Miss Anna Banana is 10 months old! That’s right, my baby, who it seems like was just born yesterday, is a mere 2 months away from her 1st birthday. Holy crap! I thought time went by fast with Maya, but seriously, Anna’s first year is going by at lightening speed.

Apparently, she decided that 9 months of getting her picture with her age displayed nicely in front of her was enough. I could not get her to leave the letters and numbers alone long enough to snap even one picture. She just laughed at me and shook her head “no” every time I told her to leave them alone. She is a stinker

Weight: approx. 18lbs

Height: approx. 28in

Just as with every month so much has changed, so many new things have been learned. This girl is a talker. I never would have guessed she would be a talker given how peaceful she was as a wee baby. But, boy can she chatter. She isn’t just babbling anymore either she is starting to connect sounds to objects and people, starting to copy sounds when you say words to her, and starting to accurately communicate in other ways as well. One of her favorite things to do is shake her head no, she does it because she knows we think it is cute. But, she also knows how to use in proper context as well. If I offer her more food at meal time she’ll shake her head no if she is all done and doesn’t want any more. Anna is one smart cookie Her new favorite game is the sharing game. She’ll pass a toy to you that she is playing with and say “Hee” (as in here) and when you pass it back to her she gets excited and says “Ta” (as in thank you). She will play this game endlessly and it is cute every single time she does it. She also likes to copy sounds so if she shows me something she is playing with, like a ball for example, I’ll say “Ball” to her and she’ll repeat the “ba” sound. She associates “mama” with me and “dada” with Lorne (although she still uses dadada and mamama as babble sound as well). She can say her own name, and I’m pretty sure she is doing it on purpose. And, the other day I swear she was trying to say peek-a-boo. She covered her face with a book, and as she brought it down she said “ee-ooo” and giggled.

Our super chill, relaxed little girl still isn’t crawling, although she can get around  a room on her own terms. She gets around by pushing herself backwards, pivoting on her tummy and rolling. She can always get what she wants, and if it is something she knows she isn’t supposed to touch she can get there pretty darn quick too Every day I swear she is going to start crawling as she spends at least half the time she is on the floor on her hands and knees, she just won’t move forward. She can even get up on her hands and feet. One of these days she is going to book it across the room all “What, I could totally do this all along I just didn’t want to.”

In the past month Anna has decided that she would much rather feed herself real food than eat purees. She still gets purees, mostly because I finally found a food that is high fiber and helps keep her regular so I give it to her every day to keep things moving along. Her favorite food is cheese, she powers through it when I put a few pieces in front of her and squeals for more. She also hasn’t met a fruit she doesn’t like.  And, she loves her some carbs. This morning I made french toast for the girls and she squealed with delight when I placed those little pieces of bread on her tray. She is still breastfeeding like a champ. She eats about every 2-3 hours during the day and then sleeps through the night. She seems to like waking up at about 5-5:30ish to eat and then goes back to sleep for another hour or two, which works for me. My plan is to continue nursing her into her 2nd year just as I did Maya. I nursed Maya until she was just shy of 20 months old and I’ll likely shot for something similar with Anna.

With each passing day, each passing month, I swear Anna becomes sweeter and sweeter. She is always full of smiles. She adores her big sister and the two of them play together so nicely. The other day at dinner they were really getting each other going, it was adorable. I can already see the mischief they are going to get into.

I love you to pieces sweet Anna. You are a joy each and every day. I love snuggling with you, giggling with you and watching you grow. Can’t wait to see what this next month has in store for you.

I remember making little crafts, cards and pictures for my own Mom for Mother’s Day at school. I remember being so excited to give her my little creations. It is truly awesome to now be the recipient of those lovingly made little creations.

I hope all you Moms out there have a very wonderful weekend celebrating being a Mom. Happy Mother’s Day. I’ll be spending my day with these two so I already know it will be wonderful.

