9 months old

At nine months old, Danielle is really starting to communicate with the world. She says "Hi!" and waves, initiates peek-a-boo, will give a hug when asked, and just started offering up those big open-mouth, gummy-grinned kisses. So sweet! She loves to dance to music, crawls everywhere, pulls herself up to her knees and is trying hard to figure out how to get to standing.  She is curious and happy. She still doesn't have any teeth! For the most part she sleeps through the night.  She wants to be in the mix with her brother and sister, loves her baby swim lessons and bathtime. 

Object permanence is a concept she has grasped this month, and she has recently discovered the joy of dropping her toys/cup/blanket on the ground and saying uh oh (eh-eh) as it falls. :)  Nathan and Natalie are usually very willing participants in this game, picking up the item time and again to their baby sister's glee.

Her nine month appointment is later this week, so I will update with her stats soon!

Halloween Fun

Lots of Halloween photos in this post, ya'll! We started the celebrations the weekend before Halloween, when Nathan, Natalie, and Danielle's friends Trey, Ty, and Harper hosted a Halloween party at their house. It was a perfect, sunny fall afternoon, and the kids had a blast.

This year's costumes: traffic light, purple butterfly, adorable baby in a tutu

The night before Halloween, we got down to some pumpkin carving business. Both kiddos were very excited to draw their pumpkin face carving plan.

Todd and I helped with the actual carving, and then it came time to scoop. Nathan was NOT into it. He didn't like the slime. His sister, however, was all about it. Natalie cleaned out her pumpkin and then helped Nathan with his!

On Halloween day, I went to Natalie's preschool for the annual Halloween parade. I love it because it is a bunch of little kids looking mystified by the fact that they are all dressed funny, all their parents are at school with them, and said parents are taking hundreds of photos. :)  Amazingly, there were no Elsas! Just one Anna.

Purple butterfly on the move

Natalie and her best buddy Riley

Preschool room girls

In what has become a treasured tradition, we went over to Suzanne and Bryan's house for dinner and trick-or-treating. Ellie, dressed as Audrey Hepburn, had already left with her group of friends by the time I got out my camera, but the younger ones humored me briefly before heading out into the COLD evening for trick-or-treating. Yes, my friends, although it was 70 degrees on Monday, but Friday's Halloween celebrations there was snow on the ground! Sigh. It's the only time I have found myself wishing that I lived back in the South again. I love having four seasons, but trick-or-treating in the snow is not much fun, at least for the grown-ups! It was marvelous to spend time with Suz and Bryan and their kids though. They are dear friends, and they only live a few miles from us, but busy schedules mean that we rarely get together. Thank goodness I work with Suz so I get to see her on a daily basis!

8 Months Old

For the first time in awhile, I am posting Danielle's month update in the appropriate month (just barely!). Danielle at eight months is crawling! She is pretty impressed with herself. She already wants to carry things with her, and she's trying hard to pull up on furniture, so I think we are going to be sprinting after her before too long. :)  D loves to play peek-a-boo, wave hi, and bang things on the table. She still loves music and will find any excuse to dance. She is sleeping through the night almost all of the time now (woo hoo!!), still nursing, and still no teeth. I think she has been doing some teething lately, though, so I'm trying to soak up her gummy grin as much as possible before those teeth break though.  We have tried to add puffs into the mix of her food, which she has greeted with skepticism. New flavors and textures take a bit of warming up to for Danielle.  Sheesh, I sure to love this little sweetie pie!

7 Months

Danielle turned 7 months on September 19th. In that month she mastered rolling around to get where she wants to go, and grabs everything in sight. She got a little more reliable with sleeping through the night, continues to love solid food, and is still just a happy, smiley, giggly baby!

Danielle's Tree, Year 1

In September we bought and planted a Japanese Maple for Danielle. Here they both are; Danielle 7 months, tree a baby too. :)

6 Months Old

August 19th was Danielle's half birthday! Wow, six months flew by, and marks the entrance into my favorite stage of babyhood--6-9 months is when personality really starts to shine.  Danielle continues to be such a happy, smiley, round, delightful baby. She lights up when she sees any member of her family enter the room, and has started babbling "ba, ba, ba, da, da, da, ya, ya." She still gets up at least once a night. I am trying to focus on all the extra snuggles that gives me in the middle of the night. :)  She sits reliably and loves banging toys on the table, which reminds me of her brother at this age.

Danielle passed her six month check-up with flying colors, and was a champ with her immunizations.

6 Month Stats

26" long (48th percentile)

19lbs 2oz (90th percentile)

17.01" head circumference (74th percentile)