11 months

Let the record show, I wrote this post last week, on time, but when we went to take Emily's photos on Sunday, it was TANTRUM CITY. Her gums are REALLY swollen on the bottom right side, so I think a molar is in the works. Awesome. Seriously, this child is going to have all her teeth by her first birthday. Anyway, no pictures yet. Hopefully she is feeling better and a little more cooperative this weekend. Stay tuned for those and the million Halloween pictures I took of her on Sunday. I haven't had a chance to pull them off the camera yet.

Doesn't that just blow your mind. I mean, I know I say it every month, but it is so crazy how fast the days are flying by. And with each passing day, Emily surprises us with something new. We were playing at a friend's house yesterday. They have a little girl who is 2 months younger than Emily. Vaeda woke up from her nap and when her dad was bringing her downstairs, Em ran over and said "Hi Baby." Clear as day. It completely melted my heart. She gave Vaeda hugs, she played with her other friends Ella and Addison, and overall she was in the best mood. She talked to everyone, she wasn't shy, she was just this tiny, independent little girl and I was so proud to say that I am her mommy (because we all know she doesn't say it ;) )Here is what Emily is up too...I am sure this is REALLY boring to most, but this blog serves as my baby book and with out, I would NEVER remember anything.

*She weighs 18.6 lbs. I took her to the doctor this week because she had a bad cough. Just a cold.
*She will officially be on whole milk completely on Tuesday. The transition was a breeze. She never had any problems at all. She dropped her afternoon bottle/sippy pretty much last week at daycare, but makes up for it by drinking a lot of milk with dinner and a smaller bottle before bed.
*She says the following words clear as day but she babbles constantly.
Dada
Daddy
Dog
Doggie
Hi
Baby
Jesse-I have never heard this, but was told she says it a lot at daycare. there is a little boy named Jesse there, and her friend Jessinia.
*She loves giving her animals (stuffed and live) hugs
*She walks (very fast) everywhere.
*Emily had her first sips of juice this month, but it was only because the whole milk has been stopping her up a little bit and we needed a quick fix to give her some relief. From now on we plan to include more fiber rich foods in her diet to keep things moving. I just don't want her to have unnecessary added sugar just yet. Down the road maybe, but for now we are trying to keep it as nutritious as possible.
*She LOVES water. LOVES.
*She is mostly on solid foods/snacks with the exception of her two bottles. We will start phasing out the bottle in the morning and replacing it with a sippy probably next week and will work on phasing out the night bottle 2 weeks after that with the goal of having her off bottles at a year.
*She is an amazing eater. We offer her a large variety of foods at home and she will let us know what she does and does not like.
*She is a peanut. She still wears size 3 diapers, 9 (6-9)month pants, 9 month tops-although they are getting a little short so we are moving up to 12 (9-12) now. She is between a size 2 and 3 shoe.
*She is an AMAZING sleeper. Feel free to pinch me next time you see me out of sheer jealousy. She loves her sleep, she always has. She will sleep from 7-7:30 pm to 8-8:30am if we didn't wake her up for school. And we don't on the weekends, so it sure is nice to sleep in a bit and shower before she is up for the day. As for naps, she still is doing 2 naps a day at daycare. They are just short ones. I am hoping in the 1 year old room, she will start to nap a little better because all the babies will be asleep at once and there won't be a lot of noise to wake her, but we will see. This weekend we experimented with one nap and she has done great. Sleeping from 11:30-about 2 everyday since Friday.
*When she is awake, she keeps us on our toes. She loves to play in her playroom and chasing her daddy around the living room.
*She is just a good baby. She is rarely cranky. She is very attentive and really listens to what we say, but she LOVES to push her limits.
*She officially has 8 teeth. They have been breaking through for a while and I have been awful at really keeping track when each popped through, but she now has 4 on top and 4 on bottom. I even think one of her molars is going to come in soon. Her gum looks pretty swollen.

