Compassion

BEFORE: I gave birth to Rose, bought a house, earned my Master's degree, married Justin, graduated from Messiah, met Justin, traveled to Europe, and finished high school...Just AFTER: I got my driver's license and first job...I started sponoring a child with Compassion International. It was important to me to use some of my own income to give to someone else and so I decided to sponsor a child.
I was 16 and she was 4. Katherine is from Peru where she lives with her parents and younger siblings. In the early days of our relationship she was only able to color me pictures and her teachers wrote about her progress. Then gradually she started writing to me herself and over the years we have shared many many letters...most of which I have been able to keep.

 We discussed our families, favorite activities, how we celebrate holidays, and our different countries. Now almost 14 years later, Katherine has completed the program by successfully finishing her school program. Over almost half of my lifetime, I watched this little girl grow into a young woman and I was blessed to be part of her life, I will miss her!!! {tears}
BUT, I will sponsor another child. Actually, I have just been matched with another little girl from Peru, her name is Brenda and she is 8.

 Although I will have to do most of the correspondence to start, I hope to include Rose as much as possible and maybe have her take over the letters one day.
If you would like more information: compassion.com

Everyone needs a swing...

in the KITCHEN :)


Yes, we bought Rose a swing and she now enjoys swinging from the rafters (haha!).

We have had another really nice weekend and unlike last weekend, daddy was home the whole time. I don't have any pictures, but last Saturday's game night at church was canceled due to the snow and rescheduled for yesterday. I again made the S'mores Cookies and there were none left to bring home (luckily I did save a few). There was a teenager (Hannah) who had volunteered to watch any children too little to play games, so we decided to see what would happen. We have not left Rose with a non family member yet. Rose did SUPER with Hannah and the other little kids. Rose got to play with lots of toys and Hannah even walked her around so Rose could see what was going on (I, of course, won the domino game at my table). By the end of the evening Rose was definitely tired and slept really well for us.

Today we also did Take Two on our outing from last weekend. This time Rose stayed awake and so she was able to pick out a few new books...

Rose really loves books with flaps...

...she also just likes to eat books :)

9 MONTHS

Holy Goodness!! 9 Months...I feel like time is starting to fly!! Now we are only 3 months away from the BIG 1 (but don't worry Rose, mommy has already started planning for your party). I think it feels like time is moving quicker because baby Rose is quickly being replaced by a more active and inquisitive Rose. I think those are the two words I would use to describe my little flower right now: Active and Inquisitive. Rose has started moving A LOT more. She is able to pull to stand sometimes on her own or with a little help. She is also working on transitioning to sit from laying down and standing.

AND she can do Yoga! Rose is getting really good at Downward Facing Dog Pose, this is were she ends up before she falls on her face in the attempt to crawl forward...she crawls backwards great, though :) Rose's favorite type of movement right now is cruising with her push toy or holding onto our fingers and walking. While walking with Rose she takes the lead, if we try to walk here somewhere she will twist her little body around and refuse to move until we head in the direction she wants to go :)
Rose has a few favorite things right now...
The Sing Along Toy she is borrowing from Lena, her train, this little butterfly she likes to chew on, her push toy, and pretty much anything that has lights and makes noise.
She is also very fond of her Baby Color Book....honestly I read real stories to Rose, but for some reason she just likes this book the best :)

 You are also much more into Tahnee lately...

Rose is doing excellent with eating from a spoon. She loves all her food and gobbles it up. We started yogurt and some new mixed foods this month. Up until now I have made all of her foods, but there are just some items that it makes more sense for me to buy then make...like spinach and blueberries (I just don't think I could get these things the right texture for Rose). Anyway, so far she has really likes anything we have given her. Rose is starting to use a sippie cup, I think she knows what to do, she's just not a big fan of it yet.

So let's talk about bedtime. Up until a few weeks ago you were pretty much sleeping through the night...then you stopped! At first I thought it could be teething, but no teeth yet... You are also very hungry when you wake and eat about 4 ounces. Some days you were eating less, so I thought you needed to make up for it at night, but even days you eat a lot, you still seem to want more. Hey, it's not a problem, I am producing PLENTY of milk for you :) You have slept a couple nights, so we'll see how this goes. The other thing about sleeping, is that you still do much better swaddled.

