Heaven Is For Real

If you want to be blessed and give your faith an extra boost, I seriously suggest you read this book.

9 Months

I cannot believe Naomi is already 9 months old! I'm sure I started her 6 month post off the same way. It seems that time is flying by and before I know it we are going to be celebrating her 1st birthday, then her 16th! Here are a few things she's been loving.

• She is finally crawling and pulling up on everything! Now that she is mobile, she is much more content to be left alone to play that she was before.
• She is talking tons. She says bye bye, mama, and sometimes papa.
• She has 4 teeth. 2 on the bottom and 2 on top. She has a big gap between her top teeth and when she smiles she looks like an old granny! I love it!
• Her hair is filling in and lightening up even though it is not quite a blonde as Levi's was at this age.
• She still love her pacifier.
• She eats Stage 2 foods. I've tried introducing her to some 2 1/2 foods, but she doesn't like textures just yet. However, she will eat crackers and nilla wafers.
• She nurses 3 times a day and eats solids 2 times a day.
• We were having trouble with her sleeping through the night, so just last week we moved her into her own room and have been letting her "cry it out." So far so good. She still wakes up most nights, but she is quickly learning to soothe herself back to sleep.
• She loves playing with Levi's toys and playing with him. Right now her favorite toy is whatever he is playing with.
• She loves to be outside.
• She takes 1 nap during the day and a few catnaps in the car when we run our morning errands (gym, grocery store, etc.)
• She loves jewelry and I usually can't wear any for her pulling at it constantly.
• She wears size 3 diapers.
• She is ticklish on her tummy, thighs, and neck.
• She sleeps on her tummy.
• She wears size 9-12 month clothes.
• She absolutely LOVES bath time!

Stats:

Birth: 8 lbs. 15 oz., 20 1/4 in.
4 Days (1/4/11): 8 lbs. 5.5 oz., 20 1/4 in.
2 weeks (1/18/11): 9 lbs. 7.5 oz. (97%), 21 1/4 in. (90%)
2 months (3/3/11): 12 lbs. 15 oz. (95%), 23 1/2 in. (90%)
4 months (5/3/11): 15 lbs. 9 oz. (90%), 24 3/4 in. (75%)

6 months (7/6/11): 17 lbs. 13.5 oz. (85%), 28 in. (90-95%)

9 months (10/10/11): 19 lbs. 6 oz. (75%), 28 3/4 in. (85%)

Disney World

Disney World was so much fun. I think we all enjoyed ourselves more than we thought we would. Going with one toddler is enough, and adding a 9 month old made us think we were a little crazy, but everything went so well and we had such a great time.

Day 1: Hollywood Studios

We decided to go to Hollywood Studios for our first day. I think our favorite ride was the Rockin' Roller Coaster. It went 0 to 60mph in like 2 seconds and never slowed down. It was awesome! Believe it or not, Levi rode Tower of Terror. We tried talking him out of it, but he was persistent. When the ride was over, he told us "That was fun, but I never, ever, ever want to do that again." Our other favorite ride was the Toy Story Mania ride. Levi loves Toy Story, so this ride was definitely a high point for him. We were also able to meet Buzz, Woody, Mater, Lightning McQueen, and a few others, we saw a great car show, played in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground, and played in the rain.

Day 2: Magic Kingdom

This was our favorite park of the trip. There was so much for all of us to do that there was no way to do it all. We actually went back here for the last day because we enjoyed it so much. There is so much to mention I'm sure I'm going to leave something out. Levi's favorite things here were the Teacups, Dumbo, the Speedway, It's a Small World, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, the Jungle Cruise, and the People Mover. However, his absolutely favorite things was the Buzz Lightyear Ride. He is a little obsessed with Buzz right now and it is only worse now that we've been to Disney. He even wants to dress up as Buzz for Halloween...of course! His other favorite love were the trains. He kept referring to them as "his trains." Too cute. Us older kids loved Splash Mountain & Space Mountain, and let us be honest we loved all the kiddy rides too! Disney World is just too much fun no matter how old you are! Here are some of our favorite moments...

Day 3: Animal Kingdom

Our third day was spent at Animal Kingdom. None of us had ever been to this park, so we were all excited to see what was in store. The safari ride was probably one of the big highlights. We got to see so many awesome animals. I think our favorite ride was the Himalaya. At one point the roller coaster just stops and you realize you are about to go backwards...in the dark! It was so much fun! I think Levi's favorite part was all the animals. I'm pretty sure his favorites were the lions, tigers, gorillas, and the bird show.

Day 4: The Beach & Downtown Disney

This was our "off" day, but we didn't do too much relaxing. Since we knew we wouldn't make it to the beach this summer (and the beach is Aaron's favorite place to be) we decided to make the 1+ hour drive to spend a few hours at the beach. It was nice to get away for a few hours. Naomi ate sand and Levi build sand castles and fed the seagulls. When we got home that evening we went to Downtown Disney just to walk around and check it out. The highlight was the Lego store. I'm pretty sure Levi & Aaron could have spent a whole day there alone.

Day 5: Epcot

Epcot was the last park we visited. We had a wonderful day even though it rained quite a bit during the day and most of the evening. I think Levi loved almost every part of Epcot. The things I thought might bore he still found entertaining and interesting. The Seas and all the animals in the aquarium were a highlight for him. We all enjoyed the Tour of Countries. It was so interesting to walk around through the "mini" countries and look at the architecture and lifestyles of the people who live there. Levi's favorite ride here was the "Donald Duck" ride in Mexico. He called it that because it was a boat ride that followed Donald through Mexico. I'm pretty sure he rode it 4 or 5 times! At the end of the day we saw an awesome firework and laser show over the lagoon.

Other Stuff:

The trip was such a wonderful family time. Our last day there we went back to Magic Kingdom and did some of our favorite things. Levi loves trains so Magic Kingdom was a great place to visit twice because they had a train to ride and we were also able to ride the monorail into the park which Levi loved. Our first night in Florida I had an encounter with a raccoon while trying to get Naomi to sleep. Let's just say it was the middle of the night and I walked outside to calm her down. Luckily the pool was screened in because about 10 minutes after being outside a raccoon jumped up on the screen and scared the mess out of me! Aaron had to leave early Friday to return home for his license prep classes. We left the following day and went to my cousin Vanessa's wedding. The entire vacation was a huge blessing. Even though we had rain each day the crowds were minimal and we didn't have to wait in line for much of anything. I guess it goes without saying (more maybe I've already said it several times already), but we had a wonderful time.