Hallie at 12 Months

This is it--the last monthly baby post I'll ever do!! (cue the hallelujah chorus...and the sobbing tears!) The first year of any baby is always the hardest for me, so to be done with Hallie's first year and have it behind us is somewhat exhilarating--we made it through the last first year!!! But then the thought of not having a newborn ever again also makes me sad. (Not trying to jinx us, because we thought we were going to be done with Hudson, haha, but now we're REALLY sure that we're ready to be done!) ;)

It was a rough year--with adjusting to having five kids (especially having Hudson & Hallie be closer together than any of our other kids have been)...and then adding in all the covid craziness with online school for the big boys and being stuck at home all the time, etc. It was a hard year, but it was also a good year. Being stuck at home meant a slower schedule, which meant more time to adjust to & enjoy having a new baby. And having Curt working from home for the past year has allowed him to be more involved in the day-to-day aspects of Hallie's first year than he was able to do with any of the other kids. I feel like I was able to enjoy and soak up and appreciate every stage of Hallie's first year as well as I possibly could have, so even though it's sad to be moving on, I feel good about it, and I think I'm ready. Plus, Hallie is just getting more and more fun the older she gets, and I love watching how she is fitting into our family.

Anyway, now on to formalities.

Here is Hallie at 12 months:

Compared to 11 months:

She surprised us and gained more than a pound in the last month, and shot up a ton in her growth chart percentages at her one year appointment. Here were the official stats:

Weight: 16 lbs 13 oz (13%!!!)

Height: 29.5 inches (78%!!)

Head circumference: 44.25 (39%)

She officially passed up how much Hudson weighed at her age (she's always been smaller than he was, but still close). He weighed 16 lbs 12.5 oz at one year--so she has him beat by 1/2 ounce now! ;) And I can't believe how high her percentages are...considering how small she still is haha!

Waiting for the dr at her appt:

BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN THE LAST MONTH:

- Started drinking cow's milk

- Done with nursing...!

- First word: uh-oh!

She LOVES splashing in the bath:

EATING:

- She's been caring less and less about nursing the last few weeks, and I was pretty much forcing her to keep with it until she was officially a year and was good with cow's milk. Thankfully, she took to cow's milk really well (I introduced it to her a few days before her birthday), and at the time of her birthday, she was down to nursing before she went to sleep and first thing when she woke up. (I dropped her middle-of-the-day nursing about a week before her birthday--she just wouldn't sit still long enough to get anything out) And then as of Feb 1st, she is completely done nursing. It's definitely bittersweet to end that chapter--it's crazy to think I've spent five years of my life nursing our babies! And as nice as it is to be done...I already miss the bond it brought. :( But I'm so grateful I was able to do it! And I'm pretty excited to not have to worry about wearing nursing-friendly clothes ever again. :)

- She's getting more picky with what she eats--she still tries and eats everything I give her, but she definitely has favorites that she'll gobble up, and then things she doesn't really care for after taking a few bites. And she wants to eat everything we're eating and gets offended when if we don't/can't give her something, haha.

- Favorites are: oatmeal, toast & jam, scrambled eggs, any form of cheese, bananas, blueberries, canned peaches, mac & cheese, any kind of meat but especially grilled chicken, rice, steamed broccoli, canned green beans, nutrigrain bars, and pirates booty. 

- She's starting to show interest in using a spoon on her own, but she hasn't quite figured out how to manipulate it yet, and then she just gives up after a little bit and uses her hands again, haha.

SLEEPING:

- Hasn't changed much in the sleeping department--still takes naps at 9:00 and 1:00/1:30ish, and usually sleeps for 1-1.5 hours for her morning nap, and about 2 hours for her afternoon nap.

- She still wakes up in the 6:00 hour quite often, and just lays happily in her bed sucking her blanket, until she starts making noise at about 7:00 (though the last few mornings she hasn't woken up at all until 7:00!)

