Wait...What?!?

Nine Months Ago

 



My little baby hit the 9 month mark yesterday. Yep, nine months old!

It's amazing to me how quickly the time has gone.  She is crawling, standing, trying to walk, and talking. She has her daddy's adventurous/mischievous nature and her momma's grace, or lack there of.  It's quite a combination.  She climbs over every barrier we can fashion and often bangs her head on the floor during the tumble that follows, but she's resilient. She usually just gets up and tries again.

We love watching her learn, and today I had the biggest surprise of all.  She spoke.  Not just the lovely babbling mumbles she's been doing for the last few months, but a real sentence.  In fact, two of them. Wait....WHAT?!?  Yeah, you read that right.  My little Lila said two sentences to me in direct response to questions I asked her. They were short, but it was still amazing.

When she woke up this morning, she had her regular diaper change/bottle while lounging across mom routine.  Afterward, she was standing on my lap fully awake and happy, but gassy.  After several rather large toots I asked her "Does that feel better?"  She looked at me for about half a second then said, "It does!" So I kind of half laughed in shock and amazement, then decided to keep going.  I asked, "Did you sleep well?" She responded, "I did!" It was incredible.  After that I started getting the normal dadada babble as she tried to tell me a story, but she said those two responses plain as day. Who's a proud mama?  This gal.

Then, as we were saying bye to Daddy and getting ready to leave Ryan asked her teasingly "Is Amanda Dodson your dad?" It's a joke he thinks is funny to use my maiden name and say I'm the dad and he's the mom.  I tell him not to because she'll get confused, but when he asked that she turned to me and said "Momma, Momma."  Melt my heart. :) It was intentional, deliberate, thought out, and not because she was feeling bad. The few times she's ever said Momma have been when she really was upset and didn't feel well.  This was an excited expression, not a whiny one.  It was wonderful. And then, of her own volition, without any prompting(we've been trying to teach her bye-bye and waving for about two months) she said "buh beh bye bye" to her Daddy.  When I asked her to say bye bye again and wave she gave me a look as if to say, "Didn't you just hear me? What do I have to do woman? Do you need a sign?  Hello!! I JUST SAID THAT!" Lol...it was a very long, very pointed look.

I am so proud of my little one. She's growing so fast, and expressing what she learns more every day.

One Week Ago

Talking to me while I took a picture before school.

 

 

 



We thank you Lord for choosing us to be caretakers, protectors, and guides for her soul on this earth.  We are blessed to have her and ask your guidance as we train her up in your truth and love.  Amen.





 

Paint Chip Calendar

I decided to make some tutorials for a craft party we hosted about a month ago. One of our items was a paint chip calendar.  This would be great for a monthly plan ahead menu board, chore chart, or even general memo board.  I had all these supplies on hand, but if you don't they are pretty easy to find in a big box store like Wal-Mart or Target, or you can improvise/substitute too.

 

 Gathered my supplies;

Old frame

Paint Chips

Craft Paint

Small Paint Brush

Scissors/Exacto Knife

Black Marker

First, I took the glass out of the frame and painted the frame black. 

While you have the glass out of the frame, go ahead and clean it really well.

Also, don't drop the freshly painted frame on your carpet/rug.

 Fortunately for me I was planning on getting rid of this anyway, and it cleaned up okay for the most part.

Next, I cut my paint chips to size, leaving six "boxes" along the length.

 

 The cardboard you see was already inside the frame.  If your frame doesn't have a cardboard back you can use, just cut a stiff piece of cardstock or cardboard from a box.

Next I tried to figure out spacing for the width.

 This was a bit tricky for me to just eyeball, and it ended up a little less than perfect, but it still works.

Before I glued the paint chips down I ran a black marker along the edges for definition.

Here you can see where I got really messy.

 So I made my lines a lot thicker to cover it up.

 Glued it all down and wrote the days on top, then put it back in the frame.

Now we can use dry erase markers on the glass,

At our craft party several people alternated colors or put the light/dark going opposite ways.  Make it your own and enjoy!