Another month has slipped by. Norah is officially a 10-month old. *sigh* I swear this year has gone by so fast. Brian weighed our girl today and she is 24 lbs – triple her birth weight!  I am hoping to get some good video of her walking this Thanksgiving weekend. It is too  hard to record her when it is just Brian and me because she focuses too much on the camera and not on actually walking. So hopefully video of her walking to come!

She is cruising like crazy and does stand on her own at times. Today she stood next to the coffee table and clapped her hands. Some other notables – she is enamored by books and will sit quietly for long periods of time looking at her books. She enjoys lift-the-flap books, pop-up books and books with sensory things in it. Becky and Mark got her the “Tails” book and I find her often looking at that book and touching the soft and “hairy” patches in the book. She also LOVES anything that makes noise. She will pick up two blocks and bang them together so they make noise.  In other news, she is getting her two top front teeth with the other two top incisors soon to follow. She runs her tongue over those new teeth frequently which makes a new noise. Here is some video. The first sound you hear is from me. You can also see her cruising alittle here and of course destroying the tupperware cabinet. One of her favorite things to do.

For those of you who didn’t get to see the pictures of Norah on Facebook at Halloween, I have also posted a video of her at Halloween dressed as a bee.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I will be busy taking pictures and video this weekend as we are getting together with family and friends this weekend. Also might be putting up the Christmas Tree… Hard to tell how that is going to go!

Until next time.

All this week, I have been busy posting videos and updates from the last few months. So in a few months she has gone from army crawling to crawling to pulling herself up to now walking with assistance. This is the latest video we have taken of Norah – dated October 17th. My good friend, Kim Cotter, let us borrow a push walker and Norah loves it. She is going to be walking on her own before we know it which means we need to get ourselves in gear with buying a gate for the stairs.

This morning before Brian went to work, he had her standing up on the floor and he swears she took a few steps on her own. I don’t know if these should be considered her official first steps or not, but I might write it down in her baby book anyway!

Here is the video of her walking. Brian helped with the editing – which is why it looks better!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYCm0Cu38Rs

I just got a new iPhone so I will have a more accessible video camera so we will hopefully be able to catch the progression of these unassisted steps!

Until next time.

In September Norah really started to move. She started out with this army crawl and really wanted nothing to do with crawling on her hands and knees. To her credit, on hardwood floors – wearing pants, she was faster at dragging herself!  She was constantly chasing Puff who would most of the time let Norah get right up to her and then Puff would just walk away. Norah was typically screeching as she “crawled” toward Puff so it wasn’t as though she was trying sneak up on the poor cat. If you watch the video closely you can see how much work her big toes are doing with this crawl. I swear she wore a callus on both big toes. At any rate, this video shows Norah on the move!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b-ifFVqXyc

In early October, shortly after mastering the army crawl, Norah started pulling herself up. As soon as she was able to stand up holding on to something, that is all she wanted to do. This video makes me smile because she is kind of dancing in the beginning and flashes that ornery smile. It also shows her affinity for the remote. Why do babies love remotes?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hoVe_cZua8

Until next time.

So back in January just after I had Norah, we received the Summer Program Guide for the Westerville Rec Center. In August, they were holding a swim class for babies and their parents starting at 6 months. Since Norah was going to be 7 months in August, I signed us up. It was so much fun!

First of all, Norah LOVES the water. We had been to the pool and played in her inflatable bathtub/pool at the house so I didn’t think we would have too much trouble getting her to swim class. She was one of the youngest kids there, but did such a great job. We sung songs, floated on back and bellies, “swam” to get toys and even went underwater. The timing wasn’t super great because it was hitting right before dinner so in most of the pictures/videos you will notice her hand in her mouth. At any rate, the class was a hit. I don’t know if I will sign up to do the class again next year, but I am seriously considering getting a pool pass for next summer.

So as promised, here is a video and some pics from swim class!

