Enter creative title here....: February 2014

Months 8 and 9

Again, due to recent events, I was not able to write Annie's 8 month blog post.

So, we'll combine months 8 & 9 (especially since she turns 10 months tomorrow!)

(*side note- I wrote this post about a month ago, but just got to downloading pics, so some of this info is outdated)

New things during months 8 and 9:
- found out on her 8 month birthday we were moving to London, for-reals.
- got her first (and hopefully only!) set of ear tubes on November 20th. She did great during surgery (which lasted no more than 10 minutes tops!).

all ready for surgery!

- she applied for her first pass port and visa!
- she had her first Thanksgiving!

- she saw her first "Icepocolypse" the first weekend of December and subsequently got really sick with, what I think was RSV (flu and strep were negative at the urgent care that was open that Sunday). Lots and lots of snot, a terrible cough that wouldn't let her sleep at all for about 24 hours, and fever of 101.5 with Motrin on-board. I've never stayed up an entire night with a child before, but I did that weekend. She was also the sickest I've ever seen one of my kids before. It was also the weekend after Mike had left for London, so my precious mom, dad and sister camped out at our house to help me in my sleep-deprived state of mind (they had also lost electricity due to the ice storm). I'm sure I'll post another entry about that really, really hard two week span. It was not fun.

She was so sick and so pitiful!!

- she got her first tooth! (and is currently working on her second one)
- she started to stand on her own for long periods of time and started cruising around furniture
- she took her first airplane ride (well, two rides, technically) and moved to London before she turned 9 months old

Sleeping:
This momma is so tired. I really was hoping that ear tubes would be the magic bullet that would cure all of our sleeping problems, but alas, not so much. Due to her getting really sick at the beginning of December with RSV, her sleep just got really off (would wake up 2-3 times a night sometimes and up at least once most nights). We had sleep-trained her during Thanksgiving break, but that went out the window with the sickness.
Once we moved to London, we re-did sleep training on Christmas night (we didn't plan that well, but it was much needed). We are currently in the process of getting our schedule back on track and adjusting to everything.
She's taking 2 naps a day and will go to bed around 7:30 pm, wake up around 7:00 am (most of the time). But, like I said, our schedule is a little off and we're slowly getting back. The good thing is that if she wakes up crying, she will get herself back to sleep within about 5 minutes, instead of me having to go in and nurse her back to sleep. Small victories, people.

Eating:
Eating normal, solid foods three times a day, doing well with most foods- she likes to feed herself, thank you very much. Favorite foods are pasta with tomato sauce, macaroni and cheese, green beans, sweet potatoes, beans, rice, refried beans, MumMums, dried Cheerios, etc. She will usually eat just about anything and hasn't had any allergies. She's still nursing about 4 times a day, most days, sometimes more.

She loves to follow Lucy around, likes to be in the same room as everyone else. She puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. Still loves her paci at naptime and bedtime. She, thankfully, is portable when we are needing to be out and about and will fall asleep in my Beco carrier like a champ. Truly, she does well with being on the go, which I am so thankful for. Generally, she is a very chill, sweet-tempered little girl.

Skillz:
She crawls all over the place, is learning how to crawl up stairs, cruises around furniture, will stand on her own for long periods of time, will pull herself up to stand on her own and is taking some steps with the push-wagon. I predict that she will be walking by 10 months (Lucy started walking at 10.5 months!).
She's got the pincer grasp down to a T, and I've got bruises on my arm to prove it.
She's said "Dada" before. She likes to wave.

Stats:
She's been 16 pounds (25 th percentile) for the last 7 weeks (hasn't really gained any weight), but she has grown in length. Lack of weight gain, I believe, to be caused by starting to become really mobile and having RSV.

The first week or so...

Ok, so I finally got a chance to sit down with my laptop and upload some pics of our first couple of weeks in London. Hopefully I can keep the posts coming!

We arrived on December 21st (the Saturday before Christmas) and spent the next couple of days unpacking, buying out John Lewis (like a 5-story Target/Macy's/Bed Bath and Beyond), stocking up the kitchen (thank goodness for free grocery delivery when you don't have a car!), and trying to make our new house into more of a home.

Thank goodness for Liz being with us- I seriously don't know what I would have done without her. She is a lean, mean, unpacking and organizing machine.

This is what our house looked like on Christmas Eve- she and Mike created our very own Christmas tree out of all the empty boxes. What a fun, sweet memory!

Lucy wasn't quite sure about the Tube at first. This is the Tube stop by our house. We had to convince her that it was okay to get on the Tube. After the first couple of rides, she loves it!

We also had to teach her how to get off and on an escalator, as this is crucial to getting around in some of the tube stations. (Mike taught her how to ride the escalators by going on and off of them in the John Lewis store while I was shopping- I think they rode up 5 or 6 different escalators).

Because it's nearly impossible to take the double stroller with me into the tube stations on my own, I typically strap Annie to me in my Beco carrier and push Lucy in a small, umbrella stroller that I can easily carry with one hand up and down the stairs (most stations don't have elevators or escalators, however, the one close to us does!). So, Lucy's gotten very used to climbing up and down stairs on her own and getting on and off the escalators with minimal help.

I will say, though, that when you have a child strapped to you, another child holding one hand, and your other hand carrying a stroller up and down stairs, people are very helpful and will typically offer to either carry the stroller or help Lucy up the stairs.

We took a bus tour around the City of London when Liz was with us. It's a great way to see the city without walking every where. Plus, you can hop on and off when you want to sight-see. Sweet Annie was a trooper that day, napping strapped to me in her Beco carrier. Thankfully, she is a great baby on the go.

We stopped in Covent Gardens and Lucy had fun running/jumping under the gigantic reindeer.

A view from the bus...see the London Bridge?

One night before she left, Liz babysat so that Mike and I could go out on a DATE!!

It was so great to get out sans kiddos!!

A very fun perk about our house is that it's on the Hyde Park horse tour. About 5-6 times a day, we hear the clip-clop of horses and get to see the tour go by our house. The girls love it!

My sweet Annie Grace chowing down at the table.

This front-loading washer has provided hours of entertainment for the girls. (can you tell we have the boring top-loading washer at home?!)

The wonderful world of Harry Potter!

If you know me well, you know I love me some Harry Potter!!

One of the items on my sister Liz's bucket list (and mine too!) when she came with us to London in December was to go to the Harry Potter tour at the Warner Brother's Studio.

Thankfully, our friend Aileen, was able to hook us up with some last-minute tickets on Christmas Eve, so Liz and I boarded the Harry Potter bus from London and rode for about 45 minutes to the Warner Bros studio.

Let me tell you, this was AMAZING. Totally worth the trip if you love Harry Potter! We were there for most of the day and could have stayed longer. The amount of detail they put into making these movies was incredible.

They basically let you walk through all of these sets that were used from the movies, let you see how they made all the characters, all the costumes, props, etc...it was awesome!

So, sit back and enjoy the many pics from our day at Harry Potter!