Chatting with Holland {Part 2: Featuring Cousin Madison}

We have Holland's cousin Madison visiting us for the week while her parents pack and move all week long. Every day is filled with a whole lot of fun and a whole lot of crazy. I have been enjoying listening to the girls chat during meals and stuff. Most of the stuff they say makes absolutely no sense! And half the time I'm not even sure if I'm hearing them right. Anyway, I've been trying to record some of their conversations throughout the day and I thought I would put some of them up on the blog for everyone to enjoy!

The following conversations were from this afternoon within a ten minute period: 

H: Got this for my paint nails. {Talking about a spatula}
M: It's for my paint nails.
H: This one got for my paint nails. L-M-O-P Okay I need color. {Holland likes to go off on random tangents spouting parts of the alphabet}
M: Hey! You color my finger nails!

M: This is my finger! This one is for my toes.
H: It's for my toes. Okay...
M: Don't hold this! Okay?
H: K... my knee! My knee! It's my knee right here!
M: Got it.

M: You use it first. I use that one!
H: I'm using that one!
And...the fighting commences. Haha.

H: You can't take these away!
M: You have to share!
H: There's lots of books!
M: I don't want them. I don't like 'em.
H: You don't like them? Also, you can get down.
M: No, you can't get down.
H: You like this one?
M: No I don't like books
H: You like birdie?
M: No, I don't want them.
H: I can read you book?
M: No I don't want them.
H: This one's about a birdie. Come by me.
M: No I don't want to come by you.

{Holland just happened to be the peacemaker this time around...kinda. She wouldn't share in the first place and then she decided she could share her books but only by "reading them" to Madison. Haha. Madison wasn't having any of that! The girls seem to take turns being the peacemakers. They are both really sweet just also really stubborn and a little bossy towards each other!}

From breakfast on Sunday morning {and the rest of the conversations are all from Sunday}: 

H: She don't have any pants! 

M: Yeah 

H: It's a very hard day 

M: It's a happy day! 

H: I don't have any ideas! 

M: Clothes? 

H: No...

H: Ow! 

M: Did you poke yourself? 

H: Ya 

*Giggles from both girls* 

M: I have to burp again...see? 

H: Woah! It's getting to fall! 

M: It's getting to fall! You catch it! 

H: I did it! 

M: Ew! That's disgusting! 

M: Look at that spill! 

H: What? 

M: Oh! Don't touch it! Did you make a mess on your cereal? 

H: No! 

M: What? 

H: I need to feed that birdie! {Talking about the birds outside} 

M: No! That's the blinds! *giggles*{Pointing out the blinds on the window...I guess thinking Holland thought they were a bird??} 

H: I eat cereal! 

*Giggles from both the girls that scare Irelyn so she starts crying** {She was sitting in the bumbo on the table while the girls ate breakfast and chatted} 

H&M: I'm so sorry! Shh! Shh! Shh! 

H: Baby sister is so crabby mommy! She's coughing! 

M: You're drinking your milk! Why would you bite your spoon? 

*Silly noises from both girls* 

M: I burped! 

H: I burp too! 

M: Ewww! That's disgusting! 

H: Ewww! That's isgusting! 

M: That's isgusting! Is that your hair? 

H: Yeah. 

M: You got it on your head? 

H: You can't go on my head! You can't go on my *BURP* 

M: You burped! 

All finished with breakfast and just playing around the house: 

H: I need this pillow! 

M: Ahh, nahh, I need another pillow! 

*Giggles from both girls while sitting on the couch** 

H: Jump! 

M: No jumping on the couch! {Apparently some of the things we say stick...at least some of the time!}

H: I need to jump on the bed-y!

M: This is a couch! 

H: This is not a couch! 

H: I'm not the queen! I'm Elsa! 

M: You Anna! {Of course they talk about Frozen all the time...what kind of two- and three-year-olds would they be if they didn't?!} 

H: You puppy Madison? You puppy? 

M: You have my puppy?! 

