9months.

she certainly keeps us on our toes now. :) she...

*pulls up on EVERYTHING
*usually lets her self down from pulling up gracefully
*says dadadada alllllll the time. she'll throw in a mama, baba, nana, gaga sometimes
*loves to read and turn the page for us
*climbs all over us or whatever is in the way
*does not love the car seat. we just installed the bigger one so hopefully that'll be better
*fights her afternoon nap hard. she'll play in there for an hour happy as a clam before she finally falls asleep
*takes 2 naps, 9ish and 1ish both exactly an hour
*goes to bed around 7, still gets a bottle right before bed but hasn't been falling asleep with it which is good since the bottle goes away in a few months
*wakes up around 6:30/7 (man i wish this was a bit later, but i can't complain about my good sleeper)
*mostly sleeps on her tummy (with her butt in the air), but sometimes on her side
*waves "hi" and "bye" (this is a new development so we'll start working on blowing kisses)
*goes to the little gym on fridays
*doesn't like to be too far from me and will come find me
*is getting braver trying to stand on her own, she'll let go for a little bit now
*eats pretty much everything, i usually share my lunch with her so i give her a try of whatever (veggie soup, lasagna, chicken korma, rotisserie chicken, whatever).
*so far hasn't been allergic to anything she's eaten
*loooooves kiwi (slippery little suckers, but she can pick them up)
*has eyes like a hawk, i swear she's going to be a surgeon. she sees the tiniest things on the floor and picks them up pretty easily
*studies things very closely

stats from her 9 month appt:

height-- 27.5 inch (45%)

weight-- 18 lbs 11 oz (60%)

head circumference-- 17 3/4 (83%)

christmas.

fin's first christmas was definitely a success! a few months ago b and i were talking about what we wanted to to christmas break. did we want to stay in houston? did we want to go to austin? we thought about staying here and spending fin's first just the 3 of us, but after thinking about it we thought we'd just wish we were in austin with everyone. it's not like finley's going to remember so we decided to head to austin. we knew it was going to be a busy week, but man it flew by. we spent the first 2 nights at gigi and pop pop's, including christmas eve. christmas eve morning we went over to the shuley's house to do christmas with grandpa. we had a delicious brunch, opened some presents and the 3 kiddos played. then fin took a nap and it was time for church. she did a great job at church. after church we headed to p.f. changs for the traditional christmas eve chinese dinner. growing up we ALWAYS had chinese on christmas eve (still don't know why) and now we've expanded it to include everyone. this year i think there were 24 of us. yea, it's tons of fun. we weren't sure how andrew and finley would do since they are both set in their (very similar) schedule and this was going to be past bedtime, but they were awesome. it probably helped that they were entertained and everyone was willing to help out. we ate and ran to get fin home at a decent time to go to bed.

christmas morning we woke up and fin checked out the presents under the tree. she found one that interested her greatly-- her little einstein activity table-- and that kept her entertained for a while. she took a nap and then back to opening presents. she of course got spoiled terribly. she actually really liked to rip the paper off her presents. then we went to coco and mo's house for the afternoon.

8months.

*crawls all over the place (the traditional way)
*pulls up on short things, i am her favorite jungle gym
*has a tooth!
*says mamamama (used to, doesn't say it much anymore), dadadada (her favorite), babababa
*loves to blow raspberries
*loves "brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?"
*dances (not when we tell her to, but when she hears music)
*is a great eater, usually purees, but now some finger food too like cut up green beans, banana, avocado, carrot (cooked of course), kiwi
*loves yogurt, yogurt melts, and puffs (not sure about cheerios)
*gets 4 bottles (7am, 11,3,7), 3 solid meals (8:30, 11, 6) and 1 snack (4ish)
*goes to bed around 7 and gets up at 6:30/7
*does not like to have her diaper changed or get dressed
*immediately tries to roll or crawl away during diapers
*loves ruby
*is a bit hard to put down for a nap, she'd rather be crawling and pulling up than sleeping no matter how tired she is, i leave her alone and she eventually goes to sleep
*takes 2 naps a day around 9am and 1pm
*loves animal noises

thanksgiving.

the last few years we've all gone to the shuley's house for thanksgiving. every year it gets bigger and bigger and this year was certainly no different since we added andrew and finley into the mix! everyone brings a couple things and we always end up with tons of great food. this year i brought tomato basil soup, mashed potatoes and hot chocolate (with fun stir spoons). fin (and andrew) was a trooper. luckily she took a good nap before we went over there and hung out till bedtime. we kept her up just a tad bit later than normal and by the time we got back to mom's house she was definitely ready for bed. for thanksgiving dinner she had sweet potatoes, puffs and her first taste of real mashed potatoes. she probably could have tried some turkey and other things, i'm just still pretty cautious about table food for now. although dr. eddings told us at her 6 month appt. that closer to 9 months she should start eating what we're eating. she's almost 8 months now so i think we'll start that soon. i mean, obviously only things she can gum, but that will be a lot more than she gets now! anyways, finley's first thanksgiving was definitely a success. oh! she even crawled the REAL way for the first time that night. i guess she was waiting until she had a huge audience to show off. ever since she's been going non-stop! so proud of her.

playing at coco's

represent

erin and i were talking inside and then saw this blur run by out back. finley, your dad and grandpa are crazy. p.s. they were "watching" the kids outside.

fin and gigi!

so lucky to have jenna as a friend for the last 20ish years!

savings.

i decided to keep track of how much it was to make my own babyfood to see if it really was a savings. that's the main reason for making it. i mean, it's nice to know what's exactly going in her food, but i certainly don't think there's some conspiracy out there and they're putting weird things in babyfood. i keep store bought babyfood around in case i forget to thaw some or didn't get around to making anything. anyways here's what i've found:

fresh
4 bananas- $1.08 made 16 oz
4 yellow squash - $1.93 (used 3) made 6 oz
1 butternut squash- $2.88 13oz
4 organic gala apples- $4.20 (used 3 1/2) 15 oz
3 organic bosc pears- $4.02 13 oz
1 cauliflower- $1.50 18 oz
2 acorn squash- $6.34 30 oz (!!)
3 sweet potato- $2.93  (2 1/2) 34 oz (!!)

frozen
10 oz peaches- $2.29 made 6 oz
12 oz mango- $1.90 10 oz
19 oz peas- $1.42 24 oz
16 oz rhubarb- $2.42 10 oz
12 oz carrots- 10 0z

so all in all most of it saves money. i buy green beans and prunes made b/c i don't want to deal with skins. also apples, pears and peaches don't seem to be worth it to make. i also got a can of pumpkin which she LOVED. andi now buy unsweetened applesauce (get lots). and i also made spinach. i don't think i'll be able to make the meat when it comes time for that. just thinking about it makes me gag.

some of the freezer stash

inchworm.

finley is determined to crawl. that's all she wants to do right now. she's figured out a method that works for her so i don't know if she'll ever crawl the traditional way. our little inchworm is getting faster everyday. this video was a couple weeks ago and she started pretty far back there. this is about half way to her goal.

storytime3.

FINALLY we got in! surprisingly she slept till 8 monday morning (after waking up at 5:38 then falling back asleep around 6:30) so we went to the 9:30 storytime. we got there 15 min. early and got a ticket. there were already lots of people there. they have coloring activities out, computers and some toys so the kiddos are entertained till it's go time. it was really fun! mostly songs which was good b/c i didn't think she'd really sit there for 30 min of stories. at the end there was a parachute and bubbles which every baby loves. so we'll plan on going on mondays as long as she's awake.