Today.

It's been months since I've picked up my camera. Life is so busy that I don't take it down from the shelf to capture little moments with my babies. Today, after lunch, after Vacation Bible School, before naps, during random outside play time, I remembered that abandoned camera and took it down. I quite literally wiped the dust off of it and took it outside. My subjects have grown since I last looked through the lens.

They've also gotten quite spunky.

And then there's this guy.

If you cannot tell, he is simply adored.  Adored.  They cannot help but touch him, kiss him, smother him, talk to him, distract him, feed him.  It's like a magnetic force field that none of us have the strength to resist.

This is his reaction to grass.  I'm so glad I captured this because this is the exact reaction all of my kiddos have had to their first experience with the prickly, pokey grass.  His face says it all.

Here's my Nora.  Sweet, growing, compassionate, caring.  I will not talk about the fact that she will be turning seven in just a few short months.  Not going there.

And there is this side to her.  Goofball.

Stella B.  Newly three.
Just yesterday we celebrated the three wonderful years of life we've had with our sweet girl.  She couldn't be funnier or sweeter or more sassy.  She's super smart and witty and to know her is to adore her.

She's showing me how her dress twirls.

Liam Piper.  Oh this boy!
Right here he is hot and trying to pretend he doesn't want me to take his picture.

But we all know that deep down, he does.

That cowlick.

So that is a snapshot of today.  Today I am thankful for simple afternoons in our backyard and a prompting to pick up my forgotten hobby.  These days are so blurry and so quickly passing.  But man, am I going to miss them when they are gone.

Growing Like Weeds: Stats for Stella and Liam

This morning I took Liam and Stella in to the pediatrician for their annual check-ups.  Although I haven't blogged about it, Liam turned 4 in May and Stella turned 2.  I'm not quite sure how it's possible that either of them is that grown up, but these little rascals refuse to listen to me when I tell them to stop growing.  I may resort to desperate measures.



Liam, my young little man, was quite the sweet patient today and was very thrilled that no shots were on the agenda.  Here are his 4 year old stats:

Height:  40 5/8 inches (60th percentile)
Weight: 39 lbs. (75th percentile)

For a comparison, Nora was 34 lbs.  (55th percentile) and measured 39 7/8 inches  (75th percentile) when she turned four.





Stella Marie was very excited to see Dr. G today and was an excellent patient.  She stood still while he did his examination and proceeded to greet everyone in the office.  Here are her two-year-old stats:


Height:  33 1/8 inches (25th percentile)
Weight: 26.5 lbs.  (50th percentile)


Again, just for fun, here are the stats of Liam and Nora when they were two:
Liam:  Height:  35.75 inches (85th percentile);  Weight: 28 lbs, 10 oz.  (65th percentile)
Nora:  Height: 33.5 inches (45th percentile);  Weight: 24 lbs. (<25th p="" percentile="">
It seems like Stella is much more like her sister than her brother in height, but right in the middle in weight.  She is our sweet, squishy, fluffy girl!


So, here we go starting another year for these two.  They will grow and mature in so many ways, I'm certain.  Liam is particularly excited about his baby brother, and Stella will surely not know what hit her when he gets here because she is definitely a Momma's girl.  I can't wait to see what this year holds for them!

 

Crazy May

May is BY FAR the busiest month of life we've had around here in a while.  It's was all fun and exciting stuff, but EVERYTHING happens in May!  Did anyone else feel this way?

We had Liam's 4th birthday and birthday party, Mother's Day, Nora's ballet recital, Liam's last week of preschool for this school year, and Nora's last days and her Kindergarten Graduation.  Two days later we left town to head down to New Orleans (WOOHOO!) for a visit with my family and some friends.  Add in here and there graduation rehearsals, doctors appointments, friends with babies being born, occasional sickness, playdates with friends, Care Group, and visiting with family.....and we were some BUSY PEOPLE!

(Have I taken pictures of nearly HALF of this stuff????  NO!)

As I think about our month and all that this past (school) year has entailed, I cannot help but be thankful for so much.  This has been a wonderful experience:  our co-op, homeschooling, preschool for Liam, lots of individual time with Stella.  Our children have changed so much since August, and I am so thankful for the tools the Lord has used in our lives to being bring these changes about.

