This month has been so fun with this little Daffodil.

Weight:  21lbs.

Health: She has been pretty healthy this month. She is still working on some teeth; two dropped, which brings her to four total teeth. But I think she is working on a few more.

Diet: I can hardly believe that I am one month away from breastfeeding for a whole year. Shocked really. Now that I am this close, I will do whatever it takes to get there. Our routine hasn’t changed a lot this month, but I can tell that the more actual food she eats the less she wants to nurse. During the week, I nurse her in the morning and before bed. Her morning nursing session is the best that she does all day. She still only has two bottles during the day while I am at work. Some days, I do not make enough for two, and she will have one formula bottle. Depending on how well she nurses at night, she may get a 2-4 oz formula bottle before bed as well. On the weekends, for the most part we avoid the formula and nurse the whole time. She isn’t super interested in nursing on the weekends, and will generally still only last for 5 minutes. I do still pump once before she goes to bed every day to keep up with the two 5 oz bottles she has during the week. She is eating three full meals now. I have kind of lost track of new foods she has eaten, but I know she ate lo mein and raspberries for the first time. This girl loses it whenever we bring the raspberries out! She is a really good eater! She often eats all of her food plus whatever George doesn’t eat.

Clothes: She is in 6-9 month clothes. I am going to pull some 9 month clothes out soon, just because we don’t have a lot in 6-9, and I don’t feel like buying anymore. She is in a size 4 diaper, and size 2 shoe. Everything is growing but her feet…

Sleeping:  We have been putting her to bed around 7:30/8. She generally stays asleep most of the night. Lately she has been waking up around 4 am. I can usually nurse her back to sleep until I wake her up at 7am. It sucks for me though when you have a 5:15 alarm. She still has two naps a day, and she is really sticking to two hour naps. I really should do a post on why I think she is a good sleeper. Someday…

Likes:  She loves getting things out of boxes and laundry baskets. She is always emptying containers. She also likes to stretch clothes. She loves to be dipped upside down. She loves her jeep walker; she is so funny whipping around in that thing. She also gets stuck in our hallways, which she does not like. She loves to pull things off the fridge. She thinks “No” is hilarious. She laughs so hard when we are telling her to stop getting into things.

Dislikes:  She does not like to be done eating. She still has a general disdain for most people.

Milestones: She stands for much longer periods of time on her own, and she can squat down without falling. She climbs the stairs on her own. She hasn’t figured out how to come down so we definitely have to keep an eye on her.

Nicknames: Stinkerbug, Daphie, and Daphie Girl. The two most common are Daph and Sister.

Quirks:  She likes to pass things to people. She also likes to use books to crawl faster. She will put them under her hands and use them to slide, kind of like an ab roller. She will do downward dog. She has been sticking out her tongue lately, which is one of the cutest things I have ever seen.

We parents are: drained. This has been an incredible hard month on us. Tom is going through some thing at work that has been exhausting and unpredictable. I have been shocked and disgusted to be on the sidelines and try to support him through this, all the while trying to stay afloat at my own job and as a mom. We are still trying to make our relationship a priority throughout this situation and make sure that our family is the focus right now. We find that when we are going through stuff or hit milestones in our marriage “The Office” is a great common ground, so we are making our way through the series for the umpteenth time.

George is: three. Remember that time when I said we weren’t having the threenager stuff going on? Oh yea about that. It is like clockwork, at 5pm everyday, he turns into this raging tornado. He is screaming like a banshee just to see how loud he is, and he swirls around literally banging into everything. Like he for real thinks he is a walking tornado. It is exhausting. He is super sweet the rest of the day…but man are the evenings hard. He just got a piggy bank, so we have started incentivizing with pennies. So we’ll see how that goes. He is still in love with his sister. He loves being part of her bed time routine. They also have started sort of playing together, which melts my heart.

The dogs are: losing their minds with this weather. One day they can spend the whole day outside, and then the next we are looking at snow. Crosby is barking non-stop which is exhausting. They only really pay attention to Daph when she is eating.

Daphie, you are more precious than silver, more costly than gold, and more beautiful than diamonds. I love you sweet girl.

Here is George at 11 months.

It is so cliche to say, but how in the world is this girl two months away from being one?

Weight:  19lbs. At her 9 month check up she went from the 7% to the 46%, so food has been good to her.

