711 Days

Remember the fits that I mentioned in Lucy's nine month update?

Arianna finished her final preschool dance class last Thursday. She will be starting Tap I/Ballet I next month. Here she is doing Little Bunny FooFoo (part of the tap portion of the class. Preschool classes do tap, ballet, and acro).

707 Days

Nine months old. Three quarters of one year gone by......

Eating:
This girl LOVES.HER.FOOD. She's still getting most of her nutrition from breastmilk, but really enjoys solids as well. Arianna didn't even start showing interest in solids until she was nine months old so having a baby who is already a solids pro before nine months has been different. She reaches out and tries to grab anything that she sees us eating and so far does not seem to be too picky :)

Since she started eating solids, she's pretty much just had smaller pieces and portions of whatever we have on our plates. This month, she finally had her first purees- sweet potatoes and applesauce! She did ok with it, but definitely prefers to feed herself.

Sleep:
Sleep has been a challenge over the past month. Why?

Teeth

I've decided (and if Lucy could talk she would agree) that teething is pretty much the worst thing ever. She still goes down pretty easily around 9pm, but there have been several nights where she's up again an hour or two later crying. A few nights it felt like she was up crying every 1-2 hours and we were both miserable the next morning from the lack of sleep. Hopefully once these teeth make their debut she'll go back to being a good sleeper.

Milestones:
Pre-walking! She took her first two steps on August 22nd. She's not walking yet, but she managed two steps, unassisted.

Getting a little help from daddy today

Stairs. There was literally no learning curve with this one. As soon as she was tall enough to get her knee up on that first step, she was all the way up at the top the same day. Thank goodness for baby gates!

Temper tantrums. Is that a milestone?

Either way, she's discovered the art of screaming and thrashing about whenever she doesn't get her way. I'm hoping this is not an indication of what her toddler years will be like.

Weight/Height:
19.1 pounds and 27 inches and in 9-12 month clothing.

Health:
Her top left tooth has come all the way through and her top right is coming is as well as is the one next to that.

Now you know why I've been up screaming every night.....

Teething and tantrums and lack of sleep aside, she is still absolutely beautiful and amazing. I say it every month, but I can't believe how fast her first year is going by. In just three short months, we'll be celebrating her first birthday (and her last first holiday- Thanksgiving!) with friends and family. We love you, pretty girl!

See you next month!

705 Days

Who is all grown up and ready for school?

This girl!

Yesterday was hectic. A few weeks ago, I started the online pre-registration to get Arianna into Pre-K. The only thing left to do was call the school and find out what documents I needed to hand carry into the office to complete the registration process. I've been procrastinating because, well, that's what I do and finally decided to do it yesterday. I spoke with a lady who let me know what all I needed and as we were getting off the phone she asked, "Um, ma'am? You are aware that Pre-K classes start tomorrow, right?"

.....no. No, actually I was not aware of that. Oops.

She advised me to come into the office ASAP to fill out a few more forms and bring in the documents that they needed copies of. I got the girls and I ready and went up there. Thankfully, since I had already done the pre-registration, most of what I had to do at the office was easy. A few signatures later, we were done and on our way to get Arianna some school supplies! Pre-K parents have it really easy and I guess most of the normal school supplies (pencils, paper, crayons, etc) are provided by the school. All we had to get for her was a backpack and a folder. For the classroom, we had to get a box of tissues, a roll of paper towels, two packs of wipes, and a bottle of hand sanitizer. We also got her some new school clothes that she picked out herself (almost all pink, of course). Even on short notice, she was VERY excited to learn that she would be going to school the next day.

This morning, we all got up early, showered, and helped get her ready. Since we didn't register until yesterday, we missed open house where they walk you through what to do and what to expect on the first day so I was ridiculously nervous. We ended up at the school 30 minutes early. I figured that we wouldn't be the only ones, but....we definitely were, haha. We just waited around until the other kids started to show up. When it was finally time to go, Arianna was ready. She went straight to her teacher's line and didn't show any fear or hesitation at all. I should have known that she would be fine, she's been asking to go to school for a while now.

I can't wait to see how much she learns and accomplishes this year! I'm sure we'll have many stories to share. I'm so excited for field trips, school plays, art projects, and all of the awesome stuff that comes with having a child in school (even if I am a little bit sad that my first baby is getting so big) :)

693 Days

It's been another busy week for The Bush Family (and friends)!

As I mentioned in the last entry, two Sundays ago I got to do family pictures for my friend Sarah. We did them at Chatham Manor in Fredericksburg and I think they came out lovely.

Joanna, Diana, Sarah, and their mother.

We were getting everybody posed when Sarah's husband walked over with a lizard! I love the look on Sarah's son's face!

This past Saturday was a busy one! We started off the morning with The Big Latch On: World Breastfeeding Record Breaking Event. On Saturday August 6th 2011 at 10:30am(EST) in locations across the USA, nursing mothers gathered to celebrate World Breastfeeding Week and attempted to break the record for the most women breastfeeding simultaneously. Most people who know me know how strongly I feel about normalizing breastfeeding and supporting breastfeeding mothers. I was very honored to be a part of this event and I got to meet and connect with some wonderful women! I don't have any pictures, but I know there were several women with cameras so I will be sure to put some up if I come across any. This is a part of history!

After the nursing event, the girls and I headed to a birthday party (yes, another one and we've got TWO more this weekend)! Saturday, we celebrated our friend Kaylie's daughter Remi with a fun cupcake themed party.

Remi and mama

Happy Birthday, pretty girl!

After the party, Jon took us out for ice cream! We've been trying out different ice cream shops and stands around the area and so far, I think this is my favorite.

JoJo's Original Softserve

I can't wait to go back. A friend recommended the cake batter shake and I was also really excited to see that they have Hawaiian shaved ice, which I LOVE. Lucy was with us too, but sadly, she did not get any ice cream. I'm adamant that her first "treat" be the cake she will get at her first birthday party.

Yesterday, the girls and I headed up to Manassas to check out a place called House of Bounce. It's a big warehouse type building with bounce houses and they have open bounce from 10:30-12pm and again from 1:30-3pm. We went to a similar place while we were in Georgia and Arianna really enjoyed it. I didn't tell her where we were going, just that I had a surprise for her. I wish I would have been able to get a picture of the look on her face when we walked in and she saw all of the bounce houses. She was SO excited!

Camera battery was dead so these are from the phone.

When I saw that open bounce only lasted an hour and a half, I was afraid that it might not be long enough, but it actually ended up being the perfect amount of time. It was just enough for her to burn some energy, but not so long that she was overly tired and cranky by the time it was time to leave. I have some more pictures and videos of her in the bouncers and on the big inflatable slide which I will try to get up by tomorrow. It was a ton of fun and we will definitely be going back!

It's just past noon and we've already been busy today! Arianna has dance at 4pm. When she gets done, Jon and I are dropping the girls off with Uncle Bob and Aunt JoAnn and going out for a kid free dinner I love my babies, but I am REALLY looking forward to having a kid free evening with my husband!