Delilah at 10 Months

Well, we've reached the double digits, the golden age, heaven on earth! :) This little girl is already transitioning from dependent baby to independent toddler. I can't believe it! She's such a happy little thing and loves to follow us around.

Here's some stats about Delilah at 10 months:

• Size 6 (barely), 9, and 12 month clothes
• Size 3 diapers
• Pretty much weaned. I feed her every other day in the morning and she doesn't drink very much. It's more just to make sure my body doesn't freak out from cold turkey weaning.
• Drinks 4-5 bottles of formula per day, 5-6 ounces each time. 
• Starting to sleep through the night, but it's about a 70% chance that she'll wake up once some time between 2-4am to drink a bottle and fall back asleep right away. 
• Holds her own bottles, which makes feedings very easy for me! :) Hooray!
• Eats 2 packs of baby food each day, and likes to snack on graham crackers, ritz crackers, teddy grahams, baby puffs, or veggie straws whenever she gets the chance.
• Real whole foods that she eats are mac n cheese, bananas, apples, frozen peas, bread, yogurt, potatoes (not her fav), avocados (also not a fav), sweet potatoes, green beans, and basically anything soft and sweet that I'll put in her mouth.
• Just tried an "apple & chicken" baby food yesterday and she enjoyed it, so maybe we can do more meat soon!
• She can basically sprint in crawling form. She stands up on everything, and has started holding on with just one hand and walking along furniture. She has stood up on her own (she was holding onto the laundry basket and let go), with a record time of 3-4 seconds so far. ;)
• Claps her hands, waves hello and goodbye, has started to point, and loves to hit her fist on her mouth to make silly noises. She has also been caught successfully flushing the toilet once or twice. Haha!
• Loves to walk (and "run"!) while we hold onto her hands. Getting a little more stable if we hold just one hand, but that still needs more work.
• Loves to stand and walk with push toys or the dining room chairs. She's even strong enough to push one with Charlie on it! It's incredible! And he hates it when she moves him around. ;)
• Verbal skills: "Nana" for banana (her very favorite food), "Dada" for Dad and Mom, "Mama" occasionally for Mom, "Baba" for bottle, "Nigh-nigh" for goodnight, and lots and lots of other babbling and shouting noises. She's a verbal one and I LOVE it!! I really am not sure what her official first word was, but it was probably Dada.
• I'm teaching her the signs for milk and more. She quickly learned how to open and close her fist for "milk", now we just need to get her to do it purposefully. ;)
• Favorite toys include her stuffed dolls, any books but especially ones that have cool textures, the plastic dishes in the bottom drawer of the kitchen, and all of her brother's toys (cars, trains, tools, blocks, etc)
• She loves to follow Charlie around and torture him by touching all of his toys. She does it with a completely expressionless face, as he gets more and more upset, which makes it that much more hilarious. What a little rascal!
• Takes two naps per day, one around 10am and one around 3:30 or 4pm. Together they total about 2.5 to 3 hours. She always hates going down for a nap and will stand and scream/cry for 10-15 minutes until she consigns herself to just lay down and sleep. 
• She's great at going to bed at night, however, and will usually lay down and sleep without much fuss. She's also the happiest and most giggly right before bed. I think of it as the "golden" hour: the time between when Charlie has gone to bed and she goes to bed and I get to spend time with a super happy, somewhat giddy little girl. :)
• Sleeps at night from about 8 or 8:30pm until 7 or 7:30am. With that one time waking up to eat.
• Her hair is starting to fill out a bit, especially in the back. I finally did a cradle cap treatment on her this month and now it's all gone, yay!
• No teeth to speak of! She's been a slow teether, but her bottom middle two will be popping through any day now!
• Loves to act cute and shy when someone says hi to her or when we ask her to do one of her tricks on command. She'll bury her head into my shoulder or tilt her head so it touches my shoulder, trying to act extra cute. We love it!!

We really love this little girl's zest for life. I love that she doesn't like to miss out on anything and is our little shadow. When I read Charlie a book at night in bed (his bed is a mattress on the floor), she's always standing right there with her little head peeking over me to see what I'm reading. Such a curious cutie!

Also, here are a couple more photos that more accurately portray her personality right now:

Wearing her Easter dress:

And a video of her new clapping trick:

9 Months In, 9 Months Out

I can't believe my sweet Delilah has reached her 9 month milestone! She's been outside of my belly as long as she was in it! That blows my mind. Pregnancy definitely seemed to go slower than these last 9 months having her here. She's an itty bitty thing, but she makes up for it with a huge personality and really strong muscles.

