Happy 9 Months, Sophia!!

Now Sophia's been on the outside as long as she was on the inside! I took hundreds of pictures this last month, once again. Every month now, I think that I don't have many pictures to post... Then I find about 50 that I want to upload! It's hard to pick and choose. Glad that it's free!! :)

It's been a big month. Sophia (and her brothers) all flew for the first time the day after she turned 8 months. At just 35 minutes in the air (Cochabamba to La Paz), it was a perfect first little air jaunt and she did great. (Pictures of that trip coming soon!)

Using our new hazelaid necklace :)

 She loves to wave and clap and does both frequently, to the delight of everyone!

She has a new crib....

The owner of the crib we were borrowing needed it back for a relative, so we asked around and custom made was the cheapest, especially since I already have my Mom's handmade sheets!

In jail? (She got into this position by herself!)

 

 

She looked so cute and grown up in this pink sweater!

 

 

 

She decided that the cat is veryyy interesting and needs to be touched/observed as much as possible...

There was lots of fun with the brothers, as usual!

"Look, Mom, she's singing into her microphone!"

Learning to hit the ball with her head - a future soccer player in the making!

 

 

The Ninja siblings!

These scarves, a birthday gift for me from the Beatys, have turned into quite the toy (and learning tool during English lessons) for the kids!

 

Singing nursery rhymes with a CD, book, and brother Samuel

When I talk to Jake about having another baby, he says "You don't want another baby baby - you want another 8 month old!" Ha, that could be true! I wouldn't turn back the clock for anything with this one. She's getting so much easier - and occasionally, even adaptable! - as she grows.

Like Jake says, when she's fun, she's a LOT of FUN, and...well, I'll not write the other half of that statement... :)

This last month, she also tried on a lot of new clothes!

Our little John Deere baby:

Brother Samuel loaned Sophia his John Deere hat and I had to snap pictures

 

 

Packing for the trip to La Paz, Jake discovered a whole suitcase full of clothes - mainly 6 month size - that we kept overlooking every time we searched through the storage closet. I knew that I was missing things!! She now has plenty of long-sleeved pajamas to get us through the cold of the next month!

 

Cowgirl Pajamas

 

I took this picture because her two little bottom teeth show best when she cries. :) 

 

 

Tooth #3 is making its appearance! I have estimated since the time of her first that the top teeth would come in right at 9 months. Two nights ago, after trying for two hours to get her to stay asleep...and pondering how much she was drooling the past couple of days...I felt the upper gums and did indeed feel something hard. Jake brought a flashlight and we could just see the white poking through. Ouch! No wonder. Now we're back on our Hyland's teething tablets and that helps. I think this time around is much less painful than the bottom two teeth, so that's a relief.

Borrowing Mom's boots to be a cowgirl

 

 

Cute little strawberry pjs

 

 

Another cute outfit we "discovered":

 

 

She can be quite a ham for the camera!

 

Her picnic set has gotten HOURS of play time!

Here she is more serious because there were 3 "strangers" in our house at a Casa de Amor board meeting. She's not too keen anymore on being sociable or being held by those she doesn't know. Separation anxiety has begun!

 

 

She tries new foods every week and is eating a little more all the time.

This plastic thingy from the Beaty grandparents is great for pureed food, although she sucks out whatever is in it pretty quickly now! Michael helps me keep it "loaded".

 

Enjoying a banana after her first taste of pureed dried apricots

Bananas are still her FAVORITE!! Bananas also help the vegetables go down...

 

She often thinks that one of us should hold this up for her, not understanding that's it great for "self-service", lazy little baby! When she gets into it though, she is kept busy for a long time. Great when mommy is trying to make a meal!!

She often tries this "hands free" method as a last resort, ha!

 

 

Our cute little dirty baby! It's often straight to the bath after feeding time now.

 

 

Full of food!

 

After over a week with no bottles while we traveled to La Paz, Sophia resisted formula and bottles again, but now she's decided it's pretty great when she's still hungry after nursing. Even though she eats food 2 or 3 or even 4 times a day, so far that's not changing her desire to nurse every 3 to 4 hours. Occasionally she goes 5 hours throughout the day and I'm impressed!

 

 

Wild-haired baby after bath time!

 

 

Naptimes are usually pretty straightforward now and go well. Times vary wildly from 30 minutes to over 2 hours, and it's hard to predict what she'll do when. It's still challenging to be in a small apartment with the phone right by her crib, not to mention three energetic boys! They blast in from playing outside and that sometimes wakes her. Now when Jake or I need something in our bedroom or bathroom, she immediately wakes up upon hearing the door and sometimes won't go back to sleep. Soon we'll be in a house and can stretch our wings!!

 

 Here she's awake...



 

And now she's not!

 Love seeing her little hands when she sleeps unswaddled (most of the time now)!

 

 

Night time is more difficult. She sometimes wants a third nap for 30 or 40 minutes at 7 or 8pm, but she's cranky when she wakes but wants to be up till 11 or later, which is just too late if I'm going to have any work time, or (finally!) some quiet time with Jake. So I have a very fussy, whiny baby on my hands until sometime around 9, when I'll put her down. The boys often entertain her though, which is a big help! And it sure beats a midnight bedtime, something she occasionally begins. 

 

Once she's "asleep", she tends to wake up every 30 minutes to an hour until maybe midnight, and then usually every hour. I've read that separation anxiety can affect a baby's rest, and boy, has it!

 

A couple of weeks ago, I was DONE with frequent night wakings and 3 or 4 nursings during my 8 hours of "sleep". During the day, she never nurses to go to sleep, so why only at night?! I got her into that habit early on to keep her quiet for Jake. There's nowhere to go in this apartment to allow the others to continue sleeping, so I had to wait for Jake to not be getting up so early for school to begin this. But same as when I've tried to wean her in the past, I'm more tired than when I'm just nursing to get her back to sleep! Sigh. All I ask for is midnight to 6am, for starters, so I tank her up with my milk AND formula around midnight, give or take a half hour. But now I get up anywhere between 4 and probably 15 times a night APART from nursing around 11:30 or 12 and 6 or 6:30am, sometimes dealing with her crying for an hour at a time. It doesn't work for Jake to take her and let me rest either, because she only screams worse, knowing that there's no possibility of a middle-of-the-night-snack with him.

This is the baby who has resisted a schedule since the day she was born, so I knew it was going to be an uphill climb, but glimpsing bits of success encourages me to continue! She falls back to sleep more easily now and waits until early morning to eat. I keep telling myself that eventually, somewhere in my future, is a full night's sleep!!

After yawning all day today, I'm going to up-the-anty tonight and let her cry. (Will Jake become as sleep-deprived as me...?) She knows how to put her pacifier back in by herself during the day, or daytime naps (if she can find it), so now that she usually sleeps hands-free, it's time to self-soothe...

 

She'll soon be in her own room, so I'm trying to prepare her for that. I have mixed feelings about it only being 19 nights before we're traveling for 2 months. Basically, until a week past her first birthday, she'll still be right by us. :)

 

Baby Soccer Champ!