Ten Months!

Stats:
16.1 Lbs - 4th Percentile
27 Inches long - 17th Percentile
17.6 Inches Head Circumference- 60th Percentile

Our baby girl is now 10 months old. This has been the hardest month for me to accept. Maybe because its a double digit number or just that its only 2 months until Lola turns 1 year and it seems so much closer than it did last month. I don't want my baby turning one because then she wont (technically) be a baby anymore and people and Doctors will refer to her as a Toddler. That will make me really sad... She is finally growing (height wise that is) and so she seems bigger to me all of the sudden. Plus, shes accomplishing new things just about everyday now. Soon I wont be able to keep up with all her new developments but for now, I try to take note of every(little)thing. Some of Lola's accomplishments from last month are:

Learning to crawl! She went from nothing, to getting up on her hands and knees, to full on crawling all in about one weeks time. I honestly thought she would never learn to crawl and even her Dr had said she might just skip it all together, so we definitely werent expecting it! And she is already cruising around like a pro :) She can get from one end of the house to the other in under a minute and just as I dreaded, she is everywhere all the time and getting too quick for me to ever leave her in one spot anymore! We bought a baby gate for the top of our stairs and thought we had at least another month or longer before having to buy one for the bottom but just 2 days ago, I walked away for a few minutes only to come back and find that Lola had crawled up 4 stairs all by herself! So, we put up the second gate yesterday. As well as 'baby proofed' the entire house last week. This is a Yay and Grr time for me right now... I love that she is growing and learning and becoming independent but Im sad about it being too fast and Im trying to (happily) accept that she is going to be into everything all the time now until she is like 2 or 3. I was really hoping she would just stay 8 months old forever. Agh! Do any of you other moms feel like this with your babies?!?

Pulling herself up onto furniture. Shes been trying for almost 2 months now, but just this week shes learned to get all the way up to standing and as I mentioned above, she can now climb stairs!

In the last month, Lola has cut her 2 upper central teeth, her left lateral incisor and any day now will be cutting her right lateral incisor. That's 6 teeth (4 this month) total! They're definitely cute, but yet another reminder of how big my little baby is getting :) She has been pretty crabby this past week or so and I pray that after this next tooth cuts through, shell get a break before her lower incisors come. I miss my always smiley, happy baby.

Her favorite thing right now is playing peekaboo. She loves to put her blanket, shirt, bib, or anything really, over her face and just sit there while you say "Wheres Lola?" and then she pulls it down and grins like crazy when you say "There she is!" It is so cute and one of these days Ill try to get it on camera for you all to see :) Other things she loves to do lately are pull her Momma's hair every chance she gets and fighting having her diapers changed. Trying to change dirty #2s without getting it on myself or the surrounding area is quite the challenge these days and who knew our little peanut could be so strong?!

Lola is completely on the bottle now and slowly weaning from baby food to table food. Im pretty sure she could give up the jarred food today and never look back, but again, its another thing that Im not quite ready to let go of yet. Am I totally weird and lame? Probably, but I cant help it...

So thats whats new with our Lola Viola (as her Daddy likes to call her). Only 2 more posts left with pictures of her in her rocker with her pink stuffed Giraffe and then she will be 1 year old!!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

from our little lucky charmers!

Somebody was crabby today. She is cutting her 6th tooth any minute now and is not a happy camper about it. Nor did she like having to pose for this lame photo op in matching shirts that celebrate the most unnecessary holiday ever :)

You've got to love Brooklyn's face! She can pull the cheesiest smiles of anyone I know (especially when there's a bribe for candy involved) :)

Update And Pictures

We have successfully moved into our new house in East Salt Lake (Canyon Rim/East Millcreek for those more familiar with the SL area). Its an older home that was completely remodeled just this last year. We'll be having a new front and back yard put in next month, as well as some updates and painting of the outside of the home. We love the house and have already met many friendly neighbors who have made us feel very welcome with visits, treats, and flowers these last couple of weeks. We've been busy unpacking and decorating and also had Lola's nursery painted PINK this weekend! There is still more to be done, as well as more decorating, but as soon as things look more presentable, I will post some pictures of our new place!

Also, this last week, we took Lola to Primary Children's Hospital for testing on her heart murmur. The first test was an EKG and the second was an Echocardiogram of the heart. The results were positive! While she does have VSD (two tiny holes in her heart wall), they are small enough and far enough away from any valves, that they are expected to close on their own and not be cause for any physical problems to Lola in the future. We were thrilled to have the Doctors assure as that everything is A-OK and that Lola is still considered a very healthy baby. We will need to go back once a year to watch the holes but we are very lucky that this is a somewhat minor and fairly common medical condition and that our Lola will be able to continue to grow to be a healthy and active little princess :)

Lola turned 10 months yesterday! We have an appointment with her pediatrician tomorrow and after then, Ill post her 1o month pics and stats. For now, here are some pictures of our little bathing beauty :)

Evidence that the newborn-toddler bathtub has gotten too small for our 'all over the place' baby!

C is for...

CRAWLING!!!

I am sooooooo proud of my Lola!! What a big girl! I know that she's going to be into everything soon and harder to keep an eye on and in the coming days and weeks Ill wish she had never learned how to crawl, but today, I cant help being the proudest Momma :)

Nine Months!