Health: This month her health has been fine until today. Tonight, she is working through a stomach bug. She has been barfing about every 30 minutes for a few hours now. Not sure what is going on, but hopefully she is almost done! She is working on FOUR teeth, possibly SIX. There are 4 coming in on the top, and it looks like there may be others coming soon after. They are taking their sweet time coming out though.

Diet: Y’all I am still breastfeeding! I never would have imagined making it this far after my experience with George. Our routine hasn’t changed a lot this month, but I can tell that the more actual food she eats the less she wants to nurse. During the week, I nurse her in the morning and before bed. Her morning nursing is the best that she does all day. She wasn’t finishing her three bottles during the day, so we cut back to two breastmilk bottles while I am at work. Some days, I do not make enough for two, and she will have one formula bottle. Depending on how well she nurses at night, she may get a 2-4 oz formula bottle before bed as well. On the weekends, for the most part we avoid the formula and nurse the whole time. She isn’t super interested in nursing on the weekends, and will generally still only last for 5 minutes. I can tell my supply is dipping because of her increased interest in real food. I do still pump once before she goes to bed every day to keep up with the two 5 oz bottles she has during the week. Actually she isn’t really interested in drinking anything. She will sip at a formula bottle for awhile too. She would just rather be eating than drinking. Usually, she has oatmeal or yogurt for breakfast, eggs and fruit for lunch, and then a sample of whatever we are having at dinner. She has tried all kinds of new things:  sloppy joes, mac and cheese, pork, olives, crackers, cucumbers, salmon patties, and oranges. She is a really good eater! She often eats all of her food plus whatever George doesn’t eat.

Clothes: She is in 6 month and some 6-9 month. She is in a size 4 diaper, and size 2 shoe.

Sleeping:  Teething has been rough on her sleep. It is all over the place. She still does have two naps, but you never know how long she will stay down. They can vary from 30 mins to 2-3 hours. She goes to bed around 8pm. She will wake up anywhere between 3am-6am. I will nurse her then put her back down until I am ready to leave for work. Usually that does the trick.

Likes:  She is getting a little more adventurous, and is really into pulling things down like all the things on the fridge or the kitchen chairs to the floor. She is more into music and loves dancing. She is very intrigued by my in-laws cat, Albert. This girl thinks it is hilarious when I high kick-the best giggle fits ever!

Dislikes:  Public changing tables. She is not a fan of most people unless you are in your immediate circle. (She did let my best friend hold her this weekend which is a miracle.) She is either standing up or trying to stand up, so this girl doesn’t like being kept down. She hates when I leave the room-definite mama’s girl and is going through severe separation anxiety when I don’t have her.

Milestones: She can get to a seated position on her own. She has said Buba (in reference to George). She started clapping this month. We have started giving her a real sippy cup to drink water in. We are just skipping over the soft tops, which I am ok with.

Nicknames: Stinkerbug, Daphie, and Daphie Girl. The two most common are Daph and Sister.

Quirks:  She pulls at her hair when she nurses. This girl is so fast crawling. I don’t know if she will walk anytime soon because she knows she can get there so much faster by crawling.

We parents are: trying to make more time for each other. In the past we have both done our own things at nights, which can be nice, but we have so many weeks out of the year when Tom isn’t home at night, so we really needed to make a better effort when he is home to be Tom and Steph and not just Mom and Dad. We started a marriage devotional, and we are attempting to go on more dates. It can be hard, especially with breastfeeding, but it is important for us to make the time.

George is:  just the best little boy. He just takes my breath away every day. He is just the sweetest and has such great enthusiasm for every day. However, he has less and less patience for Daphne these days. She is fast and likes to put everything in her mouth, which George does not approve of. On the other hand, he does love her and tries to take care of her when she is crying. Or he just alerts us that we need to deal with it…

The dogs are: needing spring to be here. They bark at every moving thing outside, so I need the weather to warm up so they can stay out there for extended amounts of time and run their little hearts out. They do love Daphne and her passion for food. Other than feeding time, they don’t really pay attention to each other.

This girl has us wrapped around her pinky.

Here is George at 10 months.

Weight:  18 lbs. She feels so big this month. She isn’t my squishy little newborn anymore.

Health: She has been a little congested this month, but who hasn’t? I know I said last month that I thought she was teething, and I still feel that way. Other than a little fussiness with the congestion, she has been pretty good.

