9-month Survey

Monthly Survey

1. How old is baby? 9 months old! (9 months, 2 weeks, 5 days)
   
2. Stats:
   1. Weight: 22lbs 15 oz (97^th percentile)
   2. Height: 30 inches (95^th percentile)
   3. Clothes size: 9-12 months exclusively. She does fit in some 6 month stuff, but it looks ridiculous. 12 month pants are too short. We'll be moving up to 18 month pants.
   4. Diaper size: Huggies Size 3, still!
   5. Hair color: A lot more blonde.
   6. Anything else? She's getting her first hair cut on Friday, August 26!
3. Milestones:
   1. Teething: She now has 4 teeth with one more for sure coming in on top.
   2. Talking: Babbles a lot! Making new sounds with her tongue.
   3. Rolling: Still both ways.
   4. Walking: Not quite, but getting frustrated about not being able to! Holds onto things and walks around a room.
   5. Crawling: Yes, and quickly!
   6. Anything else? She waves hi and bye, she plays Patty Cake, can do "so big", she loves to point at things and have us tell her what they are.
4. Things she likes:
   1. Toys: She enjoys having Daddy build towers out of her blocks and then playing "Godzilla Baby" and knocking them down.
   2. Books: She has a Baby Einstein Baby Animals book that she loves to look at.
   3. Songs: None in particular, but she has started dancing when she hears music.
   4. TV Shows: SuperWhy, Dinosaur Train, and WordWorld, though she doesn't really watch them a lot. She's also getting more interested in Sesame Street. She watches them all for about 5-10 minutes and then moves on to something else.
   5. Other activities: She loves it when Daddy makes towers for her to knock down. She also likes clearing off flat surfaces. J She had great fun at swimming and got her first completion certificate. We won't be able to do actual classes anymore due to scheduling conflicts, but we'll still take her for open swim. She also had her first trip to the county fair and she really likes going for walks in the stroller.
5. Things she dislikes: Diaper changes! It's like changing a tornado.
6. Sleeping: Through the night now. Most nights she's down by 9 and sleeps until 7. Napping is still troublesome. Getting her bedtime routine established has seemed to help a lot. Now if we could just figure out how to get her to nap!
7. Eating:
   1. Favorite foods: She isn't a picky eater, but doesn't have one "favorite" food, either.
   2. Not so favorite foods: Chicken & Stars from Beechnut.
8. Nicknames: Godzilla Baby, Peanut
9. Things we're looking forward to next month: Daddy's birthday, Auntie Jessi's birthday, and Auntie Stephanie's birthday. Mommy is also taking her first vacation of the year!! Yay!
10. How I like motherhood:
    1. Likes: Everything! I love watching her learn new things. I especially love how chatty she is right now. It's fun to listen to her babbling. J
    2. Dislikes: Going to work! Our schedule is also really chaotic right now so that's made things even more interesting.

Pictures!!

Watching the chicks at the fair

Bird's eye view of the fair from Daddy's shoulders

Watching SuperWhy

Busy week ahead.

As I'm typing, I'm finishing up my last day at work for the week. I'd like to say that I'm going to enjoy the two days off that I'll have on Monday and Tuesday, but honestly I think I'll be too busy to notice!

This evening Adam is taking Clara out to eat with (Great) Grandpa Mueller and the Mueller clan. Unfortunately I'll be working late and won't get to go along. Of course it also means that I might get home before him and get to relax a little before they come home and it's time to get ready for bed.

Tomorrow Adam returns to school (the brick and mortar school). He's got class in the late morning/early afternoon. I'll be taking Clara to her 9-month well-baby appointment at 10. I'm actually excited to go and show off how well she's doing. After Adam is done with school we're loading up the car and heading to Appleton to look into getting new phones/a new phone plan to save a little money. I'll probably also run to Target as I have a shower gift that I need to get for next weekend.

Tuesday Clara and I will be home alone all day as Adam has classes all day long. When he gets home around 4, we're going to the county fair with my parents to have dinner and show Clara all the animals. I'm looking forward to it as I haven't been there in a few years. I wanted to take her because she loves animals, but I didn't want to go during the weekend. Being off during the week lets us do things while everyone else is at work and it's a lot less busy. :) I'm not a fan of crowds.

Wednesday I work all day again. Boo!! Adam has an appointment for a bone scan in preparation for his next surgery. The doctor wants to have all the information possible in order to plan everything out. This should be the last piece of information he needs before we go on the search for a size match for donor cartilidge.

Thursday I also work all day and Adam has his follow up appointment from the bone scan. I wish I could go along because I'm interested in what the doctor has to say, but I'm sure I'll get all the details when Adam gets home. He usually emails me if I'm still at work.

Friday, blessedly, we have nothing planned, but on Saturday I have a bridal shower to go to and Adam is doing a Fantasy Football draft in Green Bay. I think we'll both have a lot of fun. And Sunday I think we're free, as well. We'll probably spend the day working on the menu and possibly cleaning for our Labor Day picnic on September 5th (FOR ALL MY RELATIVES WHO READ THIS!!)

Wow! What a busy week! I haven't had a week like this in a long time! I can't believe August is almost over. Things to look forward to next month:  Our Labor Day picnic, the start of regular season football, possibly a Brewers game, Adam's birthday, Steph's birthday, and Jessi's birthday!! And maybe, if I have enough time, I'll sneak in a soup-cooking session. Wow! Looks like we might not get a break next month, either!!

