Flight Delayed

So I'm sure some of you are thinking of writing me a little note asking for the next post... well you'll have to wait. We've got lots of pictures on Mommy's new camera and a couple good stories, but Mommy's computer is currently with the Geek Squad for repair. So we can't download anything yet. Hopefully, the computer will be back on time (Jan 7th) or earlier. Keep your fingers crossed. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday stretch and we wish you the best for the new year. Cheers!

Holiday Spirit

Its about time to get into the holiday spirit. This isn't exactly my first Christmas, but it might as well be. I don't remember any of last Christmas. I'm pretty sure I slept the whole time. Not this year though. I've got some reindeer on my PJs and I'm ready to go!



I'm ready to make the big decisions. I helped Mommy & Daddy pick out a tree.



Since it was relatively warm (low 50s), after we got a tree and did a little shopping, Mommy convinced Daddy to walk on holy ground. We went and saw the Mormon's in their special place - the temple. We were shocked and amazed (or disappointed?) that Daddy didn't catch on fire or start melting when he went through the big white gates. No fireworks there, but there were lots of pretty lights everywhere. We also got to see lots of Christians in their native habitat.





Monday, we started to decorate the tree. Yeah... more lights!!

Post Birthday

After I opened all of my wonderful gifts, I got a few more. The tooth fairy came by the night of my birthday and gave me a new tooth. Yep, now I've got 3! And I do have to retract my statements about 2 teeth. They were quite useful. I learned how to hold my cheerios and use my 2 teeth to break them in half. I could tear lots of things with those teeth. Just imagine what I can do with 3!

Evil virus man also came by later that weekend and got both Mommy & me sick. boo! I'm doing better than Mommy though. The doctor said that I was strong and barely sick at all - while Mommy sounded horrible. The doctor's visit was my 1 year check up. I came in tall and skinny - 30.25" and 19 lbs 13 oz. Thats the 75% for height and 25% for weight... not good for Mommy & Daddy.

I'll leave you with my new favorite word. The "bird" is no longer THE word. Its "Buck-ee". Sounds like a good name for my first dog.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Can you believe that its been a year since you all started thinking I'm so cute?!

We we had a quiet birthday party at my house last night - just me, Mommy, Daddy and Auntie Anna - who came into down from NYC just for me. (Well... my birthday and a meeting.) First we checked out all of the cameras to make sure my birthday would be properly documented for the blog. We didn't want a repeat of Thanksgiving!



Once I was satisfied with that, we got our party hats on and well, let the festivities begin!



Auntie Anna helped me open my presents. Once they're started I can rip off paper with the best of them. I gotta say, some people throw away the paper and ribbon... but really, its just another good part of the present. It's lots of fun to play with paper and ribbons!



I made a bit of a mess with all of my great presents. Thank you everyone!! I've now got tons of books (YEAH!), some new clothes, and a few new toys. I've already mastered my new sorting block... why sort when you can just take the lid off and put the blocks in and out that way. Confucious says - always go the path of least resistance. Or is that a general law of nature?


After presents, is of course CAKE! Yep its a pink cake. Mommy swears she didn't ask for pink, it was the baker's choice. Daddy was horrified! Anna & I liked it though. I am a girl after all.


I then proceeded to make another mess. Mommy said I was allowed to destroy it since it was for my birthday. I would like to point out that Daddy put the frosting on my nose before I even got to touch the cake - not fair! It was a pretty good birthday, though I don't have anything to compare to.

Walking Take 2

So it has come to our attention that some people are not satisfied with the quality of the last video post. While we can't do much about the resolution right now, here's a couple new takes in the daytime, so the lighting might be better. Also the videographer tried to wobble less. Ya'll are so picky!! :-)

Daddy... daddy... yeah daddy... ooh... camera... clunk.



Here I am showing off not one but two new skills - walking and waving bye-bye. I can even say bye-bye, so bye-bye for now.

Thankful

Yesterday, I had my first Thanksgiving at Lara and Talon's place in Virginia. Thanks for inviting us! Yes, we had to cross a state line in order to find friends with which to have Thanksgiving. Lara and Talon and their friends were very nice and put up with me. Lara's cats weren't quite as happy. I managed to get one by the scruff. Apparently cats don't like it when babies attack them. Hum... The doggies at the park don't seem to mind.