Let me update more about a few recent things and goings-on of the family:

I am currently 19 weeks pregnant with baby #4!  This pregnancy is going by so incredibly fast, but we are really anticipating the arrival of our little one.  The pregnancy has been really smooth, and I just this past week began to definitively feel the baby move (which is by FAR my most favorite part of pregnancy).  In fact, Jonathan was able to feel a few kicks for the first time.  What a miracle life is!


Stella B just turned 2 on Sunday! I am kind of in denial about this, and I will insist on snuggling her and cuddling her and rocking her and treating her like a 12 month old instead of a two-year-old for a little while longer.  Stella is definitely starting to come into her own opinion, as most little two-year-olds do, but she is still the sweetest and cuddliest and funniest little booger we know.

Liam turned four in May (as I mentioned above) and had a fabulous birthday and party.  We celebrated with a few friends at a bounce house with some Transformer cupcakes and a few gifts.  He is SUPER into Rescue Bots these days so with the help of my parents, we were able to get him his favorite six Transformers: Blades, Boulder, Heatwave, Chase, Bumblebee, and Optimus Prime.  He is one proud boy!  (By the way, he often calls them "France-chormers" instead of "Transformers" which is the cutest thing ever.  I will not ever correct him and most often I say it incorrectly because I so love how he says it).  He finished up preschool a few weeks ago, and so far it doesn't seem that he is one bit upset to leave behind his friends and teachers.  He does occasionally talk about Pre-K next year, but I think he is just ready to play and enjoy the summer.

Nora, on the other hand, is super sad that school is ending.  She absolutely LOVES school and her friends and teachers.  It's been hard for the her the past few weeks because she realizes that she is not going back to Cedar Springs next year and won't be going on with her group of friends.  I hate this for her, but we are also super-pumped about Paideia and all that the Lord has in plan for her (and our family as a whole) next year.  We will still have lots of opportunities to see and hang out with her friends from CSWS, but I definitely understand her sadness. We have been so blessed by Nora's two teachers this year who have invested so deeply into her!

Last month was also Nora's ballet recital and she was a beauty!  I took lots of pictures and Jonathan recorded it, so I need to try to upload those soon.  All I'll say is that while she looked so beautiful and graceful, Nora has not quite FULLY grasped the concept of gracefulness.  She was so passionate about her dance, but it wasn't what I'd say graceful, slow, smooth, dainty.  If she had a turn, she would whirl and whip around with all of her might, and she'd do it very quickly.  It was so precious watching her because she was having so much fun and enjoyed every minute of being on stage.  It was so fun to watch her!

Jonathan and I celebrate our anniversary on the 22nd....9 years!  (Confession:  I just typed eight.  Eight years.  Then I had to stop and do the math).  It's been NINE YEARS!  Cuh-razy that we are almost to ten years of marriage. Our anniversary fell in the midst of Graduation, so we didn't really get to celebrate as it occurred, but we definitely made up for it by going out to dinner at Commander's Palace in New Orleans during our trip there last week.  I'll update more on that delicious meal another time.

Well, truth be told, I started this post in late May but never got it posted because my computer is soooooo uncooperative when it comes to uploading pics lately.  I decided to just edit the post as in the past since it is now JUNE, and forget the pics.  I'll try again another day!  Till then.

Playing Catch Up

I have not updated about the kids in a really long time.  Our days are so busy and it's hard for me to sit still long enough when the kids are asleep or detained.  In many ways, our weeks are pretty predictable-- we have school Monday, Wednesday and Friday; ballet on Tuesday; homeschooling on Tuesday and Thursday; a few random playdates here and there; Care Group on Friday nights.  But, every single week seems to have it's own rhythm and story to tell which keeps things lively and life flowing by so fast.

It's quite hard for me to believe that Nora will have completed her first year of school in just two and half short months.  Wow!  She LOVES, loves, loves school.  I cannot say enough about her teachers this year, and it seems like every week she blows us away by learning something new.  She is reading up a storm which has been so fun to watch.  I love seeing how her mind unfolds as she is learning math and science and phonics and everything else.  Her teacher is extremely musical, so their days at school are filled with tons of music and dancing and sign language, which is right up Nora's alley.  In fact, it makes me wish I was in Kindergarten again.

