Well, it looks like I haven’t put new photos on in 2 weeks! Sorry. I guess we’ve been busy. Elliot sure has!

On Thursday the 14th, she suddenly learned to push herself into a sitting position when laying on her belly! It was after dinner one night when we were watching her play. Now she does it constantly - including when it’s naptime! Usually she will start to learn something & it will take her a while to achieve & begin to do it all the time. Not with this new skill!

And boy does she want to crawl! She gets on her hands & knees a lot & rocks forward, but doesn’t really go anywhere. (But she manages to get where she wants by rolling around, and then sitting back up!) When deciding to try to crawl or sit up, she gets on all fours, with her butt straight up in the air! I’ve been trying to get a photo or video of it. I came close with one photo today.

And when she sits on the Clifford rolling toy, she can push herself forward a bit with her feet. She will sit on the toy for quite a while!

Yes, she’s getting active. And she’s getting too big for some of the “baby” things - like the playpen and jumperoo. Oh, and she’s decided she’s too big to be fed anymore, too. She eats quite well with foods that she can feed herself, but only lets us feed her spaghetti. And if we pretend to “share” her yogurt, she’ll let us feed that to her, too.

Six weeks from now she will be a YEAR old. A whole year has just about gone by. That’s amazing.

I’ll try to get as many photos on that I can before we head to Paducah. Enjoy!

May 8 - Enjoying a cranberry-orange muffin. She won’t eat it if I year it up for her first! May 10 : Mother’s Day - we took a few photos at the river park in the afternoon .. And chased some geese while we were there. J May 11 - Oatmeal face!! May 11 - This is her Birthday “Smurfday” shirt! May 11 - A new favorite pass-time is cleaning out the toy bins in her bedroom. May 11 - Sleeping at night, with the glow of the Rainforest soother on her face. :) May 14 - playing in her bedroom for quite a long time one day. One thing she likes to get her hands on is the Baby-Proofing boxes of supplies! Those need to go in use very soon… May 14 - Riding the elephant rocker in her nursery… May 14 - She’s sticking her tongue out this time… May 14 - Reading One Fish with Daddy before bedtime May 15 - Matching Clifford in her beautiful red dress from Granny May 16 - The Seuss Collection (except we forgot Hop on Pop, as he was in our room). She’s wearing the Horton shirt, too - which really does fit, but it looks in the photo like it doesn’t (it’s a size 6 months, but it’s boys so it fits still!) May 16 - A day-and-a-half after learning to push herself into a sitting position: She was supposed to be napping & we suddenly heard music coming from her room. Russ went to investigate & hollered at me to come quick…naturally I grabbed the camera. She was sitting up & turning the bird mobile on. The button for this is not easy to find like the Rainforest Soother. We actually just recently bought that bird mobile because she saw it & just loved it. The birds actually flap their wings & “fly” in circles! (She happened to be naked this one time when napping. Oh well.) May 17 - This is an outfit I’m “making” for her. The shirt was too short, and I saw on the internet how to make them “styling” and longer. I was also planning to add a lace skirt to it to make it a dress. I will probably do that with a different shirt because I like this bright/cheery outfit the way it is. J May 17 - eating a Gerber “Wagon Wheel.” For some reason, she has started cramming the whole thing in her mouth at once (they dissolve, so it’s OK). This is her being goofy. May 19 - Her new (seemingly) favorite food is frozen waffles. Easy for me and yummy for her. Can’t tear them into pieces though - she won’t eat the pieces! But she will devour an entire waffle. May 19 - a baby bird on the deck. The “mama bird” feeds her baby on the deck rail! I was trying to catch a photo of that. It sits there & opens its mouth real big; she returns with food & feeds him. It’s so cute to watch! May 22 - helping me clean dust bunnies under the office futon…

10 Months / Tooth #2 / Stories

Wow, there is a ton of photos to add this time - she's just been way too cute lately!

So, for starters, she is now 10 months old (and 5 days)! Wow. And I apparently measured her wrong last month b/c we worked together to measure her this time and she is 29" now (I said she was 30" last month). She is about 22.5 pounds (last month I weighed her many times at 24 pounds). That puts her close to the 95% in height & about 75 or 80% in weight.

And on Tuesday the 5th, Russ spotted tooth #2! It's on top, right above her bottom one. She doesn't like us to poke in her mouth, so we hadn't seen it until it popped through! One on top, one on bottom...time for a Happy Meal, right?? :)

On her 10-Month-"Birthday," we gave her the LeapFrog play table so she can stand up & play. She loves it. SHe can hit the buttons to make it play music, or sing the alphabet, etc. And I think she sings along with it sometimes. When she finally gets tired of standing, she may sit on a pillow or the big horse & keep playing with the table.