Here are some notes and stats about Delilah at 9 months old:

• Size 6 month (barely), 9 month, and 12 month clothes... depends on the brand!
• Size 3 diapers
• Weight: 16.2 lbs (16th percentile)
• Height: 27 inches (22nd percentile)
• Head Circumference: 17 inches (29th percentile)
• Starting to wean her off breast milk. I probably breastfeed her about 4 times a day, and on top of that she's getting 2-3 bottles a day, 4 oz each time and will eat solids a couple times a day and snacks all the dang time. Haha!
• She likes most all solid foods now, except for stuff with meat in it. She totally barfed up a "chicken noodle" baby food mix. Soo... we'll wait on that! :) 
• Will drink water out of a sippy cup.
• I've been trying to piece up bits of grown-up food that she can try. She's tried and enjoyed pancakes, cornbread, eggs, sweet potatoes, and bananas. I might need to start introducing some more veggies, huh? ;)
• Still not sleeping through the night, and the doctor says it sounds like it's because she really does need to wake up and eat, so we're going to try to increase the size of her bottles during the day to help her sleep better at night. Cross your fingers!
• Now an expert crawler, which has caused her to become a bit of a daredevil when it comes to pulling up on things and trying to walk along furniture.
• She pulls up on everything. All the time. Including her crib. This means every time she wakes up, she instantly sits up and then pulls up on her crib and starts to cry. She'll eventually let go and lay down if she's tired enough, but it does make getting her to sleep more of a challenge (especially because she still hates pacis!).
• Loves to take baths in the big tub with her brother! They like to chew on squirt toys together, kick and splash, and giggle.
• Loves to wave hello and goodbye, and she'll sometimes say "haaa" for hi and "daaaa daaa" for bye-bye. Actually, she says "da da" for a lot of things. And still won't say "ma ma". Oh well! :)
• She is still very chatty and social. Like her mama.
• Will put anything and everything she finds on the floor in her mouth. This habit continues outside. I have to pull grass pieces, rocks, wood chips, leaves, etc out of her mouth consistently when we go outside. Fortunately, she somehow knows the difference between food and non-food, because she doesn't try to swallow these other objects. 
• Smiles at people all the time! She is occasionally wary of strangers, and will give a huge smile when I hold her again.
• When she actually gets the opportunity to do "big girl" stuff like ride in the grocery cart, she gets SO excited and will kick her feet and squeal the whole time. Poor thing gets stuck in her carseat too much. Second child syndrome? ;)
• Follows us around the house wherever we go. Her favorite room in the house is the bathroom, much to my dismay, and she loves to pull up on the toilet or the tub and bang on it. Yuuuuuck! I need to start closing the bathroom doors. 
• Her favorite toys are anything that her brother is playing with. She likes to chew on his hotwheels cars or wooden toolset. She does also like some of her baby toys, including touch-y feel-y books. She likes all toys that make noise, rattle, or sing and play songs. 
• She has started dancing! I LOVE it! Sometimes she'll dance when music is on, but she really likes to dance when someone in the house (usually her Daddy) starts to sing! She will rock her head and upper body back and forth from side to side. I love it! And sometimes if we start dancing first, she'll join in. <3

We are loving this age! So many fun things happen from about 9 months to a year. I look forward to enjoying every second of this stage!

8 (Months) is Great

Two thirds of a year has flown by already! This sweet lady reached some awesome new milestones this month!

Some stats about Delilah at 8 months old:

