Our favorite things: Months 8 and 9!

Well, we are about to dive into month 10 tomorrow (eeek!) and realized I hadn't done a month 8/9 favorites!  I have a bazillion things I loved these last couple months, that also made our life a teeny bit easier, but I narrowed it down to the following things:

1.) Fisher Price Brilliant Basics Musical Walker: Best. Purchase. Ever.  Just last week, Ledoux started **trying** to walk.  Although still a bit unsteady enough to walk unassisted, she uses this walker to walk all around our house.  She hasn't quite figured out how to turn it, so she runs it right into the wall, and will let out a loud shriek to let Lee and I know it is time to come and turn her around.  So that she can run it into the wall on the other side of the house.  Over, and over, and over again.  She loves it. That's what matters, right? (PS: I left the batteries out of it.  I cannot take one more singing toy in my house!)

2.) Bright Starts "Having a ball" activity table: This is one of Ledoux's very most favorite toys.  When she started standing up at the end of month 8, this was so much fun for her!  She could pull herself up on it, and play with all the music and sounds (and lights!)  Side note: I have every song it plays memorized, and find myself humming them under my breath.  When Ledoux is not around.  Sigh.

3. Yogurt Melts: Hands down, next to bananas, Ledoux's go to snack are yogurt melts.  She loves these, and I go through about 4-5 bags of them a week.  She shovels these things into her mouth.  I don't blame her for loving these, have you tried them?  Gosh, at the risk of sounding like a weirdo, I love baby food.  SOOO good.  (another of my her favorites? Baby 'Cheetos' found here.  So good!)

4.) Munchkin Snack tower: Love this!  Ledoux's snacks all go in this, and it pops apart to easily pour out for her for each snack time.  I put fresh fruit, melts, puffys, you name it in this.  Its neat, organized, and takes up very little space.  Win!

5.) Edushape My Soft World Blocks: I had no idea Ledoux would love these as much as she does!  These are her "go-to" toy in her nursery.  She crawls right over and takes them out of the container.  They are foam, and super soft, and she loves to chew on them.  Great buy for less than $20!

6.) MAM teether: Doodle is teething right now (when isn't a baby teething though...really?!) and she loves this teether.  She carries it around in her mouth, as she crawls, like a little puppy dog.  Its pretty funny! It fits her gums well, and has little 'bristles' in it that massage her gums when she bites down.

7.) This Little Piggy board book: This is Ledoux's current favorite book.  Who doesn't love the little piggy story? It has a fun little finger puppet in it, which makes Doo crack up laughing! 

8.) Eric Carle "Around the Farm" sounds book: Ledoux also loves this book.  I love Eric Carle anything thanks to the bright pictures, and I am glad Ledoux does too!  Each animal picture also has "sounds" so on each page, we can press the button that goes with the animal and she can hear what noise each one makes.  Her favorite is the turtle (random) and the horse (neeiiiggggggh!)

So there you have it, our favorite things for 8-9 months!!  I cannot believe that tomorrow my baby turns ten months... one year old (and a walking baby) are right around the corner! Slightly nervous, very excited!

8 Months!

I am pretty sure I start out every monthly update post with the sentence "How is it possible my little baby is already...", but seriously.  How is it possible by sweet baby is already 8 months old?  I am blown away that she has been in our lives for 8 months already... I feel like just yesterday we were on our way to the hospital.  They weren't kidding when they said time flies when you have a little babe. This last month has been one for the record books, I am fairly certain that it can't be topped! Lots of new memories, milestones, and life changes.  Wooosh!

Sleeping?  I am so lucky.  My baby sleeps, like a rock, every night.  Knock on wood. She goes down between 6:30 and 7 pm, and stays asleep til 615-645 am.  We have a solid night time routine which works so well for us, and Ledoux likes the consistency of it, I think it helps her wind down.  Lately, is has been pretty funny... she is so tired by the end of the day, she gets a case of the "sleepy sillys" and just goes ape shit eating her dinner and during bath time. Her new thing? Pretending to eat her baby food at dinner, and then spitting it out, rasberry style (so that it goes squirting EVERYWHERE).  I have given up ever having a clean shirt and pants by the end of the night, and I often wake up the next morning with baby food in my hair.  and on my arms. and legs. and anywhere else she may have blown it.