Post-nap snack conversation: 

M: I burped! Excuse me! Ah Ah Ahchoo! Excuse me! {This whole sequence was repeated about twenty more times! Haha} 

M: Is that yummy?! 

H: Mmmmhmmm!

M: I don't like it! 

H: Okay.

M: Did you say that?! 

M: Is that chocolate milk? It smells like milk! 

H: I have milk too! 

M: Just like chocolate milk! 

H: Chocolate milk like me! 

M: I don't have any chocolate milk. 

H: I don't have choc. milk. 

M: Are you eating chocolate milk? Or drinking it? Chocolate milk? Let me see! 

*Toots. Giggles* 

M: I tooted! 

{Neither one of the girls had chocolate milk. I guess it was just wishful thinking. Haha.} 

M: Hi little baby! 

H: Hi little baby! 

M: Peek-a-boo! 

H: Peek-boo! 

M: Listen to my baby ever! 

H: She wanna say hi to me! 

M: Peek-a-boo! 

H: She's saying hi to me! 

M: Peek-a-boo! 

H: Peek-boo! 

M: You're so cute!

{This was all a conversation with Irelyn}  

It might be a lot of work having all three girls around but they sure are great entertainment when I take the time to just listen to them talk. It's like getting a little glimpse into what they think about/how they think. 

And here are the cute faces of those silly conversations 

{along with Irelyn since I just can't leave her adorable face out}! 

Chatting with Holland {Prequel}

So I just wrote this post about Holland's talking nowadays but I wanted to do a little prequel to all of her talking posts to write a little bit about when she started talking and all of that fun stuff. Just for memories' sake! {The pictures are to show how much she has changed over the last year or so!}

June 2013 {just barely learning how to walk}

Holland's first words were "mama" and "dada". In no particular order...of course! And I actually can't find the dates of when she said both of these though so whoops on that one! But those were definitely her first two words. After those she learned "no" in the end of June 2013 followed by "dog" and "wow" {July 2013}. For a while those were her only few words other than signing a couple of things {"more" "all done" "eat"}. Then towards the end of October and into November she just started talking a bunch more. By the end of November {about 14 months old} she had 25-35 words that she said on a regular basis and she could also point to a bunch of her body parts {belly/belly button, toes, head, nose, tongue, ears, eyes, mouth, teeth, hair, fingers, knees, cheeks}, and she knew how to do some fun gestures {high fives, kisses, more, please, eat, bump it, blow kisses, wave}.

November 2013

Towards the end of January {2014} Race and I wrote down all of the words Holland could say one night and we ended up with over TWO HUNDRED words! It was crazy! A few of them we asked her to say but most of them were words she used on a regular basis.

February 2014

We have enjoyed Holland's talking so much over the past year. Every time she learns a new word or the correct way to phrase something it is so exciting but also a little bit sad! It is just a constant reminder that she is growing up so fast! I'm trying to write it all down so I never forget this fun phase!

September 2014

Chatting with Holland {Part One}

Holland has been talking for a LONG time and I have yet to document it on the blog! Recently she has gotten even more entertaining and I've been writing some of the adorable and funny things she says down and I just wanted to compile them somewhere so that they're all together instead of jotted on whiteboards, chalkboards, in my phone, in notebooks, and just all over the house. So here are some of the funny things my sweet two year old is saying these days!

{E: Emma, H: Holland, M: Madison--Holland's cousin}

Some examples of Holland being the absolute sweetest: 

H: I always love you so much! I can hug you!

H: Hey mommy? You wanna hold me super bad?

H: You being a princess mommy. Like soooo princess. {As she brushes my [super greasy] hair}

H: Hold me closer!

H: I wanna hold you closer.

H: I got you so closer! {As she is holding me or Irelyn or Race}


Some "phone conversations" Holland has had. {With herself on her fake cell phone}

H: Hi Granddad! It's good to see you! I touched the water today for like....three hours! Hi! It's good to see you! {We had gone to the aquarium that day}

H: Hello daddy! It's good to see you daddy! I text my daddy! It's my daddy calling me?

