Eloise - 9 months!

Can Eloise really be 9 months old?!  She sure has gotten bigger and a mind of her own!  Every month these photo shoots get harder and harder.  She wants to go, go, go!

Eloise took her first steps August 12, 2011.  It was so exciting!  She was shuffling her feet a little earlier in the day but didn't really take a step.  She must have wanted her Daddy to be here for the big show.  We were sitting in the kitchen talking after Glen got off work.  He stood her up just out of my reach and she took a step, step, step!  We clapped and cheered!  It's amazing how those steps made me feel.  I was so proud and happy for her!

  

This little girl is destruction on hand and knees!  She leaves a mess behind her everywhere she goes.  If there is an object intended to hold things, she wants it empty.  She does it in a frenzy too!  Her shaped blocks are usually first and get it the worst.  You'd think just dumping the box would work best but where's the fun in that?!  Eloise takes the box and puts one hand in and waves it back and forth as fast as she can, laughing as she watches the blocks fly out of the box.  She's more controlled with her stacking cups.  She pulls them out one at a time and places them around her.  Once the last is out she's off to her bucket or toys.  Which usually just gets dumped.  I'm ok with her dumping her toys, even her diaper bag I don't mind her emptying (it usually needs to be reorganized by then anyway) but the shelves, laundry basket, trash can, dirty clothe hamper oh the list goes on and on are off limits.  She just doesn't understand that yet.  I can't let her out of my sight!

 She can't just empty the drawer but every box in the drawer too!

 A whole pack of wipes!

Not only does she want things empty, but she also wants tables cleared.  She realized a few weeks ago that she could reach things on the end table.  So I pushed the picture and lap back out of her reach.  Well, next to that end table is a basket of shoes.  The other day I found that girl standing on the edge of the basket about to pull down the lamp!  All her attempts at climbing have failed in the past.   I guess she's learning to climb.  (Yay for me!)

She loves to get into the refrigerator.  If she's in the kitchen you have to be fast getting things out of the fridge.  This girl comes out of no where and is pulling things out too!

She still loves music.  She's so cute bouncing to the beat.  It's almost like she can't help but react when she hears music.  When she's crawling and she hears music she moves her back up and down.  I'm not explaining it very well.  It's kinda weird to see.  I love it when Glen plays his guitar.  Woo will stand at his knees and bounce along to the music.

She has learned how to clap.  She is too cute.  We went to a Baltimore Orioles baseball game the other night.  She had a good time to begin with.  When everyone cheered she would clap too.  Then she got scared.  Poor baby, I was expecting it though.  She has become so skid-dish lately.  If it gets too loud she gets scared and cries the saddest cry.  It doesn't have to be that loud even.  A sneeze, the toilet flushing, people laughing.  Poor baby.  When it happens she starts breathing heavy as she crawls as fast as she can to me.  Once she's to me she cries or just buries her head in my lap or chest.  I hope this passes soon.  It makes me sad to see her so freaked out.

Woo loves to see herself in the mirror more than ever these days.   When she sees her reflection she pats it and gives it a big slobbery kiss.  It's so cute.  The oven door gets the most action.  I wish she'd give me kisses!

She has started copying us.  The other morning I had a bit of a cough.  Every time I'd cough she'd give a little cough too.  Whenever she hears someone grunt, she copies that too.  She stares at you while she copies you.  Like the wants to get it just right.

She mastered getting down from the little step in our apartment in Laurel just in time for us to move.  She got so good I didn't even worry about her getting down anymore.  She can get down from the couch the same way.  It doesn't work perfectly every time, but she's getting there.  Oh this little girl is getting so big!

Eloise loves to thumb through her books.  Literally she thumbs through them.  It's crazy to see that little thumb pulling up those pages and her looking at the pictures.  She can even open her wipes and tries to open or work just about everything she can with those little thumbs!

She has learned the "D" sound.  She goes around saying adadada but refuses to say mamama.  No matter how hard I try to pound mama in her ears she just laughs and goes on with her dada.  I can't be too down about it she's so stinking cute!

Eloise hates nap time.  She'll fall asleep in my arms but the minute I lay her down she cries and cries!  I hate it!  Sometimes when she cries it sounds like she says Anna.  I may be hearing things but I hear her crying my name.  It kills me!  But a cranky baby kills me more so I suffer through it as long as I can.  She usually falls asleep before I crack.  Thanks Mom and Lucretia for talking/listening to me worry/vent my frustrations when nap time gets rough!  It's good to have so many expert mom's in the family!

Woo cut her first tooth!!  Well teeth I should say.  Her bottom right came in first and her left came in the next day.  Her top gums are looking pretty fierce too.  It'll be interesting to see how nursing goes when teeth are involved!  Speaking of nursing.  Woo has started pulling up my shirt when she wants to nurse!!  This crazy baby.  She's started pinching while nursing too.  Ouch!  When I pull her hand back I either she laughs or gets mad.  It depends on how tired she is.  Either way she tries again and again.  I'm not the only victim of those little fingers.  She pinched Glen's face the other day too.  She's an equal opportunity pincher!