As much as we love the school where Nora is now, we have decided to change schools for her next year.  After looking into many options and much prayer and consideration, we have decided to send Nora to a school here in Knoxville called Paideia.  It is a Classical Christian school that goes all the way through high school.  Where Nora is now doesn't go past the fifth grade currently, so it would only be a matter of time before we'd have to switch her over to another school, and we feel like sooner is better than later (for us, anyway).  We are really excited about what next year holds for our girl.  However, we are still trying to soak up every last second at Cedar Springs because it is a fabulous school.  Also, for many reasons that are too long-winded for me to go into in this post, we will be having Nora repeat Kindergarten when she starts this new school.  She is a very young Kindergartener this year (the youngest in her class), and the students at Paideia typically don't enter Kindergarten until they are six (which Nora won't be until AFTER school starts next year).  There are several more reasons, but none of them has anything to do with the fact we think Nora is currently struggling academically.  I feel like anytime I tell people about our plans for next year, they assume that she is struggling with school, and it is truly not the case.  But, we think it's what's best for our family at this point and we are excited about it!

Liam Piper is getting ready to turn FOUR!  He tells everyone that he meets that he is "three and three-quarters."  It is the cutest thing to hear him say.  He has been enjoying school this year, and we have seen much progress with him as he has benefited from being in a more structured environment on school days.  His teachers are wonderful, and he loves them.  We have days where he gets sad at drop-off or he'll just be sad throughout the day, but he is my sweet, sensitive boy that still (occasionally) loves to be held and snuggled.  I know the day is coming when that won't be the case, so I don't mind the extra attention he may need from time to time.  He's growling like a weed too, and seems so much older after his most recent growth spurt.  I think he's going to be taller than Jonathan (more like my dad).

Next year, Liam will go back to Cedar Springs and will be in Pre-K!  Isn't that crazy!? I am really excited about the Pre-K program at school, and I think it will be good preparation for whatever the next year holds for him.  I am hoping we can also get him into a sport or two next year, maybe soccer or gymnastics or something.  He's very athletic and has the skill, but I think he can be shy in a group setting, so we'll have to see how he'll do in that arena.

Stella Marie, mostly known in our house as Stella B, is our sweet angel girl.  She brings so much joy to our house and is almost always in the most joyful mood.  She's finally walking and running everywhere---she beat Nora as our current late-walker record holder at about 20 months.  Once she decided she was ready to walk, it took NO time for her to get on the go.  Now, she runs around like crazy and jumps right in with the other two in anything she can.

On the days that Nora and Liam are in school, Stella and I have the day to spend together.  It has been such a sweet season of getting to have that one-on-one time with her.  We run errands, clean house, do laundry, watch Elmo, eat lunch, and anything else we can find to fill our time.  I have really been able to enjoy her and watch her grow into such a sweet little girl.  Her vocabulary is finally starting to explode.  For the longest time, she didn't say many words but mostly grunted and signed what she wanted to say.  It's amazing how much I can understand!  But, just these past few weeks have shown her trying to articulate words more and more each day.    She is still a really good eater, but she has reached that point in toddler-hood where her appetite has decreased which reveals a pickiness in her that typically isn't there.  She eats most everything we offer her, which is a blessing!  Life at this age with Liam was really hard because he was particularly picky.  Hopefully we can avoid most of that stage with Stella B.

Life with Jonathan and I has been really good.  Jonathan is working really hard these days, and is trying to grow the practice and grow in his knowledge and ability to lead his team better.  He's been going through a dental management process since last summer which has made some really great changes in how the practice is run, but it's still a hard task to be a full-time dentist and a full-time businessman.  He amazes me at his resilience and hard work.  Somehow he finds time to read all of these books on leadership in addition to caring for me and our family.