- I stopped swaddling her and started just giving her blanket to her to hold, and she's done well with that transition.

- She still soothes herself by sucking on her blanket...and I'm not sure how we're going to wean her off that, but it's so cute and funny to watch her find her blanket in her sleep and jam as much of it in her mouth as she can! (I just hope it's not causing major orthodontic problems...!)

- We also got her real bedroom set up and moved her into a full-sized crib (instead of her mini crib in her closet room) a few days after her birthday, and she's done great with it! (pictures of that to come)

In her new big girl crib!!

Sweet girl, just happy to have her blanket:

MOBILITY:

- She has gotten really fast at crawling, but it's still more of an army crawl (or it reminds me of a lion creeping through the grass, getting ready to pounce on its prey, haha!)

- She loves to go around and find the tiniest pieces of trash, leaves, dog food (face palm), etc, and jam it in her mouth as fast as she can (and she loves it and laughs when we're running to try to stop her and she gets it into her mouth before we get there, haha)

- She hasn't shown too much interest in the stairs yet, so we haven't put up gates yet, but she did start to fall down one stair one time, but thankfully her shoulders caught her and kept her from falling down any more before I was able to get to her

- She pulls onto her knees quite often, and has pulled onto her feet a few times, but other than that she hasn't shown any interest in walking. But I'm trying to work on it with her!

- In the last little bit she's started doing this downward dog-type yoga pose when she's going from her stomach to sitting, and it's pretty funny to see

- She's super flexible and can do full-on splits as she goes back and forth from crawling to sitting

- She's learned she can follow me from room to room, and it's so fun to watch her come around the corner and smile when she sees me

- She doesn't really get into too many things yet; at this point the boys were all emptying cupboards and making huge messes all the time...so it gives me hope that maybe she won't be as hard in that department. ;)

TALKING:

- Her first official word was "uh-oh"--when things fall or drop; she used to just mouth the words, and then she would say just one syllable or the other, haha, but now she's starting to actually say the full word :)

- In the last few days she's also started saying "hi"

- She occasionally says mama & dada, but I don't think she associates them with us, and she doesn't say them very consistently

- She's been starting to try to sign (& say?) "more" when she's eating, and it's so cute

OTHER:

- She's started "dancing" when she hears music, and it's so adorable

- Has 6 teeth total--4 on top and 2 on bottom

- I've finally started reading stories to her before naps & bedtime, and she LOVES it! She smiles & laughs at all the pictures (especially the animal sounds), and she loves to turn the pages.

- She still appears to favor her left hand...which would mean that 4 out of our 5 kids are left-handed!!! (so crazy!!)

- She has this adorable, sweet, high-pitched voice that she uses when she is holding/playing with/eating her bear or little doll--it makes me wonder if her little nurturing side is coming out already? So, so cute!

- She love, love, loves paper--she loves to rip it and eat it, and she knows she's not supposed to, so she does it as fast as she can before we can get over to take it away from her, hahaha

- The best word we can think of to describe her personality is "spunky": she's not quite mischievous, but she knows when she's not supposed to do something, and she loves to do it anyway to get a rise out of us, haha. She has a funny little sense of humor, and she's starting to have opinions about things and gets upset if we take something away from her or take her away from somewhere she wants to be. She LOVES her brothers and gets the biggest grin when she sees them or hears them. And she's starting to give these open-mouthed kisses that are the sweetest. Oh how we love this little girl!!

She loves her dad SO much--she get's so excited to see him, and gives him the biggest, cheesiest smiles when he walks in the room. It just melts my heart seeing them together.

Every day I love her more, and I just can't get enough of her!! I feel like she's fitting into our family more and more every day, and I'm so, so grateful to have her. Oh Hallie--we love you SO, SO much!!! I'm ready to pause time here and keep her this small and adorable forever!

And just as a recap, here are all of her monthly posts together. So crazy how much she's changed...!

