Kris & Wendy visit in March

In March we got another visit from Kris and Wendy. Since they bought a town house they had to come out to get the rest of the stuff they had stored and took advantage of some furniture (and tractor) they were trying to get rid of at my grandmother's. Despite the cool dreary weather we had a great visit! Made sure to get a family shot in. I need to crop it or something....

Visit to mom-mom Paul's. Max with his aunts!

Play time!

Friday we went to the State Museum. It was surprisingly a really neat place. They had a whole new dino exhibit which Max loves.

And they have the Curiosity Connection which is like a big play room. Max had a blast!

He picked food and made sure all the animals got fed.

And then left them some in case they got hungry later:)

Bed time stories

My mom promised him she would make these ice cream cookie things when Kris and Wendy came so he was SO excited when we got them out!

9 month stats

Since the Dr visit came a week or so in:
Length 28 3/4 (82%)
Weight 16,11lbs (11%)
Head 16 3/4 (10%)

9 months

Aliyah is 9 months already!

I feel bad, by now Max was getting lots of outdoor time as he started to move around but we're still all cooped up inside. We're all getting stir crazy and just very ready for March to be over!!!

But in our 8th month we've had a lot of big things. She has said her first word "dada" and also says "mama" as well as lots of other babbles and shrieks. She is also moving, however she can still only crawl backwards. It doesn't make her too happy and she can kind of scoot herself a little while she's sitting up to reach things but I'm sure regular forward crawling will come soon. Its a bit harder on our hard floors so we try to practice upstairs on the carpet.

She has learned how to wave and clap and loves to do so a lot. She likes when Max plays back with her too!

We've also worked into a better nap routine. She wakes around 6:30am to eat and then goes back down until about 7:45ish. We all eat our breakfast and then she takes her bottle around 10am and goes down for a nap. She sleeps anywhere from 45 mins to 1 1/2 hours. After Max goes down at 1:30 she eats again (nurses if I'm home or takes a bottle) and goes down for a nap around 2pm for about 1 1/2-2 1/2 hours. I won't say this is always a perfect nap but more then often now she can do the whole thing in her crib with little or no help settling back down if she wakes up. One issue we ran into is that she learned how to sit up but not lay back down so when she wakes up she'll often sit back up but it only took her a few weeks to learn and she'll often just settle herself or we put her back down on her belly and she'll settle. I remember Max going through the same thing.

I would say she's still rather content sitting and playing. She did start a separation anxiety phase and wants mommy all the time, especially if I'm around and she knows it so our perfect pea does have one fault now:) On the flip side the spitting up is now minimal so that's kinda nice for all of us and our clothes.

She still has her 5 bottle/nursing feedings- first thing, 10am, 1:30pm, 4:45pm and 8pm. And of course she eats her regular meals now (though dinner, usually yogurt, isn't until 6:45ish). She does well from a sippy cup and enjoys her heavily watered down apple juice with her meals now.

Unfortunately we did have another big sickness go around and it resulted in her getting croup. We had a few rough days/nights but even while we waited a few hours at the Urgent Care clinic Sunday afternoon (and she missed lunch cause I didn't think to pack it) she was all smiles entertaining the other sick people and the Dr's and nurses. After a steroid and few minutes on the nebulizer she was on the mend and a few days later she's doing much better.

We're looking forward to all the exciting things to come in the next few months.

And for a 9 month spoiler, she did have her first tooth on the bottom pop through on her 9 month birthday!

Nate's VA Birthday Trip

For Nate's birthday his mom and Jeff paid for a trip to Shenandoah Crossing for us. We're SO thankful to her and the Browns for keeping the time share there and allowing us to use it like we have. I don't think we would have been able to afford vacations the last few years if it weren't for having a great place like that to go. And having the full two bedroom cabin is definitely helpful with 2 kids (not sure how you could do a hotel room stay with 2 babies!). Our trip did get cut a little short due to some very sad news at Nate's work. They announced they were closing down most of the cooperate account department, however, they are keeping a handful of the current workers and luckily for us Nate is one of them. He's pretty depressed to loose most of his co-workers but we're SO thankful that Nate still has his job.

So.....the kids and I went down Thursday afternoon and met Nate at work and we left from there. Even after driving 45 mins out of our way and stopping for dinner we still made it down in 5 hours so that wasn't bad at all. The kids were great in the car.

Aliyah got her first taste of a pool. She was too young last summer and of course the water baby LOVED it. It helped I'm sure that the pool water was warmer than her bath water! They really are best buds these days. I guess they were close enough in age we never really had the jealousy thing going on!

Friday was SO nice, it was over 70 degrees!!!! We went into Charlottesville and took Max to the Children's Museum. He had a great time of course. We were a little disappointed that the whole back room basically had nothing to play with but Max found plenty to do in the rest of it. Nate took Aliyah for a walk around the downtown mall.

Then we even got to have lunch outside, which is SO nice with two little ones to not have to worry about their noise volume!

After nap playground time!

Aliyah in her first swing ride.

More swim time! We hit the pool Friday night, Saturday night and then we actually went Sunday before we left too, first thing after breakfast and it was great because we were the only ones there for the whole 45 mins!

We went to the stables but Max wasn't into riding the pony this time. It was much bigger than the one there this summer. He was more interested in chasing the chickens, roosters, ducks, peacocks and turkey.

Aliyah learning what fresh air is again!

Had to get a full shot of the big peanut in her bathing suit, compliments of friend Heidi (didn't want to buy her a suit when it probably won't fit some summer time!)

It was a great relaxing time away. Just the right amount of time. Max was happy to be home, he went off and played by himself for an hour before bed just enjoying the space and all his toys. Aliyah grew quite attached to me and now cries if I'm around but not WITH her, as in holding. Some of the ride home in order to keep her from crying I had to literally hold her hand, with my arm bent around behind me to her in her backwards car seat....she's been so perfect so far I guess I can't complain:)

The Browns were supposed to come down and meet us but they were spreading germs around to each other and decided it best not to share. We did miss them. Hopefully this summer we can all get out there sometime!

Post-Christmas Family Gathering

Since we got a big snow storm the day after Christmas, we had to do our gathering a little late this year. We met at the assisted living place again and had a great time and a nice weekend visit with the out of towners!

Almost all the grandkids and great grandkids. Just missing Kris and Ryan. All the great grand kids.

4 generation, can't you tell!

Aliyah and Logan. He's 3ish months older (and a LOT heavier:))

They were SO cute together!

Aliyah was so excited she was shaking!

Aliyah 8 months

Time goes way too fast. I didn't feel that way too much with Max but definitely do with Aliyah. I think with two you just don't have the time to catch everything like you do when you're only focusing on one.

But she's growing up! She is still so good 90% of the time and has a bit of a temper every once in a while. She sits very well now on her own and is very content just sitting and playing wherever you put her. I don't remember Max being that content just sitting to play. I know she'll be moving soon so we take advantage while we can! She rolls on her side and stomach to sleep sometimes, not all the time. She's still on 2-4 naps so we need to work on that. Still the same eating schedule as before. She does pretty good with her food and enjoys her sippy cup. She can even do it herself every once in a while if its full enough. She also is starting to eat puffs. She has gotten them into her mouth herself a few times but it happens rarely. She does like them though if you do it for her. We're starting to get into stage 2's and more yogurt (it seemed to mess up her tummy a little when I tired it earlier but seems ok now). She still loves her bath and its fun for her and Max to bath together now. (We just have to make sure he doesn't pee on her!) She still loves her brother and 75% of the time he's really sweet with her too. He loves his peanut!