Heidi - 8 Months

Heidi, today you are 8 months old!

What all have you been up to?

• You are wearing 6-12 month, 9 month, and occasionally 6 month clothes.
• You are still breastfeeding, you hate jarred baby food and you love "real" food. Peas seem to be a big favorite :)
• Naps are still sporadic ranging from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Night time is still a bit of a hard time and you like to snuggle up with mama or wake daddy you pulling something on his face. We are still working on getting you back into your crib, but I know you will get back into your room when the time is right for you.
• Riding in the car is much better. I cannot remember the last time you screamed your head off. Hopefully I am not jinxing myself. You love to play with your toy keys or cell phone while we're on a trip.
• Anytime we have food you want it and stare at it longingly.
• You love to suck on mama's tummy and blow raspberries on it. I think you want to put everything you see or touch in your mouth. I remember how your hands were constantly in your mouth and now its everything you touch goes straight into your mouth!
• You are crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything - you are constantly on the move trying to grab something or on some sort of adventure.
• You are trying to let go and stand without holding onto anything. I think in about a month you will be standing on your own. You love to walk around the ottoman or from toy to toy when they are side by side.
• You love to say "blah, blah, blah" and "mama" which sometimes sounds like "mum".
• You are such a happy baby and you have the prettiest smiles I have ever seen. You smile with your eyes, mouth, and whole body. When you laugh you have started snorting a little.
• Your hair is getting so much thicker and its a light brown/blonde color with a good texture.
• Your eyes are the more gorgeous shade of blue. You know how people photoshop babies eyes to be so boldly blue? Well, yours are like that naturally - I love it!!

Date Night!

John and I made a new year's resolution to have a date night at least once a month. We missed January, but last night we had our February date night. It is so important to make time for your spouse and your marriage. John and I have been together for almost 10 years and married for almost 4 of those and there is no way that we would be able to last (happily) without putting forth time and energy into our relationship. We are told to keep God first in our lives and second is our spouse. Right now John and I have had so much focus, time, and energy put towards Heidi - which is totally natural! We needed time, outside of the house without little Heidi, to hang out. I think that sometimes marriages can end up staying together just because of the kids if they do not put effort into their relationship. Taking the time to continue to grow with each other, instead of growing in different directions.

Anyways - now to the fun date stuff :) We went downtown and just walked around looking for a place to eat that we have never been to before. The walk led us around City Market, Broughton Street, and then we ventured to River Street where we ended up going to Huey's. At first I began to regret the decision when the hostess looked at us like we were crazy and didn't say a word. She just kind of stared at us. Finally the hostess asked "2?" and we told her yes. She looked really annoyed, but then she grabbed some menus and then led us into the restaurant. We were seated next to the window which has a wonderful view of the Westin, River Street, and the Savannah River. I know the view upstairs (if you were at Tubby's) would have been even better, but it was chilly out and being indoors was perfect! The inside of the restaurant was great and our server came to ask our drink order - sweet tea for John and for me? Water of course :) Later the hostess asked if we had been helped - she had seemed to turn a friendlier leaf and I gave her a point :) Not that anyone is asking my opinion or that anyone besides John knows my giving and taking away of points, but regardless, one of the points I took away I gave back to her :)

We ordered an appetizer and our meals. Everything was delicious! Seriously. Salads and cornbread are served with each meal. I opted out of the salad and ordered cheese grits instead. Usually I am not a fan of cornbread - its just so dry - but I LOVED this cornbread. It tasted like the Jiffy Muffin mix. Maybe it was, either way it was yummy. Our server was fantastic, unfortunately I cannot remember her name, but she was wonderful - kept John's drink full the entire time! John drinks so much when we're out to eat and when a server can stay on top of his refills we know they are a good one! We took pictures (which are below and taken with my phone) and I know people probably thought we were tourists, but oh well! So, if you are in Savannah and looking for a place to eat downtown try Huey's!

Jazzy Wings

Cornbread

John's - Crabmeat and Shrimp Augratin

(topped with cheddar and baked)

and his side was fried okra

Kimberly's - Fresh wild GA shrimp

french fries as a side

There were a ton of shrimp! It looks like a lot

of FF, but there was a mound of shrimp underneath.

Cheese grits

(my other side)

After dinner we stopped in the devil's store (not really, but for me right now!!) River Street Sweets. So yummy. We bought a couple of little desserts to take home. You must stop at this place if you are on River Street! There are a couple that you can go to - either one will work!!

Cry or No?

A couple of weeks ago I posted my status on Facebook as this:

"would like to know all of your opinions (without anyone fighting!!) crying it out - good or bad? THANKS!"

The response was incredible! About 60 total with either comments, messages, or phone calls. After reading everyone's responses and listening to my friends I decided to just to what felt right for John and I. You might remember my post about how I wanted to jump off a cliff because of Heidi screaming each day after I picked her up from my parents' house. Which, by the way, is almost non-existent at the moment - yay Heidi (and mama!!). SO, when I wrote the post about crying it out or not it was around the same time as the wanting to jump off a cliff and I decided I really could not sanely take all that crying. I would probably want to stick my head in the oven. Basically Heidi only will cry when she is placed in her crib to sleep - so we're co-sleeping for now. I know, gasp, and all of you saying, "she's going to be in your bed forever" and blah blah. No, she won't. I do not recall sleeping in my parents' bed (ever actually) when I was 18, do you? She goes to bed easily and it works. What's the harm in treating Heidi like a baby? She is a baby and all she wants is love and to be close to her mom.

Now, in no way am I saying that my way of doing things is better than how you are doing things for your family. There are so many ways to do things and there is not one set right or wrong way to do things, but I know that I am doing things the way that works for us and Heidi. Eventually she will be back in the crib, but for now she sleeps with us :) Heidi is going through a lot right now - she has had three teeth coming in right after the other without a break, growing up so much, and needing a lot of extra energy for all her crawling, pulling up, and trying to walk!

My Day - Continued

I didn't know the videos linked from Facebook would not show up...here is one of them:

Untitled from Kimberly Henninger on Vimeo.

My day

2 Years - late

No, I didn't forget. You never forget. Even though my ears are filled with the most joyous laughter and new word developing sounds; I still remember the day there was no sound. Its as clear as if it happened 10 minutes ago - hard to believe it was 2 years ago on January 16th. Some nights I am haunted by the silence. The only sound being my tears and my fight to be strong. In the day time during day dreams I have flashbacks of the soft little bundle I held that laid there unmoving. Still to this day I wonder what would have happened had they performed an ultrasound the week before. I should have been more insistent.

There is such a conflict of emotions. Hudson and Heidi were both born on the 16th of their birth months. When we celebrate a new month with Heidi its hard not to think how old Hudson would be. With each new milestone or development we celebrate with Heidi, its a constant reminder of what we didn't get to celebrate with him. Everything seems so bittersweet, yet I am able to separate the two emotions. Somehow it all works. I am still waiting for the "one day" to happen. You know the "one day" when it won't sting so bad when people say certain things. I am waiting for the "one day" when it will be easier to be happy for what others have rather than be sad about what I have lost.