Pictures Galore

I'm making Mommy stay up late to share all of our family visiting pictures with you all. Excuse her if she makes mistakes!

I met my grandpa's cousin Ernie for the first time, but we didn't get any pictures of me with him. He let me wear his glasses though. Don't I look cool?

I warmed up to Grandpa when he showed me his bear.
Macy, Claudia, and Hailey loved me to pieces.
I didn't mind all the attention.
Uncle Matt made me laugh.
I had to pose for the camera as much as possible.

Here's a good picture of my six teeth.Aunt Claudia is really strong and she swung me in the air while I played with her necklace.
I had to show off when Mommy put me in an outfit that was way too big. Size 12 months shirts kind of look like dresses on me since I'm a shorty.
Why hello...
Grandpa was in paradise getting to hold both of us babies. Isn't Leif a big boy? He's so cute and fun. He talks a lot and smiles all the time.
Give me that hand...I want to chomp on it. Don't be a wuss, Leif.

Grrr....
Woof, woof! I'm getting really good at standing by myself without holding onto anything. However, Mommy can't seem to get any pictures of it since I'm usually too close to her for the camera to focus. This picture shows how strong I am though.
Mommy likes to take pictures of the back of my head to keep track of the curls that are forming on my neck. Plus, she loves my neck.
I got to see my favorite dog in the world too. Tater is lots of fun and Grandpa helped me ride him. I looked kind of scared in the pictures, but I wasn't scared at all. I get very serious at times when I'm having lots of fun.

I had a good hold of him.
Giddyap!
Mmm...Milo kisses!
Cousins are great. They give me food.
I enjoyed my doorway jumper, but I left it at Grandma's house so that Leif can use it when he's a little bit bigger. I can really get it going these days.

I visited the apple orchard for the first time. Mommy likes to visit there when she's in FD in the fall. We had a yummy lunch there with Grandpa.
There was a cool guy that talked to me by the entrance.
Mommy couldn't resist taking pictures of me outside.
Mommy thinks I'm the best pumpkin to pick.
We're going to measure me every fall. I'll be able to stand better next year. Grandma tried to help me out.

I loved feeding the goats.
The best part was the train.
All aboard!
Hello, down there!
Which pose should I strike next? Hmmm...I must think on it.

Bam!
Something else to stand against. Awesome!
Leif made some funny faces yesterday. He wasn't in a good mood.
I was so happy to get home. Our car ride was boring and I had a problem in my pants that Mommy had to take care of. We stopped at Once Upon a Child and she found a used activity table for me. It's the coolest thing ever.We had a great trip. I slept terribly two out of three nights and had some issues to work out, but it was fun to see family and to get out of the house. We get company to our house tomorrow night so tonight is our recovery night. Maybe Mommy should go to bed!

Ada's Birthday

It was Ada Nelson's first birthday party today. People from all across the world sent balloons up to heaven. Ada's mommy is friends with my mommy so we got to be part of the celebration. If you'd like to know the whole story of Ada, then click on her name.

It was a beautiful day for a balloon launch.

Mommy wrote a note for Ada. It says, "Happy Birthday, Ada Nelson! We're sending you these balloons to celebrate your birthday on September 7th. You were too beautiful for this world. Please share with Zane and all of the other baby angels in heaven."

Save Them Up!

I hope everyone that I'm going to see in a couple of days is saving up some kisses and snuggles for me. We can't wait! I promise not to give too many kites (kiss bites).

Mommy bought a bigger baby prison for me because I escaped to the outdoors yesterday. Yes, I crawled outside while she was looking the other way and had the screen door open for the dog. I'm fast! Oh, and I took off my shirt and threw it on the floor. Babies gone wild! I miss sleeping in my bouncer chair. I love to crawl into it and screech so Mommy can cheer me on. Too bad I can crawl out of it, even when strapped in.

Mommy found this ridiculous outfit and decided I had to wear it today. Daddy says I look like a Berryhill in this picture with my shorts, socks, and hat. Mommy thought I looked hilariously adorable.
This is Mommy's newest favorite picture. I love to show off my teeth.
You can see my hat better in this picture.
Daddy was home for a while today so we played around. I was grumpy until my nap time. Once I woke up from my nap, they discovered that my sixth tooth had popped through. That makes two teeth on bottom, two full teeth on top, and two little slivers of teeth on top.
Daddy wasn't home at my bedtime because he was fixing somebody's face. I hope I see more of him tomorrow! I'll be in a good mood now that I'm not working on any teeth.

Petite and Perfect

I had fun at my doctor's appointment today. No shots! They just stripped me down and measured me. After that, they talked for a while and Dr. Lisa gave me some tickles on the big table. Mommy says some of you might want to know my current stats. I weighed 17.18 pounds (31%ile) and my length is 26.97 inches (44%ile). My weight percentile lowered slightly from my last visit, but my height percentile went way down. That's probably why my cheeks are looking chubbier again. Dr. Lisa wasn't worried about my size and says I seem about perfect. I was just finding my way down to a more petite growing curve. It's hard to put on weight when you're constantly moving like me! My next appointment is at the end of October. Oh, and Mommy brought me in to surprise Daddy and he gave me some hugs and kisses. Sweet!

