9 Month Pics

Bailey's Grammy stayed with us for several days last week and Bailey really enjoyed the visit. We went to Amazonia Friday, On B's 10month birthday plus, Grammy bought Bailey her 1st real set of walking shoes + some books & a toy!! They say now a days you aren't supposed to where the stiff soles, but mom convinced me she needed ankle support when she first walks...& I turned out ok wearing them. Bailey never cried and was still able to stand and do her "minimal" cruising in them. She was mostly fascinated with them. Kept her head down looking at them if you would walk with her. CUTE!

Keenan was down at the lake fishing for a couple of days during mom's visit. He had a great time except for the monsoon he fished in on Thursday and the terrible wind. (it was pretty here. :) ) He caught lots of fish, so he was happy regardless!!! Sunday, Bailey and I took Keenan to Amazonia for his 1st time. Since we are pros at it. :) He is convinced they are going to put Peacock Bass in there from the Amazon. I doubt it, if they do. He'll be there every day. For years he's told me someday he wants to go to the Amazon (for real) and fish for Peacock Bass. CRAZY BOY! Too many snakes there for me. :)

I got my 1st stab at selling stuff on Ebay this past week. I'm hooked! That is the first income that I have made since March of 2007!!! I was happy....:)

Keenan is still doing good with his running. He informed me today that he has officially lost 20 lbs. Needless to say, I'm a little jealous. Then again, I am not out running & exercising like he is either. :)

Bailey is doing ok. She either started in with her 1st cold on Sunday, allergies or it is teething again. Speaking of which, she got her 2nd tooth this past Saturday. A day after she turned 10 months old. Someone is SUPER behind in the tooth department! She still acts happy, smiles and plays the same but is sneezing a lot and has somewhat of a snotty nose, & a significantly decreased appetite. She woke up in the middle of the night, first time in a couple of weeks. She put herself back to sleep, she was just restless. She just isn't feeling 100%. Benadryl & Motrin seem to be helping.

We are all really glad to get our lives back in order after the the TV watching marathon of the Olympics. This household WAS ADDICTED! We enjoyed it thoroughly but I am REALLY enjoying my extra sleep now. :)

Just wanted to post the new pics we received today. She's so precious! She also hit stardom again with these pics! Keenan went to pick them up today and they have a big framed & matted collage of several of her 9 month pics on display in their Slideshow room. Super neat!

Enjoy!

MILESTONES & Birthday Parties!!!

While Keenan was out for his 7 mile run (which he said he never felt better and actually could've ran the mini then!! Bailey started pulling up to stand on the ottoman before her morning nap. I couldn't believe it! She has been doing it on and off for the past month but Aug 16, (9 1/2 months old) she started CONSTANTLY doing it and actually staying in standing while playing. It is so cute! She "cruised" a very short bit a couple of times. Not quite there yet.

Pulling Up To STAND!! @ Yahoo! Video

The first birthday party we went to was her cousin Megan's SWEET 16 party up in Newburgh.


It was a lot of fun and Bailey was the best girl. She even got to play a little bit of XBox 360! Mommy hasn't even gotten to play one yet!! She had a hard time showing off her skills to people who wanted to see her crawl because I guess Mommy dressed her in the wrong outfit for that. Oh well, she was SUPER cute in her party dress. :)
After Megan's party we then drove to the north side to go to her cousin Mason's 3rd birthday party. Bailey missed out on a lot of the excitement because she slept in the car while her daddy stayed with her. There was NO way that I was waking her up from a much needed nap. When she did wake up she was her happy self while playing with Mason & Maddie. Mason was teaching her about dinosaurs. I am sure Bailey learned a lot...and when she learns to talk, she'll tell me all about it. :)



Needless to say, all 3 of us were beat when we got home Saturday evening!!!! We are not used to all of the excitement but enjoyed it a lot!