She loves to play peek-a-boo.  When I'm sitting on the floor she'll pull up on my back and peek around one side of me.  I'll say "there she" is and she'll laugh and squeal then go round to the other side.  On the long drive to Florida she entertained herself with peek-a-boo too.  She would pull her blanket over her face.  It was so funny cause most of the time she would only get half her face covered.  She would laugh!  It's so much fun!

Eloise has started sitting in different positions than just feet straight out.  I know it seems silly to even mention it but she's so cute sitting all lady like with one knee out and one knee in.  It almost looks like she's trying to stand up from that positions sometimes too.  She also likes to sit with her knees bent and on her butt.  I tried doing it with her.  That didn't last long at all!!   I don't know how she does it for so long.  I'm a very inflexible 31 year old and she's 9 months old.  Not a fair comparison I know!

She likes to hold a cup to her mouth and ahh and ohh into it.  When she pulls it away she gives a little chuckle and does it again.  It's amazing to see her entertained by her own voice.  Not to mention she makes some funny faces!

This baby loves to eat!  I don't even try to give her pureed baby food anymore she hates it.  She could snack all day if I let her.  She umms while she eats too.  Once a bite goes in her mouth she's just a moaning.  She's figured out her snack container - the one with the slits in the top so the snacks don't fall out.  She puts her little fingers in the slits, turns it upside down and shakes.  They come showering down around her.  She eats them, but most of the time she does it just for fun.  I was so  very thankful for her love of snacks on the ride down from Maryland.  She ate so many Gerber cheese puffs I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't want another one ever again!

I was wrong, she still LOVES them!

 

Back to Fort Benning we go!

Moving day has finally arrived!  We originally planed on leaving after Glen's graduation on August 3rd but obviously that didn't happen.  Two weeks later we're leaving.  All because Glen's orders weren't in hand.  Printing out two pages of orders seems so simple to me but for the Army it took months!  Frustrating?  Just a little!  But that's behind us now and we're heading SOUTH!

I'm so excited to be moving only 4 hours from home!  I didn't appreciate how close we were before we moved to MD.  I'll take 4 hours any day!  The most disappointing things we missed while being up here were Bryn and Sarah's baptisms.  We love our family so much and can't wait for all the visits coming!   

I've been looking forward to moving closer to home since we got here but now that we're moving it's kinda sad.  We're moving from Eloise's first home.  She knows it's home.  When we've been out a while she gets a big grin on her face when we're walking up the steps.  I really think it's because she knows we're home.

We're excited to find a new place to call home!

Glen's Graduation!

Glen graduated from the Army's Practical Nursing Course today!  Happy Day! Doesn't he look sharp in his ASU?  He's practically a nurse!!!!

Glen has been busy, busy, busy this past year.  A little over a year ago he signed up for the Army's Practical Nursing Course.  He spent  a couple months in San Antonio, TX last summer to begin the course.  Because it was only two months the Army wouldn't send me with him so I went home to Macclenny.  I can't imagine a deployment. It was so good to be with my family but those 2 months were so hard on me.  I was pregnant at the time so that didn't help things.  

(Eloise was so good except when everyone clapped.  She cried it scared her so bad!)

 

 (This was the only decent picture with me in it.)

After San Antonio he was sent to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC to finish out the course.  Moving when you're 30+ weeks pregnant is an adventure!  I flew out to TX and rode back to Florida with him and about two days later we drove up to DC.  I've never seen my ankles so swollen in my life!  Since being here Glen has worked and studied so hard.  He passed all his tests and only had his hand slapped by one patients.  (I'm kidding!)  There were days where we only got to see him a couple hours at night.  Now it's over!!  We are looking forward to a vacation.  Beach anyone?!  

 His graduation ceremony was a lot of fun.  The Fife and Drum Corp was there all decked out in their revolutionary uniforms and  played at the beginning and end.  (I didn't get a very good picture of them but check out that red hair! WOW!)  Oh did I mention they had cake at the end!

ELOISE

Eloise (aka Woo) is now 8 months old!  My how the time have flown since she's arrived.  Here she is month by month.

Just born!

One month old!

I didn't start taking her monthly pictures with her pink giraffe till she was 2 months old.

 Two months old!

 Three months old!

 Four months old!

 Five months old!

 Six months old!

 Seven months old!

 Eight months old!!

  

Her nickname Woo was not planned at all.  We planned on calling her Ellie but that never stuck - Woo did.  It all came out in the baby talk.  Eloise turned to Eloisiewoo and then just Woo. There's also Wezzy, Woobey Do, and Wisa (Grandma Wisa loves that!).

She is one amazing kid.  Our life together started out a little rough.  She would not sleep anywhere but in my arms.  The minute I would put her in her bassinet she would cry.  I'm not kidding the minute! So she was in bed with us a few months.  The couch just wasn't comfy enough.  But now she sleeps through the night in her own bed.  It was so hard for me to let her cry it out but I'm so glad I did.  I started out by letting her cry 10 minutes but it never lasted that long.  Now most nights she stops crying once I close the door.  This girl is a morning person.  She wakes up at about 5-6 am with the biggest smile on her face.  It's really cute and makes me smile even though I'm not as chipper in the morning.

