Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Go, go, go!

It's been a crazy life in the Baldwin family! Autumn is on the move... So watch out! I cannot leave for 2 seconds anymore. I went to put away my bowl from breakfast, I came back to the family room and she was GONE!!! Totally freaked. Where could she have gone!?!?! Started looking around the room, and she was hiding under one of my mom's old fashion desk/end tables that she has next to the couch. Sigh! This is only the beginning, I know it. She's already found her way into the kitchen. Realizing that there's more to life outside of the family room. Opened her first cupboard door and quickly shut it. Quite proud of herself :-) Definitely installing latches on the door ASAP!

It hasn't even been a month since Autumn started crawling and she's pulling herself up on everything. I found her Monday morning, after her first nap, standing up in her crib. Smiling from ear to ear! So glad I had my phone to quick take a picture. Autumn also loves crawling all over her mommy. Just when I thought I was regrowing all that hair I lost from the hormone changes... Autumn comes around and pulls herself up using my hair :-( Ouch! She's really been involving me in her play time. Showing me what she's playing with. Then she'll put it down and quickly crawl over to me.

To add to the craziness in this house, getting ready to visit Jen and Leah in Myrtle Beach is quickly approaching. Autumn and I leave Monday morning! It's hard enough for me to pack for myself, let alone Autumn!!! Her cloth diapers alone could take up a whole suitcase. I'm really praying for safe travel and that she won't make the 2 hour flight the worst flight of my life! I've only ever flown one other time and it wasn't pleasant for me. It was a very smooth flight, but I was super anxious the whole time and never ended up relaxing until we landed. So I pray that God will help me to remain calm and relaxed so that Autumn won't feel me anxiousness and get worried or upset. I'm probably freaking out over nothing, and it'll probably be a lot of fun, but I still worry :-) Because I can... HAHA!

This will also be a test for my parents while Autumn and I are gone! They've seen Autumn almost everyday since the day she was born. And now they won't be able to see her for a week. My mom's already hyperventilating... Tee hee! I told them that it's great practice for when we move out. Because even though I love my parents to death, having them over everyday will be a bit much ;-) My mom expects pictures everyday... So I better bring my battery charger!

Look at me standing up!


Autumn cuddling with her Grandma!


I love her eyebrow expression here!


Trying on her new swimsuit from Grandma!


Trying on her new swimsuit from mommy!

Friday, May 14, 2010

Short story

It's been a very long week. Autumn's still not sleeping very well. Last night I gave her some teething tablets, figured that it didn't hurt. And she slept almost 7 hours! I almost wonder if she is really teething. It's wearing me out pretty bad. She's still not set on her schedule like she was before she starting crawling. She officially dropped her last nap. So she's only down to two naps a day. On a good day, she'll sleep 2 hours. The last nap is always a struggle. If she's the slightest bit over tired or not tired enough, it's a battle to get her to sleep! Oh the joys of motherhood :-) Good thing I love her like crazy!

Speaking of crawling... Autumn is all over the place. She is on the go! Getting into anything and everything. She's pretty smooth at it now. Even crawls to me, Jordan and my mom. One evening, Jordan came home from work, super dirty. Autumn saw him and got super excited. Started crawling towards him and even cried a little bit when he tried to walk away to wash his hands. Just melted his heart! So he picked her up, dirty hands and all :-) How could you say no to that?

Autumn almost pulled herself up today too. She got up on her knees. I told her that she was growing up too fast and that she needed to stop. She didn't listen to me. I am so blessed to have Autumn in my life. She has taught me so much about my heart and God's love for me. The miracle of life is a wonderful thing. I just never thought I would blink and she'd be crawling already. Next walking... Then pre-school... Ok... I need to stop!

Recently started Autumn on cherrio puffs. She's doing a lot better than I expected with them. I still have to break them apart a little bit. Still a little big for her. But she eats them very well. Even used her two bottom teeth to crunch them. I put a few on her high chair table and she went to town. Still not doing so well with the pointer finger and the thumb, but she's learning. She gets them in her mouth. Sometimes. I just love watching her learn and observe. She's such a smart girl.

