Nine Months Old

It's been a busy and fun month around here!

 

Stats: No update here.  She has her 9-month checkup in a couple of weeks so we'll get measurements then.  She seems to have more meat to her bones these days.  She's wearing both 9-month and 12-month clothes.

Sleep: Not a great month for sleep.  I think she hit the 8-month sleep regression the week before Christmas, and we're finally starting to see some improvement.  She went from consistently waking twice a night to 3-5 times.  Her naps have regressed, and we're lucky to get longer than an hour at a time out of her.  She's still napping 3 times a day, although it'd be nice to consolidate them into 2 substantial naps.

Eat: No change in nursing.  She's eating solid foods twice a day, usually when we sit down for breakfast and lunch.  She eats at both her weaning table (when we're not eating with her) or in her highchair (if we're having a family meal).  Her favorite foods at this point are strawberries, blueberries, and little sausages.  The most adventurous thing she has tried so far has probably been quinoa.  If given the option, she'll usually pass on bread and chicken and go for the fruits.  We are still waiting on introducing eggs and dairy until she hits the year mark.

Play/ Milestones: So many updates.  As spoiled in my last post, she started sitting within days of getting her cast off.  She can maneuver from sitting to her belly, and Jason has said she's managed to go from belly to sitting a couple of times (but I haven't seen it).  She can roll belly to back, but not back to belly yet.  She's trying sooo hard to crawl.  She started with just pushing backwards, but she's made progress in the past few days to leverage her knees and toes more to get her forward/ sideways.  It really wears her out though!  She can also put weight on her legs and stand if you set her against something.  She waves hello and goodbye, and she gets really excited and waves her hands in the air when she tries to join in clapping.

I don't think I've talked too much about it yet on here, but we've started implementing a lot of Montessori concepts in our house this past month.  We made her a movement mat with a low hung mirror in her bedroom for her to safely play and move on.  We have open shelving in both her bedroom and living room to store her toys/ activities.  This month she has really been drawn to discovery baskets with a bunch of random items in them.  She likes to pick through and study each item.  She also likes these sensory balls we borrowed from my mom, along with stacking cups from Ikea (although no actual stacking is taking place yet).  I really want to make her a sensory book since she's been all about exploring different textures.  She also been interested in exploring her rattles more in depth and shaking random items up near her ears to see what type of noise they make. 

As far as trips this month, we went to Dallas for Jason to run the half marathon.  Matilda loved seeing her cousins! 

 

We also went down South for Christmas.  Matilda had a wonderful time!  She really enjoyed opening presents and spending time with family!

Jason's parents came through town on New Years day, so we got to eat lunch with them.  It was a good day as well.

Hip Dysplasia/ Leg Update: No update here.  Her next appointment with the orthopedic surgeon isn't until February.  She's wearing her brace at night, but it hasn't been an issue at all.  We've definitely been taking advantage of having a cast free baby.  She can swing in baby swings and sit in restaurant highchairs now.  It's stuff like that people that haven't had a hip baby wouldn't understand how much of a privilege it is! 

 

Matilda's Nursery

We've made some changes to Matilda's nursery in the past few days.  But before we share how it now looks, I wanted to share how it's looked over the past 8 months. 

 

I must say, I do love her room.  As I explained when we were getting the nursery ready, we didn't change much.  We already had the twin bed, nightstand, lamp, rug, curtains, and desk.  The only pieces of furniture we added were the crib and the glider set which came with an ottoman and side table.

 

 

Her nursery has a lot of handmade touches.  I sewed the pennant banner, made the mobile, crocheted a blanket, and customized the curtains after they shrank in the wash.

 

 

Here's a view of the other side of the room.  The "M" art is also handmade with the same scrapbook paper used in the alphabet poster and mobile.

We also painted and hung Ikea spice racks for her books.  She already has a nice little library!  We put her board books on bottom so eventually she'll be able to crawl/ walk over there to get him herself.

In the other corner, we hung baskets to hold diapers and supplies next to the desk which we used as a changing table.  We kept her cloth diapers in the desk drawers.  The embroidery hoops above the changing table were made from the same fabric as the pennant banner. 

Her room also has plenty of blankets made by wonderful family members. It makes me happy she is so loved and our family is so thoughtful.