We, of course, don't have any pictures. Daddy had all the food ready on time, but I wasn't ready. In all the rush to get me, my toys, my jacket, etc, etc out the door, Mommy forgot the camera. So no pictures of me eating turkey. No pictures of me stealing Mommy's drum stick while she tried (key word: tried!) to play the drums for the video game Rock Band - she was really bad... for those who know the game: she had to get saved twice. (In her defense, she did have only one drum stick for half of the song.) So instead of cute Thanksgiving pictures, here's some other fall related pictures and generally cute pictures for your enjoyment.



Grandma Ai came out to visit last weekend and we played in the leaves. She made me wear shoes, which I hated... though my feet didn't get wet or cold which was nice. (BTW I now hate shoes a little less than last week.)



G'a ma also got me a birthday present (that I like) - Tow Mater Ride on. I love it!! I push the (annoying) buttons every morning. I now even dance when I push the button "Its time for music!" Though I haven't learned my ABCs yet (another button). I also love it when daddy pushes me around really fast. I'm thankful for G'a ma... And for Daddy...



And Mommy...



And all of my stuffed animals. :-)



Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

New friends

It seems that my list of friends will be growing soon. All (well at least 5 - correction 6) of Mommy's friends seem to be making friends for me to play with... if only I lived in California or the UK. There are going to be babies EVERYWHERE! I'll be a good older sister. I'm a big girl now (a whole 28" tall) and can teach them lots.

Lots of love to all the soon-to-be Mommies!

Walkie Talkie

So its been a little while since I last updated you all. I've been a busy girl though. I've improved my walking skills a lot. I'm now just as graceful as Mommy.



Not too much else is happening here. Grandma Ai is coming to see me next weekend and I can't wait to show off. See ya soon!

All Hallows Eve

I'm developing a love hate relationship with Halloween. Mommy & Daddy were too cheap and busy to take me to a proper pumpkin patch to get the requisite pictures with pumpkins. So they threw me into the bin of pumpkins at Safeway. How white trash!



But I found a reason to love Halloween... the candy!! I don't know whats inside of these shiny rappers but the outside sure is fun to chew!



I had my skeleton shirt on for daycare today. Tonight Mommy & Daddy are making me get dressed up. I hate things on my head...


But aren't I a cute penguino? :-)

Tagged

So I'm not exactly sure what being 'tagged' means, but Auntie Rhian says that I have to share 7 tidbits of information about myself that you don't know. Its pretty tough for me since I don't have a lot of 'life-history' to share. I do have some updates though... so I'll give it a try...

1) I can take a couple steps by myself now! I only do it at daycare though to try to keep up with my friend Adam - he's a month older and already up to 4 steps! Its driving Daddy crazy that I won't walk at home. Daddy doesn't believe I can, but Mommy's seen it.

2) I go to sleep everynight with Bub (also known as Pat the Bunny from the book).

3) I have given four things names: Bub (Bunny), Bou (book), Anana (Banana), and Doo gae (Doggie). (There might be a few more but they're not quite identifiable to Mommy & Daddy... I can say Mama and Dada but I call lots of things ma ma and da da.)

4) I hate having my diaper changed and try to roll over whenever I can. The only good part is pulling the wipes out of the container and all the diapers out of the basket.

5) Daddy taught me how to throw things. Last night while Mommy was at class, I threw most of my dinner at Daddy. It was fun! My first food fight!

6) My favorite thing to do is read books. I love to turn the pages. My favorite book right now is a very very old book from 1975 that was Daddy's when he was a baby.

7) Yesterday, I figured out how to get out of my bouncy seat's straps. (This is not good for Mommy. She puts me in my bouncy seat every morning while she takes a shower. We now have to figure out what to do with me during her shower.) Its lots of fun trying to get through all of the 'safety' features Mommy & Daddy have around the house! I've now figured out the velcro straps on cabinets and how to get out of seat restraints.... next step... gates?

