Bailey Rose 9 months old (on 8-15-13)

I'm a little embarrassingly late on this, due to no time, re-considering my stance with blogging...and that's all I got.

Here's what you were up to when you were 9 months old:

 
           
                              

 Daddy participated in the Tough Mudder competition in WI, so we met him in Stillwater when he was finished for some nachos and Nacho Mamas and we explored the city for a bit before he got there and helped ourselves to some ice cream...it was hot out ;)

                                 

You love splashing in your pool and tubby time!! Mommy's little fish!

                                       

Daddy is very protective of you and makes sure you're safe at all times!! 

Exhibit A 

 Daddy loves to read to you and you do a pretty good job of sitting through a (short) book

You're so helpful with the chores around the house. Someday we'll be paying you a pretty penny to do these things

                                             

Mommy and daddy sneak in as many snuggles with you as they can. We know these moments are limited and take full advantage of them when they happen

You love to hang out in your exercauser and watch TV, snack on some puffs and throw everything off the exercauser to watch it fall to the ground

We lowered your crib again! You are such a little monkey in there. You really do love your crib and you like to sit and play with your animals/little blankies in there.

You got a tooth! Your first tooth showed up on July 22 (the bottom left one). You only have 1 tooth right now, but you're the cutest 1 toothed little girl :)

You can climb up the stairs. We have 14 steps from the main level to the upstairs and you can climb them all without much of a break. This is one of your favorite things to do, you always go straight to the steps!
                          

                           

You hosted a lovely group of MN Bloggers at your house. We had some yummy food and played games. You did so well with the "strangers" here.

You celebrated your mama's 30th birthday. I remember being pregnant with you last year and going to Stillwater for the day and thinking about how this year would be different having you here with me. I had no idea what an absolutely precious gift you would be. It's truly indescribable how much joy and happiness you bring me every single day.

You went to the zoo again. Part of mom's birthday festivities

At the petting zoo

You also went to Lake Calhoun and walked rode all the way around the lake with mommy and daddy. We made a few pit stops so you could go swinging and dip your toes in the lake.

                           

You participated in a "surprise party" that didn't quite go as planned for Mommy's birthday, but it was still fun to celebrate with friends and family!

Other things to note

Height: 27.5"

Weight: 17lbs 13oz

Head: 17.5"

Places you've been: MN Zoo - Lake Calhoun

Doctor's Appointments: You had your 9 month appt on Aug 26

Daycare: Still driving to Elko about 2-3 days/week. Sometimes daddy keeps you at home with him instead of taking you to daycare (less driving). Daddy is so sweet and often times does the drop-off and pick-up!

Sleeping: Still doing great! Usually down around 9 and up around 7:30/8

Eating: Eating 7oz every 3-4 hours and solids 2/day. You haven't ventured into anything new this month. Still mom's homemade baby purees. 

Clothing: Mostly wearing 6 months and still squeeze into some 3-6 clothes

Diapers: You are wearing size 2 diapers when you wear regular diapers. We've been putting you in an overnight disposable for night time sleeping with has made the leaks go away. This is our solution for now :)

Things you like: What don't you like? Seriously, you're the happiest baby I've ever met! You're rarely upset or crying and when you do, it's usually justified.

Mommy likes: when mommy sings and dances for/with you, you love to pull mommy's hair and necklaces and suck on them, bath time with mommy
Daddy likes: when daddy sings to you in the morning to wake you up, when daddy gets home from work, daddy cuddles, when daddy plays with you, daddy reading you books (especially "Daddy Cuddles")

Dear Bailey,
You've done it again. Each month (day) I don't think it's actually possible to love you anymore than I already do, and then you learn and do something that is ridiculously cute and I somehow find a way to love you even more. Unbelievable! There is no possible way to describe this feeling to anyone. Parenthood is an indescribable feeling until you are there and living it. We love you so much sweetheart!

Weekend Recap

Another weekend here and gone...

Friday: Hubby worked all day and night so that left me and Bailey to do our own thing :) We went shopping at a few different places gathering some supplies for her big party on Saturday (Baptism after party). When I got home, I got to work prepping some food and decorating some cookies I made for her baptism. I kind of anticipated them turning out a little better than they did, but they tasted yummy so I guess that's probably what matters the most :)

Bailey woke up mid-cookie decorating and was pretty needy so I wasn't able to get a ton of other stuff done (which I really need to do!). Once Chris got home from work, he was able to watch her for a bit and then I started stashing our clutter in closets and drawers cleaning the house up. We all settled in for a bit of TV and then off to bed we went. 

