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.

The Mom I Want to Be

I often think about the person I want to become. I've pretty much always known, though I'm more sure now than ever, that my greatest aspiration in life is to be a mother. But not just any mother. An awesome mother.

I don't need or even remotely want to be a "cool" mom or a mom who tries to be her teenager's best friend. But I do want to have fabulous and meaningful relationships with my children. I want them to know that I love and cherish them and care about them more than I care about anything else.

Every once in a while, I see examples around me of women who are THAT mom I want to be. I saw one in the grocery store last week. At the end of the laundry soap aisle, I saw a little girl, probably about 3 or 4 years old who was obviously upset and crying. Rather than scold her daughter for making noise in public (like too many people do), this very pregnant mom knelt down on the floor and just hugged her little girl. And I don't mean gave her a quick pat on the back and told her to buck up. She really hugged her and didn't let go until she stopped crying. It was so sweet it brought tears to my eyes, right there next to the laundry soap and toilet paper.

That's the mom I want to be. I want to be patient and loving and always, always put my kids first.

Because kids deserve love. Even if maybe they've made a mess and eaten 3 of your Rook cards.

8 months

At 8 months old, my dear sweet Libs

• has 8 teeth
• crawls with her tummy off the ground
follows me around the house like a puppy dog
• still tries to eat everything she can get her hands on
• pulls herself up to a kneeling position
• occasionally pulls herself up to standing
• thinks it's hilarious when I dance (which...it is)
• plays hide and seek - she covers her face with a blanket, (usually) waits for us to say "where's Libby?" and pulls it down
• is totally entranced by the computer and printer

• says Momma - Jared and I debate whether she is actually saying Momma or just making M sounds, but I think she says it with purpose. She usually says it when she is hanging on to my leg begging me to pick her up.
• goes to bed at 7 PM and gets up between 6 and 7 AM, which would be totally awesome except for those 2-3 night wakings. We're dragging her crib out to the living room these days (so she's not in the same room as us) and it really helped the first couple of nights, but no such luck since then. I keep hearing these horror stories about babies who don't sleep through the night until they are 3 or 4 years old and it makes me want to crawl in a hole to even think that that could happen. Oh Sleep Fairy, please come visit us this month!
• goes on hikes in the backpack carrier
• and...is just generally adorable. Love you, Libs.

Dun duh duh duh! (Announcement)

Last night I dreamt I was 4 months pregnant. And that an acquaintance's husband's mother was trying to kill me. I think the pregnant part was scarier.

I promise I'm not pregnant, but I do have an exciting announcement! We're not going to be homeless! Well, actually we still don't know about that, but Jared DID get a job! Without disclosing the exact location to the internet world, I will say it's a quaint little town of 7,000 people in northern Illinois, about 2 hours from Chicago. He starts August 1st, so we'll likely be heading up to the Land of Lincoln mid to late July. (We're throwing in some vacations to Utah and Texas sometime around then, so it's gonna be a crazy month.)

As much as we were trying to avoid ending up in a small town, we're actually getting excited about it now. First thing to be excited about: traffic, or lack thereof. SO excited to be done with that. Raleigh's traffic is incredibly mild compared to many big cities, but I guess Jared and I are just impatient, because it kind of drives us crazy.

We're also excited for a new abode. (Libby needs her own bedroom, stat. I think that might be the cure for her sleeping problems. We just have to make it 3 more months!) Only problem is, the only apartments in town are government subsidized (with income restrictions) and we haven't been able to find any homes for rent. There are plenty of homes to buy, but who's gonna buy from us when we leave? It's not exactly a boomtown. So, that's our quandary, but it's an exciting quandary to have.

I haven't been there yet, but I imagine it will look a lot like this:

That's an ethanol plant in small town Ohio where we lived for a couple months

And we'll end up with lots of this:

Our bounty from Ohio

But hopefully I don't have to do this again:

Booyah. Awesome outfit for working in the corn fields.

We are so grateful to have a job, especially given the current conditions of the job market. It's an exciting time for us and we are truly blessed!

7 months

At 7 months, Libby:

enjoys reading magazines

faithfully practices yoga

is too big for her bouncy chair

loves playing with Daddy

makes great faces

looks adorable in her new sun hat

has pink toenails

Developmental notes:

Libby is turning into an excellent scooter, pulling herself with her arms and dragging the rest of her body. She alternates between this style of locomotion and what I call the "vacuum cleaner," which entails her driving her head into the floor and pushing with her feet.

Sleep. Oh gosh, when will I have something positive to report on this subject? Please, soon!

Getting Libby to consistently eat or drink something (anything!) other than breast milk has been a goal this past month. We've had intermittent success with applesauce, sweet potato, and other bits and pieces from mom's and dad's plates, and major success with those little puffs. She devours those things. She is slowly learning the sippy cup concept, but still thinks a bottle is just a toy. However, she can drink through a straw and LOVES trying to drink from sport-top water bottles. I haven't tried giving her any formula or milk with these yet, because she still spills more than she drinks, but maybe soon.

Other tidbits I want to remember:

One of our favorite things to do lately is cover my face with a blanket and repeat "where's mommy?" until she pulls it off and finds me, which thrills her to laughter. It's awesome.

When I put Libby down for a nap, I usually hold her close (chest to chest) for a few minutes and rock her before putting her in her crib. Recently, she's been pushing herself away from me so that she can rest the top of her head against my chest. I guess it's comfortable? It's super cute, though and I can tell she's really tired whenever she does this.