H: Hi daddy! It's good to see you! I talkin' to my granddad!


Loving on her baby sister: 

H: She's done eating! Poke poke! *Kiss* {She actually said poke and didn't poke Irelyn but she did kiss her}

H: She wanna hold me so closer?

H: {While holding Irelyn's feet and making them "run"} Run! Run! Run! Run! Run! Run! Squeeeeeeze the poops out! Squeeeeeeze the poops out! {Irelyn used to poop EVERY time I changed her diaper so I used to say this to Irelyn while I held her legs against her tummy to make sure everything was out. Haha. Apparently Holland remembers that and decided to copy it recently! It cracks me up!}

H: {I don't know if this one exactly qualifies as loving on Irelyn...Irelyn was crying and this is how Holland responded} Shh shhh... It's okay baby sister! You're gonna be okay! {A little pause and then...} HUSH THE GUB BABY SISTER! HUSH THE GUB! {This is a phrase Race uses on the girls. Haha. It was so funny to see Holland respond just like me and then just like Race!}


And some randoms: 

H: I have my two heavy girls! {While carrying dolls around. I have said this about Holland and Irelyn a few times while carrying them down the stairs at our apartment complex. Haha. She picked up on it pretty fast and says it about her dolls all the time now!}

E: Are those fruit loops?
H: FART loops??

H: I cried in blanket and then in bedroom. {Talking about nap time--it's hard stuff!}

H: I just spank my bum!

E: Do you know what color that is?
H: ....
E: It's purple.
H: Oooh that's so silly!
{A lot of things are "so silly" to Holland}

H: You gonna eat all the pananas {bananas} all gone? Awww that's so sad! {She randomly started calling them pananas after calling them bananas in the past. Random, but it's so dang cute!}

H: Look at your pants! They're mine! I match like you! I have pants! It matches just like mine...or yours! {Holland noticing for the first time all day that her and Madison are wearing matching pants...this was after nap time...so it had been a while!}

I love this girl of mine so much! She brings so much joy to our home every single day and she is a dang smarty pants! There will probably be more of these posts to come as I'm sure the things she says will just get more and more amusing over the next few years!

Ten Tips and Tricks for Potty Training

I want to start this off by saying that I am by no means a potty training expert. I have not even read any books on potty training so this really is just what worked for us. And honestly, Race and I mostly just attribute Holland being potty trained to her little genius-ness. Haha. We are her parents though so of course we think that!

Anyway, here's a quick rundown of some of the things that I think really helped us:

1. Get your child comfortable around the toilet.
For us this meant introducing Holland to the potty months ago. I have never been weirded out by having Holland in the bathroom with me so she has seen me going to the bathroom for a long time. Around 16 months she started expressing some interest in sitting on the toilet. At the time we didn't have a potty seat so I would just help her sit on the toilet for a couple of minutes at a time. She didn't ever actually go but since she was expressing interest in the potty I decided to run with it and spend the money on a potty seat for her. I ended up getting the two below from Amazon. One for on the toilet and one for everywhere else. They are so cheap that it was affordable to buy both--thank goodness! Once we had these little potties I would have Holland sit on the toilet multiple times a week {sometimes multiple times a day if she wanted to} just to get her used to it. I made sure to always make it a fun thing and not pressure her to go or anything. Usually we would just hang out and read books for a few minutes. She only actually went to the bathroom a couple of times over the next few months but she was never scared of the potty so I called it a success and left it at that!

Arm & Hammer Secure Comfort Potty Seat, Summer Infant Lil' Loo Potty

2. Decide on a good time for your child/your family
We had thought about potty training Holland ever since she first started showing interest in it in December but ultimately ended up deciding not to before we had Irelyn though because I had heard so much about children regressing when a new baby comes home. I knew I would not want to deal with that so I just kept things at the "getting comfortable with the potty" stage for quite a while. Once we started getting comfortable as a family of four I started to think about potty training again but then we ended up traveling/having family in town for about a month so I put it off again. I think that finding a good time where you're not going to be adding potty training to other possible life stresses is important as you really don't want potty training to be a stressful thing for you or for your child. This timing can be totally different for every family though.

