Deja Vu

This was always one of my favorite pictures! It was taken on August 20, 2009 {just a few days shy of being 10 months}

This one was taken today, March 7th, 2012 {Three years, four months old}

Another from 2009

And today

I am captivated by these pictures. I’ve been staring at them for several minutes. I really needed this! Being three is clearly a difficult age and it has been difficult to parent! We nearly didn’t make it to McDonalds with Grandpa today because of some serious toddler attitude. As he was playing, I remember taking these pictures a couple of years ago and I just felt the need to take some more! Looking at these pictures and comparing has been a much needed reminder of how fast kids really grow. This difficult age is just a phase. Before I know it, he’ll be too big for a happy meal, he’ll be using real dumb bells {not climbing on styrofoam ones!}, and he won’t be so eager for me to snap his picture. He sure is the same happy little fella! I’m definitely gonna soak up some little boy hugs and cuddles as soon as he wakes up from nap!!

Twelve months of Sticky Bellies!

If you’ve been around my blog long enough, you know I love writing monthly updates for Belle! {Can I just add that I am awesome for keeping up with it for a whole YEAR!?} Taking the pictures, making the collages, and writing out the happenings of the month definitely took some time, but I am so excited to have a record of her first year! And it most definitely wouldn’t have been the same if it weren’t for the Sticky Bellies stickers!

Check out those scrawny legs at one month. Her feet were ALWAYS in the air during month four and five! She started sitting during month six and has showed off her first toothy smile in month eight!

I read about Sticky Bellies on some blog back when I was early-on pregnant with Belle. I contemplated getting some for maternity pictures, but never did. And the thought of getting the stickers for her was always on my mind, but I just didn’t know if I should buy them. I was just trying to be such a good steward of our money while Derek was gone. I showed the pictures to all of my friends, secretly hoping they would convince me to buy them and sure enough it worked.

I remember being so excited when I first got the little package. I looked through and found my favorite colors and was thinking—seven months and twelve months are so far away! Silly me. I should have known it’d go by so quickly!

My Sticky Bellies stickers have been, by far, my favorite baby purchase! I just don’t really keep many opinions to myself and because I'm especially fond of these, I feel obligated to share! I tell every pregnant friend/acquaintance/stranger about these cute stickers! You can even check out the testimonial page on the website, scroll about halfway down and you’ll see that I even contacted them to tell them that not only do I love the stickers, but I love their service too.

My favorite thing about the Sticky Bellies is that it has allowed me to document her growth in photographs each month. I won’t pretend that I’m a skilled photographer and it’s probably very obvious to most that I just have a point and shoot camera. But, I like the way they turned out. And I love that I always had several shots to make into a collage to create a bigger picture of her personality each month.

My favorite monthly collages are 4, 6, and 7. Just click to make them bigger.

Ten Months

It’s that time again. Belle turned ten months yesterday. Before I know it, she’ll be turning one, starting kindergarten, and going to prom. Okay, maybe I’m getting a little ahead of myself, but this is all just going to fast {most of it anyway- the sick days, those seem to go soooooooo slooooooow, but you allow me to cuddle you, so I won’t complain.}

Dear Baby Girl,

You are such a sweetie—you’re a smiley, happy, energetic little thing. As always, you catch the attention of strangers every time we go out. When we do go out, it often has to be a quick trip through the store, as you are like Houdini squirming out of the seatbelt strap in the cart. Your personality is totally shining through in everything that you do! You’re so expressive and since you’re happy most of the time, you are just so fun to be around! You’re determined and you work to get your hands on whatever is catching your eye and the times when you’re having trouble figuring something out or can’t quite reach something—you definitely let us know. You’re a social little person and prefer to “play” only when someone is right there with you.

This spot in the kitchen has become “your” spot! You love any sort of box/drawer/bucket you can take things out of and put back in!

You had your first Thanksgiving, your first vacation/roadtrip too, this month. Probably you’re last roadtrip for quite awhile too. On your behalf, you were sick. But, you hardly slept. At all. And you just weren’t your happy little self so I took you to the doctor as soon as we got back, but as I expected, it was just a little bug. You got over it after another day or two and finally went back to your normal 11 hour night, and 3ish hours of naps during the day.

You’re still sporting around two teeth. We expected you to have a few more by now—you have been gnawing on things for weeks. But unfortunately, they are taking a while to break through. Even without many teeth, you still like to chomp your food as if you had teeth and it’s pretty cute to watch.

Gnawing on anything/everything. Right now it’s the strainer. But a few minutes from this pic, I found you chewing on the wooden drawer itself.

Speaking of food, you’re still adamant about feeding yourself. I have a cabinet full of unused baby food because you just won’t eat anything I try to feed you. You are eating all of the food we eat plus a four or five bottles a day. You love to find Jackson’s sippy cups and try to drink from them, so I have purchased ones for you. But you’re not very interested. You’re getting a different kind for Christmas, so hopefully you’ll give them a try!

You’re still wearing size 3 diapers and your clothes are anywhere from 6-12 month is size. You’re wearing a size 3 shoe and you look like such a big girl with them on!

You have become a more confident all-fours crawler. And you are fast. Especially when you hear Daddy coming in the door after work. No matter where you are in the house, you will make your way to him within seconds. You love it when Jackson plays crawling games with you—at home or even at the doctor’s office. You have been pulling yourself up for several weeks now and you’ve recently started cruising around the furniture. You can actually stand by yourself for a few seconds… until you realize you are standing by yourself and then you plop right down on the floor. When we try to get you to take a few steps, you often get heavy-bottom-syndrome as you would just rather sit down and then crawl to your destination.

As with most babies your age, you’ve begun experiencing separation anxiety this month. It hit practically overnight when just one day out of the blue you woke up screaming bloody murder, several times back to back. It took about three days to realize that it was simply your awareness that you were alone and that you weren’t dying. You really had me worried—boy can you scream! After a few {short} cry-it-out sessions, you were back to your normal sleeping/waking up routine. However, you often like to play the I’m-perfectly-happy-in-your-arms-but-I-will-scream-once-my-feet-touch-the-ground game, which goes along with the I-want-you-to-hold-me-but-I-cannot-hold-still-so-you-will-just-be-my-playground game. That is truly exhausting, but you’re slowly starting to chill out a little about me not holding you.

You mimic lots of our sounds. You can say Mama, Dada {also, hi dad}, and uh oh. You like to click your tongue and give kisses. Ohmigoodness, I just love me some of your kisses. There are a few different ones. First, there is the leaning of your forehead to my lips—you want me to kiss you. Second, you will make the muah sound while leaning in to kiss my cheek. And lastly, and this started just the other day and it is SO cute—you pucker up your little lips when I say, “can I have some kisses”. Sometimes you’re close and will lean in, but if you’re playing, you just look at me and give me a long-distance-kiss and then go back to your toys. Even just seeing this picture on my computer makes me want to lean in and give her a kiss!! I just can’t get enough.

{every time she does this, I think of the kid, Duck-Face, from Full House!}

You are just loved to  bits and pieces baby girl!!! Every single day is just so much fun with your smiles and giggles! Love Mommy and Daddy!