Playing Catch Up!

I have been the WORST blogger this past month.  I don't know what it is, but every time I get around to writing, I get distracted or have something else to do.  I made a promise to myself last night that I would try my hardest (as I also stated in my last post) to blog when I can, no matter what.  With that being said, here I go! :)

Berlyn is now ten months old, however, I forgot to post her nine month chalkboard picture so here it is!

She refuses to smile for any of her monthly chalkboard pictures anymore and would rather look at the chalkboard than sit next to it.  It takes many tries before we actually capture anything close to "THE one."  Once she is standing on her own it might be a little easier, but for now, the I-don't-want-to-smile-while-I'm-sitting-next-to-a-chalkboard look is all we're going to get, I guess!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  I know we did!  It was a very busy week for us, but my husband and I both had two weeks off from work so it allowed us to spend some much needed time together.  We went to family holiday parties, exchanged gifts, looked at Christmas lights and called it a day!  Santa brought Berlyn some cute gifts this year!  She got a bunch of toys, clothes, books, and money!  For some reason I am unable to load pictures on Blogger right now, so I will do a separate post later with photos from our first Christmas as a family. :)

A bunch of things have changed with Berlyn in the last month or two.  She has become a professional crawler.  She crawls so fast that if I turn my head for a second she is GONE.  Luckily, we have hardwood floors and a house that sits on a raised foundation, so I can hear every move she makes!  Plus, it helps that our house is on the small side and I can shut the doors and know she won't get into anything too crazy.  She pulls herself up and has stood by herself on quite a few occasions, but she is still not comfortable standing on her own.  Because of the fact that our floors are hardwood, when she has a spill it really hurts her.  I hate seeing her fall face first into the floor and then burst into tears.  I wouldn't want to stand by myself either if that happened to me! 

Berlyn is also eating a lot of her mama's food these days.  She acts like a little puppy whenever my husband and I sit down to eat, it's pretty funny... she'll crawl over to where I'm sitting, pull herself up and do this silly dance and giggle.  If it's something that I know she'll be okay with eating, I'll feed it to her.  She loves scrambled eggs, chicken tortilla soup, and pasta.  This chick could eat pasta every day if I let her.  For New Year's Eve, my husband and I stayed home with Berlyn while we cooked a pasta Pinterest dinner (we call them Pinty's dinners for short, because we're weird like that).  The dish was amazing!  It was a combination of penne pasta, tomatoes, basil, chicken, spaghetti sauce with heavy cream, and LOTS of mozzarella and romano cheese.  It was so yummy that I gave Berlyn her own little dish, mashed up first, of course. :)

Berlyn can now drink out of a straw, too.  I bought her the Lollacup and she loves it!  It is so easy to drink from and doesn't leak like her sippy cups.  She also doesn't use the handles on the cup anymore, and I love the cup because you can take the handles off.  I put in an order for another one of these cups in pink.  Berlyn is the girliest girly girl so it just seemed fitting!  They are a little on the pricey side though, at $17 a pop, but I think they are totally worth it.  She drinks formula still, 6-8 ounces 4-5 times a day, along with 3 meals. 

My little girl also cut another tooth!  She is getting so big right before my eyes!  She wasn't that cranky, but it was a big tooth and it finally cut all the way through, thank God. 

Right now Berlyn is in love with watching the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on Disney Junior.  She gets so excited when the song comes on.  She likes it so much that I decided on having Minnie Mouse be the theme for her first birthday party next month.  I don't want it looking cheesy, though, so I'll have to come up with some clever twist on the traditional Minnie Mouse birthday party supplies... any tips would be appreciated!

Other tidbits:  Berlyn's clothing is size 12-18 months, but some (most) of her leggings/pants are 18-24 months.  This little string bean is long and lean.  She is almost too tall for her changing table, and her doc said she has the height of a 16 month old!  Her hair is getting thicker and thicker, and she will only wear a bow for a few minutes if I distract her.  She loves pulling them out and playing with eating them.  I painted her toes for the first time the other day and I have never seen cuter toes than hers!  She gets a tiny rash on her chin when she teeths, and I think it's from her saliva.  Has anyone else's babies gotten this before?  Also, she can now say "bye bye", "Mama", "Dadda", "all done", and "uh oh."  It is so cute hearing her little voice, I could just listen to her talk all day long.  She also does this silly little scream alllll the time.  Sometimes I'll get on the ground and crawl behind her and scream like her.  She will look back at me, scream, and then keep crawling; it's hilarious!

Be on the lookout for our holiday photos once I am able to get them up!