3. Make sure your child can communicate well.
As far as communication goes I just think that it's important that your child can communicate with you when they need to go. What I mean by this is not necessarily that they are already communicating it but more that they talk enough {or sign enough} that they are able to communicate it {use words like pee pee, poo poo, potty, etc.} and are able to answer you when you ask them if they need to use the potty. Holland was not communicating when she was going to the bathroom before we started potty training. However, she is really great at talking {another post for another time--I really want to brag about her talking skills sometime. Is that ridiculous??} and my mom had mentioned that it might help her potty train quickly whenever we decided to try. I really think that it did help because as soon as we got started and she began to recognize when she needed to go she was easily able to communicate that with us.

4. Leggings/Underwear
We had a friend tell us to put Holland in underwear and leggings as we started potty training her. That way she would be able to recognize when she wet herself but it would soak up in the leggings before pooling all over the floor/furniture. I would only recommend this if you have LOTS of leggings and underwear. Luckily we did so this worked out great for us {be prepared to do a lot of laundry those first few days}! The first couple of days of potty training we went through tons of underwear and leggings but by about day three she was figuring it out and having almost no accidents.

5. Set a time period to work on potty training.
So I don't know if this is super good advice or anything but I set a time period for how long I was willing to give potty training a go. I said I would give it one week. Setting a time limit helped me to not stress about whether or not it actually worked. I knew that I would be doing a lot of laundry for the next week but there was an end point if it wasn't going well. I knew that if I got stressed then Holland would get stressed as well and I really didn't want going to the bathroom to be a stressful thing for her. Luckily, Holland was potty trained within the week so that was super exciting!

6. Ask your child if they need to go to the bathroom...A LOT.
So this one is pretty straight forward. Ask them if they need to go again and again and again. I try not to force Holland to go but I still ask her a lot just so that she's thinking about it. Toddlers are easily distracted so doing anything {eating meals, playing, watching a show, etc.} can cause them to forget about going to the bathroom. The bulk of Holland's accidents happen while she's eating or drawing at the table. So I just ask her if she needs to go all the time and eventually she says yes if she hasn't already told me she needs to go.

7. Rewards/Celebrations
As far as rewarding Holland we just did little potty treats. When we started potty training all we had in the house was the end of a bag of marshmallows. So now marshmallows are her potty treat. In the beginning every time she went to the bathroom she would get a marshmallow and we would clap/give hugs and kisses/cheer/do a little celebration dance just to remind her how proud we were of her and to keep this whole potty training thing exciting. Now she gets a treat when she remembers and asks for it and we still cheer for her because we think she's pretty awesome! I don't think Holland is quite to the age where we are able to explain to her that once she's potty trained she'll get a new toy so we didn't even bother with anything larger than marshmallows. Which works for our budget so yay!!

8. Stay at Home!
We stayed at home for the first few days of potty training just so we weren't adding the stress of having an accident out of the house. We also did this so we could solely focus on potty training. We started over a weekend which was nice because it meant I had Race's help changing all the peed clothes and doing the laundry. By the time the weekend was over Holland was starting to get the hang of things so the following week wasn't too bad! Also, try to make the time at home fun. Not getting out of the house as much can make everyone feel a little antsy so make sure you have lots of fun activities to do. And of course go on a walk around the neighborhood or whatever. I mostly just mean don't try and do any big family outings.

9. Bring a Potty with you EVERYWHERE!
Once you do start leaving the house bring your portable potty with you everywhere. Public restrooms are sometimes hard to locate when you need them, they are kind of scary for little kids, and they are definitely gross. So just bring your potty in your car and have your child go before you go into the store {and/or before you leave the house} and then before you load them back into the car. We also have Holland wear pull-ups when we leave the house just as an extra precaution. She usually doesn't pee in them though and we have her change back into underwear as soon as we get home and then just re-use the pull-up for our next outing.