Diet: Amazingly, we are still going strong with the breastfeeding.  I nurse her in the morning and before bed. Then she has two breastmilk bottles and one formula bottle during the day while I am at work. On the weekends, for the most part we avoid the formula and nurse the whole time. She seems to fight me more on the weekends though and generally only nurses for 5 minutes. I know she is getting more regular food, so I am not super worried about it. However it does affect my supply when I go back to work on Mondays. I do still pump once before she goes to bed every day to kee up with the two 5 oz bottles she has during the week. Usually, she has oatmeal or yogurt for breakfast, eggs and fruit for lunch, and then a sample of whatever we are having at dinner. She has tried all kinds of new things:  kiwi, nectarines, beans, yogurt, plums, peas, pepers, zucchini, meatballs, and puffs. Move over mashed potatoes, her favorite food is yogurt. We are doing a baby led weaning approach, but she does purees when we give her packets. She is a really good eater! She eats actual meals now, and often eats more than George does.

Clothes: I just put away 3-6 month clothes today to transition her up to 6 months. She is in a size 3 diaper, and size 2 shoe.

Sleeping:  This month she must be going through some sleep regression, or this teething has been hard if it’s that. She still does take two naps, but they are unpredictable in length. Sometimes they can be 2.5 hours, and other days they are only 30 minutes. Daph will go to bed around 8pm, and she has been waking up between 4 and 5 lately. This isn’t a huge deal on the weekend, but it severely affects me during the week. By the time I nurse her, I don’t have very much time before my alarm is supposed to go off. I am still getting about 6 hours, so in the scheme of baby parent sleep, it’s not so bad.

Likes:  She LOVES to eat. Her favorite toys are still the Dory pez dispenser and the oogaa teether. We had to buy her a new Dory because she broke the first one. She loves to bounce. She will do it while you are holding her, in her high chair, in her activity seat, basically anywhere. She is starting to like her walker a lot more too. She still only likes the green newborn pacies. She adores her brother. She also is facinated by hair and wants to pull it all the time. She loves to be tipped upside down. Some of the best giggles are this way!

Dislikes:  She does not like to sit still; this girl is always on the go. It is getting increasingly more difficult to take her picture. She is not really snuggly.  She does not like getting her nose/face wiped.

Milestones: She is very good at pulling up on things now. She can stand on her own very briefly. She can get from sitting to crawling on her own. She is saying “Mama.” (For the record, George said Mama first too!)

Nicknames: Stinkerbug, Daphie, Daffodil, and Daphie Girl. The two most common are Daph and Sister.

Quirks:  She is still pretty much unimpressed with most people. It will be interesting to watch this play out when she gets older. She likes to stick her thumb in the pacy and suck on both at the same time. She also whistles. I wish I could get it on camera, but of course she stops when I try.

We parents are:  in need of a vacation. Tom has been on evening shift, which is the absolute worst for us as a family. It will be nice to have him back here soon and reconnect. Since my promotion, I have been putting in extra time at work because I am practically in meetings all day. Now I understand why a lot of directors work from home some. There just isn’t enough time in the week to get it all done. Don’t get me wrong, I am extremely happy about the promotion. I am enjoying the new responsibilities and seeing things from a different perspective, but hopefully, maybe, they will start to even out where I have time to follow up on things in my office. We are hiring a new staff member soon, so that will definitely help lessen the load a bit. We got a treadmill this month, which has been life changing as far as my workout routines go. I am one of those weird people that loves treadmills. Put on a TV show and just hammer it out. I am slowly decluttering different rooms in the house, which has been really freeing to get done.

George is:  such an amazing big brother. Most of the time he is really gentle with her, but he is getting a little bossy with her now that she is mobile. He is not so keen on her playing with whatever toy she can get her hands on which is usually one of his cars or little people. Normally he just starts tattling on her and tells me to move her away now. He still calls her his best friend and has to tuck her in at night, so I think the adoration is mutual. He is starting to pick out his own clothes, and dress himself completely. This is hilarious but also nails on the chalboard for me since they often don’t match and are put on the wrong way. Nothing tests your patience more than watching a toddler learn how to dress themselves…

The dogs are: loving the random days of warm weather. They just seem so much happier when they can get outside. They are also loving that Daph is eating more food. They are such good high chair cleaners!

She now has been out of the womb longer than she was in it.

Here is George at this age.