nine

I am commanding the nine month mark to go away and leave our little baby alone. 

As of last week, she is

20 lbs 8 oz

29 inches tall

In other words:  still big.

She truly is related to Mitchell and hates the camera. 

She loves pancakes, cheerios, pears, applesauce, mashed potatoes and green beans.

She hates hates hates bananas.

Everything she can get her hands on is instantly inserted into her mouth.   She ate some flowers and  dirt yesterday.

This little girl loves her Dad.  He is all she talks about through out the day.

She will only say mama when she gets hurt or when she wakes up during the night.

She likes to hold on to furniture and walk around the room.  Mitchell and I are working with her on her balance ... i can see her walking in the next couple months. 

roman holiday

My hair had gotten a little out of hand since my last cut.  Dull, limp, stringy .... I start to look homeless when my hair gets too long.  I know its time to cut my hair when people start handing me change on the street.

I am super cheap and only get my hair cut twice a year.  Pathetic, I know. 

Well, it was time.

before: looooooooong hair

After watching Breakfast at Tiffany's and complaining about what a dumb movie it was on Facebook, some people suggested I watch Miss Hepburn in Roman Holiday.  

I watched it.  And I began craving short short boy hair.  Audrey cuts off her long hair in the movie like so:

That movie tipped the scale and I took the plunge on Saturday. 

I feel soooooooooooooo much better and Mitchell wins the  "husband of the century" award for putting up with me and my hair antics. 

Is it weird that short hair makes me feel stronger? Long hair is like my kryptonite, it drains me of all energy. I guess I can't relate to Sampson. 

after:  shooooooorrrrrtttttt

ocho.

Helllloooooooo eight months.

I LOVE watching her pick Cheerios up with her tiny little fingers and try to navigate them to her mouth.

She thinks she is a rock climber.  Not so excited about this advancement.  She sure doesn’t lack confidence when it comes to scaling furniture.

She no longer really cares about her toys, she wants what she can’t have.  For some reason she gravitates to our dirty shoes and the trash.  What a classy little lady.

Teeth and Hair:  Nothing on the horizon.  I’m beginning to think I gave birth to Benjamin Button and we need to get her some dentures and a toupee of some sort.

She is still rather large.  An unofficial weigh in put her around twenty lbs.  My biceps are definitely benefiting.

She loves to talk and jabber.  She is constantly saying dadadadad and occasionally will spit out a mamamama. I find it incredibly adorable when she whispers. 

 

 

Lucky Seven

Seven

This little photo session was a disaster.

  I was able to catch seriously one photo of her not trying to escape and runaway. 

The rest of the photo shoot went something like this ....

Winter began attempting to crawl several weeks ago and now she is quiet efficient.  I find her clumsiness quiet endearing. 

 

She has learned to "clap" and apparently made quiet a few friends in Sunday School last Sunday with this little trick.

Winter has finally caught on to how to eat solids and is now enjoying pears, applesauce, oat cereal and peas. 

 I hate to almost mention this because I feel like I might be cursing this winning streak ...but she has slept through the night for FIVE nights in a row.  *knock on wood*
  
She will only sleep in her crib or her carseat.  She never just zonks out in my arms or on the floor.

 
Her favorite toy is easily her pacifier. She doesn't really use it to soothe, but sees it more as just a fun thing to gnaw on. 

 

She is a pretty serious baby, especially when around strangers.  She rarely gives strangers a smile.  But she does actually smile and laugh contrary to popular belief.

 8 out of 10 times people just assume she is a boy unless she has some bow on her head.  I have just accepted it and don't even bother correcting people anymore.

Taylor Thrift

I have an addiction.  I'll be the first to admit it. 

Hello, my name is Erin and I am addicted to thrift stores. I know I have mentioned my addiction in past posts, but I think it has become more serious. It doesn't help that we have FIVE thrift stores within 15 minutes of our apartment. I need my weekly fix, even if it is just a quick stop. I think I can honestly say that if we were to become millionaires I would still shop at thrift stores. Mitchell should be thankful I don't have an Anthroplogie or Restoration Hardware addiction ... it could be worse. 