Eight Months Old

We're a week late!  Disclaimer: Her eight month picture was taken today.  She didn't actually know how to sit on her 8 month birthday since that was the day she got her cast off. I know, what a spoiler for next month's post!

Stats: At 8 months old, Matilda weighed 14.5 pounds which puts her in the 6^th percentile for weight.  Still a wee one, but at least she’s still on the growth curve!  We didn’t get a good measurement of her length since we don’t want to stretch her legs down straight until they have loosened up a bit.

 

 

Sleep: No change.  Still waking twice at night to eat and taking 2-3 good naps during the day. 

Eat: Still nursing the same.  As far as solids, we’ve moved from just doing purees to doing more finger foods which she seems to enjoy.  In addition to the foods she already tried last month, she’s also had broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, turkey, chicken, and buttered bread.  Her favorites from this month are mango, strawberries, and cantaloupe.  She definitely prefers the sweets!  She likes drinking straight from a cup, although most of the liquid ends up down her front.

 

 

Play/ Milestones: No significant changes here either.  We visited family for Thanksgiving, and found out that she LOVES watching and playing with older kids.  She adores her cousins.  Jason hosted a stay-at-home dads play group at our house last week, and she had fun with that. 

 

This past month she also went on a few nature walks and we went back to the Renaissance festival for a day.  She loves observing the world from the Ergo carrier.

 

Matilda responds to her name (although she’s been doing that for a while now) and she’s also saying more consonants.  She can do M’s, B’s, N’s, G’s, and most recently D’s.  I think she’s also learning P’s… it’s just like she’s doing B’s, but really softly.  I’ve also heard her say “unga” a few times, but don’t know what she means by that.  She whines when she’s bored or tired and that usually sounds like “mmmmmm,” or if she’s more upset, “neeeeee”.  She also makes plenty of funny growls and screeches.  She’s also starting to laugh more, which is nice. 

 

 

This next month will be a huge transition for us as she gets used to playing on the ground vs. being in her spica table a majority of the time.

 

Hip Dysplasia/ Leg Update: Speaking of her spica cast, she got it removed on December 9th – her 8 month birthday!  Between her two casts, she was in them a total of 15.5 weeks.  Based on the x-rays, the doctor said that her hip is progressing nicely, so she only has to wear the Rhino cruiser brace at night.  It will still take months to years to fully be able to tell if we’re in the clear, but so far so good!  She was scared of the actual cast removal and didn’t like the x-rays, but other than that, she had a really good cast-off day.  Her skin was really dry and flaky under the cast, but improved after just one bath.  She was in a bit of pain a few days after her cast, but is doing much better now. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having a baby in a cast became second nature to us.  Now we have to adjust to having a non-casted baby.  She seems so small and fragile to us!  It will be fun to watch her start reaching gross motor skill milestones this next month.

 

Goodbye Radar

?? - December 14, 2014

 

Last night we said goodbye to our beloved fur-kid, Radar.  He had been sick on and off for several months.  Despite several rounds of testing from several vets and specialists we never got a clear diagnosis, although the emergency clinic yesterday seemed to think he had a very progressed stage of pancreatitis. 

 

We adopted Radar shortly after we got married in August 2007 from the Cocker Spaniel Rescue of East Texas.  He was probably one to two years old at the time.  Before being fostered by the rescue group, he was found roaming the mean streets of Pasadena, Tx.

 

 

Radar was part of our family from day one.  Our first memories of him include him stealing a bag of sliced bread and hiding it around the apartment (including behind books on the bookshelf!), howling every time we left him alone (bet our neighbors loved us), and him trying to run up the stairs full-speed despite having a collar and leash on.

 

 

 

Radar loved his plush toys with all his heart and carried around his favorite plush bone until his last hours. 

We found out pretty early on that he had severe animal aggression issues.  Despite intensive training, he never quite shook it.  Our mission became keeping Radar safe from the world and the world safe from Radar.

 

Despite his behavioral issues, he was loved by our extended family.  He traveled home with us every holiday.

 

He went through several moves with us until we settled in our current house.  He lived a life full of comfort, joy, and lots of cuddling.

 

Over the years, he developed a refined taste for gummy bears and Kleenex tissues and never past the opportunity to steal/ pilfer/ scavenge either of them.

 

 

When Matilda came along, we couldn't believe how good he was with her.  We will forever be grateful of this.

I hope he knows how much he was loved.  He will be missed.