nine months

How is this possible? My daughter is 9 months old! I could've made a whole other baby by now!! :)

At her 9 month appointment, Gwen had to have her blood drawn for the first time - I was all stressed out because I've heard how bad it can be.  Justin was able to come to the appointment which I was happy about because I definitely needed some support.  So the pediatrician had Gwen sit on my lap while she looked for a vein and [of course] said that she has "hard to find" veins - she went back and forth looking on each arm a couple of times before she finally found a good one.  The Dr had me hold her arms down while she drew the blood and, to be honest, I think being restrained was worse for her than the actual needle.  The whole thing was over in a few seconds and my little trooper calmed down in no time.

Some 9 month stats:
Height - 29 inches, 94th % (seriously?)
Weight - 18lbs 3oz, 50th %

Monthly Updates:
I've already mentioned that she's pulling up and cruising (walking while holding on) around her activity table.
Although she's not crawling, she's starting to be able to get where she wants to go by bringing her knees under her hips and pushing herself forward with her feet - now she just needs to lift that belly off the ground :)
She DANCES! Whenever she hears music, she rocks her body back and forth. It's seriously the cutest thing ever.  I have a video that kind of shows it but the song was too short for her to really get into it. I'll try and get a better one.
She is now obsessed with finger foods (cheese is by far her favorite).  To the point where she's giving me a tough time with the purees that I normally give her - she purses her lips together and blows raspberries.  So I'm thinking about starting to mostly give her what I eat.  The pediatrician told me the only foods that are off limits are shellfish, nuts, and honey.  Bring on the messy meals - good thing Jackson does a good job with the cleanup ;)

Disastrous Day at the Park [& Mom of the Year award]

The weather was beautiful today, so we gathered the "kids" for a nice day at the park.  Sounds like fun right?

Anyone who knows Jackson, knows that he has a great heart, but unfortunately other dogs just aren't his "thing".  There are a couple of dogs that he gets along with (ok, one, and that's only because she lived with us when he was just a pup), but the combination of him being restrained on a leash, and meeting a new dog face to face is just never a good thing.  I do realize that this is not his fault, but ours for not socializing him properly, and it doesn't help that he's my first dog and I was always paranoid about him meeting other dogs (which I'm sure he sensed).  Regardless, we're still able to take him out with us to certain places.  I've taken him and Gwen to this same park by myself a bunch of times, and he's fine walking by other [leashed] dogs. 

Anyway, back to our relaxing day in the park.  We find a nice grassy area, lay out our blanket, and start taking out toys for Gwen to play with.  Almost as soon as we sit down, out of the corner of my eye, I see an all too familiar scene: an unleashed dog headed our way (this seriously happens to me way too often).  For the sake of drama, I'll leave out the fact that this dog is what looked like a yellow lab puppy - and not at all mean looking.  At this moment, I'm much more relaxed than times past because Justin is with us and I only have to worry about getting the baby up off the ground, and not being caught in the middle of a dog fight.  Right away, as Jackson sees the dog running toward him, he snaps into nervous aggression, and tries lunging at the other dog while growling.  Caught off guard, Justin pulls him back, which makes Jackson even more aggressive.  The other dog keeps at it, so Justin puts his hand down to try and separate them - bad idea, because his hand was at face level with the dogs and winded up getting bitten by our lovely dog.  Oh Jackson, we love you, but why do you make things so difficult?  So the other dog owner finally gets his dog away and apologizes for not having him on a leash.  Seriously, there are signs all over the place.  We don't take him to off leash parks for this reason.

So we try to compose ourselves after this ordeal, and start playing with Gwen again.  Here comes my Mom of the Year award moment...

Jackson is walking around on the blanket, and Gwen reaches out to pet him, as she normally does.  But this time, she's reaching right.to.his.butt.hole!  As I see what is about to unfold, I lunge forward to grab her right hand, but somehow my aim was WAY off and I end up jabbing her with my thumbnail and knocking her to the ground.  She immediately starts crying and I'm thinking that I completely poked her eye out.  After scooping her up and examining her, I realize that I hit her in the left eyebrow because I see the mark where I jabbed her.  Thankfully she was fine after a minute (and didn't seem to hold a grudge).

From beginning to end, we were probably at the park for 15 minutes before we decided to cut our losses and head out.

Long Island Summer

On Wednesday, Anne, Gwen, Jackson, and I drove down to Long Island for a nice, extended visit.  I've been looking forward to spending more than just a few days there, and we had some really nice weather.  It was the longest time that Gwen has been away from Justin, so we missed him and he missed us, but we got in some regular FaceTime sessions.  The week was full of visits with friends, afternoons at the pool and beach.  Anne, Andrea, Jess and I even took little G on her first wine tasting!

