And He's Off!

We have a walker! I knew when he turned 9 months that it wouldn't be long. He actually took his first official steps last Sunday, 3 days after he turned 9 months. He took 3 steps that night in between his push toy and the ottoman. I sort of think it was kind of a mistake - he sort of didn't realize he wasn't holding on to his toy anymore and just walked.

Then during this week, he took more steps every day throughout the day - usually 3-5 steps or so before he fell down. Thanksgiving night, he took probably 10 steps across my mom's family room. I finally got some pictures of him this weekend. He's so wobbly, but he's getting it!!!!

He really goes fast now behind his push toy, but he can't steer at all, so he gets mad when he runs into the wall or the furniture.

Now I'm going to have to get him some shoes. I tried a couple pair on him this weekend, and I forgot how hard it is to put a shoe on a baby - they curl their toes so you really have a hard time getting it on! I decided against buying any just yet, but I'm going to have to within a month I'm sure.

So, we had a nice Thanksgiving break. It was pretty low-key, which was just fine by me. We went to Tony's sister's for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and then over to my moms in the evening. Here are the two most fantastic gifts that we are so very thankful for!

Hannah stayed the night at my mom's Thursday night so they could go see Tangled on Friday. Tony, Nicholas and I did a little shopping Friday. I have to say, I wasn't so into shopping and to my great surprise, Tony was a pretty good partner to hang out with. Nicholas did pretty good too even though it was during his normal nap time - we screwed his schedule all up this weekend! I took Hannah to the square Friday night to watch them light the town. There were a bunch of characters walking around...here she is (with McKenna) with Shrek.

It was super cold out, but we had a nice time hanging out with the Hardins.

We met up with Tony and Nicholas later for dinner and then hung out at the Hardin's for a while.

We were pretty lazy Saturday. I was bored, so I went out and did a little more shopping and then we all went to dinner and the mall. We didn't do much today either, but had a great weekend hanging out with our family. Getting some much needed relaxation time was great too!

Gymnastics Update

Hannah's first session of gymnastics ended last week. They did evaluations and then had a "Show what you know" where the kids took their parents around to all of the apparatus to show them all of the things they've learned how to do! The picture taking in the gym is awful, so please excuse the bad pictures.

Hannah does well on floor exercises and on beam

She seems strong, but actually tested the lowest on bars even though her front supports and casts are really improving!

She loves climbing the rope and is getting higher and higher each time!


She loves trampoline and vault and just needs to gain some power behind her jump.

At the end of the night, they had a ribbon ceremony. As all of the other girls were getting their awards, Hannah hoped and hoped she'd get a trophy. Some girls got medals and others got trophies, all got ribbons, but I didn't really understand the process well enough to explain to her.

So then it was Hannah's turn. She got black ribbons for floor, beam, and vault and a blue one for bars - those are for the levels in which she tested (blue being the lowest then black is next - I think red is after that).

Then she got a blue Trophy!!!! I'm pretty sure it's becuase she's passed the entire blue level! She was SOOOO excited and I was so happy for her and so proud!!!

She's awesome!

9 months!

Crazy, but Nicholas has turned 9 months old. This time has gone so, so fast and at the same time, it seems like I can hardly remember our life without him as part of our family!

He is growing like a weed, although, he is now starting to grow into himself - growing up more than he's growing out!!! He went for his well visit yesterday and is doing great. He now weighs 21 pounds, 6 ounces and is 28-1/2 inches tall. He is now back down to the 75 percentile in both height and weight. His head measured 18-1/2 inches, which is in the 50th percentile. He only gained about 1-1/2 pounds, but grew 2 inches since his 6 month visit. We talked with the doctor about transitioning him to table food because he's so interested and he said that we can start with anything that he'll eat, we just still need to be careful until we completely rule out any food allergies. His eczema is still pretty bad, but we're doing pretty much all we can for him right now with daily lathering of aquaphor. The doctor said that even though it looks bad, it doesn't feel as dry as it can sometimes be, so we must be treating it properly.

So as for some milestones at 9 months:

He's got 8 teeth, 4 on top and 4 on the bottom and LOTS of drool this week, so he might be cutting some more I just can't see yet.

He's been super healthy except for one cold that lasted about a week. He sounds like he's getting another one the past couple of days - icky nose and coughing.

He says mama, dada and uh-oh (which he grunts). If you ask him to say bye-bye, he makes that sound by strumming his bottom lip and making a sound, but that's totally consistant everytime you ask him to say it.

He signs "more", but does it with open hands (unless they stuffed with puffs or cheerios).

He does "so big" and still does it by grabbing his hands together and sticking his fat little head through the opening over his head.

He has started to give open mouth kisses!!!

He can stand alone in the middle of the floor and I suspect is about a couple of weeks away from taking his first step.

He is sure getting a funny personality - makes funny faces like this one:

making this "o" shaped thing with his lips and then laughs!

