10 months old!

  

Fiona has grown so much in the last month.  She is hard to keep track of at this point.  You put her down, and she is on her feet before you can bat an eye.  She is also crawling way better than we may had expected at 9 months.  Fi can cover a pretty good span of room but often gets distracted finding cords and pretty much anything we don't want her to touch.  We joke that she is a little safety inspector--she crawls to point out every thing her negligent parents leave on the floor.  If she could talk she'd be saying, "Hey, you guys, these screws really shouldn't be here on the floor.  Totally not safe.  And these cables, you really should strap them down."  We are busy keeping up with this 10-month-old.  

9 month check up

Fiona had her nine month check up yesterday (although she will be ten months old this Saturday).  She is doing really well.  She is of average height at 28.25 inches (56th percentile), dainty at 16 pounds 10 ounces (18th percentile), and a massive head (87th percentile).  Tim referred to as an orange on a toothpick.  That's alright.  She is a healthy orange on a toothpick and extremely adorable.

Winter, really?

Winter was growing tiresome last week, but it hit hard again this week.  I booked it out of DC early on Wednesday to get back to Stroudsburg with babysitter (my mom) before the snow.  Boy did it snow.  We got about 18 inches on Thursday on top of what was outside, plus another 4 inches on Saturday.  Tim and I are definitely tired of shoveling, but we aren't tired of this happy snow bunny.  She and Tim plopped down in the fluffy snow in our yard for a little fun.  We haven't been out much, but she seems to be eager for the fresh (although crisp) air.  Hopefully, there isn't too much snow and crisp air left in the season though.  Even still, we predict that some snow piles will be lingering through Fiona's first birthday. I hope not, but from the waist high piles in many areas, I am not optimistic.

Might as well use the snowed in time doing something to improve the house, right?  That's just what we did on Saturday.  While my mom kept Fi busy, Tim and I painted the living room.  It felt reminiscent of when I was a child--rooms tarped off for work.  Amazingly, we finished the room minus the wall leading up to the hallway in the day and managed to put the living room back together.  Phew.

Winter Keeps Throwing Punches

Winter is really starting to wear on me.  We've had three snow storms in a week, and Tim, Fiona, and I have all been sick.  Tim is really loving shoveling a corner lot, especially when the sleet and ice weighs down the snow (sarcasm).  The only good is that Fi had a blast watching him shovel from the front door.  I love this photo where she has her head tilted slightly to the side like, "Whatcha doing, daddy?"  

I really don't have much else to report other than we have been busy working on the house still.  Progress is slow, but it is coming along.  We have a new carpet in the living room for Fiona to crawl all over, which she is enjoying.  We also have about 8 different paint samples on the living room wall as we try to pick a color.  I'm ready to give Fiona a dart to throw at the wall and see what sample it sticks too (or maybe letting her slingshot a spoonful of mango would be more baby friendly?).  

One big week for Fiona

 

This was a huge week in the life of Fiona.  It was her first full week and weekend in the new house, and we are excited to announce that she is officially cruising.  She can move herself from her walker along the TV stand and into the baskets on the TV stand--and as a result the electronic contents were quickly replaced with Fiona toys and books.  After a few scares, I think she realized that she can't walk herself from the TV stand over to the blanket basket though because it isn't sturdy enough to hold her.  I can't believe how quickly she became efficient at shuffling along the furniture. 

In other news, she is crawling!  I had started thinking she wasn't going to because she was way more interested in standing than crawling, and with cruising under her belt, I thought she would be even more satisfied to skip the crawling phase.  She is by no means a vigorous crawler, but she gets to where she wants to go.  So far that isn't very far, but it is just close enough to things like the ottoman, which she can pull herself up on and start cruising.  Let the baby proofing begin!  Good thing we have outlet covers ready to go.

Fiona also had her first waterbabies class at the Y!  She was not at all hesitant to get in the pool and splash around.  She kicked her legs, laughed at the instructor when she blew bubbles, and didn't seem phased when Tim dunked her underwater for a second.  Here is the cutie in her bathing suit.