Happy 1st Halloween!

It's your first halloween! i think you make a pretty cute daddy. i always said if we just gave you a beard, you'd look just like him. it was true! you were a super good girl and let me draw that beard on. and you weren't even scared of daddy in that weird cakey makeup. you stared at him a lot at first, but once you figured out it was really him, you were unphased. start thinking about what you want to be next year.

love, mom

you are 48 weeks old!

well, as of yesterday. today, you are 48 weeks and one day old.

time has been flying by, and you are growing like crazy.

tomorrow is your first Halloween, and you are going to dress up like your daddy. the beard will be drawn on with eye liner or something. it has been suggested that we shave the top of your head, but i don't think that's a very good idea.

you now refuse to eat baby food, which is amusing, understandable, and somewhat troubling. baby food is so easy! it's easy to carry, easy to dispose of, easy easy easy. but you've been eating so much table food lately that i guess it must taste pretty bland to you. some of your favorite things to eat are crackers, mandarin oranges, and green beans. but you eat pretty much everything we put in front of you, unless it's a puff or baby food.

you like to read books and point to the characters. i guess that means you want to know their names. i ask you where their noses are, and you always point to the nose, even if it's a weird nose that doesn't really look like a nose at all. like the nostrils of the monkey in your swim duck swim book.

you occasionally make a silly face. it has taken you a while to get silly, but i think your brother's crazy antics are rubbing off on you a little bit.

you are getting to be such a big girl and a pretty girl!

love, mom

Happy 11 months birthday!

wow, you are 11 months old! only a month from now, you'll be a year old. that is kinda hard to believe.

to match your 11 months, now you have 11 teeth. the molar on the bottom right is poking through now. i think the canines are close behind. i guess one good thing about them all coming in at once is that you'll be done quicker.

i didn't get a chance to take any pictures today, but tomorrow i will take some and put them on this post. you are getting so pretty! you were always cute, but i think you're getting prettier and prettier. i really think you are going to look a lot like your grandma (daddy's mom). he looks like her, i think, so you will look like both of them!

you're getting a lot more self-aware lately. today you found your eyelashes. you were blinking your eyes and touching your lashes with your finger and trying to grab them. you discovered noses the other day (yours and other peoples' and also the animals in your books'). i ask you where my nose is, and you either stick your finger in my nose, or you try to pull it off, or you just stare at it. i have to put a barrette in your hair most days now, because your bangs are getting long. we're trying to avoid cutting them.

i also think you are saying some things. you have been working on the "B" sound for a while, but you say it really fervently and draw it out sometimes and wave while you're doing that. so i think that is "bye." i won't call it your official first word, since i'm not totally sure, but i think it is. you also say "Da!" and light up and wave at daddy sometimes when you see him.

the sleeping isn't getting a whole lot better. after a couple weeks of trying the baby whisperer method, we've gone back to the cry it out thing. i hate that, but i can see after only a couple days that it seems to be working a lot better and a lot faster. it is hard for all of us, but i feel like it's worth it. you need your sleep and so does mommy! i think we'll both be a lot happier and more rested after a week or so of this, because you are learning to go to sleep on your own. i'm hoping that will mean that you'll learn to go to sleep on your own at bedtime, as well as soothe yourself back to sleep when you wake up at other times in the night.

speaking of sleep, i better go get some of that.

love, mom

you are 47 weeks old!

today our friend jess saw you and said that you look more like a little girl and less like a baby. it's true! i can't believe how fast you're growing up.

your dozens of teeth are bugging you a lot. that's all i can figure out, since you're randomly fussy, and since you wake up about every 27 minutes. sometimes i think you're never going to sleep through the night...

you went on your first hay ride, on saturday night. you loved it. i think you're going to be a pretty fearless little girl, and i know we're going to have to watch you closely to keep you out of everything.

you're getting more and more silly. you still love to dance, and yesterday in church you were rocking and dancing and lifting up your hands. and you are laughing a lot more than you used to. it's all so fun to see! except the crying at 9... and 9:27....and 9:54....

