healthy as a horse

Seriously. Who came up with that phrase?

S.B.G. had her 9 month well-check this morning and got a clean bill of health from the doctor. He said that she looks great (I could have told him that) and was really glad that we've been fortunate to only have to go to the doctor for well checks. (Knock on wood....no sick visits for us!) Her stats came back as follows:

Height - 28 inches (50%)
Weight - 18 pounds, 1 ounce (25%)

(For those of you keeping track at home, that's a growth of 1 inch and 2 pounds in the last 3 months.)

So now we're back at home and anxiously awaiting the arrival of 阿婆 and Grandpa tomorrow night. I was chastised earlier by my mom because it has been 2 days with no Audrey pictures, so I'll leave her with this little gem.

Audrey is 9 months, 1 week & 5 day old

hold on to your hats

It's a little mini photo marathon!

This morning I woke up at the ass-crack of dawn and headed out to a consignment sale with some friends, hoping to score a great deal on an umbrella stroller and some summer essentials. The pickings were slim for my picky taste, but I did manage to get a great bead-maze and a couple ridiculously cute outfits for this summer so it ended up being a great day.

Since the sale started so early and S.B.G. decided to sleep until 9:30 (why does she pick the day I'm out of the house to do this??? :: pout ::) I managed to get home just in time for breakfast. She was doing great picking up her bananas this morning and kept cracking smiles every time Miller & I gave her cheers of encouragement. Naturally, the smiles were replaced with coyness when the camera came out but the pictures are still equally as cute.

We have a small circular mirror that was originally part of her play mat that she has suddenly taken a strong liking to. We're always holding it up to her asking if she "sees the baby" and she has recently started holding it up to her face to "kiss the baby." Either that or she is ridiculously vain.

Her crawling still hasn't picked up any more than witnessed on the screaming video. Personally, I think she's going through a lot of physical development right now and she's just having a hard time putting it all together. She's figuring out how to crawl, she sits up from a laying position, and she's now acting like she might want to start pulling up on stuff to a standing position. All this physical activity can take its toll on her tiny little muscles, so it's important that she find a way to relax and re-focus her energies.

Namaste, folks.

Audrey is 9 months, 1 week & 1 day old

nomnomnom

I've never been much of a "foodie." Growing up, I was a super-picky eater and my parents can attest to the fact that meal times were a huge struggle. When I hit high school, I finally got over my aversion to eating all things food but still had a love-hate relationship with it. I've always just been one of those people that eats when their hungry - not because it tastes good.

Enter The Pioneer Woman.

I had heard of her blog before, but it never really struck my fancy. As previously mentioned, I'm not a huge food person and (back then) I wasn't into photography much, either. Sure, her pictures were (are) gorgeous but it wasn't something that I had to add to my "must-read-everyday" list. And then we had Audrey. And then I bought a nice camera. And started to learn how to use it.

I found my way back to the PW website/blog and started immersing myself in her pictures. I read every new photography-related entry on her blog like I'm searching for the meaning of life. Sure, I've looked at some of the food entries, but nothing has really struck my fancy.

Until now.

A couple days ago, a friend posted on her Facebook page that she had made PW's Egg-in-a-Hole for dinner. I'm always a sucker for breakfast for dinner, so I gave the recipe a look. And saw this.

Photo © The Pioneer Woman

:: drool ::

I made Miller & I egg-in-a-hole for breakfast this morning. Mine weren't as pretty as PW's, but ho-lee-crap they were good. This is most definitely my new favorite way to cook eggs and has piqued my interest. I am absolutely going to try out many, many more of the recipes on her site. Waistline, be warned.

My Mom will kill me if I don't give an Audrey-update so here it is. Today was a rough day. Lots of clinginess and random fussing. She wasn't all that interested in breakfast this morning (because she was too busy being a fussy-pants) and it threw her meal schedule off for the day, which in turn threw off her nap schedule for the day. I took her temperature about 37 times and it's running about .3 of a degree higher than normal. Otherwise, she seems okay so (dare I say it) maybe this is the teething I *thought* we were going through earlier in the month? I dunno. I guess we'll see how tomorrow goes. (Yes, Mom. Clearly she misses her 阿婆 and that is the only thing wrong.)

