We're here!

We rolled into town Sunday of last week and have been hard at work getting settled into our new house in Illinois:

Oops, wrong picture. Here's where we actually live:

We did check out the first house and half-way considered renting it (it's a great deal considering how GINORMOUS it is) but we were worried it would cost our first born child to heat in the 8 month long winter. That, and Jared was scared we were going to electrocute ourselves. The house was built in 1875, after all.

Anyway, our new (rental) home is certainly sufficient for our needs right now. Two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, a not-quite-dining-room (more like an extension of the kitchen), 1 real bathroom, an unfinished basement with a BONUS toilet and shower out in the open (guest room, anyone??), a detached 1 car garage, and a wide open fenced in backyard. There's even an apple tree.

It may not be (read: isn't) our dream home, but it is SO.MUCH.BETTER. than all the other rental homes we looked at, so we feel really really grateful that we found this place. In general, we are just feeling so grateful right now. We are blessed.

I've got tons of sewing projects in mind to pretty up our new place, and Jared is busy with training, meetings, and still trying to finish his dissertation. And of course, there's all the other busy work that goes along with moving - registering the cars, getting new driver licenses, insurance, etc. So we've got plenty to keep us busy right now, but we are really happy to be getting settled. Life is good.

11 months

At 11 months, Libby is an excellent walker. She is playful and curious, opening every drawer and climbing every step she can find. She took a long tumble down the stairs at her aunt's house in Utah last week, but it hasn't appeared to dampen her interest in stairs whatsoever. (Other than a rug burn on her chin and a bitten tongue, she was, thankfully, unharmed.)

Libby has always loved eating, tearing, and crinkling paper, so it's no surprise to me that she loves books. What IS a surprise is how careful she is with her own books. She will still rip up pieces of paper she finds on Jared's clipboards and notepads, but she treasures The Foot Book so much that she knows not to tear its pages. I think it's remarkable how smart she is.

Libby mumbles and babbles all the time, but we're still waiting to hear her "first word." For now, I'm enjoying every little giggle and squeal we get out of her (which is a lot).

Love you, Libby Claire!

Small town charm

We took a trip last week to visit our future town and try to find a place to live. We were unsuccessful on the housing front, but I'm sure something will turn up. Preferably something built in the 20th century and with doors on the bathrooms. And maybe, possibly, pretty please with air conditioning. Is that really too much to ask?

Anyway, we heard some pretty funny things from those small-town folk.

For instance, a landlord trying to entice us to rent his house: "P*** (town about 20 minutes away) is growing like crazy - they're getting an Olive Garden!" (Well, if that isn't the definition of a booming metropolis, I don't know what is!)

Airport baggage personnel at the teeny airport we flew into: "We had 60 bags last week! That about did me in."

Airport rental car employee to customer on phone: "I'm sorry, we just had TWO planes land at the same time, so I'm really busy. Call back in 20-30 minutes." (There were a grand total of 3 people in line.)

Truth be told, I'm pretty excited to live in a small town. I'll take getting stuck behind a tractor on the road (which we did) over getting stuck in interstate traffic during rush hour ANY DAY.

10.5 months

Kissing herself in the mirror

Libby is changing and growing so much every day, she deserves a half-month update.

In the past 2 weeks, Libby has really gotten the hang of walking and takes so much pleasure in it, she will spend up to an hour at a time walking laps in the apartment, smiling and laughing to herself the whole time.

She's also learned to climb, which means she can access that many more forbidden places. But it's pretty fun to watch.

She's also discovered her eyelashes, which is just plain cute. While she's nursing or lying in my arms, she will bring her hand to her face (sort of in an L shape) and stroke her eyelashes with her thumb.

And, in one of her funniest developments of late, she's realized she can make noise (aka screech) while breathing IN as well as out. It's especially funny when she pairs it with her newfound ability to shrug her shoulders and pull in her belly. If only she'd do it on command so I could snap a picture of that. :)

10 months

At 10 months, Libby weighs 18.0 pounds (24th percentile). Woohoo for gaining a whole pound this past month!

I don't know when exactly it happened, but it appears that someone has stolen my baby and replaced her with a toddler. I can't believe how mobile my little lady is.

She can take about 5-7 steps on her own, though she still much prefers crawling and walking with assistance of a hand or piece of furniture.

Also, maybe it's her mouthful of teeth, but for some reason, she looks so much older when she smiles like this:

Libby is babbling all the time and using a variety of consonants (m, d, p, k, b, y). She says some things that sound like words (mama, dada, yeah yeah) but of course, only she knows if she really understands any of them. She does understand the sign for "milk" which I use when I ask her if she wants to nurse. She usually drops whatever she's doing and makes a beeline for me when she sees the sign. I can't wait till she signs back to me. Even without talking or signing, it's amazing how well babies can communicate with their expressions.

She's been trying out different laughs, which is so stinking cute. For her favorite fake laugh, she scrunches up her face and makes a long, hard K sound, which usually spews slobber and/or whatever food may be in her mouth. It's awesome.

It's been an amazing month of growing and learning. Happy 10 monthiversary to Libby!

Healthy Eating

Most of the time I think of myself as a pretty healthy eater. I spend most of the grocery budget on produce and I try to make things from scratch as much as possible. But sometimes, I just have to ignore the fact that the recipe I'm making calls for 5 cups of heavy cream and boasts over 10,000 calories. Because it's just that good.

photo via tasteofhome.com

Now that I've looked at the nutrition facts, I'm a little sickened that Jared and I finished off a batch of this in 2 days last time I made it. That means I consumed over 5,000 calories of bread pudding in one weekend! Good thing I'm breastfeeding. ;) Love burning those calories!

9 months

At 9 months, my sweet Libby Claire is representing the featherweights at 17.0 pounds. I met a 4 month old the other day that weighed 4 pounds more than that. Heck, there are probably some beefy 3 month olds that weigh that much. I'm not too concerned, but I did promise the doc I'd try to get her to eat more this month (we're heading back in next month for a weight check).

To my immense delight (most of the time), Libby is becoming a little mother's helper. She loves playing with dirty dishes in the dishwasher, reorganizing the pantry, unfolding laundry I've just folded, and being my little human vacuum cleaner, eating everything from food scraps to paper to spiders (luckily she didn't actually eat the spider but she was really close).

She cruises around the furniture these days and even experiments with letting go and standing on her own 2 feet for a few seconds at a time. I'm sure she'll be walking in no time!

She continues to mumble "mama" all the time, and said "dada" the other day. As exciting as it is to hear, I'm not too sure she knows what they mean.

She's holding steady at 8 teeth and is playing around with using them for biting...my shoulder, her own arm, shoes, anything really. She likes to put things in her mouth and carry them around the house. She really reminds me of a dog sometimes.

The little Libster still enjoys an occasional peekaboo game under the covers, but we mostly play full fledged hide and seek. She's great at seeking, not so much at hiding.

And, in her most amazing accomplishment yet, she is finally sleeping through the night! She's a bit of an early bird, often waking before the clock strikes 6 AM, but hey, I'll take it!

Good job on all your amazing accomplishments, Libs. I love you.