Bailey is also officially putting her self to sleep at night. We have been working on it for a month..give or take..now. We keep the same routine as the doc recommended. Reading her a couple of stories while rocking her really helps get her to wind down. Then we put her in her crib awake with her music playing & her blanky and she usually is restless for awhile but will eventually fall asleep. She has fallen asleep as quick as 2 minutes and it's taken her 1 1/2 hrs--back when we 1st started. Average time is around 15 minutes or so. We really think it has helped her have better sleeping through the night as well. Sometimes she will start talking in her sleep but never actually wakes up or will cry for a bit but never wakes up. We are getting more sleep around here!!!! (Hope it lasts!!!) Which has been a blessing for us because we use to dread putting her to sleep. I am still rocking her to sleep for her naps, it is just to easy and I enjoy it...one of these days we will work on having her do it on her own.

Amazonia!!

I was prepared to wave my white flag before our journey even began. Bailey had a rough night and the morning wasn't looking good. For whatever reason I decided to take her to Amazonia this AM shortly after it opened. Let me tell you, I think every stay at home mom with their kids was at Amazonia today. I have never seen so many strollers in one place! Here I thought, since school started it wouldn't be that busy. WRONG!!!

Guess what! BAILEY WAS GOOD, THE WHOLE TIME! I didn't tell her we were going to the zoo..LOL..We all know that 4 out of the last 4 times she's been to the zoo has been a crying fiasco/disaster! I was prepared for that this time.

With it being my first time there I somewhat hurried through the "Amazon" not reading any of the interesting facts or anything. I didn't know how big of a place it was and how long it would take to get to the end. I was prepared for her to start screaming at any minute. IT NEVER HAPPENED! I was so proud of her. I will be taking her back next week when Grammy comes up for a visit so I can take some good pics LOTS of opportunities but hard to do by myself and Bailey in her stroller. I think Bailey's favorite part was the waterfall. She was very intrigued by that! Next time, I will hang out there longer since I know what to expect & actually enjoy the new exhibit and read up on all of the neat creatures of the Amazon.

A SMILE, AT THE ZOO? RARE PHOTO! :)

I'll have to admit...my EXTREME fear of snakes...caused me to JUMP our 1st pass through. I instantly thought, this fence won't keep that thing from getting me. THEN, I realized it was totally fake.
I know I am not the only one that it freaked out because the people ahead of me were kinda waiting for B and I to get by it & this big ole guy said, "Did it scare you too?" I said, "yes it did!" He said, "it scared all of us!"....So that made me feel a little better. LOL... Our 2nd pass through to get back to the entrance (we didn't venture to the zoo part) I parked Miss B by the creepy thing. YIKES! Mesker got me! That's for sure!

Bailey ended up having the best day after Amazonia. She was the best girl and put herself to sleep for her afternoon nap and for night time in daddy's care. (She's been doing pretty good these past couple of weeks putting her self to sleep at night. Today at her nap....that was a 1st!!!) Mommy got a RARE night out with a friend! (Another stay at home mom) Thanks Kelli! I needed that...sad to say, but it's been at least a couple of years since I went out with a friend... We will have to do that again SOON! Thanks Keenan for taking such good care of Bailey while I was out. :)

9 Month Checkup

Mommy update: I have started scrapbooking Bailey's birth-1 year album. My LOFTY goal is to have it completed by her 1st birthday party. YIKES!!! I better get busy....:) Plus, Keenan and I have been engrossed in the Olympics! GO USA!!!

Bailey had her 9 month checkup Thursday and got a two thumbs up...all is well! (the doc even commented on her little curls in the back..:) She said she looks good and told Bailey to keep up the good work. :) She weighed in at 23 lbs. 1oz (95th percentile) and her height..Let's just say she had a screaming and kicking fit while the nurse tried to measure her. The measurement was 27 1/2 inches (25-50th percentile). The doc was convinced those were not right and told me not to worry and they'll get a more accurate measure at her year appointment. She said we can begin meats...I was surprised considering Bailey is such a big girl. I said, what the heck and gave her "Glazed Ham with Pineapple" that night. Needless to say, she scarfed it down.Bailey will walk if you hold her hands but STILL doesn't want to stand and play with her toys like she did a month ago. Crazy...I guess she figures if she can reach them on her knees, that is way easier. She is not cruising yet but does pull up to stand occasionally.

