A little adult time

This past Saturday I slipped out of the house *alone*. Gasp! I had been invited to a baby shower to celebrate the impending arrival of Maggie and Sam's sweet baby boy. Since the shower was being held in West Seattle, a ferry ride away, we decided that I'd get a day out and Jeff would get some daddy/daughter time with Tara.

I wore a dress and nice shoes (and a real bra!) Sorry if you didn't want to know that, but I'm still giddy over it, so tough! I took a purse, instead of the baby bag, and didn't have a single baby related item in it. I got to meet lovely new people, eat some amazing food, and got to ooh and ah over how beautiful my friend is. Just 3 weeks away from her due date, she makes pregnancy look good!

It was nice to have some adult time while cooing over new baby things. Even though Tara is just 9 months old, there's just something extra special about buying gifts for a new baby. I can't wait to meet little Evan!

9 months

Dear Tara,

You are 9 months old! You now weigh 19lbs 8oz and are a whopping 29 inches long! You're tall for your age, but that doesn't come as much of a surprise to us. Your parents aren't exactly on the short side.

You are bursting at the seams with new developments. Two weeks ago you realized that you could move with a purpose and started butt scooting to get around. It's ridiculously cute, but it means that we have to watch you like a hawk now. We've run around the house, baby proofing and moving everything out of your eager little reach. You are also trying very, very hard to crawl. You lean forward from a sitting position until you're on your hand and knees and start rocking. You can't quite get past your feet, but you get stronger every day and I'm sure that you'll be zooming around the house in no time.

Last Friday was the day you turned 9 months. It was also the day that I discovered your very first tooth poking through. Both of your bottom front teeth are coming in and you are surprisingly cool with it. I'm cool with that. It's nice to not deal with the typical teething madness. I'm going to miss your sweet, gummy, no teeth smile, though. I'll miss it very much.

You also have an ear infection, an cold, and a tummy bug right now, which you are also strangely cool with. I swear kid, you're so happy every day. This is such a huge change from the baby that you were the first few months of your life that it's sometimes hard to remember those times.

You started going to daycare 1 day a week. I do not consider it a coincidence that illness has suddenly descended on this house. But you seem to really enjoy your time there, mostly because you're such a social baby and enjoy playing with the other kids. We continue to go to swim lessons twice a week and once a week to story time at the library. You're a kid on the go!

I feel like I had more to say, but it's getting late and I should be getting to bed. You'll wake up yelling for me soon enough. I fear you've given me the yuck, as well. So I'll wrap this up here. Love you baby girl. Feel better soon, ok?

Love,

Momma

Happy Valentine's Day!

Did you snuggle your sweetie today?

8 months

Two-thirds of a year! It's hard to believe.

Right now, you are sleeping. You just went down for your first nap of the day. You're snuggled on your side with your blanket cuddled around you and your lullaby puppy near your face. You adore your lullaby scout puppy. These pictures were not taken today, but this is pretty much what I see when I peak into your room right now.

You probably will not give me the chance to finish this entry this morning. You typically only sleep for a brief 30 minutes. You need more sleep than that, but perhaps you're just unwilling to let the day slip past you. There is too much trouble to get into!

I find that I have a harder time thinking of your new milestones and accomplishments now that you're growing older, mostly because I've grown accustomed to seeing something new and wonderful every day. When you were smaller, something new really stood out. Now you slip new tricks in all the time.

You can roll over, officially. On Jan 17th I finally saw you roll from your back to your belly! I know you could do that before then, since Dad found you on your belly in the crib once, but that was the day I finally saw it. Since then, you seem to have forgotten that you can roll back the other way. We've had to rescue you from time to time, since you act like a turtle on his back when you accidentally flip onto your belly. I am happy to see that you are comfortable spending more and more time that way, but still not signs of any forward movement. Instead, you seem to have taken up baby yoga. You like to bend all the way forward from a sitting position and kiss your toes or the floor. It's hilarious (and a little yucky!).

