35 weeks, 8 months old!

Dear Jorie,

It's been an incredible week. This week, you perfected sitting up and pulling yourself up to stand, and started crawling.

We had a really big snow storm on Friday this past week. The yard was covered in lots of snow! Me and your Father thought about taking you out into it, but it was so cold out, we figured we'd wait for the next big snow, which should come this weekend.

Saturday we had your Aunt Becky, Uncle Mike, and Uncle-in-law Andy over for breakfast. Wesley slept through most of it, but you were having a ball showing off your new skills. 

On Sunday, your Father and I got busy, and finally put up the shelves we've been meaning to put up in your room. We also mounted the baby monitor camera on the wall, so it has a nice good view of the crib. We lowered the mattress on the crib this weekend too, since you have figured out how to pull yourself up to stand in your crib already! Your father sent me that picture of you standing up in your crib, and I just knew we were in for it from now on! you look so happy to be able to stand up, I can only imagine the trouble you're going to be getting into now!

Now that you're crawling around, me 
and your Father can't leave you alone in a room, but you are definitely happier being able to get around yourself. You see that toy and you go get it! It's harder on me and your Father, because we can't leave you alone for a second to run out of the room and get something, but it's easier on us because you amuse yourself most of the time, and don't need us to be entertaining you all the time.
 
 
This week we started giving you cut up pieces of Banana and Avocado, instead of mushing them up. You enjoy trying to eat the pieces, and you do a really good job of mushing them up with your hands anyways! You had a great time and Grandma and Grandpa O's mushing the Avocado.

Monday was the 11th, which was your official 8 month birthday. I can't believe you're 8 months old already. It seems like such a big number. And you're growing so fast. I still can't believe that two weeks ago you couldn't sit yourself up, and now you're pulling yourself up and standing whenever you can. 






I love you so much.

34 weeks!

Dear Jorie,

This week flew by, as most of them tend to do these days. There was the usually running around, and this week was the Super Bowl, AND your Grandma O's Birthday on Monday! 

Saturday, Your Aunt Becky and Uncle Mike and Cousin Wesley came over to visit for breakfast. Your Dad make everyone lots of pancakes! You are finally starting to be interested in Wesley, although we can't really let you play with him, since he's still so tiny!

After that we met up with Jaimee and Zetta at Cross.roads for coffee. Zetta spent the whole time wanting to be walked around, while you watched fascinated at what she was doing! You two did play a bit, although it was rough trying to keep you two from just nomming on each other!

We went over to Grandma and Grandpa O's for the Superbowl. The Girshes (Steve and Grace) were there as well. There was a lot of yummie food for the adults, home made chili and jalapeno poppers and corn bread and salad and wings! Don't worry Baby Girl, you'll get to try some next year. The game was good, although the commercials (which historically have been why my parents watch the super bowl) were not very good. An exciting point to remember was that right after half time, half the lights in the stadium went out, and took about half an hour to come back on. This meant mostly that the game ran late and your Mom and Dad didn't get enough sleep before work on Monday! You didn't seem too impressed with the super bowl, even though we let you watch the big screen at my Parents ( we don't normally let you watch tv. ) You were out cold before half time!

Your big tricks for this week are siting up, which you've gotten very good at. You've sat up in front of everyone now I think, it's so old hat for you! I really think you only see it as a way point to walking, which you've been working on with your Father. Another trick is backwards crawling, which you can do very well. Inevitably when we're hanging out in the living room, you scoot yourself underneath the chair. Even after we've rescued you once or twice, you will still make your way slowly backwards towards that chair, no matter which way you were facing when you started!


You're getting really close to talking I think. You babel all the time now, when you wake up in the morning, when you're in your car seat in the back of the car, when you see the puppy or kitty, basically all the time! 

Today you had a booster flu shot, which you did not like at all. You got very upset after the shot, but you calmed right down when I held you close and nursed you a bit. I had the nurse weigh you while we were there, even though they weren't planning on it, you weighed 14 lbs 15.5 oz, but you had just pooped, and were still wearing the diaper, so I think that counted for the 0.5 oz. I forgot to have them measure you though, You have your next appointment on March 19th, so we'll get all your stats then.

I love you so much.

