Elliott: Nine Months Old

I know I say this every month, but our girl gets to be more and more fun each day! She is pretty content and happy all day and is starting to be okay with others holding her. Although it totally depends on the day, her mood, and where we are, she is for sure making progress. This is the age most kids get stranger anxiety, but my kid has had it since birth so I don't think we have anywhere to go but up! I only left her with my MIL for 2 hours, but other than that she's been with Andy or me this month. However she goes where we go most of the time so that social aspect is good for her. She still enjoys going to the store as well as my practices and basketball games.

Elliott is crawling all over the place, though it is more of a gorilla crawl than a traditional one. She super heart loves the independence it gives her and is content roaming all rooms of the house. She can pull herself up to stand and walks with some assistance. Andy also loves to 'run' with her, which makes her giggle like crazy. Track star in the making, I guess. 

I try to feed her two meals of solid foods each day with two or three components to each meal. Elliott is starting to really love eating and trying everything when before she was pretty indifferent. Avocados, bananas, bread, pears, and deli turkey are a few of our biggest repeats. We just need to work on proteins. Otherwise we are still going strong nursing with no end in sight. She eats about every 4 hours now but if I'm gone, she seems to do fine just going without. He fails at feeding her food, though... Poor kid. I got tired buying new sippies so I haven't been trying them at all this month. Maybe soon we will get there.

Currently, we are in a good patch in the sleep department. It was pretty debilitating for a while, but we are back to just one or two brief wake ups at night, the kind when I can roll over for a quick feed and we both are back to sleep immediately. I will take that! She is still in our bed and I need to stop pushing the crib. It makes things worse when I force it and she sleeps much better when I just put her in our bed from the start. My foot is in my mouth for all those times I ever knocked bed sharing...

Naps have also improved. I'm back to putting her in her crib to wind down a bit before rocking her. She is still crying much more than she originally did with this method, but at least it's mostly just whining. She hasn't been fighting me as much this week and we've even had a few days with TWO, TWO HOUR NAPS! That has never happened in the history of her life and has to be part of why she's been much more happy go lucky. 

If parenthood has taught me anything, it is the importance of going with the flow. I'm not sure if Elliott even knows that she's the boss of the house, but I love her feistiness and determination. I wonder how next month will go...

2015 Recap

I like to read these surveys and figured I should do one too. Stealing Allyson's because I'm too lazy to find my own.

1. What did you do in 2015 that you’d never done before? Birth a child and all that comes with it :)

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for 2015? I'm not one for resolutions but I did want to update our office and that still hasn't happened. 

3. Did anyone close to you have a child? Aside from myself, my sister 

4. Where did you travel? Walt Disney World January 3-8

5. What would you like to have in 2016 that you lacked in 2015?  A desire to be more outgoing 

6. What dates from 2015 will remain etched upon your memory? April 21, March 23, Jan 3-8

7. What was the best thing you bought? Oh boy.. My phone upgrade gets used the most but that seems like a lame answer.

8. Where did most of your money go?  Baby stuff and bills, investments and farm equipment #adulthood 

9. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Becoming a mom

10. What song will always remind you of 2015? Bad blood 

11. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer? Happier, thinner, and about the same

12. What do you wish you’d done more of? Travel, day trip activities, go out with friends, read, get out of my comfort zone 

13. What do you wish you’d done less of? Be boring

14. How did you spend Christmas?  Christmas Eve dinner with my parents and siblings, Christmas morning with my in laws, Christmas night with extended Gschwendtners, December 26 brunch with my Gschwendtner cousins, December 27 lunch with the Baumans  

15. Did you fall in love in 2015? With one special little lady 

16. What was your favorite TV program? I don't really get the opportunity to watch much tv and what I do must be recorded. The ones I looked forward to most were People's Couch, Below Deck, Top Chef. 

17. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? not that I can think of. If anything I have fewer complaints and annoyances than ever before. 

18. What was the best book you read? Sadly, I only remember reading one book: Cuckoo's Calling and it was good.

19. What was your greatest musical discovery? My 2006 self would be mad but I can't think of a single thing. 

20. What did you want and get/not get? Cabinetry for the office was a no go. A king sized bed was also not accomplished.. Unfortunately.

21. What was your favorite film of this year? This is tough. The only ones that come to mind are Inside Out and Cinderella live action. 'Her' made me fearful for the future.

22. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I celebrated 25 by going to my cousin Logan's wedding at Allerton Park.

23. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2015? Lazy mom

24. What political issue stirred you the most? I saw snippets of the debates but mostly just don't want Carson or Trump.

25. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2015? It really is pointless to worry about the little things. Even though I've always known this, I feel like this year I was able to follow through more than ever.