Sweetest Munchkin I Know

3/4 of a year! Yikes!

My little Munchkin is 9 months old!

She weighs 18lbs 8oz (with a diaper on, mind you)

She is 26 3/4 inches long

And she was squirming too much for me to remember to ask about her head circumference. 

Munchkin waved to her Dr when she came in the door, and when the Dr clapped for her, she clapped back, and her Dr was very impressed that she performed all of her tricks for her. :) She is pulling up to standing on people, but can't figure out how to pull up on objects yet. She can crawl on top of things about 4-6inches up like short stairs, step stools, dog beds, etc. She is a professional army crawler- she goes arm over arm, and pushes with her legs too, but she just doesn't like to pick her body up off the floor. I think it might be a little because she's almost always on hard wood which is slippery on her pants. She's fast. She will take steps with you holding her hands but won't "cruise" yet. She can get down on to her belly from sitting, but she can't get back up again yet, although in the Dr's office she was trying to do it by going from her belly to downward dog, to collapsing a knee, to sitting. It was tricky. She said mama and dada sometimes discriminately, and babbles a ton. She eats about 60-40 table food-purees, and is a master Cheerio/veggie puff/yogurt bite/cheese/pea/sweet potato picker-upper. She loves to look at books and will try to turn the pages, although sometimes she desperately wants to go the wrong way. We're learning concepts of print. :) She knows the meaning of the words Mama, Dada, Dash, milk, come here, and no. She is starting to play with the signs we have been using with her, but I don't think she's using them purposefully yet. 

This was from the morning of her birthday- I was trying to get a smile and all she wanted to do was talk/

 MORNING MOM!

 What do you mean you want me to sit here? It's time to go!

 Ok I guess I'll look at my book.

 Mom held me down and let me look at the phone taking my picture- that got a smile!

Time to start gathering ideas for somebody's FIRST birthday!!!!

Reading with Daddy

So our use of technology and iChatting with grandparents has paid off. Not only does she know that you are talking with her, but she knows that you are a person who correlates to a real person in her life. Here is my proof:

All my single mommas

This is how you get a lesson plan done when its 3hrs late. PBS kids and a box from Nana. It lasted a good 5min which is a long time in this house.

And by and by Christopher Robin came to an end of things, and he was silent, and he sat there, looking out over the world, just wishing it wouldn't stop.

**Fair warning: this post is full of emotions and things relating to boobs. If you want to bow out now, you're forgiven.**

So this has been a crazy week for many many many reasons. On top of life changes, we have 3- count 'em 3- birthdays this week! The Lady's birthday was on Tuesday, Mister's birthday was Thursday, and the Munchkin's turns 9months on Friday.

There have been a lot of emotions this week, the one pertaining to my Munchkin's Grand Adventure is a mixture of grief, (albeit unnecessary) shame/disappointment, excitement, relief, and an overall release. It's been in the works for a while now, but I've finally set a date which will inevitably result in an end. I am wrestling with, what in my mind is, the most selfish thing I've ever done: starting Friday, I'm going to wean myself off of breastfeeding. My milk has been decreasing for a lot of reasons (cold, weight loss, it's just time) and it is at a point now, where it just isn't worth hauling my pumping gear everywhere. I'm making less than half of what Munchkin is eating in a day. She quit nursing in December, so I've been exclusively pumping 4x a day for a long time now. I am going to back off to just doing it 2x a day, when I wake up and dinner time (every 12hrs ish). I don't expect that to last long, but I'll do that until it isn't worth what I'm making.

Now, I've learned quickly, that if you haven't done this before, the emotion involved doesn't make much sense. If you have, then you get it and it reminds you of when you had to do it, and the emotions you felt are fresh, even just for a second. Things are going to be so much easier! I won't have to haul that bag around. No more finding empty spots in parking lots to cover up, no more timing a glass of wine or a fun night out, getting to wake up 30minutes later, way fewer bottles to wash... the list goes on........ None of that compares to feeling of failing to provide for your baby. I know, we made it 9months- while I was "working"! That's amazing! I am so proud of myself. I had a goal of making it 6 months and I did it.

