Week 40!

Dear Jorie,

This week was so full! We had guest over on Thursday, and art opening, a birthday party for a family friend on Saturday and all of our usual shenanigans.

This past Thursday, we had Becky M. and her son over for dinner. Her boyfriend Adam came too, which was cool because you Father knew Adam a long time ago. We had a great time, although I think you were frustrated you couldn't run around with Becky's son (who's four.) I could just see you thinking "I want to do that!" while you watched him tearing around our house.

I should mention that this weekend was St. Patrick's day, although we did not go to the parade on Saturday. We figured we'll try to go next year when you'll be old enough to enjoy it.

Instead on Saturday, we went to see Ruth at a craft show, so she and the girls could get some time with you. They miss watching you so much! After that we headed up to an Art opening for Amy and Jason. Amy was so excited to meet you, and for the first time I've ever seen, you reached for someone you'd just met to pick you up! You seemed to really love Amy! 

This week we've started expanding your repertoire of finger foods. We added in ring pasta, which we give you mixed with peas, and which you absolutely love. Your Grandma O says it's the Italian in you, I think you just really like being able to pick up your own food, and pasta is of course tasty. The day care is also going to start feeding you steamed carrot bits today. You really seem to enjoy being able to feed yourself, so we're going to try to move towards mostly finger foods. I'm not sure what we'll try next, but it will definitely be something you can feed yourself!

You had your official 9 month evaluation on Tuesday. Your Father took you, and everything looked good to the doctor. She even asked if you were always this happy, which I have to say, yes, yes you are. You are 27.5 inches tall and weigh 16 lbs 3 oz. So you're still tall and skinny! The only problem was that your iron levels were a smidge low, so we're supposed to make sure you're eating more green veggies. 

Since you're not a fan of green veggies right now, we've started hiding them. I blended up some spinach and mixed it in with some pears. You seemed to like it when I fed it to you, so hopefully that's the answer. 

You're getting so big and strong lately, it's hard to believe how fast you're growing! You crawl fast as lighting now, and you can pull yourself up to stand easily. You're working on standing unsupported, sometimes you do it for a second before you realize you're not holding anything. You haven't really worked on walking too much, I think you find it easier to crawl somewhere then just stand up when you get there.

Lately you've been working on saying Mama and baba although I'm not sure if you actually know what you're saying yet. You definitely babble up a storm these days! You've also started using some definite signs for things like "Give it to me!" and a couple of times you've made the sign for food or for milk when you were hungry. You've also almost mastered waving, which is still super cute to watch you do.

I would like to note that I am still nursing you, but only once a day now. I'm hoping I'll be able to keep it up until your first birthday. I haven't talked about it much here, but it's definitely been a struggle to maintain my supply while working. 

I love you Jorie Bear. Stop growing up so fast!

Week 39

Dear Jorie,

9 Months! Wow. It's hard to believe that you've reached this milestone. I feel like the time has gone by so quickly, and yet I can't imagine our lives without you in them. 

This week has been going well so far, after we survived the return of the sickness last Thursday. Because you had a fever Thursday night, you couldn't go to Daycare on Friday, so your grandparents all stepped up to help us cover the day. Grandma and Grandpa O watched you in the morning and then dropped you off with Grandma R around 2. I picked you up from Grandma R's at 4 and we saw the doctor again at 4:30. No ear infection or anything, just another round of whatever is going around it seems. Your Grandma O thinks you're faking it to get out of going "to school." She was also disappointed that you got better in time to be able to go back to Day Care on Monday. She was looking forward to having another day with you, she misses watching you once a week.

You do seem to be getting used to Day Care now, you don't give us much trouble on drop off now, and you're starting to trust the teachers there. We've told them they can feed you "breakfast solids" so this week you got to have your first croissant! They've been working on waving with you, which is super cute when you do it.

On Saturday, it was really nice out. And even though you were still not feeling 100% we packed you up in the stroller and took you and the dog on a walk through Mt. Hope. Well your Dad walked with you, while I did my run with the dog, until I tired the dog out, and your Dad walked with you AND the dog (he's got skills.) You really seemed to enjoy tooling around in the stroller watching the world go by. I'm hoping to get my hands on a Jogging stroller soon so I can take you running with me!