The past few weeks we have been particularly busy on the weeknights because we are taking a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace class at a local church that is offering the course.  It is AWESOME!  I only wish we had taken this class when we were first married.  We have felt the Lord leading us to analyze our spending and saving habits, and this class has been so enlightening and encouraging--CONVICTING--but it's been really good.  I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to grow in this area.  We are also taking a class at our church called the Bridge Course which is a lot like Alpha (an evangelical dinner/class where it covers basic beliefs and principles of the Christian faith).  We have some friends coming with us, and it's been really neat the past few weeks to have them come with us and just to be reminded of some many things that are foundational to what I believe.  It's really busy while both of these courses are going on, but I really believe that the Lord has given us faith for both of them.  It means a lot of juggling our family here and there and even staying up past bedtime on school nights, but God has been faithful and has led us here.  I'm really excited to see what the rest of these classes hold for us and for all that the Lord is going to teach us.

Whew!  Are you worn out yet!? Anyway, that's the run-down of life with the Bradshaws lately.  Hopefully I can keep up better.  Plus, I have tons of pictures to share of the ever-changing trio of children!  Till then.

Stella Marie: 18 Month Stats

On Sunday our sweet Stella turned 18 months!

Seriously, where does the time go?

Anyway, yesterday was her 18 month check-up, so I wanted to share her latest statistics.  Our girl is growing so well and is doing so many new things daily, with the exception of walking and talking.  She can say a few words, but mostly she grunts and babbles to communicate her wishes.  As far as walking goes, I firmly believe that this girl could walk if she desired, but she simply doesn't have the time or patience to practice.  She has taken many steps at a time (maybe ten or more), but her interest doesn't stay around long enough so that she can get it down pat.

She weighed and measured in at:

Height- 31.5 inches (50th percentile)
Weight- 22 lbs., 8 oz.  (25th percentile)

Just for fun, here are Nora's 18 months statistics:

Weight- 21 lbs., 9 oz. (15-20th percentile)
Height- 31.75 inches (55th percentile)

They seem to be very close to the same size at this age.

Liam's stats from that age are:
Height- 33.5 inches (88th percentile)
Weight- 26. lbs, 7 oz.  (65th percentile)

Boy, was our man MUCH bigger than his two sisters!

Here are just a few things our Stella B loves:
-shoes
-her toothbrush WITH toothpaste on it
-climbing the stairs
-riding her "car" and her ladybug
-her brother and sister
-bath times
-books
-pointing out yours and her own body parts (mostly the face)
-Dum Dum suckers (what can I say!!? #3 gets everything)
-eating popcorn like a big girl
-trying to eat markers and crayons
-climbing
-doing whatever she can to make her feel like a big girl
-being tickled
-taking Christmas ornaments off the tree and taking all of the DVDs out of the entertainment center

Stella is such a joy to our family.  She is so fun, so easy-going, and just a sweet baby girl to be around.  I am enjoying her so much and love watching her grow and discover and learn and change every day.  I keep calling her my baby, and Jonathan corrects me that she isn't really a baby anymore.  I tell him that as long as she is still refusing to crawl I can call her my baby girl.  (And we all know that our children are ALWAYS our babies!)

Flying By.

Well, here we are in the first week of October.  How is that possible?  It seems like just yesterday I was running around like a crazy woman with my head cut off as I was trying to get everything ready for the beginning of school.  Now, six or so weeks later, I am still running around like a crazy woman. 

School is going really well.  Nora and Liam are really loving their teachers and classmates and classes.  And I feel like we have adjusted well to the rhythm and regiment of getting up, getting dressed and out of the house, completing the rest of our days and trying to get to bed at a reasonable time to do it all over again the next day.  Our homeschool days are going really well too.  I love having the individual time with Nora and the accountability that I have to making sure that we set that time aside to complete all of her work. 

Our weeks are going smoothly, but I feel like every week has been different and a little bit unpredictable.  We have had field trips, doctor's appointments, sickness, and a few days where I have had to go to work at Jonathan's office.  All exciting and great weeks, but they are not routine, not forseeable, which is something I typically like.  However, I think I am coming to the realization that this season of life is not going to be predictable.  Each day, each week will have it's own rhythm, it's own schedule, and it's own tale.  Honestly, I have enjoyed the differences, and I think that it what is making the time fly by so quickly.

