Pictures for Mamaw

I wanted to take a picture of Peyton wearing these little pj's because my grandmother, which would be P's great-grandmother, was sweet enough to buy these for her. Peyton was acting extra silly during our little photo shoot this morning, crawling around with her paci upside down and playing with my lens cover.  There is definitely never a dull moment around here!

Dinnertime!!!!

Tonight I put P in her highchair and sat down to feed her baby food like I have every night for the last 4 months but she wanted no part of it.   As soon as she saw me coming towards her with the spoon she turned her head away.  That little stinker!!  So after multiple failed attempts to get her to eat her peas and brown rice I broke up some pieces of rotisserie chicken and put them down on her tray and problem solved!  Turns out she did NOT want to be spoon-fed.  She wanted food that she could pick up and eat herself.  Matt wasn't home so I pulled out the camera to take a picture of her eating her chicken like a big girl and as soon as she saw me with the camera her face lit up.  I couldn't believe how excited she was.  Therefore, the one picture of her eating her chicken turned into about 15 pictures ;-)  And I couldn't help but take a few pictures of her refusing to eat her baby food.

Happy to see the camera:

 

Got to love this picture of her smiling with a mouth full of chicken

Not so happy about eating her baby food:

This is what she did EVERY time I came towards her with the spoon

Happy Birthday GP!

Tonight we all got together at the Pita Stop in Cahaba Heights to celebrate my mom's birthday.  Her birthday was actually yesterday but we weren't able to all get together to celebrate it until tonight.  For those of you who don't know my mom, she is such a great person!  She is very thoughtful, giving, and is always going out of her way for other people.  It was really nice to be together as a family to celebrate such a wonderful woman on her special day. Unfortunately, my camera died and I wasn't able to get a lot of pictures from tonight.  However, I did manage to get a picture of our family (including my mom's sister Carol and her husband Frank) and my mom's birthday cake before the battery died.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!  WE LOVE YOU!

Playing with my Cuz!

Matt's sister Holly and her little boy Sean came into town this past week to visit with everyone.  Sean is exactly one year and a day older than Peyton, so I am hoping that even though he doesn't live here he and P will be best buds!  The last time they came home Peyton was still pretty young and wasn't really able to interact much with Sean.  Now that she has gotten older and more interactive, she was able to sit on the floor and play with Sean instead of being held and watching from the sidelines.  Matt's parents and Holly and Sean came over this past Thursday afternoon to visit with us, and as they were getting ready to leave they told Sean to give Peyton a kiss and this is what happened...

On Saturday we headed over to Matt's parents' house to visit some more with Holly and Sean.  I kept trying to get a cute picture of Peyton and Sean together but it was nearly impossible to get one where they were both looking at the camera and smiling.

9 Months

Some months seem to go by faster than others, and this last month was one of them.  I feel like I was just sitting here yesterday writing a post for P turning 8 months old.   Every month that goes by, I get a little bit sad because I know that it means that she is getting closer and closer to turning 1.  It is so bittersweet to think that she is only 3 months away from having her first birthday.  I have to admit though that also with every passing month, I fall more and more in love with her.  I am having so much fun watching her grow and change and reach new milestones.  With each new month she shows us more and more of her sweet (and curious) personality.

Peyton is such a laid-back, happy, and loving baby.  I think that last month I wrote something about how busy she was, well boy I had no idea what was to come as she mastered the skill of crawling.  In the last week and a half our lives have drastically changed.  She no longer will stay in a room for more than a few minutes before she has crawled her way out to find something to get into.  She is completely unfazed by crawling on the hardwoods that make up 95% of our house.  She is also unaware of heights and has no fear about crawling onto the edge of our bed, the chair, or even her changing table.  She is about as curious as she can be, crawling around EVERY inch of our house and checking out anything and EVERYTHING.  Her new favorite discovery is Ellie's food and water bowl.  She loves to sit and splash her hands in Ellie's water bowl and as soon as I tell her no and move her away from it, she crawls right back to it.  I have also caught her picking up pieces of Ellie's food and trying to put them into her mouth.  We are working on understanding the meaning of "no" but so far it's not working...  Peyton continues to love Ellie and my parents' dog Zack, and has no problem letting Ellie lick her hands and feet.  She can easily pull up onto her knees but hasn't really started pulling up to standing yet.  She will however push up onto her feet with her hands still on the ground---I call this her downward dog position.  Her vocabulary consists of "byebye," "momma," "dadda," and "no no no."  She still loves her baby food and we have slowly started giving her some table food but not much.  She LOVES LOVES LOVES water and is getting better at drinking it out of a sippy cup.

We had P's 9 month check-up on Tuesday and to my surprise our pediatrician said that she can have anything to eat but honey.  When I asked him about peanut butter and chocolate he said again "she can have anything but honey."  I was shocked!  He also said that we can start giving her milk.  Of course I second guessed him again because surely I misunderstood him...everything I have read says that you have to wait until they turn one to have cow's milk, but again he said that it was fine to start giving it to her.  We haven't tried to give her any just yet.  Peyton had to get one shot during her check-up.  Why is it that as she gets older the worse I feel that she has to get shots?  Maybe it's because I think that she is more aware of what's going on.  Well anyways, she was such a trooper! She didn't even cry! She was getting ready to start fussing after the nurse had finished giving her the shot and was putting the band aid on her thigh, but as soon as I picked her up she was fine.  I was so proud of my little baby.  Her stats are below:

Weight: 20lbs. 6.5 oz (75th - 90th percentile)

Height:  28.25 inches long (75th - 90th percentile)

Head Circumference: 17.25

Peyton and Ellie

Peyton was playing on the floor earlier today when Ellie decided to come and join in on the all the fun...

Peyton thinking about reaching for Ellie's bone

Still thinking about it...

This looks like the face of trouble doesn't it?!?!

Peyton crawling backwards into Ellie

It's official...she's CRAWLING!!!

For weeks now P has been getting more and more mobile.  It first started with her rolling from one end of the room to the other, then it was scooting backwards on her tummy.  This slowly progressed to getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth.  Over the course of the last two weeks she has mastered crawling backwards but has shown little interest in crawling forwards.  She will usually get up on all fours, take one step forward, and then either sit back down on her bottom or lunge forward for whatever toy she wants, and in the process, collapse onto her tummy....that is until today!!!  This afternoon while she and I were playing on the floor she finally crawled forward and didn't collapse onto her tummy.  She saw a toy that she wanted and she went after it.  I was so excited because after weeks of saying"I'm going to be surprised if she isn't crawling in the next few days" I had come to accept that this child of mine was just going to crawl backwards wherever she wanted to go.  It was such perfect timing that she would decide to show off her new skill today because Matt and I were both here to see it.  I keep saying that I need to baby-proof our house, but now that she is really crawling I guess I need to be doing it sooner than later!