Month 9 in review

My princess turns 9 months old tomorrow!

Here's a description of what our schedule has been this month.

7:30a - Nurse, Brooklyn goes back to sleep while I make my bed and get ready for the day

8:30a - Breakfast (Any combination of oatmeal, barley, yogurt, applesauce, bananas, peaches)

9:00a - Different every day - play, baby classes, walks in the neighborhood, wrestling with the doggies, watching Sid the Science kid, etc

11:00a - Nap (I have lunch and works on Sweet Chicky)

2:00p - Nurse, Lunch (Any combination of iced pears, cheese, organic spaghetti Os, yogurt melts, diced carrots, pureed veggies)

2:30p - Play

3:30p - Nap (More often than not I also nap)

5:00p - Nurse, Play while I make dinner

6:00p - Dinner (6oz jar of Earth's Best chunky blends OR 4oz jar + oatmeal)

6:30p - Play

7:00p - Bath (2-3x/week), Read, Nurse

7:30p - Bedtime for Brooklyn (I clean the kitchen and family room, do laundry, watch a tv show or 2)

9:30p - Average bedtime for me is any time between 8p and 11p

Getting Brooklyn involved in activities has been great - we dropped one of the classes (the Library) because it wasn't challenging her enough and I would have to fight her to pay attention. Right now we're only signed up for one per week, but we both really love it. I'm thinking about starting her at the Little Gym in June when she turns 10 months old.

Movie Night!

I have huge list of movies that have come out in the past few years that I really wanted to see at the time but never did. I was either too busy, too pregnant, my husband didn't want to see it, or now I have a baby and haven't been to the theater since the day before she was born. Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland was at the top of my list, and it just so happened to be on ABC Family last night!

It was AWESOME! I loved everything about the movie from Tim Burton's twist on the story, to the costumes, to the graphics, to Johnny Depp's hilarious body language (which also cracks me up in the Pirates movies). I'm so happy I finally got to see this one! It was a great Saturday evening movie night for moi. Next week's movie night will be "Leap Year"

My reflection on our first playgroup

This morning Brooklyn and I hosted a playgroup! There are two other babies in my husband's new squadron, and coincidentally they are both exactly the same age as Brooklyn. This was her first time playing with other babies - all of my friends' kids are at least 18 months older than she is, so she's always "the baby" of the group.

I was surprised, once I had the opportunity to compare, at how busy Brooklyn is for her age! She was up and down and over here and over there and she would crawl and climb on the other babies and take their toys away! I felt like I couldn't step away because I was worried my baby would hurt another baby - a feeling I never expected to feel.

I decided to quit my job when I had Brooklyn and not return to the workforce because I was worried about putting her in daycare (and mind you, I was a manager at a daycare and she would have been at my facility). I was worried that she would get picked on by other babies. I was concerned that a stranger would not give my baby the love and affection that she deserves on a daily basis. At any given moment I could just scoop Brooklyn up and smooch her and give her a giant hug and let her know she is loved.

I didn't want to put her in a situation where she wouldn't learn to trust that someone would always be there if she ever needed anything.

And I had trust issues myself. I am the only person in the whole world who can pick up on Brooklyn's cues - her sleepy cues, her hungry cues, her "I need a hug" cues.

Besides the psychological aspect of daycare, or letting her be in someone else's care in any form, there are obviously the physical concerns. I was terrified that she'd fall and bump her head because her caregiver wasn't there to protect her when she was learning to pull up and balance. I was afraid another baby would cause physical harm as well (think of unsupervised "eye poking").

After this playgroup, it turns out #1. babies are resilient and #2. my baby is a tough cookie!

It's just you and me now, kid!

We're just past the one-month mark of Daddy's deployment. We've been able to Skype with him twice, and it's so nice to hear is voice and see him on the computer! Brooklyn is changing so much from day to day, and Daddy is grateful to be able to see how much she has grown every few weeks. When Daddy left last month, Brooklyn was barely sitting on her own. In just a matter of weeks, she's crawling and getting into everything, she's pulling up, and cruising along furniture to get closer to things she wants. She's also at a point now where she can eat just about anything (in baby-sized bites), and he enjoys the pictures I send him of her messy faces! This is a picture I took the morning we dropped him off at base.

Let's get started!

 

The before..........................

 

Miss Brooklyn, born 8/1/11

This blog is to document the daily life of my baby girl and me, as we keep busy while her daddy (my husband) is deployed with the United States Navy. I will write about our various activities, deployment issues, baby news, our travels and my business, Sweet Chicky. Welcome!