The Tooth Fairy

Instead of taking away teeth, the Tooth Fairy came to the Schmitt household and brought a new tooth to Delia. That's right, Delia got her first tooth today!!!! She's been teething for what seems like forever so it's about time. No photographic evidence yet, but it's on the bottom. She's been pretty cranky this afternoon and took a lousy nap, so I thought she might be catching the cold that JGray, John and I have had. When she bit down on my hand, there was a definite "ouch" factor, and sure enough, Delia has a tooth!!!

We promise to get a picture of it when it's actually visible :-)

Trip to NYC

Last weekend, I flew to NYC to visit my best friend Sarah and her 2 month old daughter Bea. John was on Daddy duty and since I didn't get any frantic calls in the middle of the night, I think it was a success :-) Sarah came to Richmond to help after both of our children were born, so I was thrilled to be able to return the favor.

Bea is a beautiful little girl and she reminds me a lot of John Grayson when he was a baby. She's opinionated and a little demanding from time to time, but very cute and snuggly. I can't wait until John Grayson and Delia get to meet Baby Bea!

Here are few pictures from my girls' weekend:

Nine Months Old!

Delia is nine months old! Three-quarters of a year. So close to being one. At this point last year, I was in the third trimester of my pregnancy, getting bigger by the day. So much has changed in a year! Delia continues to be a ray of sunshine in our home. She loves to laugh, give hugs and kisses, and desperately wants to be John Grayson's playmate. We are so blessed to have her in our lives.

At nine months, Delia:

• Is our little mischief maker. If there is something that Delia shouldn't be into, then that's what she heads towards. This is especially accurate for anything that "belongs" to John Grayson. She can't help but want to touch his toys. We're starting to see some sibling rivalry now, but hopefully it's only temporary. It's obvious that Delia adores her big brother, and we're hoping that John Grayson will feel the same way, some day.
  
• Loves to dance and has dance moves that make her daddy blush! John is already worried about school dances. She is definitely signing up for Cotillion!
• Eats mostly solid food. Only very rarely does Delia have "baby" food. Her diet consists of bagels, bananas, waffles, pears, peaches, beans, puffs, Cheerios, yogurt.
• Drinks only formula now. She stopped nursing right around 8 months so she's a formula and bottle baby now. She seems unfazed by it and loves being able to eat without having to miss the action.
• Still has a toothless grin. That's right, no teeth yet. Maybe this month...
  
• She's not walking yet, but it may be soon. She pulls up on anything and everything, but as soon as she does, she begins to bounce. Walking is hard when you're not standing still!
• Has become quite the talker. She consistently says, "Mom", "Da Da" and "Ba Ba" (for John Grayson). It also sounds like she's trying to repeat a lot of what we're saying, so we think it's just a matter of time before she's having conversations with us.
• Happy does not begin to describe Miss Delia. She's thrilled to be anywhere, doing anything. She entertains herself, for a little while, but loves to know that Mommy or Daddy are watching. She loves to laugh, and it's ridiculously easy to make her smile and giggle.

Here are some pictures of Delia at nine months:

Delia loves wearing John Grayson's sunglasses!

Posing for the camera during music class

72 Hours in Naperville

John Grayson and I took a quick trip to Naperville recently to visit his new cousin Jacob. On Saturday we had the chance to head over to Uncle Andy and Auntie Em's house to visit with him.

John Grayson could not have been more gentle and nice to his new cousin. He had the opportunity to hold him and play with him; seeing that Jacob couldn't play back at this point he held his attention for maybe 3 minutes. When asked what he thought of his new cousin, JGray responded by saying, "He smells like potatoes". Seeing that we in the Schmitt household hold potatoes with high regard, that is certainly a compliment.

Given the opportunity to spoil their Grandson the rest of the visit, Grandma and Grandpa Schmitt took full advantage. They were nice enough to let me sleep in on Sunday morning; when I woke up I came out to see my son with a lollipop in his mouth at 8:00 in the morning. I don't remember getting lollipops at that hour when I was growing up, I guess the rules completely change for parenting vs. grandparenting.

On Sunday afternoon we headed over to the Danada Fall Festival. John Grayson had a great time there. For the first time at one of these festival type things he actually wanted to get his face painted.

In case it isn't entirely clear from the picture, that is an orange horse with white eyes and a sparkling mane (all his requests). While seeing all the horses was a lot of fun, the highlight of the day was the straw play area.
Yup, it is exactly as it sounds, just a big area covered in straw. I never thought that it would be that entertaining, but he spent nearly a half hour playing with, diving in, throwing, burying him self in, straw. All in all a successful festival.

At O'Hare airport as we were heading to our plane ride home, we came upon an amazing discovery. The Field Museum placed an entire dinosaur fossil in the United terminal.
It seems the only time that I can ever get him to pose for a picture is with some sort of dinosaur fossil. It was kind of cool to see the people rushing by in the airport seemingly noticing this dinosaur for the first time because John Grayson was making such a big deal about it.

To The River

While John and John Grayson were in Naperville meeting Cousin Jacob, Delia and I went to the river with Oli, Courtney and their families. Oli's family owns a river house on the Rappahannock River and she was kind enough to invite us down for the weekend. Delia and I packed up on Saturday morning and headed out not too long after the boys left for the airport. Luckily Delia slept for most of the car ride (only 1.5 hours) and was her happy self when we arrived. She had fun playing with her new friends Elsa (Oli's daughter) and Will (Courtney's son). This is the first time they've seen each other since they've become interactive little people. The kids didn't play together but did share some toys. Oli, Courtney and I were laughing at how crazy our Girls' weekends are going to be in the future when all of the kids are running around!

Not surprisingly, Delia was not a good sleeper on Saturday night. I think it was a combination of being in a new room and having to share it with me (this was the first time I've shared a room with her since the first night home from the hospital!). Delia spent almost 2 hours after I wanted to go to bed trying to "talk" to me from the Pack n Play. She slept 1-5am in her bed, 5-6am on my chest and then back in her bed but with a lot of toys 6:30-8am. Needless to say, I was ready to sleep in my bed on Sunday night :-)

It was so wonderful to see my friends and their beautiful children. I hope this is the first of many weekends together! Hopefully next time the boys can come too and everybody will sleep better!

Delia and Allison with Courtney and Will

Delia, Allison, Elsa, Oli, Will and Courtney

Our Growing Girl

I took Delia in for her 9 month check up today. It's a couple of weeks early, but I needed a Monday morning so JGray wouldn't have to come with me. Delia was great and didn't throw too much of a fit during her 2 shots and finger prick. She gave me a bit of a scare on the way home though when I realized that the band aid was in her mouth. That's my crazy girl :-)

At (not quite) 9 months, Delia is:
Weight - 20 lbs (75th percentile)
Height - 28 in (75th percentile)

Needless to say, we have a big girl. I guess there won't be any question as to if we can flip her car seat at 12 months.