9 Months - A Month of Milestones

Standing up like a big girl!

It's so nice to spend time outside finally!

Yeah!!!

Checking out her shadow

Looking for the ducks in the pond. Her hair is getting a little longer but mostly just thicker and lighter.

She is so afraid of the grass (as you can see by her facial expression). She hates the feeling of the grass on her legs and feet.

Month 8 to 9 was a month full of milestones. She mastered her army crawling and even started to do the "real" crawl every once in a while. She goes all over the place now. I'll put her down in the living room with her toys and then I'll go into the kitchen and she'll follow me out there. We've got to be careful now!

Army crawling

My two front teeth!

Rylee's first tooth came through on May 2nd. It was her front, bottom right one. Then within the week her other front bottom tooth came in. She was a little fussy during, not during the day, but she'd wake up every once in awhile at night. She never got a fever from it but her nose constantly ran. We also started a lot more foods with Rylee over the past month. She still loves her puffs and will eat those whenever and wherever. But we also started the chicken, turkey, beef, and mac & cheese baby foods. I think we've almost tried all of the stage 2 gerber foods now and she loves them all. Everyonce in a while she gets something from mom and dad's plate too. She's really good at picking food up now and feeding herself.

Here she is with a Biter Biscuit. It was a lot of fun for her but pretty darn messy. It was all over her face, hair, tray, and hands. Its definitely bath time after biscuits.

What a cute messy face!

Rylee also started pulling herself up on furniture this month. These crib pictures are from the last day before we lowered her crib down all the way. She can still pull herself up, but now she can just barely peek over the crib rather than standing all the way up and looking like she is going to climb right out.

Pulling herself up...

...and she's up and smiling.

Rylee had her 9 month appointment on May 9th. It was just a wellness visit, but no shots this time (yeah). Unfortunately we found out she had another ear infection. We didn't even know. With her teeth coming in we just assumed all of her ear infection signs were just because of her teeth coming in...poor girl. This puts her at 6 which means our doctor referred us to the ENT doctor for tubes. She is scheduled for June 5th to get her tubes put in. It's a quick 10 minute procedure but we still wish she didn't have to have it. We've talked to other parents who's childeren have had tubes put in and they all say it's the best thing to do. We don't want her to keep getting more ear infections and then constantly being on antibiotics, so we kind of feel its our only option. Other than that, her doctor said she looks great! She is slowing down in weight gain but it's because she is SO active. She's dropped down to the 30th percentile in weight. She's tall and skinny now. Here's her measurements:

Weight: 17 lbs. 9 ozs. (30th percentile)

Height: 28.5 inches (90th percentile)

Head: 45 cms. (75th percentile)

Another Shower for Auntie Nessa

On Friday after work we headed to lower Michigan. Alex's mom was throwing a baby shower for Vanessa Saturday afternoon at their house in Dearborn. Friday night we went to Jaclynn and Jason's house and spent the night there. We didn't get there til about 9:30 but Rylee had slept from 7 til we pulled into their driveway, so she was up for awhile then. Maddy was still up too so they got to play for an hour or so. Maddy saw us pull in and she started yelling Rylee's name, it was so cute to see how excited she got to see us (or should I say Rylee). They had fun once again. Jac and Jason had some other friends there too so we all stayed up til about 1:30 playing games. It was fun but 6:30 a.m. came pretty quick.

Maddy teaching Rylee how to sing into the microphone

Starting to get tired...way past their bedtime

Maddy giving goodnight hugs and kisses

Saturday morning we headed to Dearborn for the shower. We had a beautiful day! The shower was outside and the guys all went golfing during the shower, so we were lucky it was so nice, especially since the next day it rained all day. It was so great to see Vanessa again! It's crazy to think that the next time I see her it will be for the birth of her baby boy! I can't believe she is only a month away! Wow time flies.

Again, she got some wonderful gifts!

Pretty girls!

I tried to keep the sun out of her eyes but she didn't keep her hat on very long, it looked cute for the little time that she did have it on.

Alex's niece Kayleigh is only 11 days younger than Rylee. It was fun to watch them interact with each other. They're going to have fun playing together this football season.