You have begun to wave and clap, which you seem very proud of, and have really increased your interaction with the people around you. You babble all the time. This week you're back on the "M" sounds, which means lots of ma-ma-ma-mas to make me happy. Today you seem to be practicing your volume control, mostly trying to find the upper limit. I blame your toy remote control for planting this idea.

You and I suddenly have a very busy schedule. On Mondays you come with me to work for a few hours. On Tuesday and Thursday you have swim lessons, which you seem to enjoy. At 8 months old you can do something I still, at 30, cannot: you can go under the water without plugging your nose. I sincerely hope that starting swim lessons early will allow you to share my love of water and will foster strong swimming skills. We also continue to go to reading hour at the library every Wednesday. We've been going since you were 4 months or so and you adore it. I think you really like the songs and activities, but mostly enjoy all the other babies there to play with.

You've taken great leaps and bounds when it comes to food. You were not very interested in food at first. Now, you eat pretty much everything we give you (except peas). You have mastered picking food up and getting it into your mouth and therefore no longer like to be fed from a spoon. You'd rather do it yourself, so we give you lots of little finger foods to keep you happy. The do-it-yourself technique does have the downside of making meals very, very messy. But that's all part of the learning process!

Lastly, you have hair!

You make me smile each and every day. I love you baby girl.

Love,

Mom

Cuteness and giggles

I have some adorable pictures of Tara coming soon, but to keep you all entertained in the mean time, I leave you with these. Please excuse the poor cell phone video quality and instead, only focus on the super cuteness.

Christmas memories

 

 

 

7 months and a new year!

Dear Tara,

You're 7 months old now! You turned 7 months on January 1st, the first day of 2013. I find it very hard to believe that we've already left the year you were born behind.

On New Year's Eve, you seemed to know something was up. We spent the evening with friends playing card games. Daddy and I decided that we'd let you make the call as to when to head home. We figured you'd start to get fussy when it was time for bed, but you must have been enjoying the company. You stayed sweet - and awake!- until after 11pm. You almost made it to midnight!

I feel the need to point out that New Year's Eve is a treat, not the norm. I say this because since then you seem to want to move your bedtime to 10pm. Mom and Dad go to bed at 10pm, not you. You, little one, need to be in bed sooner than that. We love spending time with you, don't get us wrong, but we need a little down time at the end of the day. Mama is tired!

In the past month we've seen more event firsts with you, rather than development firsts. December is probably my favorite month, because I love Christmas. I can safely say that Christmas was completely different and wonderful in so many ways, now that you were here to share it with us. We took you out to the tree farm and wandered around until we found just the right tree. This is how Christmas always starts. Mom wanders and wanders, hunting for the right tree, and Dad humors me (until it gets too cold!). Then we took you to meet Santa, who was thrilled to meet you and said you were the best baby he'd met all day. We took you to see some beautiful displays of Christmas lights. I think you liked that. Then we got to one of the best parts of Christmas: the food! On Christmas Eve we joined friends for a lovely dinner. You got to try turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, and homemade cranberry sauce. You mushed it all into a big ball and spread it all over the highchair, your arms, your face, and some ever made it into your mouth! You really seemed to like the cranberries.

Christmas was spent with just Mom and Dad. You received lots of lovely gifts from family and friends. You like all the new toys you received and still play with everything pretty much every day. I know you didn't really understand Christmas this year, but you did have fun and I absolutely loved seeing Christmas through your eyes. Having you here made me feel like a kid again myself.

While you haven't shown us many new tricks this month, I think you've got a number in the works. You try hard to sit up on your own when you are lying down. With all those crunches, you've got to have better abs than I do right now. You may also be thinking about crawling. Just today you laid down onto your tummy twice, all by yourself, and stayed there without complaint for longer than I've ever seen. One area that is developing is your hair! It's getting much thicker and a little longer.

I have a feeling that 2013 is going to be a great year. You have so many more firsts coming this year, like your first crawl, first steps, first words, and first birthday. We have so much fun ahead of us! I can't wait.

Love,

Mom

Happy New Year everybody!!