Ten Months

On Sunday, Heidi turned ten months old. The older she gets, the harder it is to get a good picture! She is at that wiggle worm, grabby pants phase. As soon as she catches a glimpse of the camera, she starts diving for it. In any event, here's the latest.

*Stands without support, but hasn't quite figured out how to get her legs to move forward. She can even get herself to the standing position from a sitting position. Once there, she tries to dive forward with her arms. She probably needs to practice walking along furniture a little more to get comfortable with the legs.
*Crawls up the stairs, but not down.
*Has had about 8 tear-free baths. HOORAY!! It only took ten months to get her to this point and I am just crossing my fingers she continues on this path!
*Most people that meet her for the first time tell me she is a whole lot smaller in person than she looks in pictures.
*Gets jealous when I talk on the phone.
*Has 6 teeth...4 on top, 2 on the bottom. She is working on two more bottom teeth currently.
*Eating is hit or miss. One day she will like something, the next day she will spit it out, pull it out of her mouth, bury her face in her high chair, you name it. She especially doesn't like food we eat ground up. She seems picky about texture.
*Has major separation anxiety and it keeps getting worse. She doesn't seem to favor me over Jeff unless she is tired. She will smile and flirt with most anyone as long as her mom or dad are the ones holding her. Nursery is going to be so fun if we don't get over this!
*Generally still sleeps 7pm-6am, with a morning nap and an afternoon nap. I wish I could get her to sleep in a little longer, but it appears she is just an early riser. If I put her to bed a little later, she just wakes up earlier. It's awesome. The nice thing is, I get a lot done in the mornings and I can get my run in before it gets too warm.
*Whenever we go anywhere, most people tell us she looks "exactly like a little doll". She must, because we have been told that by tons of strangers. When we walked into a store the other day one lady said, "Oh my gosh...for a second I thought you were holding a doll." It must be those cheeks.
*She has got the crawling thing down to an art and she is soooooo speedy. It is so funny to watch.
*If her knees are bare and she gets to tile or hard wood, she switches into the "Mowgli" walk. As long as her knees are covered, she stays in a regular crawl.
*Climber. Climbs up and onto everything including the tiniest, skinniest places. Then has a death grip with her toes. (The radiator, the tiny little part of the dishwasher when the door is open, etc.)
*Won't sleep if there is too much going on.
*Starting to get jealous when she has to share her toys.
*Pretty much she is at the really, really fun age, but really, really into anything and everything phase and we are loving it!

Happy Dad's Day

Happy Father's Day!!! First to Jeff...such a great dad to our little Heidi.
I thought I loved him before Heidi, but watching him with his little girl melts my heart.
I have no doubt this little gal will be a major daddy's girl!

Happy Father's Day to my dad.
I will always remember the countless walks he took with me and my doll stroller in freezing cold Michigan winters.
I'm lucky to have a dad who loves me unconditionally.
Happy Father's Day to my father-in-law, Bruno.
If it weren't for my great father-in-law, I would have never met Jeff.
Thank you for being such a great grandpa to Heidi!

Heidi Houdini

This little girl is such a ham. Seriously. I was hoping she was going to have a big personality and I am pretty sure she does. That makes her a little difficult from time to time, but I would not trade this funny little girl for anything.

Heidi can get herself out of ANYTHING. No strap is too tight. While enjoying the beautiful weather, I noticed Heidi trying to get out of her stroller. "There's no way she can get out of that," I thought to myself. Boy did I think wrong. Next thing I know she is standing up looking at me with a HUGE grin on her face. The only thing I can think of to try next is super glue...kidding of course.

Heidi's new thing is climbing in and out of everything. This is her in her new diaper box. She especially likes to climb in the cupboards downstairs. It's hard to get mad because she looks so proud of herself and always has a big cheeser for you. We've locked up the dangerous stuff of course. I know it's bad, but I can't help laughing when she is naughty.

California Girl

Jeff finally had some time off work so we headed to California so Heidi could meet the great-grandma she was named after. We had been dying for Heidi to meet her, but scheduling never worked out. So when Jeff had time off, we decided to just go.

First stop: Grandpa and Grandma H's in Utah. Heidi took her first dune buggy ride and LOVED it! She had quite the grin when she returned. Thank you Grandpa and Grandma H for loving our little Heidi so much!

We stayed the night in Vegas and then headed the rest of the way to California. I have to say, I was worried, but holy cow do we have a good little traveler!! I did have to sit with her most of the time in the back, but seriously, she was SO good!

We stayed with my grandma in Malibu so we could spend as much time as possible with her. We went to beach and Heidi, well, liked it about as much as she likes her bath. In other words, she hated it! It was a little cold and windy though.



We also went to the Santa Barbara zoo...my all time favorite. Heidi really liked the zoo, more than I expected. If she hadn't of needed a nap I think we could have stayed all day. She loved watching the animals.

We also went with my grandma to visit my grandpa's grave. I so wish he was still alive to meet his first great granddaughter (everyone in my family has boys).


But the best time we had was spending time with family and good friends. There were many people that had never met our little one and she was quite the charmer making sure everyone thought she was just as darling and funny as we do.

The Stats Are In!

Well, the stats are in. I took Heidi for her 9-month doctor visit...although she is more like 9.5 months. Just as we suspected, she is still tiny.

Height: 26 3/4 in.--17th percentile
Weight: 14 lbs. 12 oz.--Below 3rd percentile

I really, really thought she was at least 15, but I guess she's close enough. I think most of her weight is carried in those cheeks. Looks like she'll be in the rear facing car seat at 1 anyway unless by some miracle she puts on 5 pounds in 2.5 months.

The last few days she has been doing this little cheeser face. My favorite is when I get one with a crinkly nose. We are having so much fun watching her discover herself and her world.

In other news, Jeff has been nothing but a work machine and it is driving us all nuts! Looks like he'll start his actual new schedule on the 18th and we couldn't be more excited. Today is day #8 of 12-hour shift with no day off. UGH! I take my hat off to all single parents out there...it is hard work! He's hoping Heidi remembers who he is when he is actually home. He's supposed to have tomorrow off but I am not holding my breath. We are planning on celebrating with a serious vacation to CA so Heidi can meet her great grandma.

In spite of the craziness of our house lately I managed to wash a blue gel pen with a load of laundry...Heidi's clothes. To say I am mad is an understatement. The worst part was I didn't notice until after everything was dry. Some of her clothes were new summer clothes she didn't even have a chance to wear. SO MAD!!! I managed to make most of them at least wearable, but there are a few that will be "work in the yard with mom and dad" clothes. SO MAD!!!!!!! Heidi wasn't thrilled about spending the entire day "helping" try to salvage them either. Oh well. In three months she won't be able to wear any of them anyway, right?