Friday, July 30, 2010

Nine months old and so grown up

Today, Allie is 9 months old. So what does this 9-month-old do for fun?

We for starters, she looks all grown up. She stands up using anything she can grab onto. These more solid end tables were a wise investment as the old ones would have tumbled over when she grabbed them. She's getting more and more brave, and we've caught her standing without holding on a few times, but its only for a few seconds at a time, so no pictures yet.

She cruises the house like she owns the place. We've had to remove her fingers from Monk's food and water bowls more than once. Eventually we will get some gates.

She lounges in her pajamas.

She hangs out with mommy and daddy.

She plays peek a boo. When we put our hand over her eyes, she just grins so big and then moves our hands to show herself! It didn't work well to take a picture though, because she's too much of a poser. She also likes it when we cover our own eyes and then reappear for her.

Allie is fascinated with her ceiling fan! Until last week the fan was broken, so she is just now discovering it.

She eats with a passion. Look at that open mouth! Her favorite foods are squash and pears. Too bad we can't get her to take her formula with that same passion.

She makes funny faces.

And she likes to jump in her jumper, or as we like to call it, the containment unit. We can't keep her in there too long though, as she'd rather be out cruising.

This morning Doug had to get to work early, so he dropped me off at work before dropping Allie off at daycare. I waved goodbye to her and she waved back!

Allie, I can't believe you're already 9 months old! I keep asking you to stop growing, but you don't listen to me. You are discovering new things every day and you're so much fun. I can't wait to see what comes next.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Stinker baby and other musings

This is what it means to be a mom: All my shirts either have stains on them, or holes in them. And the ones that don't? Our darling stinker baby spits up on those, hence all the stains!

Allie has become a bit of a stinker lately, usually having to do with sleeping when we don't want her to, or not sleeping when we want her to sleep. We affectionately call her stinker baby when she wakes up in the middle of the night too. She's also become a bit of a whiner and spits up at the worst times.

But that's OK. She still constantly entertains us. She is ALWAYS smiling. I love waking her up in the morning because even though she's been in a deep sleep, she still smiles big the moment she wakes up.

Doug and I get to go on a date tomorrow night! Our last date was in April. This is only our fourth date since Allie's birth.

I am finally starting to lose weight. Its only a few pounds, but clothes are fitting slightly differently.

I've run 33.2 miles this month, which is .6 miles more than my prior highest mileage, which was in March. What's interesting though is that my total time is 4 minutes less than March. I thought I was slower, but I must be getting faster.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Out and about

We've had a lot of fun lately going out.

The weekend before last, we went to see our friends Jessica and Jeff. Jessica had some funny hats...

Including this Redskins Santa hat.

We went swimming too. We borrowed this whale floatie from our daycare. Allie loved just lounging in the water.

We all had fun in the pool.

Then it was time to dry off!

Last weekend we meandered downtown and to the UW Memorial Union Terrace. Its a fun place with great ice cream. Allie didn't get to have any ice cream, but she did enjoy watching the ducks.

She also made some funny faces.

If you look really closely here, you'll see a little tooth on the bottom. She actually has two, but I was only able to capture this one. Its hard to see her teeth becuase if you put anything by her mouth, she sticks out her tongue!

Friday, July 23, 2010

On to square 2

My return to running has gone really well so far. I continue to surpass my expectations. The rule of thumb for increasing mileage and avoid injury is 10 percent, meaning if I run 10 miles one week, I could run 11 the next. A gradual increase helps the body get used to the extra work without getting hurt. I've been cautious thus far and I've increased by less than that 10 percent.

But today I surprised myself and ran 4 miles! Thats the longest I've run, without walk breaks, since November of 2008. My goal was to reach 4 miles by the end of this month. I have to find a new goal now.

I've enjoyed running without the urgency of training for a race. Maybe urgency isn't the right word, but I mean the pressure to get in the planned miles. Not pressure from someone else, but pressure from myself.

However, now I'm at a point where I need to have the structure of a training plan or else I risk doing too much too soon, increasing by more than 10 percent.

So I'm going to start a training plan for a 10K. My goal right now is to run the Berbee Derby on Thanksgiving Day. Its a popular local race that I've wanted to run every year since moving to Madison. I actually entered in 2008 before I got hurt. So I'm going to structure my weekly mileage to run that 10K! Wish me luck!

Monday, July 19, 2010

July 17

July 17 is a special day for our family.

First, its my dad's birthday, July 17, 1946. Dennis Danielewicz would have turned 64 last Saturday.

Even though its been 17 years since he died, I still think about him a lot. I wish he was here to meet his youngest granddaughter.

Second, July 17, 2006, is the day Doug asked me to marry him. He picked that day because its Dad's birthday and he knew it was a special day for me.

Last, but not least, July 17, 2005, is the day our darling Monk was born! She turned 5 on Saturday. Its just a coincidence that we got a dog with the same birthday as my dad, or is it something more?

Friday, July 16, 2010

Our little angel

Allie was baptized on May 30. But it was really hot that day, and I was focused on the gathering to take place after the baptism. So when we got home from church, we immediately changed Allie's clothes and I later realized I never took any nice pictures of her in the baptism dress! So we had a photo shoot last Sunday.





This is the dress I was baptized in, as well as my brothers and sisters and some of my cousins and even a couple second cousins. Its older than me and as one person remarked on baptism day, "You can't buy a gown like this anymore." The blanket/shawl in the picture is also a family heirloom.

Photo shoots are a lot tougher now that Allie is mobile. I remember doing a photo shoot of Allie in her Christmas dress and it was a lot easier to take pictures because she just laid on her back! I'm actually surprised I got these good pictures because she wouldn't stay still very long. She'd roll over and crawl away. And when she did stay still, my camera delayed in taking the picture!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

She did what?

