and then she was 9..

Months - nine months!!

Today is a beautiful summer day and right now my sweet girl is fast asleep for her afternoon nap.
There are toys everywhere - little signs of where she was playing, walking (assisted walking), eating.
I love these quiet times that I get to myself when she is sleeping, but whenever I get Matilda up from a nap I say to her, "I missed you!!" and it is true! I love my life with my family of 3.

She is pure sweetness. Whenever I go places with her people say to me, "she's so happy!" or "she can't always be this content, is she?" and the answer is YES! She has such a wonderful and sweet disposition. I love every minute with this sweet little critter!

Here is the update on my girl - she turned 9 months last week - time flies!

(click on the image to enlarge it)

photoshoot at grannys

i love taking pictures of my girl, and she loves, loves LOVES the camera. (and the camera loves her I think!) I put her in this outfit and I thought it was too cute to not take some pictures in it. plus granny has a red chair infront of her deck that I always thought would be a perfect photo prop. Before I knew it I had 2 "assistants" - granny & auntie phoebe. Here are some of my favorites!!

7 things I have realized while raising my sweet 7 month old.

I started this post awhile ago, on June 14, and am just finishing it now, so here it is!

today my beautiful girl is 7 months old!!

So, why not share 7 things I have come to realize...

1. Having a daughter has made me even more content in my own skin. It feels natural to be her mom! Another way I've realized this is that I am totally content at home - I can spend the whole day with just her, and I feel like I have had a wonderful day. And then seeing other people is just a bonus!

2. Having a husband that chooses to be a hands-on-dad is something to be thankful for every single day. Michael loves to spend time with Matilda, and even gets up early to do so!

3. You know you are living a new sleep-deprived reality when you get 4 hours of a sleep in a row and you think to yourself, "wow, that was a treat!!" - thankfully Matilda is now sleeping unswaddled and through the night - this is not something to take for granted or to brag about either! :)

4. I am not a clean person in general - my house is normally some form of cluttered or messy - however, baby food has made me realize that a baby messy with food grosses me out!! Something I read said "put a dollop of the new food onto baby's high chair tray and let them explore it with their fingers." I tried that and the minute it was a big smeary mess and her hands went up to her hair - I was done!! I apologized to her as I was wiping her clean frantically with a cloth... I'm learning some flexibility with this one...

5. It is important to continually encourage her to try and learn new things. She is a quick learner, and I have often wondered if she could have mastered a skill sooner, had I only let her try (example: sitting and sleeping unswaddled). I am excited to help her learn how to crawl but I am also loving the ease of having a stationary baby.

6. Having a baby in the winter was perfect timing - when we didn't need to go out, we didn't even want to - and now that we are going on outings and spending time in the stroller, swings, grass and bike, it is so nice to have the beautiful weather. Mental note - next time get pregnant again mid-winter!

7. I have never loved someone as much as I love Matilda. When I'm not with her I'm looking at pictures or videos of her or at least talking about her. She is her own unique self and she is beautifully content and happy. I am excited to watch her grow up and change but I am loving to just soak her in now. The other day my sister Leah was telling her boys, "sometimes I love to just sit and watch baby Matti!" and I couldn't agree more :)

Here is her update!
(click on the image to enlarge it enough to read the update - the older she gets, the more things there are to write about!!)

day 10: black & white

todays picture was an easy choice. yesterday I went to sunnyside with josh & leah and their boys to take some family pictures of them, and today I had time to go through them all and "edit" them as much as needed (not much, they are such an easy family to photograph!!)

this picture is one of my favorites, josh & roger. I love seeing my brother as a dad, he is a natural. and roger is probably the worlds happiest baby, and it is always wonderful to be around him!

here is a link to my photography blog if you want to see any others from yesterday.

also - happy birthday to my wonderful friend Jo! I hope Luke & Jameson are spoiling you with love!

day 9: what I do most weekends

What do I do most weekends? Well, in the summer we try to get to the cabin as often as we can, so.. most weekends! this summer has been a bit more full that other ones, but whenever we have had the chance, we make the short drive out to the lake and settle in for a relaxing weekend. 

we love going to the lake to spend time with family, to relax, to read, to go for walks and to go on the water! Michael loves being in the water, swimming, boating and especially wake boarding. I'm not a huge fan of wakeboarding (i can get up, get in and out of the wake - most times - but I would never be one to do "jumps" or "tricks" and in all honesty, I'd much rather sit in the boat and watch!) I love taking pictures of Michael and seeing him accomplish new tricks on the water. 

So most weekends in the summer, we try to get out to the lake for moments like these!

this oven is overheating!

while I promise to not ALWAYS write only about my pregnancy (or eventually only about my baby)
mostly because I don't want this to become another one of the thousands of "mommy" blogs
ps. I won't be referring to myself as mommy on here either!
I am writing about my pregnancy again today.

this time - my pregnancy and the world's hottest summer.

On a regular summer day, my favorite thing to do would be something a long the lines of: going for a bike ride, sipping an iced cold lemonade or iced coffee, visiting my family or a friend, blowing bubbles with everett, read on a lawn chair in the back yard, go to the beach... you know, regular summer things.

This summer.. well, the air conditioning is my BFF.

Ever since I was a kid, I had the wonderful talent of turning bright red in the face the moment I got hot. I don't think I've met many people that share this talent with me. But really, my cheeks get very flushed, the moment I get hot, and there is no hiding that. I remember one time, a lady at my old church said to me "oh, you must have got a bad sunburn today" and I replied, "nope, that's just how my skin works." see. talent!

And, let me tell you, being pregnant.. does not help this problem at all.

At work, I work with 2 guys, one who is currently on sabbatical and the other who handles temperature in the complete opposite way as I do. One morning I went to his office and said "are you feeling as hot & stuffy in here as I am?!" (keep in mind, I was wearing a skirt and a t-shirt) and as I said it, I looked at him and he was wearing: Jeans, a long sleeve button up shirt, a vest, and a long sleeved sweater. And he said "no, I'm cold actually." Hmm.. could be a long summer. Thankfully, pregnancy wins out on this one, and he lets me control the AC.

I feel like I'm missing out on summer, but when it is in the 40s with the humidex.. I just can't function. I try to do things, like go to the heritage museum with my family, but the same thing happens.. everyone is doing the activity and there I was, in the AC with the other little hot tamale in our family, Rogie. We were happy sitting on a couch in the AC, but I can't help but feel like I'm missing out!!

BUT - let me tell you. This little baby I am carrying... is completely worth it all! At 23 weeks, I now have less than half way to go. The baby will start gaining more weight each week, and the baby can hear my voice. I have been learning some new songs on the guitar and singing them to this babe.

I love feeling the baby kick, and hiccup. I love knowing when the baby is most likely to be moving and most likely to be sleeping. I love that when my cats lay or push on my belly, the baby kicks back (I can hardly wait for them to be able to feel it! a little taste of their own medicine). I love that the nursery is set up and I can sit in there just thinking and praying. I love that we have named our little bundle and call it by it's name around the house. I love that Michael is more excited to be a dad & meet this little baby than I ever thought he would be! I love that this baby will be born the same year as Roger, and that they will one day wait at the end of our driveway to start their first day of kindergarten together! I love it all really.

And this week, best part of my week - I got my CD in the mail of the pictures of my wonderful little bundle! Most of them are semi-blurry because this baby refuses to sit still. It's a wee bit crazy, in the best way possible! I don't even know what half of the pictures are of, but I love staring at all of them. Pure joy.

 baby thiessen

 spine

 hands

 foot

 bladder

 

the heart