Belle turned 9 months on February 23rd!  I can't believe she made it to this big milestone.  She really is still an infant, yet is turning into a toddler right before my eyes and getting a little personality.  She is super fast and quick, much more than Luna was for sure!

We had her 9 month check up and she is right on track:
-Weight is 17.12 pounds
-Length 27.75
-Head is 43.45

She had 2 shots and barely cried at all, she has such a huge tolerance for pain :)  And she has 2 bottom 2 with another 2 coming in on top. 

Eating: She is still really into purees and not liking bits of food like avocado or blueberries, so I am still feeding her homemade baby food from the Beaba: Sweet Potatoes, Strawberries, Avocados, Spinach, etc and she is not liking the leafy greens but we still try to get her to eat them, and we mix everything with her cereals so she gets iron.  I've introduced some egg and chicken and she likes some of that, but pureed meats are still kind of gross to me, so I am sticking to veggies for now.  She is also still breastfed about 3-4 times a day (and then her night snacking of course :)

Sleep: Sigh.  The poor thing had her first ear infection on 2/14 so her sleep this month has been terrible!  She still wakes up every 3-4 hours at night, which means I am getting up too, but it's much easier for me to get up and feed her for 10 minutes and we all go back to bed happy.  Todd wants me to let her cry more, but at 2am, just kind of hard to do!  She is taking 2 naps, morning around 9:30am -11am and an afternoon around 1:30-3:30pm.  I try to get both girls down at the same time so I can lay down too, but sometimes it's just a 30 minute break, ugh.  Sleep when the baby sleeps just doesn't happen when you have 2 kids :)

Physical: This girl can move!  She started really crawling around the 15th of Feb.  And pulls up too, cruising around.  She also is into WAY more stuff than Luna was, like pushing things out of the way to get to it- the other day she pushed our speaker out to get to the back wires!  I guess you have to be quick and fearless when you are the second born.  Check out the video below. I have tried to film her pulling up so many times, but each time I tried she saw my phone and wanted to play with it!

Social: She is all smiles is all I have to say!  She smiles at everyone and tries to get people's attention like she's 19 months old and not 9!   She also loves her big sister and copies everything she does.  She does great in the car seat now and not many fussies at all, hard to believe she used to be super colicky!!  She also loves to clap and loves patty cake.  She hasn't really had much stranger anxiety at all or separation anxiety yet.  Just a few times gets upset when we sit her down on the floor and walk away :)

She is our angel baby!!

We have a 40 year old in the family now.  Yep, Todd turned the big 4-0!  All I have to say I am glad he is first, because I thought turning 30 was hard and took off to Vegas, so I am not looking forward to it when it's my turn.  Luckily I have another birthday before that happens!  But Todd took it great, and of course he looks like he is turning 30, not 40. 
We went out to eat as a family on his actual birthday to Royal China.  Luna loved watching the noodle man! 

The next night was Todd's big 4-0 bash at Nosh!  It took a lot of planning and finding a place that would accommodate a large party but not charge a price fixed menu.  Luckily his favorite restaurant Nosh set us up in their party room and we could all order off the regular menu.  We invited 30 of his closest friends and I couldn't pull off a surprise party, but his sister and I were able to surprise him with her visit!  She walked into the restaurant and he was super surprised saying, "what are you doing here!!!?"  I am so glad we pulled it off.  We had a great time, good food, and good friends from high school, college and our newest group of friends from our next phase of life, parents!  We had such a great time!  His cousin Jeff started the next phase of the party by buying the whole group a round of shots!  And even though the night was just getting started, I had to go back home to nurse a double ear infection Belle, so Todd went out with his friends and got home around 2:30am, and let's just say he needed some hair of the dog the next day- that and some greasy breakfast tacos!  So glad it turned out so well and he had a great party!  And like I said in his toast, I am so lucky to be married to a man that looks like he is turning 30!

