9 Months Old

Happy 9th Months Miss Svea!  Wow, what a month....we've had lots of firsts and many fun times this past month!  Here's what you've been up to!

 You started crawling and then not a week later standing up on your own.  You also started saying your first word....ba-bye!  Daddy said good-bye to you the other day and you threw your arm up and waved to him.  A few days later you added the ba-bye! We are working on trying to catch this on video!

 Mommy took you to your 9 month appointment today and you weigh 17 lbs and 10 ounces (50%) and 28 inches long (50%).  Your head size was in the 85% percentile or something...your brain must be growing since you've gotten so smart in the last month, ha! I tried getting you to say ba-bye to your dr. today, but you'd just smile and turn into my neck like you were shy.

 You are a very sweet baby.  You love to smile, giggle, and laugh. Your Daddy makes you laugh the most...you think he's hilarious.  You are sleeping through the night (8 pm- 7:30 am) except for the occasional night when you'll wake up and not be able to put yourself back to sleep.  You take two naps a day.  One of them is long (1 1/2 hours) and the other is usually short (1/2 hour).

 You wear size 6-9 month clothes and size 3 diaper.  You nurse five times a day and eat baby food twice a day.  This includes rice cereal, veggies, fruit, and a little meat.  You also took off with eating your puffs this month.  You LOVE them!  You like the yellow veggies better than the green ones and you'll eat pretty much any type of fruit. We'll start some table food now, but slowly.  We tried watermelon one day and you threw up....a lot!  Then I changed you to put you in the tub and you peed on me.  The dr. said you have quite the gag reflex (I can guess where you got that) so we'll take things slowly.

Svea, you are now on the move and are starting to go all over the house.  I'm sure by next month we'll be posting that you are walking around holding onto the furniture, which is scary to us!  You're our little girl and we love you so much.  Stop getting so big:)

Two New Videos

It seems like everyday she is doing something new!  I had just gotten done skyping with my Dad and I told him she couldn't pull herself up yet on the ottoman.  Not a half an hour later she decided it was time! Here's another video of Daddy and Svea playing together from last night as well!

In

 If we lived on Sesame street the word of the week would be "in".  Svea is starting to get "in" to everything.  The baby proofing is almost done.  We need to put a few contraptions on a few cupboards to help slow this little one down and finally get up the baby gate to keep Svea out of the kitchen and away from the stairs. 

 She loves to play "in" her close hamper.  She is quite the little explorer and it is so much fun to watch her.

She's getting much more efficient at crawling and we are slowly learning all of the things that she can get "in"!  We're putting more and more things away!

Lake Lida Trip

Lake Lida was quite different this year.  When I was I packing up the car, I kept putting more and more "things" in.  The portable crib, toys, baby food, swimming suits for both Svea and me.  It seemed to never end, but I also now had a wonderful little baby to come along! 

 It was super hot and muggy the day we could get out on the boat and we kept getting little thunder storms pass through so we kept having to come back in.  Svea came out on the boat when it finally cleared up and she seemed to enjoy it.  At first she starting whimpering when we left shore, but she soon relaxed.  I look funny in this picture, but I'm pretty sure I'm about to lean in for a kiss.....both Dan and I are constantly kissing her.  One of these days she's going to start slapping us away.

 Mom and I brought her in the water the next morning before leaving and I wasn't too sure how'd she would react to the water, but she loved it.  I was able to dip her in the water up to her armpits and she would just smile and giggle the whole time. My Uncles couldn't come again for the second year in a row......boo:(  It was still fun, but I miss them!

Crawling Adventures with Svea

Mommy was out mowing the lawn yesterday, so I had a chance to explore our house with Daddy!  Even though it's just been a few days since I learned to crawl, I decided it was time to really check things out.

First, I thought it would be fun to crawl down the hall to my bedroom to check things out. 

I had to stop a few times to feel the texture of the rug!

Wow, all the way down the hall!!

 Next, I decided to try for Meeko's toy sitting on the floor by the dining room window.  If it's good enough for Meeko, it MUST be good enough for me!

 I don't just crawl.  I sometimes go up on my tiptoes.  Impressive, right?

