Nine Month Nugget!

My how time flies! Our sweet baby girl just had her 9 month check up and a lot of action has been going on around the Morgan household! At 8 months Taylor started scooting and three weeks ago it turned to crawling. Around the same time we heard her first words... MAMA! I was quite proud and she loved to squeal and yell mama. I must admit that everything was mama, not just me! We took a family trip to Las Vegas last week. That was interesting to say the least, but we had a good time. Taylor and I were kicked out of several areas in Vegas, and learned the only places you are ok to go in Vegas are shopping centers! We used a nanny service in Vegas at night and it was actually pretty amazing. The lady we used was so sweet and Taylor just loved her. Kevin and I did decide that would be our last trip to Vegas with a baby! I was not prepared for hr time change which = her waking up at 5 am Vegas time. She was great on the flights and was such a trooper as always the entire trip. We have the sweetest little social butterfly. Mommy & daddy love you so much!

Here are the rest of her updates!

Stats:

Height: 29 in. /90%
Weight: 22 lbs/ 90%
Head: 47th percentile (don't remember size)

Taylor loves:
-Crawling everywhere!
-Crawling in the bathtub/ splashing
-Baby Cheerios
-Barney and Wonder Pets
-Feeding herself her bottles and even baby food pouches when we are on the go (so independent)
-Blabbing and squealing
-talking and smiling with anyone!
-Playing with the chihuahuas
-drinking out of any straw and bottles of water
-Exploring and putting everything in her mouth! Yikes!!
-napping in her swing (a big problem as we are already over the weight limit!)
-her big girl sit-up stroller
-runs at the park
-still loves the jumper
- a big fan of the new tent her aunt titi and uncle Kyle got her!

Day to day:
- down to breastfeeding once a day
-eats 3 meals a day and 2-3 bottles
-napping 2-3 hours/ day
-sleeps 8pm- 7am, occasionally waking up in middle of night (mom tries to usually stay strong and let her fuss it out, but sometimes ends up doing a midnight feed)
- her 3rd tooth just popped through on the top right
-hates avocados (if you know my entire families love of them, than this is insane)
-bath and books every night! She loves her stories!

On the Move-8 month update

About 2 weeks ago Taylor started officially scooting. Fast forward two weeks and she is crawling like a champ! This lil thing is on the move! It is so cute and she will especially crawl towards a cell phone or remote control.

Taylor Loves:
- runs with her daddy
-going to the play gym with mom
- sippy cup with straw
- looking in the mirror
- playing with her bows
- her evening bath time
- reading books
- PUPPY DOGS (she's obsessed)
- water fountains and sprinklers
- other little kiddos
- her talking puppy dog, Violet
- feeding herself her own bottle
- any food!(she wishes she could chew)
- visiting with Anyone!

Dislikes:
- the vacuum cleaner
- getting her Pj's put on
- being left alone!

She is also a straw-loving machine. She use to always try to put the straws from cups in my hand in her mouth and chew. Then, I looked down and she learned to actually drink! She is non stop smiling and a social butterfly. Her tooth count is at 2 in the bottom, middle. She still likes to bury her head in my neck when she gets shy but then will quickly look up to smile and do it again. She is so ridiculously cute, it hurts! Her 9 month check up is in two weeks, but she is about 22lbs and I think about 25 inches. She has the best giggles that are usually brought on by mom barking (the things you do now as a parent-ha!), her mimi making funny faces or gaga and Aunt Titi dancing. She gets very excited when she sees and other little kids and wants to play so badly. She is babbling but no ma ma or da da's yet. We keep trying though! We have witnessed a few waves though. I think we may start a new music class for her next month which will give her a chance to socialize more too. Her newest trick is to shake her head back and forth. She isn't saying "no", it is more of her expressing excitement. Our online research said they like how the dizziness makes them feel. Oh great! Ha ha.

I am getting so excited for the first holidays with our little love... How fun is it going to be! That's all for now... Can't believe I'm already starting to think about her 1st birthday! Gasp!

