Hey, friends and family and followers! It has been a while! I am so happy to come back to writing after months of hiatus. I closed my account on Tumblr and came back with a full website (that is still work in progress...)! I have missed writing and sharing pictures, but life as a new mom caring for an exponentially developing baby while working full-time meant giving up a hobby so I can get more sleep Zzzzz...This doesn't mean I am getting more sleep these days, but I was eager to get back to journaling our lives.
Time has gone insanely fast...and before you know it, Baby Zoe is about to be turning 10 months in a week. I can't believe how quickly this baby is growing before my eyes. Before she turns 10 months old, I wanted to do a quick recap of the missing months, 6 through 9.
6 months
By the time she became 6 months old, she was beginning babble more. She found her Velociraptor screech and loved using it occasionally to startle the entire family (including the dogs). Bath times, car rides, playing peekaboo, rolling around (typically in one direction), reading books with her grandma were some of her favorite activities. She started noticing Lilly and Stark (our dogs) more and attempted to touch them although her attempts weren't very persistent.
There were some things she wasn't a big fan of, such as waiting for her bottle to warm up. She got hangry easily. She tried to sit up but had trouble staying sit up so she frequently resorted to rolling. She also insisted on sleeping on her tummy and yet hated when she actually wanted to sleep well. There was was a lot stair workout on my end (my room is on the main floor, hers is upstairs) for about a week or two before she became more comfortable with tummy sleeping. Also, we couldn't retire her 3-month-old clothes yet!
7 months
7 months was a big milestone for her because she began going to daycare (we refer it as school). However, before she could even begin her first full day of school, she came down with a pretty nasty cold virus after finishing her two half-day trials there. I guess it's true when people say kids contract all sorts of things at daycare. She was out of commission for several days - made her first trip to the pediatrician's office that's not a vaccine appointment. After the long days and nights of fussiness and the fear of dehydration (because her intake liquid was cut more than half), she finally came out of the woods and began going to school. I would say this was really the first big test as a mom for me as I had to figure everything out (taking care of a sick baby/work/solo parenting) without any family help for the first time. It turns out Zoe loves, loves going to school.
She is always social and friendly to everyone. Her demeanor made it easier for me to drop her off every morning. I also really like her teachers who were in tune with Zoe very quickly.
And finally, the most important milestone of the month...she started crawling!! I was so elated to be the first one to witness this. <3
8 months
Zoe continued to practice crawling in her own unique way after discovering that she can move on her own. I'll have to post a video of her first crawl at some point, but for a while, she looked like a starfish crawling - it was super cute. She loved to flair her arms with force and then scootch forward. She knew that getting into the car seat meant going to school; she greeted her friends and teachers with a big smile every morning. We also noticed she enjoyed feeding her food to Lilly & Stark (for this reason, they have become her BFFs) and would literally grab anything and everything in her path - I call it the 'velcro hand.'
There were some signs of sleep regression towards the later part of month 8 - nothing too major, but she would wake up occasionally and struggle to go back to sleep. While they meant less sleep for me, I did enjoy the extra snuggle and rocking her back to sleep. Her journey on eating solids still remained mainly with puree baby food, but I was beginning to get a little more brave offering with more texture.
9 months
So...I missed my timing on taking 9-month photos - oops! But boy oh boy was this a fun month! She became an expert crawler and began to show signs of pulling herself. With her typical persistence, she got a hang of pulling herself up in a matter of few days (because she practiced all day long). Her 'practice' typically continued throughout the night, which made sleep a little more challenging than usual. I would say the 9-month sleep regression was harder than the 4-month sleep regression (for me); she was just too busy practicing herself to pull up. Regardless, her sleep regression was relatively short so I was thankful. :)
Unfortunately, this was also the month where she got the dreadful Hand Food Mouth Disease! Zoe got it pretty bad when it came to the blistery rash part - not a fun time for the baby or mommy! Many days of fussiness, keeping her skin clean and moisturized, snuggling, rocking, and the occasional few hours of cosleeping were involved.
There were many firsts - her first trip to Mexico (will cover this more later!); first pool and beach time (she liked the pool better), and trying more new foods. She discovered that she LOVES to splash water and continued that love through daily bath time.
Other things that she continued to love - car rides, face timing with her grandmas, chasing her furry siblings (especially Stark), moving, going to school, holding her own bottle, and blowing bubbles.
She was still not a fan of naps (except when we were in Mexico because she was so wiped out), changing clothes, and her face wiped.
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