My girl is officially potty trained!  I never thought I'd see the day, and not that I was rushing it, no the opposite.  Just kind of bittersweet my little girl is growing up.  The other day I saw she still had a little cradle cap on her head and I thought, "she is still like a little baby" considering just a year ago she was just 21 months old.  And now, she is as she puts it, "I'm a big girl momma!"  We did the 3 day potty training thing and it worked like a charm!  We waited until the 3 day weekend so Todd could help, and the first day was rough, but she did so well and by the 3rd day, no accidents.  And baby Belle learned to crawl at the same time!  It was cute but a lot of work to watch both of them all at once (more on Belle for another post!).  It also says no diapers/pull-ups at night so they know it's no going back, and so far no overnight accidents either.  Of course there will still be a few here and there, but that's part of the learning curve.  She now refuses any diaper and refuses the little potties, she only wants to go on my big potty :)  I still carry a spare potty in the back of my car, for those unexpected emergencies and park outings.  We are so proud of her!

We had a lot of fun this Valentine's day!  I think it's Luna's new favorite holiday because of all the chocolate and candy involved.

We started it off at our PTA's Valentine Party on 2/8.  Belle and Luna had a great time decorating cookies and playing on the playground.  They also had an indoor bounce house and a cotton candy machine to top it off.

On Tuesday, our PTA friend Laura hosted a Valentine's playdate and the kids had a great time with their friends and handed out Valentines.  Some of us have had babies since last year's party, so it was a whole different kind of crazy party, but they had a blast!  Luna and I chose to make Valentine's crayons this year to give to her playmates and school friends and Luna enjoyed helping make them and put them in the oven!

Then we had a fun Valentine's party at Luna's school with her friends.  Luna enjoyed the Conversation Hearts game and Belle was so excited to play with the balloons!

Then later that night, Todd made me an awesome dinner of balsamic salmon and roasted veggies and bought me some gorgeous pink tulips!  Thank you sweetheart!  I love Valentine's day and even more now that I have 2 sweet girls to celebrate it with!

We officially have a crawler on our hands now, no pun intended ;)  She started scooting on 2/10- meaning she was moving like a in inchworm but not on all 4's yet.  Then yesterday morning we woke up and she actually used her arms and legs on all 4's to crawl!  And perfect timing as we are also potty training Luna using the 3 day method.  And I am being sarcastic here, because having to potty train and having a new crawler, is twice as much work, let me tell ya!  But we are so excited for Belle! She is way ahead of schedule compared to Luna, so it's true what they say that second borns learn faster.  Check her out in action, and excuse the messy house, we have had to pull up our carpets for the training.

We had a great time last Saturday at Luna's preschool's family day.  They had coffee and donuts, and lots of fun indoor games.  They also had Miss Lisa from Kindermusik come and lead a fun family Kindermusik lesson!  We love Kindermusik and Belle is now taking a class with me while Luna is in school, and Greenland Hills has Kinder as part of their curriculum, so Luna still gets to go to a class as well!  We love her school and how we feel like one big family.  Oh, and Luna's newest thing is finding an older girl, basically one 4 and older, to latch onto.  Seriously it's super funny.  We were at a bday party last weekend at Pump it Up and she found a girl there to follow around too.  When she finds one she announces, "she's my friend mommy!"  So cute.  Anyway, her teacher's daughter Victoria was at family day and Luna found her and held her hand and would not leave her side :)

I have a feeling the title to this post will be an ongoing one... :) So I decided to get the girls dressed in some smocked outfits and took some candid shots indoors one day last week.  They were so adorable and enjoyed interacting with each other!  All I have to say is that Belle is all smiles these days and just ADORES her big sister Luna! 

My grandmother turned 93 on Tuesday, so hard to believe as she is still young and active, living in her own apartment at the Tradition Retirement Home.  We celebrated last Saturday night at Bonnie Ruth's up in Allen, and if you haven't been up to that Watter's Creek Complex off I-35, it is crazy busy and crowded. I had no idea it was even there, but it's a really nice complex with great shopping and Bonnie Ruth's has really good French food.
My Uncle Jeff and Bud were there to help celebrate and the girls had a great time!