The girl loves her dad.

I was on the phone with my mom today and told her two quick Jens stories and she said, "That is the stuff you should be writing down! You'll want to remember that!"

So... Two days ago Jens and I were at Ace Hardware picking up some flowers for the backyard. I was holding her on my hip and busy talking to the cashier and not paying attention to her at all. She was patting my back and grunting and trying to get my attention, and I didn't even realize until she weaseled her way up my chest, grabbed my face, and kissed me right on the lips. How is she old enough to do that?

And... Today, for the first time ever, she cried when her dad left for work. It was the sweetest/saddest thing. She wanted nothing to do with me. I had to pry her away from him and we watched him walk out the door and get in his car, while she was reaching out for him the entire time.

Time, just stop.

Sick.

We have been sick up in here. It started with Jens on Friday night. We were sharing a few night time snuggles before she hit the hay, and before I knew it, she was sharing her vomit all over both us. Sorry, that's sounds really gross. But motherhood is really gross sometimes. And if you didn't remember - she eats real food now; so it wasn't sweet baby spit-up.

I'll spare you all the gory details. But the night included: 3 baths for the baby, 2 showers for the momma, 3 crib sheet changes, 4 dirty towels, 3 pairs of pajamas, and one Dad who had some medical exam boards the next morning.

She was such a little trooper. This picture was taken after her 3rd bath.

Then the next day, Ben got it. And then in the middle of the night, when I was bringing a vomiting Ben some water; I got it. We were not a pretty sight.

I spent today washing every single thing in this house that would fit in my washing machine.

Nine months

My baby is 9 whole months old. Just tonight, the three of us were sitting at the table eating pizza (yes, the baby was eating pizza) and Ben and I could just not believe how BIG she seemed. How old she seemed. Picking up pieces of bread and cheese and eating like she had been starved, taking a quick break to throw her head back and get a swig of water from her sippy cup, making faces and cracking up with her dad from across the table. It was all just a little to much for my heart to handle.

Tuesday she had her 9 month check-up. The girl is in the 50% for weight, height and even head circumference. We have a perfectly average kid. She actually loved Dr. Krause this visit and passed the 9 month milestone checklist.

Says "mama" and "dada" - check
Pulls up and "cruises" around furniture - check
Uses her fingers to pick up food - check
Starting to throw tantrums - check

Jens loves food. The only thing that she hasn't seemed to like was a taste of oatmeal and a green olive. (Her dad gave her the green olive, just to be clear.) Her favorite foods at the moment are yogurt with blueberries, turkey, and beans of any kind. She is still nursing 4 or 5 times a day and eating 3 meals a day with us.

She goes to bed, in her crib, anywhere from 7:30 to 8:00 (or more like 10:00 or 11:00 when her grandparents are in town) and wakes around 5:00 or 6:00 to eat. She usually falls back asleep in our bed for a couple of hours.

She is into everything. And she's really fast.

She absolutely loves being outside. She sits in the grass while I water the flowers. And I wear her in the sling when I mow the grass. I didn't realize how weird people might think that is, until I caught one of my neighbors taking a picture of us with her iPhone.

We had Ben's cousins and their boyfriends over for dinner and they got her to wave all night. I haven't been able to get her to do it again. So I don't think she can claim that skill yet.

She loves to give kisses. I remember telling Ben when she was born that I wanted that to be one of the first things she learned. So I started from the beginning, saying "kiss" whenever I would give her  asmooch. Now she doesn't even need to hear the word, if you are anywhere near her face; she will kiss you. It never gets old. My favorite is when she is crying her little head off and her dad will say "kiss", she will stop crying, give him a kiss, and then start wailing again. It's a tad bit ridiculous.

**I wrote this post and took these pictures a couple of weeks ago. Oops.

8 months continued

8 months

There are no pictures to post this time; not yet anyways. The babe has been sickly and the momma has been lazy, and the pictures have just not been taken. I have a few more weeks. Anyway, I just had to go ahead and write this post, because she's learning so much every day. I was just telling my parents last night, that this week has been unbelievable. I feel like she is literally growing up right before my eyes. Dramatic, I know. I just want to freeze all of these moments, to be able to go back to them and relish in them whenever I want. Okay, I'm done.

