Blanket

Just a little blanket I made as a gift for MJ's first birthday. It took me two tries, but I think it turned out alright. The first one fell to pieces when I washed it- not really sure why.

11 Months Old

As of Monday, MJ will be 11 months old. Time to get serious about planning her first birthday party! I'm thinking of having a bug theme. I found a really cute idea for ladybug and butterfly cupcakes. I would also like to make MJ her own smash cake. But, I'm having difficulties finding a good bug look and a reduced sugar recipe. (I avoid giving MJ any added sugar, attempting to set her off on a healthy start with food. And, I don't want to give her a sugar-laden cake that will probably make her sick with all it's sweetness.) Any ideas or recipes?

MJ has taken two independent steps. And, she has spoken a few words. She says "ball" and "up". But, the only time she says "up" when she wants to climb up the stairs. She also imitates a variety of animal sounds including barking like a dog, making an elephant sounds and roaring. She is the cutest thing in the whole world! And, no, I'm not biased.

Crawling Maniac

After months of only pushing herself backward, MJ one day decided to crawl forward and now she's unstoppable! I suspected that she was going to skip over crawling all together and go straight to walking, since that's what she's interested in. For weeks all she wanted to do was pull herself up and cruise along the furniture. It really surprised us all around when she crawled right across the room. Now we're in a mad panic to baby proof our house. We've been scoping out and comparing safety gates for a while. But, when we went to Target last weekend, there were none left in store. I ordered some online, but with all the snow back East, they're delayed until next Tuesday! MJ in the mean time has taken quite an interest in the stairs and it's a constant fight to keep her away from them. Several times I've barely caught her before she tumbled head first down the flight of stairs. She's very adept at climbing the stairs too. She can get about halfway up before she tires of it.

MJ also has quite an interest in the dog's food. We only feed Loki once a day, but the dog doesn't chow it all down quickly. Instead Loki goes back and forth from the bowl in the kitchen to the living room and sometimes she won't eat her food at all. MJ watches the dog eating and thinks that the food is for her too. MJ also likes to bark at our dog- or any others that she sees whether it be on tv, in a book or on the street.
For Valentine's day we'll be (hopefully) driving to Kanab to eat at Escobar's. I know... we're real romantics! But, it is pretty much the best Mexican food place in existence.
And, MJ will be 10 months old on Monday!! I've already started to plan her 1st birthday. It will be awesome.

New Painting

Here's a pic of my latest paintings. I've been meaning to do some for MJ's room since she was born. I finally got some time to work on them at the Christmas break. Forgive the crookedness... Jared and I can't hang pictures very well and I also made the canvases myself.

MJ 9 months

Our little one is now 9-months old! I literally can't believe it. The time goes by way too fast.

We took her to her well baby check up and MJ she measures:
Weight- 18 lbs (36th percentile)
Height- 28 inches (75th percentile)

Luckily she did not need any shots this time, so she was stayed a happy little girl.

MJ's top two teeth have cut through- so she has 4 teeth in all. And, to my displeasure, she likes to bite!

MJ is getting increasingly more mobile. She can go from being on her belly to sitting to pulling herself up and then to slowly cruising along the ottoman/couch/legs. She doesn't seem very interested in crawling, though. She would rather sit up and scoot everywhere on her bum. Her favorite activity at the moment is to pull up on our ottoman, turn and fall into me and give me kisses and then turn back to the ottoman. She's happy going back and forth for a good half-hour or so.
MJ is also a pro at waving bye-bye and clapping her hands. She has also discovered that it is fun to feed the dog cheerios and other finger foods. She giggles hilariously at it, so it's hard to tell her "no."
It's so much fun, as a parent, to watch her grow and to see her personality emerge!

Silly Backwards Girl

MJ is trying night and day to master her crawling skills. (Seriously... I go into her room at night and it's noticeable that she crawls around until she gets stuck in a corner of her crib.) I'm sure in a few weeks she'll have it perfect and we'll be madly chasing her around all day. Right now, though, she's doing this awesome stink bug move... it's hard to explain, so check out the video.

MJ's really been working those muscles with all the push ups she's been doing, too!

MJ's First Christmas

Merry Christmas to All!
Jared, MJ and I had a wonderful and busy Christmas. MJ is completely spoiled and received a ton (almost literally!) of presents.
On Christmas Eve, we had my mom and brother over. We ate Monte Cristo sandwiches (yum!!) and played some games while MJ slept so that Santa could visit.
Jared was so excited for Christmas that he hardly slept and got up early to put together a kid-size table and chair set for MJ. MJ was only vaguely interested in opening presents. She would tear the paper a little bit and then get distracted. Needless to say, we had to help her out a lot. I think she was overwhelmed with all the toys and books she received. She didn't know where to start to play.
After opening the presents for our family, we headed over to my mom's and launched into the massive pile under her tree. It took us all morning, but we got through and ate breakfast around noon. MJ got this super cool kid-sized rocking chair from my mom (a.k.a. Santa), among many, many other things. It took us 2 car loads to get everything home!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Morning- Trying to play with the ornaments.

The first present MJ opened.

At Grandma's House. We thoroughly enjoyed sticking bows on MJ's head.

In her new rocking chair.

On Saturday, we traveled up north to see Jared's family. It was great seeing his brother and sister-in-law, Jeremy and Trisha and their family. We haven't seen them for 2 years. We had a great time until MJ woke up in the middle of the night and refused to go back to sleep. After 3 hours of trying we finally took her for a drive and she immediately zonked out.
The next night Jared's entire family came over, and while it was great to see them, MJ couldn't sleep due to all the noise and excitement. Our poor little girl was soooo tired, grumpy and just screaming for about an hour and a half. We finally decided to just cut our losses and drive home that night. We missed out on seeing Jared's family a little bit more, but at least MJ was able to get some much needed rest.
Over the New Year's break, we will be cleaning out our house. I know, we're really exciting people... I'm also hoping to finish some paintings for MJ's room. And then, next week Spring semester starts and we're back to running around like crazies!
Wishing you all a wonderful and happy new year!