Autumn and I are going to be flying to Myrtle Beach at the end of this month to visit Jen and her little girl Leah! I'm SO excited and yes, a little nervous. I've only ever flown once in my life, not to mention that I'm bringing Autumn with me :-) Jordan will be fishing in the U.P. with a bunch of guys from church. And so I figured that Autumn and I needed a little vacation of our own. Found some really cheap tickets online. Really looking forward to spending some time with Jen and our girls! Any advice on traveling with a 8 month old would be very appreciated.

Last, but not least, Mother's Day!!! My first official Mother's Day was last Sunday. Autumn surprised me with a beautiful open hearts necklace in her crib when she woke up from her nap. Sneaky girl ;-) Like I said before (and I'll say it again a million times over) I am so blessed to have Autumn. She is such a wonderful surprise. I love watching her grow and learn and watch her personality come to life. Her bond with Jordan is growing so much and just warms my heart when she gets super excited to see him. He loves his little girl so much! I can't wait to expand our little family ;-)

My first Mother's Day!


Playing with Rudy.


How do I get this in my mouth?




Her newest thing... Tipping her head to the side.


Studying those cherrio puffs...

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Splish Splash!

Oh geeze. Just when I get Autumn up to sleeping through the night, something happens that brings it back down again. I think I'm destined to sleep only 3 or 4 hours at a time for the rest of my life :-) Autumn is learning how to crawl. I think she's got it down pretty good now. She moves about 4 or 5 crawl/steps (whatever you wanna call it) and then falls down. I think she's getting the hang of it. Definitely time to baby proof the house. I've already had to take away several items from her! However, since she's going through a major milestone, her nap schedule and sleep schedule is all thrown off!!! Yesterday she only got 1 half hour nap and then an hour and a half before bed time. Definitely not enough to function properly. We'll see how she does today.

Bath time is starting to become a fun routine for Autumn. She gets a bath 3 nights a week (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday). She's now way too big to be in the sink. She has a really nice duck tub that sits inside the regular bath tub. That way I don't have to worry about her face planting on the ceramic tub. She loves playing with her toys and splashing mommy!

Speaking of being too big. I have to graduate Autumn to the next size car seat. Her legs are already hanging off the end of her bucket car seat! I've bumped her feet a few times and feel horrible :-( She's already 28 inches long and that's the maximum for her car seat. I'll be sure to post pics of her new car seat when she gets it tomorrow :-D

Rub-a-dub-dub... Autumn's in the tub!


Playing with her toys.


Goofing off with daddy during dinner.


Her favorite... BANANAS!!!


Goofiest face ever :-D

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Sleeping Training

Autumn is such a little stinker sometimes. I talked about how I was going to start sleep training her again. Two nights ago she did ok. Woke up at 11pm, pretty upset, so I nursed her. Then she woke up at 5:30am, skipping the normal 2/3am wake-up time. So that wasn't too bad. Tonight, I was prepared. I wasn't going to give in, unless she absolutely needed it. She went to bed at 7pm and when I heard her wake up, I felt pretty rested. Which I haven't felt in a long time! So I rolled over to see what time it was.... 5:30AM!!! Woo hoo! She slept through most of the night herself :-D Then when I rolled over again on my tummy, I realized that she REALLY had to nurse. Haha! So proud of my big girl sleeping all by herself. Let's hope this pattern continues. I gave her extra kisses this morning too :-)

Quick update... Autumn is now sitting up by herself for long periods of time. She rarely falls down anymore, except backwards. She's working on that ;-) I mentioned last post that she sat up by herself. Hasn't done it since, but that's ok. This morning she really worked on her crawling. So instead of just thrusting herself forward, she actually used her knees for two crawls! Baby proofing commence!!!