Friday, April 27, 2012

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Shenanigans

If you've ever wondered what it's like at our house, it's a lot of this.

In and Out

So I waited to post Annie’s 9 month pics until I had her stats from the doctor. The plan was to talk about how much she’s grown and I was going to plop down her weight in a glowing moment of breastfeeding triumph. And then I took her to the doctor today and the babychild has dropped down to the 25th percentile in weight (17 lbs 12 ozs) and 41st percentile (27.5”) height. . . what? WHAT? W H A T?

Okay, in the big scheme of things, it’s not a big deal. I know this. Just like the pedi said, she’s not skinny or underweight. I mean, she’s not a tiny baby or anything.

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I mean, she’s the picture of health. (And absolute adorable-ness, no?) I know that her weight and growth are not medical emergencies or any indication of failure on my part. I know that there are small babies. I know all that. I KNOW IT. But DANG. I thought Annie was going to be that chubbalicious baby. She was HUGE at birth and I so reveled in how big she was, just as I’d worried about how little Amelia was. (Interesting fact, Amelia was bigger at 9 mos than Annie) And now that I’m looking at the above picture (please try to look at without smiling—impossible), I can see that she is a little juicy nugget. . . but the confession is that I was totally disappointed. GAH. I feel like I feed her ALL THE TIME. I’ve finally been able to carve some freedom for myself by cutting out a couple nursing sessions now that she’s eating regular foods, but I’m going to have to add another back. I just don’t want to worry about her weight or worry about her losing weight. It makes sense that her weight has slowed down because she’s moving around so much and constantly in motion now that she crawls . . . but I certainly don’t want her to lost weight or drop off the chart.

Our little runt. . .

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  While I was taking these pictures, she (of course) started wriggling away . . .

DSCN4191And in just a tiny second, she was like this .

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I’m glad I had the camera—that was first time she’s done that! As you can tell, she was pretty proud of herself. Over the past month, she’s starting pushing herself to sitting position on her own. I walked into her room one morning to find her sitting up and screaming. She had no idea what to do with herself. As soon as I said, “Look at you!” and started clapping, she smiled and celebrated too.  Less than a week later, I found her standing in her crib! Also screaming then because she was stuck and really didn’t know what to do with herself. lol. Down her crib mattress went to the lower level seeing as her progress appears to come quickly. I haven’t found her standing up again, but she is definitely pulling up on things. When I stand her up in the crib, it’s complete celebration on her part.

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Seriously. She celebrates and celebrates.

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Sometimes she celebrates so much that she slaps the crib rail and loses her balance. lol

All the same, standing on her own and against everything she grabs is just around the corner. Sitting still in mama’s lap is over and chasing the dogs, her sister, and toys is her thing. The big question for me these days is how soon will she walk? With Amelia, every milestone came on slowly and with much fanfare. Annie, on the other hand, just kind of does things and keeps going. There’s not a lot of warning with her progressions. Will she walk before her birthday?? I wonder.

At 9 months old, Annie is a little character. Probably the biggest part of her personality is how much she laughs. The kid thinks everything is just HILARIOUS. And everything her SISTER does is downright criminal in its humor. All you have to do is raise your eyebrows at Annie and she giggles. Or have Amelia say/do just about anything, and she’s in stitches. She finds happiness in the little things and shows her excitement readily. For example, when she’s eating something that she loves, she celebrates after every bite. She is not reserved with her happiness at all and I love that. I LOVE that. It’s easy to make Annie happy and excited and that is fabulous. It never get old, watching her bounce in her highchair every time she gets a graham cracker.

The second probably most prevalent part of Annie’s personality is her attachment to the Mama. That’s me! ha. This babygirl loves her mama. LOVES her mama. Without exaggeration, I can tell you that when I return home from working for a few hours, I open the door, and Annie bursts into tears. Every. Time. When I run to the bathroom to pee and change out of my work clothes (read: change out of my exhausted bra), she bawls huge, drippy tears. I have to literally run and change and run back to her and scoop her up. And then she’s quiet and smiling. Even with her dad whom she adores she gets cranky for mommy. And then once in my lap, quiet and happy. I know babies like that can be annoying to everyone else because nobody likes the baby who cries when anybody-but-mom holds them, but I’m mostly okay with it. :) I mean, there’s nothing wrong with a baby loving her mama, is there? *snicker*  In the morning (usually around 530), I bring her into bed with me to nurse and sometimes she just curls up against me and falls back asleep. With her mama. And even though I can never go back to sleep when she’s in bed with me, I relish the warmth of her little body against me and the sound of her breathing against my chest and I revel in the fact that we fit together like two pieces of a puzzle. It’s pretty obvious that we are totally smitten with each other. And I have no plans for a change.

I have other pictures to post too, but it’s late and heaven knows my little alarm clock doesn’t really care if I go to bed late or early, if it’s Monday or Saturday. She’s consistent like that.

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Wednesday, April 4, 2012