Pulls all the books off of the bookshelf every. single. time. and is so proud of himself.
Keeps an eye on Lydia all day. He might be doing his own thing, but as soon as she starts doing something interesting (or looks like she might be willing to play with him) he makes a beeline for her. If she's laying on the ground, you better bet that within seconds he'll be right there trying to climb on top of her.
Laughs at everything. Even things that shouldn't be funny like Lydia manually rolling him over or laying on top of him or swatting his face with a blanket. I tell her to be soft with him but he just keeps on laughing and she says "He likes it!" Which he apparently does, but I don't know why.
Started clapping (so cute!) and today he climbed up the whole first half of our stairs all by himself.
She: Lydia
Asks for a popsicle every morning as soon as she wakes up. She knows that she only gets one a day, but that she gets to choose when she can eat it. I always remind her that she only gets one, and ask if she really wants it right now or if she wants to save it for later, and she always chooses to have it first thing in the morning.
Says thank you over the sweetest things. "Thank you for helping me get my shirt on, mom!"
Decided that she wants to ride in her carseat rearfacing again. I think it's because she can see out the back window better (rearfacing on the side). So we flipped her around and she's happy as can be. I love it because that means I can eat candy in the car without her knowing, but it is much harder to hear what she's saying, which is a bummer because she gets frustrated when I can't understand her.
She's so big, physically and intellectually. I can hardly believe it. It's like she turned 3 and then decided she just wanted to be a grown up. I'm holding tight to the little-girl-things she says and does. One of my favorites is that she says "little" as Lidder. She'll say "I can't do that because I'm too lidder. But when I'm a mom, I can do that, too!"
Started dressing herself. She picks out her clothes for the following day when she's supposed to be in bed sleeping. I almost never find her in her same clothes/underwear when she wakes up from her nap as she was wearing when I put her down. I'm still able to manipulate things so that she matches decently when we are going somewhere important - but for the most part she wears what she wants. (long sleeves included).
Such a social little girl. She wants to play with friends all the time. She puts in requests for Henry, Carson, Elsie, or Aubrey on a daily basis. We just had some new neighbors move in and they have a seven year old daughter. Thankfully she's super sweet and seems to like playing with Lydia, which means Lydia is in heaven. She continually asks if she can go next door and see if "her friend, Sammie" can play.
Loves nursery. She's got some great nursery leaders who she really connects with. If you ask her what her favorite part of nursery is she'll say "We eat snacks. Like fruit-loops."
I love these two, and they love each other. It makes me so happy.
We: David and Shantel
We both have new callings. I was released as the Secretary in the Primary and called as the 1st Counselor, still in the Primary. I love working with my presidency and have enjoyed the change in responsibilities. I'm now over the nursery and activity days organizations, which is right in my wheelhouse.
David was just called as the Secretary for the Elders Quorum. We are both a little sad for him to be leaving his calling as a primary teacher, but it will be a great experience for him. Now we are left with the task of scheduling both of our presidency meetings so they don't conflict and trying to juggle Austin during the block.
I've been reading a whole bunch of books this summer as part of the Lehi Adult Summer Reading Program. It's been awesome. I've enjoyed reading books outside of what I'd normally read and for giving myself the excuse to sit and read. "I know there are a hundred other things to do, but this books will mark off my 'Read a book that was released in 2015' box."
David's been anxiously awaiting the opening of NBA Free Agency. Or something like that. I'm not sure exactly what it is except apparently players are released from their contracts and the whole sporting world gets together to talk about where they'll choose to go... and it's a big deal.
After David surprised me with Parade of Home tickets for our anniversary, we made every attempt over the few weeks that it was open to hit as many houses as we could. It was a fun time and we took about 100 pictures that need to be downloaded into a "Home decoration and improvement ideas" folder for future reference.
The home prices in our neighborhood are skyrocketing. Houses similar to ours are selling for a full $100,000 more than what we bought them for just two years ago. Although we love love love our house, we've played around with the idea of moving to a different neighborhood, if only for the financial benefit that it would give us. (Note: This is not actually happening, so no freaking out.) We have some friends moving to Bluffdale and they keep talking us up onto the ledge of buying a house in their neighborhood. Then we discovered our close-to-dream home floor plan, the Silverton. With the crazy increase in home value here (which we think is a bubble and won't really last), there was a possibility of being able to get into that home and being able to add on all the things/changes we'd want to make, like a 3-car garage (David) and a bigger laundry room and loft (Shantel). We even went and talked to the home builders a couple of times. But there weren't any lots open, and when they open new lots there will be a price increase which will bring it out of our budget. PLUS, we love our house and could probably use the extra (imaginary) money just making changes to this house instead of squeezing ourselves into a house that is wayyy bigger than we need right now.