 Daddy, are you going to come with me?

Got there, and Daddy moved the toy on me!  What to do now?  I guess I will have Daddy help me hang out by the Baby Einstein toy that Grandma and Grandpa Dornfeld gave me.  That will be fun!

Except that the remote control looks even more fun than my toy!  Thwarted by my Baby Einstein, I can't quite reach it.  Guess I will wait for another time to explore again.  Like 3 minutes from now....  Mommy and Daddy, are you afraid yet?

Not Yet, But Almost!

We can't believe all of the new things Svea is doing so quickly.  The day after she crawled she learned how to wave bye bye!  Here she is standing in her crib all by herself! We had to put her in this position, but she was really good at holding on tight.  Pulling herself up will be next I'm sure!

Svea Crawls!

Just hours after Dan got home from his mission trip tonight, Svea crawled! Here's the video! We think her having bare legs and being on the her bedroom rug helped her to finally move forward! Time to get out the baby gate!

Crawling Update

Dan, you better hurry up and get home...this little girl is SO close to making those first moves forward.  She can shimmy backwards, sometimes army crawl forwards, but on hands and knees she is still rocking. BUT, yesterday she started pushing her body weight up off her knees and onto her toes in a baby downward dog for a few seconds.  THEN, today she started pulling both knees forward while on all fours. It's not a technical crawl, but it's pretty darn close.....so Daddy......hurry up, we miss you!  Here's a picture of a predicament she got herself into the other day by rolling and shimmying around the living room.  The video will show you just how far she made it on her journey.  I'm also super excited right now about the Shark Deluxe Theme Mop because it makes Svea being on the kitchen floor that much more bearable.  I don't hyperventilate about how dirty the floors are...well, not as much!

A Day in our Life

I wanted to document a typical summer day for us.  This one happens to be a typical day while Dan was away on his mission trip and Svea and I were home alone.  They're quite busy, but full of fun!

7:30-Svea wakes up and plays and talks to herself in her crib while Mommy slowly wakes up. Sometimes Svea will find her paci and sleep another 20 to 30 minutes.

8:00-8:30-I finally drag myself out of bed to pick up a smiling baby and then we play.

8:30-9:00-Milk break and then I put Svea in her highchair to eat a few puffs so that I can have breakfast and do a few light chores in the kitchen.

9:00-10:00-I get Svea dressed and we play on the living room floor.  If it's rainy outside we'll stay in our pajamas!

10:00-10:30-Time to eat!  Svea gets cereal, a veggie, a little meat, and some fruit topped off with a few puffs while I clean up.

10:30-11:30-More play-time.  Depending on how wet the grass is we might go outside to play in the shade.  If it rained the night before we probably won't since the mosquitos will be out and ready to attack. If it's a day that I want/need to shower Svea will go in her jumper facing the bathroom and I'll get ready while we talk. We'll squeeze in a few books at this time too.

11:30-Milk break and Svea goes down for a nap.  She'll nap anywhere from 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

1:00-2:30-We usually play, read books, and if it's cooler out maybe a walk with the dog, but we usually save those for the evening.

2:30-4:00Milk break!  If it's a nice day outside I'll get Svea ready to go out in her pool for 1/2 to 45 minutes.  She loves the pool!!!

4:00-4:30-Time  to eat again!  Svea gets cereal, veggies, a little meat, and fruit topped off with a few puffs while I clean up the kitchen.

4:30-6:00-Svea goes down for a nap for approximately 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

6:00-Milk Break!  We then go for a walk with the Riker!

7:00-We might Skype with one of the Grandparents and then take a bath and get ready for bed. 

8:00-8:30-Time for bedtime milk break, books, cuddle time, prayers, and bed!

8:30-11:00-Mommy time before bed:)

My Hair is Getting Long....

.....don't you think?

