ELEVEN MONTHS!

I cannot believe how close you are getting to being one year old! You are growing up so much!
-You LOVED your first Christmas. You loved playing with everything under the tree all month long. You would play with the tree and the ornaments, and all the presents. Luckily nothing got destroyed though!
-You drink from a bottle, hallejuah!!
-You also love table food, we found out ham and stuffing are huge hits with you! You out-ate both of your brothers when we had our Christmas Eve dinner
-You pull up on everything!
-You aren't cruising yet
-You are afraid of falling and sitting down once you are standing, so you just stand there and cry when you are ready to get down
-You are cutting both of your top molars right now
-You are getting a little better about going to other people. We still haven't left you with anyone yet though
-You are starting to understand a lot of what we say to you
-You love baths
-You can act out pat-a-cake when I do it with you
-You got the nasty shigellosis bacteria that everyone else got in December. It was NO FUN! But you got the mildest case of all, and handled it very well.
-You are into EVERYTHING and put EVERYTHING in your mouth!
-You are the sweetest thing EVER!

TEN MONTHS

(FROM 11-27)

It is amazing how much more we get to see of your personality every month! Here is what you are like at 10 months...
-HUGE stranger anxiety. Will only go to mom and dad, and sometimes not even dad.
-You won't take bottles and mom doesn't make milk, so we feed you formula from a syringe because it is the only way you will eat.
-You love to wave and clap
-You sleep really well at night
-You have no interest in standing, or walking. Even when we are holding on to you, you don't want to do either.
-You love table food!
-You are shy, but love attention. Kind-of a juxtaposition!

Nine Months

IVY!!! I am loving every second of this age. You are so fun, and your personality is really starting to show.  Here are the facts:
-You are a TOTAL mommy's girl. You have stranger anxiety bad, and won't let anyone else hold you. You are usually fine with dad, but prefer mom.
-You love table food! You are a hard girl to feed, because you don't like formula, bottles, rice cereal, lots of baby food, ect. But you love table food!
-You have just the two bottom teeth.
-You learned how to clap, and love showing your trick off
-You still don't like to stand at all
-You are starting to change from the army crawl to hands and knees crawl. I've been saying that for a while though! You slowly start to do it more and more, but haven't fully converted yet.
-You have started sleeping really really good! In St.George you slept for 12 hours at night!!
-You ADORE your brothers. (even though Cole knocked over the exersauser you were in today and you hit your head)
-You will cuddle with me when you're tired
-You like your own space at night though, we don't sleep together at all!
-You make so many sounds. I swear, you are going to be talking before we know it! You will mimick sounds that I make. You say dada all the time about everything. You have said that mama sound before, but not often. At church, I was showing you pictures of Jesus and I swear you were trying to say Jesus. You act like you try to say Hi a lot too. I really do think you are trying to say so many words. I'm just waiting for your first word (does the dada sound count??) to come any day now!
-You are timid but so fun. You love when attention is on you and give the best smiles. You don't laugh a ton, but when you do it is the sweetest thing.

8 Months

What's new at 8 Months-
-You have MAJOR stranger anxiety. Meaning, nobody can hold you but mom!
-You still nurse, and you eat the squeeze packages of baby food too.
-You can army crawl great, and your rock back and forth on your knees, I think you will be hands and knees crawling any day.
-You are not cruising or pulling up to a stand at all! not even close to walking!
-You say dada all the time now. You can mimick sounds that we make.
-You give "fives"
-You do this hacking sound when you want to eat. Its so quirky and cute!
-You totally know what the sign for milk means, I don't know if you can do it yet, because you are always squeezing your fist when you are a little upset :)
-You wake up 1-2 times a night to eat and take 2-3 naps during the day

This has been a big month for you! Love you!

xoxo
Mom

7 months

7 Months old!

-You are still nursing

-You will eat baby food or rice cereal only when you are in the mood

-You can sit like a champ

-You haven't even thought about crawling yet

-You are getting busier, and don't always want to cuddle when I do

-Your favorite song is "you are my sunshine".  I didn't know babies this young could have a favorite, but you will light up whenever I sing it to you.

-You like lotion rubs after your baths

-You also love baths, and will splash around

-You are ticklish, especially your thighs

-You adore your brothers, and they make you laugh all day

-We have started signing with you. You haven't done any yet, but I think you're starting to understand what the sign for milk means, because you get excited when we do it.

-You are my worst baby sleeper yet! You wake up SEVERAL times in the night, usually because you can't find your binky. We need to start sleep training pronto.

We love everything about you, sweet girl!

