reid: nine months

 

 

 

i really like this age.

she's becoming more and more

independent and that's always a bonus.

 

 

growth:

we had a doctor's appointment a few days ago

and she weighs 18lbs 13ozs - 60th percentile.

she is 28 inches tall - 75th percentile and

her little peanut head is 17 inches - 30th percentile.

the doctor said she is right on track and

her growth curve is perfect. yay!

she wears 9 month clothing and size 3 diapers,

but i'm going to bust out some of brette's 12 months clothes

because it's gotten warm and reid needs some summer wear.

the sides and top of her hair is still long but no real

growth in the back or along her neck.

her hair actually looks a lot like a pixie cut. 

she sits a plays all the time and

she'll roll around on the floor.

she also gets up on all fours and will rock

back and forth but hasn't actually started crawling.

i wouldn't be surprised if it was soon though.

the cutest thing she just started doing is clapping and waving.

it's so darn cute to see a little one wave at you

or clap when they are happy.

i'll try to get a picture of it soon.

 

 

sleeps:

oh. my. gosh.

it has happened.

reid is sleeping through the night.

i hate to claim that, because

she's been so inconsistent, but

i really feel like we've turned a corner.

she is sleeping from 8:00 to 6:00,

i nurse her and put her back down and

she'll sleep for another hour or so.

everyone in my house is normally up by 7:00-7:30.

it's a nice schedule and i feel much more rested.

her napping is the same.

two to three naps a day.

her first at 10am,

her second at 2pm and

depending how long her 2pm nap lasts,

she might go down again at 5:30.
she sometimes still naps with a pacifier and
i'm still nursing her to sleep, so
those are both BIG things we're going to have
to break her of in the next few months.
i'm NOT looking forward to it.

 

 

 eats:

reid has no teeth.

still.

and so i hadn't given her a lot of people food,

unless is was super mushy or puréed.

i talked to the pediatrician about it and she

told me to go ahead and give reid everything

i gave brette, even though brette had lots of teeth.

(at this point brette was pretty much eating a four course meal.)

  the doctor said she didn't want reid to get a complex about the

textures of food since all she was getting was baby food.

she also said that babies mostly gum their food to death and

really don't use their teeth anyway.

it made me nervous because choking is a fear of mine,

but i started giving her mostly everything we eat and

GUESS WHAT?

she freaking loves it and does a really good job.

i've been giving her lots of new things to try,

with the exception of meat.

i've given her chicken salad,

but i guess i'm going to start seeing if she'll eat little pieces of meat too.

this makes things a lot easier, especially at restaurants.

 

 

plays:

she sits and plays all the time and

can make her way across the room to get something she needs.

(like my cell phone or the dog bowl)

like a said above, she's not crawling but she can

still roll or push herself around.

she does a good job grasping items and moving it from

one hand to the other.

i forgot to try to have her stand and play so that's

at the top of my list of things to do.

 

 

firsts:

she is clapping and waving.

she celebrated her first easter.

she's sleeping through the night.

she's eating with the family.

 

what. a. big. girl.

 

 

sorry these are so blurry -

she would not stop moving!

 

 

what's going on

a list of my life.

 

1 - we sold the 4Runner!

i'm glad to get the money out of it

but i'm sad to actually see it go.

i loved that car.

it brought both my babies home from the hospital and

honestly, if it had a third row,

i'd probably keep it until it died.

but it doesn't, so its

going to go live in texas with another family.

 

2 - ronnie and cale spent all weekend working

on the outside of our house and they have

the side done with the garage,

which ronnie told me was the hardest part.

they expect it will take another 2-3 weekends

to get the rest of the house complete.

i went ahead and scheduled the painters for

the 3rd week of may.

i literally CANNOT wait.

 

 

3 - i just started week three of my diet.

i've lost seven pounds so far.

my goal was 10 by this weekend,

but i'll be happy with 8.

i figured i'll be working at this at least until

memorial day weekend.

hopefully by then i'll have lost somewhere

around 15 lbs and feel much better about summer.

 

4. our new couch (sofa sleeper) was delivered!

it's so plush and comfortable.

not to mention, i now have a place for

someone to crash if needed.

i love the color and how it fills the front room,

but i just have to keep brette and her cheeto fingers away from it.

 

5. reid has started waving and clapping.

i know a full 9 month update is coming in a few days,

but it's just so darn cute, i had to share.

and of course, brette thinks its the greatest thing ever.

she's always like - "oh my gosh, reid is clapping!  good job, you precious girl."

hahaha - you can tell she repeats what she hears.

