Another Tuesday gone by...

Everyone,

I have tried very hard to post on days other than Tuesday but since Butterfly swims on Tuesday and SLEEPS when we get home, Tuesday is the day to post.

Juice and I are planning new doors and windows on our house for our big home improvement project this year. Our windows are scheduled to be put in in March, and we're going to the Home D*pot for our door. I have one door I desperately want. Of course, it's not steel (fiberglass is just as good!) and the HD does not carry it. So I went to the manufactures site to see if I could order it especial. No deal. They only go through the HD and if the HD doesn't stock it, they won't sell it. Bummer. I suppose it's a good thing since if I were to get this door, I may have to take it with me when we move from this house. Instead, I will be getting something like this as opposed to this. Also, storm door or no storm door? Juice and I are sitting on the fence for this one. Any thoughts?

Butterfly is being very cute lately, and also kind of a pain. I angered the nap gods last time by saying she sleeps so well. That went out the window. We had a couple of nights staying up until 1am, 2am and then getting up at 6am. *YAWN* Looking back at our horrible sleeping for the past 2 weeks or so, I think I may have found a solution. We need to stop getting teeth in such a horrible way. She now has 5 teeth, her top right incisor showing up. The one next to the front tooth. (Or for you dentists out there in case Mike ever reads this...her #10 tooth.) This reminds me that Juice and I have our semi-annual cleaning coming up. Gotta remember that.

We're high into Birthday season. It starts with my Dad on Feb 24 (Happy B-day Dad!) and will end with Juice on March 31st. Also included in there is Andrew, Soot, and my Mom. I used to love March growing up because we always went out to eat for birthdays and between 3 March birthdays, we went out like every other weekend. It was great! But now being so far away from them it's not as fun (for me). One birthday I'm looking forward to is Butterfly's first. I can't believe that she is almost a year old. We will have a low key celebration with just the family that day...maybe a trip to our favorite hamburger joint since this is where we went the night before she was born. We will probably give her a cupcake and call it good. About 2 weeks later is Juice's graduation and my parents and his parents are coming out for the celebration. We will have a big hoopla then for her and for Juice.

We had a break through with solid foods last night. She has always taken one or 2 bites and then turned up her nose at anything else we offered her. I made apple sauce (yes, I make my own baby food...so much more cost effective since I can make 2 weeks of food for 3 or 4 dollars and a jar of baby food costs about 2 dollars for one, maybe two feedings. You do the math.). Anyway, I have frozen cubes of applesauce and I gave one to her frozen. It was so cute the faces she made! Once I defrosted it a bit (only a little bit, it was still cold) she went through the whole cube like it was nothing. And was asking for more. Yes! Feed the child! So we broke out some butternut squash and she went through that cube too. It's a nice feeling when I know she is full. :)

She is crawling all over the place and can I say that the baby gates I ordered can not get here fast enough. I'm about to go bonkers if I have to steer her away from the dog food or the dog door one more time.

Until next time,
Safire

Swimming Fun

Everyone,

Juice took a half day at work and was able to come swimming with us. We took some great pictures.

She absolutely adores the water now, and starts kicking and splashing within seconds of getting into the pool. Also today, when I came out of the locker room she said "oohhhhh" and started kicking in my arms. You'd think she likes it! I'm really glad we are able to do this class and we've signed up for the next session.

She also will voluntarily put her face in the water. Especially after I have been blowing bubbles. She loves the little songs we sing (Hokey Pokey, The Wheels on the Bus, etc) and will just spash as hard as she can with them. So cute! When we first started swimming she was timid, shy, and tried to crawl up me to get out of the water. Now it sounds like she can't wait to get in and have fun. It's made bath time at our house a little more wet but I really don't mind. I'm glad she's finally stopped screaming through her baths.

Another thing she has just started doing is crawling! Like actual up on all fours crawling. She started that on Thursday the 16th with just a few steps in a row, and then it's just exploded from there. She can also pull herself up on most things and is starting to take small steps and cruising. So much fun!

Until next time,
Safire, Juice, and Butterfly

ps- I think these little games are fun...

You scored as English. You should be an English major! Your passion lies in writing and expressing yourself creatively, and you hate it when you are inhibited from doing so. Pursue that interest of yours! English 92% Journalism 92% Biology 83% Mathematics 83% Philosophy 67% Theater 67% Anthropology 58% Linguistics 58% Engineering 58% Sociology 50% Dance 50% Chemistry 42% Art 33% Psychology 33% What is your Perfect Major? (PLEASE RATE ME!!<3) created with QuizFarm.com

Just for fun

Everyone,

Thought this would be fun. Check it out.

Also, I contacted my member of congress for the first time today. Laura is coming to visit in April and we are going to tour THE White House. Apparently you can only get tickets through your member of congress.

Juice and I have been watching the Olympics and are fascinated by curling. We've had many hot debates on how they figure out the scoring of this game. According to the Tornio Olympic website, the team who is closest to the center of the target, called the house, scores and every stone that the scoring team has closer to the house than the other team also gives them a point. I think I get it...

Until next time,
Safire and Juice

It's fixed!

Everyone,

Looks like they finally got their act together and fixed our internet problem. We don't have anything broken in the house for the first time since Halloween. Now what will I do if I'm not waiting around for repair guys all the time?! We are getting our windows replaced in March so I guess I have to wait for that.

