9 Months Old

Dear light of my life,

9 Months Old!!! I can't believe it!!

I love you so much Chloe! I was calculating something the other day a guess what?! You were inside my tummy exactly 9 months so that means that starting tomorrow you will have been breathing and eating (somewhat) on your own longer than you were in my tummy. I know it's a strange thing to think about but I thought is was interesting. You have been such a strong girl your whole life, even before you were born.

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You have grown a lot this month. You officially sleep in your crib now, which I'll admit is bittersweet. I love that you can sleep through the night but I miss hearing the sound of you breathing next to me in your pack-n-play while you sleep. You usually sleep until 7-8 am. It's awesome. I honestly am so blessed that you are such a good sleeper.







This month was your first Easter. You looked so adorable in the Easter dress that Papi got you. You also wore a pink jacket that my great grandmother made for me when I was a baby.





Eating has gotten a lot better this month. You actually like eating. You attack the spoon with your mouth, it's so funny! You still only like squash ans sometimes sweet potatoes but you make silly faces with the sweet potatoes. You drink the same amount of formula 7-8 oz. 4 times a day. You have become more independent and don't like when I feed you, you like to do it yourself. You like it best when I lay you on the floor and let you hold the bottle and feed yourself. You're such a cutie pie!





You have started to pull things off of the bottom shelf this month. I have to put all of the DVD's back where they go at least once a day.




You are growing so fast and I can't wait for the day where we can have dress up days and tea parties!

I love sweet girl!!

8 Months Old

My sweetest girl,

I love you so much honey! This last month has flown by you have grown so much!  You are becoming so independent and I am so proud of you. 

You are staring to eat a little better this month but you only like to eat squash. You won't swallow anything else I give you. You really hate sweet food, like bananas, sweet peas, or peaches.  I only hope you don't like sweets once you're older ;) You really only eat about 1/2 a jar of baby food a day. This really freaked me out at first but I know that you're just going at your own pace and I love you so much no matter what you do.

You still drink about 7-8 oz of formula 4 times a day. You take 2-3 naps a day. one at 10 am, another at 2 pm and sometimes one at 5 pm. And you go to bed every night sometime between 9-10 pm. You wake up once around 4 am, but I give you a bottle and you go right back to sleep until about 8-9.

You have also started rolling EVERYWHERE. I set you in the middle of the living room and step out of the room for a few minutes and when I get back you are almost in the kitchen. It's precious. 

Your teething has calmed down a bit so you are a lot happier than you were last month.

You really like when I read to you. You like trying to grab things inside the book. its adorable.

I am so proud to be your mommy! I love you so much Chloe. Keep growing into the beautiful girl that God has created you to be.

Simon

My (not so) baby brother is getting married this month.

Wow.

Just typing that out is crazy to me. 

I am so proud of the man he is. He was my best friend growing up. He understood (and may still understand) me better than anyone in the world. He still knows exactly how I feel with just one look. And that's one of the best things about Simon, not only does he understand, he cares. He has always been such a caring person.

I remember while my mom was pregnant wanting a little brother. He was such a cute little baby.

Even though he was a cutie, we was not a very happy baby the first year of his life. He Had pneumonia and needed tubes. The earliest memories I have of Simon were of him crying... all the time.

We were always in daycare during the week but I remember him crying all weekend long.

Once he was healthy things got a lot better. He started to be more fun to play with.

I loved being a big sister. I basically felt like a princess. I had a little helper who would do anything I told him to (Haha! I wished.). Even though we mostly played what I wanted, Simon would never let me dress him up like a doll. 

He HATED when I tried to put hats or wigs on him.

Some of my favorite memories:

When we would catch frogs Simon would always squeeze them so hard that they would pee on him.

Anytime we would go on trips we would quote our favorite movies from beginning to end. 

Mostly The Emperor's New Groove. We loved that movie.

Another thing I remembered was that Simon ALWAYS wanted to be around me. Even at my birthday parties. 

He always wanted to do what I did, sing what I sang, and eat what I ate. At the time it drove me crazy, but when I think about it now it makes me smile.

He usually went along with all of the dorky things I wanted to do. When we were 9 and 5 our parents were looking for a new house. Every time we went in to a new house my brother and I would find the biggest bedroom and roll around on the floor in the empty room while singing "roll around, roll around". We were such dorks!

I remember when I was getting ready to move away to college I freaked out at the thought of Simon learning to drive while I was away at school. I took him to a big empty parking lot and I taught him how to drive. It was so fun, and probably the most irresponsible thing I ever did. He was 14...

Any time I would come home from school Simon would always and still to this day, give me a huge hug. Those hugs are my favorite. I could always tell how much he missed me. The hardest part about moving away from home was Simon. I didn't want him to be all alone. But little did I know that Ashley was already in the picture. 

Simon was very nice and sweet to Christopher. I remember him telling us that he had planned on being a jerk to scare him off but he liked him too much once he met him.

About 2 years ago Christopher and I moved in to my parents house for a while. Simon was very good about it. I doubt it was easy living under a roof (and sharing what used to be your own bathroom) with your sister and her husband.

When Chloe came along Simon became an Uncle. I think he was kind of intimidated at first. But he is a wonderful uncle. And not only is he a wonderful uncle he is giving my daughter a sweet, kind, loving, beautiful, and graceful Aunt. 

Simon you are a HUGE piece of my life and a big part of my heart is yours, I love you so much brother. I would be so proud if my kids grew up to be like you!

Love you Simon!

7 Months of Smiles

My Sweet Chloe,

Today you are 7 months old.
These months seem to past too quickly. It feels like you just turned 6 months old yesterday.

This month has brought a few tiny changes.

I was trying to get you to eat solids but because of how uninterested you were we are taking it one week at a time. Once a week I try to feed you solids. You just will not take them. We'll see how you do next week.



Right now you still just drink formula. 6-7 oz. every 3-4 hours.

You have also kind of developed a schedule of your own.You wake up in the mornings between 7 and 8. You usually take a nap at 10 am, and then another one around 2 pm, then. if I'm really lucky, you take another one around 5:45 pm. Your bed time is 9 pm.

You have two baby teeth on the bottom of your mouth.

The clothes that fit you now are between 6-9 months.



You love to roll over to your tummy. And you are getting very close to rolling back over on to your back. You have done it about 3 times total. You are working on it and we are so proud of you.

You sit up with no help. its so cute. You still need your Boppy around you when you get tired because it just makes you grumpy when you fall over because you're tired.

This month has been a good one. I just want to take everything in.



I love you so much sweetheart! You make me proud to be a Momma!

Motherhood; “The days are long, but the years are short.”
                                                        - Gretchen Rubin

1 John 4:7-8  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.