Gwne is NINE Months

I am NINE months old!

I like: Everything! Other than being hungry or seeing her food and not having any, she's genuinely a happy baby. If you want specifics, she loves when she sneezes and we say "Baby sneezes", she loves when Larry starts his smoothies in the morning and we say "loud noises" and make funny faces, she loves Cara, she loves being held, she loves standing and walking along edges of furniture, she loves crawling and exploring, she loves giving kisses (which I also love!), she loves pulling hair, she loves playing with teeth, she loves seeing the kitties, she loves playing with all the toys. It's pretty hard to make her cry haha.

I dislike: being hungry or seeing food and not being given it right away! Also, with teething she doesn't love always being put down as it gets later in the day. Oh and if she thinks she's fallen she will cry quite a bit (even if the "fall" was just a tiny little distance).

I am now: According to her dr. appt. our "little" girl is now 19 lbs. 7 oz (71st percentile) and 28.25 inches long (74th percentile). She is in 9 and 9-12 month clothes and pajamas. She still wears size 3 diapers, but I think she's going to be in 4s soon (which is the same as Cara so that might be very helpful for us haha). She's only a head shorter than Cara so she's definitely growing quite a bit!

A Typical Day looks like:

7:30) Get out of the crib while mom picks out clothes for the day (though she's been waking up earlier and earlier - I think because of teething - but I don't go get her until 7:30).
7:30 to 8) Breakfast time (whole container of fruit flavored baby food & 4-5 oz bottle of formula). Then I change her diaper and put her outfit next to her for L to dress her in once she finishes her bottle (I get Cara all ready while she eats and then leave right after that).
8 to 10)  Hang out, wiggle, crawl, explore, whatever.
10 to 10:30 ish) Nap time (IF mom is home - dad tends to skip this one)
10:30 to 11:30) Hang out, wiggle, crawl, explore, whatever :)
11:30 to 12:30) Diaper change, eat an 8 ounce bottle, and more wiggle and giggle time. If she gets cranky we'll give her puffs or part of a pouch to hold her over.
12:30 to 2:30) Nap time. If she gets up early then she hangs out until her next feeding.
2:30 to 4) Diaper change, eat 7 oz bottle (at 3), wiggle and giggle time, go downstairs while dad works out, and then she'll end up going down for another nap.
4-5 ish) She naps while L showers and C watches a movie
5-5:45) Hang out with Larry and Cara until I get home
5:45-6) Dinner time! She gets a full thing of food (usually a veggie or meat flavored one) and we all talk and visit while eating..
6-7:45) Family time! We go outside if it's nice weather, if it's not we stay inside and just hang out (usually teaching Cara some flash cards and letting Gwen wiggle and giggle or play in the walker/activity table). Around 7 I tend to give her a teether crip thing and we start our nightly show. Around 7:20 she gets her last bottle of the night (usually 6 oz of formula).
7:45) Get ready for bed. We let Gwen now crawl up the stairs to help tire her out and she seems to love it. And, as usual, we do a bath on Sundays and Thursdays (starting at 7:35 since we do both girls). Both girls are down by 8

This Month I: grew two more teeth, learned to bug my sister more, explored the house more, spent time on the trampoline with my sister, played in the dirt a lot outside, went swimming a little bit, played at splash pads, and just enjoyed more of my summer time! I also added a new word to my vocabulary: woah! So now I say that, Mama, and uh-oh (though uh-oh hasn't been as often lately).

Parent's Notes: Gwen has developed so much more of a personality and we are absolutely loving it! She's been handling teething like a champ and I think having the teether crisper things on hand have been very helpful when she gets a little cranky.

One big difference between her and Cara is that she is VERY vocal in the mornings. I have notes on Cara's 9 month update that she'd let us sleep in until 9 without crying at times, whereas Gwen I'd be shocked if we made it to 8 without hearing her. Also, Cara would entertain herself in the crib and just crawl around. Gwen is always standing waiting to be let out. I fear that Gwen might be the baby to find ways to get out of the crib as she gets bigger (Cara never did that).

I also noticed a difference with me and the two girls. When Cara was young and it was time to put her to bed I'd rush out of the room once she was in the crib (I feared if she saw us for too long she'd cry and just want to be out of the crib), with Gwen I put her down and I tend to rub her face and tell her I love her and to sleep good (which I did with Cara too, but it was as I was rushing out of the room) and then slowly leave the room. Part of me feels it's just that Gwen is better at self soothing because she has a lovely, whereas Cara didn't get anything when we put her down. I feel bad about that, especially the avoidance at bedtime (mom guilt for 1 over here!). I've made a mental note that all future kids will get loveys from now on haha.