Girls and Pearls

I'm reading this book called Cinderella Ate My Daughter. It talks about how the girly-girl pink culture affects our girls on a deep level. I'm very anti-princess and sassiness (i.e. Bratz dolls..that kind of thing) for Svea, but there are some things that I fall into the trap....dressing her in pink, putting bows in her hair, etc. I just wanted her to know that when she reads this someday that this might be something fun for Mommy to do with her when she was little, but if she is not into what society portrays as girly when she gets older I'll be completely ok. I love our little girl no matter what....but for now when she doesn't seem to care either way I do like to have a little fun. Pearls are my absolute favorite so I combined them with something else I love...Photo shoots with my girl! Dan bought me these for Christmas this past year and Svea enjoyed playing with them for a few minutes today!

I LOVE these!

Love This Girl.....

sigh....she is just so wonderful:) Sleeping on the way home from ND.

4th of July

We started out our July adventure by staying with my Mom and Ron for a few days.  We made a homemade pool with a rubbermaid storage container and Svea had a blast on the front deck while Dan and Ron worked on some landscaping to get ready for the big sale.  My Mom and Ron are planning on trying to sell the lake place for a home in town.  It'll be really sad to give it up, but there are tons of exciting things for having a home in town.  It's always just great to be at home.  It was just nice to relax and enjoy watching Grandma and Grandpa interact with sweet Svea.

 

I LOVED our 4th of July this year. Dan was able to get out to his favorite 4th of July place this year and it was so much fun bringing our daughter to Bismarck where we met, got married, and where Mommy is from! I promised Dan I'd keep things simple this time as I usually line up a bunch of people to see. I love and miss SO many people and I wish we could have seen many more, but it gets pretty crazy when we try to pack in everyone in three days. So, we got to see a group of our friends at a barbeque the first night, my Dad and Lynn, Jane and Ron and Kathy, and my Carter family. My favorite parts of the weekend was everything! It was just a wonderful weekend. One of the nights we stayed up late laughing with Jill and Matt....sigh....It still feels like home:(

Owen, Svea, Sophia, and Quinn (2nd cousins, or cousins once removed....however that works!)

Visiting my Dad:)

 On the actual 4th we went up to Lake Sakakawea to my aunt's brother's new house on the lake.  It's really hard to explain, but my whole family was there along with a lot of other people who are all from Mayville and we're all like family anyway....not literally, but I know them well enough to be family:0  Ha!  Svea slept the whole way there and home.  We obviously wore her out.  It was beautiful outside! Mommy got to swim, Dan got to hang out with my cousins, and of course, with all the people there Svea was in heaven.  My cousin Joe was even doing cannonballs, go figure!

We stopped at the Garrison Dam on the way home to take a picture at the spillway, which has never been used since the dam was first opened.  When we got home Jill had a party to go to so we fed Svea her nighttime bottle, put her in the car, and drove over to our old neighborhood where we used to live to park on the hill and watch the fireworks. Wonderful long weekend with our little family of three! At the very end of our trip Dan headed home to get ready for his mission trip and we stayed in Jametown for a few more quality days.
(Grandma Kathy....Svea wore the little outfit from you on the 4th.  It looked adorable on her, but she spit up on it midday! You can kind of see it in the second picture of this post:)

Dan and Stuart on a Mission Trip

I got this picture yesterday from Stuart!  Dan and him are on a mission trip with students from both of their churches in South Dakota.  They are doing a couple of "fun" things for the first two days and then they'll be at the Pine Ridge Reservation to do some mission work!  Before Svea I remember Megan always talks about these weeks with Stuart being gone and how she cant' wait until he gets back.  I kind of understood, but now I really do with a baby.  My mom is here to help until tomorrow and then it's on my own until next Friday!  Svea and I will have fun though...just not as much without Daddy:)

Catching Up

 I am way behind here with the last week, so I'm going to do a couple of catch up posts to make up for last week and not having any updates! Here's Svea in a little outfit from Mexico from my Dad. This was the day before we left for North Dakota.

 I'm not sure what I did to make her smile, but I love it!

4th of July pictures coming soon!

Svea Jumping!

Sorry, I know it's been forever since I've posted.  We've been on vacation in North Dakota for the past few days and I was not around a computer very often.  Here's a video of Svea in her jumper the day she left.  I have a few more pictures to share once I get home from the 4th of July!  Svea Jumping