Months 7, 8 & 9

The last couple of months have gone by in a flash. Penelope is getting bigger everyday (about 19 lbs now!) and starting to make that transition from little baby to little girl. It's hard for me to believe that the last update I did was at 6 months...she has changed so much since then!

Over the last few months, she's gotten her two front top teeth - complete with a little gap in between - and it's really just the cutest. Another bottom tooth broke through and the way she is teething on the sides of her mouth, I'd say a few more aren't far behind!

Around 8 months also brought the end of nursing for P and me. It wasn't a momentous occasion (but if you want to read a really sweet one, check out Daily Garnish's story!) but rather a series of events that led to finally ending it...p starting daycare, I being back at work full time and also finding pumping to be increasingly difficult to squeeze in coupled with lack of production once pumping became more of a full time thing. Not to mention that P started to simply outgrow it.

 It makes me sad because I really cherished our mornings and all that time we spent together, just Pen and me, over the first 6 months especially. It really became such a part of my life that it almost felt weird to stop doing it. It still amazes me what the human body can do and I'm so glad that I had a good experience with breast feeding. With P being in daycare, I back at work full-time and solid foods taking over as the star, I realized I was continuing to do it more for my own sake. And then when she started getting frustrated with nursing, I knew the time had come. I do feel a little sad that we didn't get a momentous occasion as a last feeding (instead it was significantly less Earth mother-ish and more like fussing and frustration), but I think it's probably better that way so the chances were lowered significantly of me bursting into tears at the fact that my baby is growing up and needs me less (I know that's not really true). So now were on formula and solid food only. Sniffle.

But I'm proud of us for making it to 8 months, 6 of which were only feeding her breast milk. It's kinda crazy to think back on the fact that I did that. Wow. (Aside: I can do a longer post about my experience with breast feeding if that is of interest since I found it to be sooooo helpful reading about other bloggers' experiences. Don't want to go tmi though if that's not if interest, so let me know! End of aside.)

Oh and with that in mind, P got sick for the first time! (And i cant help but connect the two). Last week I got a call from her daycare that she had a 103 fever and it turned out to be Coxsackie. Have any of your kiddos had that? Also known as hoof and mouth disease, it essentially meant that she ran a high fever and suffered from throat blisters. Not fun for baby or Mom, but I did love the extra snuggle time that she allowed. She has also been battling some cold and sinus situations and I just continue to apologize to her for inheriting my unfortunate sinus issues.

In the eating department, I have quite the foodie baby on my hands. She loves yogurt, applesauce, oatmeal, peas & edamame, sweet potatoes and now eggs.

Basically any mashed fruit is also a win. I've even started giving her tiny pieces of food when I'm eating and have learned to always have a snack on hand for her. We are getting to the point where if she sees people eating  she wants to eat too, and I love that so much. My hope is that she will love all foods as much as her daddy and me, and I know that starts early! I can see that a transition to mostly finger food is in our near future. This past weekend we went out for breakfast and she enjoyed some hard boiled eggs, pancake bits and tiny tastes of oatmeal. She thought it was the best thing.

Penelope is not quite crawling yet. She sits, scoots and lunges from the sitting position, but she hasn't really figured out how to get herself up and go. She has been trying to pull herself up though so I could kind of see her being the baby who goes straight to walking.

Lastly one of my favorite thing to date is that she has started clapping. And not just any clapping, but at the appropriate moments and it is hilarious. The best is while watching Mickey, when he comes over the hill she applauds as well as when they do the hot dog dance...it's as though she is commending them for a job well done.

So that's what's been going on the last couple of months. P is such a happy baby and I'm thankful every single day that we made it out of that newborn crying stage and she turned into such a content little girl.

Can't wait to celebrate the upcoming holidays with my little love bug! I know her first birthday is already creeping up in the back of my mind...please.make.time.stand.still.

30 Days of Thankfulness

Well somehow October has come and gone, leaving me filled with anxiety over the month of November. It's going to be quite a busy month. Among the upcoming events to look forward to are our annual Sweatsgiving dinner, a work trip to Colorado, a family vacation to Aruba, Thanksgiving, and squeezing in the beginnings of Christmas shopping. It's going to be a fun yet daunting one and so I think it's more important than ever to begin giving thanks at the beginning of the month. I find it helps keep my head on straight and recognize just how lucky I am in this life.

If you've followed me for a few years, you may have seen me participating in Julie's Little Things series in the month of November (see 2010 and 2011...2012 got sidelined by pregnant lady brain and things). I really love this so much. For each day in November, Julie takse note of something to be thankful for. Whether big or small, I love taking a moment to jot down just one little thing making me happy each day. It's so simple, yet I know that I often forget to just sit back for a moment and take in all of the good in my life because, well, there is a lot of it.

As in years passed, I plan to share my 30 Days of Thankfulness on Thanksgiving day (though I know it won't quite be 30 days at that point, but I think we can go with it).

So will you join me? I plan to keep something informal in my phone, but if you want to get fancy, Julie has a very cute printable that you can download.

To kick things off, I'm posting my thankful things from the past 4 days...

Nov 1: Pumpkin Spice creamer making my morning coffee completely indulgent
Nov 2: Five star camping with my in-laws

Nov 3: Truly gorgeous fall foliage in the wee hours

Nov 4: Movember! Shaun is participating, so P and I are excited to cheer him on this month! Personally, I always think a neon mustache scarf makes everything better.

Many thanks to Julie for inspiring me each November to do this...another reason why I love blogging ;)

I hope you will join in the fun...what do you say? Are you ready for some thankfulness?

Five Things Friday

{our bootifully carved pumpkin, courtesy of Shaun}

Last night, Shaun carved this awesome pumpkin. We ordered booritos burritos, munched on leftover mini Twix bars and watched The Walking Dead. 'Twas such a perfect evening...until P decided 3:30AM was just the right time for breakfast. So thought I'm disheveled, feeling sluggish and drinking coffee like it's my job this morning, I'm trying to remain zen. It's ok...it's Friday and we have a fun weekend away planned. I hope you all had a great Halloween and have some fun weekend plans ahead!

{a perfectly leafy street; true autumnal beauty}

{roasted fall flavors: butternut squash, gala apples, cinnamon, nutmeg & brown sugar}

{fun & fangy hand sanitizer}

{had to test out the pumpkin pie donut to get it out of my system. Not worth the 10 WW Points+, though. I'd rather have sugar-free pumpkin pudding for 2...}