Monica's 10 Month Update

Summer continues in full swing, and we have had a TON of firsts this past month:

Monica's now has her own chair - a little person's adirondack chair to match mommy's and daddy's chairs. Perfect for lounging in the backyard, watching dog brother chase balls and frisbees, and supervising while mommy tends to the garden.

Monica found her professional calling this month: dog grooming. Dog brother very patiently allowed her to brush him, and she thought it was the most hilarious thing EVER.  It was slightly less hilarious for me since she was using my brush, instead of a dog brush. 

Monica's also had her first trip to the beach! This kid loves, I mean LOVES the beach. The sand, the ocean, she loved everything about it! 

Checking out the ocean for the first time with Daddy.  She loved splashing in the surf, it was so cute!

 

Playing in the sand with Mommy.  She was having fun, I swear, she really just wanted to get away from me so she could look for seashells.  

 

Lounging around, catching some rays.

First Restaurant Experience:  Grotto's Pizza on the Rehoboth Boardwalk.  Great choice, Monica!

First carousel ride at Funland, Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk. Monica jumped right on a starting shaking the pole, encouraging her trusty steed, saying, "Mush, mush!" No, Monica, we gently corrected her, we don't say "mush" to a horse, we say, "Giddyup!"

 Our family on the beach.  What a great time we had!!!

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.

Who Walks at Eight Months? This Kid!

As promised, we have worked to capture Monica's amazing feat of walking at only eight months old.  Here are a couple clips so you can see her in action!

As you can tell in the last video, she was starting to get sleepy, haha!  But don't worry, she got her second wind when we went downstairs and she was jumping all over the couch to try to get to the cat. 

You mean you have to use your hands? That's like a baby's toy!

Do you know what movie that is from? If not, click here for the answer.

Monica has started to regularly quote this scene while hanging out in her pen.  Her sweet little baby toys that once captivated her attention - her bees, her monkey, her lion - barely hold her interest anymore. She wants her flashy light-up singing talking remote control and her fancy music table. It's either that or the real TV - ugh!

While letting her rot her brain watching TV is the easiest way to amuse her, JK and I do make a real effort to engage her with her toys and books We resort to the TV as a crutch when we want to have a meal without the Grub Dog begging for us to throw scraps to her in her pen.

So, to shake things up in the toy department, we splurged and bought Monica a few new toys this month.


First lego set!

JK giving building instructions

Monica listening intently

All parts of this toy are great!

  

Yay, a huge tower to knock down! 

What's this??  A caterpillar tunnel?  Awesome!

Look at meee!!!

Umm, Daddy, you're too big for this toy!

Climbing through the door

I'm gonna get you, mama!

Monica's Eight Month Update

Happy Eight Month Birthday, Monica!  I know we're late since the actual day was April 29th, but hey, sometimes life gets in the way of baby blogging. Our little lovebug has had SO MANY developments between her seven and eight month birthdays.  We can barely keep up with all the changes going on around here! First, let's cover the topic of her rapid growth.  While we won't have any official stats until after her 9 month checkup, I do have proof that she is growing!  The picture to the left is from her seven month update, and the picture to the right was taken a couple of days ago - so there are no more than six weeks, at the most, between these two pictures.  Look how much she has grown!

I thank God regularly for my mother's compulsive shopping habits, as Monica is already fitting into her nine month pajama sleepers.   

Milestone Updates & Daily Grub Life Day to day, we're having fun enjoying the lovely spring weather.  Monica's favorite activities include going out back to watch JK throw the frisbees for the dog, and taking long walks around the neighborhood in her stroller. 

The Mobile Grub: As seen in the post Mowing - Beyond the Grub Pen, Monica has been working on her assisted walking skills for a while now. However, this video no longer does her justice, as just last week she took her very first steps on her own!!! I've never heard of a baby walking - or trying to walk - at seven months, and I'm certainly not quite ready for her to be walking just yet. But, as we've all learned, we're operating on Monica's timetable here. Anything can happen at any time. For now, she's always got her dog brother to help her get around, until she fully masters her walking skills.

Mush, mush!

  The Teething (and therefore barely sleeping) Grub: Not to be overshadowed by the major milestone of first steps, Monica is also sporting her first two teeth! The first one came through just days before her 8 month birthday, and the second one followed a few days after. We have had a couple rough days with teething, and sleeping has been a challenge, but we're getting through it together. Oh, and in case you are wondering - yes, in this picture, she is completely asleep in a little ball in the corner of her crib.   Precious!

Lobster, anyone?

The Hungry Grub: Monica is moving away from eating purees and venturing into the world of finger foods. I'm hard pressed to feed her an entire meal of purees without major grumbling. But when I dice some fruits or veggies and let her feed herself, she doesn't make a peep. She'll be eating frozen pizzas with JK and I before we know it! Allowing Monica to feed herself finger foods has greatly improved her coordination and dexterity, and she has just about perfected her pincer grasp - the ability to grasp and manipulate objects her with thumb and forefinger. While exciting, this also means we have to increase vigilance around our home and when visiting others - the ability to grasp small objects also means that she can more easily get them in her mouth, which can be dangerous.  

The Talkative Grub: As if all of these physical developments weren't exciting enough, Monica started "talking" to us this month. She's been saying "dada" and "mama" nonstop. While sometimes she is just babbling, she is definitely starting to use her words to make the actual association with each of us, as she will call us by name when we leave the room, or if one of us is gone from the house for an extended period of time. She is also working on her "b" sound as "bababa" is her newest babble.

Hello, Mama

It's been very easy to get wrapped up in all the fun with Monica, but I promise to give her blog updates more attention and keep everyone posted more regularly.  We're trying to get a decent video of her walking to share with our followers :)  For now, it's almost dinner time, so I'd better go scrounge up some grub for the Grub.  Peace out!