Chesney Photos

We recently had some photos taken of Chesney, and I love them all. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She is just growing up way too fast!

10 Months Old

Ten months old, double digits (tear). You have made the last 10 months of our lives such joy! I just want to keep you this small because I love how cuddly and kissable you are.

(Pictures in the crib are now easily confused with nap time which brings on quick tears!)

Here is what you are up to at 10 months:

• Weight: around 20 pounds
  
• Length: 28 inches
  
• Clothes: You are wearing 6-12 months clothes.
• Shoes: You wear a size 2 or 3 shoe. You still rarely wear them. A cute pair of tights does the same trick!
• Diapers: Size 4 Pampers and cloth diapers when we I am home
• Food: You are pretty easy going in the eating department. This month you have been eating more Mommy and Daddy foods like spaghetti, lasagna, potato soup, chili, and chicken noodle soup...and you love them all. You still eat some pureed foods but we are trying to get you to eat bigger soft pieces, and you seem to be taking it very well. You ate a banana again today which makes me very happy because those are so soft and easy to eat! You tried mango this month and liked it. You eat two cubes of applesauce with your cereal at breakfast. You have no troubles picking food up and putting it in your mouth now. You nurse in the morning, and have a 4 oz bottle a couples times daily, almost always breastmilk. You usually only have one bottle of formula a day which is 6 oz at bedtime. You drink water with your meals, and you are pretty good at drinking out of a cup.
• Development: This month you learned lots of new things. You started crawling, climbing stairs, and pulling yourself to a stand. And you learned all of that in the past 2 weeks! And you are a speedy crawler now too. Now that you can move, you don't stay in one place for long. You have also learned to walk behind your zebra toy. Clapping is one of your favorite things to do now. If we sing to you or say clap you know just what to do. Music is one of your favorite things and it calms you so well. You can be crying, and we will start to sing and you will stop crying and clap. 
• Words: You also love to babble. No real words yet but you can tell you are really trying.
• Sleep: You still sleep great. You go to bed at about 7:15 every night and wake up between 6:15 and 6:45 am. You take a 1 to 2 hour nap in the morning and a 30 minute to one hour nap in the afternoon (sometimes two afternoon naps). You wake up on your knees or standing in your crib now. We have moved your crib down two levels in the past month, and you are now at the lowest level.
• Teeth: Your left lower central incisor came in this month.
• What I love about you: Your personality is so great and is more apparent all the time. You make the cutest faces and noises! We just can't get enough hugs and kisses from you.I pray you stay this sweet for the rest of your life! I can't even image how boring life was before you. We just love, loving you!!
  

Stairs

Chesney is learning new things fast...way too fast. She just started crawling, and she can already climb the stairs. She's getting pretty quick at it too. The only bad part is that she has no fear. She will slip down a stair, and we will catch her and she just laughs and climbs some more. She slid down a stair today and then started crawling across the stair like it was no big deal.
Milo (the cat) has been a big motivation for her stair climbing. He likes to lay at the landing or top of the stairs. Chesney squeals at the cat as she climbs towards him.

I just can't get enough of that sweet little face!

T is for Two...Teeth That Is

Chesney got her second tooth today. Her lower left central incisor has just popped through. And I think she has figured out how to use these things too because she will bite off pieces of food now. I'm just not looking forward to her biting people.
She's also getting quicker at crawling. She is still trying to figure out how to crawl and pull herself up from a crawling position but she loves to find her toys.
And she still loves to stand. She's telling daddy how it is. For some reason we can probably expect more of this in the future.

My First Day on the Job

Today was my first official Tuesday at home. And it turned out to be extra special because Chuck worked from home today (due to snowy conditions). So Chesney got to spend the day with both Mommy and Daddy. Hopefully she didn't pick up any of the "shop talk" that was going on in the office as Daddy was working.

But we sure had a lot of fun together. We did lots of playing and crawling. We made home-made chicken noodle soup for lunch, which Chesney had for the first time and loved! We shoveled the sidewalks together. We made dinner together. We did some laundry. And we took a bath in the jacuzzi tub.

I'm looking forward to many more days like this with my little girl.

Creepin' and Crawlin'

Well today she did it...

Chesney finally figured out how to crawl. And she is so happy to be able to move now. In fact, I don't think I have ever seen her smile and laugh so much. She spots something she wants and off she goes to get it.
I can't tell you how proud I felt when I saw her move across the room. But now I'm scared. Scared she will eat something she shouldn't, scared she will fall and hit her head, scared she will touch something she shouldn't. Would it look weird if she wore a helmet for the rest of her life?!? Just kidding, sort of.

New Job

After much thinking, Chuck and I have decided that I should cut back my hours at work so I could take another job. I will still be working at the clinic on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. But Tuesdays and Thursdays I will be at the best job anyone could ever imagine.

Here's the kicker:

The pay is a WHOLE lot less.
There will be no raises or bonuses.
No incentive pay.
No annual reviews.
The hours are a LOT longer.
In addition to Tuesdays and Thursday, I have to work nights and weekends.
I don't get vacation time or sick days.
I have to work all major (and minor) holidays.

But my new bosses? Both are super CUTE!
Meet my new bosses.

I plan to have lots of "working lunches", "performance reviews", "coachings" and "team building exercises".

I get to do the job I've always dreamed of (two weekdays is far better than none!), I get to be a Stay at Home Mom.

Cottage Christmas

Our last Christmas was celebrated at the cottage with Grandpa and Grandma. The whole family was up for a week of relaxation and fun! We started the trip by opening gifts. As you can see from the picture below, we had to open the presents right away or we would have had no room for the kids to play or for us to walk!
We made it outside a couple times to let Chesney experience the snow and sledding. She loved being outside.

Looks comfy huh?!?

(Her snuggly blanket doubles as a scarf!)

The hill in front of the cottage was the perfect place to sled. Chuck and I must have made nearly 5 trips down while Chesney watched with Grandma.

Uncle Jon and Allie taking a ride down the hill.

Ice fishing was the sport of choice for the boys. The girls pick hobbies that don't require running out in the cold or sticking your hands in freezing water.

Jeremy got some new kicks for the fishing; killer boots dude!

Of course there was time to relax and play in the cottage. Ryan has the relaxing perfected.

Ping-pong anyone?

And of course we rang in the new year!