Monica's Nine Month Update

Attention All Grub Files Followers! The author of the Grub Files, yours truly, would like to plead guilty to a missed publishing of Miss Monica's 9 Month Update. Allow me to explain: At any given point in time, I generally have anywhere from 2 to 10 blog topics or entries that I'm working on writing. And as Monica gets older, and the list of total blog entries gets longer, it gets a teensy bit tougher to manage the blog in the background. Sooo....it was not until this very moment when I hopped on here to work on Monica's 10 month update that I realized that the 9 month update was still marked as draft and therefore not published. Oh, the horror! And to think that there was a chance that I might have accidentally published the 10 month update before the 9 month update! I'm having an anxiety attack just thinking about it. We would have had to throw away the whole blog and start over. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little. But that would have really bugged me!


Anyway, I will cut myself a little slack as the end of the month approaches, as there is also the fact that Monica's 9 month checkup with her pediatrician was not until the middle the month of June, just two weeks ago. So, kinda sorta technically - yes I'm stretching here! - it's not that late.

Let's get to the good stuff, shall we?

Height: 2' 5.25" 91.5%i based on length-for-age data

Weight: 17lbs 15ozs 27.7% based on weight-for-age data


While Monica is still very tall for her age, her weight gain is tapering off. But the doctor and JK and I are not at all concerned, because the kid eats like a horse! There are many factors that come into play here such as breastfeeding (as opposed to formula feeding), increased mobility at a very early age, and having two parents with high metabolisms. So, again, no worries.

While we are on the topic of food, the pediatrician has cleared us to give Monica any and all foods, with the exception of honey.  She will pretty much eat anything we put in front of her, as long as she gets to feed herself.  The Grubster's independence is getting in the way of spoon feeding these days, but we still manage to sneak in a couple bites of yogurt with fruit here and there. 

The biggest news this month is that, by definition, we no longer have an infant; we have a toddler. At just 9 months old, you may ask with raised eyebrows? Why, yes. Our child has fully adopted walking as her primary means of getting around. 


So, what else has this little Grubster been up to in the past month?


Swinging:

Exploring:

Clapping:

and Motorcycle Riding:

We're having a wildly fun summer so far!  For now, we're packing it up to go on Grub's first spelunking adventure. More Grub-related news to come next week in the 10 Month Update post.  Stay tuned!

Dirty Grub Business

I just went upstairs to get Monica from her second nap. JK is out at his mixed martial arts class, and I was trying to decide if Monica and I were going to take a walk to the playground, or if we would go out to Trader Joe's for some food supplies. I took her out of the crib and was snuggling her for a second in the rocker, and I said, "Some little stink really needs a bath after dinner. Let's check your diaper."

When we got to the changing table, I found that not only was there poop inside of her diaper, but it was outside of her diaper as well. Shocking, truly, because it's been months since this has happened. Early on, JK and I were completely desensitized to poop explosions. Alas, after many months free from scrubbing Dreft into her poop-stained clothing, this situation was not met with any nostalgia on my part.

I made an executive decision to wipe her down the best I could with some baby wipes, and then escort her straight into the bathtub for a real cleaning, even though we had not had dinner yet. She just smelled too bad, and it was really unappetizing. So, I whisked her into the bathroom and started running the tub.

This is the part when she decided to pee all over the floor. So, not only did she need a scrubbing, but I also got to scrub the floor and clean up her laundry that she peed all over. At least the clothes were already dirty.

Now we're in the kitchen and she is having some string cheese and meatballs and applesauce with yogurt for dinner. Obviously, her appetite was not affected whatsoever by the situation upstairs. Business as usual for this Grub!

Grub Pen, we bid you farewell...

It is with heavy hearts that we announce that the infamous Grub Pen has been dismantled. Our little girl needs more room to explore, so we have have spent the last week troubleshooting, brainstorming, and gate installing all over this house so that she can have access to roam more freely. I won't try to pretend that I didn't shed a few tears as JK was breaking down the Grub Pen to utilize the pieces to cordon off his computer equipment. But, they were short lived, as I had to suck it up and move on to get the Grubster into the bath.

Wait, you might ask, didn't she just have a bath yesterday? Why, yes, yes she did. However, tonight, she decided it was hilarious to gag herself with her toys and hands, laughing hysterically, until she projectile vomited bile all over both of us in the car. Disgusting. But that's totally off topic.

Anyway, back to the household babyproofing situation. We still have some clean-up work to do and things to install, but we're getting there. I joke about being sad that she is growing up, but in fact, it is truly the most convoluted and confusing feeling that I have ever felt. One one hand, it is exciting and liberating that she can walk around like a little person now. Her focus is shifting upward, and she's not spending every single second trying to pick every single particle off of the floor and put it in her mouth, the way she was when she was crawling. She's not wearing out the knees of her pajamas after a couple of wears, and that is great, too! But, on the other hand, it is challenging and scary that she can get around the house and she is fast! Literally, I blink, and she is gone from my immediate line of sight. Frightening!

I talk to a lot of moms online whose babies were born in Monica's birth month, and it's about 50/50 as to whether or not their 9-10 month olds are mobile yet. The ones whose babies are not are hearing horror stories - people say, "oh, wait till your little one is walking, then you're really in trouble!" In my opinion, I'm liking this stage more than crawling. Is it easier for her to get away from me now? Absolutely. Is it difficult to deal with things like changing diapers and clothing? Hell yeah! But it's also a lot of fun. I'm finding that all ages and stages have their pros and cons....and as a parent, it's my job to get through the tough stuff and focus on having fun and enjoying the great parts.

For example, it's been ungodly hot the past week, so we've been a little cooped up in the house. So today, I dressed Monica, threw her in the car, and went to Kohl's to get us out of the house. My objective was to return and exchange an outfit for her. But, when we got into store, I realized that the shopping carts were gross, I didn't have our stroller, and I had left the return item in the car. I had this heavy, sweaty kid stuck to me, and she was wiggling like crazy to get down. So, what did we do? We walked to the back of the store to housewares and Monica spent a half an hour running around the empty department and "playing drums" by beating on the bed-in-a-bags that were within her reach. She had fun and burned off some energy, and I had fun watching her. It was a win-win.

So, I guess that's my lesson to myself right now. Try to enjoy each stage as she's growing up. People aren't kidding when they tell you that it goes by so fast. It really does.