Big Girl Now!

Felicity is having fun doing lots of new things! This may be my favorite age so far! We are just loving seeing her little personality! Here are lots of photos from the last month.

Meeting my new cousin, Mackenzie Rose! She is so tiny!

And giving her a kiss!

With Auntie Calee! She is so fun!

 This is my new favorite spot to hang out.

 Helping my mom get her sewing done.

 I know... I am cute.

 Yeah, I know I'm cool.

 

I bathe in the big girl tub now! It is way more fun!

 Just sharing some string cheese with Daddy.

 I like to keep tabs on the front yard.

Our 1 Year Old!

Finally posting Felicity's 1st birthday pics! We had so much fun celebrating her birthday! She loved her pink cake made for by yours truly. Well, she mainly loved the frosting and focused mostly on eating that. I did so much in preparation for the party I just didn't have the energy to get this blog post done! But I wrote the following right after her birthday when I attempted to get this post done. :) 

Felicity is a year and one week old. This first year went by too quickly. She is walking around like crazy now and continues to become more and more independent.

She walks from room to room exploring and her newest routine is to take the ABC kitchen magnets off the fridge, carry them to the living room one at a time and set them on the living room chair. I am not sure why she enjoys this, but hey, whatever floats her boat. It is pretty darn cute! And after a year of refusing pacifiers- she now wants one. Ha. I am watching a little 8 month old who has a pacifier and Felicity really wanted it. The same day she kept trying to steal his I was putting some things away and found a bag of pacifiers I had tried to get her to take. I gave her one that looked like his and she just thought she was the do'ins. Felicity would put the pacifier in her mouth, walk a few steps, take it out look at it, smile with satisfaction and put it back in only to repeat. Don't worry I only let her play with it, we are not getting hooked to it now. I guess now is the time to be thankful that she never wanted one because there is nothing to break her of as far as that is concerned.  :) 

We look forward to all this next year holds in our little girl's life! I can't wait till Felicity is able to talk to us too!

Felicity's 1 year stats: 

(we have a little sweet pea)

Weight: 16 lb 3 oz

Height: 29" 

Camping Post Baby

Felicity went camping for the first time at the end of July! I just realized I never posted the pictures and I got some cute ones so I just had to post them! She was a good girl. The plan was four nights and we made it through three nights. The first two were great and the third was kind of a nightmare, so we cut the trip a night short. Her dad and I made a mental note that two nights in a tent is just about plenty for a baby her age. We look forward to meany more years of camping with her!

11 Months Old!!

One month away from a year...I can hardly believe it. I don't think I am ready for her infancy to be over so soon. Lately at night when I rock with her, cuddle and nurse her I try to take mental pictures and savor every single thing about that moment because I know this part of our relationship will come to a close way too soon. It make me teary. I didn't know I could love her this much, it literally hurts.

I am excited for the many things to come too, of course. I know I am going to love every stage. Brady and I love watching her do and learn new things. She is just a little sponge. She mimics us more and more and we are thinking she is going to be a bit of ham. Felicity make the funniest noises that she wants us to mimic and loves to laugh with us about it too. We have been working on saying mama lately and she is pretty close. She will now say ma with a bit of coaxing.

Felicity is also soooo close to walking. She has great balance and is able go from sitting to standing all alone, without support and can stand there dancing or moving her arms about without falling. She takes a falling step here and there too. I am excited for her, she is going to be so excited when she can finally walk, Ms. Independent.

She no longer wants my help with much of anything, even though she needs it. She gets irritated when I try to help her...not sure what this personality trait is going to mean for us in the future, or maybe it is just a phase that won't return till she is thirteen. :) ha...ha.

Well, we took our first trip to an urgent care this month and found out that Felicity is allergic to amoxicillin. She was on amoxicillin for an ear infection  and the day she came off her antibiotics she broke into a rash. Luckily the rash was the extent of the reaction and did not seem to bother her. The picture of her after a bath and her poor little bum covered in hives.

Felicity is also slowly growing out of her "I only want my Mama" phase. Again, this makes me happy and a little sad. Another stage is drawing to a close. But, I also love watching her go to her grandparents, aunts, and uncles much more easily. That does bring us all joy!! And it is nice having full use of both my arms again. I got pretty good at doing just about everything with one arm.

Brady and I are getting ready to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary and get to leave Felicity for a date night for the first time since she was born! The no bottle dilemma kept her and I close 24-7 which was a sweet time for her and me, but I am looking forward to spending some time with just my husband now too!! 

Felicity and cousin Reilly 

Reading. 

Drinking from a big girl cup. 

Felicity's First Summer!!

Summer fun! We have had fun going swimming with our little girl a few times!! Just had to share some of her cute photo ops!!

Showing off my ruffles.

Having fun at Splash!!

Mommy, give me that camera! 

Daddy and me!

Snack break with my sun hat!! 

Our 10 Month OLD!!