 I have found some great things as of late...

I know these aren't from a thrift store, super duper clearance markdowns give me the same kind of adrenaline rush ...
 Thank you Target for the 75% post Christmas markdowns. Our Christmas tree is going to be awesome next year.   



 I found this adorable coat for Winter ... only $2.00.  Practically brand new.  There is no way that I could ever buy baby clothes at full price ... or even half price for that matter.

A brand new in the box Mr Potato head for ... drum roll ... $1.00. I plan on using this bad boy to help me out in primary singing time next Sunday.

 I have a slight obsession with Halloween costumes.   A few months ago I found a super awesome high quality turtle costume for only $2.00 ... but its for a 4 yr old ... but I just couldn't say no.  I'm sure Winter will want to be a turtle at some point in her life ... every little girl's dream, right?  On Saturday I came across this adorable, brand new and super cheap chicken costume ... once again, for a 5 yr old.   I hope Winter is into animals and not princesses .....

I 

I have been looking for some black heels now for a while ... and stumbled across these.  They still had the Nordstrom tags on them ... $98.00!  I got them for a mere $5.00.  Oh yeahhhhhh.

 My black flats that I bought from Savers about 5 years ago for $2.00 finally bit the dust ... and I found these brand new lovelies for only $5.00.

  
The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem right?   

six

Six months.

I'm still alive.  Winter is still alive.  At the beginning of this crazy adventure, I wasn't so sure that I would be able to say that at the six month mark.   Its kinda killing me inside realizing just how quickly six months came.  Before I know it Winter will have pig tails and will be walking.  

 Actually, at this rate ... she probably won't have pig tails until she is five years old.  I'm considering Rogaine.   I'm sure its baby tested and approved.

Winter now weighs 17 lbs 5 oz and is 27 inches long ... 75th percentile.   

Mitchell and I both caught the horrible flu bug a couple days after Christmas, which resulted in me laying on the floor most of the day just trying not to puke.  There were only a few activities I could manage that kept Winter entertained while we were confined to the floor ... animal noises.  Keep in mind that all my barnyard animals were a little under the weather with the flu that day.  When I'm in tip top shape I can do an impressive horse.

Winter also experienced the wonderful world of food.
First cereal .... not so successful.

Jingle Bells Batman Smells.

Mitchell, Winter and I headed out on a quite Sunday afternoon to walk around and explore Temple Square.  We checked out the Macey's candy Christmas windows. Word to the wise: If you want to avoid the crowds next year, go on Sunday.  Call us heathens, go ahead.  We had the windows all to ourselves ... well, besides the crazy homeless man who was yelling on the street corner ...

    Jelly beans, licorice, gum drops, candy canes, gum balls, and lemon drops GALORE. Willy Wonka would have been proud.

We then headed over to the visitor's center to visit the Christus. It was a nice getaway from the commercialized Christmas chaos.

 

The very gracious Church family invited us over for Christmas Eve festivities.  The festivities included:
 -graham cracker houses
-a Bethlehem dinner
 -playing games
 -Brian reading us "Cajun Twas the Night Before Christmas" 
 -singing Christmas songs

 My simple apartment building

 

 And of course, Mitchell had to go above and beyond.  His living room display was rather impressive, coconut shag rug and all. 

 

Our humble Christmas shrub.

Winter must have been excited to open her stocking because she was wide awake pretty early.  

I pulled out my camera and she started pulling this face and wouldn't change it all morning.  What. A. Baby.

Stocking.

Putting her stocking stuffer to good use.

We then headed up to hang out with my brothers for the rest of the day.   We honestly didn't want to go to the trouble of cooking a big Christmas meal. Bless the souls of those awesome Chinese people who decided to stay open on Christmas.  After we stuffed our faces with egg rolls we played around with a little tape ....

I'm pretty sure this should be a Christmas tradition every year .... 

CAUTION:these photos may frighten small children

We ended the night with a very Christmas appropriate movie ... Batman.