13 Months

My baby is a full blown toddler now!  She's basically walking now, but still crawls.  Its bittersweet for sure, every  milestone is.  I love watching her learn and play and discover new things.  She's still on her same schedule of 7am-7pm sleep and 2 naps a day.  I started back to work full time after Labor Day so Chris is back to daddy duty!  Its a bit different from May when she was barely moving around, now its constantly watching where she's headed next.

She loves to go in circles holding onto the furniture in the living room.  Also loves climing in the tv stand/toy holder, which is hysterical!  She's been focusing on walking so not too many new words this month.  She says, mama, dada, hi, bye, all done, doggie, balloon, kitty, poppy, marmot and probably a couple I'm forgetting.  We had our 1 year check up and the pedi is really happy with her development.  She points at everything, which is something they look for at the 15m appt so yay for being ahead of that :)  She's 31" and not quite 20 lbs yet.  So long and lean, she'll be happy about that later in life!

She's still a pretty good eater with some picky days because of teeth.  We also made the switch from bottles to sippys and from formula to milk!! She handled both pretty darn well.  She's not drinking quite as much milk as she should be, so we're making sure she gets yogurt and cheese also.

We went to North Carolina for 4 days and she had a blast!  I'll update on that in a separate post.

1 YEAR OLD!!!

This day last year was a hurricane and at 2:57am I had a daughter.

This year I have a beautiful, funny, outgoing, smiling, inquisitive one year old.

Her party was so so much fun, everything went smoothly, food was good, my cake was a hit, cupcakes were good, she was loving the attention. It was great!

This cake was my labor of love! 6 different colored layers with vanilla buttercream icing.  It was really good!!

We also visited our close friends in MI for their daughter's 1st birthday!  Also super fun and despite the unseasonable weather Brynn and Audrey both had  great time!  So much fun seeing them play together <3

We also got to meet sweet Gabriel for the first time :)  so tiny and squishy!

Pictures with babies are never straight on. Le sigh.

Same feeding/sleeping schedule.  Audrey has 8 teeth, 4 on top and 4 on bottom and her molars are coming through now.  Teeth aren't that bad for her ::knock wood:: but the molars have kept her up a few times, hopefully they come through soon.  She's eating real people food all the time now, pouches are still great for snacks out and about.  We're about to make the whole milk/sippy switch this week.  Wish us luck!

11 Months

This is our last month sticker :(  Its a good thing too because catching a mobile baby is NOT easy.

She is cruising nonstop so getting her to sit is near impossible! More steps but no full on walking yet, just cruising to crawling to cruising.  Staying at home is exhausting!  Although working and being a single parent the other days is equally as exhausting.  At least at work I get uninterrupted coffee time :)  My mom is watching her Mon, Wed, Thur and I'm home Tues and Fri.  Let me tell you, after our 3 days weekends I look forward to work Monday mornings :)

It has been another super hot summer and we've been heading to the beach usually once a week.  Marm takes her usually 1 day too.  We have the cutest bee float for her and she loves splashing in the ocean!  As soon as she sees the water, she heads straight forward nonstop into even the waves!  Her fearlessness concerns me a bit lol.  Hard to get pics these days, but its really cute!

We also made a ghetto pool using her ducky tub that shes finally outgrown.  Sad face.  She's getting so big.

And here's the real pool at Marm's

"Pretty Clare" (what we call my cousin Clare) has been down a bunch hanging out with us and it's been a huge help!  We're really focused on getting her to say Clare, so far we're up to "Cll"

Speaking of, Clare and I ran a 5k mud run this month.  It was hard but I survived!  It was really fun though and I would definitely do it again.  We were "Team Giraffe" and had a fan club.

Audrey's first 4th of July, but no fireworks for her!  Too late and I'm not messing with her bedtime for something she may hate lol.  She did dress for the occasion though.

10 Months

She finally started crawling!! First was a few weeks of army crawling which was hysterical.  Then she started full on crawling, but at a much slower pace then army crawling much to her chagrin!