33 Weeks!

Dear Jorie,

Again, I'm late with your letter this week. I'm sorry, and I really don't have a good reason! 

This week, on Wednesday you sat up by yourself for the first time. I was dropping you off at my parents house before work, and you were rolling around in the pack.n.play. Apparently you decided you wanted a toy because you rolled on your side, and pushed yourself up with your left arm. We were all so proud of you! We cheered and you laughed and smiled. You seemed very happy with yourself. You haven't really done it again, but now that we know you can, it's time to drop the crib down lower.

You've mastered the art of rolling, you can move yourself all over the room just by rolling and turning. You're getting closer to crawling, but again, you don't really seem that interested in it, except when we're trying to get you to practice. You get up on your hands and knees and you kinda wiggle back and forth. Sometimes your legs slide backwards and you end up kind of scoot/crawling backwards. The other day you wiggled yourself most of the way under the chair in the living room!

You got to see your cousin Wesley again this week, although I think you are still unimpressed by him. You did kind of grab at him a bit and try to interact with him, although he wasn't very reciprocal. I hope as you both get older you get to be good friends.

Luckily for your tired mom and dad, your sleeping has gone back to normal. You like a consistent bed time between 9:30 and 10:00, and you sleep until 6:30 or later most nights. You wake up occasionally, but only require us to find and replace the binky you can't find. But if we keep you up too late, watch out! You turn into a pumpkin after your bedtime. We stayed too late at your Grandma and Grandpa R's on Tuesday, and you were a completely fussy munchkin for the last half hour or so. Well, lesson learned little one. We won't make that mistake again! 

I love you so much Jorie Bear!

32 Weeks!

Dear Jorie,

This week has just flown by. You've been having a rough patch as far as sleeping goes, so both me and your Father have been walking zombies a lot lately. You'll have to forgive me if I don't have many interesting things to say about this week!

The weather has been up and down around here lately. It was very warm at the end of last week, getting up into the 60's, and now it's in the teens. It's been so cold the past couple of days we even got you into the bunny snow suit we bought you for the first time! It barely fits! You've grown so much in the past month that I think you'll out grow it before long. It was worth it though, you look so cute in it, my very own little bunny foo foo. You really did not enjoy the process of putting the bunny suit on, but you were happy enough once you were in it. I think you just really like being warm and snug.

You keep getting bigger and stronger. You can sit up for a long time now, and love nothing more than standing up (holding on to something of course!) You can pick up your binky and put it back in your mouth when you drop it, although you never seem to do this at night. 

We started feeding you chicken this week, and although you don't mind the taste, I think the mixture was too thick for you. You kept gagging on it until I mixed in a 2 oz bottle of pureed pears. We also started apricots. Next up is broccoli! 

Food time is also play time now, you really enjoy feeding yourself the rice puffs, and even get most of them in your mouth now. You're still working on the pincer grip, but you've figured out how to open your hand while holding a puff up to your mouth and (mostly) get it in your mouth.

One of the games you've started playing with us is making noises with the stacking cups. You love it when we go "aaaah!" while moving the cups in front of our mouths and then away from them. You even try to do it yourself a lot of the time.

You've been doing a lot of babbling this week, making all sorts of new sounds and things that are starting to soud suspiciously like words. You even have a special squalk you make when you see the dog and one for the cat.

We got you your very own bouncer for home this week, and you absolutely love it. It's different from the one at Grandma and Grandpa O's so hopefully that will keep you from getting bored with them. You still love to jump up a storm, so much that you now start jumping while we're holding you sometimes!

You're doing so much now, and you're getting so big. I can see your personality starting to show itself in everything you do. It really is amazing.

I love you so much baby girl! 

31 weeks!

Dear Jorie,

Just a quick letter today, since there really hasn't been anything of major import happening this week. You continue to get stronger and more mobile. We keep adding new foods to your repetoir, it's getting hard to keep up with how much you eat!

I'll write you a longer letter later, I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss this week.

I love you baby girl!

30 Weeks, or 7 Months

Dear Jorie,

I'm a little early on the 7 months thing, but that will be happening on Friday, so I figure I'm safe saying it now. I can't believe your 30 weeks old. This week you've been working on getting yourself to a sitting position, even though you can't manage it yet. You love sitting up and will play for a long time with your toys sitting in your crib. You are actually playing with your toys now, moving them around and manipulating them. 