I have 1 more box of stashed milk left to spread out, but Munchkin is blowing through it pretty fast. Fortunately, God has blessed us with an incredibly easy going baby and she cares not what type of milk or milk substitute you put in her mouth- as long as it fills her belly. She goes back and forth between different brands of formula and breast milk without a blink. (read: we're getting to use all of our coupons!) I, of course, was so nervous about how to introduce formula into her diet, and she just sucked the bottles down.

So, tomorrow (Friday) is my last day of being on duty. I am so excited about Saturday, but if there's one thing I know- it's that you know God is making you a good Mom when you feel completely hopeless at the job.

Learning about our new toy from Nana. Thanks!

Snow Day

Lots of snow today! We took Munchkin out to explore and met a few friends.

 We are at about 2-3" at this point.

 Dixie loves it of course

 Woah, cold!

 Play with pups

 Our neighbor came over to say hi. He loves our Dash.

 Having a taste.

 Whatcha want Daddy? I can't see you through the snow.

 More snow eating

 Copy-cat

 Hey, who are you?!

 Lady & Munchkin

Girl Time

We went to play with our twin friends last week and Little Boy was sound asleep until it was almost time to go. The girls practiced racing across the kitchen. Munchkin is really funny when we go to visit, because she makes so much noise at our house, and I don't think she understands how other babies can make the same noises that she does. Little Girl, on the other hand, is teaching Munchkin how to share and play well with others. 

These small hours

Here's Munchkin's new waving ability

Then we have another fun beginning of a milestone. You're welcome for the soundtrack. We'd just finished Meet the Robinsons, it's the credits track. 

On becoming a parent

We are moving in to the realm of becoming parents instead of caretakers. Last weekend I came into the room and Munchkin was heading for the wires, I quickly picked her up and redirected her. Mister said that I should have left her because they had a good system going. Inevitably, 30 seconds later she headed for the wires again, and I just watched. She reached for them and Mister said, "Munchkin, No, leave it alone." She turned around and looked at him, he said, 'no' again and she moved on to something else. I was amazed. Why hadn't I thought to just tell her no? I've been so focused on defense that I forgot that she was ready to start learning offense. So we've been working on it this week, just telling her/signing no and expecting her to move, and she usually listens.

Now my smartypants Munchkin has started to figure out what the word No means. So this afternoon she headed for the wires and I told her, "Munchkin, No". The first time she listened and left. Then she went back again and I told her again, "Munchkin, No".

 This is the face she gave me and reached for the wires again. Turkey. I am going to have to beef up my poker face, I mean what are you supposed to do!?! 

 A few minutes later, (obviously we aren't retaining the lessons yet) she headed back towards them again and I wasn't looking at her. Mister said, "she just turned around and checked with you and kept going". LOL Oh the trouble of having a smart cookie. 

 Squirrel! Saw something shiny, she's done with the wires.

Elevensies with the Munchkin

This is kind of a long video. 3minutes plus, but it's worth it to see what a big girl Munchkin is!

Care Package & Nursery redecorating

Thanks for my Valentines and Girl Scout care package Gramma! She likes the sunglasses about as much as she likes her hats, but maybe she'll come around when she sees how useful they are!

Then Mommy did a little redecorating in the nursery. And by redecorating, I mean I reorganized her bookshelf so that all of the board books were on the bottom. Now that we have a crawler she is inspecting everything on her level. She will go up by herself and pull books off to look at them. Now they are only looked at for about 10 seconds before another book comes off, but she loves doing it. It's hard to open books when you're laying down. 

Sorry for the lack of clarity, this is on my phone and I couldn't use the flash.

How we do

This is what an 8month old does. You thought she was busy before- boy howdy, we're on a roll! We had to lower the crib and mount the monitor. I put her down for a nap and looked into the monitor to see a big eyeball peering at me through the camera. Mrs. Michelle said that she had to lower the pack'n'play as well because Munchkin was pulling up on the sides when she came in the room. 

Munchkin made good use of her gyro bowl with Cheerios. She dumped it twice, but it was because she picked it up and threw it down. We also cut up some pears and put them in our suctiony bowl from Ms. Sunni and she did great!

 This is about how our days go. Jabbering.

 REACHING!!!

 And moving around EVERYWHERE!

 Somebody loves her Daddy! Especially now that he's growing his hair out :) Their newest trick is he holds her by the hips upside down!!! She squeals and laughs and he rolls her down and she just giggles. 

Oye! Dads.