Our Funny Little Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone, and happy 9 month birthday to my little peanut!!  She's gotta be the best Valentine ever!  She has changed so much in the last 2-3 weeks that I feel like I'm writing about a different baby.  I'm not even sure I can call her a baby anymore :(  At least she's still little like a baby - we went in for her 9 month checkup yesterday and she weighs 18 lbs exactly and was 27 1/4" long - both in the 30th percentile.  Her head's still the biggest part - up to the 52nd percentile!

Here comes trouble!!

On Feb 6th we noticed her first tooth starting to pop through - the bottom right one.  It's been SLOWLY making it's way up, but is still now just barely clearing the top of her gum.  On Monday I noticed she's getting one on top, but it's not the very first front teeth - it's the next one over on the left, and when we went to the doctor yesterday, she noticed that the same one on the opposite side is coming in too.  I'm a little concerned that her very front teeth aren't coming in, but I'm hoping they make they're appearance soon.  She might start to look a little funny!!  The doctor didn't seem concerned, so I guess I will try not to be either.  It's funny how there were no teeth for so long and now there are three all coming in at the same time.
I think having her cousin Eliana around has been very good for Grace and is part of the reason she has changed so much in the last few weeks.  My sister stayed with us for almost a week and it was so great to watch the girls play together.  It was so funny to watch them fight over the same toys!  My sister went back to NC last week but we are looking forward to when they come back up for Grace's first birthday.  Poor Eliana was really missing her daddy!

I heard her crying and found her like this -
she couldn't figure how to get off the rungs!

Grace isn't crawling on her hands and knees yet, but is a professional army-crawler.  She can really move!  I'm almost wondering if she won't go straight from army-crawl to walking and not do the "normal" crawl.  She loves going up and down the step from the living room to the rest of the house and can now pull herself up to stand at the coffee table.  I guess our days of being able to put anything on the coffee table are coming to an end! 

We signed up for a swim class and Monday was the first one.  It's for 6 month to 2 1/2 year olds and it's not designed to teach them to swim but to get them comfortable in the water.  Grace had a blast!  She's the youngest one in the class but probably had the most fun.  The teacher had us dunk them under the water and I was a little nervous at first but toward the end I did it twice and Grace handled it fine.  The hardest part of the class is trying to get us both washed off and changed back into regular clothes - I think I'm going to have to work on my technique/logistics before the next class!

I also found out that I will be the assistant track coach for the high school boy and girl teams at Manchester, so I am excited for that to start up in March.  It will be great to work with the kids that are also on my cross country team and hopefully I can get to know other kids that might be interested in running cross country in the fall. 

Standing up!

I've been trying to get back into shape, but it's been a lot harder than I thought it would be.  Jeff and I are planning on doing the Dexter-Ann Arbor half marathon at the end of May so I've started running again.  Right now (since it's been SO cold) I've only been running on the treadmill at the rec center, and I'm doing more of a run/walk.  I've gotten up to being able to run for 5 minutes at a time, but it's a LONG way from where I need to be in just three months!  It's frustrating to think of how I used to be able to run a 5K in 21 minutes but now I can barely run for 5 minutes without stopping.  I'm trying not to get discouraged and take it one day at a time but it's hard!  It's also hard to find the time to do it.  I have to go when Jeff gets off work so that he can watch Grace and by the time I get done it's close to dinner and it eats into the few hours of the day that I get to spend with Jeff.  I'm also nervous about how much exercise I can do without it affecting my ability to nurse Grace.  I really want to nurse her until she's one, but not sure if too much running will affect it.  I really hope not!

My dad is still staying with us and recovering from his surgery.  He is doing remarkably well and seems to get a little better every day.  His first follow-up appt with the surgeon is next week, so hopefully he'll be cleared to do more. 

Well, I guess that's about it for now.  I still can't believe how fast my daughter is growing and changing before my eyes!