Look Whooo Is 8 Months Old!

I'll start off by saying, as I type this, poor girl is in her bed trying to take a nap, and just hacking away. :( This is the third time she's gotten a little cold. Yesterday, she did not feel good. At all. And she let us know it. I think it was probably the crankiest day we've ever had with her, and nothing we did made her feel better. Finally as her afternoon nap approached, Michel took her to the couch and laid down with her on his chest, and that seemed to do the trick. She laid on top of him, sucking her thumb for about 30 minutes before he put her in bed for a nap. Her naps yesterday were really bad, too, which also contributed to her crankiness. She had a hard time sleeping last night (which is incredibly unusual for her), and I thought we would have another cranky day, but luckily she's been pretty easy to make her smile or laugh, and she'll just give me a sad, pitiful whine when she just needs to sit in Mommy's lap, or get some cuddles. Poor baby. :(

Anyways, time with our precious girl is flying by! I can't believe we're 4 short months away from her first birthday! Where does the time go?? Everyday I see her continue to grow, learn, and develop new things. She really is so much fun, and so easy to take places (except for the grocery store...seriously, there will be tears if I have to run in the store...what's up with that??).

Weight/length/head circumference: I don't know. I tried measuring her head circumference the other day and she kept grabbing the tape measurer out of my hand, so I gave up. I tried weighing her, but she doesn't weigh enough for me to set her on the scale and the scale to register. I tried weighing myself first, then weighing myself while holding her, and it would have made her weigh 21 pounds, and I'm pretty sure she's more in the 17lb range, so I didn't think that was accurate.

Sleep: Audrey takes 2 naps a day. Her morning nap is generally around 9 or 9:30 for about 45 minutes to an hour, and her second nap is usually around 1:30 or 2 and lasts about 2 hours (sometimes 2 1/2 if she's really tired). She goes to bed anywhere between 7 and 7:30 and sleeps a full 12 hours.

Eating: She has a bottle 4 times a day and eats about 24-27oz a day (though while she's been sick it's dropped down to about 20-22oz/day), and eats a half to a full container of baby food twice a day.

Clothes: She is wearing 6-9m onesies, pants, and dresses. She has a couple of 9m outfits that she can wear, but if it has pants they're a little long. She should get used to that!

New achievements of the month:
1. Audrey does Pat-a-Cake! It's her own special version of "clapping," but it's super cute!
2. I've been using the signs "more" and "all-done" with her for a couple of months now. She hasn't quite figured out which one is which, but she does know that using her hands gets her what she wants, so I've seen her use "all-done" once or twice, but if she forgets which sign she should be using, she automatically defaults to her "clapping". I'm sure in her mind she's like, "I know I'm supposed to do something with my hands, but I forgot which one, so I'm just gonna clap. It makes Mommy happy." :)
3. She's definitely an independent sitter! If she falls over, it's because she did it purposefully, or was reaching for a toy, and it was further away than she anticipated.

Things she likes:
1. Laying on Daddy's chest
2. Being held
3. Eating solid foods
4. Crinkly toys
5. Pat-a-cake
6. Sleeping when she doesn't feel good

Things she doesn't like:
1. Grocery shopping with Mommy
2. Seeing the bottle, but it doesn't make it to her mouth quickly enough

I feel like I rushed the end, but she woke up about 10 minutes ago, and is calling for me! :)

Happy early Mother's Day! Hopefully I remember to take good pictures and I can blog about it tomorrow!

The many faces of Audrey!

I have a few really cute pictures of Audrey on my phone that I need to do something with, so I'm just posting them here for your viewing pleasure. :)

This girl. She's not even 8 months old, and she is full of personality! For the most part, her personality just makes me smile. But then there are some times. "Those" times. During "those" times I'm not smiling as much, counting down until bedtime, and praying to God to give me patience. Luckily, about 99% of our time together is tons of fun. As long as she has a full belly, and has had sufficient sleep, she's pretty happy....and she loves to make sure people are looking at her, and laughing at her :)

She's trying out her gymnastics skills in her bouncy seat

This girl loves her prunes! Good thing considering she tends to have constipation issues. Prunes clear that right up

We had a play date with one of my old college roomies!

I just ADORE this little outfit! She's so precious!!

Totally inspecting her new swimsuit. We just LOVE swim lessons!

Oh, one more thing about swim lessons. She goes under water so much (purposefully) that now, if I put her on a ledge of some sort (the table, kitchen counter, etc), and pick her up off of it, she automatically closes her eyes and holds her breath!! It's SOOOO funny! I don't think she's realized that she only needs to do that when we're in the pool, but at least I can say that she's already mastered that skill! Love this girl!

MOPS Mondays!

