Apple Juice

Today I finally broke down and gave Andrina apple juice. She seemed to really like it but only drank about 1/2 an ounce of it. Which is fine since there is not much nutritional value in apple juice. There's vitamin C but that's in the food she eats and the vitamin drops she gets too. She was so cute drinking out of her little sippy cup!

Fun In The Sun

Here's a picture from this afternoon when Andrina and I just hung around outside on a gorgeous day. I think she was studying some grass she pulled out of the ground. It's hard keeping her on the blanket!

Pulling Up

Andrina pulled herself up in her crib this morning. Wow, it seems like the milestones are hitting really fast. Way to go Baby!

We Love The Swings

Everyday when the weather is nice, I take Andrina to the park. She loves getting pushed in the baby swing and I love seeing her enjoying herself. What I really love about taking Andrina to the park though is how after she swings on the baby swing, I swing with her in my lap on the bigger swing. I absolutely love it. It is probably the best park of our daily routine together because I get to cuddle with Andrina. Andrina is more of an active, on-the-go baby than an inactive cuddly baby. So we both get what we need. Andrina sits on my lap facing me and I have my left arm around her while holding on to the swing with my right hand. We don't swing very high or fast of course. But she gets in more time on the swing and I get time to cuddle her close. It's so perfect on a beautiful day having my beautiful baby with me and us enjoying doing something together. It will be hard for me when she no longer fits on my lap like this anymore.

End the Seal Trade!

Almost all of my blog is about my daughter. But this post is about the cruel Canadian seal trade. This year sealers are going to be allowed to kill 275,00 seals. That's more than 1/4 million. They are babies, born with a beautiful snow white and soft fur coat that will become spotted as adults. For over a century sealers have made big money by selling the white fur coats of the seal babies. Anyone with any caring for stopping cruelty and suffereing would be sickened by the hunt. Baby seals are clubbed to death, many skinned alive, so their coats can be taken. Often their mothers are also killed as they get in the sealers way, trying to protect their babies. And as us moms know, we would do anything to protect our babies. I know I would. I have complete empathy for these innocent and defenseless beings.

Please go to: humanesociety.org/protectseals by clicking on the picture of the baby seal below to sign a petition urging European countries to ban seal products. With no one to sell the furs to, the sealers will stop their hunt as it will no longer provide any financial gain. And more innocent babies will be able to grow up. Thank you in advance for caring!

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Worst Mealtime Ever!

Can you tell that Andrina was not happy?

My poor little Baby...

Today was not a good day for either of us. Andrina had such a horrible time at lunch. She usually does not care for cereal but today she really hated it! She fussed and hit the spoon throughout lunch today, in spite of me singing to her constantly to help keep her spirits up. Andrina would get food all over her hands and then she smeared it into her eyebrows and into the back of her head. She was just plain mad. So I decided after she had finished half of her bowl of cereal that she did not have to eat any more of it. All that was left was her vegetable and fruit (sweet potatoes and apples with blueberries, both of which she loves). Well, after she took a spoonful of sweet potatoes she started crying and then gagging and then she vomited up her entire lunch. Ugg!

Well that was it for lunch. She was not sick. The vomiting was from her being so upset (and I naively thought that she would be happy with sweet potatoes). So Andrina needed an early bath and then we went to the park where being pushed on the baby swing and cuddled up on Mommy's lap on the big swing made everything all better for her and me. I love swinging with Andrina on my lap. I'll have to post about that specifically soon.

9 Month Old Stats

Andrina is now 17 lbs, 11 ozs (31st percentile) and 27 inches tall (47th percentile). Way to grow Baby!

Crawling and 9 Months Old!

Andrina really crawled today--across her bedroom floor twice. Not just a knee forward here and a scooch there. Nope, REAL crawling! Yea baby! And you are 9 months old today too. We'll get your stats tomorrow.

Big Girl Bath Tub Time!

Today was a very busy day for us. As I mentioned in the previous blog, Andrina can now go from a laying down to sitting up position on her own, so we had to lower the mattress on her crib tonight. And we had already decided that today would be the first day Andrina would use her "big girl" bath tub (the knee and elbow cushions came in the mail yesterday and we fixed the bath tub water knob on Andrina's bath after she went to bed last night and blew up the big girl "baby" tub). I have been very excited about this moment and Tom and I were ready with the camera. However, we were not ready with the video camera, as we were wiped from a long day and having to lower Andrina's crib matress, so we will have to video record her bath tomorrow night. Which will also happen to be her 9 month old birthday!

Andrina was very tired by the time we got her in the bath, so that's why she's sucking on her fingers. She only does that when she's tired or hungry.

But even though she was so tired, she still really enjoyed her new bath tub! She enjoyed kicking her legs and making the water splash and she played with her tub toys too.

The duck is part of the tub and it squeeks when you squeeze it.
Make the ducky squeek Honey!

All done and ready to get in your jammies for bed time!

Getting the Crib Ready for the "Big Girl"!

When I got Andrina up from her last nap today, she was sitting up in her crib! Yea Andrina! So now my baby can go from a laying down to a sitting up position on her own. Which means Tom and I have to lower her crib mattress. Which is a big job. And Andrina will be using her new bath tub today too. It's been a busy day all day already and it's not over yet....