So, while I am here, I am going to pause and reflect on what is happening in this still moment with  my little family.  As we are flying through this short season of our happy life, here is what is happening in the midst of our flock:

My sweet husband is hard at work--at the office, in our home, and at church.  We are both settling into what it means to own a small business.  He handles the stress and pressure so well, and we find ourselves often discussing what it means to trust the Lord with everything. 

As I mentioned, Nora loves school.  She is doing so well with her work and I love seeing her grow and thrive as she learns.  It's so funny to see how much like me she is.  Jonathan says all the time how she is my little twin.  Our homeschool days together consist of flexibility and acclimating to what's going on with the other two kiddos on those days.  Sometimes we do school in the morning, sometimes we start in the morning and finish during afternoon nap time, and some days we don't get to any of it until naptime.  This week as I am working at Jonathan's office, we've had to fit in her homeschool work in the late afternoon and evenings, but she never complains and seems eager to do the work. 

Nora went to her five-year-old check-up last week.  She is so grown up!  She had to get all of her vaccinations plus bloodwork and a flu shot, so she had a rough appointment, but she handles it so well.  I took her for ice cream at TCBY afterward because-let's be honest-ice cream covers a multitude of pains.  The next day, however, she woke up with a high temp so she had to stay home from school and rest for about 24 hours until it went away. 

Nora loves to ride her bike, run around, and play with her brother.  She is the sweetest big sister to Stella (and Liam, if her mood is right).  She is so helpful and patient; I am aware as I watch her what it's like to be the oldest of three.  She is such a gift.

Liam.  Our Liam.  How we love that crazy, silly, loud boy.  He is such a mixture of all-boy and tender heart.  Sometimes he will wreck on his bike and you would think it's the end of the world.  Five minutes later, he'll crash and make no fuss about it at all, claiming "I'm brave."  He is doing so well in school.  A few weeks in we started to get some reports that he was being ugly and rough when he was not getting his way with toys or on the playground, but lately he's been doing better.  We are all so thankful for his teachers and I can tell that he likes them and feels very comfortable there. 

Fruit from months and months of discipline seems more apparent.  I feel that in the past few months we have seen him mature and respond so much better than he had before.  I find that in parenting there are cycles.  You will have a really rough week where there are lots of fits/attitudes/disobedience, which requires lots of discipline/consistency/head and heartaches.  Then, it seems like after that rough week you will see some fruit of all that.  Better obedience, less trantrums, more kindness, etc.  For a while when Liam was younger, I feel like there were more rough weeks than good weeks.  But, it's been wonderful to see the growth in him as he gets bigger and older.  Hmph.  I don't want him to grow up and it's happening way too fast for me.

These days Liam loves to ride his "green bike."  You can always find him with a handful of cars or trucks.  One thing that his prone to do that I want to write down is that he likes to pile up all of his "people" and cars and trucks into this big yellow dump truck.  In the bed of the dump truck he will pile everything and anything he can find and then he pushes it around.  He calls it his "moving truck" like in Toy Story.  He has all of his Toy Story characters, any car and truck around, and then anything of the girls' that will fit.  Those are his prized possessions these days.  He also plays with Legos and Jonathan's Micro Machines from when he was a boy. 

Stella is growing up way too fast.  She was sixteen months on Tuesday!  She's crawling and cruising and gets herself to standing, but she is still not walking.  She says a few words like "What's that?" and "More," but besides her sign language, she mostly just grunts and groans to communicate with us.  We have started entering into the picky eating phase with her.  She typically eats pretty well, but she's forming an opinion and if she doesn't want to eat something, she won't.  I try to tempt her by offering her a fork, and sometimes she will eat whatever it is if she can stick it with a fork and feed herself.  She feels big that way, I guess!

Stella loves to be outside with Nora and Liam.  The poor girl looks filthy all of the time because she insists on crawling and playing outside, but it makes her happy and she loves every second of it.  She's our stealth ninja and can often be found climbing the stairs if I leave her unattended for even a minute.  She loves books and cars and babies, and she is just the sweetest baby girl.  She's a great sleeper and still takes two naps a day, although she can skip a morning nap and handles it pretty well.  It probably won't be too much longer before she drops the morning one altogether. 