First,  I must apologize for the lack of blogging. I have no reasonable excuse. I will try to do better. The good thing about all the guilt I have about not blogging is that it turns into a plethora of videos for your viewing pleasure. My goal is to post a video each night. Tonight’s video is of Norah and Brian playing guitar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Qm7Dwkowno

So my baby is 9 months old tomorrow, or today by the time you all are reading this. In the three months that I haven’t written we took a swimming class, Norah started army crawling, then really crawling, then pulling herself up and now walking with assistance. She is growing like a weed and is always on the move much to my and Puff’s chagrin sometimes. We went to her 9-month doctor appointment on Monday. They measured her at 23 lbs and 29″ tall.

I have heard that 9 months old is the height of “stranger danger” and boy do we experience it. Apparently she has a fear of people in hats. When we are at a restaurant and someone wearing a hat looks at her she immediately starts crying… For pete’s sake. It really threw her for a loop when I wore a hat once.

She has really started with the Da-da and Ma-ma, which just melts my heart each time I hear it. (It is da-da alot more than ma-ma). We also get a na-na and ba-ba, and she loves anything that makes noise including her own voice. God help us when she actually starts talking. I doubt we will be able to get a word in.

She still has not mastered drinking out of the sippy cup, however, she has mastered throwing the sippy cup onto the floor.

Norah is a champion sleeper… at night. I don’t have those problems (yet) of my kid getting me up at the crack of dawn. I have to wake her up at 7am on weekdays and she usually gets us up at 8-8:30 on weekends. So far so good. Most of this night sleeping comes from the fact that she doesn’t sleep at school. She takes maybe a 30 min nap midday and sometimes squeaks another quickie in before 4:30. All of this leads to a sleepy baby at night.

She still only has the two bottom teeth, but seems to be working on some top ones. Lots of drooling and chewing lately. I am expecting them any day now. She just recently started waving good-bye/hello and clapping.

She is generally a very happy baby and spends alot of time studying people – especially other babies.

That is the last three months in a nutshell. I promise to post more videos as the week progresses. I have quite a few I want to post, but only so many hours in a day… It takes a while to render and upload videos.

Until next time.

Hello all – So sorry it has taken me forever to get a new blog post in. I think I am trying to make sure I have a video or a photo to add and the videos take me a long time to get edited and posted for some reason. We’ve also just been busy with summertime stuff to stop for 2 minutes to type something in to this program.

So Norah is 6-months old today! We went to the doctor yesterday for her well-baby checkup and shots (of course). She is incredibly snotty and congested due to TWO bottom teeth coming in at the same time. They are SO close to popping through. So the poor thing has to endure mouth pain and shot pain that afternoon – hence she took a 2 hour nap.

Back to the doctor appt. She is 19.5 lbs and 26.5 inches long. That puts her 1.5 lbs heavier than last month and a 1/2 inch longer. When Brian and I measured her length at 5 months, we had her at 27.5 inches, but today they measured her at 26.5… so who knows what is going on there. At any rate, the rest of her checked out just great so the appointment was quick.

She is hitting milestones left and right! She rolls over front to back and back to front, she sits up by herself, she babbles all the time and laughs, and she transfers toys from hand to hand. Brian bought her her first iPad app/book. She LOVES screens… iPad, iPhone, TV, laptops… She is definitely a daddy’s girl. Her teachers at school are trying to teacher to hold her own bottle, but she seems to have no interest in doing that here – along with drinking water out of a sippy cup. She loves tossing the sippy cup onto the floor, but to drink out of it is another story.

Food is going really well. She has eaten almost all the first foods I can find. This week we started doing food twice a day. I have also made the decision to start weaning her off breastmilk and on to formula. She stopped nursing months ago so I have just been pumping for her. Just like when she stopped nursing, I am having a hard time letting this go. I don’t know why it is so hard for me to just let go of some things. I guess it is difficult to accept that she is getting older and bigger. Anyway, we did a formula bottle last night and she drank it like a champ; which made me sad and happy. Glad she didn’t have any trouble, but sad because she really doesn’t need me. *sigh*

Since it is just a few degrees cooler than Hell right now, doing any activities outside is out of the question. I was even thinking of going to the pool after her doctor appt and changed my mind because the heat index was so high. We’ve just been hanging out in the house/air-conditioning.