10. Don't Stress/Make it Exciting!
I've mentioned this a few times above but this is a big one to me.  I didn't want Holland to feel at all like we were forcing this on her or disappointed in her when she had an accident so I worked really hard on not getting stressed throughout this process. Show excitement every time they make it to the potty/tell you they need to go and when they do have an accident you can have them help you clean it up and talk to them about trying to make it to the potty next time but try not to show anger or disappointment. They are still young and they will get it eventually! I think potty training can be such a fun and exciting time for our little ones but not if we make it stressful. So good luck potty training and don't stress too much!

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I hope this information helps someone out there! Who knows if it lines up with any books/legit parenting information out there but it's what worked for us. Holland has yet to be night time potty trained though so if anyone has any tips and tricks on that let me know! I'm all ears!

And just for fun here are some links to some super cute little girls' underwear. I want to buy ALL the underwear now!

The top three are ones Holland has. Find them here, here, and here. 

{They are all super soft and comfy fabrics! The boy shorts are nice for under dresses just to give a little bit more coverage}

The bottom three are on my underwear wish list for Holland. 

{She wants tons of underwear for her second birthday, right?? Haha.}

Find them here, here, and here.

Potty Training Update

So I haven't posted about potty training yet {other than on Instagram--kind of} so this isn't exactly an "update" but that's okay!

This video is pretty much an idea of how awesome potty training has been going!



We are just in shock and awe at how fast Holland has picked up potty training. Sure, it meant quite a few messes to clean up and she still has an accident once every couple of days {sorry she peed on your floor Claire!} but we are just so proud of Holland and her skills at going to the bathroom like a big girl! It is so nice to be back down to just one baby in diapers!

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I've had this post ready to go for a few days now but other things have come up first and it keeps getting pushed back. So of course, the day before it's supposed to go up Holland has a terrible potty training day! Haha. She had three accidents which really isn't huge in the whole scheme of things but it was her worst day since the first two days of potty training. Oh life. Anyway, we'll see how tomorrow/the rest of the week goes. And I'll have to do another update and post some of the things that have worked for us in getting her potty trained! Super exciting stuff, eh?! Anyway, happy Sunday everyone!

Lakeside Lavender Farm

Claire and I took our girls to a lavender farm yesterday. It smelled absolutely amazing and was such a gorgeous place to get some pictures of our girls!

There is just so much beauty in this world Heavenly Father created. It was wonderful to be able to capture some pictures of this small part of it. 

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I was originally going to end this post right at the sentence above but for the sake of journaling I wanted to write a little bit more about the details of this day/week. 

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I love how these pictures turned out and how peaceful they look. This week has been anything but peaceful. Race has had some bad back problems and because of that I feel like I have been running around like a crazy lady. Race has been to doctors, physical therapists, a spine specialist, and a chiropractor trying to figure out what is going on with his back and he has been on some pretty strong pain killers so the girls and I have been driving him around to all of these appointments all week. The girls have been such troopers through all of this. Irelyn sleeps tons and is pretty good in the car and Holland has been so sweet to Race. She keeps talking about how his back hurts and he has to go to the doctor. I'm sure Holland also hasn't minded eating out three times this week. Ketchup with a side of chicken nuggets might just be her favorite meal ever! 

Anyway, when Claire told me about these lavender farms earlier in the week I knew I wanted to go but wasn't sure how to fit it in with everything else. I am so glad we found the time to go though. I might have been way exhausted and a little stressed while we were there but there were a few little blessings about our afternoon at the lavender farm that I want to remember:

• Irelyn slept in her stroller while I got some photos of Holland and then she was so sweet when I woke her up take some pictures of her {I know, I'm crazy for getting her up to take pictures!}. 
• Holland was in a good mood and let me take lots and lots of photos of her {with some marshmallow bribes}. 
• Holland didn't have any accidents while we were out and about {We bring her toilet with us everywhere so she just goes on that in the car}!
• And finally, I was able to enjoy some of Heavenly Father's beautiful creations. 