We love you Hallie!!

Hallie at 11 Months

Playing catch-up...obviously. ;)

Here Hallie is at 11 months:

Compared to 10 months:

*She randomly developed a fear/strong dislike of the blanket I take her pictures on, and she would cry anytime I put her on it...so weird, because that's so unlike her! So I had to try three different times before I got a picture with a smile. Poor thing!

Outtakes:

Oh this little girl--she is just SO fun! Her spunky little personality keeps coming out more and more, and this was a huge month of accomplishments.

BIGGEST DEVELOPMENTS IN THE LAST MONTH:

- got tooth #6

- started crawling on 12.14.20!! (her own little version of army crawling, haha)

- dropped a nursing, so now she's down to just three times a day

- started consistently SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!

From my Instagram post:

"Her smiles, hugs/nuzzles, and playful laughs bring so much joy to our home; when the boys are crazy and I’m on the verge of tears or ready to pull my hair out, she gives me the sweetest smiles and it just melts my heart. The Lord knew I needed her in my life, and I’m so eternally grateful to have her in our family. (And I seriously can’t believe she’s almost a year old...! )"

SLEEPING:

- still taking two naps at 9:00 am & 1:00 pm

- sleeps from 7:30ish pm until 6:30/7:00ish am!!

- stopped needing her middle of the night feeding, and if she wakes up before 7, she just stays in her bed happily sucking on her blanket until a little after 7:00 when she finally starts making noise and wants to eat

EATING:

- dropped a nursing session, so now she just nurses in the morning when she wakes up, before her afternoon nap, and then at night before she goes to bed

- totally over baby food and eats 100% table food

MOBILITY:

- started (army) crawling on 12.14.20 and is loving her newfound freedom to get around the house!

OTHER:

- started clapping for "yay!"

- started mimicking the boys with growling...and it's hilarious haha

- weighed 15 lbs 10 oz on our scale at her 11 month mark

- wears size 3 diapers

- wears 3-6 month and 6 month pants, and 6-9 month (and a few 12 month) tops

Video of her growling, haha:

Oh Hallie girl, how we love you so!! The time is going so fast...!

Hallie at 10 Months

*Confession: Keeping the blog updated stresses me out. Not because I worry about the 5 people who actually read it, eagerly waiting for the next post, haha, but because I really like to have it as a documentation of our family life, and the farther behind I get, the less details I remember, and the harder it is to get motivated/the more stressful it feels to bring it back up to date. Life with five kids has rocked my world (probably has something to do with covid being thrown into the mix there too...), so I've been doing some soul-searching, trying to figure out what things I can get rid of to help simplify my life and help me be less stressed out overall so I can be a better mom. And the blog is always on the fence--it takes a fair amount of time to keep up and adds a good amount of stress in my brain...but I LOVE having it to look back on and to document our life as a family. And when I finally get in the groove of posting, I really enjoy having an outlet to write a few of my feelings. So I keep pushing forward with it, and it's forever on my to-do list of things to get done. Maybe someday if the boys go back to school full time (instead of having early outs every day--where I pick them up right after I put Hudson & Hallie down for naps/quiet time--then maybe I'll have some more regular time to be on the computer again...maybe someday. I really, really miss having some time to myself. Life is exhausting right now, and by the time I finally get all the kids to bed at night, I have zero motivation to do anything productive. Maybe someday when the kids are older then I can have more personal time/computer time...fingers crossed!!

Anyway, so even though this is a month-and-a-half late, I'm determined to finish Hallie's last 3 monthly posts! We're so close...!! (which also makes me so sad that she's almost a year old already...!)