love, mom

you love to eat!

last weekend, we went to see your grandma and pappy, in bartlesville. we always have a great time there, and they looooove to see you and your brother.

on friday, we went to sooner park for a picnic. you sweet-talked your grandma into letting you eat about half of her food. here are some pictures of you eating various different things... like a pickle... and some cheese.... and a little debbie.... and a hot dog.... and a burger.... you just kept pulling her hand towards your mouth and taking bites.

thankfully, you didn't eat any of the weird stuff daddy made on the grill later, like the grilled pickle or the grilled tomato paste. pappy tried it, and it almost killed him. (just kidding)

you also starred in your first JCV production, which i'm sure will get edited sometime soon, and you can watch yourself on video.

here's another picture of you on your beloved swings!

love, mom

guess what we found in your mouth?

well, i'm sure you don't really have to guess. you're probably well aware of all the new teeth poking through, all over the place.

i was feeling to see if the molar on the right side was coming, or if that pesky, missing upper-right tooth was coming in. and i did find some bumps where the molar will be pretty soon. but i also found two more teeth on top that had broken through, just barely. the ones right behind the canines, on either side, on top. that brings the total to ten.

so with those two coming in, plus the one molar on the left still growing out, and the one on the right close to breaking through, i'm not at all surprised that you can't sleep soundly, or that you have buckets of snot coming out your nose all the time.

i know it seems weird that i wouldn't notice the teeth right away, as i look at you all the time and brush your teeth and stuff. but you see, it is dangerous to stick a finger in there, because you bite really really hard.

as long as you don't continue with the biting after you don't have an excuse to anymore (like 57 teeth all coming in at once), i guess we'll let it slide.

love, mom

p.s. that picture is of you in your friend layla's hat. you were much more agreeable during this hat photo session. thanks!

you have fun friends!

also last week, you got to hang out with your friends some more!

on wednesday, we went over to bella's house to hang out while her mommy went and got a haircut. bella was asleep, so you played with her toys some. and with her mom's glasses. then later, bella woke up, britney got home, and we picked up sam and went to devil's den to play. there are some pics on bella's blog, and i'll try to post some later.

then on thursday, we went to play with abby while her mom was teaching a class. you girls cracked me up, reading your magazines and sharing some cheerios.

love, mom

you are 46 weeks old!

and inching (barreling?) ever closer to your birthday. wow, i can't believe it's already october, and your birthday is just 6 weeks away.

you've been a little bit snotty the past several days. i'm sure that molar that isn't finished coming in yet has something to do with it. thankfully no barfing or high fevers though. (knock on wood)

everyone seems to get a kick out of your army crawl. you sure get around quickly with that. sometimes you get up on your hands and knees like you might try and crawl that way, but then you flop down and take off on your belly. you're fearless. you crawl through and under everything you can, and you love love love the swings. i don't think we could swing you too high, as far as you're concerned.

here are a couple pictures of you from tonight. check out the teeth!! a lot of your 12 month stuff doesn't fit anymore. and i tried some of your size 3 shoes on the other day, and they're definitely not tall enough, and barely long enough. so i think you'll be in 4s by fall/winter. you're getting so big! i think i said that last week... but it's still true!



i'll post more about the fun you've been having lately sometime tomorrow.

love, mom

you are 45 weeks old.

woops! i realized earlier that today is tuesday. which means yesterday was monday. and again, we forgot to take your picture and make your weekly blog entry. things have been a bit crazy lately, but it's all slowing down a bit.

that is a 12-18 month dress. you've been wearing a lot of 12-18 lately. you're getting to be such a big girl!

on sunday, lots of people came over to see the new house. everyone really liked your room. it's not finished yet, but your grammy misty is working on your bumpers now, and we'll get curtains and stuff up in no time. we definitely need to get you a mirror, because you really like to look at that baby.

