A Day in the Life

Delaney turned 9 months yesterday and rather than post about her milestones, I decided to document a day in her life.  Before we had a kid of our own, I often wondered what families DID all day.  Delaney is an especially active little girl and so we try to engage her with as many outings, playdates (although there were none on this day), activities, games, explorations, etc. as possible.  

Here is a day in our life...   

6:30AM-  I am up to pump and Brice is up to prepare Delaney’s bottle for the day and wash the pump parts.  We store the milk, prepare her food for the day and make sure everything is cleaned up and ready for her. 

7:20AM (she usually wakes between 7:00-7:30AM)- Delaney is up.  (The polka dot crib cover is because our daughter is a badger and was gnawing on her crib.) 

7:25AM First (of MANY) diaper changes

7:30AM- First bottle of the day.  Meanwhile I walk and feed Dakota. 

She finishes 7oz!  It's a good day!

I wrestle her to get some pants on. 

She plays in our room for awhile, always delighted by Dakota.

She plays with her toys. Dakota supervises. 

She plays with some of her Not-Toys. 

And she's off to explore other parts of the house, including her favorite room, the closet.

 She loves the closet because of the interesting fixtures to grab, chew and climb on. 

 But mostly because her best friend is always there, who she always greets with a big smile and kiss...

 We practice waving, a newly learned skill. 

8:15AM- We head downstairs to her play area (which gets rearranged multiple times a day) so that we can start preparing her breakfast while she plays some more.  This morning she is playing with her ball bucket, which includes balls with different kinds of textures, surfaces, sizes and colors.  She throws, rolls and chews on them.  We roll the ball back and forth with her for as long as she is still (not long). 

We try to rotate her toys around, but this Learning House is one of her favorites that she always gravitates to.  She waters the flower, checks mail, pulls pieces out, opens the door and crawls back and forth, etc. 

 8:30AM- Breaskfast.  Today it's green beans mixed with cereal and breastmilk, cubes/sticks of sweet potato and cauliflower for finger foods, Puffs for when all else fails, and her sippy cup to practice drinking. 

 8:45AM- Playing Peek A Boo while Dakota cleans up her breakfast. 

 We take turns scarfing down breakfast while watching/entertaining her. 

 9:00am- Outfit and diaper change and back to playing/cruising. 

 She always needs to be holding something, a small toy (like this shape) or a sock are her favorites.  She likes to multi-task. 

 9:20AM- A trip next door to the swing. 

 9:30AM- We go for a walk, pointing out everything she sees.  Every walk is an exploration.  She loves to look at airplanes and looks up as soon as she hears one. 

 9:45AM- Story time.  I am not sure how much she is understanding, but she sits and listens to the book and looks at the pages.  I know that she is processing some of it because on some of the more interactive books (Pat the Bunny, Where is Baby's Belly Button?), she is starting to participate.   Reading is one of the most important things that we do and we try to make it part of every awake time.    

 10:00AM- We sing a few songs and put her down for a nap. 

 10:05AM- But she likes to play/hang out in her crib for a little bit before going to sleep.  This includes trying to untie the strings in her bumper, trying to "pick" the polka dots off the sheets, chewing on the guard rail, crawling, singing, etc. 

 10:10AM- She's down for her nap.  Meanwhile we run like crazy to clean up the tornado of toys, food, clothes etc., shower, get dressed for the day. 

11:30AM- It was a nice, long nap and now she's up again.

11:35AM- I nurse her, but not without many distractions.  Delaney wants to know where the smallest noise comes from, needs to be sure she isn't missing any action, pulls my hair and clothes, looks up and smiles and laughs, etc. 

 11:50AM Quick playtime/reading upstairs. 

 12:10PM  We load up the stroller (which sounds easy, but we pratically check luggage to go out to lunch) and are off. 

 12:30PM- We attempt to give her lunch (chicken with carrots, barley and sweet potato) at the restaurant.  Most of it ends up on the floor beneath her or on her high chair cover.  She enjoys avocado for the first time!  She flirts with the waiters and stares at other kids.  She loves looking around new environments. 

1:45PM After a quick stop at Big Sugar Bakeshop for dessert, we are back at the house for more play.  Delaney has a book of animals and we sing "Old Macdonald." 

 2:15PM Another diaper change before naptime. 

 2:20PM Story time. 

2:30PM She is finally tired and we put her down for a nap.  We use the time to clean again, prepare her dinner, prepare our dinner, and sit for 5 seconds. 

3:45PM Another great nap.  She nurses and we are off on a hike!

And then back home for more play time.  This evening's toy is a shape sorter.  She doesn't understand sorting shapes yet, but she likes throwing them against the ground to make noise, chewing them, and looking at them closely. 

 Delaney puts on a musical performance.

 4:50PM Dinner and the aftermath

 5:20PM We head upstairs to play together on the bed.  Delaney gets striped down since her clothes are covered with food.  We play Hide and Go seek, sing songs, listen to music and dance, jump on the bed together.

 When she wants to play, she wants to play, and will try to wiggle free if we are holding her.  This is her Twist- Arch her back- Push off with her feet Move. 

 6:00pm  Bathtime!

By this time I've run out of energy to take more pics, plus the flash seems to be bothering her when it's dark, and the rest of the evening is dimly light and as mellow as possible.  

6:20PM I nurse her

6:40PM Goodnight Moon story time.  We say Goodnight to everything in her room and put her down.

