Bath time!

9 months!

How can it be that my Lucy-bug is 9 months old already? Nine months in and now nine months out!

I might be biased, but she just has the best smile and brightest eyes! She's typically such a sweet and happy baby, always on the move, getting into everything, but typically very happy!

Today at our 9 month appointment, she weighed 15 pounds, 6.5 ounces (5th percentile), was 27 inches long (25th percentile) and head circumference was 42 cm (5th percentile).

She's now following my growth curve when I was a baby- apparently I was only 18 pounds when I was one year old. 

She's also following my developmental milestones- I started crawling at 7 months, sitting up at 6 months, walking at 10 months.... the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree! :) 

Here's some pics from this past month:

I like to chew on everything and put EVERYTHING in my mouth!

I like to play with my cousins at Oma and PapPap's house!

I've started to climb stairs....glad there are baby gates!

I got to meet Aunt Donna and Uncle Roy on New Years!

Sweet, sweet girl!! I love this pic of her!

See, I like to put EVERYTHING in my mouth, even the outlet plugs!

Here's me putting a leaf in my mouth....I tried to sneak it in so Mommy wouldn't see...

Oops! She caught me!

I also like to bang on the piano keys, especially when Mommy and Daddy are playing the big black piano

I'm shrinking!! Just kidding- Grandmommy and Papi gave me a really big sock monkey for Christmas!

New skills and stats for the month: (more-so for me to remember)

- drinking from a sippy cup (water)

- can feed herself puffs, MumMums, green beans, noodles, soft foods- no pincer grasp just yet, but working on it

- still nursing 5-6 times a day- still just on breast milk

- cruising around the sofa, ottoman, fireplace

- realizing that there is more to the house than the toys in the living room. We have caught her several times with her hands in the toilet bowl in the guest bath. She's also getting interested in the cat door on the laundry room door. 

- walking with the Radio Flyer walker she got for Christmas- it brought tears to my eyes to watch her do this on Christmas morning- it was like she just knew exactly what to do with the walker once we showed her where to hold on and how to push it- she just took off!! 

- she is starting to stand by herself, not holding on to anything, for 5 seconds or so at a time

- says "da-da-da", "ba-ba-ba", I've heard a few "ma-ma" sounds as well

- sometimes she will make a joyful noise while one of us is playing the piano

- foods she is eating: green beans, butternut squash, winter squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, zucchini, pancakes, blueberries, waffles, black beans, puffs, MumMums, peas, mashed potatoes, gnawing on apple cores- she's still not a big fan of fruit- I'm trying to work on that!

- sleeping: she's up for the day between 6:45-7:30am, then down for a nap around 9:00am, and sleeps until 10:30 or 11:00 am, then up to play, run errands, etc, then typically down for another nap around 2:30pm or so, and sleeps for another hour and a half or so. Sometimes she will take another 30 or 45 minute nap around 5:00pm, just depends on the day. Then bath time around 6:45pm, bedtime at 7:00pm. She usually wakes up around 10:30pm to eat and goes right back to sleep, but the past couple of nights she's stopped doing that, so we'll see if it will continue. I feel like she is finally getting the hang of longer naps and is sleeping so much better at night. She's beginning to be able to be put to bed awake and she can fall asleep (usually only works if she is really tired).

- she loves her paci and lovie when she takes a nap or goes to sleep at night

- she blows raspberries when she's really mad or upset

I LOVE this little girl! I love waking up in the morning, going to her room to get her out of her crib and she is so excited to see me! She stands up in her crib, shifts her weight from foot to foot, while smiling really big with this excited little voice! She's great when running errands- she sits in the basket of the grocery cart and smiles at everyone she sees. She is a delight!!

Christmas!

Warning, this post is mostly pictures. :) 

Instead of writing lots of boring details, I will just put captions under all the pics and you can read along. :) 

We went to Santa's Village with our friends, the Treadaways. Next year, we will choose another weekend- the last weekend they have Santa's Village is the MOST CROWDED and OVER-POPULATED event EVER.
Never the less, Lucy was a trooper in the cold weather and LOVED seeing all the characters!

Family pic at Santa's Village! And, crazy mom that I am, thought that Lucy's little cold was nothing and she'd be fine in the cold weather ("just give her some Tylenol, she'll be fine")- the next day, we took her to the doctor's office because she had a fever and had been up 3 times the night before...well, she had her first ear infection and RSV! What a great mom I am!

