Hope Beyond the Battle: The Nines

Happy little 9 month b-day to our little Bryn bug!

As of her 9 month "bday," Oct 26th, we are currently up to 32 days without daddy, est. 18 of which he's been actually deployed. We've been able to Skype with him once since he deployed. The internet connection is awful, so there have been several failed attempts that leaves B bored, while waiting around, and me bummed.
Every times she's in my room and see's my computer on, she'll start her little head bop and holler out "Da?" or sometimes "Bob?" We have no idea who 'bob' is, but he's very popular, almost more than da. I have also noticed if she's fussing at me for something and I'm not responding fast enough or at all, that after a couple tries she'll resort to calling out for her "da" instead.
Smart girl.
That will get her somewhere someday!
Since he left we've actually managed to stay pretty busy, having only a few, here and there, "boring" days where I have to make up something for us to do.
Next week is B's 9 month appointment with her new doctor and I am really excited to see what her weight/height progress has been. I went ahead and bumped her to size three diapers, she's almost completely grown out of her 6-9 month clothes and is wearing a solid 9 month with some of those even getting a little snug in the length.
I swear since we've been in CO her hair has doubled in thickness.

Avocado is our #1 food right now.

It's hard to remember "back in the day" when I yearned for B to eat real foods because all I could get her to eat was 100% watered down rice cereal.
Nowadays it's the polar opposite, I can't get her to sit and eat a bowl of oatmeal for longer than 5 minutes. If it can be put on her tray and picked up with fingers, she wants to do it on her own.
With this has obviously come with a broader menu which has made things really fun to try.
She's a veggie NUT which is kinda strange, but I'll take it!
The current faves are avocado, black beans, cauliflower, and peas...she'll eat some puree of other things, but prefers to have the real food to feed herself if it's an option.
She also loves watermelon, grapes, cantaloupe, honeydew, and cheese!
She still loves her mum-mums, her wheat or barley teething bars, occasional puffs and even toast if handy, and LOVES the yogurt drops.
The girl can put it down too. I swear she spends half her time between naps eating instead of playing. Could be just a growth spurt, which is what I am hoping it is, but goodness! The girl can seriously pack it down.
With all that, sometimes I struggle to keep her interested in nursing with all these new food options. She still wants to at key times throughout the day, but you can tell that at times it's more out of pure comfort and routine than sustenance.
I honestly don't have a nursing plan for after 1 year, I never thought beyond that! I still don't really know what my goal is past the first year, but unlike everything else I do, I'm going to kinda let her decide when she's done, within reason!

Crawling!

With all that, I know she's gained weight and height based on her jumperoo alone!
When we first got to CO, her little ballerina toes barely touched the ground, now they not only touch but her knees are bent, most likely me needing to raise it up a level here soon. Downside is that she's less entertained by it nowadays because she's crawling!
Three days after her daddy left us in CO she started crawling.
THREE DAYS.
I was so happy and so bummed at the same time. She started off with huge crawling lunges. The awkwardness of it reminded me of a new foal or calf learning to walk...Large and exaggerated 'steps' with lots of little face plants in between.
She's now graduated to full on crawl 'sprinting' and more recently starting to pull up on objects and crawl up and over things/laps/legs.
Now that we are finding our new "normal" routine this has included several different childcares which has been anything but easy.
First experience was at the church daycare and she seems to be doing "ok."
"Ok," as in, her nursery # isn't flashed on the screen to come get her, but yet they have to hold her or feed her snacks the whole time to keep her from fussing.
We've also continued using the gym daycare every once in a while and that's a major work in progress.
We've also used Grandma Christian on occasion and that's a work in progress as well. She's getting MUCH better with Grandma C the more we hang out with her both at our house and at hers, so I see it improving a lot as time goes by, thank goodness!
The childcare hatred is totally my fault and I'm trying my best to remedy it. I had her off to a good start leaving her with friends when I occasionally went into work, but once that stopped, so did the occasional stay over and now we're fighting the separation anxiety big time. She shows progress on some days, then other days it's like starting all over, so persistence is key!
Right before B's 9 month bday she started getting in her top two teeth and BOY what a trial it's been.
It seriously reminds me of when she was a "new" newborn where sometimes you get to that point where they are fed, clean, warm, and they still just cry and there's not much you can do.
She's been extra clingy, which at first I didn't mind, but after about a week of it, I was starting to go a little crazy.
She earned the new nickname of 'Snots' during this time (for multiple reasons) and it's a symptom she still has even now that they have barely broken through.
I think my mom put it best, "Sometimes there are easy babies, and sometimes there are hard babies. Your's is just not an easy one..."
True THAT.
I truly feel that teething is of the devil and that it's the second consequence of the Original Sin in some demented way.
I totally feel for her, and I can see why she's in so much pain, but baby Tylenol, Hylands, and Orajel can only go on for so long!

