.

still passed out

don't let the grogginess fool you.  baby loves the varsity.

bath time!

go ahead and tell me.  i have the cutest kid ever.

she was playing with a dinosaur so i gave her stegosaurus spikes.  i'm a really good parent because i take advantage of bath time being an educational experience.

this is weed.  or sister lisa.  i love her to death and tonight was the first time i'd seen her in TWO WHOLE YEARS.  welcome home from finland weed!  remember you're always welcome at the maycocks where my dad will serve you a nice salad with the fatted salmon.

have you ever wondered why i'm so nazi about my kid always wearing a bow?  let me tell you.  the real purpose of this picture was to compare my child to my brother as a child.  sans bow and avec comb over, my baby turns into her uncle wally.  yes, he actually goes by uncle wally.  but i swear he's not weird and creepy.  except when he attempts a mustache.  but really, aren't those maycock genes amazing?  and dominant?

not pictured: BBB (big booty belen) who, after tonight, will now be going by the name "buns."  i love that girl.  especially when she says "toaster" with an american accent.  

official 9 month update

...or we could call this "everything you never cared to know about my baby."

my last formal update for baby was at six months. i skipped doing an update at seven months because not much had changed. missing the eight month post was pure negligence. it's okay. i doubt any future kids will get a post like this. ever.

march 13-19, baby experienced southern california. san diego, the zoo, anaheim, LA, two hockey games, and a lot of beaches. it was a lot of driving and missed naps/no schedule but she did really great and we are continually thankful that she is in love with her carseat.  march 20-28 was the week of misery in colorado where baby was 100 times fussier than she's ever been in her whole life.  thank goodness she got over that.

hockey

beach

misery in colorado

after weeks of rocking on all fours, saturday, march 19, baby crawled for the first time! she was so super slow and really really wobbly at first but after about a week she was really good. it took her at least a week or two before she would crawl more than 5 or 6 feet and then she realized that actually, the possibilities are endless! now, she's pretty fast and she crawls all over the place.

a week later (around march 25 or so) baby mastered changing positions from laying down to sitting to crawling and back again. i was reeeally excited about this because it's what i call a "useful milestone." this really extended her independent play time because i can leave her alone and she doesn't have to be sitting up OR laying down the whole time. she can be a mover and a shaker to her little hearts content.

baby girl got her first tooth february 27 and her second tooth about two weeks later.  two little teeth on the bottom.  they look so cute although i do miss letting her gum my fingers though.  she still does it sometimes but it's just not the same with those two little razors so close by.

click to enlarge to see her little teeth!

she's also quite the talker.  she'll make consistent sounds like "ma ma ma" and "da da da" but my favorite is the little gibberish she makes up.  especially when she's singing it or whispering it.  i can actually hear her whispering to herself at this very moment.  it is soooo cute.

as far as eating goes, it changes all the time so this will be a jumble. baby is not really a huge fan of eating.  she could care less.  if i nursed her for two minutes and decided that was all/gave her two bite of oatmeal and that's all/skipped a meal of solids altogether/never fed her when she woke up she would not care.  like not even bat an eye.  and i'm being completely serious.  most meal times are just me trying to force feed my child while she tries to climb out of her highchair.  everything changes all the time but especially eating.  and sleeping.  but that's a different paragraph. baby cereal in order of preference goes oatmeal, multigrain, space space space, rice. she'll eat the rice cereal alright but with the multigrain, and oatmeal especially, it's like christmas morning for her. i'm fine with that though because they're better anyways. she opens up real big to eat.  for a while she was doing cereal and a jar of fruit for breakfast, jar of fruit and jar of veggies for lunch, and cereal (normally oatmeal) and jar of veggie for dinner before bed.  not always full jars, but sometimes.

spinach puree

ever since baby got sick (tuesday/wednesday of last week, april 13th, second time ever, how's that for keeping the books straight?) though, she'll take a bite or two and then spend the rest of the meal shaking her head, pursing her lips, and trying to grab the spoon. if you trick her into opening her mouth then she'll eat the food just fine, but for some reason, she just won't open her mouth on her own.

