Thursday, May 24, 2012

Caleb's Last Day of MDO

Today was Caleb's last day of MDO!  We are sad that he won't be going back until the fall.  What are we going to do all summer?!  I really want to get a tentative plan outlined for some fun things we can do to stay occupied, active, and learning for the next three months!  Guess I need to get back into Pinterest and find some things to do! 

Caleb really enjoyed the MDO program at The Foundry!  He had sweet teachers and made many new friends.  He loves going to "school" and he will be going back there in the fall for preschool.  That will be fun as the preschool kids get to do fun field trips and other special activities that the MDO kids don't do.  We are counting down the days until September!  :-)

I can't even believe how much he's grown and changed since his first day back in August!  Look at where his head is on the door and you can tell how much taller he's gotten!  It makes me a little sad and I might have teared up a little as we were driving away from his school today!  :-)

Isn't he handsome?!  Apparently, I like horizontal stripes!  Also, it is sad to think that he cannot fit into those clothes anymore (from August).  Those were 18-24 month shorts, a 24 month shirt and size 8W shoes.  Now he is in 3T shorts, 3T (and some 4T) shirts and his shoes are a 9W.  Someone please slow down time because my baby boy is growing up too fast!




And unrelated to this post.... I am really trying to get the blog caught up!  I'm WAY behind on my Project 366 posts but I have been taking pictures.  I just need to get those organized, labeled, and posted.  It takes some time!  I have a lot of other stuff to blog about, so I am hoping to get caught up in the next few weeks.  Then, I really want a blog makeover!  That will happen eventually!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Aubrey is 9 Months Old!

Little Miss is 9 months old!  If I had to describe Aubrey in one word right now, it would be SWEET!  She is just the sweetest baby girl!  She is so good and easy going and is such a joy!
*  At her 9-month well child appointment, she weighed 15 lbs 14 oz (10%), was 28 inches long (75%) and head circumfrence was 16 inches (2%).  Hmm...do you see a trend here with my children?  Long and lean!  Wonder who they get that from?!
* She is wearing mostly 9 month clothes but can still wear some 6 month or 6-9 month sizes.  I don't ever put her in shoes but I did try some little sandals on her yesterday and the size 2 fit.  She's still wearing size 2 diapers for daytime and size 3 at night.  I want to move her to size 3/day and 4/night but I have a ton of size 2 diapers that I want to use so we're sticking with them until they're gone.


* She has two teeth - both of the bottom ones in the front.  The 2nd one broke through on 4/11.
* She went to the zoo for the first time on 4/11 (yep, same day she cut her 2nd tooth). 

* She is still such a good sleeper, praise the Lord!  She almost never fights naps, which is such a tremendous blessing.  I just put her down and she still puts herself to sleep.  She does start crying a little when she sees the sleepsack and when I turn her noise machine on, but it doesn't last long.  She sleeps great at night, too although I do still get her up and feed her once more before I go to bed.  Crazy, I know!  What parent gets their child up once they are asleep?!  I used to change her diaper before feeding her but she started waking up and staying up for a while on occasion, so I just stopped changing her diaper.  Now I just pick her up, sit down and feed her, then put her back down.  She rarely even wakes up enough to be disturbed so it has not been an issue.

* This girl just does not care about drinking her formula!  She usually just drinks 2 ounces per feeding.  Sometimes, if I am lucky, she will take 3 ounces.  On the extremely rare occasion, she will finish her bottle (4 ounces).  Actually, if I can feed her while she's sleepy instead of fully awake, she will usually take more.  If she is fully awake, she will sometimes only drink 1 ounce.  CRAZY!  What 9 month old baby only drinks 1 ounce?!  I just don't get it.  I talked to Dr. Ramsey about it at her appointment and she said that she is healthy and growing so she is not worried about it.  Her growth curve has been consistently around the 10th percentile, which is good.  It is still hard not to be concerned about it!