Her favorite books are "The Going to Bed Book" and "Follow That Bee".  "Follow That Bee" is a book I found in Target's dollar bins.  I'd have to say it's her absolute fave.  She smiles every time I pull it out and she want to read it more than once.  I'm lucky to get through a whole book before she's moving on to bigger and better things.  We read "The Going to Bed Book" - you guessed it - before bed every night.  We snuggle in her lamb blanket as we read it.  

Woo is doing SO many things!!  She's been crawling for a couple months now.  I don't know how she learned so fast.  She hated tummy time so much I thought she'd never learn to crawl but she proved me wrong!  She is FAST too.  We have a little step going to the back part of our apartment which she can get up with no problem.  We're still working on the coming down part.

She pulls up on EVERYTHING.  She tried to pull up on a little boy at church Sunday.  The boy kinda freaked out and ran to his mom.  I think he thought she was trying to knock him over.  Pulling up leads to cruising!!  She cruises from the couch to the footrest, her dad's amp to the tv stand.  Pretty much anything she can reach to keep moving.  I love it when her dad is sitting on the floor playing his video games and she walks in circles around him.    

She has been standing on her own for a few seconds here and there.  Her little feet flexing to keep her balanced is so cute!  She could stand longer if she wanted to.  She realizes she's not holding onto anything and she slowly lowers herself to the floor.  It won't be long till she realizes she's able to do it!

 (On her way down)

She loves to walk and does any time she can.  She can't do it on her own yet but anything she can push and walk behind she does.  She loves it.  She laughs and has the biggest open mouthed smile on her face the whole time.  She makes me laugh!

Woo LOVES music.  The Beatles are her favorite at the moment.  "Martha My Dear" gets the biggest smile out of her.  When she's a bit cranky I can turn it on and she smiles and dances.  Love it - I love it!!

Eloise hates baby food.  The first time we gave her rice cereal she really liked it, not so much the next few times.  Even baby food in cans she gags on.  She would even gag on an empty baby spoon for a while!  She's so dramatic!  She loves our food.  This girl wants to eat anything and everything we eat and lets us know when we aren't feeding her fast enough.  It's really cute to see Glen and Woo share a popsicle.  He has no choice but to share.  When she sees he has one you can't get her away from him!

Is she teething or isn't she?  I really don't know for sure.  For the past couple weeks she's been resting her tongue on her gums. In just the past few days she's started rubbing her gums with her tongue (mainly on the right side). When I feel in her mouth I can't feel anything but smooth gums.  She's been getting cranky for no reason too.  We'll just have to wait and see!  It's kinda hard to imagine her with teeth.  

She thinks the word "No" is funny.  I try so very hard to keep a stern face when telling her certain things are off limits because all I get is a huge smile/laugh.  Like when she's...

pulling out all the DVDs

or getting on the printer

or pulling at the blinds.

It's a learning process for the both of us.

Out of all the toys Eloise has she seems to only want the remotes, phones, the computer, i Pad and clothes.  I cannot do laundry when she's awake anymore.  She destroys my piles no matter how hard I try to keep them from her.  She likes to play with clothes.  She talks the whole time she's pulling them, chewing on them and putting them over her head.  It's so funny to watch.  This is her playing with a pair of her pants.

These past 8 months have been AMAZING.  I love being a mom!  I knew I would.  It just took me FOREVER to get here but it was well worth the wait!!

 

Bats Away!

So I decided to start a blog mainly to have a place to document moments I'd like to remember.  I'm not doing a very good job of it in my journal so here's hoping this goes better. 

Where to start...  We are gearing up for our move back to Fort Benning, GA.  We've been in Laurel, MD for the past year and are very excited to be moving closer to family and friends.  Glen graduates from his nursing course on 3 August.  He has been working and studying so hard!  We're very proud of him here in the Ramsey house!  We had hoped to head south on the third after graduation but it looks like we'll be here till the end of August.  It's not ideal but we're working with it.  I'm so eager to get to Columbus and find a new place and get our life there started!

Our home here in Laurel has been nice. I haven't had many complaints - the dryer takes too long to dry the clothes, the a/c is turned off way too early and turned on way too late but the BIGGEST one would have to be the BATS. There are bats in the over hang of our balcony. Glen isn't near as irked about it as I am and that bothers me a little. One actually found it's way IN the apartment about a month ago. I have no idea how it got in but it was sure flying around the living room. Woo was already in bed thank goodness. It was about 10 pm, I went to the bathroom and came out to a bat in my face! I locked myself in the bathroom till I got the courage up to get my phone out of the living room and run into my bedroom where I locked myself till Glen got home.  Of course it was no where to be found by then. So we went to bed. I couldn't sleep knowing it was in the house somewhere!!  At about 3 am it comes flying out from under the closet door!! NIGHTMARE COME TRUE!! I had locked myself in the room with the thing for hours waiting for Glen to get home. Glen saved the day though and got the bat out. Now they have been walled up in the over hang. We now have a bat mausoleum over our balcony. Way to go maintenance man! At least we're leaving soon.