{make a wish}

Handmade felt birthday cake from Grandma CC

So this is a bit late but it's better than never!  Miss Pepper is 1 year old and showing more and more of her personality every day.  Her 1st b-day was wonderful,  thank you everyone who was apart of it!  Honestly,  I'm having withdrawals from the leftover cake!  It was to-die-for, seriously!  Now for some updates on our little angel on earth :-)

• She started walking literally on her 1st Birthday,  and hasn't stopped since!  
• When she walks,  she prefers to be holding something... 3 times her size.  I think she likes the challenge.  This might be a big pillow, watering can, football, etc.
• She has discovered dropping things behind her head.  I don't know why she's so amused by this,  but she will grab objects and drop them behind her head like it's second nature... then goes about her business.
• She not only says "dada" and "mama" but "uh oh"... so cute!
• She puts herself to work,  literally.  This includes taking clothes out of the clothes hamper and putting them back in,  or taking all her toys and throwing them in the bathtub.  
• She still loves to cuddle.
• Currently the funniest thing to date is her getting to "walk" Dakota.  She holds the leash and belly laughs the whole time,  especially when she drops it on the ground.  I have never heard this girl laugh so hard!
• Her highlight of the day is taking a wagon ride around the lake with cousin Jackson.  
• She is slightly obsessed with her headbands.  She will point to them for me to put one on her then wear it the entire day.  I think she figures thats what girls are suppose to do,  so she wants to do it!
• She loves to play outside,  and stands at the door crying until we go!
• She has stolen our hearts and won't give them back!  Love you my precious 1 year old!

We are excited about this weather,  and can't wait to get some fall-time activities on the way!  This includes going to the pumpkin patch and zoo... and lots and lots of pictures of course.  Stay Tuned!

{11 months}

This is Miss Pepper Mae's 11 month post... on time!  I can't believe she will be a year in one month.   Here are a few things we discovered about Pepper Mae this past month:

• She has discovered a new hobby... "wallowing".  We push the ottoman up to the sectional and put her on the couch,  and she goes to town,  just rolling around without a care in the world.  This will occupy her at least 30 minutes,  which is amazing for her age. 
• She has started hugging... for real.  I will be holding her and all of the sudden she will wrap both her arms around me and squeeze as hard as her little muscles will let her,  all along with the sound of her straining she is trying to hard.  So sweet.
• She has started mimicking us... coughing, stretching, you name it.
• She is still pretty weary about "strangers", so if you say something to her expect her to burst out in tears.  She lives by the motto you can look but you can't touch.
• She has discovered the drain in the tub... and how to open it.  I stick her in the tub and 3 minutes later she's let all the water out.
• You can tell she knows what your saying,  it's so crazy.  If I say let's read a book,  she goes and gets a book.  Babies catch on way sooner than most people think they do.
• It's nearly impossible to change her diaper at this point.  If you can change a moving object that refuses to lay on it's back... call me.  This girl has more interesting things on her agenda!
• The squeaking of the front door really freaks her out... I have no idea why.  One day I spent 15 minutes with her moving it back and forth showing her it was okay,  and it didn't help.
• Yes, we got her ears pierced...  and they are blingin'. {did I just say that?}
• She crawls around with "foe" pacifiers in her mouth.  One day it was the plastic syringe we give her her Zantac with,  and another day it was a little teething "toothbrush" with a handle.  We took the poor thing's pacifier away at 3 months so she has to make do. {see picture above}
• She still has the sweet curls on the back of her head... love love love her.

{ten months... and some change}

neck tickle and fell asleep on her daily evening walk

love her.

momma got a haircut... finally!

I'm a little late on this post but things have been quite crazy around the Ustad house!  We have been dealing in ear infections galore {with antibiotics that don't work}, along with, on my end, a crazy amount of photo sessions,  editing and packaging... and some stupid things like locking our baby in the car.  But that's not what this post is about... it's about Miss Pepper Mae being 10 months {well... 10 and 1/2 now} and what we have learned about her so far:

• She is completely obsessed with her "lamby" at this point.  She won't go to sleep without it and wakes up looking for it in the middle of the night.
• She has started to refuse all of my pureed food!  I need to donate the frozen cubes or something b/c this girl wants real food she can pick up herself.  We haven't introduced meats yet,  but everything else is game!  
• Self weaned herself off morning nap... 2 months early.  What can I say, she's never been one to like naps!
• She LIVES for her neck getting tickled.  We tickle her next while she's eating, playing, and while we are rocking her to sleep.  She will be sitting there and all of the sudden throw her head back for you to tickle her.  Over, and over, and over again.
• She walks on her walker like a freak, the other day she went around my moms pushing Jackson in his red/yellow fisher price car... he was enjoying every minute of the luxury!
• Her most current favorite book is Brown Bear, Brown Bear... she wakes up from her nap and immediately points at it from her crib wanting me to read it to her.
• She points at EVERYTHING.  
• She loves patty cake and grabs your hands and claps them for you.