FaceTime with daddy

napping with Grammy on the deck

With Andrea and Jess before we took Gwen on her first wine tasting!

at Paumanok Vineyards

Anne with her friends from CMHS class of '98

We can't wait for the next trip - this time with daddy :)

Long Island Visit

We visited Long Island the weekend before the 4th and had a great time!  We got in some fun adult time when we went out to dinner with Andrea, Michael, Jess, and Garth on Friday night.  Unfortunately, we didn't break out the camera until the drive home, and well, I'll spare you those pics..lol

It was pretty rainy for a good part of the time we were there, which was a bummer because with (3) bathing suits, cover ups, swim diapers, sun hats, sunglasses, and a sun tent in tow for Gwen, I was planning this whole beach/pool weekend.   We were originally going to leave on Sunday, but I made a last minute decision to stay behind a couple extra days with Gwen and Jackson because it was SUCH a gorgeous day on Sunday.  We ended up getting in a great pool day and beach day too.  Here are some pics from the long weekend:

Justin with Gwen on the ferry on our way to LI.   She actually loved it, she was doing her happy screeches for a good part of the ride.

my cute family, enjoying time at my parents' house

Gwen napping on my old baby blanket <3

Andrea, Michael and Jess came over for a visit and Gwen fell asleep on Aunt Dre

my parents backyard oasis, in progress, but already amazing

with Aunt Jessy

Gwen's first visit to Cupsogue! 

 with Aunt Dre

she hung out in the sun tent, it was really hot and sunny that day

the girls

"christening" Gwen in the cool Atlantic

hah! what a cutie <3 

napping with Grampy on the new deck

Gwen with Grandpa

A good friend of mine who I haven't seen in years came by with her son, Pat

chillin on the hammock

she kept breathing in really deeply because it was cold

giving her a bath after her first swim in the pool

check out these wrinkly tootsies!

lunch on the deck :)

We had such a fun time, and can't wait to go back at the end of July with Aunt Annie!! :)

First Mother's Day!

Sunday was my first Mother's Day! Well, technically last mother's day she was a little seedling that we suspected existed.  My special day actually started on Saturday night (although I really pushed for a FULL weekend of pampering beginning Friday night hah).  Justin went out to pick up some pizza.  We were going to have it delivered, until he realized that 'Gwen' FORGOT to get me a mother's day card.  So he ran out to get the card, picked up the pizza, and surprised me with my favorite ice cream (coffee oreo with multi-colored sprinkles)!!  Nice work Justin! (ps - those are size small ice creams!)

On Sunday morning, I was greeted by my 3 favorites with my mother's day gift :)

How adorable is this!? Gwen signed the card.

Here is my gift - a sweet necklace with the initial "g" on it for Gwen.  It's so dainty and pretty, I can wear it with just about anything.  LOVE it :) 

btw - it's an etsy find which makes me love it even more.

We had a really relaxing day, Justin made me breakfast and we had a nice leisurely morning.  We were going to go into Boston but it was raining a bit and we figured it would be so hectic, so we decided against it.  I got a manicure instead.  Which, ended up being not so hot - I went to a spa...next time I'm sticking with the asians.  The lady kept telling me that the color I chose was too light (I always get the light colors and they normally come out fine), and it came out so blotchy.  Oh well, it was still nice to have some 'me' time.  After that, we went over to Nana and Papa S's for dinner.  Justin's parents and Eric and Kerri were so thoughtful and gave me mothers day cards and gifts too!  I love watching them with Gwen, and she loves visiting with them.  She was all smiles :)

Outings

I had to post this pic of Gwen, on our way to our breastfeeding group yesterday:

She's wearing her favorite giraffe outfit from Aunt Annie, and the jacket was her very first gift after we found out we were pregnant - from Gram & Grandpa.

We go to breastfeeding group every Wednesday - it's been a great excuse to get out of the house for a few hours, especially with the brutal weather we've had this winter!

We went to our first "Mommy & Baby" Yoga class this morning.  Because I can never find anything going on up by me, we drove a little out of the way.  It was so worth it, though - I loved being able to do the exercises while holding and playing with her.  It's always nice meet other moms with babies Gwen's age, and they were such a friendly group.  We're looking forward to doing it again next week!

After Yoga, we came home for some lunch and then we had to take advantage of the sun, so we went back out to the park for a walk with The Jig.

Gwen Update:  She has been really reaching for toys and grasping them a lot more lately.  Also, I've started to pull her up to a seated position while she lays down on the floor, and today I caught her lifting her head and trying to sit up in her bassinet!  Obviously that's not going to happen for a while, but you can tell she really wants to do it. <3