Monday, August 6, 2012

Eloise Jayden: 9 Months Old

Took Eloise's 9-month photos yesterday after her nap! I can't believe our girl is 9 months old, and way too close to being a 1-year-old. It makes my heart cringe just a little bit to think about her growing up so fast. But it's so fun to see her learn and to see her personality develop.

New things this month:

*CRAWLING! Our girl started scooting right around 8 months, and then less than 2 weeks later, she was up on her hands and knees. Just shuffling at first, and now getting anywhere she wants to go. Our house has gotten considerably messier ever since, and we are constantly tripping over her little discoveries. We're just glad she learned to crawl - we were a little worried that her head was going to weigh her down too much :)

*Saying "mamamamamama" over and over again, all day long. Can't figure out if she means "more," "mama" or if it's her disgruntled plea.  If she's saying mama, I'm more than a little wooed.

*Our happy little girl has turned into quite the grumple-stinky-pants ever since learning to crawl. Not sure what's going on, still, but she cries all day, has a hard time sleeping for naps (although that's not THAT uncommon for her), and doesn't want to have you out of her sight. We think it's a combination of being able to get to us wherever we are and wanting to always be involved in whatever we're doing, physical exhaustion (crawling is hard work!), teething (possibly getting a few more teeth on the bottom/top), separation anxiety (round 10 thousand of that), and not getting enough to eat (she has stopped wanting to eat baby food, but we haven't found enough 'real food' for her to eat; also, we're still nursing full-time, and I don't think my body is making enough to meet her needs). PHEW! Poor girl. All of this combined has led to her waking up at 5:30 in the morning for almost 3 weeks now, but is too tired to stay up, and that's thrown off our eating and napping routines. Again, poor girl (and poor us) -- we're all beyond tired these days. Takes us back to her newborn colicky months.

Her favorites things are:
*books. and more books. and even more books. She has stacks of books around the house, and loves to sit and flip through them.
*baths. She graduated to the big bath tub this month! And loves the freedom. We're still trying not to have too overprotective of hands
*water. Loves running water, pouring water, stagnant water, the sound of water, raining water.
*playing in her little outdoor pool. When it's not too hot or bright.
*sitting under her jumperoo (I call it her little fort). She brings toys under there and just chatters to herself while she plays
*un-organizing things. She can't stand it when blocks are stacked, toys are put in bins, books are piled up, her Noah's Ark is loaded with its animals, these suctioned bath leaves are on the bath wall, her nesting cups are stacked or nested, taking the DVDs off the tower, etc. She loves knocking things over, emptying them, and making sure there's at least one crazy mess in our house :)
*seeing other babies. She loves making faces at them, watching them, touching their toes, and stealing their toys. Luckily, she hasn't been too mean to any kids yet.
*pulling my hair. AL.WAYS. If my hair isn't accessible when we start nursing, she won't nurse. She loves eating it, running her fingers through it, making it a rat's nest, and yanking it back and forth. We're working on the idea of "that hurts" and "be gentle". Sometimes it's soothing, until it's not and it hurts. But it's kind of sweet (as long as it doesn't turn in to a weird obsession when she's older, right?)
*She still loves being outside, but we've done hardly any of that this summer. We both are going a little stir-crazy, because we used to go outside a couple times a day, go for walks/runs, play on the porch, go to parks - but it's too unbelievably hot and humid to do anything but go from one AC'ed place to the next. We both miss it, a lot.
*watching the Olympics! London 2012!
*Snuggling with people other than us. She keeps giving her snuggles to other people, and it makes us so sad!
*Drinking. Milk, water, apple juice. From her sippy, our cups, Camelbak water bottles, trying to pick water up in her hand from her pool/bathtub/sink (somehow it doesn't work?). She would drink ALL DAY LONG if we let her.
*Gerber Puffs. And crunchies. And yogurt drops. And the homemade teething biscuits I made for her.
*Being barefoot, bare-bottomed, bare-chested. She loves being naked!
 *Dylan coming home every day. She gets SO excited to see him come through the door, and is starting to recognize the sound of the door opening and what that means.
*Her tongue! Always out. Always.

