Scarlett :: 8 Months

Since Scarlett is 5 days away from 9 months..... I figured I should finally put the images in here and post it before it's too late and I get way behind. :)

Stats (approx)
Weight- 22 lbs
Height- 29"

Eats
This girl loves her food. She eats solids three times a day, sometimes with an extra snack somewhere in between. She still nurses about every three hours or so as well. We've been broadening her horizons when it comes to the solids by adding Quinoa, Yogurt, and Colby Jack Cheese to the mix. We still do puree's for breakfast and dinner (sometimes breakfast has fruit chunks) and finger food for lunch. She does very well with her fine motor skills to pinch and pick up the finger foods, as long as they aren't too slippery!

Sleep
Needless to say, I am still trying to do night weaning to get her to stop eating at night. We might just have to go cold turkey pretty soon. It's tough letting her cry in the middle of the night. She usually takes a decently long nap mid morning around 10/10:30 and a shorter afternoon nap. Sometimes she takes an evening cat nap, but she's been going to bed around 7 consistently as well, so usually she doesn't need the cat nap. I found her with her pacifier in the other morning so now I know she knows how to put that sucker back in (pun intended).

Activities
She's been practicing standing up, squatting, cruising furniture and balancing without touching anything. Spoiler alert: She took her first steps at 8 months and 1 day. She has done it once since then and it may have been a fluke but we're counting it! She basically doesn't sit still for very long. Always crawling all over the living room, into the kitchen, pulls herself up on everything she can. Loves to play with her diaper box. Climbs on top of it! Whew, it's going to be crazy when she starts to walk!

Other
She hasn't popped any teeth through yet but she is super close. Month 8 is going to be the month of the tooth, for sure! She went to a wedding this month and had a fun time. She doesn't much enjoy clapping but I think she's getting used to it. I tried to take some formal pictures of her and they turned out okay, not sure if i'm going to spring for professional ones or not, baby portraiture is tough. She sat on her first lawn mower this month, it belongs to our awesome neighbors, the Kahns. I'm sure she'll enjoy the mower more when she gets to take rides on it!

We love you, little one. You are the light of our lives, your smile fills us with happiness and our hearts are filled with love for you.

10 Things

I did have version numbers attached to this, but honestly, I don't do it often enough to keep that going. Sorry folks!

But here's 10 things we've had going/i've been thinking about recently!

10 :: I've been working like crazy. Working part time can be hard sometimes because of my workload at work. Things don't slow down just because I have two days off a week. Recently, I've been staying late to finish things. This can be very frustrating/sad because Scarlett goes to bed at 7:00 and one night a couple weeks ago I only got to spend about 45 minutes with her.

9 :: The holidays are coming so fast. I'm so excited! I could write a lot more but there are 8 more things to talk about.

8 :: Pumped that fall TV is back. Mostly for the following shows: Parks & Rec, Modern Family, Revenge, Once Upon a Time, Private Practice, New Girl, Grey's Anatomy.. and I can't think of any others. I did watch most of the pilots for the new shows that will be on. I watched all the "New Normal" episodes and I liked it until they did a whole political one. Keep it light, kids. Politics is not light. I thought they balanced it pretty well though, so that was a plus I guess.

7 :: We're trying to get Scarlett to practice walking and she's doing better at standing still on her own but I'm sure it's a huge learning process and learning to balance like that is probably really tough. Over the weekend she got to witness her buddy Jack walk all around and I think she actually learned something from that. She took a bunch of steps for Alex today unassisted!

6 :: Luckily, Scarlett doesn't have adverse effects when it comes to what's in my breastmilk because I am obsessed with the Hix family's Broccoli salad recipe. I will share it next time I make it.

5 :: I finally found some 12 mo footie pajamas that I have been looking for. I got them at Babies R Us, which feels like they never have sales. I also tried on some shoes for Scarlett but her feet aren't flat enough yet and she likes to curl her toes so I could barely get them on her to try to see if they were the right size.

4 :: This past Sunday we hit up a Pumpkin Patch with friends, it was awesome. Except that Tayden got stung by a bee in the face, it made me want to cry. I'll do a post on this though to show all the fun pictures!!

3 :: Last week felt like it was crazy busy. I am hoping for a more relaxing week this week. I really need to get some pictures of Scarlett printed. I also need to take her for some profesh photos to document this stage of her life since I haven't done that yet. If only it weren't so darn expensive!

2 :: Alex bought me some plants for my office a couple weeks ago. I killed the fern already. :( I forgot to open the blinds so it could get some sunlight over the weekend. Sorry fella!

1 :: I've started making some felt flower headbands from pinterest. They're turning out pretty nice, I must say! Makes me want to make one for everyone and their sister. They're just so darn easy to make! I know you can find tutorials pretty easily on Pinterest. But I might post a little blurb about it on here for the non-pinterest peeps (i would say mom, but she just got it! the app for the ipad is killer!).

That's all folks!

A Day in my Life

I'm over at The Domestic Wannabe today talking about a day in my life!