With the conclusion of White Collar and the decline of Doctor Who, we've been missing having a show to watch together in the evenings. My sister Jenna introduced us to Chopped, which opened up a whole new world of Food Network TV. We both love joining Alton, Bobby, and Giada on the numerous shows that they appear on. After the kids are put to bed, you can probably find us curled up on the couch, bowl of popcorn in hand, watching Cutthroat Kitchen, Food Network Star, or Beat Bobby Flay. It's pretty awesome. (Or Castle! We are still catching up on all of the previous seasons. We love Castle.)
Austin is napping and Lydia is "resting" in her room. Actually I can hear her bumping around up there, so there isn't really a lot of resting going on - but I'm hoping she'll realize she's tired and that she'll go to sleep. Just enough time to squeeze in a little bit of blogging. And maybe even enough time for some guilt-free book reading. (Laundry is going and so are the dishes and I've already swept and vacuumed my floors today. I'm pretty much a super-hero myself.)
*note: don't be too impressed with me, I haven't done any of the aforementioned household chores for over a week-maybe two- and only the complete chaos has forced me to be so productive today*
A while back, I made a deal with Ali to help her make a superhero cape in return for her taking some darling pictures of the kids and me. It really was a win, win, win for me because I got the pictures, got to have several play-dates while making the capes, and then got copies of these darling pictures of the two of them in their capes. I love everything about them.
It took much longer to make the capes than I had originally thought it would, mostly because we had to take turns keeping the babies/kids occupied while we were working. The addition of the bias tape around the outside was a last minute add-on while shopping for fabric, but I think it turned out great.
This last picture is one of my very favorites. I feel like it captures my Lydia so well. One of the rare moments where she isn't running or jumping somewhere, but looking out and planning her next big adventure.
This sweet baby is nine months old. And this last month brought more physical changes in his little life than any month before (probably combined). He went from not even rolling to rolling, crawling, standing and cruising! More on that below, but to say that it's been an explosion of mobility would be an understatement. Not only that, but he's just so cute. I can't say enough how much I love this stage. He's funny, sweet-tempered, independent, affectionate, and the list goes on and on. I'll admit there is something sweet about a newborn baby, but if babies arrived at this stage - I wouldn't be able to stop myself from having a hundred of them!
I'm already sad because I know that I won't be able to record everything that I've loved so much about this last month, but I'll try to capture the best parts.
*Stats*
{official stats are yet to come}
Size two diapers, although we'll be moving up to size three as soon as we are through this package. Nine month clothes. Size 2 shoes (he fits perfectly in size 2, but we bought size three because we wanted him to grow into them). No teeth yet. A little bit more hair growing in on top. His blue eyes are getting darker and in some of the pictures below, they look almost brown. In real life, they are a steel-blue, but I'm wondering if they'll continue to darken.
--In his 8 month blog post I said "We went from barely rolling to practically mobile!" Which was true. We were pretty sure that Austin could roll. He just didn't do it, almost ever. He was starting to scoot around a little bit, but wasn't really "mobile" yet. This month, and really- over the course of only about two weeks, Austin went from contentedly sitting and playing and occasionally trying to stand up to crawling, rolling, pulling himself up, cruising furniture, and standing unassisted for several seconds at a time. It's like he flipped a switch and decided that he wanted to do all of those things and he wanted to do them now!
One month is a long time. If I had written this blog post halfway through the month, it would have been completely different. Some of the little notes I've made in my planner to remind myself to include are completely outdated because he's grown so much so fast. But...
*He started by standing, then pre-crawling (rocking forward onto his hands and feet and back to a sitting position, then getting to his knees, then scooting his knees), then crawling, then rolling, then cruising. Such a funny order, but he does what he wants.
--He only rolls from his back to his front. If he's on his tummy he just pushes up to his knees then to sitting or crawling.