• Size 6 month, 6-9 month, and 6-12 month clothes
• Size 3 diapers
• Eats lots of solid foods. In addition to the foods she was eating last month, the new list includes things like cheerios, ritz crackers, graham crackers, bits of banana bread, tastes of other "grown up foods" like roasted sweet potatoes or banana pieces, and she also eats new baby food mixes (like veggie and fruit blends - these are some of her favorites!)
• Her milk eating schedule has changed just slightly. She still breastfeeds 6-7 times per day, but at night she gets a bottle of formula to help encourage her to sleep through the night. 
• The bottle at night seems to have helped, as she will sleep through the night on occasion, and other times just wake up once to eat! Yay! She doesn't protest or gag at all anymore, and takes straight formula happily! :)
• Still naps twice a day. Once in late morning, once in mid-afternoon. She's usually awake by 4:30 or 5 and stays awake until bedtime at 8:30.
• Wakes up between 7am and 8am, sometimes later if she had a mid-night feeding.
• Absolutely refuses to take a pacifier, but that's okay because she doesn't really need it to help her calm down and sleep. Usually cuddling up to a blanket and getting cozy will suffice. :)
• She's officially a crawler! And, just a couple days later she started experimenting with pulling up on things, and she's getting stronger and stronger every day!
• Sits excellently, and knows how to crawl from sitting, and sit from crawling. Big girl!
• Is starting to wave hello and tries to say hello on occasion with a "Haaaaa" sound. 
• Can drink through a straw.
• Loves to turn pages while reading books.
• She's a very talkative girl, and will string together lots of sounds and babble all the time. She calls both me and Trevor "da da da". I just love how social she is. Her face lights up when she sees people, or if she gets picked up, and it doesn't really matter who the person is. She's not too stranger shy (yet)!
• Hand-eye coordination is excellent. She's got the pincer grasp down to an art. 
• With her new mobility, she has really enjoyed starting to explore her surroundings and play with her toys more. She will go for longer periods of time being able to entertain herself because there's more to see and do.

Here's a cute picture of her without a bow on, just for posterity's sake:

I'm seriously loving this age. Things get pretty fun for the next few months, and I have to say we're entering my favorite stage of babyhood. (Although I'm now trying to cope with the fact that I need to babyproof EVERYTHING in my house and always need to make sure there's nothing on the floor or within her reach that she shouldn't have!)

7 Month Old Delilah

Another month has flown by for little Miss D. She's continuing to grow, change, and develop at lightning speeds!

Here are some of her stats and fun facts at 7 months old:

• Size 6 month, 6-9 month, and 6-12 month clothes
• Size 3 diapers 
• Breastfeeds about 7 times each day for about 10 minutes on one side. Eats solid foods twice a day and likes to snack on puffs or crackers too.
• She's really opening up to new flavors of foods. She'll eat green beans and other yellow/orange veggies now without an issue. She will eat a few bites of peas, but those are definitely not her favorite. She'll basically inhale anything sweet, including peaches, pears, apples, bananas, prunes, and oatmeal mixed in apple juice. She has also tried her first bit of ice cream and LOOOOVED it. That's my girl with a crazy sweet tooth!
• She has tried formula, and initially she absolutely hated it and would gag and press her lips together in protest. But now she's opened up to it, especially if it's mixed with breastmilk. But, if she's hungry enough she'll take it straight up. It just has to be warm enough and coming through a slow flow nipple.
• Naps 2 times a day. One nap usually lasts 1 hour or less, and the other for about 2 hours. One mid-morning, and another mid-afternoon. 
• Bedtime is at 8pm. She still usually wakes up consistently once a night (around 1 or 2am) to eat and goes right back go sleep. Wakes up between 7 and 8 in the morning.
• She's great at falling asleep on her own and won't cry very much if we put her down when she's still awake. Although, her favorite way to fall asleep is while breastfeeding, of course!
• Excellent at rolling over, getting on hands and knees and rocking, and she has even started figuring out how to lift one arm at a time and place it back down.
• She has figured out how to sit up on her own for long periods of time! Yay Delilah! She loves to sit and play with toys or watch her crazy brother.
• She's getting extremely good with her hands. She can pick up most anything in front of her, making it nearly impossible to eat or type with her nearby (for example, right now as I am typing she's sitting on my lap grabbing at the keyboard and mouse!)
• Her pincer grasp is getting good... She's been practicing by picking up her little puff snacks from her tray on the Bumbo.
• She's such a little babbler and I love it! Some sounds that she has been saying is "ya ya ya", "wa wa wa", "da da", "ba", "ga" and all sorts of fun little baby talk. She'll even try to copy a sound when you make it first, and has successfully copied "Dada" a few times, which melts all of our hearts, and especially Trevor's. :)
• She loves to get in the car and talk to herself in the little baby mirror strapped to the headrest. Sometimes she'll just be babbling away at herself, and one minute later she's sound asleep! 
• Getting a bit more hair! I think the bald spot on the back of her head is starting to fill in!
• She still loves bath time and jumping in her jumperoo and being around her family.
• She's a huge mama's girl (mostly because I provide the milk) and will start whining anytime she sees me and I don't give her enough attention. It's cute. ;)

