8 Month Update

Age: 8.5 Months (Sorry baby, we have had the craziest month yet...)

This Santa gives me nightmares.  We went to Lombard to visit Sarah, Calvin, Ruby, and Baby Lola before we stopped by the see Santa.  He gave you a "Good List" Certificate and told you that he could tell you deserved it.  

Bless you...because you have more Christmas outfits than there are days of Christmas you have numerous outfit changes throughout the day! 

Weekly Updates:  You were sick for the first time this month and Mommy missed several photo ops!  I will try to do the "Fun Facts and Milestones in order and label how old you were in each :)

Weight: 17 lbs.

Height: 26 inches

Diaper Size: Size 2 but close to 3s once we run out of the megabox that we have.  Daddys says that Mommy does not have a future in logistics. 

Clothes Size: You can still fit in to your 3M onsies and PJs but the arms are too short.  6M seems to fit the best but you are close to fitting into 9M too.  As Booze says, "There is NOTHING wrong with being a petite girlie!"

Shoe Size: 2

Schedule: Honestly little one, I would be lying if I even tried to write a consistent schedule.  I know that this sounds horrible but I am not sure what you do with Susana and on the weekends (especially this month) we have not been at home once so your schedule has been dictated by where we are and what we are doing.  We did start doing some sleep training around Thanksgiving though as you had been waking up 1-2 times during the night (you were sick for part of this) during the whole 7-8 month stretch.  It took a few nights but you are able to get yourself to sleep (I put you in your crib very tired but not fully asleep) and then when you wake up in the middle of the night (if you do that is) you are able to put yourself back to sleep.  A few mornings when you wake up too early we can leave you in your crib and you'll go back to sleep for 30+minutes.

Food: You nurse in the morning and at night (plus once when I pick you up from school...sometimes) and get two bottles of BM from Susana.  Just this week I had to start supplementing your bottles with just a few ounces of formula.  High-Five to mom for only BFing (Daddy and Kev think this means Best Friending) or giving you pumped milk for nearly 9 months.  I still have 5 frozen bags (about 4 less than I need to make it to Christmas Break) and I knew that slowly introducing some formula would be better than having to go all in.  After school is out I am hoping to go back to EBF.  You LOVE to feed yourself.  We are trying the PLUM Organics line of food since it offers meat options plus any veggies that I can steam and serve.  You also eat Gerber finger foods and puffs. This week I started giving you cuts of: carrots, English peas, corn, string beans, and even some eggs!

New Tricks:
-You are so ticklish and give true belly laughs.  Your laughs are the most beautiful sounds I have ever heard:

-You can clap your hands.  We sing, "Clap, clap, clap your hands...clap your hands together...clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap your hands together!"
-You say "Bah, Bah, Bah", "AAAAA", MMEEEE", and I think you are starting to form a "ddddd".  You have the most precious little voice.  Auntie Mag says that its a little deep like your Momma's:

-You can feed yourself! You want nothing to do with Mommy spoon feeding you.  I can give you pieces of steamed carrots, peas, corn, and strawberry to pick up and then shovel in as much food as I can.  You really enjoy eating and make smacking noises while you eat.  You also eat little multigrain snacks which Daddy HATES.  He (and Auntie MA) say that they give you ranch breath...bahahaha!

(I am so sorry that you are still eating in this baby seat...on the floor.  I promise that we are going to buy you a real highchair in a few weeks!)

-You can CRAWL!  You have the funniest little crawl because one of your legs is usually stuck underneath you. You are very proficient at your scoot though!  You crawl over to objects or people and try to climb over them.

-You give Mommy kisses on the check, especially late at night when you are tired.

-This month you really started reaching for and grabbing at me when I hand you over to other people.

-You can pull up and do so on everything!  You LOVE getting under the coffee table too.  In the morning you stand up in your crib and yell at us to come get you.  I was trying to read you the Christmas story and all you wanted to do was stand up on your book basket and dump them all out. 

Fun Facts and Milestones:

-Ole Miss vs. Auburn (Weekend of Nov 1... 31 Weeks)


Uncle Duff picked us up from the airport and drove us to Oxford.  Aunt MA and all of her friends had set up a fabulous tailgate and they even had a surprise/impromptu celebration honoring MA and Baby Wilkes!

Loving your first time in the Grove!

Kisses from/to Baby Henry Fallon!

Thanks Aunt MA for Elsie Lee's and my matching Rebel dresses!We were the BEST dressed babies in the Grove!

Our family is GROWING!

We got to visit Uncle Rob's new restaurant but you were much more interested in Daddy B's beard. 

