Dear Andie-

Well you are almost a year old now, so I guess I have no excuse for being lazy with these blog posts anymore!! You have changed and grown sooooo much in this last year! I'm going to do a quick recap for you and then I promise I'm going to do much much better!
-So you started sleeping through the night consistently when you were about 6 months old.  What a blessing for me:)
-I weaned you at 9 months, and you hated the bottle so much you wouldn't take it from anyone. I had to buy special ones that were the same shape as your binkie and leave the house and then you would finally take the bottle from daddy.
-Two weeks ago you started to crawl properly, you'd been scooting around from side to side and rolling around the living room for a while before that.  But for a while you wouldn't leave the living room or crawl on the hard wood floors, they were probably a little scary:) but now you are going really fast and pulling yourself up to standing in your crib and on the couches and even the walls.  It is hard to believe that if you are like your sisters, you could potentially be walking in a few weeks!  I think it will take a little longer, but your never know!
-You now have 8 teeth and I think I can even see the buds where you are getting two more soon.  You are a teeth growing machine! I cant believe how many teeth you have! Some babies don't even have 1 tooth before they are one year old.
-You are a good napper still, but I think that you will be doing away with your morning nap soon.  Sometimes when you take a good morning nap, you have a hard time laying down in the afternoon.
-You love to be held and smile, and sing songs.  You just started clapping to the song, "if you are happy and you know it" and it is about the cutest thing ever!
-you finally started to take baby food at about 8 months. I think your main problem with it was that you have a really strong gag reflex, and the texture of the baby food just triggered that.  I cant say that I blame you! and you are still pretty picky though, you will only eat certain fruits and vegetables, and none of the meat or pasta combinations.
-the other night you were really sick, and you just wanted me to hold you, so I cuddled you in my bed until you finally fell asleep at about 4am. I was so tired, but in some ways it was nice, because most times a busy baby your age doesn't want to just sit still and give cuddles, you want to be out adventuring with the big kids. you do love your big brother and sisters, and they are good to play with you and keep you safe since you are putting everything and anything in your mouth right now!!

Well, I love you sweet heart, and I miss you whenever I have to leave you or go somewhere without you!
Love,
Mommy

Dear Andie-
You just turned 3 months old the other day and we finally got a computer so I can start to write to you!
You are such an amazing baby.  Last night, you slept the whole night through! I don't think ive ever had a baby do that before 6 months old.  you were really hungry when you woke up though, and I had to rush after my run to get ready so I could feed you before you got really mad!
I was looking at the pictures from my labor with you and I should write down the story so I don't forget...
So you were due the 27th of December and I was bound and determined that you Not be born on Christmas.  Some people think that might be really neat, but I wanted you to have your own special day.  So we got through Christmas and I was ready for you to come, so I did the Castor oil thing in eggs, to try to start labor on my own so I wouldn't have to go through an induction like I did with Henry.
So my contractions started pretty fast after that, and a couple of hours later we were calling Grandma Smith to come over and watch your siblings so we could head over to the hospital.  By the time we got there, my contractions were really hard, and it was a bummer that my doctor wasn't on call to be there, but they had called the on call doctor to drive over to deliver you.  She got stuck behind an accident, so she had to take the long way around to the hospital, and by the time she got there, I was really ready to push. 
When she got there, she broke my water, and everything went really fast and scary after that.  The amniotic fluid was stained because you had taken your first bowel movement in utero.  And then when I was pushing your heart rate practically stopped, and they almost had to use forcepts to get you out.  I pushed only a couple of times, and the doctor said that the cord was around your neck, but she just had me push through it since you were almost all the way out.
When you came out, you were totally blue and covered with the meconium, and they didn't want you to cry because they didn't want you sucking any of it down into your lungs.  So they rushed you over to the little table and started sucking out the stuff from your lungs, for what seemed like forever.  Everyone kept saying that everything was ok, but is was really hard to believe them since all I wanted was to hear you cry!
Finnaly they got everything out, and they got you to cry and everything turned out ok in the end.i got to hold you, and you were my biggest baby yet, 8 pounds 14 ounces, and 20 inches long. Thank goodness that we have hospitals now days though, and that you were healthy and strong. 
You've been a great baby so far, and I and everyone else in the family loves you so much!

I love you,
Mommy