*He consistently pulls himself to a standing position. Nothing is safe. Chairs, toys, legs, Lydia, cabinets. He loves to stand and will pull himself up on anything he can find. He's now an expert at leaning down and picking things up, and even transferring from standing by one thing to standing by another (couch to table, toy to entertainment center, etc...)
*He's gotten so good at crawling in such a short time that I'm often surprised at how quickly he can get places. He crawls all around the room that we are playing in, stopping to pull himself up on something, or pausing to inspect something that he found in the carpet. Sometimes if we are in the family room, he'll sneak out and go explore the living room or kitchen. If we are upstairs and I move to a different room, he'll immediately follow me. There isn't much in the world that is more darling than a baby peeking around a doorframe to find where you've gone. (Our baby-gates have gone up and have to be shut all the time, he's so fast!) Also, he started crawling normal with both knees but then he realized that he could move even faster if he used one knee and one foot and used his foot to push him forward even faster. He only does it when he's trying to go really fast and it's funny.
*He'll sometimes let go of whatever he's using to help hold himself up and just stand on his own. I was half convinced that he was going to take his first steps before he was officially nine months old.
--One of the sweetest memories I want to remember from the last couple of months (that I think I've neglected to record in previous months) is that when I go in to get him from his crib he clings to my neck with one hand and reaches his other arm around my shoulder and pats my back. He does this especially when he's upset. It melts my heart.
--Also, he has the saddest sad faces!
--Now that he's mobile, if I want to keep him contained - I have to really work at it. We set up Lydia's old crib in the sewing room for my sister Jenna to use when they came to visit us. It's acted as a pretty perfect jail for Austin while I'm doing laundry. He liked it because he could practice pulling himself to a stand while he watched me.
--We've spent a lot of time outside this month, and we just noticed that Austin has little tan lines on all of his baby fat rolls where the sun hasn't been able to get into the creases. It's so cute.
--This boy is a champ eater. He loves pretty much everything that we give to him. Because he wouldn't eat pureed food, he basically started with table foods (thank you baby-led-weaning). I'm relieved now that he officially can have all types of food, because he liked wheat products and dairy products from the start. I basically just cut up whatever we are having into small pieces and he feeds himself. He also does great with larger pieces, like halved strawberries and strips of pancake or french toast. He just gnaws on them until he breaks them up enough to eat. At this point, some of his favorite foods are: avocado, cheerios, cooked zucchini, pasta, melon/cantelope, cherries, tomatoes, and any other fruit.
--He falls asleep sitting up in his crib (I haven't been brave enough to take a picture for fear of waking him up) and sleeps folded up with his head between his legs. It's so sad and so sweet at the same time. Also, when I go in to get him when he wakes up - he's always at least sitting up and most of the time he's standing at the edge of his crib.
--I mentioned above that we've put the baby gates up and have started latching them when Austin's around. I'm 100% about latching the upstairs gate when we are upstairs because Austin is SO fast and it scares me to know that he could get down the hall and fall down the stairs before I even realize it. However, I've been lax about the downstairs gate because he hasn't started climbing the stairs. Until one day when I went upstairs to finish getting ready. Lydia and Austin were playing happily downstairs and I didn't latch the gate (because it drives Lydia crazy when I lock her downstairs and I'm upstairs). After a minute, Lydia started yelling and Austin started crying. We found them at the bottom of the stairs. Lydia said that Austin had started climbing the stairs and had fallen, but we couldn't get out of her how high up he was. I wondered if maybe he was just standing at the bottom of the stairs and she got nervous and bumped in and he tipped over, but it sounds like he's now a stair climber. So, now the bottom gate has to be shut when I'm not around, too.
--Austin is slowly getting over his fear of loud noises/other babies touching him. He's making lots of friends. Notably, he met Kennedy for the first time - and they hit it off smashingly. If only they would move back from Washington DC so that we could see them more often! Kennedy is my sweet friend Kayla's daughter, and Landon's (Lydia's age) little sister, we loved playing with them when they were in town!
--We moved him up to a big carseat! I thought that he'd love it because in the baby carseat he was constantly using those stomach muscles to pull his head up so that he wasn't so reclined, like he was sitting up in the seat. But after I transferred him to the bigger seat (thinking that he'd like sitting up more) he has definitely not liked being in the car as much as he used to. I'm realizing that he wasn't sitting up in the baby carseat because he didn't like being reclined, it's because he liked being able to look over the edge of the seat and see what's going on. In this bigger seat he can't see as well and he doesn't like it. I've thought about moving him back down. (I'm not worried about buying the seat early - it's the same seat as Lydia's and I really love it and we got this one on sale so I was buying it anyway. I'm okay if we put it into storage for the next couple months. We'll have to see.)
