Eleven Months.

Cecilia's tenth month went by faster than any of her months yet, I do believe. I honestly don't know how we got here so fast...I blame all the holiday hullabaloo that is December. No matter, here we are at eleven months old!

So what's this little peanut like as an eleven month old you ask? Let me break it down for you....

Eating: She likes to eat pretty much anything outside of plain toast and cheerios, which she will still eat, but with less enthusiasm. She still eats bottles about four times a day.

Sleeping: She usually goes to sleep around 7pm and wakes around 7am. For the past few weeks she has been napping about four hours a day, broken into two naps. 

Playing: Everything is a toy as far as she's concerned. 

Talking: She is starting to mimic more and more and tells stories alllll the time. Uh-oh is the word she says the most of her own volition; she likes to say it before and after throwing something.

Moving: She is a super-crawler and is not interested in walking quite yet. She tipped her chair over and started crawling with it still attached to her today...like I said...super-crawler.

Teeth: She has eight teeth, four on top and four on the bottom. Based on her mass drooling, I would assume more are on the way.

Hair: Her hair continues to grow thicker and longer. It's probably about five inches when pulled straight, which is quite a lot longer than it looks! I tried for the second time to get it all done rather than leaving some of it free. I'm not sure that it will last, but it was worth a try!

She continues to be easy peasy and despite what strangers think, she actually is quite happy all the time (strangers comment about how simultaneously adorable and cranky she looks pretty much every time we go out). Of course we all have our moments, but in general our days are pretty relaxed and predictable. She's easy to love, this one. 

10.

{Kicking off 2012}

And now for your reading pleasure, here are my top 10 most memorable moments of the year 2012. In no particular order...

1. Lynn called my number in the four o'clock hour on January 16th and said, "You've been chosen by a birth mother." My brand new four year old was sitting on the couch, I was in the kitchen, Bryan was at work. I leaned my elbows on the kitchen counter to brace my shaking arms and asked if she was serious. She was.
2. I woke up on January 31st and immediately went to my computer to blog about the dream I had about Baby Girl. Little did I know, I was writing it about an hour before she was born. Over the next few days, we got to hold her, take her "home" from the hospital and subsequently experience an obscene amount of anxiety...then almost as suddenly as it began the anxiety was just gone and we were sent on our way with our daughter. 
3. Seeing Simon become a big brother who loves his little sister has been a highlight of every single day of my life this year; he is so good with her. Watching them together reinforces my belief that God orchestrated all of this some how. 
4. One of my favorite things about having kids is watching them learn right before my eyes....so watching Simon learn to read has been nothing short of amazing to me. In October he could sound out a short word if he was really, really trying and now he can read sentences like "Mom, Pop and Peg had fun in the hot sun" or "Do not fret, we will go to the vet." I freaking love it.
5. On that same note, seeing Cecilia lunge forward army crawl style for the first time was so unexpected and remarkable...and Simon jumping and yelling with excitement made it all the more sweet.
6. Cheering on Simon as he took his first strides in his first running race literally had me fighting back proud, happy tears. Seeing his determined, serious little face was just too much for me.
7. Putting Simon on the bus for the first time wasn't exactly a highlight per se, but it was certainly a moment that carried some weight.
8. On Thanksgiving I said to Bryan, "It'd sure be nice to have a dishwasher by Christmas," and he responded with a simple "OK." True to his word, in plenty of time before Christmas dinner we had a functional dishwasher and essentially a new kitchen to boot. The joy hasn't worn off yet; I doubt it will for a while (the dishwasher is humming away in the background at this very moment). 
9. Every time I finished a new hairstyle for Cecilia this year I thought, "Looky here! A white lady can do chocolate hair!" With the conclusion of each new style came more confidence, skills and bonding time with a certain little miss. I was intimidated by this aspect of having an AA child, but now it's something I love. Maybe by the end of 2013 she'll sit perfectly still for me. Seeing as she'll be almost two, it'll probably be worse...we shall see. 
10. There have been so many great moments for/with my friends and family as well this year that have stuck with me: Watching my husband finish another half ironman. Hitting mile four, five and six with my mom. A text with a picture of a positive pregnancy test. The birth of two God children. The birth of a baby just two weeks after Cecie that has really bonded us moms. Seeing the photo of the home my older sister would come to live in and thinking how grand it looked (and later marveling at how her that house really is). Cheering my other sister as she ran 26.2 miles (in the time she wanted). Seeing the grown up place of a new college grad. Hearing "I got a puppy! He just puked, let me call you back." Hearing "Our portfolio has been submitted." Hearing "My kids have been playing soooooo nice together." Hearing "The procedure worked." And oh, so many more. 

To say it's been a great year wouldn't be saying quite enough. I wonder what 2013 will bring...

Happy New Year :)

{Finishing off 2012}

S, You Surprise Me Too.

The older kids get, the more they catch you by surprise; usually this is especially amplified once they start talking. You just never expect your kids to say the things they say or think they way they do. What has continued to surprise me about the way Simon thinks is that he's extremely logical and will talk his way in or out of anything with arguments that actually make so much sense that it's hard to adequately fight back. As I always say, he's got an answer for everything.

Recently a friend gave him a candy cane and he wanted all of the wrapper taken off. She explained that it was better to keep it on so that his hands wouldn't get sticky. I could hear his response coming from a mile away and he didn't disappoint. He said, "Then I'll wash my hands." Nothing earth shattering here, but you get the idea.

