9 months in, 9 months out!

Nine month stats
Height:  28.25” (75^th percentile)
Weight:  17lbs 6oz (25^th percentile)

I was trying to get a shot of her teeth, but the quality isn't good enough, plus they're still pretty small.
Still cute though!

Hair: Still red, in fact it is pretty much the one thing guaranteed to be commented on, except how cute she is, of course! And how much she looks like her brother... Alright, maybe not the only thing then.

Teeth: I started writing this post a couple weeks ago so all I had to do when we went to the doctor was put in the height and weight stats and post, and this is what I had originally written: “Teeth? What teeth? Where are you teeth?!” Well, things change fast in a baby’s first year! She has since gotten her first two teeth, both on the bottom. One day the first one was there, the next the other popped through. I’m not sure why I was so anxious for her to get teeth because they only lead to one thing - biting!

Eating: She’s an eater, that’s for sure! She is still nursing, and I’m still pumping at work. Luckily, other than on a couple of occasions, I’ve been able to keep up with demand for milk. I say luckily because on those couple of occasions, she basically just won’t drink anything. She lifts her nose at formula… She knows good milk when she tastes it! We have also introduced a good variety of fruits and veggies and she eats them all! Her favorite stuff is anything she can feed herself. She didn’t seem to like avocado that much when I gave it to her smashed up on a spoon, but when I cut it up and put it on her tray… down the hatch!

Sleeping: She goes through spurts with sleeping. She’ll do ok for awhile, only waking up once at about 4:30, then let me put her down right away, then she goes crazy for a few days and wakes up every 45 minutes, or just won’t let me put her down. But the doctor suggested that we cut out the night feeding entirely and let her learn to go to sleep on her own. We tried this last night, and were up and down for about an hour, but… Hopefully she will learn quickly, Nate did!

Moving: She LOVES to move! She is crawling like crazy, pulling up and cruising and even climbing the stairs! She is so fast we really have to keep an eye on her. A couple times I’ve been doing something with Nate and I have to quickly get up to go grab her before she tumbles down the stairs. With her newfound movement she seems to be getting into everything. Her favorite thing is toilet paper! She’s also started shaking her little butt when music is on. Maybe that’s the problem we are having with her sleeping – who wants to sleep when you can MOVE?!

Standing: On top of pulling up and cruising, she has stood up on her own by letting go of things for a few seconds a few times, and has gotten herself into a standing position from leaning over. The first time she did it she was leaning against my legs then just stood up straight without holding onto, or leaning against anything (including me). She started to fall, but caught herself and straightened herself back up. That lasted a few seconds and she plopped down. She’s tried to take steps away from things a couple times without success.

Go Packers!

Babbling: She says "Mama" and "Dada" now. Sometimes she just babbles them, but she does seem to know what they mean. One time it even sounded like she tried to say "brother"! We might have another Bubba on our hands. She has also found her voice in other ways and likes to babble and sing along and screech! 

Signing: She definitely has “more” down, although she is just starting to make it look more like “more” than a clap. She has maybe started signing “all done” as well. Now we need to start on some non-food related signs. And though it’s not an official sign, she has started to wave hi and bye. She also claps sometimes, but we aren’t sure if she’s trying to say she’s hungry (more!) when she does that, or if she’s just clapping or wanting to play patty-cake. Also, the other day at dinner we were asking her where everyone was, and when we got to Grandpa she looked straight at her Grandpa and kind of swung her arm out toward him with a flourish like, “Ta-da! Here he is!”

Nate: Now that she’s moving so much we have some good and some bad in the sibling relationship. He really doesn’t like it when she pulls his puzzles off of the top of their bookcase or chews on his cars, but he’s very good about letting us know when she’s about to start climbing the stairs or turn the volume on the radio WAY up! Sometimes he grabs her legs and tries to pull her away from whatever he doesn’t want her to be doing. But the other night he asked to hold her for the first time in awhile. It’s kind of funny because when you see them together like that they look a lot closer in size than they seem when I’m trying to hold them! And he still wants to give her a hug and a kiss before bed, so I can’t ask for more than that!

I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always

Three and a half!

3&1/2 year stats

Height: 40" (60th percentile)
Weight: 35lbs (50th percentile)

We haven’t noticed too many drastic changes since his birthday, just gradual development. He definitely recognizes numbers now and most of the letters when he’s focusing. “The ABC Song” is the song we sing every time we wash our hands. (Can you imagine how tired I am of that song?!) He was talking to my mom the other night and Peter and I both noticed how in such a short amount of time (it seemed) he went from just chatting at Nonna without her really understanding, to having a full conversation. And she said she could understand all but one thing he was trying to say!

He doesn’t watch Dinosaur Train as much anymore, he kind of jumps around a lot for his before bed "episode." But he’s recently gotten into Richard Scarry and a lot of the LeapFrog shows. He recently brought over both Where the Wild Things Are and Love You Forever  to read for the first time since I forced them on him as a baby. So those are the two new book obsessions. I’m thinking of having him dress up like Max (or a Wild Thing) for Halloween. He still loves his trips to the library with Peter and comes home with a huge pile of books each time! I need to check how old he has to be to get his own card! We’ve also recently started checking out CDs from the library, and right now he’s listening to a Halloween CD. His favorite song is their version of “Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead” from The Wizard of Oz. He’s also just recently become more interested in music in general, which is very fun.

