Nine months!

First, I am SO TIRED. Charlie has been fussy and very clingy lately. I usually think it’s pretty cute when she lunges for me and says, “mama” over and over again but man, it’s exhausting. Last night, she woke up at 1am and didn’t go back down until 3:30am. She pretty much nursed the entire time with a break to play with Conor. I hope this is just a phase - maybe she’s mastering some new skill or you know, just having a bad week. I’m trying to be patient but I’m finding myself getting incredibly frustrated. Luckily, she’s pretty freakin’ cute so I guess I can’t get too angry when she’s being difficult.

Still no crawling over here but she’s really into standing and walking while we hold her hands. She can cruise a bit but still hesitant to walk without hanging onto to one of us. I’m 99.9% sure she’s going to skip crawling but who knows? When she thinks no one is around, I’ll catch her reaching and sometimes she’ll rock to her knees but she either topples over or gives up. I’m trying to let her play independently but as I’ve mentioned before, this girl does not want to be alone. 

Who needs crawling, anyway? Especially, when you can dance! Just this past week, Charlie has been rocking back and forth when upbeat music is playing. Anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE to dance so I’m feeling especially proud right now. And I have to say, she looks pretty sassy while she’s dancing. 

After I got through taking photos for Charlie’s 9 month photo shoot (the post should be up tomorrow), I sat her in her new play area. I didn’t realize how awesome the light is in this room so I had to grab my camera and get a few shots of her playing. 

By the way, I’m playing with new photo layouts since I tend to post a bazillion photos. Less scrolling, yay!

Love these two…

Oh hey, I knit. Before I turned this into a full fledged baby blog, I used to occasionally blog about knitting and even had a knitting blog over at Wordpress. I got engaged and suddenly, all of my attention turned to wedding planning for a year. Then, I got pregnant immediately after (during?) the wedding and my attention turned to babies, babies, babies. I would knit here and there but not nearly as much as I used to. I think my mojo is back, though! We’re getting into a nice rhythm with Charlie and I’m finding I have more free time.

My most recent project is this asymmetrical shawl. I love the colors and the yarn is super squishy and warm - the perfect thing for those cold ,winter days.

Next up, I’m knitting a sweater for my wonderful, patient husband who has been asking me for a sweater since we met…oh, about…EIGHT years ago! 

I’m participating in the Instagram January Photo a Day challenge. Here are my first 10 photos:

Pretty sure this girl is going to skip crawling.

We all know what the highlight of my year was so instead of writing a looking back on 2011 post, I’m going to focus on the year to come. Here are a few things I’m looking forward to in 2012:

- Charlie is turning 1! Crazy baby needs to stop growing so fast.

- Weddings! Watching my friends get married and celebrate their love. 

- Our first overnight trip away from Charlie.

- California! We’re planning a trip to San Diego and San Francisco. 

- Watching Charlie grow. Part of me is sad to watch my baby girl grow so fast but I look forward to each milestone. It’s crazy to think that the next year will bring walking, talking, and a whole new level of independence. 

With that, I leave you with Charlie’s last photo shoot of 2011 (photos taken by Conor). 

Finger-painting:

We left cookies for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph. (via Conor’s instagram)

I made it to the top 30 in the Paper Mama’s holiday photo challenge! If you like my card, please vote for me! You can vote here.

I’d like to introduce you to my 8 month old(!) who can say, “Mama”. Yep, she says Mama and I’m pretty much the happiest person alive. It happened so quickly. One day she was babbling away and I could hear the M sound and the next day “Mama!” comes out of her mouth. I don’t know that she knew immediately what she was saying but with a little (a lot) of reinforcement from me, she got the hang of it. At  first, when she said Mama, she wanted milk immediately and now she says it whenever she wants me. Aah, it’s an amazing feeling. 

There aren’t any other major milestones to brag about but her personality is coming out more and more. She definitely loves to be around people - she’ll play independently for awhile but she prefers it if she can see or feel you. It doesn’t matter how sleepy she is, she’ll try and fight to stay awake if we’re around a lot of people. She used to go to sleep around 6:00pm but lately, she’s staying up until 7:30pm to hang out with us. 

We’re starting to experiment with how we put her to sleep. I used to be able to nurse her and she’d conk out but now that she wants to play more, that’s becoming almost impossible. I’m still not a fan of Cry It Out (CIO) but if she’s obviously tired, I will let her fuss or whine for a few minutes before I run to check on her. She’s also started to wake more during the night. I don’t know if it’s a growth spurt or what but I hope it doesn’t last long! We’ve had it pretty easy for the last 8 months, I’d hate to turn into a sleep deprived parent now. 

No crawling and no teeth yet. I don’t care about the teeth but I’m dying to have her move around. She’s really strong - she’s good at standing and  can pull herself up - but has zero interest in being on her belly. Can you guys send some good crawling juju this way? I’ll let you know if it works in the 9 month update. 

And this is why Charlie is getting a mini piano for Christmas (shhh, don’t tell her!).

Happy eight months, Charlie!

By now, most of our family and friends have received our Christmas card so now I’m sharing it with the rest of the world. 

Happy Holidays!

Linking up with The Paper Mama: