Another Milestone

Good news! (or maybe not)! Y started crawling (the normal way) yesterday!!! I was so excited to see it and I got a video of it but she was wearing a dress which kinda prevented you from really seeing her crawl in that video so I'm going to try and take a better one today and post it sometime today or tomorrow. It was exciting to see as well as surprising because I was beginning to think that the only crawl she would do would be her Upside down reverse crawl (which she has perfected and moves along at a rapid speed). But yesterday while putting a new sheet on her changing pad I noticed her crawling to get to the box of wipes that were on the floor. So I just thought I'd post the progress for now and will add a video later!

Better Late Than Never

Father's Day was two days ago and I'm just now getting to this, but the fact that I am so late doesn't speak to my lack of gratitude for what a wonderful father B is! I'm just late but for good reason! We spent the day Sunday spending time with B and yesterday I was just plain lazy. So since I've gotten Y down for a nap I figured I'd go ahead and write this post telling you all what you already know...and that is how awesome a dad B is! He was literally born to be a dad and I am so very fortunate to have his love an influence on the life of our child(ren). Y is truly the luckiest girl in the world and if you can judge by the look on her face each day when her daddy comes in from work, then you can tell that she knows how lucky she is. No matter what she is doing, when she hears the lock on the door turn at that time of day she always stops and looks towards the door. It reminds me of that primary song called Daddy's Homecoming. For those of you who don't know it, the lyrics are:

I'm so glad when daddy comes home,
Glad as I can be;

Clap my hands and shout for joy,

Then climb up on his knee,

Put my arms around his neck,

Hug him tight like this,
Pat his cheeks, then give him a what?

A great big kiss!

I also want to take a quick line or so to express my love for my own dad who, though he can be a bit hard to swallow and even difficult to love at times, I truly have grown to appreciate and love him for who he is and I really truly love to see him interact with Y and all of my nieces and nephews. I also have a wonderful father-in-law (who helped raise an awesome son) who is funny, kind-hearted, generous, and always there when you need him. I am sure beyond sure that were it not for these two men, Brandon and myself would likely be very different people.

So even though it's late, I am expressing my sincere gratitude for all the father's in my life...I'm a pretty lucky girl!

Here are some pictures from Sunday's walk in the park:

New Portraits

Our friend Crystal, who has previously taken our portraits, recently moved to NJ but before she left we wanted her to take pictures of us one more time. Well we just got the pictures on CD and they are absolutely beautiful. Needless to say we're gonna miss them (and not just because she's a great photographer)! Anyway, here's a slideshow of the photos. I only included the color photographs in the slideshow because there are so many that it would take a very long time to view it if all were included, but feel free to see them all by clicking on the picture (not the slideshow) below.

Slideshow:

Portraits II All

Laugh Out Loud!

As I've said before, Y brings so much joy into our lives. Today, we were getting ready to take a quick trip to Wal-Mart and I was in the bathroom getting ready and all of a sudden I just hear this hysterical laugh coming from Y. So I peek my head out of the bathroom and see B holding a plastic bag and Y laughing at it. You know how when you want to open a plastic bag you will shake it until it kinda separates and fully opens, well apparently Y finds that hilarious. Before we left for the store we reenacted it so that we could get a video of it and of course share it with all of you!

She truly can find laughter in absolutely anything! She also finds it hysterical when I wiggle my toes back and forth or mimic something that she does. How did we get so lucky?!?!

Let's Play Dress-up

Today Y wore my absolute favorite dress out of all the dresses that she owns. I purchased it back in February in size 12 month and even though she technically doesn't wear 12 month clothes yet, I tried it on her earlier in the week and thought it fit well enough (plus I was just tired of looking at it hanging in the closet). So today she wore it and yeah, needless to say she looked absolutely perfect in it. And the best part is that she'll get to wear it for many months to come!!

Not sure if I've mentioned this in a previous post but she has 2 teeth coming in now. They are the front bottom two and as odd as it seems I think they'll come in either at the same time or literally one after the other. As for right now they look like they're in the same position. Maybe they're having a race to the finish.