Check it out!!

Scarlett's Alphabet Book

I got a free 8x8, 20 page photobook coupon for being a member of Zulilly, so I figured I would share this on here since not everyone will see it in person. 

It was fun to make, kind of difficult to think of images for the letters but it turned out well. The inspiration was from Pinterest and also Amy, from A Good Life Blog.

Enjoy the following images. :)

X was basically impossible, so I took Alex's suggestion of using a word that contained the letter instead. I am so excited to see this in print!!

iPhone Photo Adventures

This was last weekend in pictures!

1. Scarlett recreating a photo I took of her cousin Makayla around the same age

2. Ethiopian with the Ney Family.. meeting Isaac for the first time!

3. She loved watching him, giggling, etc. Isaac is super handsome!

4. Just relaxing, reading a book at the restaurant, refusing to sit in the high chair

5. The grub. Addisu is the spot. Hit it up if you're looking for local yet authentic cuisine.

6. Watching the parade in front of our house

7. The classic cards were cool, plus everyone threw candy at us, Score!

8. Barnstormers game picture with Makayla. It was chilly in the shade.. brrr!

9. Picture with Aunt Jessica, gorgeous gals!

10. Sunday morning walking practice. She made it to the exersaucer!

11. Just lounging, drinking some water.

12. My first attempts at felt flowers. Moving onto more designs soon!

Hope you had a nice weekend as well!

Lately

Just a couple of notes of what we've been up to lately..

..we finished watching LOST on Netflix. Call me crazy but I actually liked the ending. Just in time for fall shows to start up soon! Yippee!

..I've been stroller striding twice a week (as long as my schedule allows) since the beginning of August and it feels good to get out there and work out. Not to mention the ladies there are super nice and I'm the kind of work out girl that needs other people around doing the same thing I am to motivate me (or pressure me) into keeping up.

..Alex and I keep meaning to start this 5k training app I have on my phone, but things keep getting in the way after work. For some reason we are just fighting the whole 'establish a routine' thing.

..Weekends have been relaxing recently and it's been lovely to say the least. As the weather cools down we have some ideas of how to enjoy the fall, such as apple picking and pumpkin patch visiting.

..Scarlett is pulling herself up on everything and perfecting her crawl. She just started letting go of things to balance for a couple seconds before sitting down, so there's that..

..We just bought a bunch of gates from Alex's coworker and now we just need to figure out how to install them. We're actually thinking of turning the 'eat in kitchen' area beside the kitchen into a little play area that Scarlett can go wild in.

..Volleyball is going to start in a couple of weeks and I'm pretty pumped to be able to play the full season this time (last year I was pregnant and played half the season). Alex is playing Tennis this year as well. He started last week and is really enjoying it so far.

..I'm trying to figure out the best way to keep track of all the baby food we have in the freezer. I currently just have a running list but I feel like there has to be a better way.

..I really want to take a trip to Ikea, but that's a dangerous venture because I really don't need anything. Plus I've been thinking about christmas far too often and have updated my Amazon Wish List and started a Gift List for Scarlett to try to put all my ideas for her in one place.

..I think Scarlett needs shoes. And some fall clothing...... uh oh!

That's probably enough. I'm sure I could go on and on and on but I won't!!

Tough Love pt 2

Well after researching this every single night, I finally found a website that explains everything, and I do mean everything, that I was looking for.

Most of the questions I had were related to how to interact with her after the initial cry it out session. Should I nurse her if she wakes up? Should I even go in and soothe her if it will just make her mad again?

Over the past five nights, she's consistently awakening at 2:30am (last night was a bugger bc she was up more, which we later suspected was a dirty diaper, boo!) and I figured it was because she was hungry but my previous reading and the even the doctor at our last appointment and my own personal opinions made me feel like, she got enough food during the day, she doesn't need to eat at night. I didn't even think about trying to wean her off of night feedings until reading this website that I was reading last night (at 2:00am) and today during my lunch break.

About a million light bulbs flashed in my head about 20 minutes ago. Bringo! I get it now. I am going to start weaning her off of night feedings instead of unintentionally trying to have her go cold turkey. Miss Scarlett is an eater.. I should've known that she wouldn't give up her early morning snacks so easily.

I just wanted to come in and update on this subject and perhaps also point out that "Tough Love" is probably not the most appropriate title. I understand now that crying it out has a point and she learned how to put herself to sleep at bedtime (not without a min or two of crying but it's still a success). It's not an end all excuse to let her cry all night long if she wakes up. Babies have needs and I apologized to Scarlett for missing her cues of hunger (and that dirty dipe, she never poo's at night.. sheesh!). And I told her I wouldn't ignore her cues anymore and that we will be working on sleeping through the night over the next couple of weeks until her she is weaned from eating at night. I hope she understood what I said but who knows! :)

Anyway, Happy Monday to those of you who are reading!

Also, Edited to Add... I'm a total twit for not mentioning the website I was reading! It was TroublesomeTots .. Praise praise praise :)