Audrey is 9 months and 6 days old

I Scream, You Scream

I went to lunch yesterday with a couple gal pals and S.B.G. was quiet the ENTIRE time. Even when Miss Camy was babbling up a storm, Audrey just sat there like a mime. OF COURSE, she waited until we got home before she let the wailing begin....
Editor's Note: I didn't feel like editing the video, so I've uploaded it all in it's full 2:14 glory. BUT...if you fast forward to the :54 mark you can see the extent of her "crawling" these days. Exciting stuff, I tell ya.

In other news, I went to get Audrey after her afternoon nap to find her sitting up with her hands on the side of the crib rocking back and forth like she was trying to get the momentum built up to stand. Um, nothankyou. In the name of safety, we lowered the crib a notch in the hopes of keeping her in the crib.

The finger food adventures continue to go well. The carrots dusted with cinnamon were a huge success (yay) and she got a little whole wheat bow-tie pasta today at lunch. The pasta didn't cook all that consistently - probably because we bought bow-tie - but after we broke it up into smaller pieces she was none to happy to shovel it into her mouth. We'll give her tummy a couple days to adjust to the wheat and then it's on to the proteins!

Audrey is 9 months and 5 days old

adventures in finger foods

Over the last couple weeks, we have been working to increase S.B.G.'s finger food intake. It has been a huge learning curve for us - figuring out what foods will work well in her teeny-tiny hands, getting them prepared just right so they are solid enough for her to pick up but not too difficult for her to "chew", and (most importantly) getting her to actually eat them. She has been doing really good with her puffs for about a month now. She has really mastered picking them up and getting them into her mouth with only a couple being shared with the dog.

The fresh fruit attempts didn't go very well (because of the "slimy" factor) so we'll try again after coating them with puff crumbs and see how that works (thanks for the tip, Joyce and Amy!). I cut & steamed some carrots for her to eat and that was a HUGE FAIL. She clearly did not like the taste (can't say that I blame her...I'm not a huge fan of cooked carrots myself) and pretty much refused to eat them. I am not going to be easily discouraged and will try again after dusting them with a little bit of cinnamon.

We finally found some success making sweet potato bites.

She still hasn't mastered her pincer grasp, instead opting for the full-fisted approach.

I'm really hoping that as her dexterity improves she will graduate to the pincer grasp. I guess whatever works is great, but it does create more of a mess because she is essentially mashing/squeezing the food in her hands before it ever makes it into her mouth. Oh well. At least it's a cute mess.

Audrey is 9 months & 4 days old

take that, Nick Nolte

I apologize for the ridiculously blurry picture, but for some reason I could not stop laughing. Hm. I wonder why.

Audrey is 9 months & 4 days old

9 months old!!!

S.B.G. is 9 months old!!! Holycrap!!!

There really isn't much to say that hasn't already been said a million times. I ♥ her bunches, she is the cutest baby in the entire world, she is just all around awesome awesome awesome.

She still isn't crawling, but I have a hunch that she will absolutely be crawling before 10 months. She was taking a nap earlier and somehow ended up in a seated position (!!) so apparently she's figuring out how to sit up (although I'm not going to believe that one until I see it with my own eyes). We're working more on finger foods - she loves feeding herself but gets frus.tra.ted. when she can't pick up them up. We've discovered that fruit is really hard for her to eat (because it's so "slimy") so I prepped a bunch of veggies today for her to start tomorrow. I have high hopes that the veggies will prove more successful!!

My parents are in town for the weekend and even though S.B.G. was already asleep by the time they showed up, I know she is very excited to spend time with her 阿婆 & Grandpa.

And because she's a cutie-pie and I love those adorable little sausage-toes....

Audrey is 9 months old

March Madness!!

Our lives the last couple days have been filled with college basketball brackets. Drafts, re-drafts, final edits...all in search of that perfect selection of teams that will hopefully win us some cold hard cash. Even Audrey gets a bracket this year. Obviously, Miller got 2 brackets - because how would an almost 9-month old baby pick basketball games?? Craziness!! :]

Work has also been kicking my but these days. It's a little busier than I'm accustomed to and I have a lot more deliverables that I have to manage. Hopefully things will settle down a little bit over the next couple weeks. Between work & Audrey's lack of sleep, I am EXHAUSTED!!

