It's official - we have a tooth!

Today I was at lunch with Aubrey who was not all that intersted in eating. We were playing around and I thought I saw a small white glimmer in her mouth. I tried to peek and she was not having any of that. I was able to wiggle my finger into her mouth and I felt it! After some laughing and playing I was able to get her to open her mouth wide enough that I could see the top of her bottom left front tooth popping up!

9 months

Miss Aubrey hit the official 9 month mark yesterday! I did the math and realized that she has now been with us for 38 weeks (not every month has 4 weeks which is why it adds up to 38 weeks and not 36). She has now surpassed the time she spent in uetro. We know the date she was conceived (12/31/08) but the doctor counted from 12/14/08. The doctor predicted the due date to be 9/22/09 and decided to induce on 9/27/09 when Aubrey still hadn't made her appearance. If you count the weeks between conception and birth it all adds up to 37 weeks and 5 days. So Miss A has now been around for awhile and we are loving every moment (yes even the 4 am wake up calls!).

Here are a list of Aubrey's accomplishments during her 38 weeks:

• went from 6 lbs 5 oz to 16 lbs 11 oz


• grew from 19.5" to 26.5"


• rolls over both ways


• pulls self to a sitting position
  
• crawls (slowly but she is doing it!)


• can stand holding on to something for long periods of time


• can clap her hands


• can wave


• says Dada and Mama to everything


• lights up when her Dada comes into the room


• loves to play with her drum, her hands and Osito's bone
  
• eats solids - she now enjoys bananas, peaches, apples, peas, sweet potato, squash and carrots. She likes the homemade better than the jarred food


• Has mastered the pincer grip


• Loves to talk to herself in the mirror


• Has a favorite teacher at school


• Takes her bottles at school (this was hard work!)


• Tries to put everything that she touches in her mouth (this includes Osito!)
  
• loves to dance to Pink Floyd


• is super observant and doesn't miss a thing

Here are some pics of her at 38 weeks and then in uetro at 37 weeks and 4 days (pictures were taken at dinner right before we went to the hospital).

Tricks in the Pool

Well not really a trick unique to the pool but it is a new trick and she is doing it in the pool. Yesterday marked the third week of swim lessons. Aubrey did better this week! Rather than the usual screaming it was a light fuss - as you can hear in the video. She was getting a bit antsy towards the end of the lesson so we went to the stairs to play - the water was warmer and it was away from the group so she could fuss and we didn't feel bad about potentially setting some of the other little kiddos off. You can see that Aubrey was practicing her clapping. This was a new skill that she showed off this week for me when I went to feed her for lunch.

I don't know how to turn the video around so I am sorry that you'll have to view it with a turned neck. Next time I will be sure the hold the camera the other way so that the video can be viewed without needing to do crazy contortionist moves. Sorry about that... :)

9 month trip to the Doctor

We went to see Dr. Jones today for the 9 month visit. Holy moses - 9 months! Well 9 months officially on Monday! Aubrey weighs in at 16 lbs 11 oz - still on her growth curve which is a good thing. She now stands at 26.5" tall - only another 35" to be as tall as her mumma. Aubrey had only one shot today - her Hep B one. She took it like a champ. The nurse held her down and asked me to hold the other leg down. Miss Aubrey was not a huge fan of that. She was fussing a little and then the needle stuck her thigh and she started to get upset - she took a deep breath in and either choked on some saliva or her tongue. That didn't make her happy at all so she started to scream and I scooped her right up and the screaming stopped! She settled right down and was just happy to be free.

She came back to work with me and spent the afternoon there. She played with a few people in the office and was generally a happy girl. We then went to dinner with Katherine and Aubrey decided that she wanted to talk, and talk, and talk throughout dinner. One lady walked by and said, "I really enjoyed listening to her talk". That was good to hear because I was worried that people may be bothered by it because she was getting a bit loud. Aubrey sampled some chicken, chick pea and cucumber but didn't really enjoy any of that. She seemed to enjoy the lemon ice water and Katherine's hummus. This little lady is developing quite a palate!

Pink Floyd

I may have mentioned before that Brian had bought Aubrey a Babies go Pink Floyd CD awhile back. It is an instrumental version of their popular songs and it's pretty cool. Aubrey really loves it! I usually put it on for her in the morning if she wakes up while I am getting ready for work and she just hangs out listening. She loves to dance to it as well. Check it out...

It's Growing...