September happenings

It seems like a lot of big changes have been happening around he Morgan household! Our little bug is growing leaps and bounds and our house has now been officially baby proofed thanks to Precious Baby company. I will do a separate post on just Tays big changes as that deserves its own :) in other news, we had a great visit with my grandpa, Elaine and my mom for a week, so that was a nice treat. Kevin and I were even able to have a wonderful date night at Morton's and an insanely good bottle of Insignia. Mmmm...

TRAVEL
Taylor and I went to Rockport, TX with with my mom and met my sister who lives there. They are building a house and it was amazing to see and it is only about 4 weeks from completion. It is just gorgeous. We spent lots of time shopping for house stuff, went to a hummingbird festival, shopped some more and and ate at some great restaurants. Tay was such a trooper and literally passed out on me after a day of shopping. She was the star of the trip of course and had a blast (although she couldn't sleep in her pack-n-play with made for a sleepy mama!). Dad held down the fort at home and got some good football in, but was pretty lonely with out his girls:)

SWEAT
One of the other big changes in my day is that I started training with a personal trainer at lifetime. I have been wanting to do it for a while and am fitting in my pre-baby clothes but its just not the same. Also, it is a big financial commitment but my sweet husband agreed to letting me do it-- so here we go. I just finished my 2nd week and I can say that I am totally getting my Butt kicked. Marquis doesn't mess around!!!!
My goals---
1. Lose the last 7lbs of baby weight
2. Gain lots of muscle mass and tone
3. Be in the best shape I've ever been in and be there when I get prego with #2
4. Keep my muscle mass while prego with # 2 ( I ditched all weight training and just did cardio while prego)

So, adios to my nightly glass of wine (nights out are still ok) and chick-fil-a. Farewell, but seeing my abs again will be all worth it!

Home Again...

We have officially been back in Houston for over a week and boy has it been nice. It's funny the huge amount of changes that have taken place with Taylor since we moved to Austin 3 months ago. I actually have to worry about a scooting baby now and before we left she just stayed where ever I set her! Whoa! All these changes had me pretty freaked out about our 3 story home, but we have decided to hang in there until at least the Spring and re-access our home situation after that. We still couldn't even figure out where we would have wanted to move in Houston and we have debated staying in the 610 loop, Memorial, and all the way to Fulshear. Nothing seemed right at this time, so wait it out we will. It's funny too that we still are one of the first of our friends to have a baby so I don't think we were ready to make the suburbia jump yet. If I had he choice, I would love to move to Austin (especially with my parents there) but I also love my home which is Houston and where a lot of our closest friends are. We will see!

Here is a little bit about what has been going on in our little world...
- Tays ulcerated hemangioma is finally starting to heal after getting to the size of a dime. My poor sweet girl.
-serious summer deep cleaning with coming back with two's of a lot of things and having a ton of baby clothes Miss T has already out grown
-getting back into the gym--- I LOVE my lifetime city centre. (7 lbs left to go!)
- Had some fun play dates with Alli & Elliotte and dinner with Sabina
-Kevin and I had one of our first dates Friday at UP. Babysitter situation didn't go so hot so we are still in search for another good one...
-Preseason football started this last week...so all TV's in our home are already stuck on 24/7 espn and football! Ugh.

That's all for now! Have I mentioned that I'm ready for the fall yet?

Taylor's 7 months!

(update: i never posted this so its 3 wks late!)

Our little girl is a month closer to ONE and I want the time to stop. I am loving this age. She doesn't seem as fragile, but is still a baby. She is expressive and loves to smile and laugh but cannot run away from me cuddling her :) . She is seriously the BEST and CUTEST baby ever...its not like I am partial or anything!
Today Taylor's first tooth finally broke through on the bottom! We knew it was coming as she has been chewing on everything and drooling a lot! Sure enough, there it was this morning! She was running a low grade fever and a little fussy but was still a champ. Taylor has also had a Hemangioma(sp?) since she was born on her bottom. It has grown since she was born but seems to have about evened out the last few months. For those of you who are not familiar with what that is...it is basically a cluster of blood vessels on the surface of the skin that can grow up until they are about 1 year old. After that point they slowly start to shrink and most will eventually disappear. Taylor's is on the best place visually...in the middle of her left butt cheek. We hadn't had any issues with it at all until about a week ago. It started with a small dot in the middle that looked like a hole. I called the doctor and they said all was fine if it didn't bother her, there was no fever of visual inflammation. Fast forward 5 days and it is now about the size of a pencil eraser and she fusses when you have to use a wipe on it. So, we have been on the phone with Blue Fish Pediatrics (again). Since we are in Austin we have been referred to a pediatrician here so that they can check it out. Hopefully they will take us tomorrow and all is well. There can be serious issues with bleeding when they become ulcerated, so prayers dr. Says its ok and heals quickly!