I didn't actually see this happen, so I don't know if I believe it. But yesterday when Doug picked Allie up in daycare, he said she was in the kitchen standing up and pushing a stool around! Like, she was walking by pushing this stool. She's only 8 and a half months old!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Here's how Allie goes to sleep


Bedtime is pretty funny here. Some nights if we follow Allie's cues right, she's still awake when we put her to bed. She'll stay up an play for a bit talking and laughing all the way. I wish I had a camera in there to see what she does in her crib. But we just have the monitor to hear her. And its funny how quickly she'll fall asleep. She's talking and laughing up a storm and then just like that, silence.

On the other end of the spectrum, we get to put cranky Allie to bed. When she was really small, an eye rub meant it was time to move toward the bed. Now as she's mobile it seems that once we get to the eye rub, its too late. So we try to get her dressed for bed early to avoid the crying on the changing table. Often she'll cry in bed for a few minutes or several before she falls asleep.

But I have to share last night's bedtime to show just how Allie can entertain. She doesn't really have a consistent nap time in daycare but she usually takes two naps. However, yesterday she took only a single hour-long nap. So we expected her to be ready for bed quickly after we got home. We fed her solids right away and got her in the sleeper and went downstairs to play for a few minutes. Those minutes turned into about an hour, in which she would take some of her bottle and when not drinking, we'd just be loud. She claps and is always moving. It was fun.

So we still hadn't had an eye rub and I decided it was time at about 8. We went upstairs still keeping her wound up and Doug said he didn't think she'd go to sleep. But the minute Doug left the room and I was going to finish feeding the bottle, Allie's lights just went out.

She actually drank most of her bottle and was sound asleep. So I sat her upright to burp, and with her eyes half open, head flopping around and a half smile on her face, she looked drunk. It was so funny I just couldn't stop laughing. So I lifted her to go to the crib and she's sound asleep on my shoulder. She often wakes up as I put her in the crib though, and she did this time; she smiled and rolled over and started crawling to me. She still had a little bit in her bottle so I was going to give her some. So I took her out of the crib, and she went to sleep on my shoulder again! So I put her back in bed and high-tailed it out of the room so she'd stay asleep and quit trying to play.

I love how Allie constantly entertains us.

Around the house

Allie's taking after mommy already! She wants to go out for a run. But Allie, you have to walk first and I don't want you to walk!

She really likes to play in her jumper and she also likes to play under it!

One toy? Why play with just one toy when you can take out the whole box!

Even with all those toys pictured above, Allie's favorite is the TV remote. So we took the batteries out of an old remote and gave it to Allie and she loves it.

Finger foods

We started finger foods a few weeks ago. Gerber graduates puffs melt in the mouth and they're actually pretty tasty.

It took a little while for Allie to get the hang of the puffs. When babies first start picking up small objects, they pick them up with their fist and then can't get them out.

Allie figured out the "pincer grasp" - grasping with the thumb and forefinger - but it still took a little while for her to actually put the puffs in her mouth. I find it funny because she will put almost anything else in her mouth!

Now she's a big fan and we're deciding what to try next.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Busy busy

Life is crazy as ever. Doug and I spend Allie's waking hours chasing her as she's getting quite speedy. We are going to move the living room furniture around in an effort to better contain her. That's just one of several house projects on a list that just keeps getting longer.

I have so many blog posts floating around in my head and lots of pictures to post, but the time just keeps getting away from us!

Allie now stands up using anything she can grab, including in her crib. She takes steps along the couch and even tries to stand without holding on! Over the weekend she cut her second tooth. Aside from being a little off last week, we didn't even notice. I've been feeling her gums because we were suspecting another tooth, and I felt the latest poking through yesterday. Knowing the misery some babies and parents go through with teething, I know that we are blessed. It makes me wonder how much trouble our next child will be since Allie has been so easy!

I have met my running goal of 30 minutes and then I ran 36 minutes yesterday. I have a little training plan in my head and I've signed up for a 5K Aug. 21. Where did the summer go?

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Look what Allie's doing now!



I keep trying to knock her over, but she just keeps getting back up! Just kidding. We've thought about knocking her over, but never actually done it. As you can see here, over the weekend Allie perfected the art of pulling herself up to stand. She even took a few steps along the couch. Eeeek! She's only 8 months old. I thought we'd have more time!

Monday, July 5, 2010

Going to the zoo

To wrap up our fun holiday weekend, we went to the zoo today. Allie really enjoyed it. Its so fun to see her experience things for the first time.






She wasn't interested in all the animals, but she was very fascinated by the seals and the orangutans, probably because they were the most active and, in the seals' case, made the most noise. She was also fascinated with all the people.

It was our first time going with Allie, but not our last. The Henry Vilas Zoo is the zoo my dad used to take us to when we were little, so it has sentimental value. More importantly, its one of only a few free admission, free parking zoos nationwide. Its not very big, but that works for us. Being free and only a few minutes away, we can pick up and go whenever we want, without making it a big deal. Its a great outing right on our back yard.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Allie's first Fourth

Happy Independence Day everyone!


No trips out to fireworks for us this year. We did discover that we have a partial view from our back deck and a perfect view from Allie's room. We also had several shows in the neighborhood.

Allie's first Fourth of July included her trip to the playground yesterday and, for Mommy and Daddy, grilling out today. Tomorrow we're taking a trip to the pool. Its been a fun weekend!

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Going to the park

Allie had her first taste of the playground today.

She loved the swing!

We enjoyed pushing her in the swing, although we had to stop because she looked like she was going to puke! I guess Mommy pushed her a bit too high.

Daddy joined Allie on the swings.

We also went down the slide!