Happy 9 months Rowan!!!!

What a month it has been! 9 months have flown quicker than I would have liked. This month was huge for my precious girl. Each month she has achieved some sort of milestone or discovery, but this month, she truly blossomed. For example, she said "mama" and "dada" this month! She is going from my precious little infant to my big girl! I am a little sad about this!

To be honest, I cried the other day at the thought of her turning one. I LOVE babies, and I savored and loved this time of her life. I know I will never get it back. I also have been so nervous of the toddler years, which I have heard is HARD. Sigh, let's enjoy the present!


Here we go!




Name: Rowan Decaris Potter

Rowan's age: 9 months old, 7.5 months adjusted

Weight: This girl is huge and stands at 21.10 pounds of chunky goodness. I just love it so much, I just love chubby babies!! I can't get enough of her!

Solids?  Yes! This girl has LOVED every fruit and veggie we have given her, LOL!!!! Drinks four 6 oz bottles throughout the day.

Clothing size: 18 month clothing for this girl! She still wears some 12 months, but we are fitting much more nicely in 18. Size 24 months or 2T in pants, LOL! Those chubby thighs are no joke!  Still in size 3 diapers, but we might have to slowly transition to size 4 soon, as size 3 is a bit tight. Still the tiniest feet in the land!

Rowan milestones (for her adjusted age, 7.5 months):

-Rowan is THISCLOSE to crawling. She gets up and moves her legs up but hasn't totally mastered it. She did scoot backwards! To move, she slithers on her belly, roll super fast or will spin on her belly, LOL!  According to her therapist, she is right on track and kindly reminded me that some babies don't even crawl till 10 months, some don't at all! As much as I want her to achieve this milestone, I am not super rushing it as that means BABY PROOFING. Gulp.

 

-Rowan has always been very verbal, and babbles LOUDLY AND CONSTANTLY. However, she said "Dada" and "Mama" very clearly this month. It could be chalked up to babbling, but during a shopping trip at Target, she looked right at me and said "mama" with a smile. This makes my heart so happy!!!

-Rowan is starting to clap! When she sees something she likes or gets excited, she will clap her hands together. It's so precious!

 

-Rowan is also starting to wave. If you wave at her, she will lift her hand and will try to wiggle her fingers.

-Rowan "dances" when held, lol. She will bounce up and down and move her tushy, lol. 

 Rowan loves: 

-Any toy that plays music or lights up. She gets so excited!

-LOVES her wubnub paci. That thing has saved our lives so many times!

-any sort of lights. Christmas was so fun looking at lights and any type of light makes her squeal

-she loves being outdoors and in public. She loves watching people, and gets easily intrigued by everything.

-she loves her big ol' baby doll. She got one from my mom for Christmas and adores it! She thinks big ol' baby is real, lmao!

Rowan doesn't like:
-the dreaded nose Frida. Her mortal enemy.

-LOUD NOISES. Despite being a super loud girl herself, she doesn't LIKE any shrill, loud noises.

 

New/fun things we did this month:

-We did an overnight trip to the bay and met up with my bff and her family. It was so fun and Rowan did a great job! I am so thankful she loves to travel!

-CHRISTMAS! Gosh it was so fun!

Honestly, not a whole ton, as Rowan ONCE AGAIN caught bronchiolitis. SIGH! However, I feel we caught it early and since we knew how to treat it, it didn't seem so severe. Despite being sick, this girl is a trooper!

How is Rowan's spit up?: Practically non-existent!

 

Sleep:

Sleep has been disrupted because she has had many coughing fits at night that wake her up. Poor babe! We are now back on track and she sleeps straight through from 7:30-5:30, sometimes 6 am. I am so happy about this, but makes for tough weekends when she doesn't get the memo that we don't have to be up that early. Oh well, not complaining! 

 Naps?

3 naps, a short AM nap (40 minutes), a mid morning nap that lasts about 2 hours, and 1 late afternoon nap (30 minutes-1 hour)

 
Rowan's personality so far: 
Rowan is seriously such a good baby! She is super easy going and goes with the flow, just like her "dada". Despite she is a mover and shaker, she is so cuddly. I try to savor those cuddles and nibble those yummy cheeks!  I am so thankful to be the mother of this fabulous baby girl!

My Rowan dump:

A Christmas break recap...

It should come to no surprise I'm blogging this over 3 weeks late. SIGH.

Christmas was amazing! One of the major perks of working at my particular district is we get 2 glorious weeks off!!! Those two weeks were spent cuddling/kissing the crap out of Rowan, sleeping in (yes, more on that later), relaxing, and spending time with family and friends. Best of all, enjoying the wonderful holidays!

Our first week of break we did a overnight trip to the bay area, met up with my best friend and her beautiful family. They were visiting from Texas, so any time we get to see them it is super special! It was the first time our kids finally were able to meet! We were pregnant at the same time and both had girls! It was so awesome the babies could finally meet! SO fun!