Life with me is good.  I am just trying to appreciate this phase of life for all that it is.  I am learning to love my husband and babies better, and I am trusting God for grace each day.  Jonathan and I feel like the Lord is teaching us about perseverance in this busy season of owning a business and raising three young children.  We are doing lots of sowing and are trusting God for the harvest in His perfect timing.  I am so thankful for the friendships that the Lord has placed in my life these days.  I am so aware of how blessed I am.  God is so kind.

Well, that was quite a long post.  Thanks for bearing with me.

Stella Marie: One Year Stats

Well, like or not, my Stella B has turned one year old!  On Saturday, June 2 we celebrated one whole year with our precious baby girl.  Her birthday party is this coming Saturday so I"ll be sure to post more about that later, but we took her to her one year appointment today, so I wanted to update her stats.

At twelve months, Stella Marie is:

Height:  28 1/2 inches long (30th percentile)
Weight:  20 lbs.  (40th percentile)
Head Circumference:  46 centimeters

Stella when compared to her siblings:

Liam weighed 22 lbs (40th percentile) and was 31 inches long (80th percentile).  Nora weighed 18.5 lbs. (15th percentile) and also measured 28 1/2 inches long.  So, once again, Stella is in between the other two.  Just as long as Nora but a bit chubbier than her big sister was!

Here are some new things about Stella B:

- Stella is not walking or cruising.  Actually, she doesn't really like to stand at all, but just recently she's started holding on to things while standing up if you put her in the standing position.  I'm in no rush for her to be mobile, or more mobile than she is, so I know she'll get in her time.

- Stella has two teeth on the bottom.  Dr. G said that her top four are about to poke through at anytime so maybe last night's rough night was a result of teething.  If not, we are sure to have some rough times ahead because cutting teeth is no fun!

- Stella loves to play!  Of course, she gravitates to things that are for Nora and Liam, but she is so content to crawl around and find new things to occupy her attention.  If we are outside, she wants to be on the concrete crawling around and exploring.  Her poor knees are rough and callused, but she insists on not being held.  She also likes to sit on the riding toys, but currently they are pretty big for her.

- Eating is going well.  Stella loves to eat!  And she pretty much eats anything I give her, although I have seen her showing a bit of pickiness on rare occasions.  I know she is close to the age where eating opinions show themselves.  I just try to keep giving her the wide variety of foods she eats, rotating through everything so she won't "forget" what she likes.  Here are some of the regular things she eats:  all fruit, cheese, bread, waffles, raisin toast, yogurt, all types of beans, avocado, tomato, peas and carrots, edamame, ham or turkey (in small bites), chicken, crackers, pizza, rice, spaghetti, pasta, potatoes, etc.  I try to give her whatever it is we are eating, and usually she will eat what I give her!

- I have slowly introduced cow's milk and she is fully off formula as of this week.  She seems to like cow's milk okay, but she refuses to drink it out of a sippy cup.  She will take it no problem from a bottle, so after talking to the nurse today about this, we are going to go cold turkey on bottles.  Bye bye bottles.  Stella has shown a stubborn side with drinking milk out of the sippy and will even blatantly SPIT out the milk when I give it to her that way.  I think we have another strong will on our hands.  The nurse encouraged me to stand firm and keep offering her the milk in the sippy; she will drink when thirsty and won't get dehydrated, she promised.  I know she will learn to love it, but neither Nora nor Liam had trouble transitioning over to whole milk in a sipper. 

-  Stella loves her siblings so much!  They love to burst in her room each morning to wake her, and it doesn't matter how tired she is, how asleep she was, or how loud they are.  She is all smiles and ready to give kisses.  Nora and Liam also fight over who gets to feed her her bottles, but I guess that will be ending.

That's about all I've got for now!  I'll post more once I get birthday pics together!

Stella Marie: Nine Month Stats

I took Stella to the doctor this morning for her nine month well-visit.  Little Bit is growing so fast, that I feel like her first year of life is just flying by.  She will be one in three months!  That's crazy!  Anyway, everything went great at her appointment and she is growing well.  Here are her nine month stats:

Height: 26 1/4 inches long (25th percentile)
Weight: 17 lbs., 6 oz.  (35th percentile)
Head Circumference: 17.25 cm (75th percentile)

For comparison, here are Nora and Liam's nine month stats, too:

Nora weighed 16 lbs., 13 oz (15th percentile) and was 27 inches long (35th percentile)
Liam weighed 20 lbs., 1 oz (50th percentile) and was 28 1/2 inches long (50th percentile)

It appears that Stella weighs a little more than Nora but is a good bit shorter than she was, for now anyway.  Liam blew both girls out of the water with height and weight.  But he's our boy!

