9 Months Old

Chloe has officially been out of the womb longer than she was in the womb! Boy has she learned a lot and changed so much in these 9 months. She's such a fun age - lots of smiles and interested in everything. She's crawling all over now, but mostly to the nearest thing that she can pull herself up on. She's especially fond of getting behind a chair and pushing it all around the house. When she wakes up from her naps or in the morning, she's usually standing in her crib with big smiles, and it's such a joy to open her door and see her shining face waiting for me! Other new things...she no longer likes pureed foods, so she's getting all finger foods. She loves meat, and this morning at breakfast we discovered she likes pancakes - just like her sisters! She still loves to sleep, although her morning nap seems to be getting shorter - about 1 - 1 1/2 hours long. She still takes a 2 hour nap in the afternoon, and most nights is in bed by 6:30. Her favorites right now are banging on the piano, getting in the way of her sisters playing, and going to storytime at the library, where she squeals with excitement for most of the 30 minutes. This Pooh Bear picture was taken by Sophie, photographer in training. Check back after Tuesday for updates on Chloe's stats, and pray that she doesn't have another bad reaction to her shots!

Sophie Behind the Camera

While taking pictures of Chloe in her chair the other day, Sophie asked if she could have a turn behind the camera. I let her have a go at it, and surprisingly, she did great! Of course, Zoe kicked Chloe out of the chair and proceeded to make lots of silly faces (and one cute one). You can see the last of the bruising on her face from the big accident a week ago. She complains once in awhile about her lip or nose hurting, but for the most part she seems to be healing nicely.

Thanksgiving

We enjoyed a beautiful Thanksgiving Day at Grandma Laura's house. We have so much to be thankful for this year, especially our wonderful, smart and healthy children. We're also thankful for the love and encouragement we continually receive from our friends and family. We are truly blessed! After filling our tummies with delicious food, Eric and Elizabeth (Lynn was sick) headed to our place for a sleepover. The girls had lots of fun playing during Black Friday (on which I don't dare leave the house for fear of a panic attack) before Elizabeth and her daddy had to make the long drive back to Prescott.

Things Are Changing

Our angel baby is changing to an almost toddler with an opinion. She has been fussy for over a week now, and we know she's not teething. Up until about a week ago, if Chloe cried for 5 minutes in a day, we would wonder what was wrong with her. Now it seems like a break when she goes more than 5 minutes without crying!
The only thing I can come up with is that she's in between stages, on the verge of a developmental breakthrough. The two things that make her happy right now are eating and standing up. If I don't manage to cram enough food into her, she wakes up early from naps to eat again. And the fact that she can pull up to standing and use her body more seems to wake her up or make her reluctant to go to sleep. Ahhhh....the joys of parenting. The girls have gotten used to it and no longer get mad at me for ignoring the monitor.

So now we're just surviving this momentary setback. We spend hours a day outside, either in the backyard or just walking around the neighborhood. I try to remind myself that this too shall pass, and that I can't complain because I had it way too good for the past 8 months!

Eating is one thing that makes Miss Chloe very happy. Of course, now she prefers to feed herself and is eating less and less pureed food and more finger foods now. She has had pork tenderloin and shrimp, and she liked them both a lot. It's amazing what she can "chew" with no teeth! Her absolute favorite food at the moment is graham crackers, and she also really likes melon and cheese. Hopefully next time I write this fussy phase has passed and our sweet-tempered baby will have returned!

Happy Halloween!

We spent almost a week celebrating Halloween this year, and by the time Halloween night came, we were all Halloweened out! The girls had fun wearing different costumes to each event. Zoe wore a Barbie Princess dress, a Princess Tiana dress, and a Tinkerbell costume to various parties. Sophie chose a bunny costume, a bride costume and a Snow White costume. Chloe only dressed up for one party. She got to wear the Pooh Bear costume worn by her big sisters a few years ago. She mostly tried to get the hood off and kept pulling at the footies, and she was asleep shorty after we arrived at the party so we ended up undressing her to put her to bed.
After Halloween night, the girls came home and sorted through their candy. They got to pick 10 pieces to keep. It was so cute watching them choose. Zoe decided she only wanted chocolate and quickly picked 10 different chocolate bars and then went off to play. Sophie spent about 30 minutes debating and deciding on her 10 pieces - it was agony watching her!! The rest of their candy got put out for the Great Pumpkin to come and pick up. In the morning the girls were so excited to see that the Pumpkin left them each a digital Tinkerbell watch, and I was glad to get rid of all that candy!

Sophie in her bride dress

Zoe in her Princess Tiana dress

Chloe's First Zoo Trip

Last week I took the girls to the zoo with Grandma Laura and Aunt Cynthia, who was visiting from New York. It was Chloe's first trip to the Reid Park Zoo, and since we didn't get there until lunch time, we missed the giraffe feeding. She seemed to enjoy the outing, but her absolute favorite part was playing inside of the turtle shell sculpture where we stopped for lunch. She spent a long time banging her hands on the shell and listening to her voice echo. Her fun ended when she sat up and bumped her head, but the tears stopped quickly and we moved on to see the rest of the animals. Now that we're members again (we took a break for the past year) I'm sure we'll be making lots of visits back there!