The other day his logical little brain helped me out quite a bit. We were going to the grocery store and I forgot to write coffee on my list so I asked him to help me remember it. I said, "Don't let me leave the store without buying coffee!" His response? "We should just get it first so we know we won't forget it." Why couldn't my 31 year old brain think of such a simple solution? I expect many situations like this in our future. 

A minute ago we just finished reading a book and I said, "Man you stink!" and he said, "You fart when you have to fart. When it has to come out, you just have to let it come out. Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me again." Keeping it classy.

C, You Surprise Me.

I was (or am) surprised that Cecie...

• never got a bald spot
• slept through the night before she hit 2 months old
• woke up and ate a bottle at 2:30am the night after Christmas
• seems to hate water being dumped on her head as much as Simon did (does)
• never, ever went through the "sit and play with a toy" stage
• army crawled before she turned 6 months
• can sit long enough in a high chair for me to do her hair
• never really liked to be fed baby food
• holds her own bottle (Brother never did this)
• was such a big newborn
• cries when she sees me after being at the Y's Kid Care
• puked so much early on and stopped so gradually that I forgot how much she used to do it
• drools 4 gallons a day (I haven't measured, but this is probably accurate)
• has a patch on her forehead of lighter skin that won't go away

These are just a few of the little things that have more or less surprised me since she was born (not in an "Oh my! I'm surprised!" kind of way of course, but in a "huh, wouldn't you know it" kind of way). The latest surprise? That she is further away from walking now than she was when she took her first steps FIVE weeks ago! Now rather than try, she will go limp when you try to stand her up; she will bend her knees and raise her arms up until you have no choice but to let her go crawl away. I must say, I'm downright surprised. I had her pegged as one of those kids who took their first steps and just took off. 

In true Hermus fashion, however, it looks like she is going to be one of those kids who takes their first steps one day and many, many weeks later she'll start walking regularly...Simon took two and a half months! I'll never forget the day he retired crawling for good, though. We went to the zoo and all of a sudden he just started walking around (by this point he had been walking across the room but he had a passion for crawling and didn't want to give it up just yet). Then we went home and he just kind of ran from one end of the house to the other laughing like a maniac because he was so excited to be upright. It's one of few memories that are really etched in my brain. I'm so excited to see our peanut walking around like a big girl too, but it's her life and she will do things when she's good and ready :)

Christmas Photo Explosion of 2012 (buckle up)

Christmas Eve

{brunch at my sister's new house!}

Adorable dress and shoes provided by Auntie Allison :)

As usual, avoiding the camera...

The award for Best Performance goes to....

...Clara :) Not sure what the boys are thinking exactly as they stare at the tree now host to tons and tons of presents...

C was slow to exit the "holding room" (when Santa comes), but eventually she made it!

Spiderman Max...

Dino Jack...

C doing what she does best...

We were home by mid-afternoon, went to church, got the kids to bed at a normal hour, watched Love Actually and prepared a little for Christmas Day. 

All around it was a really low-key, happy day with family. 

Just the way Christmas should be...in my opinion :)

Christmas Day

{at home!}

Christmas Day was at our house with my in-laws and while it was still a happy day, it was a little busier for us as the hosts! We got up, opened gifts, ate pancakes and soon got started preparing for Christmas dinner. I don't have as many pictures since it was so busy, but I at least got a couple in the morning!

Trying to be excited about a book...

Such a good big brother showing her how to use this....

Time to chuck paper... 

Opening his Sonic the Hedgehog car that you build before you play with it (a hit, by the way)...

Loving every second of the morning...haha...

Cecie with her Aunti Bree in the dress Grandma Mory got for her...

Another Christmas here and gone.

Bring on the New Year :)

Change in Plans

Today we were supposed to go up to Appleton to visit Bryan's Grandma and attend a Christmas party, but after another night of Cecie hacking away we thought better of it. The last thing a nursing home needs is a germy baby, and the last thing a germy baby needs is a day of travel and partying. So home we stayed.

We've been staying home a lot lately because it's been rather cold out, so to keep busy on days like this Simon has taken up the art of drawing monsters. This monster is one that eats other monsters so it's really a protective monster. He has been working diligently to make one for each of his friends, often calling people to get color requests (although their ideas seem to cramp his artistic vision so he does what he wants regardless).

What is really notable about these monsters is not that they are monsters at all, but that he's drawing. Just like Simon has never really been a puzzle kid, he's never really been a coloring kid. Rarely has he ever taken the time to color pictures and never has he taken the time to draw his own pictures then color them in. It's a new phase that I hope lasts because I really do love those little monsters and I cannot get enough of seeing him focus so hard that he can't keep his tongue in his mouth....

God, his face on that last one kills me. He is so determined and focused...love it.

When I told him that his monsters looked awesome, he said, "I know that, they're too easy for me," to which I responded, "I think you get your confidence from your father."

--

Staying home today also meant I had time to do Cecie's hair that I otherwise would not have had. While Simon was at gymnastics this morning, I decided to give it a whirl. Since she's not feeling up to par and is therefore a touch cranky, I didn't have very high hopes. Somehow - I think thanks to Glee - we managed just fine. I'm still itching to get the rest of her hair pulled back and know exactly how I want to do it and how I think it will work, but I worry I'll have a debacle like my first attempt and wind up spending all day on it only to go back to the drawing board the next day. Maybe next week.

 

Damn she's cute.