Learning So Much

It was only about 3 weeks ago that Allison learned to crawl, and now she's ALL OVER THE HOUSE! Nothing is off limits, and when it is, she gets HIGHLY upset! She's learned to pull up and will pull up on anything that seems stationary, a couch, dog, leg, anything will do! She's also taking steps to get to things she wants... as long as she's holding on to something! She's starting to get brave and will try to stand up on her own, but the longest she's been able to do that for is only like 3 seconds! She also hasn't figured out how to get down from the standing position without falling and she'll get frustrated if she gets stuck, so I have to come to the rescue! So yeah, she's mastered a lot of things in the past couple of weeks! I can't wait to see what the next weeks have in store for us!

Allison has also been eating more "grown-up" food. She likes chicken as long as it's mixed with something else... I think it's too dry by itself for her to eat. I tried ground turkey yesterday with some peas and she surprised me! She ate all of the peas yet somehow siphoned out the turkey and kept it in her mouth! I tried to give her her bottle and she wouldn't take it, which was a first, and then she opened just wide enough for me to see the turkey! So I got it out and moved on to the bottle (which she took instantly)! I tried the turkey again tonight and pureed it to practically nothing, and mixed it with some sweet potatoes and she ate them all! I guess the texture was something she wasn't used to, so we'll keep trying. She's eating more "raw" fruits, bananas and strawberries, and loves them! She's learning how to chew better and is really good about putting things in her mouth (sometimes not just food)!

Allison has also become a good little sleeper! I'm sure she wears herself out crawling all over the house, but she takes 2 naps a day both about 3 hours long and then sleeps from 9pm-7am! It's been a nice change getting time for myself, but I feel so bored while she's asleep... that is after I do all the house cleaning, dishes and shower. The good/not so good news is that I've returned to baking! I missed making cookies and whatnots, but it's not boding so well for our figures! But it is nice to have time to do what I like! I'm trying to decide what hobby I want to pick up, I'm thinking something useful like sewing, but I need a sewing machine and someone with a lot of patience to show me what to do! And money to buy all those cute fabrics for clothes! So if anyone wants to help out, feel free to let me know! I'm sure my kids will appreciate it in the future!

I tried to upload a video, but my computer is having issues, so once again I put it on my Facebook so feel free to check it out there! You have to check out how curly her hair has gotten! I thought it was just her sleeping on it funny, but not so much! Apparently Daddy is coming through and giving her some of his features!

http://www.facebook.com/holly.b.lindquist

We Now have a 9 Month Old!

I can't believe it! It seems like just yesterday we were in the hospital and I was enjoying all the rest from being on drugs.... I definitely should've appreciated that more! Things have now gotten a lot busier thanks to Allison and her crawling ability! She's all over the house and loves to go straight to the dog's water bowl to play in, and then tip over! It surprises me how strong she is because she's turned the bowl over twice when it was completely full! She also loves to chase after the dogs/cat which they do not appreciate! Ashlyn just lays there while Allison crawls all over her or will get up and move if Allison goes for her paws, but she's a very gentle dog and could care less about Allison. Canela on the other hand is not as calm! Whenever Allison gets too close, Canela will start to show her teeth and on a couple of occasions has even tried to snap at Allison... to which Chris and I beat her and tell her that the baby is ok, but Canela just doesn't want anything to do with Allison! Canela's starting to learn that whenever Allison comes near that she's the one that has to move to a different location, Allison has the run on the house now! Which, believe me, Allison loves!

We went to the doctor yesterday and Allison is looking great! She weighs 19lbs (50%) and is 28"(65%) long! The doctor gave us the ok to start dairy and proteins, so I boiled a chicken yesterday and Allison seemed to really like it! It was pretty dry, so I added lots of broth and sweet potatoes and it went down well. We'll try that for a couple of days and then start on some yogurt and then eventually cheese! Apparently yogurt is a good "starter dairy" because even if she's lactose intolerant, she can still eat yogurt, that way when we go to cheese if she has any problems we'll know what's wrong! I can't believe we are here already, with the "big-people" foods! Soon she'll be eating french fries and cookies and addicted to those, just like Mommy and Daddy!

We also talked to the doctor about the new baby and she was very excited and didn't say anything about their age differences. She said that all babies (no matter how old) regress in whatever stage they're in so if we start weaning Allison off the bottle, she might want to go back on it when new baby comes. No biggie, things are going to be a lot different for all of us, but hopefully Allison will adjust well!

The only new thing going on is that Allison's teeth are growing like crazy! She appears to have a gap between her front 2 teeth, which hopefully will go away, but doubtful without help from an orthodontist! Supposedly it's genetic, but neither Chris nor I had gaps in our teeth, so who knows where she got that from! Allison's also learned to eat Cheerio's by herself... she likes Mommy to feed her, but will do it herself if needbe. She just started the other day, but when she gets better/more consistent, I'll take video to show y'all. Anyway, things are going great for now and I'll report more when I get more info!