Christmastime

sleepover party

juniper had her first overnight last night at grandma and grandpa woods house. they came out to us and picked her up and took her to their place on the train. zach and i picked out a tree, decorated it, went out to dinner and saw a movie. it was definitely a bit weird not having her in the house. but kind of nice too. she did ok, she woke up a lot but willie was able to rock her back to sleep. here's to many more sleepovers at the grandparents!

15 months

18lbs 11oz

30.5" long

18"dia head

loves animals

gives kisses

starting to sign ("more", "all done", "up")

naps 1.5-3 hours (usually closer to 1.5)

still nursing 3-5 times a day

hate milk and cheese

starting to formulate words (kitty, doggie, uh-oh, hi, bye)

points to her nose

absolutely loves sesame street musical celebration dvd

eats her weight in cheerios

picky eater

walking

10 teeth with 2 more molars coming in

sleeps through the night (except during teething time. ugh)

has a need to be balanced - always has to have something in each hand

halloween

last year juniper was a pumpkin for her first ever halloween.

this year juniper was a blue m&m. for no other reason other than i needed a costume, had no inspiration, and found this at a thrift store for $5. we had a costume party at play group and this is her with her friends maple and lucia.

grandma and grandpa wood

grandma and grandpa wood have decided to settle in landsdowne, pa to put down some roots and be close to juniper. they are helping us out with babysitting which frees us up to work and go to school. it's great having them close by. and juniper loves being with them. she has her own fully decorated bedroom at their place. i think it's nice than her's at home!

she walks!

just a few days before turning 15 months - she's off any running. not a little baby anymore!!

sleeping training

after 13 months of nursing, rocking and and bouncing to sleep multiple times a night, we decided it was time for sleep training. since we returned from hawaii, her sleep had declined and we were all tired and frustrated. there is always a debate between the no-cry sleep solutions and the cry-it-out methods. it comes down to having to decide what your limits are and what is best for your family. and when it is best for your family. we decided to go with the ferber method, which is a cry-it-out method. the first night was awful. about 80% of the time was spent with her crying and us going in in intervals reassuring her that she was ok. but we were not to pick her up or stay in the room till she feel asleep. this also meant no nursing! this was hard for me and my boobs. the next day was a bit of a mess since none of us had gotten much sleep. but that night there was a huge improvement. we decided it would be best for zach to do most of the reassuring because he was a bit more strong willed that i was. so for the first time in 13 months i got to stay in bed for an entire night (this does not mean i was asleep the whole time but it's a start). tonight is the 3rd night and she has only woken up once.

it feels a little bit too easy but i'll keep you posted.

hawaii

second vacation of her life - hawaii! we went to hawaii for zach's parents 40th anniversary. it was quite the journey with 10 flights total roundtrip. she slept for all 5 flights out to hawaii and was fairly pleasant for the 5 flights back. each way we stopped over in phoenix for a night to break up the trip and visit with aaron, jenn, emma and milo. we also got to see my dad for a bit.

the trip was fun but traveling with a one year old is exhausting!!! and not really like a vacation. although it was nice to have grandparents to help out!!

pictures of the trip can be found here.

juniper turns 1!!!

i can not believe it's been a year since juniper came into this world. what a crazy wonderful year. i couldn't have wished for a happier, cuter baby. to celebrate we had a small party with family and friends. we had primo hoagies and my mom made a lemon chiffon cake with strawberry pudding filling. pictures of the day can be found here.

photo courtesy of bridget pizzo

back to work

i've had the wonderful opportunity to stay home with juniper for almost a full year. but just recently took a freelance job at free people, doing post production work for their catalog. the job is for 3 months while my friend amy is on maternity leave. as i was making this transition, zach was going through a transition of his own. after 5 years he decided to leave covenant house and go back to school to get his PhD. the timing was pretty perfect. he left his job and became a stay-at-home dad and i became a working mama for the summer. it's been great to have juniper and zach grow their relationship. and great for me to gain some independence.

11 months

preferred method of getting around - scooting around on her butt

has 4 teeth and two more coming in

eats more finger food - loves meats

bed time is 7:30, still gets up at least two times/night

10 months

first vacation - outer banks, nc (pictures here)

starting to scoot on her butt

eating more foods, mostly purees

napping has improved

has two bottom teeth

drinks water from a sippy cup

food

she's getting slightly more interested in food. she prefers to feed herself so i've been giving her things she can hold herself:

cantaloupe

pineapple

pickle

french fry

dorito (!!)

graham cracker

roasted potato

piece of chicken

bread

i'm not sure how much she's actually ingesting but it's a start!