We are having a fun summer with our little girl! Felicity is doing well and it seems like she does something new everyday! She has lots of 'tricks' now that she loves to do even if you don't ask her. Her favorite is telling us she is "SOOO Big!" by putting her arms above her head. She also knows how to play peek-a-boo with a blanket, wave hi/bye, give 'kisses', dance, and high-five. We have had so much fun playing with her.

Felicity is also enjoying eating more and more finger foods. She is starting to pretty much flat out refuse the spoon lately and only wants to feed herself. It it is looking like she may be a picky eater (oh joy...) as she is pretty fickle about what she will and won't eat. One day she likes something and then the next she doesn't want it. I was pretty picky as a child as well, so I guess I had it coming. She is currently enjoying cherries and pieces of quinoa muffins and will usually always eat some cheese. We will see what she likes tomorrow!

Felicity has also officially figured out the sippy cup. She has been drinking out of one for a while now, but she would hardly get anything out. She can now drink a good amount all by herself. This feels like especially good news for us because she never took a bottle. She might actually get to be babysat now and maybe her dad and I can go out on a date... by ourselves none the less! 

I think we are making our way to walking fairly soon. She has been standing without holding onto anything for about a month now. She can balance pretty well for about 30 seconds, even if the ground is uneven. She is also enjoying cruising with me around the house.

Felicity has 6 going on 8 teeth right now too. These last two have been a doozy. She was drooling like crazy, had a stuffy nose and cough and has had trouble sleeping because she also came down with an ear infection, which I have learned can happen when they are teething. She didn't have much of an appetite while she was sick either and lost a little weight. She only lost a few ounces, but we are going back to the doc in a week to make sure she gained it back because she was already in the 8th percentile weighing in at about 15 lbs at 9 months. We have a petite little girl. :)

Teeth really are awful! Eight down, how many to go? 

In other family news, I am nannying part time this summer for a 5th and 3rd grader.  Felicity is loving spending time with them. She just LOVES kids and thinks they are the greatest! Also, I don't believe I have written how thankful we are that Brady has a teaching job for next year!! It is a half time position high school choir job with hopes of being full time the following year. We have been praying and waiting for a job for what feels like a really long time, it has made us even more thankful to the Lord for his provision!! 

See all my teeth?

 Just some light reading. 

SOOO BIG with my Daddy on Father's Day!  

9 Months!!

Felicity seems so much older than she did even just a month ago. She crawls like an expert now, pulls to stand everywhere, takes little steps while holding onto something, and babbles all the time now. Her most frequent babble is "dada," which her daddy is so very proud of. The other day it sounded like she said, "yeah dad." He liked that one too.

Sleep is still going well. It got a little tricky when she first learned to pull up. She would stir a little, wake up, pull to stand and just stand there crying for a really long time. She is now used to the new skill and does not feel the need to stand up in her crib every waking moment. I was thankful it was just a phase. 

 I can also tell she is getting older by how she falls asleep these days. Previously, she would always cry for a few minutes before going to sleep if I laid her down awake, but all of sudden she no longer cries when I lay her in the crib! She just calmly watches me walk out the room and talks herself to sleep, which I must admit, is much more pleasant for all of us. 

Felicity also has four teeth now. She has both her front top and front bottom teeth. She was a trooper getting them in. She was a little fussy here and there and lost her appetite for a few days, but the whole ordeal was not too bad.  It would be great if the rest were as easy. I think seeing her with teeth is part of what is making her seem so old these days! 

I have heard a few people say that nine months is their favorite age and I am starting to see why. She is picking up on little games and her laugh is just contagious! Brady and her started playing chase the other day and I uploaded a sweet video of them playing. So cute!  This morning I was crawling on the floor chasing her and she would turn around and laugh so hard at me. We would just sit there laughing at one another. We are just so in love with her! 

I celebrated my first Mother's Day as a mommy this year! I told my mom that morning that I felt like I had earned a Mother's Day this year, and she reminded me that I will earn it EVERY year. No doubt that is true. I was remembering as a child I would ask my parents why there wasn't a "kids day." They would say, "Everyday is kid's day." I never really understood that then, but now it is perfectly clear. :) Everyday is most definitely kid's day. 

We had a really nice Mother's Day at Brady's parents house. My parents joined us there and we all had brunch together. Reilly, Felicity's cousin, was so cute and wanted to feed Felicity during brunch. We got a cute video of below.  I think I have written this before, but Reilly is Felicity's favorite. Felicity was acting like she didn't want to eat anymore until Reilly started to feed her. Felicity proceeded to eat and eat and eat as long as Reilly held the spoon. It was cute! 

I like my books. 

Don't let static stop you.

I have one front tooth and the other is about to pop through!!

"Mom and Dad got me a swing." 

"It's okay... I guess. They really want me to like it."

Reilly feeding Felicity. 

I like to empty this cabinet. 

Playing with Dad.