I really wanted to take Lucy to see Santa. Again, timing is everything. Note to self, if you don't want to wait 2.5 hours in line with an 8 month old to see Santa, go the first week of December, not the week of Christmas. Thankfully, Aunt Liz joined us and Lucy was a trooper while we waited. 

We hosted Mexican Christmas (my dad's side of the family's Christmas Eve dinner). We had 30 people come and were able to accommodate all 30 people down one giant table (3 tables put together). It was so fun!!

Our Christmas tree with all the loot

eating dinner...all 30 of us!

All the family!

Certainly couldn't have pulled off having 30 people over without my Mom!! It takes a village...

Lucy opening her stocking at Grandmommy and Papi's house on Christmas Day!

GG opening her very special gift- the grandkids all made a donation to Jack C. Binion Elementary School library (my grandfather's elementary school that they named after him). He and Grandmommy (GG) have placed so much importance on education and reading and supported us all through college, that we wanted to do something in their honor. She loved it!

Liz's Christmas gift to me- she made these uuber-cute wreaths for our front-door! 

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas! It actually started on the 23rd, at Mike's parents' house with his side of the family (sad that I didn't get any pics!), then continued on the 24th with Mexican Christmas at our house, as well as Christmas Eve service at Watermark, then ended on Christmas Day. We woke up on Christmas morning, opened our presents as our little family (Lucy got this really cute Radio Flyer walker and started walking all over the place with it!), then went to my parents' house for Serna Christmas and spent most of the day there (ending the afternoon with tamales, rice and black beans). It was fabulous!!

I do have to say that I really wanted to enjoy the Christmas season, not be a "Martha" but be a "Mary." I truly feel like I was able to have a continual heart of gratitude, thanking God for His gift to us, sending His Son to earth, which is why we celebrate Christmas. Praise God for His peace that surpasses all understanding and guards our hearts and minds- it's what kept me going!

8 months old!

Lucy-bug is 8 months old! What a joy she is! We've had lots fun this month!

My first pair of stockings! I wore them to church today!

Here are some fun things we've done this month:

She is drinking water out of a cup at meals.

She is trying new foods, most recently, zucchini! She's also starting to feed herself food, like peas (slightly smashed!), pieces of carrot, potato, sweet potato, toast, waffles. She LOVES MumMum teething biscuits! Sometimes I have to trick her to eat her pureed foods by giving her a MumMum to munch on while I sneak in bites of food. I'm trying to have her eat solids 3 times a day, but sometimes our schedule is a little crazy, and all we can get in is 2 meals. I'm still nursing her about 5-6 times a day. 

 She's sleeping through the night (Thank you Lord!!), she is starting to take 2-3 longer naps a day. Her typical day starts around 6:30 or 7:00 am, then she naps around 8:30 or 9:00 am for an hour or so, then she's up and playing until about noon, then down for another 1- 1.5 hour nap, then playing, then possibly another shorter nap, depending on how the day is going, then bath time, followed by bedtime at 7:00pm. She wakes up once around 10:00pm to eat, then goes right back to sleep until the next morning.

I cannot tell you how THRILLED I am that she is sleeping through the night!!! 

As far as skills go, Lucy-loo started clapping her hands this month, as well as drinking out of a sippy cup. She's also starting to wave. She's crawling all over the place, pulling up on everything, starting to take steps while holding on to something. She recently found the Christmas tree and likes the sparkly ornaments on the bottom. :) 

She's laughing more and more, and I feel like her little personality is starting to blossom- she's generally a very happy, smiley child- such a fun, sweet girl! She also knows when we're taking pictures of her, either on my phone or with the camera, and generally hams it up and smiles really big on cue!

I think she weighs about 16 pounds, if I had to guess. She was 15 pounds 4 ounces at 7 months, and she's been averaging about a pound a month....still a light-weight. :) She's still wearing 6 month clothes...

This month she celebrated her first Thanksgiving! She also got to go with us to Walls Family Farm and cut down our Christmas tree- one of our favorite traditions during Christmas! We also hosted our play group this afternoon for a Christmas cookie exchange- it was lots of fun, and very busy with 8 kids, all 8 or 9 months old!

  Mike or I play the piano most nights before she goes to bed and she has started to sometimes "sing"- aka, making a joyful noise, while we play. So sweet to hear. 