Speaking of Audrey, sleep is still a mild struggle these days. Daylight saving time did not help and while we are getting her naps back on track, bedtime is still a bit of a struggle. Before DST, her bedtime was a cool 6:30. Post DST, we have been trying to put her down by 7:00 but because her internal clock is still screwy, she fights sleep until almost 8:00. Regardless of what time she goes down, she is still waking up multiple times a night (usually around 2 & 5). I *thought* her sleep worked itself out Tuesday night when she skipped the 2am waking and woke up once at 5:30, but alas...last night the 2am waking returned. BUMMER. Miller & I know that we're going to have to take some kind of action soon, but we're going to wait until after this weekend to address it.

Why wait until after the weekend? Because 阿婆 & Grandpa are coming tomorrow!! Audrey misses her 阿婆 & Grandpa veryveryvery much and can't wait to see them. It's going to be a great weekend filled with lots & lots of this:

Know what else is happening tomorrow? Someone (and I won't say who) is turning 9 months old tomorrow!!! EEEKK!!!

Audrey is 8 months, 3 weeks & 6 days old

IOE Day

Today is Miss Audrey's Inside/Outside Equilibrium Day!!

As of 10:18am she will be exactly 38 weeks & 4 days old. I can't believe she's been on the outside as long as she was on the inside!!! Despite the fact that it is impossible that my baby is almost 9 months old (seriously, where has the time gone?), the pregnancy seems like for.ev.er. ago. As much as I loved my pregnancy, I much prefer having a cute, cuddly little girl to snuggle with.

S.B.G. is currently napping (SHHHHHH!!!!!) so pictures to follow eventually. Hopefully this rain will knock her on her butt today and get her sleep back on track after the appearance of stupid daylight saving time.

Audrey is 8 months, 3 weeks & 4 days old

dear Daylight Saving Time

Yeah. You suck.

There is pretty much nothing redeeming about the return of DST every spring. Losing an hour of sleep isn't fun and for some reason my body doesn't understand how to go to sleep anymore. Add in a poor, innocent little baby who can't tell time and has to rely on the position of the sun to tell her when to wake up & go to sleep and it all gets messed up.

Audrey decided to celebrate the arrival of DST yesterday by not napping. At. All. Miller & I tried to get her to go down about 37 times, all of which were met with lots of tears. So she stayed up. We headed down south to Buy Buy Baby to check out some new baby gear on our shopping list hoping that she might catch some sleep in the car. No dice. We did come out of there with a new high chair though. Score. After she spent the entire day awake we hoped she would hit the sack a little earlier, but we just stared at each other with amazement when her 6:30 bedtime just rolled past and she was still babbling away with no sleep in sight. By 7:30 we had enough and tried the bedtime routine one more time. FINALLY.

She woke up this morning at her "usual" time (but the clock read 8:00 instead of 7:00) and we were hopeful that things would be back on track today. HAH! She blew by her first nap of the day and continued on through the mid morning. A quick call in to the office to call in sick (probably the smartest move of the day, thankyouverymuch) and Audrey settled down enough around 12:30 to catch about an hour and a half of shut eye. When she woke up, I was not greeted by my usual happy, smiling, "fresh-from-a-nap" baby girl but a grumpy, grouchy, pissy (albeit super cute) little monster. I don't know if I should blame DST or teething (I think they're both equally to blame), but I would really like one and/or both of them to release their grasp on my baby and give S.B.G. back to me. The last nap of the day was skipped, she grumped & grouched through dinner (her favorite!), tolerated a bath, and finally crashed out tonight around 7:00. I am reeeeeeeeealllllllly hoping that tomorrow goes better, but I'm not holding my breath.

All that being said, I did manage to capture a rare moment of happiness today. Small victories, folks. Small victories.

Audrey is 8 months, 3 weeks & 3 days old

hello, old friend

What's this? Pictures from the good camera?? Well, I'll be.