Our Lola is nine Months old. Seriously?! But what is even more crazy to think, is that in just 3 short months my brand new baby will be a whole year old!!! I honestly can not believe how fast these 9 months have flown by. WAY too fast!! We went to the Doctors this week to get her second round of flu shots and also weighed and measured while there. At 15. 11 lbs and 26 1/4 inches she is in the 4th percentile for weight and 8th percentile for height. Still a tiny, tiny girl but the Dr said she is a very healthy and happy baby! Like every month, Lola is continuing to grow and learn everyday- getting even cuter and smarter too. This past month some of the things Lola has been up to are:

Creeping!!!! She can finally get on her hands and knees from a sitting position but then doesnt know what to do from there. She either lets go with her hands and face plants it into the floor or just rolls back over to sitting again. While she cant get around by crawling just yet, she rolls like a pro. She will be on one side of the room and 1/2 a minute later has rolled all the way across and under the kitchen table. She is definitely going to be trouble when she actually learns to crawl and even more so when shes walking!! That is one thing that I pray she puts off learning until Kindergarten!

Giving Loves (open mouth, with a little tongue-kisses) to Mommy, Daddy, her baby doll Mary, and her image in the mirror. It is the cutest thing ever. It is so sweet and I cant describe how in love I feel whenever she gives me loves all on her own!

Learned how to put her binky in by herself. Finally! And she is now starting to take other brands besides the MAM ones, which makes me happy because I bought way too many fashion binkies before she was born that I worried she'd never use.

She is starting to share- handing objects to either Daddy or I to see and then holds her hand out when she wants it back.

Learning the word NO and does not like it!! She whines and kicks her legs when she has something she shouldnt and it gets taken away. Weve learned to give her another toy/object before we take the other to avoid any tiny tantrums! Only 9 months old and already she thinks that the song "Whatever Lola wants (Lola gets)" was written specifically for her :)

She loves her touch and feel books and can find the spots to touch/feel on her own. She has memorized them and gets so excited when I get those books out. She gets her fingers ready and smiles so big and kicks her little legs. I love story time with her!

She loves to bang things together to see what happens and listen to the sounds they make when she does. She also loves to try and rip things apart. Not sure why but its cute. She holds them over her head and pulls with both hands and makes this face like shes trying her hardest to tear it in half. Pretty funny to see.

She is playing by herself a lot better now. She can go about 10 minutes sometimes before she worries about where I am. It is so nice to be able to let her play while I do chores rather than before when I was having to take her into every room that I needed to be in just so she could see me and wouldnt cry :)

And her biggest accomplishment this last month has been weaning onto the bottle!! Last month we tried introducing one (again and again) and she was starting to drink 2-3 ounces before she would push it away and want to nurse instead. About 2 weeks ago, she decided, on her own, that she wasnt into breastfeeding anymore. Whether she decided she was too busy for it or just lost patience with it, I dont know, but one day she started refusing to nurse and then when she got hungry enough she just took a bottle. Ever since then, she has been taking bottles for nearly every feeding (she still nurses for her last feeding in the evening and also if she she wakes up during the night). In the beginning, she could only drink 3 ounces, but now she can take in 5-6 and at first, she would only take one from me, but has since warmed up to Daddy, and taken a few from him now too. I am so proud of her finally being willing to accept the bottle. When she was born, I had made a goal to nurse exclusively for the first 9 months and only give her a bottle every once in a while so Dad could do a few of the night feedings and we could have babysitters every so often. But Lola proved to dislike bottles from the very beginning and it has been the biggest struggle these last few months. But now that we have made it to 9 months of EBF, I couldnt be happier that she is now willing to take a bottle during the day and still nurse with me at night. I really enjoy being able to hold her close and snuggle for those few minutes- if you know Lola, she is so NOT a snuggle-er. She is way to busy and preoccupied checking everything out to be wasting time cuddling-so much like her father and sister with the ADD! Haha. Im surprised she even breastfed as long she did because of how much she does not like to sit still :) Im planning to nurse her at night for as long as I can or until she is 1 year. I am not looking forward to the complete weaning process and even less excited about what will become of my breasts after that. Already they are no longer the sexy, perky breasts I knew in my pre-baby days... Sigh... But I guess I cant really complain too much about my sad, deflated friends because I never got one stretch mark during my pregnancy and was able to lose all the weight I had gained during by the time Lola was 2 and 1/2 months old (thanks to breastfeeding as my exercise)! And its nothing a little push-up bra cant camouflage, right?!

Other news this month- we are moving! We have found a great house in East Salt Lake that is closer to Brooklyn and many of our family and friends and are very excited to make it a wonderful home for our family. It has been a loooong few months of not getting to see Brooklyn nearly as often as before and we cant wait to be close enough to spend more time with her again! We are moving next weekend and for the next couple of weeks will be busy packing, moving, unpacking, painting, and getting settled in our new place. I will try to update the blog in the meantime so you dont have Lola withdrawls (Brittany) :)

♥♥ Happy Love Day ♥♥

I LOVE that I get to wake up to this face on Valentines!Momma's Valentine sweetheart

Is it noticeable that she rubbed off some of her hair in her sleep last night?!? She now has this huge chunk of hair that is too short to lay flat. Ha!Dressed up for her first Valentines Day. Isnt she adorable?! I surprised Luke, Friday when he got home from work, with Sugar cookies (his favorite) that I baked and frosted just for him. Today, he let me sleep in and I woke up to beautiful red Tulips and pancakes. Im excited to spend the long weekend with my handsome husband and very excited to see what the rest of the day (that he planned on his own) will entail... :)

Hope you all have a fantastic Valentines Day with your loved ones!