Nine Months

9 Month Accomplishments

• Army Crawling, Michael has perfected his method and is quite a fast little crawler!
• Clapping/Waving on his own! It surprises people when Michael waves "Hi" or "Bye" to them without being prompted - it's pretty cute to see him crawl around the corner, see you and then wave "hi!" :) 
• "Pinching" foods to pick up and eat. Michael has gotten so much better at his fine motor pinching abilities in this past month. Cheerios are a definite FAVORITE but he also picks up peas and chicken pieces. It's been great as he begins to eat more table foods because it's one less thing for this mamma to think about. He also likes Kix, Chex and the crust of bread. :)
• Michael says, "Ai Dad" which we translate as "Hi Dad!" ;) No matter what I try he won't say "Mama" though…. Oh well - we will keep trying!
• He LOVES his sister and often watches her play. He likes to be close to her as she plays, which has made for some interesting situations but Lucy is learning to be kind and gentle (slowly!). :) 
• Making people laugh, if you laugh at something Michael does he catches on to the fact that his action was humorous and he attempts to duplicate the results. :) This has made for some really fun dinner time family interactions. 

To see Lucy at 9 months, click here. 

Aunt Jana's Visit

"Aunt Jana" came to Pampa for a visit at the end of the summer - what a fun few days! Apparently I was having so much fun I wasn't very good at taking pictures. But Jana captured some great ones with her phone, and thanks to Instagram and Facebook I was able to download my favorites. :)

ALL OF US! (This is rare!) I love that Lucy's just "Peeking" into the picture. :) 

Michael found a buddy! And easily smiled himself into Aunt Jana's heart. :) 

Brad's amazing Risotto - a definite highlight. :) (Learn how to make it yourself here!)

Playing around with Jana's photography website one evening. :) 

What a blessing to have family members who love your kiddos. :)

Lucy got a treat in Amarillo, because her daddy loves her. :) 

Jana loved how Michael smiled for the camera every time she pulled it out. :) 

Lucy's face cracks me up! I think I asked her to show me her teeth (Sometimes that prompting produces a nice smile and not a "growl" face) :) 

Thanks Jana for coming to visit! We really really enjoyed having you! You are always welcome to come cuddle our kids and spend time with us. :) We love you!!!

Lucy's First Hair Cut

Our daughter was born with a lot of hair. And unlike most babies, she didn't loose any of it! She didn't even get a bald spot on the back of her head! 

 LOTS of dark dark hair!

 This is one of my top 10 favorite pictures. 

I called her my little hedgehog - ahh so cute! 

Other than a bang trims, Lucy had never had a hair cut - her locks were lllooonnngg. 

Her hair has lightened up a ton! 

It was shorter near the front of her face, mostly due to some breakage when Lucy went through a pull-out-my-hair-things phase. 

It went all the way down to the middle of her back!

 It was time to get it cut and even it out... but this mamma and daddy were really apprehensive about taking this step. It was sad, we felt like this was one more step into "big girl" territory and WE weren't ready. :( BUT we knew it would grow better and be more healthy if we trimmed off the ends and evened it up a bit. So we made an appointment.

 She was so squirmy, but I came prepared with the iPad (loaded with the newly purchased Lady and the Tramp) and pretzel M&Ms - lesson learned: bring colorless candy next time. :-/ 

 After! She got about 5 inches cut off! But I was glad we got to keep a lot of her length - I had prepared myself for the beautician to suggest that we cut it all off to chin length, but was so happy she was able to work with it! :)

 We got Lucy a few headbands to celebrate the event! She doesn't wear them very often, but they were a fun treat. :)

I scooped up a bit of hair to put in her baby book - it makes me feel pretty sappy when I look at it. :) 

They grow up so fast.... What's the next big-girl transition we need to prepare ourselves for?

Eight Months

Michael's 8 month pictures were taken in Michigan while visiting for a wedding. 

8 Month Accomplishments

• No more bottle, rejection - Michael decided to reject all forms of formula/milk if it didn't come directly from mom. :-/ This would have been fine at home but it happened when we were in Michigan during a period of lots of baby sitters (mom and dad were involved in many wedding festivities and had a few appointments). Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Amy, Great Aunt Jean and Dana for being patient and flexible with our little guy. Thankfully he ate cereal and veggies just fine so he just got extra "baby food" instead of his milk. :)

• Sleeping Poorly - Michael began waking up two times a night again during this month. :( I was thankful that he went back to sleep easily, after nursing, but there were many mornings this mama didn't want to get out of bed. Growth spurt? 