Chatty Cathy

Emily has been very vocal lately. She is just babble city and I love to hear her little voice try to articulate words. She has started to mimic words we say to her, and on several occasions she uses the word to correctly associate it with an object. It started with "dog" (pronounced duh) and now she will say "doggie." She is really into add "ie" or "y" to words now. More recently she really started associating "dada" or "daddy" to Zig. Before she just babbled dada, but now if you say "Where's Daddy?" She will look around for him. It just melts my heart when she says it. I love it. Still no mama. It will come with time. Other words she says are "Hi", "Yeah", and "baby." It is really amazing to see how much she has learned in the last few weeks. And how good she has gotten at walking around. Here are two videos showing off these skills. It was right before bed time, so she is a little fussy. I love when Zig sings "E I E I O" to her and she almost tries to mimic it back. She is a sponge these days. Oh and our other favorite thing to do these days is try to get her to fake laugh. If she starts to get fussy, we will laugh to her (not at her ;) ) and she will start laughing back. It's a total fake laugh, not the belly laughs that she gives us when she really laughs, but she thinks it is so funny. I will try and get that on video too. ::Rambling over::

Birthday Planning ::DIES::

It is NOT possible that my squisy tiny baby is going to be 1 year old in a month. It just hit me as I ordered her birthday gift from Daddy and I.

Cute huh? These little chairs get great reviews. Everyone I have talked to that has them, say their kids love them! I can't wait for it to get here and it will look so good in the playroom.

As for a theme, we are going for a girlie monkey theme. I already found the invitations on etsy and we will have hot pink, orange and brown accents. I am going to attempt to make some fondant monkeys for the cake topper and cupcakes. The hard part will be the invite list. We have such a big family, it will be tough. We will likely keep it to immediate family (her grandparents and aunts/uncles) and close friends with kids. I don't want Em to be completely overwhelmed on her big day, plus since it will be winter and cold, we have to worry about everyone being comfortable inside. We will see though. In the end, we will do what is best for Emily. In a way I am excited to plan the party, but a piece of me longs to rock her and snuggle with her all tiny and soft. These days she is running everywhere! Which I love too. I just can't believe how fast this year went....Excuse me while I go cry in the bathroom now...More planning details to come!

Balloon Fiesta

This is one of the many reasons I love living in Albuquerque. Every year, at the beginning of October, our skies are filled with hundreds balloons for an entire week. It's like fall officially starts when the Balloon Fiesta begins. My sister and I grew up with the Balloon Fiesta. It just goes hand in hand when your family owns a balloon. Some of my fondest memories as a child were from ballooning. I was so excited to take Emily this year and see what she thought. It was a little early for her, but by then end, when Rebecca had her walking around, I think she loved it. She never was scared of the fans or the burners. She just stared in amazement. We had a great time! We got to see some great friends and my sister was in town, which made it all the more special!Hopefully, it will be something that she looks forward too every year like I do! Thanks for the pictures Brother!

McCall's Pumpkin Patch

Last Thursday I took the morning off and went on a fieldtrip with Emily's class to the Pumpkin Patch. As you can see, we had a great time! We picked out a pumpkin for Em, had a nice lunch with her teachers and friends from school, and checked out the animals. She slept the entire way home, she was so worn out!

10 months....and 2 weeks

I am so behind on this. I meant to take her pictures last weekend, but it totally slipped my mind and then Zig and I got sick so they were out of the question last week too. We finally got around to it yesterday. Oops. Anyway, here is what our monkey is up to now.

*She is growing like a weed, but still fits in Target and Carter size 9 months. We have a little peanut. If I had to guess I would say she weighs about 17 1/2 to 18lbs.

*She sleeps 12+ hours a night and will sleep till 8 on the weekends if we let her. Bless her sweet little heart! We love that she does this. As for naps, on the weekends she takes 2, 1 1/2-2 hour naps. At daycare, she naps for about an hour and a half total. She goes to bed between 7 and 7:30 every night. She means business about sleep.

