My little (big) eight-month-old!

It is so cliché to be shocked at how quickly Greer is growing every month... But EIGHT months old?! We are closing in on a year faster than I am comfortable with. 

This past month has been really fun, though. G is in such a fun, easy phase. She's sitting up and playing on her own really well, she's pretty solidly on a schedule and I see her personality more and more every day! I LOVE being her mommy! 

So, here are some milestones...

- I have no idea how long she is or what she weighs because we haven't been to the doctor in two months. But she is still a big girl. I can tell you that my mom's back was sore after a weekend of never putting her down. ;-)

- She is eating lots of baby food and we're still dipping our toes into the finger-food-pond. We'll get there. Right now she's taking five bottles per day. But she's pretty consistently leaving formula in the bottle so we're going to re-evaluate our bottle schedule in the next week or so. I just love that every time we settle into a schedule there is another change to make. 

- She wears mostly 12 month clothes. Very few 6-12 mo. items still fit and she's even in some 12-18 mo. stuff. Her PJs are 12 month (new from this past week) and she wears a size 3 shoe! She finally figured out how to immediately rip her bows/headbands off her head so now I REALLY want her hair to grow so we can start pinning her bows in! 

- This month we switched to a car seat from the infant seat. She is much happier in the bigger car seat because she sits upright in it. She doesn't nap as well in it but she's so much more content so things are more pleasant during the hours we spend traveling. All in all she's become a great traveler! 

- She is a good mix of being a little social butterfly but still is an independent girl, too. She loves other kids and likes to interact with people for the most part. But she also likes her space and alone time. Hopefully she'll be a good combo of mom and dad. Social like Will and independent like me. 

- She is babbling a lot now. Lots of "babababas" and "mamamamas". She will also throw a few "dadadas" in the mix but I am quick to say "mama" when that happens. ;-) She's also giggling a lot and gives sugars. 

- She cut her two bottom teeth this month! She was cranky those two or three days but she wasn't nearly as fussy as I expected. 

This past month has been a fun one! We started it in Memphis, had a couple of family weekends at home, had a garage sale, and then spent the last week and a half in Little Rock. We're looking forward to a hot July full of daddy's bar studies and mommy's attempts to keep this baby cool and happy! 

Seven Months Old!

Okay, who has two thumbs and dropped the ball big time?! This mom! I didn't do a post when Greer was six months old! Why would I skip the half year post, too! Ugh! Honestly, I thought I'd write it from the road when we were on our way to FL (which already would have been over a week late) but we don't have a car charger and I was paranoid about losing phone power. Then the month was over half way over when we got home from the beach. Excuses, excuses. Anyway, at least I'm posting one this month! 

- Greer has (obviously) grown up a lot in the last two months! She is sitting up, mimicking sounds, eating some finger foods, really wanting to crawl and still smiling and giggling all the time! 

- Eating: she has three meals a day and five bottles. She is now fully weaned. I loved nursing and am so happy with how it went for us but I will say I've enjoyed this next stage of her being on formula. I had either a stomach bug or food poisoning in Little Rock in April and that started the process of weaning because my supply went way down. But I wasn't totally finished until this past week. As far as food goes, she eats anywhere from three to seven ounces of baby food at each meal. Some that I've made, some that I've bought. She's also eating puffs, yogurt melts and mum mums. And we've started introducing very few finger foods like cheese but she's not really into it yet. 

- Playing: She has been sitting up on her own for over a month. That was a big change for us because she definitely preferred to be upright so she was in her exersaucer or the Johnny Jump Up A LOT. Now she's happy to play on the floor for long periods of time. She has also started to lunge forward for things and can pivot on her tummy. Next step... crawling! Honestly, I'm not quite ready for that yet! I am SO enjoying this stage where she can entertain herself but isn't mobile!

- Sleeping: So, my last post was when she was 5 months old and we were in the middle of sleep training. Since then we have gotten on a great schedule, totally lost that schedule, and then gotten back on it! Ha. It's funny (in a totally frustrating way) that as soon as you think you've figured things out you travel or you change one little thing that throws everything off. But for now she is napping well (about an hour and a half in the morning and two and a half hours in the afternoon!) and sleeping between eleven and twelve hours at night! I am one lucky mama. 

- Growing: Well, the stats I have for now are actually from her 6 month appointment. She was 21lbs1oz (98th percentile) and was 28.5 inches long (literally off the charts). She is still barely in her 9 month pj's and mostly 12 month clothes. Her 9 month smocked dresses do still fit, though, for those of you who have prayed. ;-) 

I love you, Greer! You bring us more and more joy every single day! 

Five Months!

