What a Week! [and a half]

What a week (and a half) we've just had!  Little Miss decided she wasn't growing up fast enough, so she took matters into her own hands.  Or, rather, her own feet.

She decided last Monday (September 9) that she could pull herself up from sitting to standing.  All of a sudden.  I showed up at the babysitter's to pick her up and she was sitting next to her walker playing while we were chatting and then she was just standing up.  It caught both of us off guard.  But hey, good for her!

The next day, she went one further.  I got to the babysitter's after work and she demonstrated how she could pull herself from crawling to standing.  Ok, not too big of a leap.  I can handle it.  Here's a video from that evening...

Wednesday, she tried to crawl up the TV stand.  She had both hands on the stand, one foot up on the top of her little piano, and the other foot stepping up onto a basket next to the stand when I caught her.  This kid is a monkey, I swear.  

Thursday, she crawled up and over the crate of books that we had set up to block the pole lamp (the doctor advised us that it is one thing parents frequently forget to baby-proof, even though they are very prone to falling over) and was just hanging out back behind there, playing with Daddy's computer bag.  Grampy thought it was cute.  Mama wasn't as thrilled.  Book crate moved out, giant Rubbermaid tub of storage items moved in to block the lamp.  She hasn't gotten over that one yet, but she's gotten awfully close.  She got up into the crate of books (which is next to the tub) and tried to stand up in there and crawl over to the tub.  I so wish I was exaggerating, but I'm really not.

By Friday, she was walking along the furniture.  Walking along the furniture.  This is too fast, darlin'.  When she pulled herself up on Monday, we immediately ordered a bumper for the edge of the coffee table.  I'm not ashamed to admit that we spend a good deal of time in our living room.  That's where most of her toys live, so she plays in there a lot.  And our coffee table is rectangular and has pointy corners.  I could just picture her falling and poking an eye out.  So we ordered the bumper.  It arrived on Friday, so we were able to put it on before she starting trotting along.

She basically just put all those skills to work over the weekend.  My sister came down and we went to the street fair in our little town and had a wonderful time.  Ellie was an angel riding in her stroller and even fell asleep toward the end of our trip.  But at home, she just wants to stand all the time.  And I mean all. the. time.  

She gets so tired out that she cries and fusses, but doesn't want to sit down.  She will scream if you try and take her away from wherever she is standing.  She literally stands at the TV the entire time that I am getting ready in the mornings.  

Tell me more, O Wise One!

I know it's probably not the best for her to watch TV like that, but it's The Cat in the Hat on PBS, so it's very educational and there's really nothing else I can do with her and still get myself ready for work.  So there.  We do other activities at other times in the day.  Morning is TV time.

This past Monday, (September 16) I picked her up from the babysitter's.  I walked in the door and she was in their living room, laying on her tummy in a crawling position.  I expected her to crawl over to me, like she usually does.  Instead, she flipped over and SAT UP.  She hasn't done it for Daddy yet, but I've seen her do it plenty of times, so I know it wasn't a fluke.  She can now sit herself up.  All within a WEEK.  Holy wow, kid.

Yesterday, I was a little nervous walking into the babysitter's house.  I kind of thought she would just stand up and run to me.  Luckily (for me), nothing major happened.  She just still gets a kick out of standing up.  *whew*  Maybe that's enough developmental milestones for now?  I hope??

This morning I was eating breakfast and she started fussing (as usual), letting me know she was awake and not happy to be stuck in her crib all by herself.  I walked back to get her and saw this...

Good Morning, Mama!
(sorry for the lousy cell phone picture - it's all I had on me at the time!)

Seriously.  Cut it out.  I'm happy for you.  I'm proud of you.  You're doing so well for a baby that doctors literally told me might have a fatal defect.  But my nerves can only take so much.  We need to slow things down or I'm going to have some serious anxiety problems.  Luckily, we had lowered the crib mattress weeks ago when she first started showing interest in maybe thinking about trying to sit up.  But now Andy thinks it needs to be lowered further.  Really?  Is that necessary??  I mean, her head barely pokes over the top.  I think she's perfectly safe, so my poor aching back and I vote that the mattress stays where it is.  But Daddy is the King of Safety in our house, and he's pretty insistent that we lower it to the lowest level.  What do you think?  Is it fine where it's at, or do we lower it and run the risk of my falling in when I lay her down at night?

Either way, I've got to do some rearranging of the living room and put a teething guard on the crib this weekend.  So much for spending the weekend unpacking!

8 Month Update

So my baby is 8 months old today!

This was THE most difficult monthly photo shoot so far.  She would not sit on the chair without that chalkboard in her mouth.  If I took it away, she did this...

...yeah.  Fun times.

We've been busy this month with trips and visits here there and everywhere while summer winds its way down.  Here's a recap in pictures...

Little Miss has accomplished a lot this month.  First, she went shopping with Mama and rode in the cart like a big girl!

SO much better than being stuck in that darn car seat!

PS- Cart cover = one of the best investments so far.  The MOMENT I put her in the cart, she immediately chomped right down on the handlebar.  SO GLAD it was covered!  Plus, I got this super nice, brand name cover at a consignment store for $8!

She also got and learned how to use some sippy cups!

I love my big-girl cups!

Ellie LOVES water.  Seriously.  Loves it.  So when she's fussy in the evenings, we just give her a sippy cup with water in it and she's happy for like a half hour.  It's one of the best tricks we've learned so far.

