Dear Nora,
Oh, baby girl. You are getting so, so big. You are changing so much every single day.
This month, it’s like you became more of a real person. It’s a difficult thing to put into words, but you do things knowingly. You have wisdom about you. I can see the wheels turning in your head when people talk to you, when you are playing, when you are moving, touching, and tasting. It’s an amazing phase of your development.
Your biggest milestone this month has been sitting up on your own. At first, you could sit if we propped you up just the right way, and we had to be RIGHT THERE in case you moved, because you’d inevitably fall. You’ve since graduated to being able to sit completely on your own, without your hands propping you up. You can make little movements from side to side and reach for things without falling over. But you still have a little ways to go before you’re a pro. If you turn your head to look behind you, you’ll topple over. If you reach for something that is a little too far away, you face-plant. Still, we can put the boppy or a pillow behind you and feel comfortable walking away, knowing that you are capable of sitting there all on your own.
You play now. Like, truly play. You love toys and holding objects. You squeal and ooooh and ahhhh at things that excite you. You “talk” to us. You are fascinated by everyday items like cell phones and remote controls, potato chip bags and cereal boxes. If someone tries to drink something while holding you, your little hands reach up to try to grab at the cup or bottle. You smile at toys that play music and make noise—like Scout. Oh my gosh, you totally love Scout.
You love Daddy and me, but I’m pretty sure Tessa is your favorite thing in the whole world. You stare at her whenever she’s in your sight. You smile and coo at her when she barks, or when she walks by. You giggle when she licks your face. I can’t wait to see how you play with her when you get a little bigger.
Every night, you pretty much beg us to put you to bed. We try to keep you up just a few minutes more, but you get to a point where you literally just whine until we put you in your crib. You see, you soak up every minute of every day—you play hard. You exhaust yourself, little one! As a result, your sleep is still great. You’re going through a phase (at least I assume it’s a phase; you’re always changing up the details) when you wake up early in the morning—sometimes before 6:00 a.m.—and you squeal and chatter with yourself in your crib. Thankfully for all of us, you eventually doze back off until it’s time to get up for the day.
We’ve continued introducing you to new foods this month, and you’ve eaten most of them without issue. New tastes this month: apples, mango, blueberries, carrots, peas, spinach, green beans, “chicken dinner,” and prunes. You really like avocado now (last month, I wasn’t so sure). The two that were kind of “iffy” this month were spinach and green beans. They were both store-bought (Earth’s Best), and you didn’t seem to be a big fan. You’d eat a few bites but then you’d start making faces, and a couple of times, you actually gagged (sorry, baby). However, all I had to do was mix them with something else you like (peas or sweet potatoes) and you gobbled them up with no problem. Introducing you to new flavors has been really fun for me. I’m still making most of your food myself, but I do buy a couple of jars just to help give you some more variety from week to week.
You LOVE kids. You smile at them and watch them. Your cousins—Brendan, Logan, and Hunter—are endless sources of entertainment for you. Obviously, you feel the same way about the girls at daycare, too. This month, we discovered you don’t discriminate—you love kids you don’t know too well, either. At Aunt Kara’s bridal shower, you were totally loving your third cousin, Mia, and she was THRILLED that you were smiling and “talking” to her.
Your newest social “trick”? You blow raspberries. Sort of. You purse your lips together and blow air through them, making a funny little sound. You do it all of the time, but it seems that you do it mostly when something excites you. It is just about the cutest thing we have ever seen.
Your feet are still the coolest toys around (and apparently they taste pretty good, too). You still love your baths; you kick and splash and move all around. We started you in a Waterbabies class a couple of weeks ago, and you really like that, too. Daddy and I have a blast playing with you in the water. You love your stackable rings, and you bang all of your rattles against the nearest surface to see what kind of noise they make. You’ll usually play happily in your jumperoo while I get ready in the mornings, but you don’t do much JUMPING yet. You are ticklish. You still love it when we tell you that you have “P.U. STINKY FEET!” You have started a habit of grabbing at your own hair while you nurse.