We played hookie from school and Mommy tried out her "SAHM Skills"...you undid all good efforts... But you sure are cute!

-Mommy had a few days off this month and we had a lot of playdates.  Michele and the twins (Morgan and Olivia) met us for some dress up:

 Nov 14-16 (33 Weeks)

-We visited the Templin's in Athens, GA.  Mommy and Daddy went to the game while you stayed at home and played with Bailey Bell.

November 21-30
-We flew into Memphis to see Uncle Rob and his new restaurant, Belly Acres.  You got to hang out in the kitchen and watch Uncle Rob at work.  Daddy and Uncle Timmy tried their hand at cooking too.  They each think they'll keep their day jobs.

-We celebrated Thanksgiving at the farm with JJ, J-Pop, Uncle Bryson, Uncle Ryan and the rest of the Madison MS State tailgating crew.  We have done this for many Thanksgivings and always have a blast.  It was even more fun this year having a baby on the farm.  You got LOTS of attention and everyone wanted to hold you and pass you around. 

 You LOVED the doggy!

Sweet Mommies and cousins!  We cannot wait for Baby Wilkes to arrive in February! 

We headed to Oxford to watch the Rebel's play the Bulldogs in the Egg Bowl.  You loved strolling around the Square and talking to people.  Oxford is Mommy's happy place and I am so glad that we have gotten to take you so many times already!

You are an excellent "getting ready" partner!  Too bad we can't tease your hair and stick it in hot rollers just yet...but we will! :)

Uncle Ryan LOVES his girl...even if she is in red and blue!

I lived in the DG house for 2.5 years and I never could have imagined coming back 8 years later to change by baby and take a break in the Founder's Room.  So glad to have this as a stopping point close to the Grove

Maybe this will be on your future Pan-Card...

No words....

SuSu took you to see the blown up Col. Reb and you thought he was SO cool!

Lizzy, Drew Ratner, and Toes came down to Oxford for the game too.

Hotty Toddy!

Uncle Ryan knew not to stay on the Square with you too long for fear that his wallet would be emptied.

J-Pop says that you can live in his condo for free when you go to college...his Starkville condo...

You and JJ have enjoyed sitting on the Oxford Condo porch since you made your first trip to Oxford when you were just 4 weeks old.

We got to travel over to Pontotoc to see our GanGan too!  I hope that we both have her eternal inner and outer beauty.

You think that your SuSu is too funny!

We drove back to Memphis and spent Sunday night with Aunt MA and Uncle Timmy.  We woke up bright and early Monday morning to fly back to Chicago but I could not find my wallet with our IDs...turns out I left it in Oxford so Daddy flew back without us.  What may have been an unfortunately situation really turned into a FUN day with Aunt MA.  We drove down to Oxford, grabbed the wallet, and played on the Square.  You got to eat lima beans, chicken and dumplings, and corn bread at AJax...one of Mommy and Aunt MA's favorites!

We loaded up and headed back to Chicago later that night!

Goodness...we did a lot this month!

6 Month Photo Shoot

We were able to team up with our favorite Chicago photographer Jovana a few weeks back to capture some fun city pictures of our family.  Though it was the last nice weekend in Chicago there was a slight fog so we didn't get all of the city pictures that I had hoped for BUT our girlie is just as precious as she can be!

Here are some of my favorites!

Timmy especially loves Kyle's thumb placement here.  He is such a model.

Bonnet, bloomers, and dress by my oh so talented cousin Sandra Ashford.  She used herloom pieces of lace and fabric from the Duff, Ray, and Moore/Magee side of the family.  Most of the lace and buttons are actually from Kyle's mother's wedding dress!  Suzanna Grace also has on her "add a pearl"necklace from her JJ and a bracelet that she, her grandmothers, Aunt MA, and I each have.

Sweet little hands and those LONG fingers!

Such a happy girlie!

Though the size of her bows may make it difficult to see all of her hair at times, this shows that she is quite the little toe head! (For my midwest friends who may not know what that means...Suzanna Grace is a blonde, blonde baby!)

She was in the middle of blowing bubbles!

Daddy's girlie!

This one cracks me up!  At the end of the photo shoot I had ONE picture in mind that I wanted to capture at the zoo.  I was in charge of moving tourist out if the shot while Kyle was the jester and in charge of getting SG to smile.  Our strong willed girlie was over having her picture taken and simply laid down.  She didn't cry or fuss, rather she put her head down and went to sleep.

Now the question becomes which one do I use for Christmas cards?!?  Any suggestions?