Saturday: I woke up around 4 since Bailey was moving around a little bit in her rocker (that is on my side of the bed) and she finally woke up at 5 needing to be fed. I went downstairs and fed her and knew she wasn't going back to sleep so I just stayed down there with her and cuddled. She finally fell asleep around 6 so I snuggled her some more and checked out pinterest and blogs. Around 7 I went upstairs and started getting ready since we needed to be leaving the house around 9. For some reason, no matter how much time I leave myself I'm pretty much always rushing out the door to be on time, which was the case Saturday morning. There were 36 kids baptized with Bailey on Saturday morning and around 300 people there - INSANE! I enjoyed the baptism, but honestly wish it would've been a bit smaller session, oh well. Here are some pics from the baptism. 

She slept through class and the first part of the Baptism

Splish Splash! She woke up to the water being put on her head, but luckily didn't cry :)

Drying her little head off

Godfather (Josh BIL) putting oil on her forehead

Godmother (Whitney SIL) with the candle

Bailey's cousin (Claire) helped blow out the candle

I think my SIL looks so pretty here! 

The fam after the baptism

Us with Bailey's godparents (Chris's sister and her husband) 

Us with Chris's parents 

Us with my parents 

Us with Millie and Brad 

Us with Bailey's aunt, uncle/godparents and cousins

 After the baptism we had a little lunch at our place. I made chicken wild rice soup, a veggie tray, breadsticks, cookies and picked up some spiral deli things from the freezer section. Nothing fancy pants!

Claire and Nana feeding Bailey

Cousin Max - he is at such a fun stage and cracks us up!

Wide-eyed Bailey

Bailey and Nana - Love this picture!!

My precious little girl. 

Side note - my mom didn't save a ton of my stuff from when I was a kid, but the little dress that Bailey is wearing was mine from when I was baptized. I'm happy that she saved that because it's a great thing to be able to re-use for my kid(s). And, of course, Bailey looked adorable in it :)

After the party was over, Bailey insisted that we change her into some Vikings gear! Chris and I had fun doing a little photo-op of her. 

Direct quotes from when we were taking these pics
"I swear she is getting cuter by the second"
"We are so screwed, we won't ever be able to say no to her"

Mommy and Bailey posing next to Jared's jersey in the basement                                

                                               

After the game was over, there was a little bit lot of this....

Poor Bailey (and daddy)

She was distraught for the rest of the evening and I think it even carried over to Sunday. Poor thing has a whole lot of this to look forward to growing up in MN. Maybe I should convince her to back a different team?? Nah, I'd probably be removed from my in-law's family and they're a pretty cool group of people :)

Sunday: One of my goals/resolutions for the New Year is to go to church once/month. We're more of the holiday church goers crowd. My hubby used to be much better at going to church and then we moved to Savage and his church was about 20 minutes away and I was not good at going with him. The church he/we go to is an amazing church and everyone I know that has gone there loves it! Chris asked if I wanted to go this morning and I said yes (keeping my goal in mind, which I had told him about the other day). I shouldn't even be surprised that the church was packed and overflowing with people. We were in the nose bleed section since we pretty much arrived at 11 (running late as usual). This church always incorporates fun elements into the sermon and today the pastor literally drove a Ferrari out on the stage. Here is my craptastic pic from the nose bleed section

                                     

                                                  Here is a better pic of what the car was

Pretty sure a lot of the men that were at service today were there to see the car, but they also heard a great message while they were there :)

After church we hit up Old Chicago and used one of our gift cards we have for there. Of course, we are still devastated over the loss of the nachos on there menu. Such a tragedy! When we got home, I took a little nap on the couch while Bailey and my hubby watched some more football. This evening, I was able to squeeze in a run on the treadmill while watching some shows on the DVR. 

I had a great weekend and am so thankful that we go to see our family!

J and W thank you so much for being Bailey's godparents, she is so incredibly lucky to have you guys (and her cousins!) in her life!

                   LIFE IS GOOD!