We've had five nights in a row where I've slept more than eight hours without needing anything from Daddy or Mommy. I'm becoming predictable to Mommy and getting up for some milk between 4:35 and 4:50 every morning and then going back down to sleep for a couple of hours. Now that I'm predictable again, I think I'd better change things up. Hehehehe....

Mommy is bringing me to visit family in a few days. I can't wait to see Leif! He's probably much closer to my size now. In a few months I'll be able to wrestle with him. I'd better practice my moves on Matthew.

Thud, Jr.

I spent most of yesterday hitting my head. Most of the time it didn't phase me at all. I really take after my daddy. I'm an SUB - sport utility baby.

I had a date with Matthew at the library in the afternoon. We played with the spinny thing for a long time. Matthew took a snack break.
I went and told on him to his mommy.
Look at my new smile! It changes every day.
I flirted with Mommy when she was taking pictures.
Everything turned yellow when I looked through the window.

Even I turned yellow.
I love all of the things to pull up on at the library.
Mommy tickled Matthew. She's always tickling!
I had one bad hour yesterday when I woke up from my afternoon nap. Mommy was testing my reaction to squash and gave me a teeny tiny bit for lunch. She's going to throw away all of my squash cubes. What a waste! I scream like I'm being disemboweled almost exactly 3 hours after I eat any amount of squash. She doesn't want to test it again. Her hearing is too important.

I decided to not take a nap this morning so I'm supervising Mommy while she types this up for me. Here I am from her view at the computer. I'm not tired at all.

Must stay awake...

In Love

I'm so in love with my mommy and she's in love with me. Now that I'm sleeping well, she isn't grumpy at all. We kiss and cuddle and play all day long. I giggle all the time and then she starts laughing and then I laugh harder. She hasn't been taking pictures of me because we've been too busy snuggling. Whenever I want a kiss or a hug, I just climb into her lap and pull myself up to her face. It's sickening, isn't it? She's so happy that I'm not working on any teeth right now.

I was a dream come true last night. She was able to put me in my crib awake and walk away (after telling me how wonderful I am, of course) and I went right to sleep without a fuss. Daddy got in on the fun by giving me a bath and holding me and humming songs to me. He isn't too shabby either. He has me climb into his lap when he gets home from work. I've seen him every day for the last few days now that he's done with the SICU rotation. I love having him home. Maybe that's part of the reason Mommy is so happy too.

So, in short: Life is wonderful. We're all in love. We're all getting sleep. Mommy will take some pictures of me if she can stand to put me down and stop kissing on me for a few minutes.

New and Improved

It's been an exciting last few days for me. I'm learning and doing new things every day. I have no fear. Take this, for example. Okay, now how do I get down again?
I was so proud of myself and Mommy cheered me on. Now she's talking about baby gates a little more seriously.I've perfected crawling into laps for snuggles. Daddy was surprised when I crawled into his lap and pulled up to give him a hug this morning. I crawled into Mommy's lap after I got off of the stairs.
My balance is improving daily. In fact, I pulled myself to standing yesterday and let go completely. I stayed standing by myself for a little while and Daddy and Mommy were both watching. I had great timing for that first! Mommy will get pictures of that one of these days, but here I am dancing with one arm in the air.
My hair is growing like crazy and I mean, crazy. I look a little like Jack Nicholson here. There is definite curl in the back.
Mommy was brave enough to allow me to make a big mess last night. I ate a bunch of blueberries that were cut in half (not into eighths like she had been doing, silly Mommy). I also had some whole Cheerios and my avocado puree. It was all so delicious. Euclid did the rinse cycle on me and I laughed since it tickled so much. His breath smelled like blueberries for the rest of the night. It was a big improvement for him.
In addition, I got to drink some mommy milk out of a sippy cup. Mommy held me in cradle position and I still liked drinking out of the cup. She was surprised that I didn't want to drink out of the faucet, but I'm growing up. She isn't going to wean me for quite a while yet, but it's good for me to learn to drink out of something besides her.
I got a bath afterwards and my parents have figured out I can handle the big bath without any sort of mat. I'm such a big shot! I'm very sturdy when I'm sitting up. It's not like they'd leave me alone for a second and I love water! I had been trying to crawl out of the baby tub so it wasn't safe anymore.

My sleep has been improving overall. I had a terrible night on Saturday. Mommy made the mistake of feeding me squash and it gives me gas. She said that my screaming sounded like someone was disemboweling me. I didn't give up screaming like that for a long time. She had to take a nap yesterday morning. It turns out that another tooth was breaking through too so there was a reason I was in pain. I slept really well last night from 7:40-4:45 (Euclid woke me up) and then from 5:20-7:10. Everyone was happy about that.

I think that lots of things are funny these days. For the longest time the only way anyone could get me to laugh was by tickling me. Now I laugh at random. Daddy is still the funniest.

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Speaking of Daddy, he took really good care of my teeth last night. They brush them with a finger brush now that my mouth doesn't hurt so much. I love to get my teeth brushed!!!

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I'm going to let Mommy go hang out with Daddy and end here. He's on call, but he hasn't gotten any calls yet. Knock on wood!