10 months old

My baby girl.

Today marks ten months since we first saw your beautiful face and held you in our arms.  What an amazing ten months it has been.  I have enjoyed every day being your mom.

You are such a happy little girl.  Your laugh in contagious and we can really get you going when we play peek-a-boo with you.  You love to be surprised by us jumping from behind the couch, a wall, or the counter.  Sometimes when new people are around, it takes you a few minutes to warm up and show your pretty little smile, but we haven't had you make strange yet. 

You now have four teeth.  Your two bottom middle teeth have been there for quite some time now.  You also have your top middle tooth and the one to the right of it. We try to peek in your mouth to see if any others are coming, but you're not too keen on us poking around in there.  You have bit our fingers a couple of times and those little teeth are sharp!

You are starting to become a bit more interested in food, but you'd much rather nurse!  After a few spoonfuls of food, you are quick to hit the spoon away - your way of saying enough!  You pick up some food off your tray, but only a little makes it to your mouth.  Unless it's cheerios or mum mums.  You'd eat those all day long.

Sleeping is getting so much better!  You are down to a morning nap and an afternoon nap.  Sometimes lasting up to an hour a half each.  Bedtime is usually around 8 or 8:30 and you sleep for about 12 hours at night (but do get up quickly to eat).  Daddy and I always go into your room before we go to bed at night to say one last good night to you.  You love to sleep on your tummy and usually have 4 or 5 soothers in your crib with you for when you fall asleep.

You're now pulling yourself up on everything (and love to pull all the books off the bookshelf).  At 9 months and 3 weeks, you officially started doing a "real crawl" but still prefer to scootch along the ground to get where you want to go. 

Last week we started swimming lessons again.  You absolutely love the pool now!  Last week you were splashing so much, you got my face and hair soaking wet!  You don't mind going underwater at all, and of course - you still love your time in the tub.

We go on lots of walks around the neighbourhood.  You sit in your stroller so quietly watching as things pass by. You are quite an observer.  Recently we've been walking indoors on the track since the weather has been cooler.

You are babbling a lot, brushing your fingers over your lips and you say mumm mummm mumm a lot.  You've started saying "da", but not as often as you say mummmm.  When daddy comes home from work, we meet him at the door and you greet him with a big smile, while you flap your arms and kick your feet in excitement.  We send daddy lots of pictures and videos when he is at work. 

You're doing so many fun and exciting things.  I can't believe how much time has passed so far!  I'm dreading going back to work in the middle of March, but know that you will be in good hands and have lots of fun playing with all of the other kids!

Happy 10 month Birthday Baby girl!  We love you!

special moments to freeze in time

There are many times a day that I wish I could freeze time.  I want to take some special moments and put them in a bank where I can come back to them at anytime in life and relive the moments.

Putting my little angel to bed is one of those moments.  We now have a routine when it's time to say "night night", we close the blind on her window, turn the humidifier switch on, turn on the music in her crib, put the soother in her mouth...and then.... she lays her head on my shoulder and we rock back and forth, back and forth.

It's heaven on earth.  I could stay like that all night long. But eventually after a few cuddles, we lay her down in her crib and say good night. 

Matching outfits

A very good friend of mine since kindergarten, is super crafty.  She bakes, and sews, and knits, and creates and I often find myself wishing I had her talents.  To see some of her crafty projects, you can check out her blog.  For Christmas this year, I thought it would be cute to get my daughter and her two nephews something matching to wear.  I started looking early in the stores, and was having a really hard time finding something unisex that would fit two 9 month olds, and a 2 1/2 year old.  So I called on my good friend, and she instantly agreed to take on the challenging.  She created these beautiful matching sweaters for the three little ones in the family (which Grandma and Grandpa ended up giving to them as part of their Christmas present).  Today, I finally said that we must get a picture of the three of them wearing these cute outfits!  Too cute!  Thanks friend!

My wedding dress

I've mentioned before how much I love pinterest and how I am always seeing amazing, cute ideas to try.  A few of them have been completed successfully (especially the ones that are easy to do - like cute photographs!) 

Today is a beautiful winter day.  Fluffy white snowflakes are falling and the sun is bright.  A perfect day to get some natural light to snap a few pics. 

So, up to the closet I go to dig out my wedding dress.  It's been hanging in there since being brought back from the cleaners nearly 2 1/2 years ago.  I unwrapped it from the bag, laid it out of the floor and fluffed around until it sat perfectly - then stripped down my baby girl for a little fashion show.  An amazing idea from pinterest to take pictures of my baby girl, every year, in my wedding dress.  Hopefully she'll allow us to put one of these on display at her wedding someday. 