She also started feeding herself finger foods a couple of weeks ago. This video is of her first time feeding herself "cherry puffs" & notice how happy she is...THEN how she instantly gets mad when daddy didn't give her the 2nd one fast enough. That's my girl...0-60 in no time flat!

Bay feeding herself 1st time!! @ Yahoo! Video

The doc also said to have her start trying to drink from a cup & to try and have her weaned from the bottle by 12 months...she didn't have to tell me twice! We have Dr. Browns bottles and they couldn't be MORE annoying to clean. Bailey has been doing well with her water out of her Nubby cup with a straw. It's no spill so I am a big fan. I am not real interested in trying her with a cup that isn't "non-spill," especially because when she's had enough or just because, she will toss it. Today we gave her snack bottle to her in her sippy cup and she downed all 8oz!! So, I think next time we will give her her lunch & snack bottle in her sippy & go with that for awhile.
Along with Bailey absolutely loving "hide & seek" with her daddy..(Bailey is the seeker)...she also gets a kick out of getting her belly tickled in the comfy pillows. I tried to get a video of her cracking up when he tickled her but every time she heard my camera beep she quit laughing and made a "B" line for my camera...:( I'll be more sneaky next time.



These last 2 videos are of Bailey scaling our "barrier wall." A week or so ago Keenan got the brilliant idea to create a wall with our pillows to coral Bailey in the living room preventing her from constantly crawling into the kitchen. IT WORKED! It was a great idea and I thought he was a genius. UNTIL, he decided to play his "hide & seek" with Bailey on the other side of the pillows...well, of course she is going to tear through them like a running back breaking a tackle. So, the great wall that we built no longer works...:( But these videos sure are cute....

Scaling the wall #1 @ Yahoo! Video

Scaling the wall #2 @ Yahoo! Video

Daddy's Girl? Definitely!!

Daddy and Bailey had a little fun outside this afternoon, while mommy took some pics of her 2 favorite people. :-D Bailey is sporting her new Peyton Manning jersey. (Afterall, it was their 1st pre-season game.) If you can't tell by the pics, she is a DADDY'S GIRL! I love it!...So does he.

She has started doing a "mommy trait," crinkling up her nose when she smiles. I am not proud that I have passed that on. So now when you see her smiling...she isn't mad...she is just trying to look like her mommy, I guess...:-D

Owensboro Car Show

Friday night we decided to meet Grammy and Grandpa Wendell at Owensboro Community College for a car show Saturday. We did not know what to expect because it was going to be hot that day. I was really wanting to get out of the house..as a family, and do something. We decided to leave in the morning so Bailey could sleep in the car during her regular nap. Of course she didn't fall asleep until about 10 minutes out of Owensboro and we ended up sitting in the parking lot when we got there for about 30 min with the A/C running so she could get in a GOOD nap! Glad we did because Bailey was the BEST little girl the WHOLE time we were there from about 10:30-2!!. I was surprised considering how the morning went. They had "claimed" the area under a HUGE oak tree so we spread out a blanket had a little make shift picnic and Bailey played with a couple of toys and did great. ( I forgot my toy bag!)


I had a really good time because any time we try doing anything....a little someone, has other plans and is usually cranky! So this was a wonderful day because EVERYONE was happy and doing something besides hanging around the house....Thank You Bailey! Grandpa Wendell did not win a trophy this time,but we had a great time none the less! :)

Bailey and I tried going to the zoo this past Thursday. If we were in there 15 minutes we'd be lucky. Once again...for the 4th time...she cried...and cried..and cried! She HATES the zoo. Once again, I am glad we got a membership! I made sure this time that we went after her nap, lunch & she even pottied. So, I really don't get why she hates the zoo. She is still working on getting her 2nd tooth. I say, any day now. Come on Bailey, mommy & daddy want to get a good night's sleep. :)