From the time I began attending MOPS in September of 2013, I eagerly looked forward to each and every MOPS Monday. The first time I attended I took a 13-day-old baby with me. My table was a fantastic help to me - they helped me tote all of her stuff from our table to our rooms when we broke off into discussion groups, eagerly held my baby for me so that I could fully attend to the speaker, or even just so that I could eat my breakfast! Every part of MOPS has been a blessing to me - fellowshipping with other moms, having a nice, yummy, hot breakfast each morning (I'm easy to please), delicious coffee (told ya - I'm easy to please!), speakers who have always challenged me, informed me, and definitely blessed me with their words in regards to my role as a Christian wife and a Christian mommy, and so much more. It was sad to say good-bye, but luckily I will see many of the same faces next year. I wish I had thought to take a picture of my group.

Anyways, I received unexpected gifts today that just further proved the blessing that MOPS is to me:

My sweet mentor mom gave each of us Laura Story's CD, Blessings, and told us she wanted to do it because each one of us has been such a blessing to her. I hope she knows how much of a blessing she's been to me. She always sends the sweetest, "thinking of you" e-mails! When Audrey was little, my mentor mom was always one of the ladies who would hold Audrey for me so that I could eat breakfast while it was still hot. It really is those little things that count in the biggest ways.

Our discussion group leader makes kitchen scrubbers that can go in your dishwasher! That way, you don't have a gross dishrag sitting out all the time - just wash the scrubber when you wash your dishes, and then it's clean again!

Last, but certainly not least (this one is probably my favorite), when I went to pick up Audrey from the nursery today, her sweet MOPPETS workers had done a cute craft with them for us!

I can't say enough good things about the MOPPETS workers. They are 2 sweet older ladies who just loved on Audrey for 3 hours so that I could have a little "mom" time. When she was really little, I would usually pick her up and they would be sitting in a rocking chair with her just holding her and rocking her, and loving on her. Now that she's bigger, mobile, and totally uninterested in sitting and rocking, they played with her, took her on stroller rides around the church, somehow usually managed to get a 20-30 minute nap in her (which is ridiculously unusual for her when she's in the church nursery), and always had a cute story for me of something she did that day. Today's story was: Audrey was sitting on the floor playing with some toys, and one of the workers started playing with another baby and got the baby to laugh. Audrey started laughing (even though nobody was doing anything to her!), so the MOPPET lady included Audrey in the game, and told me how much Audrey was just belly-laughing throughout the whole thing! The worker said she'd never heard a baby laugh so hard. It just makes me smile knowing that, while I'm away having some "mommy" time, Audrey is being well-attended to, and having a great time herself!

I will miss my MOPS Mondays, but I'm on the steering committee for next year and we do have several meetings throughout the summer which I'm fine with. I'll be excited to serve in a leadership position and hopefully be a blessing to someone else next year like I feel so many women were to me this year.

Shapin' Up and Slimmin' Down!

I lost a full pound this week! Even more importantly, I can tell I've lost some inches! Part of this amazing loss could be due to a stomach bug I had all of Tuesday, most of Wednesday, and it finally was gone for good on Thursday. Maybe all my hard work is just finally paying off! Who cares, though? Either way, I'm seeing the results that I want! This puts me SIX pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight, and ELEVENpounds away from my goal! Even better, I can fit into pretty much all of my pre-pregnancy pants!!! Ahhhh....this is such a big deal for me! When I say "fit in," I mean they can fasten. This doesn't mean I'm ready to wear them out in public yet because some are still pretty tight. It's going in the right direction, though!! I'm pretty happy about this :)

Shapin' Up and Slimmin' Down

I've been so lax on my blogging! I haven't posted a Shapin' Up and Slimmin' Down in a couple weeks, I know I didn't post this months body stats and pictures. I've hit a plateau in my weight loss and I think that's making me not want to post about it.

From the recommendation of a friend, I ordered a set of DVDs from Moms Into Fitness that's their weight loss series - geared towards moms who are at least 6 months postpartum, and trying to lose 10 pounds or more. I've done it all week, and REALLY like it! I'm normally pretty sore the next day which is a feeling that I love. I really like that these are geared towards postpartum moms, so they target all the normal places that you would have gained weight while pregnant. Hopefully they help get me off my plateau!

Look Whooo Is 7 Months Old!!

This is my favorite picture I took today! She loves smiling with her tongue between her lips!

Time is flying by with this sweet little one! Today marks her being 7 months old!! She is such a big girl, and everyday I'm seeing her learn new skills, or perfecting skills she already has. Her daddy and I just love her so much. She is happy, smiley, and mostly easy-going. She is 7 months old, so we have had temper tantrums, small meltdowns when she's too tired, and she's definitely been exerting her independence in tasks that she wants to do herself (brushing her teeth, feeding herself with a spoon, etc). I actually like that she will brush her own teeth. I give her a toothbrush with toothpaste first, she moves it around her mouth for awhile, and then I actually "brush" her teeth. If I just stick the toothbrush to her mouth, she'll close her mouth and turn her head away from it. It's just funny to see that, at 7 months old, she's already got that "I can do it myself" mentality. The funny thing is, in some things she is very independent, but then other times, she's very clingy, and wants to be held. I'm getting good at doing some things one-handed :) I have no problem toting her around with me, and I'm probably spoiling her, but I love when babies are at the age that they show that they want to be held. It's so cute! OK, on to the important stuff! :)