* I also asked Dr. Ramsey about her head (we'd only seen the PA and NP about it before).  She does still have a flat spot, but I feel like her head has improved some overall.  I asked her what she thought and said that I needed to know once and for all if I should REALLY stop worrying about it (yes, I may be a slight worry wart when it comes to my babies!).  She said she is not worried about it at all and I should not be either.  Ok, so I guess I need to get over her flat head!  :-)

*  It only took 9 months, but she finally decided that she could sleep some on her tummy!  She has always slept on her back or side (hence, the flat head) and if she ever accidentally ended up on her tummy (because she has never done that on purpose), she would go completely bonkers.  She would NOT tolerate being on her tummy in her crib AT ALL.  Well, one day while Caleb was at MDO a few weeks ago, I put her down for a nap and got in the shower.  I had the monitor in the bathroom with me and heard her start to scream and cry.  I wanted to finish my shower so I just let her cry.  By the time I was done, she'd stopped.  When I looked at the monitor, I saw that she had actually fallen asleep on her tummy for the first time ever.  Since then, she's been occasionally rolling over and actually going to sleep instead of having a fit about it.  She still sleeps on her side mostly, some on her back, and now sometimes on her tummy.  Maybe I am imagining things, but I feel like her head has rounded out a bit more over the past few weeks since she's been doing this.
*  At her well-child appointment, Dr. Ramsey said that she's a bit behind with her development....specificially her mobility and her verbal.  There isn't anything "wrong" with her, she's just not where most 9-month-olds are in these areas.  If you put her on the floor, she stays exactly where you put her.  She CAN roll but she doesn't.  She does not even try to scoot or move around on her belly at all.  For her verbal, she is not saying enough consonant sounds (she only says "nanana") so we're supposed to be working on that.  I'm also supposed to only put her on her tummy for playtime (no back or sitting) and put her toys out of her reach so she'll try to move to get them.  HA!  She gets SO mad and so far, she only sticks her butt up a little in the air, but she doesn't move anywhere.  She needs to figure out that she can use her arms to help, but she just still stays in the same spot.  We're supposed work on these things and go back at 10 months to re-evaluate.  I'm not worried about it, but it would be nice if she'd start moving more.  As it is, she gets very bored and fussy unless you are constantly giving her toys to play with.  I think she'd be more content to play if she could get to the toys herself. 

*  Her favorite toy is her cow that I have hanging from her carseat handle.  She LOVES this thing and just examines it and stares at it in wonder and amazement, LOL.  She also loves her Fisher Price tea pot, the Baby Einstein music player (I call it the baby iPod), any and all of Caleb's cars, measuring spoons and cups, and pretty much anything small enough to fit right in her hands.

*  She finally started laughing, but it usually takes a lot to get her to really laugh.  She smiles all the time, but she is stingy with her laughs! 

*  I taught her how to give sugars and it is the sweetest thing!  They are big and slobbery and open-mouthed, LOL.

*  She is absolutely terrified of anyone other than Mama or Daddy.  She's been afraid of people for a while, but it's gotten worse over the last month.  She hates being left in the nursery at church and it breaks me heart!  As soon as I hand her over, she starts crying uncontrollably.  They have to put her in one of the baby swings and no one can pick her up or she goes crazy.  She sleeps a lot of the time she's in there.  If she's awake when I go pick her up, she is usually happy in the swing and as soon as one of the workers goes to pick her up, she looses it.  Poor thing!  I hope this goes away soon!
And now for the pictures...

Teething on everything in sight! 
(Caleb put those pink heart stickers on her.  He said he was sharing.)
Having some fun with the puff balls I got from the Target $1 Spot.  These have been a great $1 investment!  Both kids love playing with them.  (found the idea on Pinterest)
That face is too much!
the kiddos with Allie (almost 4) and Garrett (almost 1).  Hmmm....maybe we are looking at two future couples here!  :-)  (these are my childhood friend, Rachael's kids)





trying Puffs for the first time
umm, she did not like them as you can tell!
Playing blocks with brother.  He would build the tower and she would knock it down!
Watching cousins Jake and Luke play baseball for the first time.  Sitting in Aunt Stephanie's lap did not last long, but here is proof that it did happen!
Cousins!  Jake (almost 13), Aubrey (8 mos), Luke (7) and Caleb (2 1/2)
She wasn't crazy about plums!


We see this face a lot when things don't go her way.  She is a little drama queen already!
All better now that she got what she wanted - brother's hammer!
bad lighting here but wanted to show off her two little teeth!
She makes some silly faces
and she loves to play with and chew on Caleb's cars