A Month of Firsts

It's amazing to me that November is almost over. This last month has been a month full of firsts! To recap, I've decided to list them here!

First Trick-or Treating trip!

Talk about time flying... it seems like just yesterday, I was parading my little pumpkin down the street with her cousins and having a great time. Amber, Mark, and the girls came down to celebrate with us, and we took Parker and Autumn out to Trick-or-Treat. We walked around the neighborhood and discovered that I really have some cool neighbors! A lot of the houses that we visited were just parties set up for the kids with treats and even a bouncy-house. Autumn had a runny nose so we didn't stay out too long, but I really enjoyed it.

First Real Cold!

Right before Halloween, Autumn's nose started running. I took her temperature multiple times and thankfully it was never above 99.1 degrees. I called the doctor anyways and was just told to stock up on nasal mist and Baby Tylenol and to ride it out. I was also told that it could last up to 2 weeks. I shrugged that off, never thinking it would actually last 2 weeks and followed doctor's orders. I discovered a product called Boogie Wipes which I fell in love with and stocked up on as well! Luckily, I have a rediculous amount of money left in my flex spending account! (Side note, any good ideas on how to spend it in the next 31 days??) A week in to it, I got sick so the second week was extra awful. However, on day 14 when I was feeling better and my little one was not, I called the doctor again. They told me to bring her in and we discovered our next first...

First Ear Infection!

The doctor told me that when you're snotty as long as Autumn was snotty, it all backs up in the head and inevitably gets infected. I have to admit that Autumn was really a trooper through the whole thing and ended up looking forward to her bubblegum-flavored antibiotics.

First Ride in the Big Girl Car Seat!


Jeremy and I decided to buy the big-girl car seat a little early so Autumn's trip to Mansfield would be extra comfy! Jeremy bought a new truck a couple of weeks ago with a huge backseat, so he picked up the car seat last Wednesday and installed it! The first time we sat her in it, she was really excited to see all of her surroundings! While she still fits in the infant car seat and it's actually still in my car, I know that she really appreciated our little gift. The regularly under 3 hour drive ended up taking 5 1/2 due to holiday traffic and she really held up well!



First Thanksgiving!

Autumn has been eating real food lately so on Thanksgiving, we just let her try everything! We set a little scoop of each dish in front of her on her high chair and watched her go to town. She truly enjoyed the turkey above everything else, and it seems that the majority of the sides (stuffing, sweet potato casserole, jello, etc) ended up on her rather than in her belly! I really think that it's best to tell the story in pictures, though! I'm not sure that any captions are needed...
Thankfully, she cleaned up nicely (the high chair literally needed a hosing down), and the tryptophan kicked in nicely which led to a good nights sleep!


Our biggest first yet (birthday!) is coming up a week from today! While I'm still a little in shock that this milestone is approaching, I am so glad to have spent the last year with one of the silliest, funniest, most pleasant people I know. My love for this little girl grows exponentially each day and I've been so blessed to be able to share these days with her.

The Best Costume Ever!

Chandler Smile

You've all probably seen the hilarious episode of Friends where we discover Chandler's inability to smile normal when a camera is stuck in front of him.

I think that Autumn has figured out what she's supposed to do once I stick the camera in front of her face and what's funny is she has discovered her own "Chandler Smile". Here's some of the latest evidence of her new talent...

Is it totally wrong to laugh so hard at pictures of my daughter? Oh my goodness these could keep me rolling for hours.

This next weekend is Halloween! People keep asking me what Autumn is going to be for Halloween and my standard response has been "Uh, hello, have you met me?" I found the most precious pumpkin outfit at Gymboree and yesterday we did a photoshoot in my front yard with about 50 pumpkins of various shapes, colors and sizes. I can't wait to see the results! Once again, it's so awesome to have such an amazing photographer as a sister. Thank goodness Kate's talent for Photoshop is just as strong as her talent for taking the pictures! She may be working overtime on this batch of photos with the new look that Autumn has developed!

Two of my Very Favorite Things

With each new accomplishment...

...comes a little extra attention on my part! We're both learning, you see!

Specifically, last week Autumn started pulling up on things. The first couple of days were slow going, but she has officially become a master. She can pull up on just about anything now and she gets a huge smile of accomplishment each time she gets to a standing position.

The only problem that we've found is that she has not mastered the art of sitting back down once she's standing. This means that I need to be near her pretty much at all times, which is tiring! I am also learning that, while I want to capture all of these new things on video, I neeed to suffer the consequences when I do! Here's our latest example:



I want to add that the end of this video when you hear me say "oh sh.." you can just imagine what came out of my mouth next. What came out of Autumn was expected, she cried until I could distract her enough to make her realize that she wasn't hurt. She was fine! No bumps or bruises this time around. The kid needs to learn to sit down!

My new job this week is to show her each time she stands that she can drop to her bottom quite easily. Wish me luck.

Big Girl

This past week has been FULL of new accomplishments for my little girl. Not only is she dancing to every song she hears, waving to strangers, and getting to a sitting position by herself, but as of Tuesday, she can pull up to a standing position! All of which means that my days chasing and entertaining her are now officially nonstop. I am more and more amazed by her every day, and could go on for paragraphs about how much fun she is. So rather than bore you with every detail of each accomplishment, I'll just post my favorite pictures from our latest photoshoot that took place this afternoon. Thanks again, Aunt Kate!

Temper

I think that Autumn had her very first temper tantrum yesterday. She had eaten dinner, and I was giving her a bottle, and when it was done, she started screaming and full-on crying (red face and all). I picked her up out of her high chair and tried to distract her to take her mind off of the situation and she just got even more mad! She started flailing her arms around which was hitting my face, so I took her little arms and just gently pinned them to her side, which of course made her even more mad. I ended up just putting her in the baby jail and walking away for a minute. About 20 seconds later, she was fine, happy, and playing with her toys. Wow! I'm not sure that a temper tantrum at 9 months is a good sign, but I guess we're all learning in this process.

In happier news, Autumn is learning new things daily and it's a joy to watch her! She can stand up while holding on to things, but she can't quite get her balance, so I think walking is a ways off - thankfully! She is trying to wave and beat on things, but she's not all that coordinated, just like me, so she just flails her arms around and doesn't actually accomplish much. She is also saying da da da da da when she's really happy and playing and in the last 2 days has started saying ma ma ma ma ma only when she's terribly upset. I'm not quite sure that's fair, but oh well. Even though she's screaming when she does it, it's still wonderful to hear her say it! She's also dancing and singing along with the radio! She bobs her head to music and just makes noise with her voice whenever music is on. It's hilarious. We were in TJ Maxx today and she started dancing when she heard the music and she was totally cracking me up. She just gets this huge smile on her face like it's the best thing she's ever heard, no matter the song.

She now has 3 teeth. She has the 2 on the bottom center and then one little odd one on the top that I think came in out of order. It looks like it's the canine tooth, but it could be the one right between that one and the front tooth. I lovingly call it her snaggle tooth!

With all of these things going on, I guess a temper tantrum every once in a while is to be expected. I just hope that in the future (not including her teenage years, because I know they'll probably be daily at that point) that they are few and far between!