The crawling milestone....and much more

Although the blog has been quiet lately, our lives sure haven't been. In the last month, we have taken Peyton to the lake and to the beach (at the lake). She got a new friend at daycare, who is just her size. We've been to Auntie Meghan's pool a couple times, swinging at Gpa Rouchka's and using the "big girl bathtub". Hummm, what else? Oh, the big milestone....she started crawling!

We went to the lake Memorial Day weekend with the Feezell family and Meghan and Steve, and had a blast! The weather was perfect Saturday and we got to sit out on the dock, ride the waverunner and take Dusty's boat out. The water was a little too cold to actually swim, but it still didn't stop us girls from "showering" in the lake on Sunday. After a couple days of no showering, we decided it was time. And why get in the shower to shave when you can do it right off the dock? We had lunch at Frankie and Louie's on Sunday and the kids played in the sand. Peyton had fun until mommy decided it was enough when she started to eat it. She had french fry pieces and a bite of chicken for the first time. We can't wait to go back and get our little water baby in the water!

Bailey is the new "baby" at daycare. She is Peyton's age and it's so adorable to see them together. The first day she was there, they sat across from each other and just talked up a storm. It was as if they understood exactly what each one was saying. There were squeals and arm throwing in excitement and Peyton even tried to steal her sandal.

We got Peyton a baby float to use at the pool and sat in it for an hour and 15 mins. Quite content I believe.

Gpa Rouchka put up a baby swing for her in a tree at their house and I think she would have slept in there. She was very relaxed in it while swaying back and forth with a little breeze on her.

And the movement has begun! She started crawling a week before she hit 9 months old. It seemed to come all in one day. Over Memorial Day weekend she figured out that she could stand with things and "dance". It's become very difficult to get her down for naps and bed now because it's a fun game for her to stand in her crib and "talk" (not using an inside voice either). Miss Jessica at daycare taught her the "shimmy shimmy" dance. She didn't do it very long because she more occupied with moving and crawling, but she would tilt her head to the side, smile and shake her whole body back and forth.

She was showing signs of wanting to figure out how to crawl and she would put pressure on her hands and knees, but didn't go anywhere. She had it mastered by the next Monday. It's been so much fun. We have a lot of baby proofing to do, but she is pretty good about going from toy to toy and to the spare bathroom. I think she likes the maroon rugs in there? Or maybe it's becuase she started using the big bathtub? She loves bathtime and we quickly learned that we needed a bath seat, otherwise one of us would have to bathe with her every night.

She's dumped the dogs water bowl once and she ended up sitting in water. I had no idea she could go that fast, but she was determined. I'll need to get better at telling her no. I never want to hurt her feelings or make her upset so I let her get away with a lot. The dogs have also quickly learned that she doesn't stop when she starts going towards them. Molly, our older dog, will watch Peyton come towards her from the other end of the hall. She'll look at us and then watch Peyton and then look back at us as if she's saying "help me". Then when she is within Peyton's arm reach, she usually does a little growl, as if she's disgusted, and trots into the bedroom to pout. I don't think the dogs are as excited about her crawling as we are.

We went for her 9 month check-up and she weighed 18 lbs 9 oz and was 28 1/4 inches long. She's still in the 50th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height. Nothing has changed there. The doctor discussed the possibility of her having asthma with me. It breaks my heart that she would have to deal with something like that at such a young age, but it sounds as if it's more common than I thought? She has been coughing at night and it's gotten to the point where she'll vomit. It had been happening for a couple weeks so I decided to mention it. They put her on albuterol, which really scared me to do, but I don't think they would do anything to hurt her, so we're trying it. It's been almost a week and she does better at night, so hopefully this will be the remedy?