Weight: About 17ish lbs

Head circ/length: I don't know

Sleep: Audrey takes 3 naps a day, but we're trying to transition to 2 because her evening nap ends up being (what we think) is quiet time. Most of the time when I go in to get her up from her evening nap, she's awake and just lying in bed sucking her thumb....so we're not sure if she sleeps at that time. Anyways, her morning nap is about an hour long, and her afternoon nap is still her best nap of the day - anywhere from an hour and a half to 3 hours long, depending on how much sleep she's had that day, and how tired she is! Long afternoon naps haven't affected her nighttime sleep, so I generally let her sleep until she wakes up (unless we have plans and I need her up at a specific time).

Eating: She has a bottle 4 times a day, and usually eats 24-27oz of formula in a day. She's finally eating solids, too! Usually she eats solids twice a day as a mid-morning snack, and mid-afternoon snack, and usually eats 1-2 TB per feeding. So far, it looks like she absolutely LOVES prunes, peas, and sweet potatoes. She likes carrots, and she HATES bananas...but I'm not giving up on them!

Clothes: We are mainly in 6m clothes. Some 3-6m things can fit, but are getting too small. Some of her 6-9m clothes fit, but some are still too big for her.

New achievements of the month:
1. She lifts her hands when she wants to be picked up. Whether she's on the floor (tummy or back), in her exersaucer, bouncy seat, wherever, she'll call to get your attention and once you look at her she raises her hands up. She's pretty smart!
2. Increased the sounds she makes while babbling to include ka, ga, da, ba. I still don't hear a lot of ma, but she'll make a continuous mmmmmm sound.
3. Has developed a fake cough and a fake laugh - both are hilarious! I think she uses them when she wants attention
4. If I'm holding her and she wants her daddy to hold her she'll reach her arms out and lean out to him.
5. She can sit up!!! I wouldn't call her an "independent sitter" quite yet because I wouldn't leave her unattended while sitting, but she's made drastic improvement in the length of time that she can sit without falling over
6. Whenever we shake her bottle to mix the formula and water together, she immediately stops any activity she was doing to look in the direction of the bottle being shaken.
7. When we pray at night, we always tell her "Put your praying hands together" and about 8 times this month she did it all on her own! They didn't stay together for more than a second or two, but she's getting the idea!

Things she likes:
1. Playdates with friends
2. Her toy monkey, and now her stuffed lamb
3. Brushing her teeth herself
4. Still is a daddy's girl!
5. Sucking her thumb
6. Random songs that Mommy and Daddy make up
7. Ninja
8. Swimming! (just discovered this yesterday)
9. Being tossed in the air
10. Chewing on her washrag during bath time
11. Pulling Mommy's hair (we are working to make sure she does NOT like this)

Things she doesn't like:
1.  Mommy helping in her room at church - I sub in the baby wing, and I was in her room last Sunday. The ladies always tell me that she never fusses, but I saw a different side. She was so fussy, and full-out crying part of the time I was in there. The only way she would stop fussing, or crying is if I held her...which was, in no way, helpful to the other 2 workers and 7 babies that were in the nursery. I asked the lady in charge not to put me in Audrey's room anymore. I think she got jealous when she saw me holding other babies and she was swinging, or in an exersaucer.
2. Not having that bottle in her mouth quickly enough
3. Mommy taking a shower. I try to only shower while she's sleeping. Sometimes that doesn't happen (today, for instance). I always bring her in the bathroom with toys or her bouncy seat while I shower, and it never fails, she will fuss/whine/cry until I'm out of the shower. Who knows??

I have to end with this cute picture of her dressed for church one day. I bought this outfit when I was actually shopping for a baby shower present for a friend of mine (it never fails...when shopping for baby shower gifts, I always end up buying my own baby gifts!), but anyways, it was on sale, and she seriously is TUTU cute!!

She has been 7 months of pure joy, and a complete stinker! But we love her to pieces, and wouldn't trade her for the world! :)

Shapin' Up and Slimmin' Down!

Woo-hoo! I lost 1.8 pounds this week!! I don't really know what I did differently to have such a good loss, but I'll take it! On a side note....I'm having a REALLY hard time losing belly fat from being pregnant. That's still frustrating to me. I'm still about 8 pounds above pre-pregnancy weight, but 13 pounds away from my goal weight. I keep hoping my belly will just shrink, but so far it hasn't. I'm going to try and really target my core when working out this week because I just simply refuse to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe. I'm excited about wearing my summer clothes because I didn't wear them at all last year, so it will be like having a new wardrobe this year! Anyways, if you know of any good core-targeting workouts let me know!