Category: D

Because D hears “Oh my gosh you are the cutest baby!” everywhere we go, multiple times. Seriously, every person that sees her when we’re out in public comments on the living cuteness that is our daughter. And I’m not gonna lie, she is stinkin’ cute. I’ve remarked countless times that I really can’t even believe she’s mine sometimes. I look at her and see that little cherubic beautiful smiley face and just think, “Did that one really come from me? That is actually my kid?”

Today she ran errands with me for about 2 hours and was absolutely awesome. Not one fuss, not one peep of crankiness until in the car right before we got home. But she was hungry and tired, and I couldn’t blame her one bit. She’s too heavy for me to carry around in her infant car seat anymore, so this was my first time holding her while shopping. And I think my left bicep is twice as strong as when I woke up this morning because of it.

Our first stop was the shoe store, which she loved. Takes after Mommy in that regard, much to Daddy’s chagrin. 😉 She helped me return a pair then try on a bunch to ultimately pick out 2 winners, so that was fun. Then we had to run to Target. Or as I like to call it, the $100 store; for no matter how few items are on your list when you walk through its doors, you can never leave without spending $100 or more. Fortunately here I could put her in the cart, saving my arms. She’s never actually sat in the cart seat before, we’ve always snapped her car seat onto the seat rails, so I took in one of those shopping cart seat covers that someone had given us at one of our showers. I liked it – I’m not so much freaked out by all the germs on the carts, even though I did wipe it down with a cart wipe on our way in, but it just helped keep her in there a little better. She’s still pretty small for the cart seat, so the extra padding from the cover helped. She had a blast playing with various items I bought and trying to monkey her way out of the seat and either into the back of the cart or over the handles. We saw our good friend K there, too, so D had some stories to tell her about all of our adventures thus far.

Now, how do we get this good behavior to last through her teenage years? Anyone, anyone?

One of the best lines from one of mine and R’s favorite movies, Beautiful Girls.

And how wonderful that I can now say it to our sweet girl. I love watching D fall asleep in my arms, before when she was nursing, and now when I give her a bedtime (or maybe naptime) bottle. Her tiny little hands with the dimpled knuckles slowly stop trying to grab the bottle or smack her head or pull on strands of her hair (or mine), her long and gorgeous eyelashes flutter less often as her eyelids become heavier and heavier, and if I’m lucky I get to see a flash of the sweet little sleep smile once the bottle is gone and she’s officially in slumber land. That enchanting little smile that was the first one we saw before she actually started smiling during her waking hours too. It makes my heart swell and takes me back to those first precious days of teeny tiny baby D.

Good night, sweet girl.

Auntie M was in town for Easter last weekend and she was dying to let D try Cheetos. I said fine, but not regular Cheetos – they’re too hard and crunchy. Fortunately my mom got the Cheetos Puffs, which were perfect. And whaddya know, she loved them! We gave her one and she went to town on the thing. By the end all she had left in her hand was a slimy little cheesy nub, so I took that away from her before she tried to scoot away and smear it on the rug or the leather chair. Plus I don’t think they’re the most nutritional thing we could’ve given her. 😉

Behold, the attack of D’s first Cheeto (pardon the sirens and noise in the background. we were watching “Date Night”. she apparently loved that too.)! I told you she rarely sits still. 😉

Attack of the Cheeto!

As April winds down and May approaches, I’ve been thinking back on how much D has accomplished this month. She started scooting in earnest early in the month (the video R took was from April 6) instead of just pushing herself around on her stomach. This may actually have started before then, but that was the first time we saw her do it at home. We’re still waiting for that first crawl, though. Unkie C gave her plenty of lessons this past weekend, but scooting is still her preferred method of transportation.

She started pulling herself up on things. The little monkey in the bars of her crib was last week on April 18, and then her teacher said she finally pulled herself all the way up on the play blocks at daycare the day after that too. I was playing with her on the floor this weekend and she used my arm to pull herself up to fully standing – there she was, all 28ish inches of her looking me right in the eye. 🙂 That was the first time I’d seen her stand as well. Before that she’d just gotten to her knees with one foot trying to move to standing.

She likes to rock her highchair. And I don’t mean like she’s all heeeeyyy, check me out in my new highchair. I mean she literally rocks the thing. At meal times she’ll take a bite, then rock back and forth, slamming into the back of the seat and scooting the whole chair. Granted the wheels do lock to prevent movement, so it’s not like she’s cruising around the house in a highchair, but it’s still funny. 😉 This chick does not like to sit still.

This one’s not movement-related, but her top teeth are now coming in to match the pair of chompers on the bottom. Chuck and Cecil have upstairs neighbors! These broke through last month, but now the front four are prominently on display in that darling little smile.

Our beautiful baby girl is getting so big! I can’t believe she’ll be 9 months old in a few days. 9 months sounds like a long time, but I remember the feel of bringing her home for the very first time as if it was yesterday. In all honesty, though, the time has seemed to go by just right, if that makes any sense. It does seem like it’s been 9 whole months, instead of flying by like time usually does. But I know in a couple years I’ll look back on these days and say it all went by in the blink of an eye…