I tried to take my girl’s picture today for her half birthday, but my phone was too slow to catch her smile really good. We’ll be getting some 6-month pictures taken later this week so look for those soon.

Until next time.

So at Norah’s four month appointment, they said we could start introducing food. After thorough research online, we decided to start with rice cereal. All the websites suggest you start with a 1:5 cereal to water ratio. Then gradually go down to 1:1. The first day was a MESS! It is very difficult to feed a baby essentially milk from a very shallow spoon. Frankly I didn’t think any of it actually went down her throat, rather it was all over her face and shirt. By the time we got to the 1:1, it was much easier. The stuff actually stayed on the spoon and we figured out not to feed her when she was starving because she likes to “help”, which mainly consisted of her grabbing the spoon and pouring off what was on it.

After we mastered rice cereal and was relatively constipated, we moved on to green beans. I actually prepared some carrots, but then thought maybe I should do green beans. I can’t remember why I changed my mind, but anyway, I have carrots in the freezer when the time comes. The first day of green beans was HILARIOUS. The faces and sounds she made cracked us up. By day 5 of green beans, she was a pro.

What I can say is that spit up with food in it is GROSS. I had green bean spit up all over my shoulder last night. Yuck.

Obviously we took video of the various days eating. I have craptastically edited them together. Please don’t critique my editing skills; Brian is clearly better at editing, but Norah would be turning 18 before that video was posted.

Next up is Pears. I’m off to peel and steam up some pears.

Until next time.

When I take Norah to daycare on sunny mornings the sun just pours in the back window down onto our girl. She was pulling her blanket up over her eyes to block the sun. I decided one day to give her sunglasses a try. The ear pieces are too long so the glasses don’t stay on well when she is in her seat, but the picture to the left is her with her sunglasses on. I thought she looked like old school Elton John – and subsequently had a laughing fit in the morning before we left the house. Video to come on that one!

Today was Norah’s 4-month doctor appt. She weighed in at 18lbs (a pound up from last month) and 26″ long (almost a full inch taller than last month). She is in the 95-97th percentile on height and more than 97th percentile for weight for her age. Her head measured at 16.25″ which is about an inch bigger than her 2-month appointment. She is only in the 50th percentile for head diameter. She has a little head!

She had another round of shots that caused her to express her feelings negatively in the doctor’s office. She recovered quickly, but boy does that girl have some lungs!

We were given the all clear to start her on rice cereal and baby food! I can’t wait!

One of her newest behaviors is what I call “stranger danger.” She has taken to crying when someone she isn’t used to is holding her. This includes grandparents for some reason, some daycare workers and a recent babysitter we had come watch her. I wasn’t aware of this behavior until I left her with a sitter. She didn’t cry until I left either. So we need to get her warmed up to sitters AND grandparents I guess.

She is very close to rolling from back to front. She has only rolled from front to back THREE times – ever. I am glad I got video of that!

Until next time.

So Norah has been at school for 2-1/2 weeks now and while it stinks to drop her off everyday, the teachers are very nice and they tell me all the time that she is such a happy baby. Going back to work was QUITE the adjustment. I was so happy that I started back on a Thursday. Those first two days were exhausting. It is amazing how much your body gets used to napping. *sigh* I love love love sleeping and naps. Zzzzzzz. Anyway, back to the blog… So I actually don’t mind being back at work. Keeping busy there keeps my mind off of not being with Norah all day. I do like being around adults and it is nice to be out of the house, but I really want both worlds. If I could work part time, and be able to be home or go places with Norah, that would be best. Oh well – maybe someday.