Sometimes you sleep with one arm out and sometimes we wake up and you are totally out of the swaddle. I keep thinking we have to get rid of it, but it seems to still be working for you! I guess I figure as soon as you start crawling and cruising some more, it won't work, and then it will just be done.

So I guess that is all the big stuff for your 9 month update...just three months to go until the BIG 1!!

9 month...mini update

So at her 9 month well visit today Rose was 14 pounds 13 ounces and 27 1/2 inches long. She is a long, lean string bean :) A MUCH longer 9 month update will be posted as soon as I get a chance, but here are a few pics of out LITTLE flower.

just a REALLY good day!

Today was just a really good day...Yesterday Justin was out plowing from about 5am until 4pm, so Rose and I had a pretty good day together, but it's not the same without daddy.
Today has just been one of those great winter days :)
It started out with just Rose and mommy, because daddy had to do a little salting, but by the time Rose was up and getting dressed, daddy was back home.
I feel like we got sooo much done today. I got all my floors mopped and Justin cleaned the bathrooms (I have to honestly say how much I love my hubby, I think since we have been married I have only cleaned the bathroom a handful of times :)
WE ALSO FOUND A HONDA KEY!! It is not the missing set of keys (so it would still be great if we found those), but we found the spare key, so at least we can use the car :)

Tahnee had some fun time in the snow...

 And we took Rose out for a little bit too...

We had planned on going to game night at church last evening, but with Justin being so tired from plowing we decided not to go last night. So today I baked the S'mores cookies I was going to take and wow, were these yummy (this was a recipe from Pinterest.com). These have been very addicting, I think I have had about 5 so far...

Earlier this week I made a White Ziti recipe also from Pinterest.com, really you need to check out that site!

We were going to take Rose out this afternoon to just get her out of the house for a bit, but she fell asleep in the car, so we just went to Dunkin Donuts and drove around a little bit. It was fun for mommy and daddy :)

Oh and Rose has done some new things this weekend. She transitioned from laying on her tummy to sitting AND she pulled to stand. She only did each of these things once successfully, but she is practicing and VERY determined. She is also SOOOO close to cralwing...

(daddy was having  A LOT of fun in these pictures)

Plus there was football and I made cheesesteaks for dinner, so it was definitely a good day.

Where are the keys?

So after grocery shopping on Friday the Honda keys have disappeared...we are pretty sure this is Justin's fault, but Rose and I agreed to help look for them....

No luck yet...if you see them let Rose know :)

Pinterest.com

Just a heads up for all of you who are looking for pics of Rose...this post is NOT about her, sorry!
Anyway, I have a new obsession with Pinterest.com, if you need an invite let me know because it is AMAZING :)
I have lots of DIY ideas for the house and got to complete two projects this weekend:

This is a weekly calender you make out of a collage picture frame. You can use dry erase makers on it and put whatever you want in the frames (I just did some fun paper for now).

The other idea I used was to take magazine holders and use them inside doors to hold items (I already had the magazine holders, so this project was FREE):

So check out Pinterest.com for some great ideas for anything you can think of... I have a couple recipes that I will be trying this week :)

A little Christmas...

Tonight Rose found a few leftover Christmas decorations to play with...

 

What a week....

So I got to take vacation from December 23, 2011 until January 2, 2012 and spend every day with Rose. I have not had that much time with her since my maternity leave. We did get together with family and she did spend some time at Nana's, but mostly it was me and her. It was a terrific vacation and I can definitely say 8 month old Rose is WAY easier to be with than those first 10 weeks. I will confess that I held and rocked her for every nap, but hey, it was my time with her and that is what I wanted to do :) We also got out of the house every day and Rose was a big help around the house getting chores done.
Here are some pictures from our time together:

Rose is very relaxed because she knows her every demand will be met by her mother :)

 She got a ball pit from her cousins for Christmas

 After a break from the carriers, I got them out again and Rose seemed to like it even more than when she was younger

 We had lots of playtime

 Oh, she was a great help with laundry

 Tummy time. Hey Marla, if only you had crawled more ;)

 And this was really exciting, on Friday Laura and I took all the cousins to get their pictures together:

 Rose has gotten sooo much bigger from her newborn pictures

Sadly, our wonderful time together came to an end and I had to return to work this week. I think Rose has missed her time with me too, because just since I returned to work she has started waking up around 3:30AM for a snack and some mommy time!