 

6 - i bought myself some new summer sandals from target.

my similar pair literally broke off my feet last summer

when shannon and i were on a walk and i never replaced them.

the ones i really liked were in the girls section, but

low and behold... i can actually wear girl sizes.

wahoo!  a whole new world of shoes just opened up.

 

7 - i'm having kassie's baby shower here on sunday.

it's fiest themed.

i'm busy cleaning and cleaning and figuring out decorations.

but i'm excited for this weekend - i really do love hosting things at my house. 

ronnie is taking the girls to warrensburg so i can

focus fully on getting my house and food prep all ready.

i'll share pictures next week, but

hopefully it's as cute as this...

 

 

 

i guess that's it for now.

reid just woke up. always.

 

you wanna step outside?

 

my goal has always been to get the inside

 of our house done and then move on to the outside.

but as luck would have it,

we are STILL NOT DONE with the freaking walls,

and since its spring, ronnie would like to

start working on the outside

while the weather is nice.

of course he does. (eye roll)

when we bought the house we both

agreed that we would hire someone to

replace the rotten siding and paint.

we didn't want to mess with all that,

especially after everything we've done

ourselves to the inside.

then ronnie got a wild hair up his ass and informed

me that he and cale are going to be doing the siding.

of course he is. (eye roll)

i'm not happy.

sure, sure, it saves us some money,

but i just want it over with. and fast.

and let's be honest,

nothing ronnie does is fast.

so i made them a deal:

it has to be done by the end of may.

they promised me it would be.

so far, i'm still waiting.

of course i am. (eye roll)

but i did move forward with the painters.

i've been in contact with three different

people to get some estimates and

hopefully as soon as the new siding is up,

the painters will swoop in and complete the look.

i'm excited.

 

but i realized that i've never really shown

the outside of our house.

so here you go... a tour and some pics.

sorry, about the wind.

i didn't realize it was going to be so loud.

 

 

 

 (this is where ronnie and cale are building a gate around the stairs

 to our basement so the girls aren't at risk of falling.)

 

 

to be continued...

 

 

seasonal concepts

 

 

sorry, but i just wanted to update you on

my latest diet craze.

diets. ew.

but in my world, after having two kids...

completely necessary.

i've decided i'm what you would refer

to as an "event dieter."

i need a reason.

when i had brette, we were heading to

mexico within the year.

i knew there was no option but to pull

myself together and get swimsuit ready.

it was such a great motivator.

i could imagine myself on the beach and

KNOW that a chocolate chip cookie wasn't worth it.

but this time around...

well, nothing cool is on the horizon.

i thought the motivation of being back down

to pre-pregnancy weight by the time reid

hit six months would be enough,

but sadly no.

then i thought maybe getting into

all my old clothes would be helpful.

but most days i'm in "mom gear" and the

other two days a week i go to work 

i try to find something that will be

easy enough to pump in.

so i had no real motivation to get skinny.

sure, sure - - health and wellness always

sound great, but between christmas,

valentine's day and easter, eating healthy or

eating chocolate, well, chocolate always wins.

always.

who can resist reese's trees, hearts and eggs?

it's the mother-effing trifecta within a few months of each other.

so i spent a lot of time doing this:

 

i did diet for a week and lose some weight, but

regrettably gained it all back.

(that damn trifecta strikes again.)

 

so i recently decided to diet - for real this time -

because i had a lot coming up:

baby shower's

birthday parties

SUMMER

possibly a vacation this august

SUMMER.

did i mention, summer?

the season of tank tops and swim suits.

and there it is... the motivation i need.

give me an event to get ready for and

i will try my best.

kassie's baby shower is first on my list and

the third weekend in april.

perfect

i started my diet on april 2nd (last weekend)

and i've lost FIVE POUNDS so far.

oh yeah.

my goal is at least 10, but i would prefer 15. 

i also started going to a spin class with a friend of

mine from the bank.

it kills me, but i doubt there's a better leg workout on the planet.

and i feel better already.

i always do.

i don't know why it takes me so long to realize the benefits...

probably because it's so darn hard not to eat all the crap amazing food.

 

but i'm on my way. 

wish me and my celery snacks good luck.

time for school

 

i spent the majority of my time yesterday

driving around town, meeting with PRESCHOOLS.

yes, brette is already to that age.

on one hand i am so ready for her start school.

make friends. 

take a picture with her little backpack.

fall in love with her teachers.

start learning things that i would never think to teach her.

on the other hand, ITS TOO SOON!

she's my little two year old baby.

she needs to be with me.

she needs to be older.

she needs to stay little.