Stella & Dot

Although I love being a stay at home mom, I reached a point where it got fairly ridiculous that I barely ever blow dryed my hair or took off my workout clothes. I have always been a big fan of Stella & Dot jewelry but I never thought I would ever sign up to sell it. Sure enough I finally decided that it would be my little pet project for fun and so here we go. I am not going to lie, I have been somewhat paranoid about not wanting to become the friend that people are scared to answer their phones out of fear of being harassed to "host a show" or place an order! I am just going for the technique of wearing the jewelry I love and passing out catalogs. So, if anyone loves something that you see me wearing, it could be Stella and Dot (or Kendra Scott or David Yurman- ha) so ask me and I am happy to shoot you over a catalog, etc if you are interested! A great surprising side effect of S & D has been being able to meet some pretty amazing women though-- so that is really fun. And, I am proud to say that I have blow dried my hair and accessorized more in the last 3 weeks than in the last year! :)

My first real trunk show is tomorrow in Austin at my moms house, so wish me luck for a fun show! I just hope people show up- other than that its all good!

Have a great weekend!

Melissa

Happy 6 months Tay!

Our little girl is 6 months! (actually I'm almost 2 wks behind) ...

Her stats:
Weight- 18 lb 14 oz (89%)
Height-26 1/2 in (73%)
Head- 16 3/4 in (59%)

So, to make a long story short got her daddy's height and is a precious chubby baby! She is really growing up before out eyes and is SO much more interactive. She can sit up on her own, although she may wobble over after a bit. Rolls over non-stop from her back to stomach...but still hasn't mastered the tummy to back roll and it makes her so angry! We are still taking 2 naps a day to total about 3 hours. Bedtime is around 8:30 or 9 pm and some nights she sleeps until 7am, and others she wakes up at 3 or 4 am. The new challenge has been trying to get me to let her "cry it out" when she wakes up in the middle of the night. I'm good if it is less than 20 mins, but over that I haven't been able to stand it yet. I have to work on that or I will create even worse sleep habits! It's way more painful for me than her!

We also started Tay on solid food! We are up to peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, bananas and of course rice cereal. She has taken to it really well and it has been great to have less pressure off the 100% breast feeding. I thought I was finally going to run out from this little chunk!

She loves her jumper, her jeep, and anything that allows her to sit up and play. She is a lot more "needy" now because she wants to be entertained non-stop and is at the in between phase where I think she wants to do "big girl" things and is still not quite there yet! She has also really found her voice with little squeals and noises. This lady loves to talk already!

We also had our first 103 degree temp which freaked me out, but thank goodness it plateaued after the first night and was a result of an upper respiratory infection. She is def started to teethe as well, but haven't seen any poke out yet, just lots of drool, and chewing. We are so in love with our nugget it amazes us every day!

Austin has been keeping us busy and we are loving being by Gaga and Papa, but I am still missing our friends and life in Houston. We also had our Morgan family reunion last weekend in Lake Austin and it was a great time full of lots of kiddos on the lake, playing tennis, eating and just having a great time visiting.

I also started a new venture... I joined the Stella & Dot team as I bought so much of their jewelry already that I figured, why not? The girls have been great and I look forward to doing something for me to get my head out of "diaper world" sometimes.

Next up... Amye & Chad to visit to meet the newest addition, Charlie Boecking! I am so excited for Mel & Neil! We also head to Atlanta for my cousin Betsy's engagement party! Can't wait!!!

Have a wonderful week!

Melissa