Obviously something else was more interesting than looking at my camera

Rylee, happy to be hanging out with Auntie Ness

Rylee was having so much fun and being so nosy that she only slept for a half an hour the whole day. Luckily, she was still in a good mood, for the most part. We left for home around 8:00 that night. I don't even think we were out of the neighborhood and she was sleeping already. She slept the whole way home (which made the drive home a piece of cake) and then til 7 the next morning. I guess all the commotion really wore her out. So another good trip and baby shower. I am so glad that we went! Now next time we see them baby cuz will be here! I am so excited to be an auntie!

Happy Mother's Day!

I enjoyed my first Mother's day yesterday! Brad and Rylee let me sleep in and then made breakfast for me in bed and got me some flowers too. Then we went to church where I kind of got a little emotional. At the end of church they made all the moms stand up and said a prayer for us and then everyone clapped. I was standing up holding Rylee and I was so proud, it was special. Being a mom is truly the best gift I could ever ask for and I am so thankful!

We want to wish our moms, grandma's, sister, aunts, cousins, and friends a happy mother's (and mother's to be) day! I especially want to thank my mom for not only being the best mom a girl could ask for but also a best friend. I hope someday Rylee will look up to me the way I look up to you. Thanks mom, Love ya!

Happy 1st Birthday Beau!

Sunday afternoon we went to Beau's 1st Birthday party. I can't believe he is one already! It went by fast. We had a great time at the party. It was nice to see Ryan, Abby, and Beau and their families. Rylee had fun too. There were lots of new toys for her to play with and she also had fun following Beau around by army crawling everywhere.

Birthday Boy

These 2 were on the move the whole time but I got them both to sit for one second, enough time to take a quick picture and then they were both off again.

Beau giving Rylee kisses

Look at that mouth! I fed Rylee in the car on the way home because she missed her dinner but apparently she had wore herself out with all that crawling and playing. It was so cute, I was feeding her and she ate about half of the jar and then just closed her eyes and went right to sleep. I'd never seen her do that before in the middle of eating.

Rylee and I Fly to Marquette

I am so far behind in my posts, sorry I've been such a slacker. About 3 weeks ago Rylee and I flew home for a quick fun filled weekend. It was her first time flying and she did great! She was too nosy to sleep on the flight from Indy to Detroit but she did sleep from Detroit to Indy. I was worried about her ears but the pressure didn't seem to bother her at all. Yeah! We had a lot going on at home that weekend. We had Vanessa's baby shower Saturday afternoon, the NMU spring game Saturday evening, and the NMU football banquet Sunday. We flew in Friday afternoon and left Sunday after the banquet so it was a quick trip, but we got to see a lot of people, and packed a lot in for one weekend.

The mama-to-be

Rylee with her Auntie Nessa (Rylee just woke up from her nap and she looks like she is still sleeping in this pic, but it's cute anyway)

My mom and I threw the shower for Ness at my parents house

She got lots of great gifts from family and friends

Rylee playing with her cousin Grady and friend Brogan

I forgot to bring my camera to the game so I didn't get any pictures at the dome. But we did get some pictures at the banquet on Sunday. It was a great banquet! With Brad being a senior it was especially hard on my family this year. My dad and brother both pretty much had the whole place in tears when they were doing their speeches but also got the crowd to laugh too. My dad and Brad are both very good speakers and did a great job. It was so special that Brad got to play for my dad! It is going to be so different without him out there. We are really going to miss watching him. Congrats Brad on a great career, we are all really proud of you.

Brad with his senior gift that my dad and Coach Wender made for all the seniors

Our fam (Bailey was at a friends house)

Rylee smiling big with her Uncle Brad

Like I said, it was a great weekend and I am really glad that Rylee and I were able to make it home for it all. Unfortunately Rylee did end up getting sick over the weekend. By Sunday night she had a fever and was just not feeling good. I was really worried about the flight back but she just cuddled with me and slept the entire time. Then Monday we took her into the Dr.'s and found out she had another ear infection. That was number 5. I felt so bad for her. She was such a trooper the whole weekend though and was good for the shower, football game, and banquet.