She's becoming quite the chatterbox...

And she's been helping out around the house a lot more...

Ooooooh so soft and warm!  I will eat them!

Haha, ok so she was interested so I put her in there.  Kept her entertained for a while.  Then I realized she was drooling all over my clean towels.  Is it bad that I folded them and put them away anyway?  They weren't like guest towels or anything - just the ones that Andy and I use.  We're always covered in baby drool anyway, so no big deal, right?  Right?!

Moving on...

She's also been teething like crazy.  As in, screaming non-stop unless there is tylenol or ibuprofen in her system.  For almost a week now.  She's been working on this tooth for months.  (for once I'm not exaggerating)  I think the gum is finally split open now, so all the tooth has to do is move right up through it.  You would think that the painful part would be over.  Notsomuch.  I feel so bad for her, but I'm starting to feel even worse for me.  I've been getting, on average, a total of 5 hours of sleep per night.  5 hours - not all in a row.  For a week.  And she's taken a total of 1 afternoon nap during that week.  I honestly don't know how much longer I can take this.  Someone please tell me that the first tooth is the worst?!  *sigh*

...end of pity party...

And now the biggest change this month.  I was sitting on the couch eating breakfast one morning while checking email.  I had PBS turned on and sat Ellie in her pile of toys to play so that I could have 2 seconds to eat.  I looked up, and she wasn't there.  She'd been rolling like crazy, so I thought maybe she just rolled onto the other side of the other couch and out of my view.  Got up to look for her and saw this....

Ooooooh, what's in HERE?!

Yup.  Crawled down the hall and halfway into the bathroom.  We have a crawling baby.  It's nuts.  It's a good thing we already had the gate installed because we had virtually no warning that she was going to start.  She gets around pretty quick, too.  And she's not even doing the true crawl yet.  Just the army crawl.  I don't even think she'll get to the regular version.  She just wants to run.

Check it out...

She also pays absolutely no attention to any obstacles in her way.  She just crawls right over them.  A few examples...

A new way to sit in my rocking chair

Hamper?  Or TENT?!

I now play the piano with my elbows.  It's cuter that way!

Just checkin' to see if there's any trouble I can get in back here.

Yeah.  So now we're dealing with that.  Life has gotten pretty interesting.  And she gets MAD when you don't let her do something dangerous.  You know, like chew on power cords and roll off the changing table and stuff.  She has a special scream that she reserves just for those occasions.  I can't WAIT for her to learn the word 'no'.  It's going to be so much fun.

We also had quite a bit of fun running around this month.  My parents took us and my sister to Longwood Gardens for our 'family vacation' this summer.  No one had the time or money to do anything really elaborate (plus I've heard that vacationing with a baby can be more of a pain than it's worth), so we just did a day trip.  If you live in PA or NJ and you've never been before, you should totally go.  It is THE most beautiful, relaxing, entertaining, refreshing place you can go.  There is literally something that will appeal to everyone.  And every season is a little different.  We're hoping to go back in December and see the Christmas display with Andy's dad.  Check back in a few days, I'm working on a whole post dedicated to our trip, but for now, here's a few pictures for you...

Family picture at the beginning of the day...

Admiring the Italian Water Garden

Andy's dad went on a trip to Maine, where he is originally from, in the middle of the month.  He graciously comes over and watches Ellie 1-2 days a week.  So for that week, we were lacking a babysitter for a day.  Grandma to the rescue!  She took off work and came down Wednesday afternoon, spent the night, and stayed with Ellie while I was at work on Thursday.  Then I got home and she gave me a nice haircut.  She's all kinds of awesome.  She also never arrives empty handed.  This time, she brought Ellie one of her favorite new toys...

Leave me alone, I'm watching TV!

... a tambourine!  I'm all about the musical instruments (I am a music teacher, after all), but really now.  A tambourine?  All it's good for is making noise.  And Ellie is amazing at it.  She bangs on that thing all. the. time.  So thanks, mom.  You're doing an awesome job of being a Grandma :-)

And we also had a family get-together of my dad's side of the family.  We usually get together for Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas every year.  We missed Easter this year because my cousin had JUST had a baby and Ellie was in the midst of her bout with colic and just nobody got around to planning it.  So we had everyone (who could make it) over to the house on Labor Day weekend.  It was SO MUCH FUN!  Again, I have more to show than this (including some fun video), but here's a group shot of everyone for now ...

Not pictured: Aunt Linda (who was taking the picture) and Cousins Wesley and Emily, who couldn't make it.

I absolutely adore this crazy, wonderful family.  Can't wait for Thanksgiving!

Also, on a very serious note, I'd like to ask my praying friends to uplift my church family.  I mentioned these on facebook this week, but I thought I'd share them here too as we can use all the prayer we can get.  First, a 12 year old boy from my youth group lost his dad on Monday night after an incredibly long fight with brain cancer.  It wasn't unexpected, but still a huge loss for a wonderful family.  Then on Wednesday night, while he was getting ready for choir practice, our Choir Director collapsed.  He was rushed to the hospital with only a weak pulse and was later put into an induced coma and flown to Hershey Med.  At the time of this post, they still don't know what's going on with him.  So please keep everyone in our church family in your thoughts and prayers.  I'm a little scared to see what happens next - they say these things happen in threes.  Anyway, your prayers are truly appreciated.