-He's started sleeping much better this month. For the last several months I've said that I was going to start sleep training him, but it's never really felt right. However, I've been letting him fall asleep on his own most nights (and naps) even if he cries a little bit, because it's the only way that he will fall asleep. But I've still been getting up with him in the night when he needs me (usually 3-4 times, spending at least half the night in the chair). But he's starting to need me less and transferring back to his bed much better, which leaves me able to go back to my own bed instead of sleeping in the chair.
One night, soon after he turned 8 months old - I woke up in a panic at 4 o'clock in the morning. I realized that I had forgotten to check on him when I went to bed and I was almost hysterical thinking that he might have fallen out of his bed and hurt himself before he fell asleep and that something must be wrong because it was 4 and he hadn't woken up. I jumped out of bed and practically ran into his room. I rushed to his crib to find him sleeping peacefully. It took me a minute to realize that I was being ridiculous and that I needed to calm down. I backed out of his room quietly and made my way back to my own bed still trying to calm my racing heart. As I laid down, I heard him stir through the monitor and start fussing. (I'm positive that I woke him up with all my anxious rushing around.) Since then, he's started waking up only once in the night (around that 4 am mark) more and more. I should say that it's been wonderful, but honestly- I'm still exhausted. Hopefully soon I'll be caught back up on my sleep enough to be able to appreciate it! Also, he wakes up usually around 7 - but for a while was waking up even earlier than that (like 6) and it was so sad. I think babies should sleep in until 8, always.
--Austin loves bubbles. He thinks they are so funny and will laugh and laugh at them. I love baby laughs. Especially his. You'd think that because he laughs so much it wouldn't be so cute every single time. But it is. It never gets old. I love how happy and how willing to laugh he is.
After a while of blowing bubbles with Austin, he started trying to blow the bubbles on his own! As soon as I would pull out the jar of bubbles, he'd fill up his cheeks with air and blow out. He's such a smart little boy. I love watching this video. I laugh every time.
Other things:
-He loves playing with doors. He will sit for five minutes and just open and almost-shut the door. It makes him happy.
-He laughs when I wash his face after meal-time. I take him to the sink, wash his hands, then use my hand to rinse off his face as well. He always sticks out his tongue and giggles.
-If he gets stuck under a table he gets mad and cries, but he can almost always get himself back out if I give him just a minute.
-He's so content to come along for the party wherever we go. He's very laid back and easygoing. Obviously, he cries and gets upset but it's usually very short lived. I know that I've pushed him way too far if he gets upset and starts crying for longer than 15 seconds. He'll be fine to do whatever we need him to do, and he doesn't really cry until he reaches his limit and then he definitely tells me that it's time to be done.
-He's always been really happy but he really really loves being mobile. He's so proud of himself as he gets around and does the things that he wants.
-He pulls all the books off the bookshelf/entertainment center multiple times a day. It's probably his favorite thing to do. He'll pull them off and then ignore them, but if I put them back up - he heads over from wherever he is in the room to pull them off again.
Happy 9 months, little man. We are so grateful for your easy-going attitude and happy personality.
I love blogging, and I have a whole handful of posts that are half written in my drafts and I am just seriously having a hard time pushing through to the end, making sure all my thoughts come together, and actually publishing the post. And, I have to admit - I've gotten behind, so most of the things that I do post, I wayyyy back-post so most of you don't even read them which doesn't make much sense, except that I blog for myself and my family first (hello blog-books) and am just super happy to have my friends along for the ride. One thing that I miss the most about being better at blogging is posting about the little things instead of just the big things. I always think to myself "Self, I should blog this." And then I spend the time thinking out exactly what I would say (usually while I'm doing dishes) but I've had a hard time sitting down and writing it.
But today as I was doing the dishes (again), I thought about writing this post and even though I can't remember exactly how I was going to word everything - I'm going to write it anyway.
Yesterday we had a big kick-off for our 2015 Summer Stay-cation! David has the whole week off and we have a whole list of fun things that we have planned. It starting with the library and park for Lydia in the afternoon and then a special movie-night before bed. We picked up Paddington from the Redbox (it was the best choice available for Lydia), pulled our couch up close to the TV, made popcorn, and let her eat dinner while we watched. We only got through about half of the movie, but it was perfect.
