9 Months Old!!!

Ali is 9 months old and the cutest, funnest, loveliest little girl in the world!! She cracks us up daily with her new little faces and the personality that she reveals more and more every day. I feel like just this past week she has grown up so much. She is so aware of everything and we can't believe how well her ears work! She can detect the smallest sound and turns immediately in that direction to check it out!.... even if she's on the verge of falling asleep. =)
Ali's Loves:
Puppies
Books
Blueberries
Babies and children
Tangled
Crawling
Walking around the furniture
Pulling things off shelves and out of boxes and cupboards
Ali's Words:
Momma
Da
Pup
Hi
Ali's New Tricks:
Giving kisses
Waving "hi"Other factoids:

-Ali has also learned how to recognize the word "no" when daddy says it. For now she is very obedient but I have a feeling this will be short lived. She might have inherited her determined (read: stubborn) personality from her parents.
-She is sleeping 10+ solid hours each night!!!!! Thank you, Baby Whisperer! That means that Mommy is getting 8 hours of sleep! Hurrah!!! I never thought this day would come!

-She has learned to be more content while riding in the car. Joy! I can make it to the store and back without her screaming.

Two New Videos!

What a cutie pie! I love how Ali can just go wherever she wants now!
Mary Alice has developed this very specific way to eat watermelon. It's pretty funny! I can't believe she can tell the difference between the old and new pieces! What a girl!

8 months old!

What a fun month! Ali is changing and growing up SO much!!

But she still loves her watermelon!

I think she has eaten the equivalent of one whole watermelon in the past 3 days.

One afternoon I decided to pull her hair into a little piggy.

She loves to be with Momma. Here she is baking zucchini muffins with me. What a natural!

This girl is all about standing!! She will use anything around her to pull up and stand. We got this cool toy from Andrea and it is perfect for her now! She loves to stand and push the buttons to make music and sounds. Thanks Ang!

Here are some funny little videos from the past week or so:

***A Baby Whisperer Update***

We love it!!! We have offically been using this method for one week and although we have had ups and downs, it has helped so much! Last Monday got a little harder in the evening but she only woke up twice that night. Tuesday was SUPER hard and I had a good cry to Jimmy but he gave me the encouragement to keep it up. She was only wanting to take 30 minute naps and that meant that I was doing PU/PD for the other hour! Exhasting!! And Sad! I do not like hearing Ali cry! But the nights were still good. We even had a couple nights where she only woke up once! Friday and Saturday were tough because we were getting ready for Melissa's shower and she may have sensed that things were just a little too exciting to sleep. But by Sunday it was GREAT again. She has been taking really good 1 1/2 hour naps since Sunday! Yay!! And she has been waking 3 times to feed but she is definitely going through a growth spurt so I'm fine with waking the extra times to feed. I'm SOOOO happy we started this and that we didn't quit when things got tough. This will help so much while we're traveling this summer and moving to China! We're going to need all the sleep we can get!

BIG DAY!

(caution- this is more of a journal entry for me- probably not going to be too interesting to most people)

I just need to document what a happy day this is turning out to be. I have been looking forward to it nervously for a week and we are right in the thick of things. A couple weeks ago I picked up some books from the library to see if I could help Ali sleep better. She loves to sleep but she also loves to be cuddled and nurse all night long. I have been feeling like something must be done. I really do not have it in me to let her cry it out till she exhausts herself and falls asleep. I read 3 different books and ended up really liking The Baby Whisperer. It seemed like something I could do. It was spelled out step by step- I needed something like that if I was going to make a change in our routine. The book said to observe for two days and then begin in the morning of the 3rd day. I had been praying about it all weekend and felt that it was a good option for us and that it wouldn't hurt Ali. She has been waking up at 4:30 or 5 am and then I have to nurse her and she will sleep till 5:45 or 6:30. Not so good. And this is after a night of waking every 1, 2 or 3 hours. Really not good! So I nursed her at 3 am and put her back to bed. I had a hard time falling asleep because I knew the next time she woke up we would begin "sleep training" and I was nervous how it would all turn out in the end. At 5 I woke up and was surprised she wasn't awake yet. I waited and finally she woke up at 5:38. Here we go! The book said to give them some milk and then begin PU/PD (pick up/ put down). While I was nursing her I realized she had soiled her diaper, something she NEVER does at night/early morning. So I knew I needed to change her diaper. Ugh! I hoped this wouldn't ruin my chances of getting her back to sleep quickly. I finished changing her diaper and nursing her then I gave her her binky and put her in her crib. I went out of the room because she wasn't crying. She laid there for a few minutes ( I watched her on the monitor) then she sat up, played for a couple more minutes and then started to fuss. Not a full out cry, but just letting me know I had left her in there. I walked back in and picked her up then laid her down. She started to cry so I did PU/PD again. She cried harder and harder as I continued to PU/PD over and over. She has NEVER cried that hard and it was the worst thing ever! I hated hearing her cry like that. She was choking and coughing a little. But I knew she was just having a hard time learning how to change the habit we've been in for almost 8 months. Although I was there with her and not abandoning her, I was beginning to feel like this was just cruel. I was one more PU/PD away from giving up when she stopped crying, turned her head to the right and closed her eyes. I kept my hand on her to help calm her. She did a couple whimpers but within a few minutes she settled completely and fell asleep. Jimmy and I were on the ground (hiding so she wouldn't see us and want us to pick her up), and when we heard that she had fallen asleep we crawled out of the room. It took about 20 minutes but she did it! I did it! I couldn't believe it really worked! Unfortunately I had to go in and wake her at 7 am so she would be ready to fall asleep for her first nap at 9 am. I was a little nervous to have to go through that same situation again but I knew that it had worked once so it should work again. I woke her, fed her and we went to the orchard to pick some peaches. By 8:40 it was time to take her in her room to start winding down for the next nap. We read some books until about 8:55. She was so tired so I decided to try putting her down even though it was 5 minutes early. I gave her her binky, kissed her and laid her down in her crib (FIRST time I had not nursed her before putting her down!). She started crying immediately. I picked her up and put her down. I only had to do this about 6 times before she turned her head again and calmed. I kept my hand on her for a couple minutes and she fell asleep. She has been sleeping for 55 minutes! Even the book said that if you use PU/PD you should expect them to wake up within 40 minutes. She stirred a little at that time, but put herself right back to sleep!!! ***cue Hallelujah chorus!*** This is working!!! I am so excited! What if this means that I am going to be able to sleep more than 2 hours at a time??!! That sounds like the best present anyone could ask for. With my birthday being in a couple weeks, that's just what I may get. I know we still have some bumps ahead and a lot of work but I'm so happy for her that she will be more rested. I'm also so happy for me to be more rested and as a result, a better mom and wife! I can't wait to start Baby Whisperer from the very beginning next time we have a baby! LOVE the book! I highly recommend it! It's worth a try if you're feeling like you need more sleep.