Least favorite things:
*Diaper changes (ever since crawling) - she just doesn't want to be held down!
*Getting dressed (same thing as diaper changes)
*Getting in to her car seat (but usually just when she's tired - otherwise, she's okay)
*Going down for naps. Hasn't "gotten used to it" yet - that doesn't work for all babies, people.

Not sure what her height and weight are. We have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, so we'll see! She's growing every day, though, so I'm sure she has gained a lot in the last couple months :)

We sure love our little firecracker girl. She keeps me on my toes all day, but I love her to the moon and back.

Quite at her leisure

hahahaha

Blurry, but I had to include it. Too cute!

"Ka-pshhhh"


Interpretation: "No, I will NOT sit still! Ugh!"

Crawling proof!

Her bear + Dadda = trying to get smiles = success


Silly laughing face

One of my favorites


LOVE it!

Another fave

Silly girl. That tongue goes everywhere with her

Silly stinker

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Our little girly girl

I snapped these photos of Eloise and Dylan really quickly before we went to a wedding reception last month. I love how girly this little outfit is (thank you, Granny!)




Thursday, August 2, 2012

4th of July

Our 4th of July here in Greenville wasn't all that spectacular, mostly because it was WAY too hot to do anything outside. They had some booths and stuff downtown, but we mostly just spent time together at home, ran errands, kept Eloise's naps going strong, and went to a friend's house for the tail end of their bbq (or cookout, as they call it in the south - weird). We did end up going downtown to the park to watch the city's fireworks show, but sweated it out the whole time (it doesn't cool down here at night...at all). I've gotta say, I didn't realize how good we had it in Provo for the 4th. Utah knows how to do this holiday WELL (the street fair for days, huge fireworks shows, parades, bbq's at every corner, snow cone shacks everywhere, stadium concert/fireworks...sigh. Some day I'll be back in Provo for the 4th.)
We took these pictures while we were waiting for the fireworks and watching them.

Our friend, Meg, took this. I love having family pictures!

Dylan: "Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo!"

Awesome face, Dyl. And Eloise couldn't have cared less about the fireworks. Her interest lasted all of 2 minutes, then she just wanted to play. Guess being up 2+ hours past your bedtime makes you less engaged in life?

Hahaha. Love this face.

Camera malfunctions due to it being pitch black outside, but still a fun/funny picture of us

West Coast Trip: California!

Yes, I am FINALLY getting around to posting pictures from our time in California. We got back a little over a month ago, but it feels like months and months - we miss it, a lot. We miss Dylan's family, and seeing the ocean every day, and hearing the waves crashing, and non-North Carolina-type things (In'n'Out, Cafe Rio, Rainbow Sandal outlet, super Target, sidewalks to go for walks on, cooler weather, etc. etc.)

I look forward to this week all year, and even though there are lots of tough parts about staying in a gritty beach house with 20 other people and your little baby, come on, you're still staying ON THE BEACH, running water and showers, and real beds to sleep in! And, the place we stay is an old nuns' retreat and has photos of the nuns on the sand and stuff all over. Oh, and there are gargoyles/demons? painted over the fireplace. Awesome.

Anyway, I took lots of picture on...one day there. I posted a bunch of Instagram pics to Facebook while we were there, so these are just my big camera photos.

Dadda and the Wheeze, ready to play!


Eloise and her Uncle Alec and cousin Chloe


Aren't the boys' faces in this one PRICELESS??


She LOVED the water, way more than I anticipated. She did not care about the NC beach we took her to a week or two before this, but wanted to be in the water all day, every day here

With Uncle Phil!!

With Uncle Quinton!!

Randi and Chloe

Getting soothed by Gigi (Grandma Pat)

Oh, a different day/different swim suit! I guess I took the camera out more than once, after all. She LOVED the sand, too. And surprisingly didn't try to eat it (well, there was that one time, but one lick and she never tried again.) Thank goodness! No sandy poop!


Favorite photo of her. My little model

It was Chloe's birthday while we were there, so she got to go swimming in her birthday suit :)



Oh, and Eloise's Uki-Monster (grandpa) got the girls matching Yankees dresses, so they had a dance party to show them off. Even though I am an avid Yankees-hater, I still think this was pretty darn cute
Can't wait for next year!! I'm already dreaming of it. Thank you Ann and Ken and LaVell and Pat and everyone for making it happen. We love you guys so much, and loved the time we got to spend with you.