{nine months}

getting into everything

I can't believe we've had Pepper Mae almost as long as I was pregnant with her.  Time definately does fly.  This is a week late or so,  but here is some of what we know about Pepper Mae in the first nine months of her life:

- Most recently,  she has reveled a great fear {not kidding} of the "I Love Lucy" collector barbies.  Like,  she's completely and utterly terrified.  She acts like it could come alive at an moment.  It's funny but she's so scared you can't laugh about it,  it's so pitiful!

-She has perfected "dada"... but to no avail has she said "mama" yet.

-She is still very affectionate,  and loves giving kisses to everyone.  Jackson was getting his diaper changed the other day and she crawled up and gave him two big whoppers on the forehead.  So sweet.  She has also started showing affection by kissing more specifically... toes.  

-There is something about the car that makes her go poo every time we set foot in it.  I don't know what it is about the car,  but it's hilarious.  It might be because she has nothing better to do so she figures she might as well.  It has become a routine to bring a change of clothes every time we go somewhere,  knowing she is going to have a blow out.  

-She is pulling up on everything!  She will pull up and all of the sudden just let go and stand there for a few seconds without holding onto anything.  I think she's a little dare devil!

-She LOVES dogs.  Big and small... all the way from her 2 lb. yorkie to my sister's 50 lb German Shepherd.  She just crawls around with her mouth wide open trying to get to them to kiss them.

-She has learned the art of showing her charm to get what she wants.  When I'm washing dishes and she wants me to pick her up,  she crawls over and lays big ones on my legs until I pick her up.

-She's in the "pterodactyl" stage,  and you can hear this girl coming from a mile away.  

-The wind blowing on her face makes her smile.

-At her nine month appointment she was above average on height, and below average in weight.

-She is picking up finger foods and putting them in her mouth, such as puffs and little pieces of kiwi.

-She is still the clone of her daddy in every way.

{Pibb or Pepper?}

Well,  Miss Pepper Mae is 8 months old... where has the time gone!  Everyone tells you it will go fast,  and I'm here to tell you it sure does.  

If your wondering where all the Easter pictures are... well,  we don't have any!  Three Easter dresses and NO pictures to prove it.  Pepper woke up with a fever Easter Sunday morning and after we got home from church it had escalated and we ended up doing nothing... but staying at home and caring for her!  She was quite lethargic and obviously didn't feel good at all.  The fever lasted about 3 days then transformed into an awful cold that she is starting to slowly get over.  But alas,  we will get those pictures... this week!  I am determined to get pictures of her with her Easter basket, so stay tuned!

Time for a quick update on what we have learned about Pepper Mae in the last month:

--  She is what we call a "wild woman".  I don't know if all babies are like this,  but she gets really hyper and really excited... really quick.  You know it's hit her when she's flailing all her limbs with her mouth wide open as fast as she can.

--  She loves to practice "crawling" by putting her front two arms on our legs and pulling herself up on her knees,  then swaying back and forth.  Why doesn't she do this on the floor?  I have no idea... she must feel safer about it by using our legs as a crutch!

--She has TWO front bottom teeth coming in now... very slowly but very surly,  and enough drool to prove it.

--She does this thing where when she gets excited or wants to get your attention she raises her arms into the air and just  h - o - l - d - s  them there,  daintily rubbing her fingers together.  { see middle picture }

--She is increasingly become scared of "older" people.  When we go on our daily walks if we encounter anyone with a hint of "old" {which it's hard not too considering Greystone Farms might as well be a retirement community} she immediately starts crying if they even dare look at her.  I don't know if it's there voice,  white hair, beards, etc... but she flat out doesn't approve of them acknowledging her.  This poor lady smiled at her behind us in the check out line of Whole Foods the other day and Miss Pepper Mae got this awful look on her face and started wailing.  

Thats all I can come up with for now!  Hope everyone has a great coming up week!

updates {and probably more than you care to know}

So, our little pepper Mae is 7 month old now! Who knew keeping a family blog and on top of that a photo blog would be so difficult. If you read this, sorry for the lack of updates! I'm going to try to get back in the groove of it.