Pulling up, where'd my baby go!?

With all these changes also came a change in our daily routine which is something we just changed recently.
B was still on a three nap a day schedule, mainly because the move here pulled us back a bit with the time change. Now that we're pretty set I noticed that the #2 middle nap wasn't really a nap anymore...it was more of a "my bed is a trampoline!" type of experience.
SO we've moved to a two nap a day schedule and it's something we're all still trying to get used too.
Either we struggle to keep her entertained long enough to keep her awake-yet tired, OR we get her too riled up to where she won't take the second nap at all and just plays in her bed the whole time.
Most people probably wouldn't mind this, but our #1 thing from day one is that beds are for sleeping, not playing, so we're having to nip it in the bud...my little diva just takes a little more time to adjust to change than most (John says she get's that from me, but I don't see it)....

We stayed uber busy this month with several adventures.
First was our trip through the mountains to see the aspens change and hang out in Cripple Creek.
Trips like this remind me why I love CO so much.
You just don't see things like this anywhere else I've been!

Sorry ladies...#29 is mine!

Loving Uncle Drew. :)

We went to Missouri to see her Uncle Drew play in his Homecoming football game for Evangel. She also got to meet my uncles and cousins that she hadn't met yet, it was a blast and she wasn't spoiled in the least.

Ha. Haha.
She was SUCH a sport during the whole weekend of events and I'm SO thankful for all of my family's help with her. I actually got to sit and enjoy the trip instead of being consumed in 'single' mommy-hood and that alone made the trip worth it! Well, hanging out at the lake house wasn't so bad either, but ya know...

Pumpkin Patch with
Grandma Christian!

Towards the end of this month B and I, along with Uncle Jerrod, Grandma Christian, Aunt Karen, and B's cousins, Audrey and Emery, went to the pumpkin patch at Wishing Star Farms in Black Forest.
It was a blast and I'm so glad we went!
Again, B was SUCH a great sport and Grandma Christian was in her element holding her youngest grand while following around her other two.

Our little ladybug. :)

To debut our very first Halloween costume that daddy picked out, we went with her cousins again to an event at our local zoo, called Boo at the Zoo. It was cold, but it was a blast, and I loved getting to show off our little lady bug.

On B's actual 9 month birthday I actually had her babysat by Grandma Christian while my mom and I went to the Nevada vs. AF game. It was a whopping 17 degrees outside for the evening game, but it was still fun! I just love football season, I love a good game, and I love CO, so it made for a great mother daughter date, all the while Grandma Christian was getting in some major baby lovings, WIN-WIN.

We're glad the deployment has started and that we've finally settled in to our new temporary home. I'm looking forward to the holidays ahead with B's first Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and then her 1st birthday. I know that it's going to be hard to have genuine fun in all the festivities knowing how far away "da" is, but we're making the best of it!
We finally got John's address in Afghanistan and already sent him one small "Happy Halloween" care package and have another one ready to be sent. I have to admit that care packages are a bit more fun to send with a baby's touch to it. I imagine they are much more special to receive from a baby as well!
Until next time!