After we got Lydia to bed, we switched DVDs and David and I watched Interstellar. We'd heard mixed reviews but, it was awe-some! 12 minutes in and we were totally hooked. It was so super super intense but really good. Also, it was SO long. Even with a 7:00 bedtime for Lydia we didn't finish the movie until midnight. (Granted there were several mostly-unsuccessful attempts to get Austin to fall asleep in his bed, so there was a good amount of pausing going on.)
Today Austin, David, and I all woke up with sore throats, goopy eyes, and tired bodies. Boo! Definitely not my plan for a fun family vacation. David and I basically switched off kid-watching every couple of hours while the other one slept/rested. Austin was a trooper and was pretty happy between his extra long naps. Lydia was pretty happy because she got to play puzzles on the ipad (which she never gets to do at home), watch PBS on my cell phone, and watch Netflix with the couch pulled up close. We figured that even if we were going to be lame and sick on our vacation, we could try to help make it special for her - and we were too tired to do anything else.
I started feeling better towards the end of the day. David started feeling worse. Double-boo.
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Austin is pretty much the most darling thing in the whole world. This age he's at? I. love. it! So much. I have his 9 month blog post started but not finished, so this will be a little redundant, but if babies were born at this stage that he's at right now I wouldn't be able to stop myself from having 100 of them. He's so sweet and smiley (always has been), but now he's mobile and so darn cute that I can't help but cheesy-grin every time I look at him.
Lydia is at such a fun age, too. She constantly surprises me with the things that she says and that she is able to articulate. She loves to give Austin big hugs and lately she wants to help him stand up by holding his hands. Today she got too close and he grabbed at her with his sweet baby fingers and pinched her neck a bit. She didn't like that much (even though I had been telling her that she needed to give him some space and that he was just playing with her in the only way he knew how as she was invading his personal space so thoroughly) and after I explained that he hadn't meant to hurt her and that babies sometimes just grab at whatever is close so we have to be careful she got down on his level, put her face right in front of his face and proceeded to explain to him why she was upset and that in the future he shouldn't grab her neck like that. "Austin, when you grabbed my neck it hurt me and I didn't like that very much. It didn't make me happy, it made me sad. We don't grab peoples necks because that might hurt them and make them sad. Okay? Okay, Austin? So just don't hurt me next time when you want to grab me...." I was equal parts proud, amused, and reflective. Proud of her for being able to express her feelings so well, amused because it really was so funny, and reflective because it was a very simplified version of the conversations I have with her. I'm realizing more and more and more and more that every single word I say is being absorbed into her consciousness and will be the voice that she uses to talk to others, and to talk to herself. Like, when she came down the stairs and wanted to show me the pajamas she had picked out which consisted of a pajama dress, leggings, and a skirt from her closet. (She's dressing herself now, and it's... an adventure.) I was busy cleaning the kitchen up, and when she asked me what I thought I replied, "Oh Lydia, that's perfect." She immediately ran to David and said "Mommy says that the clothes I picked out are perfect!" I was surprised to hear my words reflected back so immediately in her 3-year old innocence and I was struck with the thought that what if I had said "Lydia, I don't really care which jammies you picked out, please go finish getting ready for bed." That is what she would have heard. Not all of my interaction with Lydia are as positive as "Oh, that's perfect." but I want them to be. I want her inner voice to sound just like me and be forever supportive and loving and encouraging.
Wow, that little thought about Lydia took on a life of it's own. But, that's why I like to blog so much, because I like having a place to write down whatever comes in my head, even if I tend to write in run-on-paragraphs. (My 11th grade English teacher, Mr. Anderson would be appalled.)
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Last month, I was able to attend a special Book Club event at our library where Julianne Donaldson came and spoke about her books Edenbrooke and Blackmoore (loooveeed Blackmoore). One thing she said really has stuck with me. She talked about her writing and how you have to take the time for the things that are important to you, because no one is going to give it to you. Blogging is important to me, and I'm going to make sure that I allow myself to take the time to write, even if that means staying up late or letting go of my endless to-do list, or whatever.
Now David is sleeping in our bed next to me, and I really should be going to sleep, too. But I just wanted to make sure that I was able to finish this blog post - even if it was about mostly nothing at all.
