Grace's First Summer

A huge perk of being a teacher is the fact that I get summers off.  A lot of people (my husband included), think this means 3 months off every year.  For me this year, it's exactly 7 weeks (not 3 months) from my last day of school to my first full day of work.  That's okay, 7 weeks is still way more vacation than most people get.

And the summer I've had so far has been truly amazing because it's been with Grace.

Grace's summer kicked off with her first flight for our family trip to the coast of North Carolina.  Grace truly made the trip special for everyone.  She's the first baby to be born in 18 years in my extended family!  Grace got to splash her legs in the ocean, she got to feel sand in her toes, and swim in both the outdoor and indoor pool.  Her favorite part of the trip had to be dinner time. Every evening the whole family meets in Grandpa's condo for dinner. And Grace had everyone's full attention and she loved it.  It was during this trip, at 6.5 months old that Grace's army crawling really took off.

Another special part about this trip was how much time she got to spend with her Uncle Brian.  Grace is my brother's only niece, and he is such a sweet uncle to her.  I just know he's going to be a wonderful father (hopefully someday soon).  But until then, Grace just loved the attention she got from him.

The plane rides with Grace were okay/not so good. I planned to nurse her during take off and landing, but she had other plans.  Our flight down to NC went okay.  Our flight back to DTW was just awful.  It's an hour and a half flight. Grace slept for a half hour, and screamed/cried for an hour.  My mom and I tried everything we could to help.  And to add to it, she screamed the car ride from the airport to the house as well.   I think a few factors were causing the screams for the second flight and not the first.  I believe that timing had to do with it.  Next year, I will try to plan for morning flights if possible.  Our return flight was in the early evening.  Grace's fussiness level increases throughout the day.  She starts out in the morning as a happy baby.  By 5pm, she is much harder to please.  Another tactic I plan to try next year will be screen time.  Grace doesn't really have chances to see screens much (besides my phone as I take pictures of her with it all day long haha).  So, hopefully saving screen time up to be a secret weapon will help next year as well.

Also this summer, we have gone to the pool a ton!  And my parents got a mini backyard pool just for Grace, and she loves it.  She sits and crawls and splashes and plays with her toys and it's just adorable.  This summer has had many 90+ degree days, and luckily, Grace is a water baby.

  

Brian has been working a lot this summer, but we try to squeeze in family time every chance we get.  We've taken Grace to some Ann Arbor favorites like Zingerman's and Afternoon Delight (even though she didn't get to eat any food at either place)!  It's really nice to be able to sit for a meal and just enjoy being together.  Grace and I even brought him a picnic lunch at work one day from Panera.  She absolutely adores him and her face lights up when she sees him every time.

This summer we put Grace in a park swing for the very first time, and she loved it!  We also learned that many babies love this swing, and there can sometimes be an awkward wait for the baby swing.

We had a really nice visit from Brian's parents.  They noticed our long wait for the baby swing, and went out and bought Grace her very own swing for our backyard!  It's a big hit so far!

(They also installed black-out blinds in Grace's room which are amazing!  She goes to bed at 7:30 pm no matter how bright it is outside).

Grace got to meet her cousin Aedan, who is 7.5 months younger than Grace. Sheena is already a wonderful mom to Aedan, and I know Grace is going to love having a younger cousin to play with.

Grace met William Claiborne Hancock IV!  He is my friend Jessica's son and we had a fun little swim date when they were in town.



Most recently, Grace had a visit to her Great-Grandpa LaMoreaux.  He has all kinds of fun toys to show her, including a talking parrot.  I plan for Grace and I to visit him a few more times before summer is up.

And, Grace has pulled herself to somewhat standing!!  This is a scary development, but exciting!

This summer with Grace has truly been the best summer of my life.  Granted, I wish we saw Brian more.  I wish I could get more consolidated sleep somehow.  I wish it was easier to keep our house clean.  But, I will never wish away this time with our baby.  She is my everything and I wouldn't change it for the world.

7 Months Old Baby - Army Crawler

Grace technically turns 8 months old tomorrow.  So, this post will be about how she has grown for the past two months.

I cannot believe how much she has changed this summer. She has become more vocal, even more full of personality, and she is now mobile! She went from supported sitting to unsupported sitting to army crawling within a matter of days.