And, as promised...PICTURES! And VIDEOS! I know my parents are going through Butterfly withdrawl. It's been like 3 weeks since they've seen her and I know if I go through 3 hours without her I'm crazy to see her again. So here you go.

The first 3 are her 9 month old pictures, and the last 3 are of that great snow storm we had last week. And the baby back pack that Juice is wearing Butterfly in we got at a second hand sale for 5 dollars. Yes, 5 bucks! They normally run about 70 or 80 dollars so we were happy.

And for the videos:
There are 5 of them. 2 of her crawling, one of Soot in the snow, one of her playing with Soot (SO CUTE!) and one of her tounge. You can find them all here.

She did a very cute thing the other day. She has a little book on her exersaucer and she turned the pages, talked to her self and at the end it sounded like she said the end because I always say that at the end of a book. She is just adorable.

Also, we went to the picture place at the mall and got some professional shots of her for 9 months old. If you'd like to see them, email me and I'll send you the password.

Until next time,
Safire, Juice, Butterfly, Soot

9 Months and another thing broken

Everyone,

Butterfly turned 9 months old on Friday. Being the party animals we are, we celebrated by going to the doctor. Butterfly is a healthy girl, weighing in at 23 lbs and she is 30 inches long. She has 4 teeth (two bottom, two upper) and can pick up teeny tiny little things with that cute pincher grasp. She has discovered her tounge and talks with it out, smiles with it out, complains with it out...you get the idea. She can touch her nose with it which is pretty cool. She has also picked up the annoying habit of shyness when she smiles (she will smile and look away all cute like). She is still a major people person. But only when I'm holding her. Can anyone say 'Stranger Anxiety'?

She has turned into a decient napper, taking two 1 hour + naps a day. She is normally up around 6am (or whenever Juice gets up) and normally I can convince her to go back to sleep until about 8am. Unless I need the car and we leave to take Juice to work around 7am. On Mondays and Fridays I go to the gym so she gets to play in their Kid Stop for an hour or so. And around 11am is her first nap. Today she slept from 10am till 12:30am! Then we will play, I'll dress her for the day, and do some errands, depending on the day. She normally will sleep again around 3pm and this is typically her really long nap. She almost always sleeps 2+ hours in the afternoon. When she wakes up, we play some more until Daddy gets home. And then she plays with Daddy while I get the dinner ready and have some alone time. After dinner, we normally take the dog for a walk, get her ready for bed and down she goes around 8:30pm or 9pm.

She eats anything we offer to her off of our fingers. She is hit and miss with stuff from spoons. Lately she has been eating avacado which she is okay with. But she's had squash (loads of squash), refried beans, pancakes, bread, steak, chicken, potatoes, apples, kiwi, muffins (that was a hit), asparagus, bananas, and rice. She is still only getting one meal of solid foods a day because she is just not interested in eating solid stuff until dinner time. She LOVES cups and no drink is safe around her. She drinks well from an open cup, a sippy cup and can even drink from a straw. She likes juice (what kid doesn't) but we water it down for her.

She has started to crawl on her belly. It's more of an elbow elbow toe toe toe toe move but she does moter forward. I have a video of it coming later. She can also sit herself up, stand up when propped, and is starting to cruise along the couch. The best thing to get her moving is either the dog's toys or the camera. She and the dog play really well together. I also have a video of that.

The dryer is fixed (angels singing) but now our internet is broken. Which is why I don't have the videos or even pictures of her. I can connect, it's just painfully slow. Our internet provider doesn't know what the problem is so I have no idea when it will be fixed. But when it does, many pictures coming your way. You are warned.

She is really loving her swimming lessons and will splash and kick on command now. It's so neat to see her really understanding what we are saying. She knows what Mama means and will call me when she really wants me. I bet her first word will be puppy or Soot or ducky (a favorite toy) but you never know.

We had a huge snow storm yesterday and got about 8 inches. Very fun for me and Juice. We missed the snow. Soot likes the snow but it balls up in her fur and then she can't walk. And Butterfly isn't really sure what it is but I have cute pictures of her in it because, well, all parents have to put their kids in their snow suits and take pictures of them. Don't they? :)

We left Butterfly with our neighbor Ida for an evening last week and went out to dinner for Valentine's day. It was okay, but we learned that Butterfly cried pretty much the whole time we were gone. Sorry Ida!

I also got a girls night out with my mom's group. That was a ball and we talked babies, bodies, and first birthdays. Hard to imagine that Butterfly will be a year old in a few months. She is looking more and more like a little kid every day. Where did the baby go? Anyway, I had a really great time talking to everyone and having a meal to eat at my own pace. We plan on continuing that every 2nd Thursday of the month. I'm very excited.

Well, I think you are up to date now. Hopefully our internet will be back up to full speed soon and I can post more often. Unlike Andrew who hasn't posted since...well, see for yourself. ;) (I'm only kind of kidding Bro...update your blog! Edited to add that I went and saw for myself and he has updated today. So good job Bro!) And Dad, you haven't posted since October. Just an FYI. Love you guys!

Until next time,
Safire and Butterfly

PS- Forgive the spelling.