how has a month passed??

wow, i'm a slacker. there is so much to catch up on i'm going to use those tried and true bullet points. sorry, if the order of things is a bit jumbled :)

- arden can get into and out of a sitting position without help. we had seen her do it on the changing pad with help from the vanity mirror. but i discovered her sitting in the middle of her mattress during nap time. since then it's becoming more regular and seems to be getting easier.

- she is still trying to figure out crawling. she is awesome at arm crawling. she will get up on her hands and knees but will only do one or two steps. she's becoming a pro at push-ups and planks :)

- she has started climbing on things, primarily me.

- she likes to stand and walk with help. i'm a little afraid of encouraging walking too much since i was running at 7 months. scary! but it's so cute to see her face walking toward you.

- she loves to play with toys. she will deliberately go towards what she wants to play with. obviously that's a problem when it's the animals toys.

- did i tell you she fell out of our bed? scariest moment yet. wow. we never leave her alone on there any more. she was perfectly fine. just a little bruise on her back.

- we've purchased baby-proofing stuff. my intention is to install things this weekend. any tips are appreciated :)

- her increased mobility and awareness makes nursing more interesting. sometimes i wonder if i'm going to still have nipples when she's done :)

- she loves to nurse though. even if she gets distracted, she'll go right back to eating. we are doing pretty well on this front. i do worry sometimes if she's getting enough, but we just take it one day at a time. i would love to nurse her for a year.

- eating solids is going really well. she had seemed ambivalent about it until we switched to level 2 earth's best. she loves it! before she was eating like 1/2 an ounce at a time. now it's 2 oz. or more. she's tried so many things: rice cereal, oatmeal, carrot (puree and sticks), sweet potato, butternut squash, peas, spinach, brown rice, potato, watermelon, apple, pear, strawberry, peach, banana, and plum. some of these she eats whole with our supervision.

- yesterday she had a strawberry fresh from our garden :)

- she has three teeth now. two front bottom, and her left incisor.

- she knows how to bite. fortunately, this hasn't been while breastfeeding yet. but she will bite me when climbing on me. tips on how to deter this action would be lovely.

- anyone still reading this :) cheers if you are, i've got a lot more to say.

- the increased solid food has obviously changed her poop. it's funny to see chunks of carrot :) today she had her first solid turd. lovely, huh. she was grunting and groaning. she got so red in the face and was shaking her fists. i think she was/is a little dehydrated (we just got home from a trip to a very hot boise).

- she likes to drink water from any sort of container, except a bottle of course. she is getting pretty good at manipulating cups by herself. we still spot her though.

- our recent vacation had a lot of new experiences for her. we went to the aquarium, the zoo, drove to boise, went to my 10 year reunion (!!), went to bruneau sand dunes, ate sand, went to craters of the moon, played in lava sand, went to yellowstone, saw ol' faithful, saw a waterfall, went swimming, and drove home. there is so much more that i'll need to do another post

- being around my family and a lot of new people seems to have encouraged her to talk more. i love the new sounds she is making. she has become so much more interactive.

- she loves to play in the water, whether it's the bath or the pool. i can't wait till it's warm enough her to get out the kiddie pool.

- sleep got really messed up while on vacation. we are going to restart sleep training tonight. yesterday, she was so tired she fell asleep at 4:45, slept till 9:15, ate, went back to sleep till 12 something, then 3:30, then 6ish. i brought her to bed then and we slept till 8. THEN she took a nap from 10 to 12. i think she was a little tired :)

- since sleep is messed up i'll record what we hope to accomplish with our first stage of sleep training. we want her to go to bed at 7, without nursing to sleep. then we want her to sleep 6 hours before she gets to eat again. if she wakes before then, anna helps her back to sleep. after that, we want her to sleep 4 hours. each time i feed her, i put her back to bed before she falls asleep.

- our intention for naps is for her to sleep in her crib primarily and without being nursed to sleep. it's fine if she sleeps while on naps or on errands, but when we're home she goes in the crib.

i think i've covered everything. i'm really enjoying this stage. it's really exciting. she is exploding developmentally. i love watching and playing with her. she is such a joy :)