eight months

Our little miss C turned 8 months a few days ago. It seems crazy that she has gone from this little tiny newborn to this crazy, active, engaged baby in such a short amount of time. 

She is seriously the light of our lives. All of our lives. The boys absolutely adore her, and she adores them. Any worries I had about bringing a new baby into the family, and especially about how R might react, are completely gone. 

So, let's see.... C is still a super happy baby, except when we ask her to do things like nap. We are struggling to get her to nap in her crib and not sleeping on one of us, but I like to think we are making some progress. She sleeps fairly well at night. She is in the pack and play next to our bed and then moves into our bed when she wakes up to eat. She is probably up one to three times per night, but usually she is pretty easy to nurse and have fall back asleep. 

She is still exclusively breastfed, but she has also been doing a combo of baby led weaning and pureed foods. So far she seems to like everything and loves being able to sample everything we are eating! She also has officially cut two teeth!

She has been crawling for a bit now, and pulling up, but just in the last few days she has begun cruising and I don't think walking is far off. She is also into everything and pushing the limits of the limited baby-proofing we have going on.

Basically, she is wonderful, and fun, and we love her so much!

L turns nine

Our biggest little guy turned nine last weekend. Nine! I can't believe it's been almost ten years since I got that surprise double line on a pregnancy test, less than a year after S and I got married. I remember being equal parts terrified and excited. L has taught me how to be a mom, and every year he keeps teaching me more and more.

What can I say about L as he enters his ninth year? Well, he's in third grade. He is smart. Like, really smart. I'm constantly impressed and amazed by the inquisitive questions he is always asking, and how he looks at everything in the world and wonders about the how and the why. He is kind to everyone. He is funny, always working on new jokes and riddles to tell me. He is helpful and responsible, he is my child that I know will follow the rules and that I can count on to make good decisions. He has discovered a love of reading, and he is playing soccer, baseball and basketball. Basically, he is wonderful and we are over the moon proud of him.

Anyway, enough of the mushy stuff about my little boy, who is getting so big. If I keep going I will turn into a mess of tears thinking about the sweet baby we brought home from the hospital nine years ago, so instead I will leave you will pictures from his sleepover birthday party, where five boys descended on our house. It was a little chaotic, but all the attributes I apply to L go for his sweet friends too, and we love having them around!