make new friends

Over the past month, I've met some great moms through Meetup groups. I left a fantastic group in Duluth and while it took a little while to find some women that I could connect with in the Phoenix area, I think I've finally found some great women. I'm one of the only worker bees, so I don't get to do all the fun stuff during the week, but I've managed to attend a couple mom-only get togethers, as well as several play dates.

Stephanie, one of the moms, invited us to her daughter Madeline's first birthday party on Saturday. For an activity, she had a Kindermusik teacher come and teach a class. While most of the babies sat nicely with their respective moms or dads, Baby J, being the adventurous little one that she is, crawled around taking other children's toys, sat by the teacher, or posed in the middle of the circle and basked in all of the attention. She's really got one heck of a personality on her!

I tried to take Baby J away from some of the action to get some photos, but she's more interested in eating the camera rather than posing for it - so we got some close up shots.

It feels good to finally be making some new friends. Let's just hope they still want to be friends after Baby J steals all the toys.

just another Sunday morning by Baby J

I woke up and took a quick shower

Then I weighed myself. I do it every day. It's a bit obsessive, but it's really fun. I'm trying to hold onto all these adorable little baby rolls. The scale always says 0.00 anyway. 

After I weighed myself, I thought I'd have some Pellegrino. Mom seems to like it, so why not?

By then it was about 10:00 and Mom and I went on our weekly trip to Costco.

That's a typical Sunday morning with the Chunglund ladies! Talk to you next time!

lions & tigers & bears, oh my!

I went on a date to the zoo with the beautiful Baby J. There was a special evening event at the Phoenix zoo and for $6 we got to walk around and look at the animals. There were some activities for older kids like a splash pad and some games and contests. Some of you probably saw me mention on Facebook, that Baby J probably would have been just as happy playing in Carl's water dish at home, but it gave us something to do and I enjoyed. it.

We saw - 

a lion

a giraffe

some very friendly turtles

and an elephant

And then Baby J passed out on the way home and had a good night sleep, making Mommy very happy.

eat your words wednesday

Recently, there have been two occasions where I've felt the need to eat my words.

1) Toaster Ovens - When I moved in with Mr. Chunglund, he had this janky-ass toaster oven. It was discolored, kind of wobbly, and had burned on food inside of it. I hated that toaster oven. I regularly tried to rid our home of it. Finally, when we moved out our Minneapolis condo, he let.it.go. Recently, I caught myself thinking that I really wish I had a toaster oven. It's so hot in Arizona and using the oven just heats up the apartment. I wouldn't mind having a toaster oven to use instead. Of course I don't want a janky-ass toaster oven that Mr. Chunglund used to have - I'd like a nice, bright, brand spanking new one, thank you.

2) Sleeping Babies - There was a day when I could not wait to get Baby J into her crib and NOT sleeping in the bed with us. I lamented endlessly wondering when this would ever happen. In the last couple weeks, she has been great at self-soothing and getting herself to sleep in her crib at night. I find myself laying in bed missing her snuggled up next to me. Plus, when she was next to me I knew she was safe, comfortable, and was still breathing. Now I get up regularly to check on her, rotate her from sleeping crosswise in the crib, and make sure her little chest is going up and down. While I'm happy it has become so much easier to get Baby J to go to bed, I do miss our nights together. All a part of growing up.

10 months

Dear my sweetest and amazing Baby J,
You are 10 months old today!  You've got 7 or 8 teeth and you bite hard. I would do an official count, but you really don't like me digging around in your mouth. You've cut your front two teeth, so if that is what you want for Christmas, then you've already got it.

You are a very fast crawler and like to go all over the house. Yesterday, I found you sitting in the shower. You can stand up on your own and don't need to use the table, chair, Carl, etc. to pull yourself up. Last weekend, I saw you doing "squats" in the middle of the kitchen. I'm not a super big fan of you being in the kitchen and standing since we have ceramic tile floors, but when I'm in their cooking you love to "help." You particularly like to "help" loading/unloading the dishwasher and have recently learned how to turn it on all by yourself.

We've been taking swimming lessons for a month now and you hold your breath when we go under the water and hang onto the side of the pool all by yourself with your chubby little hands. Your hands are so small that I was amazed you could grip the edge of the pool and stay there. You don't really enjoy floating on your back and you don't kick so much when you are on your tummy, but I guess we'll keep working on that.

For the past month, it's been me and you kid. Dad has been working a lot of hours and most days you don't even get to see him when he gets home because  you are sleeping (thank god, and more on that next). In addition to swimming lessons, we've found some other moms with kids. We've been on several play dates at other people's houses. You seem to really like other kids' toys and sometimes I think I need to get you some more toys (your Dad disagrees, of course).

Sleeping ... you are becoming a much more independent sleeper and we seem to have settled into a routine of sorts (again thank god and yes, I am knocking on wood). I can put your down in your crib "drowsy, but awake," just like the books say and you fuss for a few minutes before passing out. You still wake up once (or twice lately) for a bottle, but then usually go right back to sleep. When you wake up, I usually let you come sleep with me for the rest of the night.

At your 9 month appointment, we found out that your head size was off the charts. Your doctor referred us to a pediatric neurologist to have it checked out, just in case there might be something wrong. We went to see the neurologist yesterday and there is nothing to worry about. You are perfect. The doctor measured my head and your Dad's head and guess what? Your Dad's head is off the charts too. So, in the event you can't fit your head through something at any point during your life, blame it on him. There are plenty of things that you will probably blame on me, but a giant head is not one of them.

As always, you remain the cutest baby to have ever graced this earth (at least that's what I think and will likely keep telling you this throughout your life). You are growing up so fast! I'm going to quit writing now because here you come crawling out of the bedroom.

Love you to the moon and back,
Mom

night (or day) at the museum

Mr. Chunglund and I finally had a day off together. It's the first one since he started his new job. We interviewed a babysitter this morning and I think perhaps we'll finally even get a date night or two each month. Then we went to the Arizona Museum for Youth, which is right up the road from our apartment. The first Sunday of the month admission is free so the place was packed. There is an indoor play area for the kids with a special area for the 0-2 year olds. Baby J had an awesome time playing with all the toys and climbing on the blocks. She's been standing on her own for a few weeks now, but I can never get the camera out fast enough to snap a photo. Today was my lucky day!

Quick Mom! Take the picture before I fall down!

Here, I go!

Up, up, up

Baby J reigning over her court