month nine

Nine months. You've been out as long as you were in. Longer, actually, since you were early. And you didn't really make your presence known until almost halfway through the pregnancy (when you then more than made up for it). So, yeah.  You've been here awhile and I can't believe how time has flown. You'll be one before we know it.

You now sleep pretty well. You've stayed in your crib (no backtracking).  You occasionally still wake up in the middle of the night but get yourself back to sleep faster. When Daddy was out of town for two consecutive bedtimes, I decided to have you cry it out to get yourself to sleep initially. Lots of tears and screaming that first night but much better from then on. Now you rarely cry more than just one really emphatic burst. It's awesome.

We continue to have issues with you having diaper fails. And now you seem to dislike diaper changes so you lock your legs straight. That is a very difficult position for you to be in while I'm trying to clean things up down there. Sometimes I roll you onto your stomach and sometimes let you stand for a portion of the program.

We've basically moved on to letting you eat whatever you want these days. No more introducing a food for three days in a row and then waiting to make sure you're not allergic. We're eating meatballs?  So are you. You love them actually. You seem to like the homemade food less and less and prefer yogurt, squeeze packets, and feeding yourself. I love it when you kids make it to the finger food stage.

You are more chatty these days but still no real words. You do sometimes have something close to dadadada. No mama but your sister and I are both working on that. You sort of wave and sort of give five but we need to work on both of those some more. Still very smiley, giggly, and happy.

Just when I thought you'd be one of those babies who never crawls, you decided it might be something you're interested in. You roll a lot and got from sitting to your tummy. You spin when sitting up. You try to pull yourself up and are successful sometimes. You like standing (assisted).  So while you don't cover a lot of ground, you do move much more. And seem to have just enough "skills" to hurt yourself.

You now have three teeth--all on the bottom. There's one about to pop through on top, though. You tried to break it through via blunt force trauma the other night. You like to pull up on the side of the tub while I'm running bath water and you hit your toothless gums on the edge before falling down.  Blood, tears.  Made better by bath time, which you love as much as your sister. 

We went to the zoo this month and you seemed to enjoy it more than last time. You were so little then. And we've spent more time outside as the weather has been pleasant. You still like the exersaucer and now enjoy the jumper more often. You and your sister interact more. She loves to make you happy and you do reward her with giggles. She talks to you like I do--same tone and words--when you're upset. Y'all are very fun. I am looking forward to seeing y'all together in another year.

I'll have to update your stats after your nine month visit on Monday but I guarantee you're over 20 pounds. I'm about ready to move you to a convertible carseat. Just need to wait for a sale. *Yep, you were 20 lbs, 13 oz (53rd%), 28.5" (57th%), and had a big ol' head.  The doctor said the big head was nothing to worry about.  I'm guessing you will be taking after me more than your dad on that one. Everything else checked out fine, too.*

Buns, it seems like you will do things in your own time. When you choose not when someone chooses for you. And you protest injustices. But you also make people so happy--even people who have never met you tell me that your picture makes them smile. And one of your daycare providers tells me how much she loves you every time I see her. You're a special bird and I'm glad I get to know you. You know, for life. 

slightly better outdoors

Front door is painted.  Awhile back I discovered oil-rubbed bronze spraypaint and finally bought some last weekend.  I've now ORBed the door handle, the wreath hanger, and the flag pole.  It's been an ORBing frenzy over here.  I think I may be getting somewhere with the curb appeal thing. 

So tell me, does the door look obviously blue?  Or would you just think the house looks nicer but not be able to put your finger on why?  (Before (which used to be the After) and the new After)

Yeah, it looks blue.  I hope no one turns me in.

the great outdoors

It used to be the meh outdoors.  If you recall, the front yard started like this:

I must apologize again for the crappy before pictures.  Anyway, the front beds contained FOUR sago palms.  These are not my favorite plants.  Not even my favorite palms.  I in no way felt like they belonged in the front yard of our house.  We also had a wall of oleander.  I don't mind them but I don't appreciate them being planted right in front of my dining room windows.  Lordy, people.  Do me a favor.  If you decide to plant something in the ground?  Read the tag that comes with it.  Plants are like puppies--they get bigger.  Anyway, we also had a mishmash of three different kinds of hardscape (none that I like) and a TON of this crazy groundcover (see front left of the photo above).  And some poorly placed shrubs.

