Heather 9 months

Heather's personality has really blossomed this past month. She loves to watch the animals and even tries to catch them, but they are too fast! Sam occasionally lets her get a few grabs hair and she squeals in delight. She is starting to babble a lot more and we have heard her say mama and dada. She squeals and claps when she sees a toy she likes or when we are listening to songs. She dislikes it when I leave the room. She lights up in the morning when she sees Brooke. She loves to play with Brooke and I love to hear them giggle! Brooke is being a great big sister and is always watching out for Heather. She lets me know if Heather is going after a bug on the floor or Sam's water bowl or something else she is not supposed to have. Brooke is being very kind with sharing her toys too!

Heather is climbing on EVERYTHING! She has no fear. What ever her feet and hands can cling, she is climbing it. Just a few days ago, she climbed to the top of the slide that is part of their ball pit. She also tried climbing up the slide at the park and would get half way, but kept slipping down on her tummy. She loves to slide. I love to see her get excited when I put her at the top of the slide and help her slide down.

She is pulling up on everything and getting more confident each day. The past couple of days she has even let go of one hand and just been holding on with one. She is getting better and faster at cruising. When I put her in her walker, she walks on her tip toes all over the house. She also likes to practice walking while holding on to our hands.

She has been refusing baby food lately and only preferring to feed herself. She is doing great with self feeding. I have given her chicken, cherrios, puffs, yogurt melts, sweet potatoes, peas, cantaloupe, banana, pasta, bread, and cheese all in bite size amounts and she has done great! She is still nursing about 5 times a day and drinking about 12 oz of formula throughout the day.

She is sleeping well at night and has dropped the morning nap in favor of a longer (2hr) afternoon nap! She is finally not crying as much when we put her to sleep (and not at all for the past week) and that makes me one happy momma!

She is wearing 6-9 month clothing and some 12 month clothes. She is in a size 3 shoe and size 3 diaper. On our home scale she weighs just over 16lbs and when I tried to measure her (she is such a squirmier it is quite difficult to do this) I think she is 28 inches.

Keeping busy...

We have had a busy June so far. I have been so tired at the end of the day most days that it has taken me a while to finally complete a post.

Here is Brooke, Heather, and Jason hanging out in the kiddy pool on our back porch.
We have definitely gotten some good cousin action in from all sides this summer.
The following week my parents were watching my brother's boys while him and Amy went on a vacation to Hawaii!

Here is Nana pushing Brooke, Ethan (almost 2), and Andrew (3).



Then they had fun running through the sprinkler in the back yard. They all thought it would be fun to drink the water.

Andrew and Ethan are diligently working on a card to send to mom and dad!


One day we went to the local splash park. They had a blast running through the sprinklers.
Here is Brooke and Ethan bouncing in a spring car at the park.




We took the kids to a wildlife museum one day and they had a cool playground. Brooke loved riding the old timey tractor!


I think they all loved the sand pit best. I let Brooke indulge for the day, but it reminded me of why I never want a sand box at my home! There was sand EVERYWHERE. I had to change her sheets after nap time and vacuum out her car seat because they were covered in sand despite my best efforts to dust her off!


We got a great picture of the kids sitting so politely and smiling! Never mind that I was bribing them with M&Ms in the background! How else are you going to get 3 toddlers to mind...


We also had Heather baptized two Sundays ago at the First United Methodist Church. She did great for the ceremony and even threw in some well timed babbles to which Pastor Jack responded that she is going pentecostal...haha.


Heather and Brooke are enjoying playing in their new tent/tunnel that Great Granny bought them!


Brooke and Heather loved taking a bath with Jason.



We FINALLY got some rain yesterday and I took Brooke outside to play in it for a little while. I taught her the song, "Singing in the rain" and she love to dance to it! Here is a video of her expressing our excitement about it raining. She loved it so much that I had a hard time getting her to come back inside.



Here is Heather demonstrating her latest feat, climbing! She loves to climb onto her chair in the play room and grab the magnets on the board behind it. She has even climbed onto the arm of the chair which is situated right next to a recliner and then on to the arm of the recliner and into my lap! She has this climbing thing down and I really have to watch her closely!

I have also included a video of Brooke "nursing" baba (her baby doll). I thought it was hilarious how she used her blankey to cover her up and I didn't video long enough, but she also switched sides. She really is paying attention!