Car Update

Today we received the news and honestly we could not be happier with it! Our car can be fixed!!!!! A guy from the collision shop called B to give him the news today. The estimate is $4533 and luckily for us the damage is pretty much completely cosmetic. He told B that once they started surveying the damage they found that it wasn't as bad as it looks and all the major parts are untouched. Another comforting fact is that the work is 100% guaranteed for the life of the car, so if something happens with it or it doesn't quite work like it should we can just take it back until it's right. So we get to keep our baby!!! We are very excited. They have already ordered the parts but being that they aren't expected until the end of the week they won't begin working on the car until next week and it will take a minimum of two weeks to fix...I can live with that!

9 Month Well Baby

As you have probably guessed from the title of this post, Y had her 9 month well baby visit today. She is doing great and is gaining weight at a good pace, about one pound per month now. Her current stats are: 19lbs 5oz, 28¾ inches long and a head circumference of 17¼ inches. That places her just below the 50th percentile for weight and head circumference and at the 90th percentile for height. Now I just did the math and it seems weird to think that there's only an 11½ inch span between the length of her body and the measurement of her head; I guess her head just really doesn't look that big to me! They also did a hemoglobin test, for a child it should be between 11 and 16, Y's was at 11½, so that is fine as well. Other than that, there's no new news as far as her health goes!


Apparently I should have begun to give her crackers and other little snacks before now; but I didn't! So today Y had her first cracker and she really liked it...once she was able to finally get it in her mouth that is. Here's a couple pictures:

As for the car, we're still awaiting the estimate from the collision shop which we should receive sometime tomorrow (Tuesday). They have said that it is fixable but it's a matter of whether or not the insurance company will declare it a total lose or not. After talking to our agent today he told us that if the repairs will cost more than 70% of the value of the car then they will just total the car and cut us a check. I'm really not sure which option I want at this point. I mean, on one hand it'd be great to have a new car but with that new car comes many years of car payments. On the other hand, I love my Focus and I really want it back but the question is even if they can fix it will we have recurring problems with it later. (The good thing about this is that the shop guarantees their work so any problem we have with it in the future, for the life of the car, they will fix - but who really wants to have the headache of taking it in over and over again). So I am really torn but it will all turn out for the best. As for now, we have returned our rental and are using one of B's parent's cars which they have so graciously loaned us. So I guess I'd better start wearing my sunglasses so no one sees me and thinks I'm Canadian because of the license plates, haha!

This is NOT What I Meant!

So, in this post I stated that I wanted another car...well I didn't mean that I wanted our current car to get wrecked in the process! Yesterday while coming home from work, B was in an accident, thankfully he is fine. I can replace a car but I cannot replace him - and he is far more valuable to me than any thing I could own. Long story short he was in the center lane to turn left at a light, there was bumper-to-bumper traffic and apparently 2 cars left a gap in order for her to cross those lanes and turn into the center lane to wait for traffic to clear so that she could travel in the opposite direction. Well apparently she didn't think that there might already be a car in the center lane waiting for the light to change. And here is the end result:

So it's a 50/50 chance that it's totaled...we're very sad, we love that car! Not to mentioned we were almost done paying for it. So yeah, not exactly the way I wanted a new car!

Where Has the Time Gone?!?

As of today, Y has been on the outside world for as long as she was inside me; she's 9 months old!! Time has really flown and I must say that we won the baby lottery! She's always happy, laughing and playing and she loves spending time with mommy and daddy. We go to the doctor on Monday so I'll have to update you on all of her stats then. But as for what I can tell you, Y still has no teeth, though I think this may be the month that they finally break through. She still loves to eat and loves exploring new things. If there is a mirror in the room she will find it and occupy herself for several minutes while she laughs and giggles. She enjoys bath time and splashing mommy, although daddy always instigates that! She also prefers to have her bath with both of us present. She loves to watch videos of herself as well; we showed her the video that is posted below and she started laughing and grinning. Her favorite toy is paper and I'll let her have it until she puts it in her mouth. Once I take it from her she throws a little tantrum until I give her something else to occupy her at which time she completely forgets about the paper.