At nine months, life with Miss Stella B is wonderful.  Here are some things going on in her world:

*Stella is exclusively bottle fed now.  She was fully weaned by the beginning of February, so it's been just over a month.  She takes four bottles a day: when she wakes up, before lunch, after her afternoon nap which is just before dinner, and one at bedtime.  Altogether she probably gets about 24-26 oz of formula a day.
*Stella also loves to eat table food.  The pediatrician released me to feed her whatever, as long as it wouldn't be a choking hazard.  Stella still doesn't have any teeth, but she does a great job of eating almost anything soft that I put in front of her.  Some of her favorites include:  banana, avocado, blueberries, rice, pasta, oatmeal, breads, sweet potatoes, apples and pears, cheerios, peas, carrots, butter beans, green beans, black and pinto beans.  Seriously  This girl loves to eat!
*I mentioned the other day that Stella has started crawling.  It is the cutest thing.  She moves her hands really well, but she doesn't always get her legs coordinated so she'll just kinda hop her bottom half up a bit to move forward with the rest of her body.  She is into everything, particularly power cords, remote controls, and anything she shouldn't touch.
*Stella loves bath time in the big tub.  She loves to play with Nora and Liam's toys, but I have had to remove cups from the play things because she keeps trying to drink the nasty bath water.  When I take something away from her that she wants, she is very verbal in expressing her unhappiness. 
*Stella takes two naps a day.  The first nap is usually about two hours long, and most days I have to wake her up to eat lunch.  I put her down for her second nap at the same time that Nora and Liam go down, and she usually sleeps until about 5:30-5:45 pm.  So, that's about a 3 hour nap.  She's a great sleeper.
*At night, Stella goes to bed around 8:30 and she sleep all night, usually waking around 9:30.  Lately, she's been waking earlier, around 8:30-9:00, but I am not sure if it's because of her cough/congestion or because she is just waking earlier now.
*Our sweet girl has been battling a cold/allergy gunk for about three weeks now.  Just when I think it's getting better, things start to flare up again.  The doctor checked her ears and throat today and said she looks great, so she is just suffering through the same allergy stuff I am.  I am ready to stop being so stuffy!
*Earlier this month, Stella spent her first night away from Momma.  A few weekends ago, Jonathan and I went out to dinner at the Melting Pot with our best friends.  This is an annual tradition that we do in the winter to celebrate birthdays, and it's definitely a long evening out.  So, my in-laws graciously kept all three kiddos overnight at their house.  It was really lovely being with Jonathan and our friends, and Stella did great.
*Stella is wearing mostly 9 month clothes, but there are some 12 month items she is wearing.  I am trying to hold off on purchasing more things because I have plenty of warm weather clothes she can wear.  I wish our weather would make up it's mind; I am so ready for Spring.
*Stella knows how to wave, and she has signed for "more" and "all done" on occasion.  She likes to blow raspberries with her tongue, and she can say, "Dada," "Mama," "Nana," and "Rarara."  She's definitely not seeming as verbal as Nora was at this age.

Here are some pictures of our sweet girl:

Nine Months Old.

Stella Marie is nine months old today!  Can you believe it!?  That is crazy to me, just crazy.  We go to the doctor on Monday for her nine-month check-up so I'll do a more descriptive post then of how life is going for our littlest bit.  But, for now, I'll tell that just within the past 24 hours, and most of that being today, Stella has started CRAWLING!  Yep!  She's finally figured out how to move those hands and feet together.  She's been up on all fours for a long time now and she loves to rock, but she did more of an inch-worm thing to get around instead of crawling.  Last night and today I have noticed that she is really getting the hang of it.  Big girl. 

Happy 9 Months, Stella Marie.  We love you so much!

Tubby Time.

Someone has joined the ranks of big tub time! They all love it so much. Hey, it's a party in the bathtub!