He also snickers a lot, scrunching up his nose and making a funny smile face and a snarl sound with his nose....he's funny!

He loves to eat! He has 3 meals of solid baby food and rice cereal and snacks on puffs and cheerios

And this week has started mooching from anything we're eating. Now that we've gotten the OK from the doctor, we'll probably start sharing with him more. I will try yogurt this weekend, but he like little pieces of chicken we had the other night and canned green beans & carrots. He's still getting 4 bottles a day too.

He's got some real rhythm in his bones - dances any time he hears music and likes to clap to the music with a huge smile on his face!

He growls a lot more than he talks with a cute little baby voice and he likes to play rough. He's full of energy and has finally been sleeping a little better at night. He still wakes 2-4 times a night and cries, but since we haven't been going into his room very much, he's crying less loud and not as long. He'll sleep until about 7-7:30 on his own most mornings. He is ready for bed by 8-8:30 most nights. He still takes a short morning nap and about a 2 hour afternoon nap.

He's outgrown his pumpkin car seat and is now in the regular car seat in both cars - we'll be putting a bunch of baby stuff on Craigslist since we're DONE with it!!!

He's really hard to sit and take a picture anymore, but here he is on Thursday when he turned 9 months! We're going tomorrow to take some professional pics - hopefully that goes OK. Here is about as good as I could do the other day.

Hannah and Nicholas love to play together and they do it so well. Of course, Nicholas pushes his way into wherever he wants, but Hannah lets him most of the time - she loves that little guy! They sure are buddies!

And they sure had fun basket riding the other day!

We sure love this life!

Just Checkin' In!

I really don't have much to talk about, but I figured I still owed it to the ole' blog to add a post.

I've had a couple really tiring, busy weeks. Mostly work stuff - just that time of year and some added responsibilty makes for a long week after 5 days! This past week was spent doing my annual performance reviews. I did them differently this year - had just open dialog about all the good things each of my girls have done, the things they need to work on and then some feedback about what I can do to become a better manager and leader. I've got to step up my game a bit this year and I intend on working on a few things that I haven't done well and am generally not that good at - managerial courage stuff. So meetings for the past two weeks have really consumed my time.

On the home front, Hannah and Nicholas finally got over their first colds of the season. I had to finally take them to the doctor a week ago Friday. Hannah's cold just wasn't getting better and Nicholas got a super bad case of eczema that turned into a red rash all over his legs. Nicholas was fine and Aquaphor in mega doses made him better and Hannah needed a 10 day dose of amoxicillin. We're all back to normal now. I thought I was getting a bit of a scratchy throat a couple days this week, but so far, so good!

We had Bible Study at my house last Wednesday. I played poker this past Saturday night. Tony didn't feel like playing. I started off playing well and then made a bad move. I've done some Christmas shopping, need more time (and more money) to do some more! Goals is to be done by the end of the 2nd week of December when I'm planning to take a week of vacation.

Nicholas will be 9 months this week. I'm looking forward to that post where I will update all of the things he's doing now. He's something else!!! Developing quite a personality, although, I'm hoping I can keep instilling some calm as he is a crazy boy with way too much energy!!!

These pics capture some of his personality - yes, we take the good with the bad!

And he is quite the Browns Fan!! He was very sad today!

I'm starting to clean out some baby stuff, getting ready to sell it. There will be another baby resale in the spring, but as we finish with all the big stuff, I've got to start clearing it now. I'll be busy on Craigslist for a while I think.

I've got a Tastefully Simple party scheduled for December 4th. I'm hoping to get that thing back on track next month, I've just been way too busy this month. I've also got a plan to start a new small business next year...more on that later after I get started, but I'm very excited about it!

Halloween Weekend

Tony's dad came up from Florida to visit us this weekend. He has never seen Hannah or Nicholas, so he was thrilled to see his grandchildren and spend some time here with Tony and I. He's something else!!! Lots of stories and lots of eating this weekend. It was a nice visit. He left early this morning. Here he is with Nicholas the other day. He got a real kick out of him as I'm sure he reminds him of Tony when he was a baby.

We were able to take a few more pictures Monday night. Unfortunately, Hannah is still fighting a nasty cold so she wasn't feeling so great and was pretty beat since this was after we got home from gymnastics.

The kids had fun on Halloween night for Trick-or-Treat. Hannah was an angel (again) and Nicholas was an adoreable little doggie! They were so cute!

Hannah was looking forward to this part of the day all day!!! It was cold, but it was a good night for trick or treating.

Nicholas could really care less and will probably hate these pictures some day, but for now, he was so stinkin' cute!!! (he stayed warm too)

And here they are with McKenna and Allison next door. Once again this year, we got to celebrate this fun with them.

Now that's behind us....I have a feeling Thanksgiving and Christmas will be sneaking up on us super quickly....can hardly believe it!