Right inside the doors of Maya’s school there was a table filled with crayons and little paper flowers so that the kids could create a little something for their teachers. As we walked the halls, passed the doors of the other classrooms, we saw dozens of paper flowers taped to the doors. Each flower was brightly colored in the scribbles of 3 and 4 year olds and donned with the name of one of the students in the class. The little flowers a cheerful symbol of how loved each one of the teachers in Maya’s school is.

When I chose Maya’s preschool I knew it was highly rated and confident it would be a good match for Maya and our family.  I had no way of knowing just how amazing this school truly is. The teachers are all very highly educated and love, LOVE, their jobs and the school. They are passionate about children, learning and are creative too the core. The school is extremely well run, the administrators just as wonderful as the teacher themselves. The parents are friendly, involved and supportive. Walking the halls of the school every where you look there are children smiling and enjoying every bit of their day at school. The school is everything I could have dreamed of and more. Maya’s teachers are a big part of making that so.

I sent Maya to school today with strawberries and cream muffins for her teachers to say a big “Thanks”. Her teachers, especially Mrs. M, have been absolutely amazing. I couldn’t have asked for a better first teacher for Maya. Mrs. M is outgoing, fun, loving and creative. She brings out the best in Maya. Maya has grown in leaps and bounds this year. She has come out of her shell and isn’t held back by her shyness anymore. I have Mrs. M to thank for that.  I don’t know if Maya will remember Mrs. M years from now, but I will be sure to remind her of her truly wonderful first teacher.

Thank You, Mrs. M. Thank You.

Unfortunately, all this craziness has meant I haven’t found a lot of time in my day to update this little old blog. I’m going to return to writing posts at night after the kids go to bed so I can get back into a better, more frequent post, groove.

Anna has been busy too, growing and trying with all her might to figure out this crawling thing She can get up on all fours and rock but hasn’t figured out moving her hands and knees once she is up on them. Today she even got herself up on her hands and feet!! Perhaps she’ll just go straight from pushing herself backwards and rolling to get where she wants to go to walking. I really can’t believe how big my little baby is getting.

She enjoys our busy schedule, well at least the opportunity it presents to watch a bunch of 4 year olds running around. I’m guessing she could probably do without the constant nap interruptions, but she handles it well. She watches her sister partaking in all her little activities in style

A few weeks ago Maya’s class learned all about weather, specifically spring weather. And, since we live in prime thunderstorm/tornado territory that meant a little discussion on those types of weather activities. They have fire drills and tornado drills at her school from time to time. She knows what the tornado sirens going off means. Up until recently the sounds of the thunder crashing, the trees blowing in the strong winds and the distant sound of the tornado siren didn’t cause any unrest. A few times we’ve found ourselves in the basement as a precaution but it didn’t bother her. Until this past weekend that is.

This past weekend saw some strong storms in our area. There was a lot of property damage and sadly someone lost their life as a result of the storms. We were lucky as the bulk of the violent weather was to our north and we didn’t get much more than some loud thunder and heavy rains. For the first time since Maya learned about tornadoes and has had tornado drills at school we heard the sound of the tornado sirens. She was in the bathtub at the time covered from head to toe in shampoo and soap. As the sounds began to register with her she quickly went from playing calmly in the bathtub to having a full on little panic attack. She was breathing funny, crying and shaking. I spoke calmly to her and quickly rinsed her off. After checking the weather on my phone I decided we’d better head downstairs for a bit. So down the stairs I went carrying a fussy baby who just wanted to go to bed already and holding the hand of a little girl in a panic. Fun times.

By the time we got downstairs the sirens were no longer sounding and after checking the local radar on my laptop I decided we were fine to head back upstairs. Maya had luckily calmed down and the weather outside was much calmer, just a few faint rumbles of thunder and some rain remained. I settled Maya on the couch with her blankie and a movie while I put Anna to bed (Lorne was out of town enjoying a boys weekend). Later we spent some time talking about storms and tornadoes and why we head downstairs when we hear the sirens. She was much calmer and seemed to understand, mostly anyway, she did ask several times if a twister would cause our house to be pulled of the ground and blown all the way to Oz!