you like playing with the toys in your room, especially the peek-a-blocks and the rubber ducky and the leapfrog table. you like to stand at the table and play with the different stuff. i wouldn't be too surprised to see you walking before too too long. especially after stuff like this:
pushing your pal bella around in the walker.


today, you and i napped late, so i just now got you to bed. we did the cry-it-out thing for a while, and it worked, essentially. i mean, you fell asleep finally. but you were crying more and more, not less and less. so we abandoned that, and we're trying the baby whisperer method. every time you cry i either pick you up or pat you, but only until you stop crying. tonight, it was 64 pickups, more or less. eventually you got to sleep by yourself, without just wailing until you were too exhausted to continue. i like this method better, though it's much more time consuming... i think it's actually teaching you that 1. your crib is not scary. 2. if you're scared or sad, someone will comfort you. 3. going to sleep is okay.

we probably should have gotten you in your own bed long, long ago. but better late than never, i guess. sorry for making it harder on you by letting you sleep with us for so long. i'm hopeful, though, because i think pretty soon we'll all be sleeping better.

love, mom

more teeth?!?

this morning you were cruising around, finding non-food items to eat, and as i was scooping the tiny piece of stick out of your mouth, i felt that there was a new tooth coming in. the weird thing about this one is that it's a molar.... it's on the bottom left. no sign of the top right tooth yet, but you're already getting molars. that makes 8 total. you're also grinding your teeth lately, which i was a little worried about, but i read that it's not usually a problem and often happens when babies are teething. are you ever!

this is a picture of you in your great grandpa pane's hat. there's a teeny piece of red clown wig hair on your cheek.
you look sad, but very pretty, with your blue/grey/green eyes and long eyelashes.

love, mom

every day is an adventure.

this is the time in a baby's life when every day you learn something new and fun. you are very inquisitive.

a few of your current favorite things to do are:

1. put your finger in your nose, and hum. i guess you can feel it vibrating. it's pretty funny, but we have yet to get it on video.

2. dance!! you dance a lot lately. on this video, my favorite part is around 00:20.


3. roam through the kitchen/living room in your walker. you're pretty good a steering. you even back up and make three-point turns!

4. vacuum the floor, with your shirt and your hands/mouth. we have to watch you constantly, because you are like a little dirt devil, roaring through the house and trying to eat everything you find.

5. play "row row row your boat..." this is a game daddy invented, where he has you do rowing motions and swimming motions. it's your favorite!

6. bonk your head on stuff. it's a little disconcerting, but you don't seem to be hurting yourself. i think you like the way it sounds.




7. hang out with bella. you two are frequently the guinea pig/models for all the weird stuff we find while unpacking. okay, maybe this is one of our favorite things, and not yours.

in any case, you are lots of fun!
love, mom

you are 44 weeks old!

this past week has been busy, as usual. you are getting used to the unpacking, i think, or else you feel more settled in, or else we're actually making enough progress that the house is looking more like a home. hopefully it's the latter! in any case, you've had fun playing with bella, and you only try to bite her toes occasionally.

you can now get into a sitting position from crawling, which is great for everyone!

you are over halfway through your medicine now, i think. this is a huge relief. and it's definitely been working. you haven't been pulling on your ear too much the last couple days.

your appetite is gigantic. tonight we ate with nany and mona at cracker barrel, and you ate enormous amounts of green beans, chicken, applesauce, and biscuit, and also some of daddy's grits. i hope you don't have a belly ache tomorrow.






you can follow some instructions now. this morning i asked you to hand me your nuk, and you did it. and i asked you where my nose was, and you looked at it, and then with a little more prompting, grabbed it. this is probably all stuff you could have done sooner, if i'd just tried it with you.

it's almost impossible to take your picture. you try to crawl away constantly, and you think it's pretty funny. so these pictures are mostly of you escaping. you're wearing a shirt that has a black cat on it and says "Hocus Pocus." i figure people can't really see it, what with all the escaping and whatnot. but you're wearing that, because it's one of your new $1 halloween shirts from target, and it's the first day of october. time to start celebrating!

love, mom