9 Months!

Every month is more fun! Especially in the last couple weeks she has started to do all sorts of fun things. 9 months seems like a big milestone to me for some reason. I just can't believe how soon she will be 1!

Things we want to remember about Darcy's ninth month:

- 18 lbs. 12 oz. 28 inches. She hasn't hardly gained any weight in the past few months and the doctor told me (in a nice way) I need to feed her more. I am happy to do it, but I just can't believe it because it seems like she never stops eating as it is! We're really gonna have to pack it in.

- Goes to sleep at 8 and wake up around 7 (although she has been liking to wake up closer to 6:30 pretty often much to my dismay). 1 1/2 hour nap around 9 and another 1 1/2 hour nap around 2:30.

- Crawling (when she really wants to) and pulling herself up on things. That last thing isn't very fun in the bath tub! This morning she stood up in the bath tub, slipped, and bonked her head. No fun!

- Waving, clapping, shaking her head, playing peek-a-boo all in the last couple weeks.

- Talks all the time. We love it.

- She love to feed herself. Cheerios and little puffs cereal are her favorites. She loves all food except marshmallows. I gave her one the other day and it freaked her out. I think she doesn't like the texture when she touches it.

- 5 teeth. We keep expecting the 6th to make its debut any day.

- She sits up in the shopping cart now which makes shopping SO awesome!

- I thought she was coming out of the separation anxiety phase last month but I was so wrong. She will let Drew hold her usually but not for very long. She will only let anyone else hold her for about 30 seconds.

The close-up.
Darcy wanted to put a little spice into the full body shot this month I guess. Doesn't it look like she's doing some latin dancing?
Yesterday I tried to have a little photo shoot with her and I took tons of pictures. None of them turned out but this one.
The other night I went in to check on her before I went to bed and she was curled up like this and the picture doesn't really show it but she was kind of on all fours. She has lots of interesting sleeping positions.

I feel like I'm going a little bit overboard with the video thing, but Darcy is just doing all these new little tricks that I love to document and this is the only way our families across the country get to see all these fun stages.
The other day I clicked on a link that started some music and when the jazzy music started Darcy started shaking her head. Her whole life (I know it's been a long one) Drew and I have used crazy dancing to entertain her and I was excited to see that she caught on and she knows what to do when the music starts! :) She has even added some awesome arm movements. When we hold her up or she's standing by something she does the always popular baby knee-bend dance. Love it!
Darcy has been threatening to crawl for the past month and just in the last couple days she really took off and decided she wanted to get moving. Food was what finally motivated her. Shocker!

Zut alors! I have missed one.

Do you know where I got the quote I used for the title? I looked up the spelling.

Anyway...I forgot about this video for my last post and for us it is such a fun milestone!

Videos

Just a few fun videos.

Curtains

The title of this post is so intriguing right? I bet when you saw the title you could hardly wait to read it! :)

The other day while I was taking a nap I had a dream that I made some curtains for Darcy's room and I woke up excited to make them. Her bed time is 8 and this time of year it's still too bright which makes it hard for her to sleep. A while ago I was into making her curtains and I wanted to find a fabric with stripes but everything I found that was anywhere close to what I wanted was really expensive. My dream showed me some curtains that were fabulously cheap to make! The day I went to get my supplies everything at Joann's was on sale for 50% off. It was awesome! They are not the curtains I would have for her room if I had lots of money and a house (in fact almost nothing in her room is) but they are cute enough for now and I had fun having a project.
The gray fabric is perfect for keeping it a little darker in her room but not pitch black. The flowers are just cut out of felt.
And basically anything worth posting has a picture of Darcy right? Today she was laying down on the floor and I looked away. When I looked back she was sitting up. I had never seen her do that before, and she seemed pretty proud of herself.

General Conference & Random Pictures

With Darcy needing my attention it was kind of hit and miss which talks I actually got to listen to for General Conference this time, but what I did hear was so great. I hate to admit it but Saturday morning I was in a cranky mood. I was mostly just tired which is where my crankiness usually comes from. I was feeling a bit like a lousy excuse for a mom, etc. etc. etc...I will spare you the details. Anyway, luckily I was having a moment to sit and listen when Elder Ballard started speaking. Through his whole talk I felt like he had prepared that talk just for me. It was so uplifting and encouraging. He talked about how important our role as women is in influencing the next generation, and it gave me the kick I needed to recommit myself to being the best mom I can possibly be.

As summer is approaching, just like I do every year, I have been dreading the challenge of finding things I can wear that are modest and that I don't sweat to death in. For the last four summers I have been surrounded by a group of girls also committed to wearing modest summer clothes and it has been nice to have that support. This summer I'm on my own though. I have been feeling a little nervous about looking out of place in my long shorts and sleeved shirts while almost everyone else here is wearing much less. Elder Ballard also addressed this. He said something along the lines of "The women of the church should not look to the world for how to act or dress (or something like that), but the women of the church should show the rest of the world how it should be done." That was the worst quoting job ever!! :) I felt SO encouraged by his words. As I sat there in my long shorts I felt like running outside to show everyone that I was not ashamed, and I felt ready to do what I could to be an example to the world.

It turns out conference actually ended up focusing a lot on the importance of strengthening out families and I am excited to work on being better.

Here are some random pictures from this week.
When Darcy was really little I tried painting her toenails but failed. I finally decided to try again. I made a big mess but just cleaned off her skin around the toenail and it turned out all right. Just don't look too close!

Darcy always sits in her high chair with her one foot up like this lately. It cracks me up.

I just think these pictures of Drew and Darcy are SO sweet!

This was the best video I got of this action, but it isn't all out. She usually kicks and swings her arms up and down forever. It seems like it would hurt her feet to kick the floor as hard as she does, but she just keeps going.