We took you to the doctor a week ago because you have a really bad cold. You have been acting perfectly (no interrupted sleep, you’ve been eating and playing normally), but your breathing has been gunky and you had a horrible hacking cough. They said you likely have RSV, but it’s been over a week and you are on the mend now. But while there, you were weighed, and you were 13 lbs., 14 oz. I looked it up and that is in about the 5th percentile. Some of your 3-6 clothes are still big on you. I took a few 6-9 month Carter’s outfits out of the closet this weekend and they were ENORMOUS. At this rate, I’m starting to think you’ll still be fitting into 6-9 month outfits on your first birthday, but you could still surprise me.
Lastly, I was wrong with my prediction last month—you still don’t have any teeth! At your six month appointment, your pediatrician said you were “not even close!” So, we wait for that—and honestly, we are not in any hurry.
There is not a day that goes by that Daddy and I don’t marvel at you. You are so much greater than we ever could have imagined, and we love you more than we ever thought we could.
I love you from my head down to my toes.
Mommy
Nora is at the age now when I’m starting to wonder when we should ditch the infant carrier car seat and switch to a convertible one.
I’ve been researching convertible car seats for a while now, and I think we have them narrowed down to two–the Evenflo Triumph Advance, or the Britax Roundabout. They are relatively similar in price, and both are rated very highly in safety, so it’s pretty much a toss-up.
For the record, our pediatrician is estimating that Nora will probably be around 17 lbs. at 12 months old, and her infant carrier weight limit is 22 lbs. I’m guessing she’ll probably hit that when she’s oh, 18+ months old. :) So the size limit is not really a deciding factor for us. (Though it’ll be interesting to see when she hits 29 inches, which is the height limit. At six months, she was 25 inches.)
The infant carrier car seats are a godsend during the cold weather months, because it’s so convenient to be able to buckle up and bundle up your baby in the warm comfort of your home, before heading out into the blustery, freezing, ass-cold wind and snow. But now that the weather is warmer, that’s not as much of an advantage.
The other advantage of the infant carrier is that Nora can go to sleep in it whenever she wants. In the grocery store? Sure, take a little snooze. Fell asleep in the car? Let’s carry her inside and let her continue to sleep in it until she wakes up on her own. Honestly, those things are getting less and less common for her, though. Now that she’s older and more aware of her surroundings, she’s usually awake whenever we’re out. And if she falls asleep in the car, she will usually wake up almost as soon as we take her out of the car anyway. But, on the occasion that she does continue napping, that is certainly a “pro” in the infant carrier column.
Now that Nora is bigger, the weather is better, and she is working on becoming an expert at sitting up on her own, we are taking her out of her car seat more and more. For instance, this weekend we were at the mall and instead of taking the entire seat out of the car, I unbuckled her and let her sit upright in her stroller, facing outward toward the world. She loved it. And we’re likely to start taking her out during grocery trips, too, so she can sit in the cart and look around. For these same reasons, it seems like a convertible seat might be better suited for our upcoming road trip out West, too. With so many trips in/out of the car, that seems like a “pro” in the convertible seat column.
Welcome to my world of indecision.
More than likely, we’ll end up keeping her in her infant seat through at least the end of May/early June (she’ll be about 9 months old), but maybe we’ll change our minds on a whim.
If you’re a parent, what did you do, and why? Or, if you haven’t made the switch yet–do you have a plan for when you will?
Nora was happy to get all dressed up for Aunt Kara’s bridal shower…
…especially since her party outfit was a Christmas gift from Aunt Kara.
Her cuteness hurts my heart! :)
My brother and his fiancee got engaged in November, set the wedding date at the very end of February, and are getting married in May. (My brother will be deployed this summer, and they want to be hitched before he leaves.)
Needless to say, time is flying! I could hardly believe it when I realized that the bridal shower was only a few days away. And I kinda-sorta panicked a little when I still didn’t have a plan for the cupcakes that I had promised to make. This is coming from someone who is normally a monster planner. I’m going to go ahead and blame the situation on the whole “working mom” thing.
ANYHOO…
On Friday, I still hadn’t decided what kind of cupcakes to make. I wasn’t planning on doing anything fancy with the decorating; just a pretty color frosting in a little swirl on top. But then, as I was going through my bookmarked recipes looking for exciting flavors, I came across cupcakes that I had saved a LONG time ago (almost two years ago, actually), just waiting for an excuse to make them. And, well, this was the perfect excuse.
