Madeline-9 Months

Weight: At your doctor's visit you were 18.25 pounds (34%) and 27 inches long (28%).  You're tiny compared to your sister who was regularly in the 75% categories.

Your head is 44 centimeteres and you are in size 3 diapers.  We have completely unsnapped your cloth diapers in some cases.

Health: You've had a minor cold this month but we are just treating with the Nosefrida and euculiptis on your feet.


 Social: You are still very social although are starting to get a bit fussy if taken away from mommy.  You smile regularly and want to be involved in everything were doing.  You love your sister and follow her around.

Diet: You are still mainly nursing will eat at dinner and throughout the day.  You get very angry with us if we don't share what we are eating with you.  You have started protesting baby food and now want to knaw on all things table food.  For the most part we let you as you have 7 teeth!

This month you tried chicken, broccoli, cauilflower, etc.  Thus far we really haven't found a food you don't like!


Clothes: You are mainly in 9 month things although there are some items in there that are 9-12 month.  You still have some give in them and I expect you to stay there for at least another month.

You are on the middle snap for your cloth diapers and size 3 (here in Georgia) disposables at night.

Mama's Favorites: I love how happy you are constantly.  You are the sweetest to wake up to in the morning and greet every new person who comes through the door.  I love watching you explore new things as you started to crawl this month.

Crying: Really only crying when tired or hungry at this point.


Sleep: You have fully transitioned to 2 naps a day and they usually last 2-3 hours each.  You are staying up longer and longer.  In the morning you stay awake for at least 3 hours before its back to bed for your morning nap.

At night you stay up till about 8 give or take and sleep most of the night.  With teething this week you woke up more than you usually do.  Last night you didn't wake at all but one wake to feed is pretty normal for you.

This Month:  You started crawling and are breaking in more teeth.  You got a visit from Grandma and Aunt Mary too!


Baby Likes: You love to eat.  You love your sister.  You love the computer and squeel everytime it is near you.  You love to skype with family and get into anything your sister doesn't want you to.  Buddy's bowl is super interesting as well as the magnets on the fridge.



Milestones: You broke tooth 6 & 7 this month..  8 is close behind too!  You started crawling.  You finally did it one day after we put the computer away from you.  Both my girls crawled to the computer first.  LOL You went from barely crawling to moving super fast in about two days.  You pull up and get into everything.  You say basic sounds like: da da (dad), Meh Meh (mom), go go.

Best of Times: You're happy attitude always and watching you explore

Worst of Times: A few rough nights when you were breaking in teeth.

Sister Diaries: Mara is finally realizing that you are mobile and this means her toys have to be up if she wants to keep them away from you.  We find toys in the strangest places.  She still asks us to move her if she is into something Mara doesn't want touched.  Only problem is Maddy goes right back.

Mara's 3rd Birthday Party-Onto Neverland!

After changing her mind a few times, Mara decided that Peter Pan was the theme of the party this year!  This was also the first year she got some say in the guest list :) She's starting to have her little friends so we wanted to make sure we included everyone she wanted to come.

For decorations I tried to keep it simple.  I know I tend to go overboard a bit but crafting is fun for me so I never really see it as work.  I made a few banners including the traditional happy birthday one, another to look like peter pan's outfit and then repurposed one we've been using for the past two years. I also pulled out a ton of stars from her first birthday (details found here).  I guess it helps to save this stuff right?!

We got into the theme other places as well with a crocodile ring toss, peter pan coloring sheets and my personal favorite the cupcake croc!!  I even made Mara a Wendy dress which lasted about half of the birthday party before playing dress up was in order.

We kept things really low key and just had the kids play.  The only organized thing we accomplished that day was the traditional singing of Happy Birthday which Mara promptly got shy and refused to blow out her candle.

Overall it was a great day.  I love a laid back party where we can eat yummy food, hang out with friends and just celebrate our girl.  And that's what we got.  Mara had a blast and was talking about it for weeks to come. I predict birthdays are going to be a big thing around here in the future!

Mara-3 Years

I cannot believe my baby is now 3 years old! Each and every day I am blown away with something she says or does.  It's crazy how fast they grow cognitively at this point!

She really understood this activity matching the colored paint inside the circles

Sisters

She is putting full sentences together that are complete as in have a noun and an action.  She rarely uses words we don't understand anymore even if her sentences are sometimes nonsense :)

She loves to dance and sing.  She just learned "Go Cubs Go" and will sing it daily when prompted and unprompted.

Hanging out in France

Rocking Mama's dress from the 80's

She's really into dress up and the princesses

She is very routine. She will repeat a comment one of us made while reading a book right at the same page we made that comment.  She has specific ways she plays with certain toys and gets angry if you switch up how you do bedtime.

She is super imaginative.  She plays very well independently and especially loves to create stories around her little people toys and figures.

In Croatia

Still loves to match her sister!

She has really blossomed as a friend.  Before this last part of her two's she was still pretty content to play on her own at a play date or at church.  Now she wants to play with the other girls and has her few girl friends she really loves to be around.