Her favorite is still cruising though, she would prefer to on equal ground as everyone else, thankyouverymuch.

And we definitely had some tentative first steps this month!  Very exciting month around here.  This was Chris' first month open full time and  my first month staying at home part time.  I would love to take her to storytime and gymnastics and every other fun thing, except they're all on hiatus for summer. BOO.  We plan on going to the beach and boardwalk and park a lot though.

We did a special photo project for her first Father's Day too, which she was none to thrilled about but mostly cooperated.

We're on the same feeding/nap schedule except I'm trying to give her more "real people" foods and less purees.  She is very into in, daddy is terrified :)  I have a feeling that will be a continuing trend.

Her favorite toys this month are still the ring stacker, Laugh and Learn Farm and Laugh and Learn Purse.  Some toys just have staying power!

I forgot!  We went to Sesame Place to hang out with our friends for their daughters 2nd birthday.  It was so great, since it was pretty much empty for some reason.  Audrey doesn't know the characters yet, but she loved AbbyCadabby.

Here we go again...

So I'm in my first cycle off BCP, got my HSG (all clear, yay!), Chris has his S/A tomorrow then next cycle is clomid + IUI.  Seems so long since last time and yet not, all at once.  I'm crossing everything for a miracl pregnancy before IVF, but realistically that's probably where we're headed.

The plan is 2 clomid cycles, then IVF in Jan/Feb as long as there are no cysts or other hurdles.

Cloth Diapers 1 Year In

My favorites and go-to diapers have changed slightly and I've gotten into wool diaper covers but still love cloth! Chris loves the Bum Genius sized AIOs still and will almost never put anything else on her, which is great.  They are easy to use, last the 2-4 hours they need to during the day, they really can't be beat.  They do take a bit longer to dry, but by the time the inserts from fitteds are dry, these are too.

I love, love, love fitted diapers, mostly because they are so pretty!  I got pretty addicted to buying them over the summer, so I'm trying to stop buying and also sell some to even it out :)  I die for stripes.  Every time.  They are also necessary for nighttime.  She is sleeping 12-13 hours straight so she needs some good absorbency!  My favorites are Twinkie Tush and Tangerine Baby.  I have Bububebe's also and they work well, the fit is just a little odd on her.  Too narrow and high waisted I think.

I had a brief love affair for a few months with Ai2s but the glow has worn off a bit.  I pretty much liked them because they were pretty but functionality I find is better with AIOs or pockets for me.  She hates diaper changes right now, so its a battle and to arrange the soaker and snap it, ugh.  Give me some velcro.  Now that she's older she's mostly in clothes all the time so you don't even get to SEE the cute prints!  When she was younger a shirt and diapers was a good look! But now we're out and about so much more to entertain her that doesn't cut it.

So I had bought some wool shorties this summer for over her nighttime diaper and they work great!  I only have interlock wool which is supposed to be more bulletproof for night and it is for us!  Wool is pricey but you only need a few covers and you can reuse them for a few weeks until you need to wash them again.  Wool care is scary at first but really easy.  The waiting time for them to dry is the most annoying.  I have a couple pairs of wool longies for winter that I'm super excited to try out.  They'll be perfect for lazy winter days in the house.  A cute fitted diaper, wool longies and shes dressed and diapered! And I get to use my pretty ones :)

Small Update

I'm the worst blogger ever, obviously.  I will catch up on month posts and her birthday party!  But I don't want to forget that she has started giving spontaneous kisses when she's happy.  Melt.my.heart.  Banana in smoothie - Kiss!  Fetch her toy for 1 millionth time - Kiss!  Give her a bite of your food - Kiss!  Leaving my parents - Kiss!  It is so so sweet.

She is also currently obsessed with shoes.  Carrying them around and throwing them in the toilet are the 2 favorite activities.

We are leaving her with my parents with 4 days this Friday. I'm nervous and don't want to, but also super excited for some adult time.  It will be fun and its only 4 days!