Sometimes I think it's really appropriate that we named her Delilah because she really is such a "delight" to have in our household! :D

Family Pictures 2014

We managed to get our first professional photos taken as a family of four in November. And they were taken by none other than Meghan Sonnenberg herself, of course! And, as usual, I love how they turned out! Enjoy this selection of some of my favorites:

And may I just mention that Charlie was the one who made getting a good photo really difficult. He had a hard time listening to the directions to "look at the camera and smile" as he was far more interested in exploring the plants and leaves in the woods. Oh well! Meg's amazing anyway and got some really great shots of him as well as the whole family! :D

Christmas Festivities 2014

Our Christmas festivities started this year with our tradition of going to see the lights on Temple Square with Trev's family the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The weather was wonderful (not too cold at all!) and the crowds were huge, as usual. Our little family split off from the rest so we didn't have to slowly muddle through the crowds just to keep up with everyone else. It was a lot of fun! :) 

On Black Friday, I got a good deal on a new 9 foot Christmas tree that was delivered to us in the first week of December. Once it arrived, I started a decorating frenzy! :) Here's a picture I snapped the first night the tree was up, decorated, and lit. Charlie was smitten by it, and has been obsessed with touching, playing with, and moving around the lower ornaments every day since. I had to let go the control of "perfectly placed" ornaments pretty quickly. Haha.

Trevor and I worked together the weekend after Thanksgiving and got our Christmas lights put up on our house! We were so glad we did, too, because it got pretty cold a couple days later and stayed that way. Being up on the roof is definitely adventurous and slightly terrifying. Actually, going up and down an old rickety ladder is the really terrifying part. We won't talk about the one time the ladder slipped a bit while I was on it and I saw my life flash before my eyes .  .   .   But regardless, I have to say the end result was worth risking my life! (Pardon the grainy iPhone photo)

Here's a "finished" picture of most of the Christmas decor in my living room, complete with handmade wood crafts and the brand new canvas print of our family that I got for our mantel! <3

Friday, December 19th was our ward's Christmas party! We had cookies and hot chocolate and Santa even showed up to tell jokes, sing songs, and take pictures with the kids. I was MORE than pleased with how our picture turned out. I loved that neither kid was afraid of him: Charlie was enamored by his candy cane and Delilah by Santa's beard. Haha!

We also did some pre-Christmas goodie making. Charlie, Trevor, and I all dipped pretzels one afternoon while Delilah was napping. I even made a batch of homemade fool's toffee to pass out to neighbors with our annual Christmas card (photo courtesy of the ever-talented Meghan Sonnenberg!):

My ceramic nativity was finally completed this year with the addition of the camels! 1000 thanks to my amazing, talented, and loving parents for all the hard work and care they put into finding and painting these pieces so I can own a beautiful piece of family tradition forever! <3

Delilah has been rolling and scooting around a bit. Once, I caught her under the tree, mesmerized by the sparkling lights. Christmas is truly magical at any age!

I dressed up little D in a cute little cream dress and an oversized red bow for church the week of Christmas. She looked SO cute that I had to snap a picture. :)

Then, later in the week on Christmas Eve, we went to Trevor's parents' house as is customary. We had a grand time eating taco salad and way too many treats, spending time with loved ones, and opening up gifts! At the end of the night, we snapped a photo of all the cousins (minus the Andersons who stay in Las Vegas for Christmas) in their new Christmas jammies! :) It's really hard to get 6 young, tired kids to all look and smile in the same direction. Haha!

Charlie fell asleep on the way home and we tucked him snug into his bed before Santa Claus came down the chimney and left heaps of toys and treats for us:

Here's my Charlie's excited Christmas morning face. This moment makes me so SO happy.

We spent the morning exploring Santa's gifts, opening the gifts under the tree, and making an absolute wreck of our living room with all our new goodies! :)

Santa left a yo-yo in Charlie's stocking and Trevor showed him some tricks! He thought it was great! And Trevor had a pretty good time brushing up some of his old rusty yo-yo tricks as well. ;)

Delilah was there, too, happily bouncing away in her jumperoo. Santa brought her this cute new red leather hair bow:

More pics of my Christmas morning kiddos! If you look closely enough, you can see the hint of leftover chocolate around Charlie's mouth.

I love that they love each other, and that Charlie will go over and make sure Delilah is having fun!

One of my favorite Christmas gifts I got this year was this new Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag from my Mom. Love love love! I feel so stylish carrying it! 