Ivy

Ivy:
We just got through a really, really rough spell with you. After the doctor told me that I might need to supplement your feedings with formula, I went home and pumped to check my supply and it was super low! I was so worried you were starving that I tried and tried and tried to force the bottle on you. You would not take it. It was stressful, and hard, and there was very little sleep in our home. I thought I was totally done nursing, but thru some fenugreek and lots of drinking water, my milk came back in!!! Best day ever!! You are a happy girl about that! I loved the way you acted the first time I fed you after not getting nursed for 2 days. You squealed and kicked your legs and were SO SO happy. I love nursing you! I'm glad we're back at it for a little longer. You aren't super cuddly, so that's the best time to snuggle you. You always hold my finger with your hand while you're nursing.

xoxo
mom

6 Months

6 MONTHS!

I seriously can't believe how fast these past 2 months have flown by! We love our Ivy girl so much. 

Here is what life is like with Ivy these days:

-She can sit up on her own for a minute or so then she topples over. We practice with her.

-I pretty much exclusively nurse her. No formula, and she has only had rice cereal a couple of times.

-We gave her some baby food for her 6 month birthday and she spit it all out :)

-Ivy has been acting like she's teething for a couple weeks now. She has been sleeping like a newborn  and pretty fussy during the day, always with her hands in her mouth. I hope she is getting them all in at once so we can be done with teething!

-Her gums randomly started bleeding the other day, but I haven't seen any teeth yet. 

-We finally moved her into her own room. I miss her a lot in the pack n play right next to our bed. 

-She laughs at Cooper the most.

-She loves to smile! She is always looking for somebody to look at and smile at. 

-She coos and talks a lot. 

-Her favorite song is "you are my sunshine". I know its weird to have a favorite song at this age but she always smiles the biggest when I sing that song to her. She LOVES it.

-Her favorite games are pat-a-cake and when we sing the "dance as fast as you want to" song from the library and make her dance. The boys love doing these with her.

-She has finally started using binkys. I don't know how I feel about that. She usually only uses it for sleep though.

-She hates when I paint her nails because of the smell. As soon as I open the bottle, she screams.

-She is rolling all over the place (both ways) but not scooting at all!

-She has started loving lotion rubs

-She still loves bath time

-Her naps aren't very consistent because I always drag her along to playgroup activities for the boys. If she could, she would love to nap at 10 and 1. Her morning nap is usually just 1-2 hours, but she can nap for hours in the afternoon. She is tired by 7-8 pm but she is on sleep restrictions in the evening because of her bad sleeping at night lately :)

-Her disposition is the very sweetest. She is pretty much always good, she is such a happy baby with the biggest smile. 

-We try not to spoil her but kind-of can't help it :)

5 months

You are 5 months! How did that happen?! You are so sweet. Your personality is starting to show more and more. You love when we play with you. You smile and laugh a lot now. You hardly ever cry. You laugh the most for Cooper. He loves to talk to you and play with you. You have rolled over both ways but usually you roll from your back to stomach and forget how to roll back over. You aren't able to move your hands however you want to yet, but you are always trying to grab at things. You give big, open-mouth kisses. (probably because you get big kisses on your lips) You hate to have your nails painted, because of the smell. 

Dear Ivy

Dear Ivy:

I want to write down some of the things that I hope for you throughout your life.

-The thing I want more than anything else is for you to know that your Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live, and love you. I want you to know how to recognize the Holy Ghost and find answers to your questions through study and prayer.

-I hope that you are able to help others recognize the spirit the way that you are able to.

-I want you to be someone who looks for the good, and helps others do the same. I hope that you can always be happy, even if you've had a bad day.

-I want you to love life! I want you to dream big, to take chances, and to accomplish everything that you were meant to do with your life!

-I want you to have a close relationship with your family. I hope that you will always be close to your brothers, dad, and me. I hope that we will have a special relationship with each other and always love each other.

-I hope that you know that I love you forever! Please talk to me about everything-happy, sad, confusing, exciting....I want to be a part of your life through it all!

-I want you to love to learn. I want you always be looking for spiritual and temporal knowledge, each type of learning will enhance the other.

-I want you to marry somebody in the temple who makes you happy. I want you to marry somebody who has a testimony as strong as yours, and makes you a better person.

-I want you to be able to recognize your gifts, and that you will be able to see your potential and path through life.

Ivy, I am sure that I will be adding things to this list through your life. Your dad and I prayed for you in our family, and we are so glad that you are here. I love you more than I could ever tell you, and can't wait to see you grow up!

Love, mom