Honestly, I wish I had kept up with this because I don't remember the past 3 months! I guess the most important milestone (in my opinion) is her recently starting sleeping through the night. For a while there she was getting up around 4am every night to eat then going back to sleep until 8am. Joe and I went through a dilemma for a bit on weather to "let her cry", and after 3 days of torture and her never letting up, we decided it wasn't for her and haven't let her cry since. Don't get me wrong, it's right for some babies and works well, but not for this child! I feel like the motherly instinct to go in when a baby cries is there for a reason. Anyways, I knew she would eventually stop wanting the 4am feeding, and she did! Also, she takes 2 awesome naps a day now and we are in heaven. If only Joe and I could go to bed earlier we would be doing good!

Here are some other notable things Pepper Mae does:

-- sits up without any support

-- she's a pro and rolling from her back to her stomach. This was all practiced at night in her crib... never during the day. She's a peculiar little thing. But apparently, she has been wanting to sleep on her stomach since about 4 months and the poor thing just couldn't get on it. She sleeps on her stomach all night now... like a rock!

-- she's eating pears, sweet potatoes, and oatmeal. We are trying other foods but she is reluctant. (homemade by her mommma!)

-- she says "baba..." and two days ago started to say "dada...".

--she does this funny thing when she gets excited. She opens her mouth and breaths in and out really fast over and over. It's hilarious. My sister has a video... maybe one day she will post it!

--she used to kinda just shake things that make noise, and recently she has learned to, what I call, "shake the crap" out of things, haha! It's also very amusing.

--her favorite toy is Dakota... whom has to this day rarely acknowledges her (only when Pepper Mae has spit up on her shirt, Dakota is there in a second... gross!)

--she has recently started "practicing" getting up on her knees while she is sleeping. Again, so peculiar. She gets up on her knees and sleeps that way all night but doesn't do it during the day in front of anyone!

-- this is my favorite thing,  she has started openly giving "kisses".  One day I was holding her and she turned her head,  looked me straight in the eyes,  and laid a big one on me!  Then a few days later my mom was holding her and she laid one on her cheek a couple times in a row.  Now she pretty much gives them openly when she wants to spread the love.  I guess she figures we have been kissing her for 7 months now so she has decided to pitch in.  SO SWEET!

--lastly, she is getting a bottom tooth in! This morning Joe noticed a little white pointy thing on her gum, and it is a tooth...so exciting!

We have been preparing for Easter for months and it's still a few weeks away.  She has at least 3 options for easter outfits,  and an Easter basket with a soon to be engraved liner reading "Pepper Mae" in teal.  I also have plans to grow some Wheat grass in containers and use real dyed hollowed out egg shells to put candy in (not for her,  of course!).  Her and Jackson also have been coordinated for Easter pictures (big surprise!) ha.  I'm sure I will post those when we take them.

Thats really all I can think of for right now,  plus the Teen Mom 2 reunion is recording and of course I can't miss that!  More soon!  

{this and that}

Finally! Some time to work on a family blog. Things have been quite crazy since the arrival of our little Pepper Mae. I'd love to use this blog to post pictures and updates on our family and the rapid changes of our first baby. I promise, no political outbursts this time! (for those of you who might have read my last blog)

Here is a recap of what has been happening in the first few months of Pepper Mae's arrival. Let me start at the beginning... (well, kinda) the delivery. My water broke on a Sunday afternoon right after Joe got to work (in Hoover). Needless to say I freaked out and called my whole family, which considering we live a street over from my mom and grandmother, they were here in seconds. This is the picture Joe got when he got home from the office to take me to the hospital: 1. My grandmother frantically vacuuming the hardwoods. 2. My sister going through my closet looking for me underwear, but to my prevail brings me bathing suit bottoms. 3. Me, holding a towel under my crotch, in the nursery picking out baby socks to bring to the hospital. Shortly after this scene, my contractions started so off to the hospital we went! 4 hours, an epidural, and 3 pushes later, Pepper Mae was here! Woah. This is all I can muster up today.

Here is what I have learned about Pepper Mae in the past 3 months of her life:

1. She most definitely has a "type a" personality.

2. She is addicted to her pacifier like it's a drug.

3. She LOVES to talk to EVERYTHING (or "coo" I should say)

4. When sleeping, she has to have the tips of her fingers on her left hand daintily touching the pacifier in her mouth. When her arm starts to fall, she jerks it up over and over again until she's too asleep to notice. {modified: we strap her arms down wrapped like an ace bandage, problem solved.}

5. Bath-time is her favorite time of the day.

6. She has the biggest smile I've ever seen on a baby, and it makes me want to cry I love her so much.

Here is what I have learned about being a new mother:

1. The Herman Miller Eames rocker is not very comfortable for late night feedings, but it's oh so pretty.

2. Sleep is a thing of the past. (duh)

3. The "schedule" has been a work in progress, but not an exact science.