Wonder Woman

No, not me, silly! I'm talking about the amazing Miss Elsa.

I was taking pictures on Monday (Elsa's 10 month birthday!) and I was blown away as I thought about all of the discoveries and changes that took place over the last month. Since mid-October, Elsa has learned how to crawl, pull herself up to stand, wave and say Mama and Dada (not very consistent with the talking but we're pretty sure it's directed toward us). She also has 3 pearly whites sprouting in her mouth and has received her fair share of battle wounds.

And amidst all of this growing and learning, she hasn't lost her beautiful smile.

I don't have her official weight or height to share. However, Elsa has her second flu shot scheduled for Monday, so I'm hoping I will have some stats to publish after her appointment!

Once You Go Quack, You Never Go Back

Bedstefar and Crazy Uncle Chris made the drive this weekend to go to the Standford/Oregon game. This meant that the Little Miss got to see two of her favorite men! She got all dressed up today to help root on her favorite team and it provided a fantastic photo opp:

Snuggling up to her favorite uncle

Cheese!

Showing what she will do if her team loses. Thankfully, they won.

Based on the out-of-control cuteness that happens when Elsa is in her Oregon cheerleading outfit, I'd say she's destined to be a Duck for life. What do you think??

I'm a Bad Blogger

I was bad and didn't blog last week. But it's because Miss Elsa has been keeping us so busy!

First, we've been dealing with the not-so-fun phase of babyhood known as teething. We have yet to have any teeth poke through but we can see them pushing up against the Little Miss' gums and they have made her very unhappy. We broke down several times over the last two weeks and let her sleep in bed with us—something I swore I would never do. But that was before I had a sad little babe who was sobbing in her crib. :-(

Thankfully there have been some happy moments over the last couple of weeks, too!

First off was a day at the pumpkin patch. Where I got some incredibly cute pictures of our Pumpkin with some pumpkins:

Next, Elsa and I took a walk to the park and she took her first swing at swinging. She thought it was great!

And then she decided to round off the week by sharing with us her latest trick - crawling! Carl and I were just about convinced that she was going to skip crawling altogether when she decided to bust out her new moves. And then the next day when I was cooking in the kitchen, I turned around to find her playing with Bear's water and food bowls... I have a feeling we will be kept very busy in the months to come!

And This is Why I Should Just Wait for Doctor Appointments...

As you may recall, last month I got a little antsy waiting for Elsa's next appointment because I wanted to know how much she had grown. So I tried weighing and measuring her on my own at home. I was fairly certain my measurements were off but I wasn't really sure until we went to her 9 months appointment today. The results of which showed that she either (a) lost almost a pound over the last month, or (b) our scale is not as accurate as I would like to think. Lesson learned is this mama should just wait for the next doctor appointment for her baby's measurements!

It made me nervous that Elsa hadn't changed much in weight since her 6 month appointment. But the doctor assured me that Miss Elsa is growing and developing beautifully. Here were the accurate measurements from today:

Weight: 18 pounds, 14.6 ounces - 59 percentile
Height: 28.25 inches - 70 percentile
Head: 46.5 centimeters - 88 percentile

And here are some adorable pictures I took last week on her monthly birthday!

Attack of the Elsa Monster

While I was trying to take pictures of the Little Miss to document her 9 month birthday, I was attacked by a very cute and very persistent monster...

I have a feeling that it's going to be difficult to get some good pictures of the wiggly worm for quite some time...

Working Out in Style

I recently received another sample share opportunity from Crowdtap (I'm starting to really dig that site!). This time it was for a free pair of compression pants and an activewear top from Old Navy.

I have been a longtime fan of Old Navy's jeans and casual tops. Their jeans fit me better than most out there, coming in a variety of lengths and actual "tall" sizes, which fit better proportionally. But I had never tried their active wear. So, with the aid of my trusty bestie, Nicole, I was off to the active wear section of Old Navy.

Nicole and I were pleasantly surprised by the variety of styles available to us. We both were able to find comfy, yet cute pants and tops that we can sport on the treadmill. And, of course, we had to test them out before we visited the cashier!

I haven't had the chance to put the clothing to a proper test yet (I messed up my knees earlier this week and aren't quite ready to jump back on the treadmill) but here are some features that I'm excited about:

• Pants are actually long enough!
• Pants hold everything in so I don't feel jiggly when jogging
• Thumbholes in shirt so sleeves don't ride up
• Shirt is lightweight so it wont get too hot when I work up a sweat
• Special fabric that pulls moisture away from the body so I hopefully will stay dry!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off to Work I Go...

In case you didn't notice (and I'm sure none of you have!), I just updated my "About Me" section. As you'll see, it states that I'm now a part-time marketer in addition to being a full-time mama. That's right, we've made the difficult decision for me to return back to work.

This is a decision that Carl and I talked about pretty extensively, and while I'm more than a tad bit sad to miss out on some of Elsa's adventures, I know that this is ultimately the best decision for our family. It will give us the opportunity to build our savings so Elsa can go to the college of her dreams (hopefully one that's close to Mama and Dada!), and if so inclined, eventually have the wedding of her dreams (that's if Carl doesn't scare away all of her suitors). Plus, if I'm going to be honest, it will be nice to have some conversations that don't consist of the following words: peepee, poopy, lovey, oopsie, pat-a-cake, no!, and puppy dog (rinse and repeat and you pretty much have my daily speech pattern).

The good thing is that my employer is being flexible, allowing me to work just 20 hours a week - two full days in the office and a half day from home. This leaves me plenty of time for snuggles, hugs and Elsa adventures. And, I know deep down in my heart, that no matter how many hours a mama has to work, she will always be a full-time mommy!