10 Months/May update

My baby is growing so fast!  She hit the double digit month mark with a solid 10 months under her belt. May was a month of messes for us.  Between scooting and learing to crawl, Mallie was all over the place, getting into everything!

She added 2 teeth this month and how she has 3 on top and 3 on bottom.

 

We spent a lot of time picking and eating blackberries this month.  Like her momma, Mallie loves berries!  Our daily jogs quickly become daily walks and then just berry picking sessions as they come into season.  Yum!

Baby Jack came to visit for Louisiana!  Hes a sweet baby and you can keep up with him on Megans Merry Go Round blog.

 

At ten months, she loves water - I made a makeshift pool for her to splash in on hot May days (no worries, since then she has gotten a "real" baby pool!).

Bad hair day...

We went to the (in)famous SprangThang outside of Brenham

She also began rice crackers and other baby finger foods and she is a fan.

 

She is an animal lover.  Mallie LOVES our dogs.

This month has been all about moving; she struggled the first half of the month with wanting to crawl...

and then...

She officially started crawling May 12 and nothing is safe in the house.  The dog food, electrical plugs, magazines and my green mason jars are like magnets for her.  If I run to the kitchen she zooms over to the stairs/china/other not baby friendly things. 

Mid May she started pulling her self to stand on her own.  I found this out when I went to get her one morning and was greeted with her happy face looking over the crib... later that day we lowered the mattress!

 Standing in the crib was exciting but also brought on a world of new issues - especially at nap time.  I would put her down, she would fuss and stand up and cry.  Then she wouldn't know how to sit so she was be stuck standing and crying... until she fell asleep standing.  Then her head would jerk and she would wake up, start crying and the cycle would start ALL OVER.  My rule is she has to stay in the crib for at least 1 hour during her nap times.  Unfortunately she would cry throughout her hour "nap" and that made for some hard afternoons (happily we are over that now). 

We honored America's fallen heros on Memorial Day and played with Cousin Jack again.

Play date with Mallies BFF Monroe (Monroe's mommy keeps up the Rowdy Ramsdens blog).

9 Months Old!

My Baby girl is 9 months old.  9 MONTHS OLD!!!!  How time flies...  we went into this month wide eyed and ready for adventure.

This month Mallie has really started moving.  She can roll from one side of a room to the other in no time flat.  She tries, and it really close to, crawling but she can't quite figure it out yet.  She gets up on all fours, then starts to move and then her arms give out and she ends up flat on her belly again.  Which she doesn't seem to mind because it means she can roll to her next destination.  She has figured out how to rotate her body to get shift directions but is not a fan of corners... she gets stuck on them and gets pretty frustrated and usually hollers so we will move her.

 

 

Speaking of hollering, this little girl is becoming quite... loud and used to getting her way.  I foresee this being a problem and want to address the behavior but am a little unsure how to discipline a 9 month old.  I get the most frustrated with this while feeding her.  I will give her a spoonful of food, and go into the kitchen while she is "chewing" to grab something.  The second Mallie sees me walk away, she yells out to get me to come back.  I go back to her with more food... only to find her mouth is still full of food.  She also has started swatting the spoon while a feed her, making a big mess of things. 

In terms of eating, Mallie is doing great.  She eats meat, veggies, fruit, and her gerber cereal mixes and has started on dairy.  Plain yogurt is not her favorite but she loves vanilla flavored yogurt.  

 

We have been out blackberry picking on our daily walks and she is a Texas girl for sure, if by nothing else, her love for wild, fresh blackberries.  Yummy.  We have had lots of mid afternoon snacks along our walking route the past week or two. 

 

 

Sadly Mallie's Aunt Jamie's grandmother passed away in April.   On their trip to Texas, she (Jamie) and my brother Kyle stopped by the house to say hi to Mallie.  They also helped out in a huge way and babysat her for a few hours (THANK YOU!!!).

 

She LOVES Mackie, our dog.  Thankfully, Mackie is a very sweet and gentle dog because Mallie pulls, pokes and prods that dog all day long.  

 

She is able to get into the sitting position but we have not actually seen her make the transition.  I find her sitting in her crib in the morning, in the middle of the kitchen floor when I come inside from a quick trip to the mailbox, etc.  She is obviously very proud of this skill because she is all smiles when we catch her sitting.

Aprilfest time!  

And fun playing with family.

Her second tooth came in. That sweet gummy smile is growing whiter with teeth every day.

Separation anxiety is setting in and there are tears shed when someone new holds holds her.  They usually clear up the second I walk away and she gets distracted... but I am still hoping this is a short lived stage.

Mallie is all giggles and smiles at home (except for the times she is not) but when we go out in public she still stares down new people.  She is not amused by strangers (or un-regular non-strangers) and their grand gestures.  To win her affection, or at the least to get her to crack a smile, a  sides ways glance and slight smile or simple silly face express goes a long way.  Loud, in her face, giant movements seem to either annoy or confuse her.  I am certain that the being annoyed part she gets from her Daddy.  It would make things easier when we are out in public if she would give smiles away freely but I am sure in some way we will be thankful for this trait in the future.

At 9 months old this little girl is keeping me busy.  It seems like I have more to do now then when I was working full time.  The business is a blessing and we are very thankful for all that God has provided for our family.

March Update

In March our family made a major change - I left my full time job to spend more time with Mallie and focus on LindseysWhimsys.  It was pretty scary making the jump but it was a great decision and I am very thankful to be spending more time with my baby girl.

The highlight of March came on the 9th when Mallie took her first out of start trip to the swamps of Louisiana.  After a couple naps and lots of playing, finally we got to meet her new cousin, Baby Jack Michael (Jack's mommy is Megan of Megan's MerryGoRound).

 

During March, Mallie's diet increased... but her like of food decreased.  In the middle of the month she started refusing to eat chicken and banana.  She loves our dog Mackie and playing outsider is her favorite.  She has started sniffing and scrunching up her nose when she is excited... when you sniff back at her she thinks is hilarious and returns the sniff... its a silly game.

Mallie took her second trip to Warrington and was a great tag along shopper. 

And of course, pictures in the bluebonnets!  Mallie met the Easter Bunny and later loved picking up eggs during an Easter Egg hunt.  She did not do a very good job holding onto the eggs but she sure did try!

At the end of March, Mallie became a 8 month old baby!  Time flies when you are having fun!
 

7 months old...in Febrary

I've been really wanting to blog lately but... Life had been really busy lately. It reminds me of John Mayer's song 3x5... Basically I wish you could have been there to see all the great memories being made instead of relying on me to tell them but... I'll do my best.

Mallie turned 7 - and 8 - months old. I am going to split the months into two separate postings though.

She's becoming a little lady. Really, we are seeing her become a girl and it's amazing to watch. 

Her big accomplishment in February (from month 6 -7) was eating big people food(ie puréed food I steam every week or so). 

She accepted grown up food pretty well but struggled with avocado (I'm not going to lie when she made a face after having her first bite of creamy yumminess I questioned her  authenticy as a Texan. Since then, her love for natures version of butter has grown quite a bit.  Anyway, besides avacodo she also struggled with chicken. But she did love sweet potatoes, carrots, zucchini, summer squash and  broccoli.

She also started flipping from her tummy to her back to reach toys.  This made diaper changing a
struggle.  .

This is the last month she was able to sit in the bumbo - she bucks out of it and its a bit of a safety hazard

 Her laughs grew bigger, she cries louder and her smiles contagious.