*She eats 3 solid meals a day and 2 snacks. She is a pretty good eater. She has her moments where she will throw entire meals off her tray, and then those where we can't seem to give her food fast enough. She loves meat and will eat that before touching anything else. She really likes deli turkey and pieces of chicken. She must feed herself.

*She is down to 2 60z bottles in the am and before bed and 1 sippy filled with 8 oz of milk during the day. I managed to build a freezer stash that will last till 8 days shy of her 11 month birthday, which means Em will have never had any formula except for the 10ml they gave her in the hospital when her sugar levels were low when she was born. This was a huge accomplishment for me, but I wish I had enough saved to make it into 11 months. There will be a whole other post on this later, but basically we made a decision to start her on whole milk early. Our Pedi didn't want us to start any whole milk till she was 11 months on the nose (not one drop before)and from then on she said she didn't care if she was 100% on it starting that day. I didn't see a point in giving her 8 days of formula. Anyway, we will start whole milk later this week and transition her to where she is on 100% whole milk at or a few days before 11 months.

*She WALKS! As of 10/2 we have a walker. She is getting better by the day, but gets shy when she has an audience. She is doing great. If she falls, she gets right back up again. I am so proud of her!

*She loves drinking from a straw now, so we give her her milk during the day in a sippy cup. We will work on transitioning the morning bottle to a sippy and the evening one last, closer to a year.
*She has the best personality, but has a little bit of a bratty side to her too. She is part Griego people. She has the best cheesy smile, which seems to be plastered to her face constantly these days. And she knows how to work a tantrum. Mostly she happy, but she has her moments.

*She doesn't have stranger anxiety per se, but she does get really shy around new people.

*She LOVES gold fish and animal crackers.

*She hugs anything and everything that is soft. Stuffed animals, pillows, the dog bed, BODHI! Abby is too quick for her but she loves to sneak up on Bodhi for some lovin. He is such a good boy.

*She says Dada, this (Dis), and dog (duh). The last 2 we think this is what she is saying. She will pick something up, show it to you and say dis. And for dog, we say dog to her and she says duh back. Or we say it and she looks for Bodhi. We are still working on mama. :(

*She is a total daddy's girl. She loves her dad. It melts my heart to see how excited she gets when he is around. If its the two of us, she prefers her dad. Another sad face for me. She loves me too, but her dad rules her world.

*She has the cutest Madonna gap between her teeth, which makes her look just like Aunt Koley when she was little. She officially has 6 teeth that are fully in and her bottom laterals are just starting to poke through.

This child makes me so happy. She can melt my heart with one little grin, hug or kiss. Her laugh is truly contagious. I love the way her eyes light up when Zig or I enter the room. She is just an amazing, independent little girl who has changed so much in the last month it totally blows my mind. I could sit and watch her all day long and constantly wonder what she is thinking. I can't believe she is almost 11months old and can't imagine my life with out her in it. She is the best baby we could have ever hoped for.

Now for some pictures!

How can you not love this face. I just want to kiss those cheeks!

Giving the dog bed a little squeeze

On the move!

Every monthly photo session has one of these.

She totally has Zig's smile. He had this same crooked jaw grin when he was little. I love it.

Give dad some lovin.

We offically have a walker

Em has been cruising short distances between furniture for about a week and a half and walking about 10-12 steps for about a week. Starting Friday she was able to stand up without using an object to pull up on. Today marks the day she stood up and walked all the way across the living room. Amazing to watch the progresssion day to day. It just blows my mind. I caught her walking on video tonight for you all to see. Note: She is wearing jammies. She wasn't feeling so well today. :(

And this video is for Auntie Erin. Em got an early birthday gift and she LOVES it! Please keep in mind that I am an AWFUL camera woman when you watch these. Sorry.