I know that I will cherish these photos for years to come because someday my girls won't be little and things won't be this same kind of stressful and I'm sure that I will really miss this time in our lives. 

Anyway that's my spiel! Now here's to a relaxing weekend {hopefully}! Happy Saturday everyone! 

Halloween 2013

Our Halloween was just perfect! The morning started out  in cute Halloween jammies and hanging out with cousin Madison. These girls just have too much fun together! Especially when they aren't fighting!

That evening we got the girls dressed up to go trick-or-treating. Holland and Madison were little Pocahontas girls. I made their tutus, Tyne found their cute necklaces at American Eagle and then we grabbed a couple of things from their closets and Hobby Lobby to complete the look. We thought they looked pretty adorable in their costumes! They had TONS of fun trick-or-treating. Knocking on the doors and grabbing handfuls of candy! Holland always wanted to go back for more! We made it to quite a few houses and luckily it wasn't too cold for the girls. It definitely wore Holland out because she slept great that night! 

We didn't get any family pictures so this will have to count. 

{Also, can you spot my 16.5 week baby bump?!} 

Our three trick-or-treaters: Ava, Madison, and Holland {who didn't look in any of the group photos!}

When we got back to the house we let the girls dig into their candy for a few minutes while we watched an episode of The Walking Dead. It is kind of Halloween tradition for Race and I. The second year we were married we watched a bunch of the first season while passing out candy. I got so scared every time someone knocked on our door--I was pretty happy when we ran out of candy. The show still scares me so I mostly tune out but it is definitely a fun tradition! 

It was a successful Halloween! I loved dressing Holland up and hey, I can't complain about free candy! Maybe next year we'll actually do some type of family costume...we'll see! I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!

In Other News.

This is happening. :] 

Holland doesn't seem to be too excited about getting a sibling! Haha.

We're all pretty excited to welcome Ashby Baby #2 next April and I'm attempting to teach Holland that there is a baby in my belly. Mostly she just thinks my belly button is super cool stuff. 

The official due date is April 13th, 2014 and we can't wait to meet this second baby! I am 15 weeks along today (Sunday) and we just had our first doctor's appointment on Friday. We love our doctor and I am really hoping to have a VBAC (Vaginal Birth after Cesarean). We'll see what surprises this labor and delivery brings though since Holland's birth story did not go at all the way I was planning! Hopefully I'm a little more prepared for the unexpected this time around!

I'm excited to talk more about my birthing plans and thoughts about preparing for the unexpected and stuff like that. I've been doing a lot of research on all things birth related {even more than I did with Holland--and I did A LOT with her!} and I'm really excited for this new journey--no matter how it turns out! 

I'll do a pregnancy update/comparison to Holland's in another post but I just wanted to finally let the cat out of the bag! We're having a baby!!! 

Stuck. {A Mini Post}

I've been so stuck when it comes to blogging. I have about a billion things I want to/should blog about for journaling's sake but I've just been feeling overwhelmed. I've written entire blog posts that I just can't figure out titles for so I never post them. And then I have TONS of posts I want to write about my feelings towards birth and stuff in that department but I have SO much that I want to say and I just haven't found the time or energy to get it all written out in a logical way. Does anyone else just get stuck when it comes to finding titles for their posts or have any of you gotten stuck because you just have too much to say? I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who has been in this boat--right?

Anyway, I am going to "unstick" myself for five minutes and write a quick post while Holland and Race are out of the house for a few minutes and just do a quick life update. Here's what our past couple of weeks have looked like:

I got to see four of my eleven siblings and my parents and even got to have my two sisters stay with me for a week and then my mom and Gelsey stay with me for another week! {Helena and Gelsey pictured-- my parents, Stuart and Solomon unpictured}

We were all able to head over to Oregon for my Great Grandma Usher's memorial service. It was simple and perfect and Holland slept through the whole thing. We got to hear lots of fun memories of our Grandma and visit with lots of family.