Our first real snow of the season came on Christmas morning. We had a gloriously white Christmas, and it wasn't too cold to go out and play in it... so we did! Charlie was in heaven, of course. We had a snowball fight and I even showed him how to make his first ever snow angels. 

That evening, Trevor's parents and brother Trent stopped in to say hello. We had planned to make a turkey dinner for our little family, and invited them to stay and dine with us! Trevor was in charge of prepping the turkey before sticking it in the oven. He put a delicious herb butter under the skin and on top of the turkey, and stuck part of an onion inside. The turkey turned out moist and totally delicious. I'm not usually a big turkey fan, but I really liked this one! Yum! We also made mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans. It was so much fun to have an impromptu family dinner! We MAY have to make a turkey every Christmas... a new tradition?!? We shall see! :)

Overall, Christmas was absolutely wonderful this year! It was nice to be able to relax at home and just enjoy a peaceful day together. I am grateful for the true reason we celebrate this time of year: the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He has given us everything we have. I hope your Christmas was as lovely as ours!

Delilah: 6 Months Old

Half a year old! I can't believe how fast it has gone! You'll have to excuse her slightly red eyes in this picture... we took it at night instead of during the day, and she was starting to get a little sleepy-eyed and ready for bed. :)

At age 6 Months, these are some facts about Delilah:

• Weight: 14lbs 8 oz (18.3%)    Length: 25.75 inches (40%)    Head Circ: 16.25 inches (22%)
• Size 6 month and 6-9 month clothes (still fits in a couple 3-6 months, barely)
• Size 2 diapers
• Breastfeeds 8 times a day for 5-15 minutes on one side at a time. 
• Takes 2-3 naps per day. Always a short one in the morning, longer one mid-day, and sometimes a cat nap a couple hours before bedtime.
• Started eating some solid foods! She has tried rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, pears, sweet potatoes, peaches, apples, bananas, and green beans. Her favorites are oatmeal cereal and peaches. Green beans and apples made her gag... but we'll keep trying!
• When we feed her solid foods, she gets so anxious and excited that she'll start kicking her legs and open her mouth wide and try to grab for the spoon. And it seems that as soon as I get the spoon out of her mouth, she's already swallowed and has opened up again for more more MORE! 
• Bedtime is around 8 or 8:15pm. She still wakes up once a night, sometimes twice. Sigh.
• Is excellent at rolling over, both from back to front and front to back
• Has started pulling her knees in and putting her little bum in the air so only her head/hands and feet are on the ground. She can figure out how to scoot forward about an inch at a time. This combined with her rolling skills means I often find her in a completely different place than where I left her, in just a matter of minutes!
• Doesn't want to sit unsupported yet. If I balance her in the right position, she'll sit by herself for a few seconds, but she loves to push off with her legs and it makes her head fly backwards and she falls back really hard and, obviously, she doesn't like when that happens very much. I laugh that she may crawl before she sits! Silly girl!
• Has started being interested in trying to reach her toys that she can't reach by moving around to get to them. 
• Some things she hates: Being hungry, being tired, initially being strapped into her carseat, being left alone for too long, and sudden loud noises in her face. 
• Her favorite things to play with include her rattle, books, her jumperoo, and empty plastic water bottles (oh so crinkly!) 
• She talks the most when she's REALLY happy, like when she is jumping in her bouncer or when I stand her in front of the mirror and she gets to play with her reflection. It makes her laugh and jump and giggle to see herself. Sounds like a girl to me! ;)
• Loves to be in water, whether it's splashing in her bathtub or floating with me in a pool (we took her in for the first time just the other day and she LOVED it!) 
• Enjoys watching shows and movies on TV with her brother. 
• For the most part, she enjoys riding in her carseat, especially when we pull back the canopy and she can see out the window and also see Charlie. He will start giggling at her and she'll start giggling right back. It's literally the cutest and most heart-warming thing I've ever heard. It's little things like that that makes all the tough moments completely worth it!
• Overall, she is a really laid-back baby. She goes with the flow and is generally very happy! She definitely has an intense temper, which can flare up loud and suddenly when she decides she's just not happy anymore. As I have said and thought very often with her: "Well, that escalated quickly!" At least when she gets unhappy, she can be made happy just as quickly as she became unhappy! 

We just love this cute little girl! Although I do wish she'd start growing some more hair one of these days... ;)