As I said before, she's a great baby and we are so very grateful for her and the joy she brings into our lives. As I look back over the last 9 months I can't help but ask myself did I take the time to enjoy it? And for the most part I can say yes but there are times that I think I focused a little bit too much on some issues and trying to "fix" them. Breastfeeding stressed me out in the beginning but as I look back I am so very grateful that I stuck it out, I love that time we have together not to mention the bond that has formed. However, the strong focus I put on trying to get her to soothe herself to sleep without me and letting her cry-it-out (CIO), I probably wouldn't have focused so much on that. The CIO method never worked for her and she just ended up crying for hours on end and every time I got near her crib she would just cling to me. I have been trying another, gentler method and it seems to be working for us. Sometimes it involves my rocking her to sleep and other times I can just put her in her crib and stand near her as she puts herself to sleep. I think she is just one of those babies that needs her mommy a little more than others. And the biggest lesson that I've come to learn is that I'm perfectly okay with that!

Anyway, that's enough from me and it's time to move on to what you're all here for anyway - seeing pictures and video of Y. Enjoy!

I'll put the video first this time! This is one of her favorite things to do - she randomly screams for absolutely no reason at all!

Y learning to stand on her own 2 feet

Playing with her cookie jar of shapes

"Reading" her favorite book

Y's best effort to crawl the correct way

The end result of the crawl attempt

Preparing to go on a Rainforest safari.

Traipsing through the Rainforest

Exhausted...it's nap time!

If I Give Y Nothing Else...

...I want to pass along to her my LOVE of shoes. Especially cute sandals and any summertime shoe really. Today, I made a trip to The Children's Place just to buy her a pair of shoes that I saw in the flyer that they mail me. She already has several pairs of shoes but when I saw these, they literally called my name because she did not yet have a pair of white sandals and every little girl needs a pair of white sandals. The picture really doesn't do them justice, I loved them in the flyer but in person I LOVED them! Probably weird that I dedicated a whole post to a pair of shoes, but oh well!!!

A Highly Satisfied Customer

When I have a really positive or really negative customer service experience, I like to share it. So I must tell you about my experience with Fisher-Price this week.

Last year, while doing all of our baby registries we came across this Rainforest Waterfall Peek-a-Boo Soother and thought that it was pretty neat, so we registered for it. We received it as a gift at my shower in North Carolina last summer. Y absolutely loves it! It attaches to her crib and it really is a soother because no matter what it calms her down. The toucan is the button that turns it on, it blows little bubbles and makes the fish move, the monkey and the frog play peek-a-boo behind the bushes and there is a little waterfall that lights up and moves to make it look like a real waterfall. It has tons of different modes that you can use it on and change the settings depending on what you want it to do. Well a few weeks ago after changing the batteries, I noticed that the animals no longer moved, nor did it blow bubbles, nor did the waterfall work. Basically the music still played, the lights still worked but no movement at all. So technically we could still use it, it just wasn't as much fun. At first I was okay with this but the more I thought about it the more upset I got. I mean, it's not quite a year old and it hadn't been damaged in any way, it just hung on her crib! So I checked the instruction manual and the website and nothing was mentioned about a warranty so I pretty much figured I was screwed. Well Y loves it so much that I started pricing it to see where we could find it the cheapest (for a little thing the $38-$45 price tag was a bit steep for me) and while on Amazon.com I started reading some of the reviews and one lady mentioned that after 2 years of owning it the animals started making a squeaking noise whenever they moved. She called Fisher-Price and they sent her a new one. So I decided to try my luck and I was completely ready to lose my temper (it works most of the time) if they didn't give me what I wanted (a replacement). Well I was completely surprised that they didn't give me ANY hassle at all. The only questions they asked me (aside from my mailing address) was where and when it had been purchased. Now THAT is what I call customer service!!! Y has several toys from the Rainforest collection and she loves them all so I am very happy to know that should I have a problem with any of them in the future I can call and the problem will be fixed. This is especially a relief because those Rainforest toys are freakin' expensive!! So if you ever have a broken F-P toy, try calling before tossing it out...it's worth a try!