LIFE Blood Drive

For those of you who live around here or are friends with me on Facebook, you may have already seen this, however for those who aren't aware, here's the information.

A wonderful, brave young man by the name of Eric, at the ripe old age of 27, has recently relapsed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia for the 5th time. He received the news a day or so after returning from his honeymoon with his beautiful (and super strong) wife, Cari. I encourage everyone to check out his homepage to read more about his incredible story and the wonderful support group this young couple has. A link to his page can be found to the right.

Anyway, to the point of my post. A blood drive is being held for LIFE in Two Rivers on the morning of August 20. I know many of you do not live around here, but for those who may be within an hour or so driving distance, I encourage you to sign up and donate!

Because Eric is facing the possibility of his 3rd stem cell transplant (and because you can help a lot of other people, too) you should also consider becoming a potential marrow donor. To learn more go to http://www.marrow.org/.

Good luck Eric! Everyone is fighting for you, even when you don't have the strength. We're all pulling for you and for Cari. She's the best!! Please let us know if you need anything (and where I can get a sticker for my car!!).

The Great Soup Project!!

So I was contemplating whether to do this again or not. I did it last year before Clara was born so that we'd have food already made. The last time I did this I think I made 5-6 different soups that I could divide up into 2 quart jars each. One quart jar is enough of a meal for the two of us, especially when paired with some yummy biscuits!

So, I've decided to do this again this year. It'll be easier for us since Adam is going to be in school 2 days a week all fall/winter and I have a class every Tuesday night from 6-9 from the end of August until November. Some of our evenings are going to be quite hectic!

Now comes the fun part-deciding which recipes to make and finding the time to do ALL that cooking!! Last year my mom came over one afternoon and helped. I think this time I may do 2 different cooking sessions just so I don't go nuts!! Last year I made Summer Corn Chowder, Southwest Chili, Minestrone, Broccoli Cheese, and one more that I can't think of off hand. I want to do the Summer Corn Chowder and Southwest Chili again. Those were my favorites. Time to get out my giant soup cook book, I guess!

Stay tuned to find out which ones I decided to make! Maybe I'll even post some pictures!

Looking a little different around here!

So, as it happens from time to time, I got bored with the look of my blog and decided to re-vamp it. The only thing I'm still not happy with is the picture at the top. I would like it more centered. If there's anyone out there who knows how to do this in Blogger and can help an HTML-handicapped lady fix this, let me know!! I also changed the look of the tickers. I also edited the blogs I'm following.
I added Mama G over at Growing up Geeky to the list today…something that was WAY overdue! Go check her out! She has great weekly posts with the cutest internet finds in the world of Geekdom. I'm about to head over that way and try out one the new features on her blog. She also does great giveaways! And if you're a mom who has a blog or even a pregnancy blog, stop over there on Tuesdays and sign up for Toddle Along Tuesdays. It's fun and you can find lots of new blogs to read!
Other than that, I'm just finishing up my last day of work before I'm off for a couple days. I'm excited! Working 12 hours 4 days in a row is exhausting! And I miss my family. I have my final dental appointment on Tuesday. I'll be getting my implant seated finally! No more treatment partial! I can't wait to see how it looks. Hopefully everything works out the way it's supposed to. I've been looking forward to this day for a very long time! Tuesday is also the last day of the semester. YAY!!! I'm really excited about this. No more school for a while! Paying the student loans back is going to suck big time, but we'll figure everything out. I don't expect to be buying much of anything with tax return money anytime soon. We'll be using it to pay off as much debt as we can before Adam finishes with Bellin.


Anyway, that's about it for now. I'm still working on Clara's 9-month survey. I'll finish and post it once we go to her well-baby visit on the 22^nd, which I'll be attending solo since Adam will be back to school by then. Should be interesting! I can't wait for her to show off all her new skills for the doctor! He hasn't seen her since her 6-month well-baby visit!


Ta ta for now! Don't forget to go visit Growing up Geeky!

Forgive me!!

It's Thursday and I've forgotten to post again!!

Yesterday was Wednesday-weigh in day. I'm happy to report I've neither gained nor lost this week! Holding steady. Things are REALLY insane around our house right now.

Adam's finished with school for the semester. He's going back in the Fall-4 classes. Should be interesting, to say the least. I, on the other hand, have decided to skip the fall semester and be finished with school for the time being. It's going to be difficult enough to watch Clara on my days off and work around babysitting needs while Adam's at Bellin full-time without having to worry about school on top of everything else.

We're also working on a big project that I'll talk more about in the coming weeks.

What else are we up to this month? This coming Monday I'll be getting my implant finished. Yay!! I can't wait! It's been a long road, and I'm pretty sure I'm not done fighting with the insurance company just yet, either. I've also got my friend Melissa's bridal shower coming up towards the end of the month. I'm excited to see her again! I haven't seen her in quite some time as she's been busy finishing up her schooling and moving into her brand new house!

Next month is our 2nd annual Labor Day picnic at our house. I think we'd better get working on the organization of this, PRONTO!  Also, it's Adam's, Jessi's and Steff's birthdays! Adam and I are talking about taking the Badger over to Michigan for his birthday weekend, but we shall see how finances work out. I think it'll be the first trip for all 3 of us!

Anyway, stay tuned for more exciting adventures!