So I enlisted the help of nice people who found my ads on Craigslist.  They came and dug out about 90% of the groundcover I hated.  I gave it to them for free.  Same thing with the palms.  They were so big that they had to be pulled out of the ground with a suburban.  It was awesome to watch.  It was more awesome that all this labor was done by folks who gladly took away things I hated.  Win-win.

Then we removed most of the hardscape.  I need to figure out what I want to replace it with and I also want a new outdoor light and am going to paint the front door (please don't tell my HOA) and would love window boxes on the second floor windows and am going to remove the beds around the trees so that there's just grass and will move what turned out to be day lilies to a different area and...  Obviously this is a work in progress but we've made SO MUCH PROGRESS!

Ahem.  Here's the current "after."

I did nothing to the brick.  It looks like such a different color in this picture but it's more accurate than the "before."  I know, I keep getting side-tracked.  You'll also notice our new windows.  I think they make the house look better since they have wider frames and blend less with the rest of the house.  And we got a different style half-circle window above the door that I love.  And, of course, there's the requisite American flag.

I kept what I could live with but had to move a lot of stuff around.  I did a lot of browsing around in the neighborhood to see what I liked about folks' front yard.  It came down to liking repeated elements (plantings), front beds that carried around to the side of the house (we're working on that), and some degree of symmetry.  I also wanted low-maintenance, flowers,interest for every season, and an area for annuals since I do enjoy periodic yardwork.  We both wanted trees.  He's kind of blendy (the uplight is pointed at him) but we got this little guy, a Dwarf Japanese Maple.

His foliage really goes well with the color of the house but he'll also be a fancy orange in the fall.  In the background is our peach tree.  She has beautiful blooms in the spring that are a darker pink than peach trees usually have.  We also plan to have a more mature tree installed on the left side of the yard.

I also planted knock-out roses, white azaleas, society garlic, dusty miller, pentas, and verbena.  Everything is a shade of pink, purple, or white.  I planted another camellia on the left side of the sidewalk (blooms in winter) and will eventually match the one on the right.  The plantings around the camellias are symmetrical as well. 

And the front of the beds (next to the sidewalk) are for my annuals.  We finished mulching everything this weekend.  I also hung up a little bird feeder in front of my office window and added a pot to the front porch.  It's coming along.  Feels a little bit more like me now.  Feels a little bit more like we actually live here.

eighth month

My goodness this was a busy month, Buns!  Yesterday especially.  We took so many pictures and had so many wardrobe changes.  But more on that later.

You have gotten so big!  I think you're around 20 pounds now.  Still a good 10 pounds lighter than your sister (which makes a world of difference) but you're so squirmy that you're hard to hold sometimes.  You still love being held, though.  You're in 9-month clothes.  We had to buy some the other day since Mama was still trying to squeeze you into some 3-6 month stuff.

You've gotten better at eating solids and have 3 meals a day.  You've tried yogurt now and had meat once (chicken).  We've tried to give you finger foods (peas, puffs, bread) a few times and it's hit-n-miss.  You have managed to squeak out 2 teeth, though!  I swear, they've looked ready to pop through for months now.  You're still on the bottle.  Mama wants to try to get you started on a sippy cup.  Still a lover of the paci.

I guess the biggest excitement this month developmental-wise is that we bit the bullet and pushed through with sleep training.  We moved you into your room (finally!) and you sleep through the night maybe 1/3 to half the time.  Sometimes you just need your paci in the middle of the night and it's a pretty quick endeavor.  Sometimes you're hungry but that's happening less and less.  You do wake up too early for my taste, however.  Somewhere between 5:00 and 6:00 most mornings.  You have a bottle, though, and are often back to sleep until about 7 or 7:30.  If only we could push that feeding out till then.  And if we're talking dream world, I'd also like it if you went to bed a little earlier than 9.  But that's just me.