Alright... now I'm supposed to tag 7 other people to share 7 things about them. Unfortunately, I don't know 7 other people with blogs! The people I do know... Olen Dempsey, Alexandra Shinn, Dalton Gray, and Anne Davis... you're tagged. Anyone else, if you're reading this and have a blog consider yourself tagged!

Costume

So I haven't been able to find a Halloween costume - its late so stocks are low. I also have been trouble figuring out what I want to wear. I've been playing with different 'careers' to figure out a costume for Halloween...

Like a party planner... I love the balloons but I'm not sure how to 'dress up' to be a party planner.



I've been practicing 'organizing' Mommy & Daddy's papers... but again... Halloween costume?



I've also been thinking about writing books. An English major is about the complete opposite of a scientist. So might be a good career choice for pissing off Mommy & Daddy, but not good for making a Halloween costume.



Being a train conductor is lots of fun and would make a good costume... but it requires a hat. Boo... I'll just have to keep thinking about it and looking around.



If I DO find a costume, you'll have to wait till Halloween to find out what it is...

Fall

Its fall!! I've been practicing falling and starting to get in the spirit of Halloween.

Really I've been practicing standing, but that involves a lot of falling. What can I say, I got Mommy's grace, elegance and coordination. Really though, I don't like to be too boastful, but I'm pretty good.


What goes up... must come down...

Mommy is teaching me how to ref the other football game. Touchdown!


Auntie Ea sent me some Halloween stuff to get me in the spooky mood. Thanks Ea! The owl was so cute that I actually kept it on for a record amount of time. (I don't generally like things on my head).


We might go look for a Halloween costume for me today... though it will be a challenge to find something that I will actually wear.

Cleaning up

I've been doing some more exploring. I made it to the top of the stairs twice. Daddy kept following me up the stairs though... it was a little creepy. Why does he always have to follow me?

I've also been checking out all of the shelves in the living room. Daddy couldn't follow me under the coffee table.



The best thing about exploring and getting into trouble is the mess...



The next best thing is getting clean again!! What could be better than a bath and ducky? I love bathtime... pruney fingers... rubber duckies... soapy hair... waterbabies...

Rebel Rebel

I'm now just old enough to get in lots of trouble. A couple of weeks ago, I got my first black eye while trying to climb the stairs... that rail came out of now where! It was a very fashionable black eye - two spots - one below the eye and one above the eye. I'm showing it off in this picture.



I did figure out how to get up the first step that weekend. I'm now on steps 3 & 4!

Even bigger news... I can now stand all by myself - no furniture, no Mommy, no Daddy - for a couple of seconds. Hey this is hard work, a couple of seconds is a breakthrough. Its probably the equivalent of you learning to do professional ballet! (not that you would necessarily want to...) I'd like to see your perfect pirouette.

I'm just so proud of all my accomplishments that I have to cheer for myself.



(Obviously Mommy hasn't figured out how to take good video yet.)

P.S. Sorry for the delay in posting. Mommy ditched me last weekend to go to a meeting on Cape Cod. She sure does like that Cape Cod place... I didn't really see why when I was there.

Play Date

This weekend was so exciting. After we went to the zoo on Saturday, G'pa and Nana Adams went back to California and I went to my first ever play date. I met lots of new friends that represented a lot of different countries. I thought I was starting to understand what Mommy & Daddy say... but I didn't understand some of what was said at the play date. There was Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic and even Farsi being spoken. It was quite the UN of babies. Who knew the UN could be so fun... though there were issues with some people (me included) learning to share... hey... just like the UN!

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo

Mommy and me finally got to go to the zoo!! We went with G'pa, Nana and Daddy. We saw lots of animals. Mommy made us look at all the marine life first.



(so much for not hitting the glass! At least, it made a cool picture.)


My favorite were the monkeys!! They jump around like me.




There were all sorts of strange animals. I liked them but none of them would play with me.



Daddy would. My favorite part was acting like a monkey. I got to climb up on Daddy's shoulders and jump up and down. I could see everything from up high. Next might be climbing trees. I successfully climbed a stair last night!