1. Crawling - she started a few weeks ago, but just this week she's started exploring the entire house. I lost her for a few minutes today.

2. She says something that sounds a lot like "mamama". She only says it when she's tired of chasing us and wants to be picked up,  or when she's really hungry and she wants the goods. It just happens once or twice every day or two, but I love love love to hear it.

3. She pulls up! We try to put her in her crib with some toys for a little "independent play time" every day (aka - time for mom to take a shower). This past weekend I plopped her in there turned around to grab some toys and next thing I know she's standing up with a huge, proud smile on her face. To the pack-n-play she went until Ben could lower her crib mattress. If you see us anytime soon, try to ignore the bruises on her face that she got while gallivanting around the coffee table, dining room chairs, cabinets, our legs, etc...

4. Ben, and her grandparents, and her Sonshine School teachers, and everyone else with some sense, have finally talked me into putting her to sleep without swaddling her. The poor girl has probably been ready for a while. But something about seeing her all cuddled up and snugly, means she's still a little baby.

5. She doesn't sleep as well as I'd like her to.

6. She still has the ear infections. She has an appointment with the ENT tomorrow.

7. She claps! And when we're holding her and she gets excited about something, she starts patting us. It's like she's saying "Mom! Look! Sweet potatoes!"

8. She still picks her dad over me most of the time, unless she's hungry. I both love this and hate this.

9. She weighed 17.9 pounds at the doctor's office yesterday.

10. She likes to do naughty things now - like stand up in the bath tub and throw her puffs.

She is pretty awesome.

Sorry this is so long and wordy. It's mainly just for me.

Family Pics

My cousin just married a sweet girl, Mary, who - lucky for us- just happens to be a photographer. I wanted to get some special 6 month pictures of Jens - especially because you all have seen my sorry excuse for photography during her monthly shoots in her bedroom. We decided to do it on a day that Ben wasn't working so that we could get some family shots also. I love love love how they turned out. I keep putting off ordering any. I just can't decide - partially because they just all seem to perfectly capture Jens' little personality, but also because I'm just horrible at making decisions. Here are a few of my favorites.

7 months!

I'm sorry; I'm not really good at taking pictures. 

She's somewhere closer to 7 and a half months by now. I'm a tad late, but she doesn't care. I feel like the past couple of weeks Jenson has been changing and learning new things left and right; I can't keep up. She is at such a great stage. Not to mention, it's pretty perfect because she can sit up and play and is so hilarious and fun; but she's not really mobile yet, so she can't get into too much trouble.

She is going to crawl any minute. We've been saying that for weeks now, but it still hasn't happened yet. She can go backwards, sideways, and all around - just not forward.

She can go from laying to sitting and sitting to laying.

We are pretty much constantly trying to get her to say "Dada or Mama" but she's not having it.

She still gets pretty excited whenever she sees her dad. However, he's been working nights lately and he usually wakes us both up when he gets home, so the poor guy hasn't been getting super exciting welcomes from either of us. But we're still always happy to see him.

The poor baby is going on her 7th week of a double ear infection. So far, no antibiotic is working. The doc says that if this last one doesn't work, then it's tube time. She's still being just as sweet as can be.

She's starting to play peek-a-boo, and I swear she clapped the other day. Maybe she will have it mastered by the 8 month update.

She's eaten apples, bananas, squash, peas, carrots, pumpkin, pears, and malt-o-meal. Bananas and squash are her favorite. I've been making her food and it has been surprisingly easy and definitely cheaper. Easy and cheap - two things I love.

I can't believe it has been 7 months. I keep thinking it's just going to become normal one of these days. But I still wake up each day being completely enamored by her, totally obsessed with her, and just absolutely so happy to be her mom.