Turns out if a child learns just a little about violent stormy weather and that knowledge is coupled with what she learned from watching the Wizard of Oz it can turn her into quite the chaotic, panicky mess when the tornado sirens go off! Who knew :/

Off to the library we go to learn a little bit more about storms and to hopefully calm her nerves a bit.

We moved into this house, this very green house with stark black accents. I loved the house, the color, not so much.

Over the last 2 years we’ve made a lot of changes. First we replaced all the windows and the garage door. I was amazed that even just getting rid of the stark black color and the too green garage door made a huge difference. It was still mint green, and I still couldn’t wait until it was a different color, but it was at least some what better.

Late last year prep began for the final stage of the transformation. Painting bids were obtained and a company was chosen. The weather was too cold to have the work done right away so we waited until the spring, hopeful to be one of the first on the list. I was so excited when the crew arrived to power wash the house and get things ready for painting. And, then last week when the painting crew arrived I could hardly contain my excitement.

Yesterday the final touches were completed and now our house looks like this…

Operation Goodbye Mint Green was a huge, huge success. Our house looks AMAZING!!

I’m so happy with the way it turned out. I love driving down the street and seeing my “new” house. It truly looks amazing. Our neighbors keep stopping us to let us know how much they like it and to thank us for finally getting rid of the green! Turns out we weren’t the only ones anxious to see that color go

For nine months now I’ve been the parent of two and it is tough, it is a challenge. But, not in the ways I thought it would be hard. I figured the parenting aspect would be difficult. I figured finding time to spend with both children so they feel special and loved would be hard. I figured the logistics of getting out with two children would be tough. But, truly those things aren’t really that hard. I’ve been able to find time to spend with both kids independently, it isn’t always a lot of time but it has worked. Figuring out the logistics of getting out the door with two children instead of one  wasn’t that bad. After a couple of trips I had my system down. The thing I find most challenging is balancing the rest of my daily tasks with my parenting responsibilities.

Before Maya was born I worked full time. Household chores were done on the weekends, or on some rare occasions, after work. Once Maya was born I became a stay-at-home mom and worked out a good routine for the household chores of cleaning, laundry, cooking and running errands. After some trial and error I had a good routine going, the house ran smoothly and our weekends were free to do whatever because almost all the chores were done during the week. It never occurred to me how challenging developing a new routine would be once a second child was added to the mix.

I’ve been at this for nine months now and I can’t find my groove. I can’t find that perfect balance between doing what needs to be done around the house and spending enough quality time with both my girls. While Anna is napping Maya wants my undivided attention because she knows she can’t get it while Anna is awake. And, while Anna is awake I’m on baby duty, nursing her, playing with her, and making sure her now mobile self doesn’t get into any mischief, etc. It is such a challenge to fit into the schedule time to do things like vacuum, or clean bathrooms, or do laundry. I want to spend time with my girls, I don’t necessarily want to vacuum or scrub the toilets so you can imagine which gets dropped to the bottom of the to-do list over and over again.

I need to find a balance. I need to find a good routine that allows me to get to all the household stuff but still feel like I spent good, quality time with my girls at the end of the day. I hate busting my butt cleaning all day only to feel like I neglected my girls all day.  There has to be a routine out there that will work, I just haven’t found it yet.

But, truthfully, if, at the end of the day all I got to was hanging out with these two and my house looks like a disaster and my blog is neglected, I don’t really care, because at least I know I got to what is truly important.

Weight: 17lbs 5oz (22nd precentile)

Height: 27.5 inches (48th percentile)

Head Circumference: 17 inches (27th percentile)

As you can see from her stats Anna is still my little peanut. At nine months she is only just reaching Maya’s 7 month stats. She may be tiny but she is strong and super healthy. Her appointment today with her pediatrician went wonderfully. Anna was babbling up a storm and show off her great verbal skills. After a once over from the doctor she was declared to be “absolutely perfect” (her exact words).