She is such an active baby. She is constantly on the move, sliding and inching and climbing anywhere she wants to go. It is simultaneously wonderful and terrifying all at once. Its terrifying because she is nonstop wanting to explore and try new things. When she stood up in her crib at 7 months, I was petrified she was going to launch herself out! So she slept in the Pack n Play until Brian could lower the crib for her. But all her curiosity and activity is also wonderful because I know she is strong and healthy and sturdy.

Here are some updates with Grace:

Teeth!
After what seemed like months of teething, Grace finally got her first two teeth. (Bottom center). They poked through in June and seemed to reach maximum height in mid July.
I'm now mentally preparing for the next round of teething, and not looking forward to it.

Eating:
Grace eats solid foods now!
I waited forever to start, but finally at the end of June I introduced solid foods one at a time. Now she eats all kind of purées: butternut squash, carrots, corn, broccoli, apples, turkey, beef, chicken. She also eats some cut up pieces of food that she can pick up and put into her mouth herself: watermelon, blueberries, bananas, avocado.

She is still nursing for her primary source of calories as the current guidelines are "food before 1 is just for fun".
I've been home all summer with her, so she's gotten used to breastfeeding on demand again. Which means she is now refusing a bottle again. So, it looks like we'll be back to bottle boot camp again before starting fall daycare.

Sleep:
Grace is excellent at putting herself to sleep for naps and at bedtime. But, unfortunately she is still waking up throughout the night to nurse. Some nights she only wakes up twice, some nights more. Every single night I tell myself that I'm going to let her cry and she'll learn to sleep longer. And every single night I hear her cries and it breaks my heart and I go to her and nurse her back to sleep.

I know that 7 (almost 8) months old is too old for this. But she is my sweet sweet babe, and I know this period of life is short and this is our normal for now.

Size:
Grace is 17 pounds now. She wears size 9 month and some 12 month clothes. She is still in size 3 diapers and probably will be for awhile.

Hair/Eyes:
Grace still has solid blue eyes. Her hair has lightened up considerably, and now is somewhat of a sandy caramel-blonde. She is just the most beautiful little thing I've ever seen.

Milestones:
Grace is army crawling all over the place. She can easily pull to kneeling position, and has just started pulling from kneeling to a supported stand. She's reaching these too fast, and although it's exciting, it breaks my heart each time.
She's really good at maneuvering now, and can get herself from her back to her tummy to sitting to kneeling and back down again.
She makes all kinds of sounds, lots of "dadada", some "loddle doddle loddle", and lots of various noises with her tongue. The one sounds she has not made once is the "mm" sound, so "mama" seems to be losing the race for her first real word. My favorite is her fake-cough that she will do if she hears someone near her coughing. It is not a coincidence, she truly makes this sound intentionally right after she hears someone else cough.

Likes/Dislikes

Grace loves seeing children/other babies. She loves pools and baths and water in general. She loves swinging, as she is now big enough for the baby park swing. Grace loves animals. She saw a cat in my parents' yard and was mesmerized and wanted to crawl out of her mini pool to go after it. When she meets a dog, she kicks her legs in happiness and doesn't even mind getting licked!

As far as dislikes, she doesn't like being put down to sleep. She doesn't like when a toy is taken away. She definitely doesn't like when I leave the room.  She sometimes doesn't like the jumperoo or the exersaucer.  But those are valuable tools and the only way I can safely contain her while I eat/shower, so she goes in one at least once daily.

This is the first time in Grace's life I can solidly say that Grace now has "wants" and not just "needs". When she was littler, if she cried, I knew she needed something! But now, half of her cries are "wanting" something (or not wanting something). She will fuss/cry because wants my attention, or she wants a toy that she dropped, or if I walk out of the room she's in. She will fuss because she doesn't want to go in her car seat, and because she doesn't want to go down for her nap.
Grace having "wants" is very confusing, because it means that she now can fuss even if she's not tired/hungry/in pain, she just wants something. Thankfully, her wants are pretty simple at this point in life and I am more than happy to fulfill her every want. It is the sweetest thing to see her face light up when I come back in the room, or when I open the back door to the car to get her out of her car seat.

It's easy to forget how special and fleeting this time of life is.  It truly is bittersweet to see her grow. I am once again excited as she reaches milestones and heartbroken as my tiny baby grows and grows. And life moves on.