Updates and Aurora's Milestones

I know, it's been months. I've needed to cut off all other distractions in order to get a craft project done--more on that later. The point is I'm finally to a point where I can focus on a few other things so I'm updating the blog. We had a great Christmas here at home and an uneventful New Years. We got a new bishopric at church but Greg is still serving as second counselor in the bishopric. I got two new callings: Relief Society instructor and Assistant Ward Girl's Camp Director. Girl's Camp isn't until August so that's not a big deal yet. I teach Relief Society the third Sunday of the month so Aurora gets to hang out with Greg during that time. Most of the time she hates that third hour of church (she won't nap at church anymore) so it gets exhausting.

Other things that have been happening are Greg's brother and sister-in-law, Jeff and Cori, moved to sunny Mesa, Arizona at the end of February. We're missing them but Cori and I already have plans to meet in Vegas for the 8th and final Harry Potter movie in July or August. My mom had surgery to remove part of her colon as a final measure in treating her colon cancer and is actually still in the hospital right now. The surgery went well though so hopefully with a 1-2 more chemo treatments she'll be cancer free.

Some milestones and other developments:

Aurora has learned to army crawl so fast that I don't think she sees the point in learning to really crawl, though she does get up on all fours and rock back and forth.

She got her first tooth this week and won't let me see it to take a picture.

She's refining the pincer grasp and loves to feed herself, especially cheese or deli meat.

She's starting to recognize words. She says mama and dada but doesn't necessarily know what they mean.If we say "Where's the kitty?" she looks down at the floor or looks around until she sees Rajah. Then she bolts for him. He's learned to tolerate her and will move 2 feet away at a time until she chases him out of the room and down the hallway.

She loves his food and water, any ideas on how to babyproof that?

She also loves to be upside down, dancing, and is super talkative all day long, even more so when she's tired.

She's also very ticklish when she's tired. If she's lying on her back and you hold your hand above her and move your fingers, she gets excited and smiles and coos because she knows you're going to tickle her.

She can go from sitting to crawling to sitting again.

She can pull herself up from the right position but we don't have many pieces of furniture that encourage that so she doesn't get to practice much.

She can stand on her own while holding onto the couch...until she gets ambitious and tries to turn around while only holding on with one hand.

Now her stats since birth that I've never posted:

Birth: Weight: 6 lbs, 11 oz; Height: 20 in.; Head Circumference: 34.5 cm

2 months: Weight: 8 lbs, 12 oz; Height: 22 3/4 in.; Head Circumference: 36.4 cm

4 months: Weight:10 lbs, 4 oz.; Height: 24 in.; Head Circumference: 37 3/4 cm.

6 months: Weight: 13 lbs, 6 oz.; Height: 26 1/4 in.; Head Circumference: 40 cm.

9 months: Weight: 15 lbs, 13.5 oz.; Height: 28 1/2 in.; Head Circumference: 41.4 cm.

Except at her 4 month visit when her weight dropped because I'd had my surgery and my milk supply struggled, she's very consistent in her growth. She's always in the 7th or 8th percentile for weight (currently 7th), between the 70th and 85th percentile for height (current 82nd) and the 1st percentile for head circumference. When I asked her doctor at one appointment how she was doing growth-wise, he replied "Well, someone has to be the smallest." LOL. I don't have any problem having a small baby. She's tall and I don't have any problem with her being a tall, slender kid (if only I could get pants to be long enough and skinny enough though!!). In the meantime, she's 1 1/2 in. from being half my height and getting kind of awkward to hold. :)

I have recent videos and pictures but I can't get them from my phone to my computer so hopefully I can get those on here soon.