Lately everyone has been saying that Aubrey's hair has been growing. I have trouble seeing it because it is still pretty short and much shorter than a lot of the kiddos in her class (by the way she is now the second oldest in the room). However if I compare pictures from this month with pictures from early on and even as recently as April I can see that it has grown. She now has these funky pieces that fall over the top of her ears and just hang there. We had some fun tonight in the bath with some crazy hairdo's. She'll just love this pictures when she gets older :)

The Worm

According to Urban Dictionary "the worm" is defined as: a break dance that involves the person getting on the floor (stomach down) and moving in a curvy wave sort of like how a worm moves, hence the title. Also called the centipede.

What do you think?

Milk...it does a body good!

So this is Aubrey's blog but I think I feel the need to fully share the Monday milk experience as this was all done for Miss A. I figure she'll laugh at this one day! Monday we had a work retreat at an off campus location. Normally it's nice to get away but when your life needs to stop every 3 hours to pump the idea of leaving campus is a little nerve wracking.

Normally I pump either in the comfort of my own home or at work, which has always been fine other than two very embarrassing home moments:

1. A Bug Man rang the doorbell and Brian opened the door to talk with him as I was pumping on the couch 10 feet away. The man looked at me and continued to try to sell Brian his services.

2. Our bowling partners came by to drop off some plants and Brian invited them in - as I was sitting on the couch pumping. They all walked in and I was just there doing my thing!

So now back to Monday. We are off campus which means I cannot be in my office with the door closed and my fridge and freezer readily available. I lugged everything to the retreat and put it all down discretely under the table at which I was sitting. Pump time rolled around so I grabbed my pump bag and went to find the restroom. On the way to the restroom I found a directory so I figured I would look and see if they had a lactation room - no luck.

I went into a stall and sat down on the toilet seat 3 paper covers deep. I plugged everything in and got started. I grabbed my Ipod to find that the battery had died....bummer. I was going to have to sit in silence other than the rhythm of the pump. I am sitting there when two ladies from my old office walk in. They start talking about their weekend. One then says, "What's that noise?" and the other says, "I don't know - it sounds like some sort of pump." So now I ask myself - "Do I randomly speak up from the stall when they don't even know I am here?" or "Do I just say nothing?". I went with nothing and they left. A few minutes later there is a knock on the exterior bathroom door - the maintenance guy wanted to to know if he could come in. NO, NO, NO! I told him someone was in the bathroom so he left. Disaster averted! I finished up and then was at the sink washing everything up when someone came into the bathroom and looked at all of the parts spread out on the sink. Her response to all of this was, "Looks like fun". Ummmmm....yeah highlight of my day!

Round 2 came 3 hours later. This time before going in to the bathroom I saw a maintenance man. I decided to ask him about a lactation room. Wrong move - he spoke Spanish and I didn't know how to ask in English. I trekked into the bathroom to set up camp and I heard another breast pump! Music to my ears!!!! I set up shop and got to work feeling really great about someone else being in the same weird situation. That feeling didn't last long - she was done about 2 minutes after I had gotten started. She went to the sink and another lady said, "That's a weird noise." The pumper said, "It's a breast pump" and her response was, "Oh". Yes lady awkward for you - I understand...awkward for me too! I finished up and was washing everything when one of the ladies that I knew came in and talked with me about her awkward pumping times when her kiddos were little - that made me feel a bit better about the weirdness of the entire experience.

So yes Aubrey - breast is best and I am proud to say that this is the way you and I went but let me tell you baby girl it wasn't always super easy!

Swim Lessons

Aubrey started swim lessons today. How did they go you ask? Well let me tell you...

We enrolled her in 4 sessions at the YMCA on Saturdays from 10:30 -11:00 am. We were a few minutes late today so we tried to sneak into the pool quietly and not call any attention to ourselves. Aubrey had other ideas! She started crying once the water hit her feet. The water was pretty chilly - it took me a few minutes to warm up to it. She cried and cried and we weren't able to participate in the lesson. We hung out behind the group while she cried and tried to get her adjusted to the water. Finally at around 10:55 we were at a point where we could have her body in the water up to her chest. Next week we'll get there early to get her acclimated to the water.

Monkey Bites

Aubrey tried Monkey Bites for the first time this weekend. Monkey bites are a cute name for banana flavored meltable cereal puffs - Target name not some weird name I concocted! There are a few different flavors out there but the only ones that don't have soy are banana flavored so that is what we are sticking with. She liked them - as did Osito once he saw her eating them.

She had trouble picking them up. We worked on the pincer grip today and she is so much faster now than she was yesterday in the video. She still struggles to get it to move from her hand and/or fingers to her mouth. We had a good time watching her try.

As I was uploading this video tonight Aubrey was on the floor playing. She practicing crawling and was rolling all over from her belly to back and back to belly. Next time I looked up she was in a sitting position! She learned how to sit up on her own! Crawling will be coming soon...