You were still kinda crabby on Sunday when we went grocery shopping, so I tried to entertain you by playing with my scarf. You did enjoy the scarf, right up until you decided that the best way to play with it was to stuff as much as you could in your mouth!

Last night at Ross family dinner night you spent a good long time charming your Uncle and Aunt into playing peekaboo with you. Earlier you also had your Grandpa R on the floor playing with you and some of the millions of toys they have at their house for you.

Lately your father and I have been trying to create "baby safe" zones in the house. Places where you can have free reign to play without us worrying about what you'll get your hands on. I thought I had baby proofed your bedroom, but the other day while we were in there you became obsessed with your nightlight, and managed to pry it out of the outlet on the wall. Which you were then enthralled with trying to stick your fingers in. So we're going to have to find you a new night light, and put covers on those outlets! We're also working on getting a baby gate for the doorway between the living room and the bonus room. It's a REALLY wide door way. We thought we had a gate wide enough, but no, we need to get extenders for it. Hopefully we'll have it up and functional by next week!

It's been an amazing nine months baby girl. I'm so excited to see what's to come this spring and summer. We have a zoo membership just waiting for warmer weather, and there are so many places to take you now that you're able to move around and explore! 

I love you!

9 Months Old!

Dear Jorie,

Happy 9 Month Birthday! I Love you!

Week 38

Dear Jorie,

Well the big events of this past week were all sickness related. First you got sick, and then, on Monday night, I came down with a fever. Your father has managed to escape it so far, but we've been hunkered down in "get better" mode for most of the week. 

You're back at Day Care this week, and you seem to be doing alright, although you still gave me a lot of guilt when I dropped you off this morning. It really tears me up to leave you there. I wish there was a better solution than sending you to day care five days a week. 

I really do hate being away from you so much. Wednesday mornings are the best, I can spend the whole morning playing with you, just relaxing and enjoying the time. I keep thinking about when I was home on Maternity leave, and how great it was to spend all day with you. I miss you all the time.

There really isn't a lot to report about this week. You're doing a lot of babbling, getting REALLY close to saying words. Every now and then I think I hear you say Mama or Dada, but I'm not 100% sure yet. You also clap now. You love it when people clap along with you.

You've also started waving, although you're not always consistent with it. It's really cute to watch you wave, although you mostly do it backwards, holding your palm towards yourself. We've been trying to encourage it as much as possible.

Right now because you're still stuffed up from being sick, you've been breathing through your mouth a lot. It's really funny because when you get excited you breathe really fast, and you sound like you're going "ha!Ha! ha!"

I love you so much. I'm sorry this weeks letter is kind of disjointed. I'm still recovering from being sick!

 

Sick!

Dear Jorie,

Well, we survived your first illness. On Wednesday, when I got home from work, your father mentioned that you seemed a little warm and sluggish. So we took your temperature, and got a reading of 102.4. We tried not to panic, and gave you some acetaminophen. When your temperature only came down to 101, I was still worried so we called the emergency after hours line at the doctors. We were told to keep you hydrated, and keep administering the acetaminophen, and if your fever didn't break by Friday, to take you in to see your doctor.

Your father stayed home with you on Thursday, and your fever seemed to be coming down for a while, but then in the evening it spiked back up. You were cranky and snotty for most of the night.

I stayed home with you on Friday, and again, in the morning your fever seemed to have come down, but after missing one dose of the acetaminophen, you fever started creeping back up. I made an appointment with the doctor and she saw you at 3:30. She looked in your ears and mouth, which you hated, and listened to you breathe. They took your temperature (101.4) and weighed you (15 lbs 11 oz.) And then they swabbed your nose which you really hated. You screamed your head off for a few minutes after that. 

The verdict was flu, or a flu like virus. We were to keep you hydrated, keep you medicated, and just wait it out. If you got worse, or developed any new symptoms, we were supposed to call and bring you back in.