So, Norah’s teachers told me one day that she loves being in the exersaucer. They said they normally don’t put 3-month olds in them, but Norah has such great head control, they put her in one. (my girl is so advanced! LOL) She apparently plays with all the toys on the top of the saucer. She will play so hard in it that she’ll fall asleep.

Since she liked the saucer so much at school, I went on a search for one for home. Luckily, a coworker had one that she is letting me borrow. It is Baby Einstein brand and has lots of activities for her to play with. Her favorite seems to be the animal sounds. Here is a video of her playing with it.

Boy have we heard “Old MacDonald Had A Farm” about a million times. So after the first weekend of Old MacDonald over and over and over, I picked her up from school on Monday and on her daily sheet was written, “My favorite activity today was Old MacDonald’s Farm.” That kid is too funny!

So this year was my first official Mother’s Day. Last year on Mother’s Day was when we told our families that I was pregnant. Norah got me a pretty silver garnet ring. Red garnet is her birthstone. It was a lovely day hanging with my MIL and Gran, and the sun actually came out!

Norah has her four-month appointment in a few weeks. I am excited to ask about giving her real food! Fun pictures and video coming soon I am sure!

Until next time!

Hello all -

Sorry I have been MIA lately. I didn’t realize it had been so long since I have posted. I need to get better at keeping you all updated!

So April 19th, Norah celebrated her three month birthday. It was our last day together before she went to daycare for the first time. Unfortunately it rained all day so we didn’t really go anywhere. She weighs in at 17 lbs and is 25-1/4″ long now! So crazy! According to the size charts, she is wearing 6-month clothes, but is still wearing some 3-6 month stuff depending on the brand.

She is really so alert and active now. Very interested in sitting up and playing with her toys. I got her to laugh really good the other day which in turn just made me laugh uncontrollably. She has such a guttural laugh, it really struck me funny. We haven’t gotten it on video yet. I don’t really know what I am doing that really makes her laugh, just being silly I guess.

Since the rolling-over video, I haven’t been able to get her to do much more rolling. When we put her on her stomach now, she is really doing well holding her head up and looking around. The other day I put her on her activity gym/mat thing and in just a few minutes, she had scootched herself up.

Here is a picture of where she ended up – keep in mind I placed her on the middle of the mat. Unfortunately, she ended up with some rug burn on the back of her head.

So, today is Wednesday April 20th, and today was Norah’s first day at daycare. I go back to work tomorrow and Brian has to fly out of town for work and he didn’t want me to have to take her to daycare on her first day by myself so we decided to take her today. We dropped her off and her “teachers” are all very nice. There are seven other kids in her class – five of them are boys! There is one boy that is just two days younger than her. I was able to hold it together in the building, but tears started flowing when I got in the car. In anticipation of my being a mess today, I called in my good friend Nicole to run interference. I had planned on meeting her for coffee at 8:30 a.m. so that made me actually hand over my child to the daycare worker. We worked in some retail therapy, lunched with some other friends and even caught a movie. It was a very nice day and I only welled up when I was asked about the Bee or thought too much about her. It was refreshing to have some time away from her, but unfortunately I was still a slave to the pump. Nicole was nice enough to let me pump in her car since she has darker tinted windows and we came up with a great idea for the Lactation Taxi. Allows you to run errands and pump at the same time!

In the middle of the day, the daycare sent Brian and I an email with this picture: 

The email said that she was having a great first day! It was so nice of the school to send that email. It meant a lot to me and did make me feel better. At 4:30 p.m., I was ready to pick up my baby girl and spend some time with her. They do a lot of stimulating activities with the kids (more than I did when she was home with me) and she was tuckered out. She took a nice nap and woke up just in time to see Brian walk in the door from work.

So all in all, the first day was a success. I am hoping that tomorrow is easier and the next day is even easier and so on. Tomorrow I will have work as a distraction. It will be good to see all my work friends, but I am not so sure I am ready to really be back to work per se. I guess I don’t really have a choice.

Among many other things, this is what I will miss.

I promise to blog more frequently and add in more video!

Until next time.