I just love this sweet girl! She is such a blessing and has brought such joy to our home!

Walls Family Farm....

One of our favorite traditions of Christmas time is to go to Walls Family Farm and cut down a fresh Christmas tree with our good friends! 

This year, we were so happy to be able to take Lucy with us! Only problem was that it was about 38 degrees and rainy. But, ever the die-hard tree-cutters, we decided to bundle up and tough it out. Thankfully, there was about a 20 minute window where it stopped raining long enough for us to take the tractor ride out to the tree area and cut down our tree....and then the heavens broke loose again, and it poured. 

But, AFTER we had our tree!

We had such a blast, and Lucy was such a trooper- she did GREAT!!

All bundled up with Daddy

The Treadaway clan

First Walls Family Farm pic!

After we came home that evening, we waited until Lucy went to sleep and decorated the tree while watching Home Alone. So fun!

Turkey Days!

We had great Turkey Days this year....we spent Thanksgiving Day with most of my family and had lunch at Franklin Park, Grandmommy's retirement home. After lunch, we came back to our house, celebrated Papi's birthday, and watched the Cowboy and A&M games. 

On Saturday, we headed over to Mike's parents' house and had Thanksgiving with the Frizzell side of the family. So fun to be around all our cousins! 

This past Saturday, my sister and her husband came up from San Antonio, and Paige's family flew in from California for Alyssa's birthday, and we had our third Thanksgiving meal with the extended side of the Serna family. Fun times have been had by all!

And here is my little turkey...

Birmingham!

A couple of weeks ago, Lucy and I boarded a plane to Birmingham, AL for a fun girls weekend! One of my good friends, Melissa, is about to welcome her sweet baby girl into the world and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go to her baby shower and celebrate with her!

I will admit, I was a little anxious about taking Lucy on a plane by myself and keeping up with her all weekend, but she did really well!

We arrived at Love Field in Dallas at 6:00 am on Saturday morning, and made our way through security. I was uuber organized before arriving to the airport and tried to have all my ducks in a row. It was a little crazy going through security, though- trying to hold her while collapsing the stroller, putting all my stuff on the x-ray conveyor belt, etc....but thanks to TSA security, we both made it through in one piece.

Lucy did GREAT on the plane both ways- slept the entire time to and from! What a huge answer to prayer!!

We arrived in Birmingham and I'm pretty sure I looked a little ridiculous, with me pushing a stroller, large bag on my shoulder as well as pulling a suitcase behind me, but it worked and we got to our rental car. :) 

Oh, and a side-note- we arrived the morning of the Alabama vs LSU game- half of our plane was full of Alabama fans, who were also getting their rental cars along with me and then pulling out their dozens of magnetic decals and sticking them all over their rental cars- no lie.                            

It was so, so wonderful to be able to see old friends and celebrate Melissa and sweet Anne Charlotte!!

Lucy did pretty well at the shower- thankfully, the hostess had a crib, high chair and lots of toys for Lucy to play with....great setup!

We spent the weekend laying low at Melissa's house after the shower, going through all of her fun baby gifts, figuring out what else needed to be purchased, running to Babies R Us, etc... I was so thankful for Melissa and her mom for helping me with taking care of Lucy! They were such a blessing!!

Lucy did really well while we were in Birmingham- only bad thing was her sleep (or lack of it!). She woke up about 4 times on Saturday night and about 3 or 4 times on Sunday night- it didn't help that it was Daylight savings time and she had her times all messed up. She ended up waking up for the day on Sunday morning at 5:30 am- I couldn't find the coffee pot, so around 7:00 am, I loaded Lucy up in the car and we went to O'Henry's Coffee House in our PJ's and got coffee. Needless to say, there were several other young families there as well- apparently Daylight savings doesn't get translated to little ones yet....

Of course, we had to go and visit Mr. Beeson at Mommy's alma mater.... 

Melissa with Anne Charlotte (inside!), Lucy and me

Lucy thought it would be fun to eat Mr. Beeson....

One of my favorite things about the fall in the South- the BEAUTIFUL trees and hills- lots and lots of color!! 

I also got to catch up with one of my roommates, Andrea, and her friend, Lauren, at the Cheesecake Factory on Sunday morning! So fun to see her again!

All in all, a GREAT trip! I was so thankful to have been able to go and was glad to have taken Miss Lucy along to see where her Mom spent her college years!