The Goose is five months old! I can hardly believe it. While we traveled a lot in her fourth month, her fifth month brought lots of visitors! Nene came twice(!) and the Holman family came for a really fun cousin (and mommy BFF quality time) weekend. She has also done lots of growing, smiling, giggling and eating. So... Here are some specific updates and memories:

- She weighs about 19 lbs per my crude home weighing. Big. Girl. She's all cheeks and belly. And I love it all.

- She is eating food! And she LOVES it. Not shocking considering how much her momma and daddy love food. But when I feed her she leans forward into each bite. It's so funny... And makes feeding her a little trickier. She loves carrots, butternut squash and apples. She is so-so on bananas and does not like peas or avocados. We'll try the peas again in a couple of weeks, though. Next on the list to try are pears and sweet potatoes. So far I've been making her food and really enjoy it. Not committing to always make it but for now it's really fun and cheap!

- Sleep... Oh, sleep. First of all let me say we are SO fortunate because she always sleeps through the night. And when I say through the night I mean ELEVEN hours! Miraculous! However, last Sunday night we stopped swaddling and started "sleep training." Since her go-to move when she has the use of her hands is to immediately rip her paci out of her mouth, I knew that unswaddling would also mean starting to cry it out. Otherwise I would be in her room basically standing over her until she fell asleep. Night time has been fine (we started with almost an hour of crying and are now down to about 15-30 minutes). Naps, however, have been disastrous. The real problem is that I tried to create a nap schedule at the same time. I think that was too much all at once. So, she is now napping in the swing again - which really means we've regressed from where we were before when she was at least napping in her crib. Ugh. But, my new plan is to get the schedule part down and then we'll tackle taking those naps in the crib, unswaddled, again. I feel that Greer needs to be able to soothe herself and its important that she can be happy without me being right in front of her face. Easier said than done. I'll be VERY interested to see what my update is on this point next month. Haha.

- On a much happier note Greer is SUCH a sweet, happy girl! Yesterday a stranger said hi to her while she was strapped to me in Costco and Greer couldn't have smiled any bigger! At a stranger! It makes me so happy that she has such a sweet disposition and is so friendly. Other than disliking the car seat (again, because I'm not right in her face in the car - haha) she is happy almost all her waking hours! She likes to bounce in the exersaucer and LOVES to watch Dexter wherever he goes. He will be asleep on the couch and she will bust up laughing at him. I love it.

- She CAN put her paci in her mouth correctly now! Sometimes it takes her a couple of attempts but she has made so much progress in the last week, which is almost definitely due to all the crib tears that have been shed. ;-)

- So, she has not rolled over ONCE since last month's post. I blame the belly. She's got a lot of "Greer" to roll. Ha. And she's also a lot happier on her tummy than she has been in the past. So, we're working on sitting up right now - basically just moving on to the next milestone. She HAS rolled over so it doesn't really bother me that's she's content just hanging out however we lay her down (whether she's on her back or her belly).

- She went to the nursery at church on Palm Sunday for the first time! It was the first time anyone kept her other than relatives. I actually did really well and even paid attention to the sermon! And Greer did pretty well, too. When we walked in she was being held because "she got grumpy in the bouncy seat" (shocker) but she was happy as she could be. I think not getting called out of church for a meltdown = success for our first time.

- I still call her Goose most of the time. I am also trying to use her name more and forgot to include "Greersy-Pants-Peeples" as one of my favorite nicknames in last month's post. Also, Will likes to work "Greer" into other names or sayings. So she gets called "Richard Greer" sometimes. Haha. We're strange. (Side note - Will calling Francis "Frangelica Houston" is actually my favorite such nickname.)

- We love FaceTime!! We FaceTime with my mom and sister on a regular (read: daily) basis but we've also chatted with my dad, Gigi and MH & Francis! Greer really does look at the phone and interact with whoever we're chatting with, too! And with all due respect to everyone else... She loves FaceTime with Susan THE MOST! She seriously lights up when Susan's face pops up on the screen! It makes me so happy!

- Stats: She's in size 3 diapers. She wears 6-12 month clothing (that sounds vague but we have lots of 6-12 mo items and then she wears some 6, some 9 and some 12 mo stuff!) and we did specifically have to jump up to 9 month pjs because she's so tall! Everyone please stop and say a prayer that her summer smocked dresses and bubbles fit her - they are ALL 9 months and it's making me sweat. Seriously. Pray.

So, those are the updates on our precious girl! She is the light of my life and such a treasure. I said this last month but I continue to feel unbelievably blessed that God chose us to be her parents. She belongs to him and we are just here to feed, clothe and adore her. And I will do all of it with all of my heart! Thank you Jesus for the gift of salvation and the amazing blessing of Greer Allan Peeples! My heart overflows.