Holland has been teething and got this goofy tooth that's like 1.5 teeth or two teeth just super close together. Race and I are not passing on good genes in the teeth department--our poor children!

We had family pictures taken and the next few pictures are just pictures I snapped while our awesome photographer friend was taking pictures of Race's sister and her family {she had a double duty photo shoot!}. Taking pictures is so much more work with a baby! Haha. But I can't wait to get the pictures back and I know it is so worth it to have the memories to treasure forever. It was also fun for me to practice taking pictures with our nice camera. I don't pull it out nearly enough and while a BUNCH of the pictures turned out blurry I still love them. :]

So that's what's been going on over here. Hopefully I'll stop feeling quite so stuck and get some of the posts that have been floating around in my head for months up on the blog! We'll see!

9 & 10 Months.

First off, I am a couple of months behind on Holland's monthly updates. She is already TEN months old! So we're just going to combine the two months! And then I'll still do the Instagram posts separately! I still haven't done her Eight Month in Instagrams yet! I'll get there! We had a trip to AZ in May for my sister's wedding and then we went camping the week after we got back. Other than that we've just been soaking in the beautiful weather and spending lots of time in the sun! But back to the update on Holland's ninth and tenth months!

I have officially failed to do a photo of Holland in a laundry basket every month. Oh well! I take hoards of other pictures of Holland so they will just have to suffice for this post!

Dearest Holland,

We are still loving each stage you reach more and more! It is so fun watching you explore and learn new things!

At nine months you:

-Love putting your fingers in other people's mouths and feeling their teeth as well as in your own mouth.
-You went on a trip to AZ to be a part of Aunt Helena and Uncle Cory's wedding and did great on the flight to AZ but threw up the last ten minutes on the flight back to Idaho. That was not fun but shockingly NO ONE on the plane noticed! I have no idea how since you threw up ALL over Dad. We were grateful no one noticed though and everyone on the plane loved you!
-You can wave and it's adorable!
-You learned how to get up from your back. You still haven't really every rolled from your back to your stomach but you learned how to sit up from lying on your back and let me tell you, you can see just how hard your abs are working to get you up!
-You can stand up on furniture and walk around it and you figured out that sometimes you can let go and stand up on your own for a few seconds.
-You eat any finger foods that I put in front of you but you especially love anything green- avocados, peas, green beans, etc.

We just can't believe how fast you are growing up!

At ten months you:

-Let me feed you from a spoon for the first time ever! That lasted about a week before you decided you were ready to feed yourself with a spoon. So I load the spoon up and hand it to you and then you do an amazing job at getting it to your mouth. That lasted for about a day before you decided you should also be getting the food onto the spoon. You are turning into a toddler much too fast! You are pretty good at getting food for yourself but I have to monitor by holding the bowl otherwise you just dump everything out and don't eat much of it. You are loving meal times and I have noticed that if you hadn't had enough big girl food throughout the day you can get really crabby. We have yet to come across a food that you don't like. There were a couple of things you didn't like the first time around but by the second time we gave you them you decided they were delicious {strawberries, bananas, pineapple}.You do really seem to like veggies more than fruits which is helping me to be better about eating veggies! You're just such a good example! You still nurse quite a bit which I'm totally okay with because I love to snuggle with you. I think I will be pretty sad when you decide that nursing isn't your thing anymore.
-I shouldn't write anything good about your sleeping schedule because I know the second I say anything about it it will change. You have ALWAYS gone to bed really late but we had a wonderful week where you went to bed at 11 every night. I LOVED it. But then I bragged to my mom and the next night you didn't go to bed until 1:30 am. I did not love that so much. So your sleeping schedule is still a little crazy but when you do get to bed you don't usually wake up at all during the night and that is really nice! And you take two pretty regular naps during the day unless your schedule gets messed up from church or visiting family.
-You started taking steps! You had taken one or two steps towards me but the first time you took steps with real purpose you were walking towards your Aunt Tyne and you walked about five steps. It was impressive! You do love your Aunt Tyne and she is also the first person that you crawled to! Since those first few steps you have started to walk more and more! The most you have taken is probably right around ten but you've gotten so good at keeping your balance and deciding when you're ready to sit down vs. falling down.
-Also related to walking we have been taking your walker to the mailbox every day. It makes for a much longer trip than me carrying you there but you love to stop and wave at the cars passing by, watch the kids running around, eat the grass and rocks, etc. so we take 20 minutes to make our way to the mailboxes and then let you play at the mailboxes/park for a while before we make our way home. It's a nice way to get out of the house and enjoy the pretty weather.
-You learned how to open up cupboards and our house looks like a tornado tore it apart every day. Every cupboard in the kitchen and living room is open and everything is dumped out. It is a full time job to follow you around and clean up your messes. So sometimes they just stay that way for a while...oh well! You also love to dump out all of your books and blocks and other toys and then you'll just sit in the middle of the mess and pull your blocks apart, read yourself a book, kiss your stuffed lion, etc. for a while. I do love that you are starting to get a little more independent during your play time but you definitely still prefer to have me on the floor playing with you or reading to you or just around to climb all over. You make sure that I don't leave you alone for too long!
-You are finally starting to get over your stranger anxiety and have started smiling at EVERYONE again! You had a couple of months where people really had to coax a smile out of you and you did not want anyone other than mom holding you. Now you go to other people a LITTLE bit more and you have started grinning at everyone. We love to see your smile more!
-You have also started laughing out loud super randomly. It's like you just thought of the funniest joke and couldn't help laughing but we don't know what it was. I love to hear you laugh so I don't mind not knowing the joke!

As you can tell I remember a lot more about your tenth month than your ninth month! I guess that's why I need to actually write these posts as they are happening!

I do love you sweet girl and I will never get tired of watching you, teaching you, cuddling with you, loving you, etc. You are my sweet, perfect baby and I am beyond grateful that I get to be your mom! Your dad and I love you so much!

Love,
Mom & Dad

Nine Months.

{At Gram and Granddad Ashby's house}

10 Months. 

{Showing off her four teeth and the fact that she loves to be 

upside down--she also loves to be thrown in the air, flipped over, etc.}

8 months.

You guys, I didn't write down much about Holland's eighth month. I usually keep a little running list on my phone of things I want to remember and now that she's almost nine months I'm getting everything confused! So this eight month post is going to be quick and a bit scattered.

Dear Holland girl,

We are just loving you at this stage. You are so funny and we love finding things to make you laugh. You have four teeth now but still are pretty anti-baby food. You are eating more finger foods. Lots of the little Gerber snacks but also bits and pieces of mom and dad's meals. You really like eating peas from mom's salads and you LOVE grated cheese. For the past few months you have been really clingy to me {mom} which makes some days really hard. Even though you still won't go to Dad for more than a couple of minutes if I'm in the room you have started to get SO excited when he gets home. You grin and grin when he walks in and just love when he comes to say hi to you. It is adorable! We're also grateful to live near your Aunt Tyne, Uncle Patrick and cousin Madison. You LOVE your Aunt Tyne. She is one of the only people you will go to over me. You also love your cousin and just want to be big like her. You follow her around while she runs throughout the house and laugh at everything she does. You also clap for her. Your clapping is one of my favorite things. You learned to clap just before your half birthday but then stopped doing it for a while and now that you've started it up again I just love it. It cracks me up when you clap for Madison or for yourself. Sometimes you'll crawl to a toy and then sit down and clap for yourself for making it there. It is just so cute! I am just loving everything about you these days! Thank you for bringing so much joy to our home! I love you Holland!

One Month.

Two Months.

Three Months.

Four Months.

Five Months.

Six Months.

Seven Months.

Eight Months!

Love you sweet girl!
Love, Mom & Dad