Insists she can do everything Maddy can do

Pinic lunch

She amazes us with how much information she retains.  I was shocked as to how many Sunday school songs she knows off of her Bible cd.  She will regularly sing: My God is so Big, The B-I-B-L-E, Noah built an Ark, Deep and Wide, etc.

She loves her sister and continues to show this daily.  She has started to realize that having a sister means sharing and she's not too sure about this.  She will move her toys further and further away from Maddy yelling out to us, "Move Sissy!"

Can't let a flower go unpicked

Pretty girl

She loves chatting to family on Skype.  Aunt Mary, Grandma, Nana & Papa are the favorites!

She has recently started exercising with me when I do my daily 30 minutes.  She loves following the instructor and reminds me when we haven't done it for the day.

Her manners are on point!  She is really good at saything thank you, being grateful for what we give her and asking polietly.  We are still working on please and patience.

She's a great traveler.  These past three months we went to Croatia, France, Signahi, Svaneti, and Batumi!

Eating grapes in Signahi

 This is such a fun age!  I love hearing what she has to say and comes up with.  I love watching her interact with her friends and start to navigate that world.  Sure we still have our three-anger moments but for the most part she is still my amazing little girl!

Batumi

September was FILLED with a ton of travel for us.  The following weekend (after Svaneti) we packed up the girls and headed to the coast.  This time it was just us on this trip and we were excited to kick up our feet a bit and relax.

Cathedral in Kutasi

Our girls

Batumi isn't that far from Tbilisi (about 5.5 hours) and we made the trip easily in one day.  We stopped around lunch in Kutasi for a little break and to check out a cathedral.  After walking around the church grounds we grabbed a quick bite and hit the road again.

On the ferris wheel

Mara was over trying to smile

We booked an air b & b for the weekend right on the strip and checked into our apartment for the weekend.  That evening we hit the boardwalk and went on the ferris wheel.  The views were great from the top and Mara loved looking down over the entire strip.

Batumi

On top of the gondula

The next day we took the gondula to the top.  Mara loves riding the gondula in Tbilisi so we knew she'd love this one.  On top we looked down at the stripped and pretended to view everything from the telescopes.

On our way down

Swimming in the Black Sea

The afternoon was spent at the beach.  The beach in Batumi is entirely rock which is a nice change.  Mara (and I) loved collecting rocks and just sitting near the ocean.  We chilled out there for awhile before renting a bike and cruising the boardwalk.  After dinner we stumbled upon a great light/fountain show and let the girls take it in before going back to the apartment for bed.

Fountains in the morning

Playgrounds are this girls jam

Our last day we walked around the town a bit in the morning before going back to the beach.  In the afternoon we checked out some of the small rides on the boardwalk.  To round off our day we headed to the dolphin show!

She was all like put sissy in my boat

Overall we loved Batumi.  I think we'll defintily be back in our next few years here.  Despite our busy travel month, September was the time to go as we missed all the crowds the month prior.
 

Dolphins

Svaneti

Over Labor day we took advantage of the long weekend to check a large Georgian landmark off of our bucket list: Svaneti.  Svaneti is a mountainous region near the boarder that is very much removed from typical Georgian.  It is rice in culture and still holds on to some of Georgian's pagen roots.

The Svaneti towers

Mara at the Svaneti museum

We went with the organized CLO trip from the embassy.  It takes awhile to get to Svaneti so we spent the first day just in travel.  Stopping along the way we managed to get to our hotel in about 10 hours (yes 10 hours).  Going wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  The girls were troopers sleeping on the bus and doing great with being contained.

Attempt at a family shot

View of the glacier

In the morning the plan was to hike to the glacier.  Originally we thought this hike wouldn't be possible with the kids.  Our guide had just labeled it difficult without too much detail.  We probed a little further and decided that it was doable.  With the girls on our backs we made it in just less than an hour.  I'm so glad we decided to do it as the day was beautiful (one of our only good days) so it was nice to be out and getting some exercise.

Hiking to the top!

Hiking!

That afternoon we went to the ski slope and road the lift to the top.  The views were awesome from the lift and I really enjoyed our lunch at the top!


 

This ricky bridge was the worse for me

My girl always stopping to smell the flowers

The second day we drove to Ushguli, the highest village in Europe.  It was another long drive (about 3 hours) and to top it off it was rainy and cold.  I understand the mistique of visiting this village but man the drive was difficult.  The road was bad and basically all we did for 3 hours was tread pecuriously on the clift edge.  Not my idea of fun.

Once in the village we hiked through the town and up to the church.  We ducked in a little mom and pop shop to warm up and then it was back on the bus for the drive back.

View of Mestia

This horse was uninterested

The following day we started the long drive back to Tbilisi.  They always say the drive back is the hardest and this one was.  The girls again were troopers but I was just done with
being on the road.

Wet Ushguli

The tower of love

I'm so glad we went to Svaneti.  The sights, countryside, churches, etc were worth the drive.  I just wish it wasn't so jam packed in a weekend.  The long travel days made it hard.

A quick car stop on the way home....baby overals

Outside yet another museum!