Hallie at 10 Months:

Compared to 9 Months:

I have my notes from when she was 10 months, so these are hopefully pretty accurate details. ;)

BIGGEST DEVELOPMENTS IN THE LAST MONTH:

- Got two new teeth (#4 and #5)

- Started occasionally sleeping 11 hours straight

- Spunky personality started coming out

- Pretty much done with baby food

New top tooth (and the bottom one you can't see):

SLEEPING:

- Still taking two naps at 9:00 AM and 1:00 PM

- Officially done taking a third nap

- Goes to bed at 7:30 pm and usually wakes up once to eat around 4 or 5 am to eat, and then goes back to sleep, but started occasionally sleeping all the way through until 6:00 am

- Sometimes wakes up at 5:30 and just sucks her blanket happily (not going back to sleep) until I get her out of bed for the morning 

EATING:

- Still nurses 4 times during the day, but her interest is waning, and I'm getting ready to drop one

- Burps bigger and louder and more consistently than any of the boys, haha!!

- Started thinking it was funny to spit out baby food...so she pretty much eats solid foods exclusively

- Favorite foods are: oatmeal blend with bananas & strawberries, bread in any form (toast, rolls, etc), pretty much any fruit but especially blueberries, broccoli, canned green beans, string cheese, and water in her new weighted straw cup (greatest cup EVER!)

MOBILITY:

- Still not crawling, but gets anywhere she wants by rolling around

- Sits up like a pro

She rolled under the dresser and got stuck, haha:

TEMPERAMENT:

- Has a little spunky personality that's coming through, and it's so fun to see! She thinks things are funny and does things to get our attention or to make us laugh (like spitting out baby food, dropping things off her highchair tray, or pulling down her bows, haha)

- Loves to slap anything and everything (her highchair tray, our shoulders when we're holding her, the floor, etc) 

Pulling down her bow:

Not very lady-like, haha, but so cute!

OTHER:

- Babbles a lot more

- Started taking baths sitting up

- Started shaking her head "no" occasionally--mostly when I was trying to put her to bed haha

- Wears 6-9 and 9 month tops, and 3-6 and 6 month bottoms

- Weighed 14 lbs 13 oz when I weighed her on on our scale Nov 24th

Jumping in her new jumperoo:

Saying "mama"--she says it as she babbles, but doesn't associate it with me yet:

Cute happy girl:

We sure do love our Hallie girl!!

Hallie at 9 Months

We have now hit my very favorite baby age, and I'm ready to stop time forever. Love, love, love this stage!! Hallie sits up on her own and is entertained by almost anything, she has the sweetest little personality that is coming through more and more, she's on a consistent schedule, and she's not super mobile yet so she doesn't get into much trouble. LOVE it!!

Here she is at 9 months:

Compared to 8 months:

And here are the official stats from her 9 month appointment:

Weight: 14 lbs 0.5 oz (3%)

Height: 26.75 inches (34%)

Head circumference: 43 cm (38%)

I was super worried she wouldn't be 14 lbs yet and that she wouldn't be on the growth curve, so I was super happy to see she was OVER 14 lbs (even if just by a half pound, haha), and at 3%! Whoop, whoop! She is doing great developmentally, and the dr says she's looking as healthy as can be. Such a blessing!

BIGGEST DEVELOPMENTS IN THE LAST MONTH:

- All of a sudden overnight, her balance was perfect for sitting up! No more falling over!

- She is now a pro at feeding herself table food and uses her pincher fingers amazingly well

- She stopped the occasional twice-a-night feedings and now only ever gets up once--hallelujah!

Little girl clothes are SO fun!!! (all the heart eyes!!)

SLEEPING:

- Still naps at 9:00 and 1:00 for about 1.5-2 hours each, and very occasionally at 4:00

- Still goes to bed about 7:30 and wakes up anywhere between 6:30-8:00 in the morning

- Wakes up only once a night to nurse--anywhere between 2-5 am (she's even slept all the way through until 6:00 twice in the last little bit!)

- Still loves to suck on her blanket and puts herself to sleep easily that way

- She can entertain herself in her crib for quite awhile if she wakes up early and I'm not ready to get her up yet...

