Naps, teeth, & photoshoots.

It feels like I've been bad about keeping up the blog this month. You may remember me telling you that Amelia freaked out at our last photoshoot back in October. Our re-shoot was today and it went much better! We didn't get photos of her in the Halloween costume {she wasn't having it, I think she knows that Halloween is over} but since we got plenty of our own photos of her in it I'm okay with skipping it.
Mike, our photographer, is going to combine the proofs from the first attempt {there were more good ones than i had guessed} and the re-shoot into one large viewing gallery which I will share with you as soon as i get the link for it.
Amelia has been getting all 4 of her top teeth in at the same time, however, outside of the drive from Reno to Portland she's been handling it really well. I think the drive over the mountains was hurting her ears in addition to cutting those teeth. Just like when the bottom teeth came in she's been pretty mellow - no fever, upset tummy, constant crying, etc. The only difference is that she's a bit more cuddly.
Now that she's almost 10 months old we're starting to see her giving up some of her "baby" behaviors in lieu for some more "toddler" behaviors. She basically re-organized her nap schedule {without my permission} and moved from three a day {9:00am, noon, 3:00pm} to just one maybe two {10:00am & 4:00pm} a day. She's also super mobile these days {without the dogs permission} and is very vocal about her desire to be exploring on the ground versus snuggled up in our arms {sad}. Also, when she goes to bed at night I have spent the last nine months reading her a story or two then rocking her to sleep while nursing or giving her a bottle of expressed milk then gently laying her in her crib with a kiss where she would stay asleep until morning. Well, this whole situation has had a bit of a makeover. She still gets her story or two but she has weened herself off of the breast {not only did she NOT have my permission but i sobbed for two weeks when i had to finally raise my white flag and go to full time bottle which i had not planned or wanted to do until her first birthday} as well as the falling asleep while rocking. I still read her a story or two then rock her until she's calm and quiet but she's awake when i kiss her and place her in the crib, then after the door is shut i hear her talking to herself and she falls asleep after a couple of minutes. Speaking of putting her in the crib, because she's so super long we had to move her crib down to the lowest setting for her safety. Since I'm so short i have to lift myself off of the ground in order to put her down without dropping her the last 8 inches. Cheyenne offered to take over nighttime duty {switching me for bottle duty which is his job} but after the weening situation i refused to give up any more of my "baby time rituals" with any kind of grace.
In short, my baby is growing up at warp speed and will be an official toddler in just 70 days {holy mother of god!} and I've been struggling to accept and embrace it but I am determined to at least try!