 

but i have a plan.

don't i always?

she'll go two days a week when she's three.

three days a week when she's four and

if i think she's ready,

she'll start kindergarten when she's five.

she'll  be one of the younger ones in her class, but

since she's a girl and i don't see any delays,

i think she'll do just fine.

in fact, her and eden will both start kindergarten together.

the cut off it august 1st, so

she makes it by a few months.

that means its definitely time to start venturing out of the house.

she's super excited about school.

she talks a lot about going to school like madeline and eden.

i'm excited for her.

 

i met with four different facilities yesterday.

some i loved, some i liked and one

i crossed off my list immediately.

of course, my favorite one is the most expensive,

but it's also less than a mile from my work.

hello, convenience.

and i still have to work out a schedule with

my work hours and ronnie's,

but hopefully if everything comes together we

should have her enrolled for this fall by next week.

as of right now, she'll be going every wednesday and friday and

still spending monday's with my parents and her cousins.

then next year she'll go monday, wednesday, friday. 

that's the plan as of now.

 

 

also, a little sidenote:

reid will be one by the time brette starts school,

 which means she'll start going to an in-home daycare on fridays

instead of spending the day with my mom.

this also means, i'll get every wednesday with just reid.

i love the thought of getting a little one on one time with her.

brette got a whole year.

reid gets one day a week.

#SecondChildProblems

 

 

 

that's what little girls are made of

there must be a lot of

sugar and spice and

everything nice because

we keep getting more and more

little girls.

 

in the last year all my friends had babies.

all. of. them.

and only one is having a boy.

luckiest boy alive, am i right?

 

we started last april when shannon had paige.

 

then i had reid in july.

 

margie had clara in january.

 

lindsay had willa at the beginning of march.

 

and jana followed suit with katie a few weeks later.

 

this week alone i was able to drive to warrensburg

on tuesday to spend the day with willa and

then head to north kansas city on thursday to meet little katie.

 

but we're not done yet.

dana will add our one and only boy in may and

kassie will round us out with

our last girl (for now) in july.

 

our lives are so packed right now.

everyone is planning showers and 1st birthdays.

we're packing lunches and pumping breastmilk.

we're trading maternity clothes and baby gear.

we text at least a dozen times a day to

ask advice and keep each other sane.

we share funny parts of our day and pics of our babies (or bumps).

we're raising these kids together and

these new little girls are so lucky.
they are starting life with built-in buddies.

i can only hope they become friends

or find friends like i did mine.

 

love you girls and all your new little ladies you've added to my life.

 

 

(this pic is three years old, but its the only one i could find with all of us in it.)

(minus margie)

 

 

 

  

 

easter weekend

easter went exactly how i expected.

a hectic morning, followed by a relaxing afternoon.

because lets face it,

all the BIG events of easter happen before 11am.

baskets, easter egg hunt, breakfast, church.

(and a 45 minute drive to my parents so we could all

go to church as a family.)

it made for a crazy morning.

luckily i had our bags packed the night before,

clothes laid out,

baskets stocked and ready and

the eggs were hidden.

 

(brette's basket)

(reid's basket)

(easter dresses all ready for the next morning)

 

brette was so cute talking about all her things in her basket.

i had my video camera going, but i didn't notice that i didn't have very

much data left and it stopped recording 16 seconds in.

i want to cry.

 

 

 

 

and she loved finding all her eggs.

maybe next year reid can help too.

 

 

even with all that prep i was still running around

in my pj's at 9:35am when we were supposed

to leave for church by 9:30.

i made ronnie throw everyone in the car

while i ran upstairs to change.

(and THIS is why moms always look worse than the rest of the family.)

i put my sweater and shoes on in the car,

but we made it their with one minute to spare.

church went really well.

brette and her cousins basically just snacked

the whole time and practiced their whispering skills.

reid was passed around and actually made it through

without screaming which i didn't know was possible.

 

 

once we were back to my parent's it was smooth sailing.

lots of food and family.

all 19 of us sat down for an amazing dinner and

enjoyed the day.

brette made it without a nap and relied on the

18 pounds of chocolate to keep her on a high.

i swear, you can't take your eyes off her and the candy dish.

its like a moth to a flame.

 

 

 

hope you enjoyed the holiday.

happy easter!