More Mary Alice!

This little miss is quite the eater and it's a favorite time here in our house because she is SOOOO CUTE when she eats!
And she always loves fresh fruit and veggies out of the garden! Banana peppers are among her favorite things to chew on!Another favorite time of ours is bottle time! This is a brand new thing for Ali. A few days before her 7 month birthday she had a check up and the doctor suggested that we feed her a little prune juice to help when she's constipated. I tried for several days to get her to drink out of a few different sippy cups but she hated them. I should have known she'd be like her momma and prefer a bottle (I LOVED bottles...I was even known to sneak my younger siblings' bottles!). She loved it from the moment we offered it to her. Now every evening we give her a little bottle of juice and/or water and it's a fun cuddle time for whoever gets the privilege of feeding it to her!Just a cute picture of Ali in her clothes hamper. I carried her around the house in this and she just laughed and laughed! She is getting so strong. I'll have to get a picture of her hanging from her crib. She also likes to hang off the pews at church!She LOVES steering wheels! She usually rides to the end of the dirt road with daddy in the driver's seat. And this face is just to die for!! What a cutie pie!! Some people in our ward have horses and we happened to be over when the horses were out and our little one LOVED them! She adores all animals!Well, almost all animals. We caught these baby raccoons a couple days ago in the front yard and when they hissed and snapped at us she didn't like that. They were pretty cute though! Crazy to think they grow up to be such nasty creatures!! We had some fun times out here this spring with all the baby creatures being born. We've had several bird nests around the house and have watched the stages from egg to the time when the babies leave the nest. So fun!

We have news!

Our little family of 3 will be packing up and moving to China this August!

This is not something we've been thinking about for a long time, but as soon as the idea came, it went so smoothly and feels right. Jimmy will be starting school in the fall at a business school in Shanghai where he'll earn an MBA. I'm so proud of Jimmy for doing so well on his GMAT, being accetped to Hult International Business School and even recieving a scholarship for his high marks! Congrats Jimmy! Mary Alice and I are so excited to be along for the adventure! There are so many things I'm dying to see and experience! Tea rooms, the gardens, the Great Wall of China, the markets, the food- everything about the culture is fascinating!

Nanjing Road above and Shangahi skyline below

We will miss our family and friends so much! But we'll be back and you're all welcome to come and stay with us for a visit!

7 months old!!

I'm a little late getting Ali's 7 month post up, but we are sure loving having a 7-month-old! She is so fun and keeps us on our toes! We love playing with her and watching all the new things she is developing! Here are some photos of a few things we've been enjoying:

Cute smiles and darling rolls!...

Watching Ali learn how to eat cheerios and puffs!...

She's really good at getting them in her mouth!

Reading, relaxing and playing the piano!

She has SO many toys but usually, like a normal

baby, she would rather play with the packaging!

You have to enlarge the picture below to get the full cuteness of it!

She makes the CUTEST owl sound when she makes this face!

I can't get enough of it!

I have been enjoying these two!! They couldn't get any cuter and it melts my heart seeing them together! Ali LOVES her daddy and he can make her laugh without even trying!

Bath time! She loves sitting up in the tub now

and strains to sit up the whole time we're

washing her hair! So cute!

We usually just take her clothes off to feed her.

It makes clean up so much easier!

Plus she loves to go over to the sink to wash off!

Mother's Day! What can I say? The day was magical and it makes me cry just thinking about how happy I am that I got to be with my little baby on my first Mother's Day. She makes me so happy and I am grateful every day that I am her mother. Being a mother is the greatest blessing in my life! I love every minute of it!

By the way, this is how she got so good at eating cheerios- picking everything up off the ground outside and putting it in her mouth! Leaves, yum!

The Royal Wedding!

There was tea, cucumber sandwiches and a princess!

Thanks to Mom's fancy dishes we had a delicious brunch.

They added just the right touch!

She would have really made it fancy if she were here!

I remember the day of Princess Diana's funeral, Mom had the TV on for the coverage all day. It still brings a tear to her eye.

Of course, this is a happy day, but Mom would be proud of us bringing a bit of the royal family event into her home.

We had such a splendid time celebrating the royal wedding at our house!

The girls wore tiaras and the boys wore hats... except Adam, he said his glasses were enough.

Adam said the only way he made it through it was being able to have his computer.

Jimmy was in pain as he waited for us to finish the food.... and as soon as he ate, he was gone!

But we're proud of him for staying in the same room as us!

Erick was a bit more into of our fancy brunch!

And it's no surprise that Melissa and I were the most excited attendees!

What a perfect day, a beautiful wedding and a fun tea party!