• Waving, Michael loves to wave "Hi" and "Bye" to people. :)

• Clapping, if Michael hears anyone say, "Horray!" "Yippee!" "Yeah!" or "Good Job" he claps! Cutest. Thing. Ever. 

• Army Crawling, this is beginning slowly - Michael boy uses his arms to pull himself along to his destination. Look out world! He's beginning to move! 

To see Lucy at 8 Months, click here. 

Peeping Tom

I love having a step down between our dining room and our living room, it helped when Lucy was just starting to be mobile to keep her contained in one room since she couldn't climb up over the step and it's  been just as helpful now that Michael is moving around. :) 

He'll be crawling up over this step before I know it!

**I'm posting this two months after I took these pictures and he just crawled up over the step YESTERDAY! :) 

A Visit With Friends

I've heard many people speak negatively of Facebook, saying it fosters a common knowledge of each other but doesn't foster true friendships. I can definitely see where those people are coming from, and for the most part I might even agree with them. But I am so thankful that Facebook reconnected me and my childhood friend Autumn. We started communicating more as we were both pregnant with our first children and our friendship has grown as our families have grown! It's crazy how when you are 2 and 5 or 10 and 13 the age gap seems so much bigger (Autumn was always the older beautiful ballerina to me) but as you grow older and enter the same life stage you find commonality and encouragement from similar experiences! :) Autumn's hubbie, Brian, had an internship this last summer that required him to be gone Monday through Friday - imagining how difficult this was going to be on her we invited she and the kiddos down for a week at the end of July. It was SO fun! 

Amelia (Mia) and Mason are "Irish twins" born just 11 months from each other! Mia is about two months older than Lucy. Our girls, for the most part, really enjoyed spending time together! I say for the most part because when you mix two smart, independent, oldest children - they don't always agree. :)

 There were a lot of "wrap me up like a baby!" requests.

Love this picture. :)

We visited the Amarillo Zoo:

The Shea Kiddos

 Sweet Amelia

The Kidder Kiddos

I offered to help Autumn put sunscreen on her kids... You would have thought I had never put sunscreen on a child before! I messed it up so bad! Sorry Mia!!! :) The adults got a good laugh out of my clumsiness.

Autumn and I knew how difficult it was to take a good picture of two kids, we quickly learned it is even more difficult with FOUR kids. :) 

We spent time together:

 Towel girls - all clean!

Haha, Mia's face is saying, "Lucy, if you would just smile - they'd let us go get dressed!" :) 

 We all love reading! 

Lucy, Michael, Autumn and Mia

We played. A lot:

 The girls decided they were cold this morning - so we pulled out some of Lucy's sweatshirts. :)

 Working together on puzzles. 

 This little guy has me wishing alongside Brad that at least one of our children will have lighter eyes! His baby blues are BEAUTIFUL!

 Play-Dough!

 Proud of a creation

 Concentrating

 Smooshing!

We spent time outside:

 "Swimming" in the pool out back

 Picnic at the park with Aviator Boy! 

We enjoyed cookies:

 This was right after our picnic at the park - and it was HOT that day! That's why the kids all look flushed. :) 

We sewed:

 Autumn and I both really enjoy crafting, crocheting, sewing and general home making - so we decided we needed to plan a momma activity for our time together too! We tacked an easy project out of the Oliver + S sewing book - bucket hats! 

 They turned out great - the best part... they are reversible! :)

My cute model! :)

 We recreated:

This is a picture of Autumn, her brother Zachary, Me and my sister Becca - taken in 1990 (? or somewhere around there) in Germany - we really wanted to recreate this picture with our kiddos in it! 

 This was the best one we got - aren't our kids cute? :) Michael has orange staining around his mouth.... he must have had carrots for dinner. :) 

Here are some of my favorite outtakes :)

 Sibling "Love"

 The buddies in the middle. :) Love that Mason put his arm around Michael like this! And it looks like Lucy is looking for Mia, who is hiding. :) 

Mason's expression is so cute to me, "Why are you leaning against me Mia?" 

Not pictured are afternoon cups of coffee and conversation that Autumn and I enjoyed during nap time. Evenings chatting with Brad about life as we watched the Olympics. Crazy meal times - how do families with more than two kids eat dinner in a peaceful way? 

It was a wonderful week - one we will remember for a long time! Thanks for coming to visit us Shea family, we hope that Brian can join us next time! :)