Enter: Butterfly cupcakes.
The other five bridesmaids and I had agreed on not really having a “theme” for the party. We were going more for a “look and feel,” which we decided should be sort of “light and springy.” When I designed the invitations, I used lime green and aqua colors, so we stuck with them. So imagine my glee when I saw these cupcakes, knowing that I could use those same colors–AND, don’t pretty little butterflies just scream “spring” to you?
Given that this was Friday and the shower was on Sunday, and I was just then making the decision to do these, I knew I was a little insane. But I also haven’t done a real time-intensive project like this since before Nora was born, so I figured I was due. I ran out and got all of the supplies I needed on Friday night, and made half of the butterfly wings that same night. I made the remainder of the butterfly wings and the antennas on Saturday morning, then baked the cupcakes and made frosting during the day, and decorated on Saturday night. Whew.
I’m sure you’re probably wondering how I made them. And, well, Lord knows I didn’t have time to take pics during the process. I barely got them done in time, people. Luckily, however, Annie over at Annie’s Eats put together an awesome pictorial on how to do them. So head on over there to check it out, if you’re so inclined. (And, before you ask, I got the adorable cupcake wrappers–which just so happened to be in the exact colors that I needed; score!–at Michaels.)
The other reason I almost checked myself into an institution is because I chose THIS occasion to deviate from my usual vanilla buttercream. Instead, I chose to make a much-more-labor-intensive swiss meringue buttercream, since I keep seeing so many food bloggers talking about it. And while it came together pretty easily for me, it did take a lot more time.
After all is said and done, I have to admit that I don’t really get what all of the fuss is about. But it’s good–I guess I was just expecting it to be A-MAZ-ING. If you are put off by traditional buttercream because it’s too sweet for you, you’ll probably love this–it’s sweetness is much more mild. When I tried it straight out of the mixing bowl, my initial reaction was that it tasted like straight butter. And no wonder, considering how much butter goes into the recipe. However, when paired with cake, the flavor of it is actually quite complimentary. I think it’s just one of those things that you’ll have to try for yourself!
Oh, and I used this recipe for my white cupcakes.
Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream
(Source: Annie’s Eats)
Ingredients:
– 5 large egg whites
– 1 cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar
– Pinch of salt
– 1 lb. (4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
– 2 tsp. vanilla extract
Directions:
1. Combine the egg whites, sugar and salt in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Heat, whisking frequently, until the mixture reaches 160 degrees and the sugar has dissolved.
2. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form and the mixture has cooled to room temperature, about 8 minutes.
3. Reduce the speed to medium and add the butter, 2 tablespoons at a time, adding more once each addition has been incorporated. If the frosting looks soupy or curdled, continue to beat on medium-high speed until thick and smooth again, about 3-5 minutes more (don’t worry, it will come together!)
4. Stir in the vanilla extract and mix just until incorporated. Tint with gel icing color as desired.
5. Keep buttercream at room temperature if using the same day, or transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate up to 3 days or freeze up to 1 month. Before using, bring to room temperature and beat with paddle attachment on low speed until smooth again, about 5 minutes.
Yield: about 5 cups
Or rather… Sick AND swimming.
That was Nora on Saturday, during her first Waterbabies class.
I think this kid is on a mission to appear sick in as many baby book photos as possible. First trip? Pathetically sick. First swim? Of course she would have to have the tell-tale “sick eyes.” Not to mention a nose that was running off of her face. *sigh*
I have to say, though, that aside from looking under the weather, she was (as always) in remarkably good spirits. This kid is a trooper.
Notice the kid crying in the upper part of the frame.
Nora’s all, “This is like the biggest bathtub EVER.”
Don’t those people look like they’re talking about my kid? Hmm.
“Pool toys are delicious, Mommy.”
Notice the kid crying in the upper part of the frame.
Nora’s all, “This is like the biggest bathtub EVER.”
Don’t those people look like they’re talking about my kid? Hmm.
“Pool toys are delicious, Mommy.”
We weren’t surprised that she loved it, as she is a big fan of her baths. Michael went in with her this week, and I stayed on the pool deck to take pics. Next week, though–Mama’s goin’ in!
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