about two weeks ago, we started giving baby real solids aka "finger foods/table foods."  we started her out with puffs (holy crap those are pricey at $2 for a small container!  seriously less than 2oz) and quickly moved to toasted O's ($2 for a big 14oz box) because i'm cheap. then we did some banana (baby's favorite so far), peeled and diced grapes (liked those quite a bit too), and kiwi (not a fan, although i can't blame her because it was pretty sour). a few months ago, i gave her mashed up avocado and she didn't like it (i think because it wasn't pureed) and i plan on trying chunks of those again once the price goes down (as of a few days ago they were still $2.50 each and i just can not pay over $2 an avocado. can. not. we've also given her small bits of pineapple, cantaloupe, and other fruit you'd find in a fruit bowl when we've been at bbq's and other activities like that. she was most enthusiastic when we gave her a giant pineapple chunk to suck on and she quickly inhaled the whole thing into her mouth. twice. after those two bouts of excited panic, we learned and just threw it away. another time baby girl, another time. so in the meantime we're really loving the ability to keep her occupied with cheerios (which is her favorite, along with bananas). another "useful milestone." she is so quick at grabbing the little O (with the cutest little pincher fingers you've ever seen!) and popping it in her mouth!

nursing is still going great. she went through a stage for a while where she was getting ridiculously distracted by everything even with her surroundings completely still. so now when i feed her, it's in the glider in her room and nothing is in sight or within reach. i even took away the burp cloth hanging over the arm of the chair because if she grabs it once, feeding is over.  most of the time i even keep the light off/blinds down.  it's necessary.  and i enjoy that quiet time.  i do not do a single thing but watch her eat.  no phone, no book, no music, no computer.  absolutely nothing.  that was how i did it for literally the first five months of her life.  just because i loved nursing so much and i wanted to soak it up.  so i apologize to emmy, liza, and whoever else i abruptly ended phone calls with in the name of completely devoting that time to nursing baby girl.  so now i'm back to that.  partially out of necessity of having such an easily distracted (where on earth did she get that from?!?!) baby, and partially because i realize that i'm on the downward slope of nursing her.  i don't have plans to wean her anytime soon but i know the afternoon feedings will probably go when she starts drinking regular milk.  a few days ago i thought about how our nursing days are more than half over and my eyes literally welled up with tears.  sad.  that's when i have to think about how much she loves to pull and yank on my hair while she's nursing.  i can not accurately describe the extent to which this is a constant struggle.  when she can't get to my hair though, she'll pull her own which wasn't a problem until this last week because now her hair is long enough that she can pull it out!  in clumps!  so i try to discourage that and redirect her to her ear.  playing with her ears is her third choice activity while nursing and it is precious to see her pulling/playing/holding her ear.  the best is when she falls asleep with her hand cupped over, holding on to her ear.  not sure why, but i think it's adorable.

mid january, i weaned baby off of her third nap so she was just taking two 2 hour naps.  but ever since our two weeks of travel last month for spring break, sleep has been terribly inconsistent.  i know it's my fault though because i have her skip her morning nap so often so i can get out of the house and do other things.  so now sometimes, even when we're at home, she may not be tired enough to nap in the morning.  so every day is different.  for example, yesterday she napped for 45 mins in the morning and 45 in the afternoon and woke up crying both times (normal for her when she doesn't get a full length nap) and it took her over an hour to get to sleep each time.  the day before that she woke up for the day at 7 30, down for nap at 9 30, up at 11 15, down for afternoon nap at 2 00, awake at 5 00, and down for the night at 8 30.  a day's total nap time could be as little as 1.5 hours or as much as 5 (although that was very rare).  anyways, some days i feel like it drives me a little bit nuts, but really it's worth it to have that flexibility and know that my baby can get by with so little sleep for days like last saturday when we were out all morning and all afternoon and only had time to stop at home in the middle for a quick 30 minute power nap before waking her up to go to a birthday bbq.

apparently they were just laying down together and both just happened to fall asleep

nighttime sleep is much more predictable.  over the past three months the norm is to wake up and nurse once during a 12 hour stretch at night.  she will have times where she'll go three or four nights in a row where she'll sleep the whole way through, but then we'll go on a trip, or she'll get sick, or start teething, or something that will throw her off again.  and it takes a while to recover and bounce back.  i don't mind though.  call me crazy, but i'm kind sad on the mornings i wake up at 8, and realize that i missed our quiet, middle of the night cuddle time.  also, for the first time ever, she's had a few times (okay, mostly just during that week of misery in colorado) where she's woken up during the night and put up a fuss about going back to bed.  that was totally foreign because before that, she'd never, not even one single time, not gone directly back to sleep after nursing during the night.

oh. my. precious.  i am in love.