He started “school” (half day preschool three times a week) a few weeks ago and seems to really like it! He doesn't usually tell me much about it, but today he told me all about their Camping themed day including how they got to go in the tent and play with flashlights. That was the most I’ve ever gotten out of him beyond, “we went outside” when I’ve asked him what they did at school. They told us the first week how polite he is because he said "Please" and "Thank you" when asking for more water, but today he had his handkerchief taken away for throwing…. Highs and lows!

Here’s where we stand on things we needed to work on at three:

Potty training: Mostly done! We were all done, but then he started having night time accidents for some reason, sleeping too hard I think. So, now we have him in Easy-Ups only at night. He has had a couple of daytime accidents here and there, but that’s to be expected.

Dressing himself: He has definitely gotten better! He can put his clothes ON no problem, well sometimes he does put them on backwards, but whatever. And he can get off most of his clothes, but still has some trouble with his shirt. He has recently seemed to grasp this a little better. But he does pretty well brushing his teeth, and loves brushing his hair! He always asks, "how do I look?" But the way he says look sounds like nook, so it's kind of cute.

Somehow the sleeves always end up front and back instead of side to side...

Putting toys away: Well, he’s gotten better, but not by choice. I’ve enforced a new rule that he has to put away one thing before he can start playing with another instead of letting him just trash it to clean up on Sunday. This makes ME a little less crazy, at least. We’ve started giving him an allowance for helping clean up his play area and put his laundry away, and he has bought a couple of toys for himself, so that is some incentive!

Fine motor skills: He can put beads on pipe cleaners, but he’s not really super great at coloring. He doesn't seem to care whether or not he actually makes something with the crayons, paint, markers, etc. He has recently started trying to write the letter “N” and he does it, but backwards, and definitely kind of scraggly and all over the place. But, I guess that’s better than nothing. I got him a workbook to practice. We need to get him to hold the writing utensil the right way. BUT, in typical boy fashion he does very well in gross motor skills and has recently learned how to pump on a swing!

Things to continue working on: Fine motor skills, tantrums, recognizing letters and remembering their sounds, using utensils instead of hands

Next stop: 4!!!

I love you a bushel and a peck!

Last year when Nate was on vacation up north with his grandparents, Peter and I celebrated our anniversary by going to brunch then apple picking. This year we went to see Jason Mraz for our anniversary, and made the apple picking a family affair.

We decided to go the same place as last year, Sky Top Orchard, because it is beautiful, has lots of different varieties, a playground and petting zoo for the kids… and was actually letting people pick. I think there was a lot of damage done to the apple crops this year, so a lot of the orchards aren’t even doing self-pick.

Awesome vistas

We packed up the car just in time for Mia’s morning nap and headed to Hendersonville, NC, about an hour and half drive west into the NC mountains. We were getting nervous as we drove because there were some ominous looking clouds in that direction, but we figured we would give it a try because we probably wouldn’t have another opportunity to go this fall. It was still dry when we got there, so we spread out our blanket next to the trees for a picnic lunch.

YUMMY! We had pasta salad, while Mia had carrots.

Daddy-daughter cuddling! (So mommy could finish her lunch!)

After we ate, we headed out into the orchard to pick some apples. Our first stop was Gala apples. Either because of the storm damage, or because the trees were already picked over, Peter had to climb high up into the trees to get the good ones and throw them down to us. I caught most of them! Peter’s aim wasn’t always right on, but I decided not to lunge into the trees with Mia strapped in. She only got hit in the face once – and by my arm, not an apple. Luckily when we got to the Cortlands, they were low enough that he only had to climb a little and could easily hand them down.

Can you see him in there?!

Designated apple catchers!

The Cortlands, from the Galas

We were hoping to pick some Macintosh apples as well, but they were so picked over there were, like, two left in the trees. I think this is because they are the trees closest to the stand, and of course, Mac is a very popular variety of apple. So, we just bought those in the stand.

Thank goodness some nice lady took mercy on us and handed us her cart before someone else could grab it!

Nate definitely got in on the action

Can't wait to get it home!

When we were done picking, we paid for our apples (a bushel and a peck) and took Nate over to play in the playground. It’s pretty cute with a little apple and pumpkin house and some other stuff. Unfortunately, about five minutes after we got there, the downpour came. He tried to convince us to let him play a little longer (he wanted to stay in his house), but we were standing under a tree and didn’t really want to get wet ourselves. So, we grabbed half a dozen of their famous apple cider donuts, a gallon of apple cider and headed home. Just in time for Mia’s afternoon nap!

But I want to play!

No, I do not bribe my children with warm, fresh, apple cider donuts! It just helped.

During other parts of the year you can get things other than apples: grapes, pears, peaches and pumpkins, so we’re debating going back next month for the pumpkins. Either way, we will definitely be making apple picking a fun fall family tradition!