- Along those same lines, she rarely cries when she wakes up, and she'll roll around/suck her blanket happily in her crib for a really long time, so I have to remember to check to monitor to see if she's awake or not, otherwise she'll end up being left in her crib for a long time before she'll make noise...!

EATING:

- Still nurses 4 times a day (7:30ish, 11:00ish, 3:30ish, and 7:30ish)

- Gets super distracted while nursing and will only stay on for a few minutes total

- Is a pro at feeding herself, and loves table foods! I usually start with table foods at each meal, and then end with a container of baby food; trying to remember to add in a little snack in the afternoons for her...

- Favorite veggies are steamed broccoli & canned green beans; favorite fruits are bananas (hard for her to pick up since they're so slippery); other favorites are string cheese (sometimes it gives her diarrhea--maybe because I introduced it too early?--so I try to not give it to her every day), toast with butter and teeny bit of jam (cut up into teeny pieces of course), cheerios, baby food oatmeal with strawberries & bananas; chicken; veggie straws; and any kind of bread or puffs

- Learned how to suck from a straw and loves to drink water from her little camelbak water bottle

She fed herself/ate this whole dinner we had, and she loved it! Chicken, rice, and green beans!

MOBILITY:

- Sits up like a pro without ever falling over!

- Still loves to roll all around to get places--she often flattens out onto her stomach from sitting up, so she can get around

- Pushes up onto all fours and rocks/wiggles--it seems like she might be close to crawling? But based off all the boys, it will probably still be awhile before she actually does

Practicing sitting up with her support crew--Duke & Hudson love to be right by her, haha!

TEMPERAMENT:

- Still so smiley and happy

- Starting to laugh more--we love it!! She loves her brothers, especially Hudson & Bronco, and will laugh at them quite often

- Has been very much into the stranger danger/separation anxiety stage and wants me to always be in sight, and only wants me to be the one holding her...but she seems to be moving past that a little in the past few days

- Loves to click her tongue, and especially loves it when we join in and click our tongues too haha

- Cries/throws little fits when we take something away from her that she wants

Love her grins:

And her little sad face is just as adorable too...!

OTHER:

- Starting to babble a little (dadada, gagagaga, nananana)

- Wears mostly 6 month and 6-9 month tops, 3-6 month pants

- Just moved up to size 3 diapers today (not sure if she's really ready for them yet, but I ran out of size 2 and didn't want to risk buying more of those)

- SO wiggly & grabs at EVERYTHING

- She's been rocking one top tooth for the last month and has a goofy one-toothed grin, haha...but her other top tooth FINALLY broke through yesterday!!! (it's been bulging and ready to come through for weeks, I can't believe it took so long!)

- Adores her big brothers and gets so excited when she sees them or hears their voices--it's the sweetest

Showing off her three-toothed goofy smile, haha:

#baldisbeautiful :)

And then here's a random cute video that Bronco took of her:

Oh how we love this little girl!!!

Hallie at 8 Months

I can't believe how fast the time is going! Hallie is 8 months old, and as cute as ever--we just love her so, so much. (and I'm trying to hurry to get this post published in the limited amount of time I have right now, otherwise I would gush over how cute she is and how we just can't get enough of her!!!)

Here she is at 8 months:

Compared to 7 months:

And just for fun, here's a little collage of the millions of pictures I took to get the 8 month picture, haha:

I weighed her on our scale at home and she was 13 lbs even...so she's still just super small, but slowly getting bigger. ;)

BIGGEST DEVELOPMENTS IN THE LAST MONTH:

- her first top tooth came through the day after she turned 8 months (9-25-20)--making three total now

- she started sitting up on her own a little more (but still topples over quite often haha)

- she started feeding herself puffs and a few other finger foods!