The rest of the weekend was awesome, and Rowan was a great traveler!

 We came home and basically relaxed the rest of the week as we geared up for Christmas. One thing that was super awesome was that Rowan let us "sleep in" most of the break! I will admit, her schedule got pushed as she went to bed later than normal (8 rather than 7). Because of that, most mornings she would "sleep in" till 7:30, and few times she didn't get up till 8! IT WAS AMAZING. I never felt so awake and rested, lol!!!

Christmas Eve was amazing and we spent it with my side of the family. Rowan got the most precious, poofiest dress from Target! She looked just exquisite!:

We went to church and had THE MOST delicious feast after. The kids were just precious in their Christmas clothes!  Of course, I had to do a "photo shoot'' with my fancy camera . Since my blog is public, I'm not posting my sister's kids out of respect for their privacy. However, you get the idea.

After, the cousins and Rowan changed into coordinating Christmas jammies! We wanted matching ones, but boy, it was so hard to find! Rowan's jammies were a little snug but good heavens she looked so yummy with her little chubby rolls sticking out:

We all ended up in cozy jammies and opened gifts. Rowan loved it, BUT was clearly more interested in tissue paper and the wrapping paper!

Christmas morning was very low key. My sister, her family and my mom usually drive up to San Jose to spend it with my sister's in laws. My in law family usually goes to their perspective in law families, so usually its just my little family in town! I kind of don't mind, because as our family grows (MAYBE, don't get ideas!) it will be nice to just be home!  We got up around 8ish and opened gifts as a new family of 3. It was super fun and very special. I just can't wait for more Christmases with Rowan!!! She once again had a ton of fun opening gifts!

After gifts, Rowan went down for a nap and we felt tired as well. We all ended up taking a 2 hour nap! After we woke up, we all just snuggled in bed and watched Duck Dynasty. It was quite a hilarious sight! Usually on Christmas Day we go to the movies and get pizza or Chinese. Since we had Rowan, we obviously couldn't go, but we still kept our dinner tradition!

On the 26th, we got to have lunch and spend some quality time with my in law family. They are quite the hoot and super fun to be around. Rowan of course got lots of love, snuggles and gifts! We had a pizza lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing with the family. The one thing that IRKS me is that I didn't take pictures! I left the fancy camera at home and my phone died! SIGH....
The holidays were super fun! It was seriously magical to see it through Rowan's eyes. Even though she probably didn't get what was going on half the time, it was still so fun!

  

catch up series: 6 month pictures and the diva

Haha, her 6 month pictures made it into the catch up series!

Back in late October,  we set out to take her 6 month pictures. We were also going to take our fall pictures at the same time. We once again used the fabulous Jamie Cardoza.

We took our pictures at West 12 Ranch in Lodi, which is seriously the most perfect place to take pictures. I was nervous about how Rowan would be, as babies are unpredictable at times. Sure enough, she was miss grumpy, and was very serious.

The shoot started off well. Despite being a grump (especially in the first pic) she warmed up:

Then, Jamie incorporated us into the shots...but that's when the s%$# hit the fan. There is one picture where Shannon had to lift Rowan so we could look at her. Apparently, she DID NOT find that amusing, which hence came the biggest meltdown/temper tantrum in history. Holy heavens. All because Daddy lifted her in the air.

This is the offending picture. You can even see her little face is clearly displeased:

The embarrassing thing, was there were tons of families doing shoots. She was screaming so loudly, and people were looking at us. I know, I know, I shouldn't care, but I did. A baby boy her age was doing his shoot and he was sitting perfectly, cooing and giving these best smiles. I magically got boiling hot and sweaty as I was trying to wrangle my chubby, screaming 6 month old who at the same time, was trying to rip my hair out.

Us newbies forgot her paci in the car, so hubby ran to go get it. Miraculously, she stopped crying. However, the minute she saw her father, she screamed at him and proceeded to cry. Almost like she did it on purpose because she saw him, LOL!

After 20 minutes of incessant screaming, stares from strangers, and us about to lose our minds, our awesome photog wisely advised maybe we try again later. We packed up our crazy diva, and went home.

About a week later during the first part of Thanksgiving break, we met again. This time we met after her first morning nap. Hubby and I wore the same outfits, Rowan wore different ones. This was Rowan during this shoot, thank goodness!:

It was a good thing to meet in the morning and Rowan did loads better. However, she scares me! She is SUCH a happy, sweet, joyful baby, BUT when she gets mad, lookout! I am SO nervous for the 2's and 3's. Anyway, the shoot turned out amazing and we are so thankful to Jamie Cardoza Photography for being so flexible and doing such a great job! What did I learn? BE FLEXIBLE. Babies clearly have their own agenda at times, and flexibility is key!! Here are some of my faves.....