Until today, my camera had sat untouched in the camera bag just waiting for me to ask it to come out and play. Things have been pretty hectic around here and I just couldn't muster the energy to pull it out, charge the battery, yadayadayada. I finally decided that my poor mom blog has been deprived of "good" Audrey pictures for almost two weeks and I should really just bite the bullet. So I did.

It honestly all started with the blueberries. I discovered the awesome Sprouts Farmer's Market yesterday and bought some blueberries on sale. I knew that I wanted to puree them with some yogurt for Audrey so this morning I got to it. (FYI: fresh blueberries do not yield a lot of baby food. In the future, I'll save my pennies and just buy frozen.) Despite the photographic evidence...she did actually manage to get some in her mouth. I think the jury is still out on her true opinion. (Also, let me apologize for the blurry picture. Apparently I have forgotten how to use my camera.)

After lunch we were goofing off on the floor and I realized that the light was actually pretty good and I should capitalize. I plopped S.B.G. down on the floor and immediately captured a cute one.

Later on back in the "play zone" Audrey kept laying her head down and acting super cute. I knew she was bordering on going down for a nap, but her mannerisms were too cute to not snap a picture. Note the "movement" of her hand? She is (obviously) waving at my mom. "Hi, 阿婆!" So. Stinking. Cute.

I'm glad the camera has come out of hibernation. Hopefully I can continue to find the time to take pictures!!

Audrey is 8 months, 2 weeks & 6 days old

fool me twice

So much for the, "We've been through this before" argument. Yeah. Apparently she is not teething. Either that or these teeth are taking for.ev.er. to come in. For sanity's sake, let's just go with option a. The extreme fussiness has subsided leaving us wet (from the drool) and tired (from the random night wakings). Oh. And no new teeth. Stupid, stupid, teething.

I'm staying busy with work and still haven't had time to pull the camera out. It's probably collecting dust at this point. Poor, poor camera. So neglected.

In happier news, since the fussiness has gone away (yay!) our happy little girl has come back. I was taking iPhone pictures of her while she was happily nomnom-ing on her puffs and she kept trying to get a peek of me around the phone.

What a ham. And because everyone loves some cute piggies....

Audrey is 8 months, 2 weeks & 4 days old

renovations

Don't you just love the new blog look? I was looking to make a change from my Valentine's Day theme and also wanted to incorporate a wider format so that I can post BIGGER pictures. I had a hard time finding something I loved, so I ended up making my own. It took forever, so hopefully I don't get bored with it anytime soon.

Speaking of bigger pictures...yeah, I don't have any. The camera has stayed tucked in the camera bag all week. I have relied pretty heavily on the convenience of my iPhone camera to get any quick little snapshots, but with her teething misery I just don't have the heart to sit around and take a ton of pictures. But in the absence of pictures, I do have a quick video to share. Nothing too exciting -- just little S.B.G. loving her puffs. My mom is probably the only one that will really enjoy the video, so I painstakingly edited it down from 3+ minutes. You're welcome.

Audrey is 8 months, 2 weeks & 2 days old

For Joyce. And my Mom.

stiiiiillllll teething

Yup. Still teething. Still uncomfortable. Still clingy. Still not sleeping well.

Fortunately, Cookie Monster is available to lend a helping hand eyeball.

Audrey is 8 months, 1 week & 5 days old

teething, round 2

Audrey has officially entered into "teething hell" for the second time in her short little existence. One would expect that since this is not our first time to deal with teething it would be a walk in the park.

Not so fast, my friend.

Yes, the fussiness is expected and the drooling isn't as shocking anymore. The clingy-ness is still heartbreaking and cute all at the same time (even more heartbreaking & cute now that she reaches out for you). We are better equipped with teething remedies and all things soothing for her teeth/gums.

But the lack of sleep. OOOOOHHHHH....sleep..... It wasn't all that long ago that Audrey started sleeping all the way through the night, but it took about 2.2 seconds for my body to get re-adjusted to uninterrupted sleep. My, how quickly we have forgotten.

Hopefully these teeth make their appearance soon and end the misery for the entire household. Until then, I'll let you into our world.

Note the drool. Isn't she pathetic?

Audrey is 8 months, 1 week & 4 days old