9 months

weight : 16lbs 5.5 oz

height : 28"

head circumference : 17.5"

well she's been out for as long as she's was in! what a whirlwind!!

her first tooth broke through

definitely not sleeping through the night

sleeps in her crib for the majority of the time

naps are up to 1-3 hours

not interested in food, exclusively breast feeding

likes to eat paper though

loves the animals

starting to pull herself up

likes to "walk"

can roll front to back but won't roll back to front

hates to be on her tummy

8 months

yay!!

it started with her figuring out she could bang her toys together. and today she started to clap her hands. if we say "yay juniper!!" and clap our hands, she do it back to us.

splint free!!

had our appointment at CHoP today. doctor says she's good to go. he wants to see her in 3 months for an xray to make sure everything is growing correctly. what a relief!

7 months

sitting up on her own with pillow support

sleeping in crib for most of the night

having play dates

has some separation anxiety

likes to chew on her toys and her hands, maybe teething?

doesn't seem to be very interested in solid foods, only nursing

napping for 30-45 minutes

play date

today we had an official play date. sarah and harry had us over as well as lindsey and maple, kate and adelle, and prather and imogen. it was kind of wild to sit at the table to have lunch and see the babies all playing together on the floor by themselves. makes me realize how fast they are all growing. unfortunately all i have is a crappy camera phone photo.

she sits

she began sitting on her own just the other day!! we've been practicing...

mama's girl

she's been very clingy lately. she only seems to want me. which is sweet but can be very draining. but then today i realized that this time is so short-lived so i better suck it up and enjoy every snuggle i can. before i know it she'll be a teenager....

cast off

we had an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon on friday. he thought the cast was too low and that she could probably make due with just a splint anyway. so they removed her tiny pink cast and made a splint (looks like a back half of a cast) and wrapped her up in an ace bandage to wear for the next 3 weeks. when her cast was off the doctor was bending and squeezing her leg and she didn't even flinch. it was like her leg wasn't even broken. and this was 6 days after the initial fall!! pretty impressive.

first trip to ER

i was headed to a yoga class saturday morning when zach called me and told me to come home right away. he had slipped on the stairs with juniper and she hit her head. i was luckily only about 6 blocks away so i ran home as fast a i could. as i was running i realized i had to pee so bad but couldn't stop or even try to hold my bladder. so i ended up peeing my pants running down 4th street to get home to my screaming baby. at least i was wearing black pants....anyway i got home and zach and juniper were very upset. zach was wearing socks and lost his footing on the bottom few stairs, fell backwards and juniper fell out of his arms to the floor. i tried to nurse her to calm her down but after an hour she was still crying out in pain. we couldn't find any other bumps or bruises other than the one on her head but she was definitely still hurting. we called the pediatrician and she suggested we go to the emergency room. we went to CHoP and during all the evaluations we pinpointed the source of her pain was her right leg. we were admitted to a room and waited for about 5 hours until a doctor ordered x-rays. turns out her right femur was fractured above the knee. she got a long leg cast put on (pink) and as soon as her leg was set she was back to smiley herself. we have an appointment on friday to find out how long she has to wear the cast. luckily she isn't crawling or walking so it doesn't seem to be much of a hinderance.

it was a terrifying day but everyone is healing up just fine. healing physically and mentally. and it could have been worse. it could always be worse. but i'm not thinking about that.

6 months

14lbs 4oz, 26.75"long, 16.5" head dia

super into toys.

loves the excersaucer.

excellent use of both hands.

only naps for 30 minutes at a time.

still sleeping in bed with us but have started a bedtime routine. zach takes her to her room, changes her diaper, puts her jammies on and reads her a few books. then i come in to nurse and put her in her crib. sometimes it works. sometimes it doesn't.

started some solids - oatmeal and avocado.

tends to have separation anxiety from me.

loves the animals.

learning to sit up.

first sickness

well, it was bound to happen sometime. she got brochiolitis and an ear infection. had to be on a nebulizer for her breathing and take amoxicillin for the ear infection. that was awful. she HATED the amoxicillin. had to hold her nose till she opened her mouth enough to shove the medicine down her throat (along with various other tricks) while zach held her arms down. for 10 days.