Eating? She is becoming less and less interested in bottles, and more and more interested in actual food!  I got her the size 3 nipples for her baby bottles, so the milk flow is quicker, because she gets very un-interested in it very fast.  She would much rather be 1.) Playing or 2.) eating real food.  She eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday now- so that might also be the reason the bottles aren't as exciting as the used to be.  She is getting fuller, faster, on baby food and has less need for a bottle maybe?  She also started eating snacks this week- her favorites are baby mum mums (rice cracker things) and yogurt melts.  I am terrified she will choke, but she has to learn sooner or later!  In school, there is a little girl who is older than Ledoux, and eats "big kid" lunches, and Ledoux has started trying to take her food, (straight up mean girl style!) soooo I suppose it is time to start letting her try it out.  Judging by the picture below, Ledoux has no issues with eating.

So full

Health?  No problem-os.  She hasn't had any colds or anything... healthy little baby :)

Likes?  Ledoux loves strawberries in her little munchkin feeder (a little mesh bag).  She loves her new, big girl car seat because she can see everything that is going on, and just talks up a storm in the car now.  She also loves Target.  No, seriously.  As soon as she sees that big, red cart her legs start kicking like crazy! (like mommy, like baby) When I am bored and she is getting stir crazy ,we like to go there and it will keep her occupied for an hour, just walking the aisles and people watching.  Her other new favorite thing to do is stand up...she kind of reminds me of one of those meerkats at the zoo- you know, those animals that are always standing up, looking around?

Dislikes? Old men with glasses.  If an older man with glasses walks up and talks to her, she will start screaming. She also hates the vacuum.  I think it is the loud noise, poor baby gets so scared and just screams!

Passed out in her new big girl seat!

Milestones: What a month for my baby!!!! She is crawling. all over the place.  everywhere.  Oh my goodness its like trying to wrangle in a greased little piggy! The minute I put her down, she is on the other side of the room.  I cannot leave her alone for more than half a second without her getting into something.  And she has also started pulling herself up, so not only is she crawling across the floor, but pulling herself up on to everything.  I always said I hated the newborn stage, because they didn't do anything... and now I am wishing I could go back in time.  I am exhausted at the end of the day.  Time to baby proof everything, and get a baby corral for my little animal!  Ledoux also started sitting in her new, big girl car seat.  I wasn't ready to make the transition (mostly because it means my baby really is big enough to move up to a bigger seat!), but her little piggys were falling out of the newborn/infant seat.  Tear!

 

How are mommy and daddy?  Daddy is pretty much a big deal at work, already getting promoted (in less than 5 months!)  He is doing so well at his new job, and loving it!  We are so lucky to have gotten out of the Military, and already have Lee doing so great in a civilian career!  We also just bought a house!!  We are so excited, and are knee deep in the move-in process.  In fact, right now, we have the entire house being painted, pool fence being installed, and furniture being delivered.  We sold pretty much all of our old furniture, and bought all new, nice stuff!  It feels so fun to be starting over! Our goal is to be 100% moved in this weekend. Some of our fave features of the new house include an intercom system (so we can talk to each other by pressing a button from any room in the house) and it also blares music throughout the house and outside (but you can turn off the music in every room, so if Ledoux is napping, we can turn it off in her room.)  We also are in LOVE with the laundry shoot (mostly because I think it is fun to throw stuff down it!) the outdoor fans.  But....above all of this... my most favorite room?  The guest bathroom is a chalkboard bathroom.  Perhaps it is a bit silly, but what house have you ever been in that has a guest bathroom that is chalkboard walls?  SO EXCITED.  I will post pictures once I am done with it, but it is going to blow your mind.  And if it doesn't, than you clearly are no fun at all!

Cheers from our desert oasis!

We are also getting excited to meet all of the new babies that are arriving soon- we know so many people who are having little babes this summer!  Here is a picture of Ledoux and her soon to be BFF, Aubrey Ryan!

A 4-d pic of Doo's soon to be BFF Aubrey!

Next weekend will be Ledoux's very first airplane trip to Texas to meet all of her family there!  Slightly nervous about flying (and packing!) with a baby, but we are excited to introduce her to everyone!  Keep an eye out for posts about that upcoming adventure, I can see posts about how to (and how not to) travel with babies in the future! Any advice any mommies have for us?!