Your other new trick this week involves vocalizing. You've been working on that B sound a lot! You babble all the time now, to your toys, to us, to yourself. And I swear when you're in your crib and you get upset you're yelling "Maaaaaaa!"

This week we started you on mashed bananas. So far your list of foods includes: Oatmeal, Pured Apples, Pured Pears, Pured Peas, Pured Carrots, Blended Avocado, Yogurt, Banana and Rice puffs. We also feed you this Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal from Earth's B.est that has raisins in it, so I guess I should add blended raisins in that list. 

Your favorite food is Pears, although the Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal comes in second I'd say. We blend either the Apples or Pears in with the Yogurt often to get you to eat it. 

When we feed you the rice puffs, we just dump a bunch on the tray and let you play with them and try to put them in your mouth. It's so cute watching you try to pick up the puffs and put them in your mouth. I'd say you get one out of every five, but if we're quick about catching the ones you drop, eventually you get them all. You have so much fun eating them too! 

We started using the high chair to feed you, it's much easier on both us and you I think. You really seem to enjoy sitting up high and having the big tray to play with things on. Also, I got a bunch of baby food recipe books for Christmas, so soon enough I'll be whipping up stuff that's a little more complicated than blended fruit!

This past week you got to meet Rose for the first time. She and her parents and grandparents were over at my parents for dinner on Saturday. I've known Rose since she was just born, and her mother since she was just born. Rose is 20 months old now, and it was amazing to see her interact with you. She was so gentle with you, giving you hugs and patting your head. She looks so big next to you, just like you looked so big next to Wesley.

Your grandparents got you a jumper a while ago, and I keep forgetting to mention it! You absolutely love it. When we put you in it you laugh and then bounce around like crazy! You also really love all the toys attached to it, one of which you bang against the side and then laugh at the noise it makes. We've even pulled out the wooden spoon and tupper.ware over there and let you bang on it. You were enjoying that until you figured out you could chew on the spoon, then you forgot all about banging your "drum."

Speaking of chewing, you're still working on that first tooth! I can't believe it hasn't shown up yet with all the chewing and drooling you do. At least we've found a bunch of teethers that you like now, so when your gums start to hurt we can whip those out for you.

We gave you your first bath in the baby bathtub without the infant sling on it. Other than being really cold (you get cold very easily!) you seemed to enjoy the bath a lot better now that you can splash and play with bath toys. I'm hoping that in the future we can figure out a way to keep you from getting so cold while you're in the bathtub, since that seems to be our biggest problem with bath time right now.

I didn't post your measurements from your 6 month exam, because your father took you, and I keep forgetting to copy them down here. I'll make sure to do it soon, and add it in at the bottom of this letter. 

The doctor did say you were still underweight though, so we've been stuffing you full of food when we feed you. We basically just keep offering you food until you either stop wanting to eat, or you start spitting up. You eat SO much food! Your father thinks it's close to a pound of food, but I think he's exaggerating. I do know that it's close to 14 oz usually, so I guess that's almost a pound.

I love you so much Baby Girl!


 

29 Weeks!

Dear Jorie,

This week you have begun to sit unassisted for long periods of time. In fact you prefer to be sitting up, and often get frustrated is you fall over, since you can't sit yourself up yet. This week went by in such a blur. Your cousin Wesley was born very late Thursday night. We met him Friday after work. You did not seem impressed with Mr. Wesley, although you were enthralled with your Aunt Becky's Brother, Andy. 

Saturday we had brunch with a couple of our friends who hadn't met you yet, you were again a star, although you started showing the Stranger-danger that's been popping up now and then.

Sunday was brunch again, this time with Trevor, who brought you your very own Paddington Bear! He was really pleased to meet you, and even agreed to hold you for a bit.

Monday was New Years eve, and Your Father and I packed you up and spent the evening over at my parents. You slept right through the ball drop, but you did let Vicky hold you for a while before you insisted on going back to mommy.

I was kind of hoping you'd skip the whole attachment thing, but in a way it makes me feel good that even though I'm working a full work week, and so not around you as much as I'd like, you still know I'm mommy, and you still want to be held by me.

I love you Jorie Bear.