Luckily for us, your fever broke sometime Saturday morning, and by Sunday you were back to your normal happy self, although you are still kinda snotty. Hopefully that will clear out soon too.


I love you Baby Girl, it killed me to see you so unhappy.

Weeks 36 & 37

Dear Jorie,

It seems that the more I have to write about, the less time I can find to write about it. These past two weeks have been a whirlwind. Your cousin Sienna was in town and we did a photo shoot. There was the cat getting sick (and ending up needing over night stays at the vet,) and you starting daycare. 


Valentines day was right at the beginning of the two weeks, me and your father didn't do much for it, but you did make your dad a valentine. You helped me make a hand and foot print from you and I put a message from you to your father on it and framed it for him. We made one for each of your grandparents too. Everyone loved them! I couldn't believe how big your hand and foot looked! I'll have to do a side by side comparison of your foot print from when you were born, but man your feet look big! I think it means you're going to be tall, which will make me the shortest person in our family.

 
The photo shoot (which we did the Sunday before last) was a riot. We had you, Wesley, Sienna, and even your Aunt Becky's brother Andy. Oh, and we can't forget your favorite part, there was Cake. The entire shoot came about because Your Aunt and Uncle had done a one year birthday shoot, and had bought a cake for the baby to smash. It turned out the baby was afraid of the cake, so they had a cake that needed smashing. You were more than up to the task baby girl! I think you ate a quarter of that cake before my Mommy guilt over ruled the cuteness of the photo shoot, and I called an end to the cake binging. I'm super excited to see how the pictures turned out. 

Unfortunately, the very next day the cat got very very sick. We had to take him to the emergency vet. You love your kitty so much, I'm sure if you knew what was happening you would have been very worried for him. He's much better now, but it took another trip to the regular vet, an over night stay there, and a whole lot of medicine to get him healthy again. I even had to miss work last Wednesday to take him to the vet.

Your Grandma O would have been very angry at me if I had kept you home that day, since it was my parents very last day of taking care of you before you started day care. I let them watch you for the day while I took care of the cat, and got some cleaning done around the house. It is very hard to clean with you around now baby girl, since you've become really mobile, and your so fast now! We really have to watch you all the time now, and since you've gotten really good at pulling yourself up, it's time to start baby proofing!

This week has been a little quieter, with the notable exception that you started daycare this Monday. It's been a rough adjustment for us all, more for me and your father than for you I think. Monday your father felt awful after dropping you off and just leaving you there, and when I picked you up you were just miserable. They had just woken you up to get you changed and ready to go home, and you were not happy about it. Yesterday seemed to go much better, although I think your father still felt bad dropping you off, you were in a good mood when I picked you up. Today dropping you off was awful. It was the first time I dropped you off, and as soon as I handed you off you started to cry. By the time I was walking out of the room you were screaming for me, big long wailing cries that just tore me up. Walking out of that room was one of the hardest things I've done as your mom so far. I felt so guilty leaving you there, even though I know that you most likely calmed down as soon as I was gone, and being there is the best thing for you right now. Hopefully the pick up went better for your father, and the drop offs will get easier as we all get used to this.

This past week we started transitioning you to more solid foods, like cheeri.os and ripped up pancakes. You really enjoy being able to feed yourself, and it's fun to feed you the same thing that we're eating. When we gave you the pancake you ate almost two pancakes!  I think the next thing I'm going to do is make you spiral spaghetti. I think you'd really like playing with the pasta, and the new shape will be fun for you.

I'm sure I'm leaving things out, there was so much that happened these past two weeks. Mostly lately, I'm just in Awe of how big you're getting, and how much you can do now. I wish I had more time with you, to enjoy every little thing you learn. My favorite thing right now is to just sit on the floor with you and watch you explore. My "Mommy Guilt" has been in high gear a lot lately. I know we're doing the best we can for you, and you really are happy and healthy, but things are so far from what my ideal would be that it's hard sometimes not to feel like I'm failing you.

I love you so much Jorie Ellen.

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.