6:45PM She is down for the night.  We then clean again, feed Dakota, eat dinner, make her food for the next day, defrost her milk for the next day, watch some TV, pump one last time and go to bed! 

Holidays

We’ve been excited for Delaney’s First Hanukkah/Christmas for a long time.  What a lucky girl, getting to celebrate both holidays with all of our family.  We had Hanukkah at the Dunitz's, Christmas Eve at the Pitman's, and Christmas Day at our house.  Although Delaney did not "get" opening presents, she's thoroughly enjoying all of her new toys and gear, and has certainly loved all of the extra love and attention from family.   

First night of Hanukkah, lighting the candles (Delaney exhibiting early signs of pyromania):

It's a tunnel!





Christmas Eve Lunch at the Pitmans.  Homemade sushi!!!  Oishi! 

Lots of kisses for Auntie Erin: 

Presents!!! Delaney was most excited about the wrapping paper, ribbon and ornaments. 

A huge stuffed puppy!  One that she can kiss, squeeze, pull, chase, grab and climb to her heart's content. 

"What else??"

More and more and more presents! 

We hosted everyone at our house for Christmas brunch/lunch.  We are so lucky to have everyone closeby and together.  We had 17 people (plus Delaney)- Paul, June, Erin, Willis, Brooks, Bonnie, Thelma, Howie, Sam, Jody, Mitch, Amy, Danny, Lauren and us! 

No "White Christmas" here.  We ate and played outside in 80 degree weather. 

Delaney makes every day feel like Christmas morning to us. 

8 months

Delaney is 8 months (or was 8 months on December 1) and busier than ever! 

She weighs 17 lbs, 4 oz and is 26.5 inches tall.  She is gaining weight at a slightly slower pace, mainly because she is so active and because it seems that she would rather play than eat.  

Delaney is…

-          Crawling, and FAST! 

-          Busy and adventurous.  Gone are the days when she just needed 4 little tiles of her activity mat.  Delaney is on the move and curious about everything, the more dangerous, the better.  She is constantly doing something- she is never still.  She wanders around the kitchen/den/dining room freely, touching, pulling, putting everything into her mouth. 

-          Has 2 teeth on the bottom. 

-          Pulling to standing and starting to “cruise” (taking steps holding onto furniture)

-          Bobbing her head side to side to music and/or when she’s happy. 

-          Does not yet know her name, but knows Dakota’s.  We ask “Where’s Dakota?” and she looks around until her eyes have settled on Dakota and then smiles. 

-          Loves dogs of all shapes and sizes. 

-          Grunting when she is full and yelling “AAA!” when trying to get our attention. 

-          Showing a preference for me, Brice and my mom, and starting to exhibit some separation anxiety from me.  Especially when she is feeling sensitive (unfamiliar environment, new people, etc.) she wants to be held by me.   Sometimes she does not want to be held by someone else when I’m in the room.  When returning from being away, she gets very excited and crawls quickly over to me.   We are trying to ease her anxiety by always saying goodbye when we leave and then leave, despite cries of protest, but then always greet her when we come back and let her know that we will always come back.   Hopefully she will eventually understand that when we leave, we always come back.  

-          Enjoying solids, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, squash, eggs and turkey seem to be her favorites.  She does NOT like avocados, bananas, blueberries, pluots, apples unless they are heavily diluted by another vegetable.  We wonder how a child of ours could not like avocado…  The pediatrician gave us the green light to start offering finger foods.   The only things she cannot eat right now are:  dairy, egg whites, honey, nuts.   For the most part, however, Delaney doesn’t really care about eating and would be perfectly happy to play the entire day away and not waste a moment napping or eating.   Some days she eats enthusiastically, other days she can’t be bothered by food at all. 

-          Getting sick a lot.  Unfortunately she has had a cold on and off for most of the last 2 months.  She’s a good sport about it, and hasn’t seemed too affected by it except for a few rough days. 

-          Sleeping less.  She used to sleep for 2 hours in the morning, 2 hours in the afternoon and then a catnap in the evening.  Now she is napping about an hour in the morning, and hour in the afternoon, and because these are both so short, she takes another catnap in the evening around 5pm.   Of course, both the length and times vary each day.  We haven’t been able to get much consistency.  Eventually we hope she will move to just 2 naps, 1 hour in the morning and a longer one in the afternoon.  She doesn’t appear ready to drop that last catnap though if her last nap ends before 3pm.  

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Brooks and Bonnie’s beach house in Carpinteria.  It was our 6^th year of doing joint-family Thanksgiving and of course Delaney’s First Thanksgiving.  She put on a great show and was happy about all of the extra attention, people to play with, things to do, places to explore.  She loved waking up and getting into bed with Aunt Samy in the mornings, taking walks to the park down the street, playing with 4 different dogs (Annie, Penny, Shelby and Dakota), "supervising" the preparation of the meal (which was AMAZING!), eating turkey for the first time, hanging out with Brooks, Bonnie, Howie, Sam, June, Paul, Thelma, Saemi, Beth, Don, Barry, rolling around her sensory balls, taking naps on us when she couldn’t go to sleep, and of course putting on a dance show.  Unfortunately she came home very sick and between that, travel for both of us, our nanny serving jury duty for 2 weeks, hosting a Campbell Hall holiday party, and just a very busy time of year, I have not had a chance to post much.