this section is about poop.  feel free to skip it if you wish. i'll think you're crazy for it though. because i love poop. and i'm loving baby's poop right now. eating solid food has done great things for her diapers. they are clean and concise and rarely ever stink. i thought her diapers would smell worse when solid food was in full swing but it is the opposite for her. i only know if she's poopy if i feel a lump in her diaper. or if she's grunting with her rosy cheeks. ;-) it is fabulous.  it honestly makes me want to do cloth diapering because poop cleanup would be nonexistent.  but, for other reasons, i still have my reservations.

baby girl is doing really well with her independent playtime.  i set up a pack in play upstairs in our hallway and put some fun toys in there.  in she goes whenever i need to do something like go to the bathroom or get ready for the day.  it's so much quicker to put her in there and put my contacts in, then to put her on the floor and check on her every two seconds.  i also try to put her in there for about 30 minutes once a day for "independent playtime" so she's used to being contained, having a limited/set amount of toys, being left alone for an extended period of time, and entertaining herself.  she does really well and since i've been doing it, i've noticed that she's more self sufficient at other times as well.  this is something i'll definitely have to keep up with her and make sure to be diligent about with future kids.  it's amazing.

baby girl sometimes still likes her jumper.  if she's in there, she'll be happy jumping for a long time.  but half of the time i go to put her in there, she'll squeal or cry until i put her on the floor and let her crawl around instead.  crawling around and pulling up on things (which she did for the first time on april 3) are definitely her two favorite activities right now.  she is extremely self sufficient and independent.  i can sit her on the floor in our living room and she'll crawl right over to her toy corner to get all of her stuff out to play and i can make dinner, do dishes, or get stuff cleaned just so long as i peek at her every once in a while to make sure she's being safe.

baby has a special love of belts, electronic cords, cell phones, computers, hair, and even honey's shoes when he leaves them out.  she isn't showing any favoritism towards any of her actual toys right now.  i think she's been enjoying them all pretty equally lately.  she loves listening to music (country and neil diamond), dancing (she doesn't dance on her own yet though), walking (when she's holding on to our hands), peek-a-boo, stroller rides, car rides, swinging, and kids.  i'm sure she probably has more things that she likes but it's hard to know since she's pretty content with everything so there's not really a big range from crying to laughing to let us know her preferences.

i'm not sure that there's anything she downright doesn't like.  she is sooo extremely tolerant.  she won't put up a fuss at all if it's freezing cold, really hot, or raining on her head.  i'm really trying to think of something that she hates every time and i don't think there is anything.  even that nose bulb sucker thing.  she dislikes it about 80%, but then the other 20% she'll be perfectly still and maybe even help me hold it while we suck her nose out.  it's pretty incredible.

i love the bedhead.

she seems pretty indifferent to bath time.  she's really good about it when i douse her head and get tons of water in her eyes and she'll hold her rubber duckies the whole time, but she's not splashing all over the place, laughing, or giggling at all.  last week she managed to poop in the bath tub (i'll spare you pictures although you can feel free to use your imagination!) for the first time ever.  luckily we bath her in a little bucket in the tub so i just pulled her right out and dumped the dirty water down the toilet.  but still.  poop?  in the tub?!?!  it was pretty funny.

okay, here are some of the specifics.  baby is still wearing all of her same 0-3 clothes but is starting to also fit into bigger clothes without growing out of her old ones.  in the past few days she's worn dresses as small as newborn and as big as 9 months.  how mysterious.  she is wearing 6 month sleepers and a size 2 diaper during the day and size 3 at night.

4.19.11 - 9 month appointment

15 lbs 4 ounces  9%

28 inches  61%

hc 42.2 cm  12%

so really, to summarize, she's just a really happy baby and crawling and pulling up on everything in sight.  the doctor said she thinks baby will be walking before her first birthday but who really knows, she's moving around just fine as is.  i call this stage her puppy dog stage because at least ten times a day i comment on how she's just like a little puppy dog with how she gets in the recycling, exciting crawls around the corner to me just panting with a big grin on her face, and those eyes.  oh how i love those giant puppy dog eyes.  she's just my little puppy dog right now.  it's definitely the most challenging stage so far (mostly because of eating and getting into things and being in a constant state of change) but it's also the most fun.  i love this little girl so much.  she makes me positively giddy.

talk about the longest post ever.  now i'm remembering why i don't do these more often.  anyways, baby girl really always just makes me think of that quote about never stepping in the same river twice.  she is never the same kid twice.

my typical view.  the curious little puppy.