Update on last month's goals:

• Work on pulling up and stabilizing: She's done good at pulling up and walking along furniture. We've seen her try and let go for a second. But we can definitely leave her alone standing against furniture because she'll figure out walking or getting down to crawling.
• Get her more used to the pool/do as many summer activities with the time we have left: I think we've gone to the pool once, but we've tried to make weekend activities as fun as possible. We also spend as much time outdoors as a family each night as well.
• Go on more family date nights: We did quite a bit in August. It's gone really well, but she definitely loves to sleep in her car seat if it's anywhere near sleeping time so we can't go too far.
• Work on more words and sounds: I sing nursery rhymes to the girls every morning so she is getting more used to sounds. She loves songs and I think she'll catch on to words a little quicker than Cara did.

Goals for next month:

• Work on walking
• Add more solids (now that she has so many teeth!) and different types of foods so she's not as picky as Cara (we tried this with Cara, but then I got lazy).
• Start brushing teeth

A Completed Puzzle

So not sure if I've posted about this, but back when I was on maternity leave with Gwen, I got a call from my dad letting me know I had a sister out there. It was definitely weird getting this news that they found out about her through doing one of those DNA tests and found her on Facebook and they had gotten to know her and now were passing along the news. I immediately friended her and sent her a "welcome to the family" message and we talked back and forth.

Well as luck would have it, even though she doesn't live in Utah, she was graduating and the ceremony was being held in Utah. The Wilson clan decided this would be a great time to get together and get some family pics with her in them. Luckily they were very accommodating and came to a place close to our house to do the pics so that we could do them on a Friday after I got off work. On the way there I was telling Larry how I was a little nervous meeting her and, of course, the topic of that long lost brother I knew was out there came up. I have to admit ever since I heard about Amanda (my sister) I've thought more and more about this mystery brother and how I wish I could get in touch with him, somehow, and how it feels weird to know he's out there, but I have no idea who he is. This was something I was going to ask Don about, if he'd feel weird if I tried to get in contact with him somehow, but I always chickened out when I got a moment to ask.

Well as we're driving up I notice two men I don't recognize. I assumed one might be Amanda's husband, but I wasn't sure which. I figured the other might be the photographer, but neither really gave me photographer vibes haha. As soon as we park, Don comes over to my car and announces that one of those mystery men was my brother! The one I thought I'd NEVER get to see or meet! I was SO excited to hear this I hurried the girls out of the car and ran over to say hi to Amanda (my first time meeting her) and Ryan - my brother.Still getting used to everything, but this is a big deal!

This was the most exciting moment - it felt like a completed puzzle. I officially know and have met all my siblings out there. I understand this is a very odd statement, but that's my life haha. We were able to get some full family shots and some mini family shots that turned out so cute!

 

The next day was Amanda's graduation, which we had to unfortunately miss out on, but then we all met up for dinner at Spaghetti Factory (one of my favorites!). Larry and I got to sit next to Amanda's other sister, who had two kids close in age to our girls. We ended up getting along with them very well and it was so nice to sit with them and not have it be awkward at all. We also got to meet Ryan's wife and his 4 kids (very briefly, they were at a different table). All the kids ended up dancing in this small area in between our tables. It was so cute to see them all get along and have fun together. It warms my heart to see how well Cara does with other kids when she's not fully used to being around a lot of other kids most of the time.

After dinner we did quick, cell phone family pics and it was fun to get so many fun, different shots to share. It was kind of weird meeting everyone, but still exciting.

 

Unfortunately, as fun as it was to meet Amanda, Ryan, and their families, I have to admit I ended up having some second thoughts. I got so caught up on the excitement of it all that I didn't realize till the next day that these are technically strangers, I need to be careful who I'm exposing my girls to. And while I would hope that nothing bad happens, I still get scared of things going wrong for them. The other things is, this is normal to me - constantly meeting new siblings, but I really want them to have a stable life and I don't want them thinking every few years there's going to be new family members that they didn't know about. Luckily, this really should be it, and I have talked these concerns out with Tracy, and she assured me these were blood relations, and not strangers on the street, so I do look forward to getting to know them more and for us to be one big, happy family :)