- I officially dropped her late afternoon/early evening nursing

She looks so big sitting up! (not necessarily BIG, per se, but old I guess, haha)

SLEEPING:

- she's still doing great with her daytime nap schedule of taking a morning nap at 9:00, afternoon nap at 1:00, and an occasional late afternoon nap around 4:00 (though that nap is becoming more and more sparse--she rarely falls asleep for it anymore); she sleeps about 2ish hours for her first two naps, and maybe 30-45 minutes for her last nap if she takes it

- she still gets up twice a night to eat sometimes--I'd say it's about 60/40 (60% of the time she wakes up only once, 40% of the time she wakes up twice)

- the times when she wakes up twice at night, it works out okay because the second time is close to 6:00 am when I'm about to get up to exercise anyway, so it doesn't bother me too much

- still sleeps on her stomach most of the time, and still loves to suck on her blanket (I tried putting her to sleep without a blanket to suck on, and it did NOT go well...so I'm going to have to figure out how to handle it in the future...!)

I can never get enough sleeping pictures...and that bald little head is so beautiful

EATING:

- I officially dropped her 5:00ish nursing time, so now she just nurses 4x per day (7:30ish, 11:00ish, 3:00ish, 7:00ish)--and it has helped a ton with opening up more time for getting dinner ready in the evening, and she eats more (solids) for dinner now

- she's still going strong with eating three meals of solids a day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner)

- she's starting to try a few soft table foods in addition to baby food

- right before she turned 8 months she started being able to pick up and feed herself puffs...and now that it's a few weeks later that I'm writing this, she's almost a pro at it!! (LOVE when they start being able to feet themselves, woot woot!)

- starting to get less interested in nursing/more distracted, and it's hard to keep her on for longer than a few minutes unless it's completely quiet and nothing else is going on (which is pretty much never at our house...)

Still trying to figure out what color her eyes are going to be? They're not quite blue, but they're not brown...?

MOBILITY:

- she's getting better with her balance and is starting to sit up on her own more often! however, she doesn't really like to sit up (she'd much rather be laying down so she can roll all over), so after toppling over a few times, she protests and will NOT sit up if I keep trying to prop her up haha--she just arches her back so I'll lay her down ;)

- she rolls all over to get where she wants--she's super wiggly and never stays still!

- she seems more motivated to move and kind of gets up on all fours...maybe she'll be our earliest crawler?!

Bronco got this picture of her pushing up almost onto all fours:

She rolled/rotated out of this little bassinet thing while I was in the shower, haha:

OTHER:

- still wears 3-6 month and 6 month clothes, size 2 diapers

- she has the biggest, man-sized burps, hahaha!

- LOVES mom and is a total mom's girl--especially when she's teething (only wants me to be the one holding her...)

- still so happy and smiley

- she's becoming more social and doesn't want to be left alone or left out of what's going on

- still grabs (and now feeds herself) with her left hand--we think she's going to be another lefty!

- found her toes and loves to suck on them--she gets latched on and goes to town! (crying face emoji)

And then here is one of my favorite videos of her to date. For a few days she was into this scrunched-nose, heavy-breathing/snorting thing, and it was HILARIOUS because she would do it on command!!! Sadly, she doesn't do it anymore, but I'm so glad we got this video of it--so funny!

And finally, here is what I wrote about Hallie on social media for National Daughter's Day: 

"This little miss is 8 months old—and apparently just in time for National Daughter’s Day yesterday! 💕 I can’t pass up an opportunity to express my love and gratitude for this little girl. I still think of myself as a boy mom, but Hallie has filled my heart with even more love, and in a different way than I’ve felt before; I feel the weight of making sure I set a good example for her, and I pray I can be the kind of role model she needs. But almost more than that, I pray that she and I can always have a good, loving relationship. (And I’m so looking forward to many fun mother-daughter activities in the future!) 💕 "

 

I love this little girl SO much, and I'm so grateful for the blessing she is in our lives. I still can't believe we have a girl, but yet I can't imagine life without her anymore. Hallie girl--we love you so, so much!!