Open and Shut

Tonight was an exciting night for me as a mom. Andrina was near her little playhouse and I opened up the door on it because I was going to put her in it to play. Well, she saw it first with the door shut and then I opened it. I got distracted and when I looked back, she had scooted herself closer to the door and closed it! I then watched her open it and close it several more times. She was quite amused by this and happy with her accomplishment. I, of course, was excited for her because I saw Andrina displaying problem solving behavior as she was opening the door. She was wedging her hand under and around different parts of the door, searching for the best way to open it. She discovered the easiest way to open the door was to get her hand under the door at the bottom right corner. She enjoyed opening and closing the door several times and I was glad the video camera was on the bookshelf so I got to get about 2 minutes of her enjoying playing with the door on her playhouse. So I got video of this and these still shots. Enjoy!

Look at you getting that door open!

Yea for Andrina!

And now you've shut it and you're going to open it again!

This lasted for about 5 minutes and then she played with her blocks, baby elephant, and turtle toys.

I'm Really Good But I'm So Not Perfect!

Andrina had a hard day yesterday. I think she just woke up on the wrong side of the crib in the morning and it threw her off for the whole day. She was fussy right from the start, which is very unusual for her. She's always so happy and easy-going but yesterday just FUSSY! For each of the two meals of solids I fed her, she whined a lot during them and several times when I'd be bringing the spoon to her mouth, she'd do a whiny type yell and hit my hand, making the food go flying! The first time she did it, I was a little surprised, but I was vigilant after that. When Andrina tried that again, I said sternly, "no hitting Mommy". Well, Andrina was cranky and had never heard me speak in that tone of voice to her before so guess what? She started crying! Just a little bit. I think the crying was more from her frustration over the whole situation than from my reaction to her. But even when she is cranky, she's not too bad so I guess I can't complain too much about it. She's definitely got a resilient personality so she did recover from each little "meltdown" pretty quickly. I think it was more of her being cranky the whole day that was the hard part to deal with. We did have a couple of bright spots during the day. Tom and I took her to the park and pushed her on the swing and walked her around the other play equipment. And she enjoyed the walk in her stroller I took her on later in the afternoon. But also, she did not nap good yesterday either.

With Adrina's fussy behavior, I was so happy to do errands yesterday evening while Tom stayed home with her to feed her her third meal of solids for the day. It felt really good to get out of the house and go driving by myself. I love to drive. One of my coping strategies actually. It was so nice to take the semi-long trip into Batavia to go to Linens and Things and then to Meijer. Windows unrolled, wind whipping everywhere and me being able to chill while listening to Bon Jovi, Poison, and Guns N Roses turned up really loud. It was so nice I took the longer, more scenic route home.

When I pulled into the garage, with the music still really loud, I thought to myself, please let Andrina have eaten her solids. Well, she did but she pulled the same hitting the hand behavior with Tom. And she was fussy still. Tom tried to put her down for a third nap but she would not take it. I was not surprised since she only takes two naps a day now. We tried to play with her for a little while but she was still really cranky. So I decided at 8:00 she'd go to bed then instead of at 8:30. After I bathed her I tried to give her her last bottle for the day but she did not want that either. She cried and whined, would not let me cuddle her to help comfort her and then she stared crying while "hitting" me. Not really hitting me, you know how babies just sort of fling their arms and hands when they are frustrated? That was what it was but it was enough for me. I said to her, "Mommy is going to have a margarita after you go down to sleep!". So I said my nightly silent prayer for her and put her to sleep in her crib.

I am NOT a drinker. I have something with alcohol in it about 3 to 4 times a year at the most. And I absolutely did not have nor did I want ANY alcohol while I was pregnant (I even refused communion at my Grandmother's funeral when I was pregnant because there is a tiny drop on wine on the wafer). And I have not had any alcohol in about a few months. But there is something so wonderful about margaritas. Maybe it's the high sugar content even without the alcohol in it. But that was it for me. It was almost 8:30 and Dexter was coming on at 9:00 which Tom and I watch every week. So I told Tom that I was running to Super Target for margarita mix and tequila.

So, my day ended better than it started. When I got home Tom said that Andrina fell asleep pretty quick and we blended up margaritas and watched Dexter while we each enjoyed one glass. I even got a foot massage from Tom. Then I got to watch the repeat of Rock of Love with Bret Michales at 10:00. My true guilty pleasure and the only reality show I watch.

However, the real happy ending came this morning. I got up at 7:30 and took a shower. Then Andrina woke up, in a GREAT mood, her usual self, drank 6 ounces from her bottle and then we went to story time at the library. She laughed and smiled almost the whole time. She loves the sing-a-long songs, payed some attention to the stories and watched the other babies there. So Andrina is back to her usual, happy little self. And her being happy makes me happy.

April & Anne Came to Visit

Auntie April and Anne came over today. I think Anne and Andrina really enjoyed playing together at our house and the park. Enjoy some pictures:

Ok, Anne's not looking at the camera and Andrina has her tongue sticking out but I still think this is a cute picture.

Me and My Baby

Aww, how cute! Andrina's touching Anne and Anne got shy!

This is the best picture!
How cute these two are!!!
Anne loved playing in the little house, she took a bunch of toys in there and said she wanted "Rina" to go in there and play too!
Auntie April, I want to get matching frames for Anne and Andrina for this picture so they can each have it in their bedrooms.

Thanks for coming to visit and play. We enjoyed having you over and spending time together and playing! Come back again soon!

My Baby Brother

My brother Adam would have been 30 years old today. I still love him and I still miss him. I would have named my baby after him had she been born a boy. If I ever do have a little boy I will name him Adam. I wish my brother was still here with us. I can't write about him extensively because I will just get too sad and I'm already crying as it is.

Adam at 4 years old

Adam and I on Christmas morning, 1981.