You sit like a champ.  Still don't like tummy time so you quickly roll yourself over to your back.  You've learned to go from sitting to lying on your stomach but not the other way around.  You scoot some while lying on your back sometimes. One of our neighbors said her daughter crawled for about a day and then walked.  Perhaps that will be you.  You do like standing (assisted).  While you're taking your time with this movement thing, that doesn't mean you're still.  So many pictures have blurry parts these days.

You chatter but still nothing that sounds like a word.  Lots of squeals and giggling.  Still tons of smiles. It makes people around you so happy.  You love people, playing with toys, being outside, the exersaucer, being tickled.  I think you still prefer me but you're liking Daddy more lately (not that you disliked him but this morning you cried when he walked away and I was right there--that's never happened).

Let's see.  Mama went out-of-town for work for two nights.  One of those you and your sister spent with your grandparents.  That was a first.  Mama and Daddy have made plans to leave y'all both for a few nights in May.  Hopefully that will go well, too.

This month you celebrated your first St. Patrick's Day. You looked so cute.  We went out to eat (Mexican food--I don't know) with your grandparents and auntie.  We took obligatory bluebonnet pictures.  You were so compliant!  Yesterday was your first Easter.  It's funny that both you and your sister had monthiversaries on Easter your first year.  (She turned 3 months old that year.)  We were able to spend a lot of time with both sides of the family.  You looked very dashing.  I always thought little girls would be more fun to dress up (and they are fun) but I've been having a good time with you, too.  Already have plans for your Easter outfit for next year.

And, finally, we went to Opening Day last night.  It was your first baseball game (out of the womb).  I can't believe it was your sister's THIRD Opening Day.  I love that we started this tradition before I even met your Daddy and that we've continued it, now with many more people.  Time goes by so quickly.  Buns, there will be times in your life where you can't wait for the future and times where you long for the past.  You just have to try to live in the moment and enjoy it all.  People will try to impart that knowledge on you but it won't make sense until you're ready for it to (that happens a lot).  So that's what Mama's doing.  Trying to enjoy the moment.  There are many good ones.

life list: earn a marathon medal

When I was a senior in high school I had a memory book. It contained all sorts of information I added about that year, and it had the obligatory “where do you see yourself in the future?” page. I was SUPER optimistic apparently. By 35 I was going to be married with not one, not two but FOUR kids. And I was going to run a marathon. Ah, youth.

So, yeah, about that marathon… As I rolled along through my twenties I realized that that was never going to happen. I have bad knees. In fact, I stopped running altogether for about 10 years. First, out of instructions from a physical therapist, then out of fear, then laziness/busyness, then some more fear…

Earlier this year I realized that the Seabrook Lucky Trails Marathon had a relay portion. What!? There was a 2-person half-marathon and a 4-person full. Either way each person would do ¼ of a marathon or 6.55 miles. I knew I wouldn’t suddenly be able to go from my running a 5k to running basically twice that but I did think I could drag myself one way or another over that distance. The only person I could get to buy in was Hubby. Too bad the half-marathon relay was sold out. They fortunately opened up some more slots on my birthday (36—slightly off, 18-year-old me). (Can I interject?—OMG, that was half my life ago.)

I had not-so-lofty goals. First, I wanted to finish. Second, I wanted to not get injured. Third, I wanted to do it in less than 90 minutes. I should have thrown in there that I wanted to feel healthy going in. I had been sick in the days leading up to it and also had a, um, womanly visitor for the first time in over a year (and one of a handful of times in the last 3 years. TMI, I know.). Oh, well.

But I did it. I probably ran about 2/3 of the distance and finished without injury. In 1 hour, 28 minutes, 11 seconds. Goals met. Medal earned. For the record, Hubby finished in a whopping 1 hour, 3 minutes, 9 seconds and hadn’t run that distance in who knows when. He has this annoying habit of being able to bust out a good run with little to no preparation. He really should run a marathon. I could live vicariously. Anyway, the McMarathoners placed 32nd out of 54. Not terrible.

So my new goal (which needs to be added to the Life List) is to one day do the 4-person relay with Hubby and the kids. And maybe I could do a half-marathon myself one day. I think that will be my limit, though. Marathoners? Props to you.