We are just days away from Holland’s first birthday and so much has happened since I last blogged. In my last post, Holland had learned how to sit up by herself. Now she is crawling and pulling up on everything! She sidesteps while holding onto things and loves to walk with me holding her hands. She’s so close to independently walking and loves to move!

I originally planned to blog every 2 months, but I took a huge gap and I honestly think it’s because the fog I was in that was postpartum depression started to lift. I’ve found myself having much more fun and just feeling happy with life lately. For the first 6 months of Holland’s life, I was home with her full time and it was a huge change and an isolating way of life. I am thankful that I had the time off to adjust as a mom, but it wasn’t the best situation for me to be in. I’m glad I captured the memories from the early months and I do miss how tiny Holland was at times, but these past few months have been much more fun for me.

The last few months have been fun for Holland too! She is so giggly now and loves to clap, talk, and squeal! Unfortunately with me not blogging often, I have missed recording a few milestones. I’ll try to add them in here for the past months.

7 Months

Holland went on her first hike in the baby carrier on her 7-month birthday. We were very worried about how it would go and picked a really short and easy hike. It was completely fine and she loved the carrier. We probably could have started hiking earlier had we not been so scared. We ended up going on several hikes over the summer and fall enjoying the Colorado mountains.

We also visited my family in Breckenridge for a week. This was a difficult transition for Holland. She was out of sorts being in a different house, but we got through it. We took her on a hike and on strolls around town. Thankfully, my youngest cousin loved watching Holland and was a huge help to us during the trip!

One thing especially cute about 7-months was all of Holland’s sounds. Reed and I told others that she likes to talk, but we realized that Holland is pretty shy around new people and she really just talks a lot to us! I didn’t want to upload my videos of her online because she’s in the bathtub, but goodness she was so sweet with all of her talking to me.

8 Months

Our next hike took us to the Chicago Lakes Trail in the Mount Evans Wilderness. There are so many trails I want to check out near this location. Luckily, Holland once again enjoyed the experience. She was upset in the car before the hike and after our adventure, she couldn’t stop talking and was in the best mood. She really thrives when she gets out of the house!

We took Holland to Pearl Street in Boulder several times over the summer to let her people watch. The Pearl Street area is one of my favorite places to go for an afternoon outing. Holland loved seeing all of the street performers and we found delicious gelato, pizza, and a really nice Italian restaurant.

This month was particularly sad for me because I lost my bunny Ike after having him for 10 years. I was having a hard time and we did end up getting a new bunny. I hope Holland likes having a bunny growing up. The new bunny is named Mochi, and he’s a Netherland Dwarf rabbit which is even smaller than Ike who was a Mini Rex.

9 Months

Holland wasn’t crawling yet at her 9-month appointment, but she sharted crawling about a week and a half afterward. She completely skipped bear-crawling, which I was expecting her to do first so I was a little concerned that I hadn’t seen this from her yet. I guess I didn’t need to worry! Crawling was a liberating milestone for both of us because Holland was mentally was wanting to be mobile far before she was able to move. It was draining for me because she would get frustrated at her inability to move and was very demanding. Now, she can follow me from room to room and it’s awesome!

9-months was a challenging month for us because Holland got sick for the first time. She had a low-grade fever but was very congested and coughing. One night she couldn’t sleep because she could barely breathe. We put her in bed with us and I stayed up the entire night feeling bad for her and sad that I couldn’t fix it. We all ended up catching the illness so it was a struggle to do daily tasks. Thankfully, my mom flew up and gave us some relief. It was rough.

Once her sickness has lessened, we decided to get out of the house and drove to St. Mary’s Glacier. This was a neat experience for me because I visited the glacier for the first time the year before when I was about 21 weeks pregnant. This time, we had better weather and we were able to have a picnic. We also hiked up to the glacier and enjoyed the amazing views from all directions.

10 Months

The end of this month is when Holland really started to pull herself up. It was so sweet and exciting for us to witness! We traveled on our annual leaf-peeping trip to the mountains and chose Breckenridge at our place to see the changing aspens. Holland loved playing with the leaves and we all had a great dinner in town with the pleasant fall weather.

10 months also marked Holland’s first trip to a pumpkin patch! She saw farm animals for the first time and seemed to like the ponies. Reed put her in the baby carrier while we picked pumpkins. We’ve picked our own pumpkins each year since we moved to Colorado with the exception of 2020 because of COVID restrictions. I’m hoping pumpkin picking can continue as a fun family tradition!

11 Months

We had a fun cake smash photoshoot just before Holland’s 11-month birthday. I scheduled it a little early because October can often bring the first snowfall for us in Colorado. It worked out great to have an outdoor shoot while it was still fairly warm and all the fall colors were present.

Reed turned 31 on October 9th and we celebrated by making pumpkin bread. I caught Holland’s first time trying pumpkin bread on video and she loved the kick of spices. She loves trying all types of foods and is a great eater. I actually think eating might be her favorite activity. Currently, her favorite foods are raspberries and yogurt. She also eats lots of scrambled eggs, tortillas, beans, broccoli, and cheerios.

This month has been nice because Holland has almost completely stopped wanting bottles. I have to figure out how to transition her to milk. She has already stopped taking afternoon and night bottles and now she has started rejecting her morning bottle. Now I am paying attention to her water intake and trying to keep her hydrated.

The last first major holiday for Holland was Halloween! For her first Halloween, Holland was a chick, Reed was a chicken, and I was a farmer. I am so excited to plan family Halloween costumes for as long as I can! This Halloween we didn’t trick or treat, but Holland participated in her Preschool’s parade where all the babies and toddlers got to display their costumes. It gave me some great ideas for next year.

The First Year

I love my sweet family and how we’ve grown over this past year. Sometimes I find myself wondering how we can have so much fun just hanging out at home. I used to travel a lot and plan out extensive trips. I loved traveling to other countries and I hope to do this again someday, but for now, I am just enjoying a slower pace with my family. I’ve seen how much Holland has changed in this past year and I don’t want to miss any of it. I’ve felt very low at times, but I have come out of it and have felt more joy than I ever have before through experiencing life with my daughter. I feel like I got the greatest gift of all when Holland arrived into our family.

 

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