A lot has changed since I did her 8 month write up including the fact that she has become quite mobile. She isn’t crawling yet but has figured out how to push herself backwards, army style, in order to get around. So between rolling, scooting and pushing backwards she is into all sorts of trouble. A few times I’ve caught her up on her hands and knees rocking a bit so I’m guessing full on crawling is probably in her pretty near future. If I stand her up next to the couch or a table she will hold on and stand for several minutes and can lower herself down slowly onto her bottom. She looks so little stand there, but oh so cute

Another big change for Miss Anna is that she now has 2 little teeth. Her bottom 2 teeth popped through a couple of  weeks ago. In true Anna fashion she breezed through teething and I didn’t even know she was working on any teeth until it poked through her gums. Given the ridiculous amount of drool she is currently producing I’m guessing she may be working on the top two now. She shows her little teefers off all the time when she makes her new favorite silly face

Anna is such a doll. She is so silly and sweet and lovable. She has become a lot more vocal lately and is babbling up a storm saying “mama”, “dada” and “yaya” (which I’m pretty sure is her way of saying Maya) all the time along with lots of other babbles. She’ll be talking and talking away, full of smiles and I can’t help but wonder what she is thinking. Each day with her is filled with sweet little moments, soft snuggles and lots of smiles and giggles. We all love her to pieces. Maya, especially, can’t seem to get enough of her little sister. She plays so well with her and talks and giggles with her all day. These two have such a special bond, it is even sweeter than I ever could have imagined before Anna was born.

Love you to pieces sweet baby girl. Can’t wait to see what this month has in store for you, what little 9 month old adventures you will have. Watching you grow sure is something special. My heart is full to the brim with love.

The thing about babies is that no two are exactly alike. When a baby learns to sit on their own, when they learn to crawl, when they start to babble, when they start to walk completely depends on the baby and will happen at different times for different babies. Comparing your child to your friends child, or a strange child in the park or the doctor’s office, or comparing your own children to each other, doesn’t do any one any good. Just because that 7 month old you encountered at the doctor’s office is already crawling doesn’t mean your 8 month old should be. Just because that 4 year old at the park can ride a two wheel bike doesn’t mean your 5 year old should be able to.

Obviously, if your child appears to be behind hitting developmental milestones it can be stressful and wondering why other people’s children are hitting milestones before your own can be an easy trap to fall into. The best thing to do, if you are worried or concerned about your child’s development, is to talk with their pediatrician and see if there is cause for concern and what you can do to help your child.

When Maya was a baby I did a pretty good job of avoiding the comparing game. As long as she was hitting her milestones within the normal ranges I didn’t really care if she was doing it faster, better or sooner than other babies her age. Now with Anna I’m taking the same approach.

Each baby will develop at his or her own pace and comparing them to other children isn’t going to make that happen any faster. Just do the best you can to encourage your child and give them the opportunity to learn new skills and they will get there eventually. And remember, if you are worried at all, talk to your child’s doctor.

We started a new tradition this year. Saturday afternoon Maya planted some “magic” jelly beans in our garden. I gave her a small handful of jelly beans and told her they were “magic beans” and that if she planted them in the garden something special would grow from them and be waiting in the garden for her Easter morning. She wholeheartedly believes in magic right now so her eyes light up and she went on and on trying to guess what they might turn into. Easter morning we headed out to the garden and she found that her “magic” jelly beans had turned into a flower lollipop and a carrot filled with jelly beans. It blew her little mind! It was such a fun little activity and will definitely be a yearly tradition for us.

Though Anna is way too young to understand what was going on Easter morning she sure did enjoy the fact that a bunch of fun new toys appeared in front of her. She had so much fun playing with the little plastic eggs and her little Easter basket.

We had a lovely Easter morning with our girls. It is so fun to watch how excited they get and how magical it all is to them. The rest of our Easter was spent outside working in the yard and enjoying a nice dinner on our new patio. It was the perfect day.