Isn't she beautiful!

Parenting in the winter

I often reflect on Kennedy's first few months of life and think about how everything was a new adventure.  I feel fortunate that she was a March baby.  By the time I had things figured out, the weather grew nice and we were able to spend time outdoors.  On a whim, I could grab the diaper bag, throw her in the car seat and head out on the town or go visiting. 

But things change in the winter.  Things take longer in the winter.  Going out becomes more of a production in the winter.  There are so many things to think about other than just grabbing the diaper bag and jumping in the car.  You have to get the car warmed up (and sometimes cleaned off), make sure the driveway is clear, ensure that the roads are safe, bundle up the baby (but not over bundled), protect her from the wind... and it goes on and on... I already can't wait for spring!

a lazy supper

Tonight, the idea of leftovers again didn't appeal to either of us.  The thought of cooking up another meal when perfectly good food was in the fridge (and to be honest we were both feeling a bit lazy and not really that hungry for a big meal anyways) wasn't really an option either.  So a couple of bowls of honey nut cheerios seemed to be the perfect answer for the two of us as the little lady sat in her high chair picking at, and closely inspecting her chick peas. 

Then she noticed.  Her eyes went from her dad's bowl to mine.  She watched him dip his spoon into his bowl, then her eyes flickered to me and watched my spoon go into my mouth.  Her eyes darted back and forth between the two of us and the look on her face was priceless.  I could almost hear the thoughts in her head "Cheerios are my favourite food - where are mine?" 

She'd already had a plentiful serving of cheerios while skyping with her uncle less than an hour before, so we quickly ate our cheerios as the less than impressed little lady watched on. 

on the move

Well life changed again for us as the little lady is now on the move.  For the past two weeks, she's been doing the "wounded army crawl" which consists of her left hand reaching out for an object across the room, and her right arm doing all the work.  She's flat on her tummy, using the tips of her toes to help push her along and the right little arm pulls her across the ground.  It's the cutest thing ever.  When we first saw this it was so much fun to have Kennedy "show off" for others, but we had to bribe her to get her to do it.  At times, we joked that we treated her like the Temptation cat commercial as we would whip out her cheerio container (that she recognises and loves) and give it a little shake and produce a cheerio to tempt her to come and retrieve.  Yes, we really did treat our daughter like an animal.  But - like Pavlov proved - she preformed.  Now she's into everything... even the laundry. 

Kisses

It absolutely amazes me all of the things that Kennedy has been picking up lately.  A couple of weeks ago she started giving "kisses".  When you say "Kennedy, can I have a kiss?" she leans in, open mouthed, and plants a big wet kiss (always sealed with a lick) on you.  It is one of the cutest things ever.  We smile, praise, and repeat!  She has also started giving her own version of a hug.  When asked for a hug, she will lay her head on your shoulder, and it's up to you to do the squeezing.  Her daddy says that this melts his heart everytime she does it.  Mine too.  

Kisses for her aunt

Winter is here. Holidays are over :(

Daddy went back to work last night for the first time since his ten day break and we missed having him home with us. It seems that with the start of the snow, it closes the door on the Christmas holidays for us this year. But oh, what a holiday it was. We had a great time visiting family and friends from near and far, and enjoyed sharing it all with our little lady. We now have some great memories of the holidays and it seems like the next two and a half months of me being home with our little lady is going to fly by.  Hopefully the weather cooperates so we can enjoy our time and aren't stuck at home until mother nature decides that it's time for spring.

Christmas morning was postcard perfect for our little family of three. Waking up on our own time, and lazily wandering down to open presents at 9:20am, we leisurely took our time, enjoying it all.  Kennedy loved her wrapping paper.  I'd say she loved the gifts too, but it was the wrapping paper and packaging that first caught her attention.  We had to be quick to ensure that the little scraps didn't make it into her mouth.  Grandparents came later in the day and we didn't leave the house once.  Perfection.

It was a green Christmas for us this year.  A great day for anyone who had to travel.  But today, it's official. Winter is here. We hit the road in our stroller today to test out the winter tires (really, no winter tires. Which is surprising considering her daddy probably would rig something up to improve the winter driving conditions of the stroller if he could). The sun peeked out from behind the clouds, the air was crisp, and our cheeks were cool. Kennedy had no idea what to think earlier this morning as she sat at the patio doors, watching the snowflakes fall from the sky.

a snowy walk

 



 watching the snowflakes fall