When Russ comes home from work, she laughs & bounces. When he gets close enough, she lunges for him! When he puts her back down to change clothes or something, she cries. She really likes him. ;)

There are lots of photos below, and 2 "stories." Hope you enjoy!

May 1 - Cute outfit from Aunt Jan & Uncle John. She passes most of her time playing on the quilt in the floor these days. May 1- her first jam (on toast). Yes, she ate shirtless for this one! May 3, 2009: Happy 10-Month Birthday! No, the sitting-on-piano idea wasn't Mom's idea! But it's cute & Daddy was close to help stabilize her if needed! She bounced up & down a lot, but kept her balance! May 3 - her LeapFrog table...playing with it for the first time. May 4 - she doesn't care much about eating small pieces - she'd rather pick up the whole piece & shove it in her mouth! This happens to be a pancake. Last night she picked up a whole muffin & took one bite...too cute! May 4 - playing at the table again... ...and even after she fell down onto the blankets, she continued watching Wiggles upside down. Those guys have power over her... Comparison of Russ & Elliot from October (3 months) til May (10 months). I tried to get the photos the same size - but you get the idea. She's grown. :) And he wears that shirt a lot...

Bananas & Cheerios: Instructions: (May 5)
I found a way to get her to pick up pieces of bananas - she usually won't because it's too slimy! ....
Steps for Mommy : 1) Throw a couple hand-fulls of cheerios in a blender & crush. 2) Chop a banana into bite-size pieces. 3) Put cheerios & banana into plastic baggie & shake. 4) Serve to baby in a bowl.

Steps for baby:
Step 1 : Dump bananas from bowl. Toss bowl onto floor. Step 2: Pick out the best pieces to eat first. Step 3: Begin consumption. Step 4: Yummy drinks of juice in between bites. Step 5: Be sure to mash the banana on your face & hands, and spit juice onto the bib - that's what it's for. Step 6: When finished, smear left-overs onto the tray. This will alert Mom that you don't want to eat the rest; and the messier the better because she enjoys cleaning it. Oh, and make sure to run your elbows in it too - especially if you just had a bath. Step 7: When Mommy is finished washing off one arm and moves onto the other, run the first arm in the mashed-banana again. When she removes you from the highchair to continue cleaning, take the wipies away from her. Cry if she takes them back. And lastly, Step 8: Resume play. Any banana left-over inside the cheeks can be deposited onto the toys when you chew on them - again, Mommy loves to clean things! The end!

May 5 - her "zerbert" face. Or do you call it a "raspberry?" Either way, she'll mimmick you every time you do it. And she'll go on forever. There's a funny video of this I'll have to upload... Is she not the cutest doll, ever?? This is an embroidered spanish shirt I found before she was born. I had to add buttons to finish it - I love it! May 6 : Bath in the kitchen sink (we're such rednecks!). I thought this would be a good idea... I could bathe her without bending over, and I could do some kitchen things right next to her (without taking my eyes off her, of course)while she played (she could play in the water all day).
Well...apparently I needed my floors, counters, stove, walls, curtains, windows & window sills washed with baby soap. Or so she thought. I forgot how much she likes to splash. Everything was so soaked, with puddles piling the floor. I didn't have enough dishtowels to soak it up and couldn't leave her to go get towels! She would also grab the counter & try to stand up out of the sink. Whew. We won't try this again! Ha! Thank goodness I had my camera in the kitchen...
Here...she begins playing nicely with her book & duckie... Suddenly, she focuses on splashing a little... Now she's trying to determine if she can hit the ceiling with her splashes... ...and she discovers yes, she can hit the ceiling... And now she is viewing her masterpiece on the floor. At this point, you can see the water dripping off the counter & the wall behind her is soaked... Must focus on getting as much water out of the sink as possible... Once the bath is over, a hair-spiking is in order. I wish you could smell her in this photo. Fresh-clean baby with some baby lotion! And it's back to watching Wiggles while Mommy cooks dinner. Just playing... May 8 - her new best friend: the talking smurf! She sleeps with it & clutches it when we take her out of her crib so she can keep playing with it. She also has the big singing smurf & we're getting her the talking Smurfette for her Smurday party! May 8 - this is how we spend much of our day. She takes everything apart & throws it on the floor> Mommy puts it back together & gives it back to her. And we start over... I took this photo so you could see the little pocket in the hanging diaper-changing sorter. See - it's a toy-keeper now. She removes socks, etc to put her toys in there. I take them out & put them back in the playpen...she puts them back in the pockets. It's cute. (Yes, my old cell phone is her toy now. But now that she can have it, she doesn't want it! Who needs toys when you have the wipie box near-by in the diaper-chaning pocket? Today, she has been into turning toys upside down to inspect them. She's thinking... May 8 - and then, there's Pocket... Hope you enjoyed the photos! Elliot just accidentally did the splits while standing at the play table, so she needs some attention. Happy Mother's Day, everyone!