Monday, January 25, 2021

9 Months

Baby girl was not so excited about our photo shoot this month. 

Maybe she was cold? Not sure, but she was a bit happier after I put the dress on her. 


Emery has taken over the house. She loves exploring the entire house and we are constantly double and triple checking for little toys on the floor. We've already missed a couple, finding her with a small ball that goes to a Lego reaction kit, a hatchimal, and hearing Belen yell, "She's got a Lego person head!!" It's a little stressful, but generally, the big kids have been really great about picking up the little things and it's just our stage of life right now to be checking her every couple of minutes to make sure we didn't miss something.


Belén has been super in to Emery this month, more so than any other month. She carries her around the entire house with her (another slightly stressful thing for mom--especially when she starts chasing after Shae because it makes Emery laugh). Emery seems to like it for the most part. As the third child, she doesn't get carried around all to often with everything else going on, so I'm sure she'd take the 5 year old belly grip over nothing. 

She looks like such a big girl sitting up in the tub and has now started moving herself all over the tub, chasing all the toys. It's so nice that she can get out of the sitting position now without it meaning flinging herself right back on to her head.


One of Belén's favorite places to carry her is over to the piano where they can make music together. 

Emery has figured out how to crawl on her knees, but still does the army crawl about 50% of the time, still a little faster for her as she tries to figure out how the knees work and how to not slip around on the wood floors. 

She tends to find herself in situations that she doesn't like as she tries to be wherever the other kids are. Under the table is so enticing as she watches for fallen food, but always ends with her in a fit because she runs into the chair legs or gets herself stuck. 

She has just barely started clapping. 

She handles being out in the cold much better than ever before, as long as she is well bundled. 

She tried spaghetti for the first time this month and loved it. Darin and I are both in agreement that her favorite food this month has been blackberries. Hands down. She gobbles them right up, every single time. If she has multiple things on her tray, the blackberries are always gone first.


She also thinks it is super fun to drink out of the big people cups, albeit messy.
She has started this high pitched super intense scream when she wakes up at night, it seriously sounds like she is being tortured. It's so crazy because she will go from super-scream to silence in a instance. We were so paranoid the first few times it happened that we felt the need to check and make sure she was still okay after she quieted and she was. Just crazy that she can go from 100 to 0 in a second. 

After starting to wake up multiple times again, we did a few days of cry it out/Darin putting her back to sleep. It was a rough week, but she is now back to just the one waking around 4ish where I will go in and feed her. She often times starts scream-crying around 9 or 10 once or twice while we are getting ready for bed, but it only lasts for a minute or two before she puts herself back to sleep.

She is a solid 2 nap baby now, going down (usually) around 10 and 2, and then to bed at 7 p.m. She usually wakes up around 6:30 and occasionally is kind and waits until a little after 7.

Sunday, January 10, 2021

Books I Read in 2020

My reading goal for 2020 was 50 books, I only read 38. I lost a lot of my "reading" time when the gyms closed back in March. That time in the car and then during my workouts were my favorite audiobook listening time. I pretty much stopped listening to audiobooks while working out after that because working out at home is quite loud and crazy as it is.  

My top 6 books are bolded (3 of my books and 3 of the read aloud with kids)

My Books: 

Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls, Anissa Gray

A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Backman

Women and the Priesthood: What One Mormon Woman Believes, Sheri Dew

Lilac Girls, Martha Kelly

Such A Fun Age, Kiley Reid

What No One Tells You: A Guide to Your Emotions from Pregnancy to Motherhood, Alexandra Sacks

Home Front, Kristin Hannah

Downstairs Girl, Stacey Lee

The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Heather Morris

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, E. Lockhart

So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo

My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult

American Royals, Katharine McGee - If I could half bold this one and it's sequel below, I would. Total soap opera fluff, but just what I needed during some of the heavier, difficult times of 2020

Majesty, Katharine McGee

Dear Martin, Nic Stone

Code Name Helene, Ariel Lawhon

Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, Adam Grant

The Pull of Stars, Emma Donoghue

The Gifts of Imperfection, Brene Brown


Read Alouds with the kids:

Ivy and Bean, Annie Barrows

The Magic Looking Glass, Tom Percival

Ban This Book Alan Gratz

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sister, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy, Jeanne Birdsall

The Secret Mountain, Tom Percival

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis

The One and Only Ivan, Katherine Applegate

James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl

Sup[er Turbo Saves the Day!, Lee Kirby

The Goose Girl, Shannon Hale

The Willoughbys, Lois Lowry

Juana & Lucas, Juana Medina

Mighty Jack, Ben Hatke

Mighty Jack and the Goblin King, Ben Hatke

Smile, Raina Telgemeier

Little House in the Big Woods, Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Christmasaurus, Tom Fletcher

The Adventures of Nanny Piggins, R.A. Spratt