Friday, October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween from the Boo Boo Girl!

If you don't give me candy...I'll cast a spell on you!
Where are all those trick or treaters?!

Skittles for Daddy and Whoppers for Mommy


Off to mix up some potions!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Working on Walking


Morgan has a "new" toy (love those secondhand stores)! It's a Walk 'n' Ride. She can walk behind it or sit on it and scoot. She actually gets the walking way more than any sitting a scooting at this point. She can now walk short distances holding onto it before she gets distracted with one of the toys on it or decides to sit down and push it while on her knees. I think she's still pretty far off on the walking. She's got a lot of height and weight to balance on those little feet, but I could be wrong.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Tagged

And Baby B Makes Three tagged me for a meme. I'm so excited...I've never been "tagged" before! I feel like a real blogger now.

All the answers to this meme need to be just one word. This should be interesting...

1. Where is your cell phone? desk
2. Where is your significant other? work
3. Your hair color? blond
4. Your mother? practical
5. Your father? planner
6. Your favorite thing? latte
7. Your dream last night? forgotten
8. Your dream/goal? contentment
9. The room you’re in? family
10. Your hobby? blogging
11. Your fear? loss
12. Where do you want to be in six years? content
13. Where were you last night? home
14. What you’re not? alone
15. One of your wish list items? furniture
16. Where you grew up? California
17. The last thing you did? diaper
18. What are you wearing? glasses
19. Your T.V.? off
20. Your pet? gone
21. Your computer? infected
22. Your mood? frustrated
23. Missing someone? friends
24. Your car? convertible
25. Something you’re not wearing? shoes
26. Favorite store? starbucks
27. Your Summer? eventful
28. Love someone? forever
29. Your favorite color? green
30. When is the last time you laughed? morning
31. Last time you cried? yesterday

I’m going to tag A at The Sunny Side of Life and E at The Kapics.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Up the Down Staircase

In the last week we have discovered that Morgan can climb stairs! We were over at our neighbor's house last week and Morgan decided to tackle a short flight of stairs and I stood close behind her. To my surprise she went all the way up with little problem. She doesn't climb the stairs much at our house because she usually plays in an enclosed area in our upstairs bonus room.

After that day I decided to see what she could do at our house on our full flight of stairs. One night she climbed up three times (with a little assistance, of course). Then we discovered that she slept really well that night...hmmm...maybe a stair workout before bed each night?! Here are some pictures of our little climber girl.

About halfway up

Still climbing

Almost there!

Yay! She made it!

Friday, October 24, 2008

It's not all about Me?!

I had to make a decision about a small thing this week that really made me realize that it's not all about me anymore. I've known this for a while, but for some reason it hit me harder this time.

I've been taking part in a women's bible study at our church this fall and I've enjoyed getting to meet some new ladies and start building some new friendships. This large group of women meets every other Tuesday morning at the church. From this group we break up into smaller groups for discussion of the study. On Tuesday of this week our small group leader invited us to an extra brunch event on Thursday morning to have some fellowship time away from the study group. When we met on Tuesday I planned on going.

Then Morgan had a terrible night of sleep on Tuesday night (she decided to be awake from 1:00-4:00 am) and was super fussy all day on Wednesday, with minimal naps. She was a mess! If I was to go to the brunch that meant that she would not get her nap on Thursday morning either. If she'd napped well on Wednesday, it probably would have been OK...but I decided later that night that I couldn't deny her her Thursday morning nap just because I wanted to chat with some friends. This was a small, but tough decision that I had to make to get Morgan back on her schedule and get her the rest she needed.

Overall it was a good decision. She slept well on Wednesday night and napped beautifully this (Thursday) morning for 2 hours. As I am writing this, she is now on her second nap of the day. I'm sorry I missed out on the time with the ladies, but it's more important that I take care of Morgan's needs first.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Swing Quest

Morgan and I have been in search of all the parks in Spokane that have baby swings. Today we were only successful by default.

It actually amazes me the parks I've found that don't have swings at all?! Who builds playgrounds without swings? Are they now a liability issue? We went to one of our favorite parks today, Manito Park on the South Hill. I'd seen the playground there before, but did not notice that it had everything...but swings. There were not even swings for the bigger kids. How can this be? Morgan was really sad when we didn't stick around long and headed back to the car. She had a few (assisted) trips down the slide, but that's all there was there that she could handle at her age.

I thought and thought about where else we could go, so we ended up going downtown to Riverfront park because I knew they had the baby swings. I didn't want to risk driving around the South Hill and not finding a park with swings. Morgan has been very impatient in the car lately so a lot of random driving is met with many unhappy noises from the back seat. Morgan was very happy to finally get in some swinging time and she laughed and squealed until her nose and cheeks turned red (quite a chill in the air today). Then as expected, she protested (read: cried) when we had to go.
Yay, swings!
Checking out the other kiddos at the playground

Also, in the last week the foliage in Spokane has exploded with color! Hopefully we'll get some more pretty shots before it gets colder and the leaves fall. Nice shot of the garbage can, huh?

Monday, October 20, 2008

Big Girl Carseat

We moved Morgan into her "big girl" car seat about six weeks ago. She was on the cusp of the weight limit for her infant seat and had most likely grown beyond the height limit (confirmed by her Dr. appointment earlier this month). Here are a few shots of Morgan in her new ride! She'll still ride rear-facing until her birthday in December. This one should hold her for a long time.

On our way to Greenbluff with Auntie Ali


Getting Dedicated makes me tired!!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

I Want Candy...and the Camera!

Thank you Auntie Ali for my cute "Halloween" outfit! You can't see all the words on the outfit, but the candy corn guy is saying "I want candy!"


Here I come...


...to get that camera!

Friday, October 17, 2008

TGIF - again

Did I say this last Friday? I must have. After my Wednesday "saga", Thursday wasn't a lot better. We had a day of half-naps and a lot of whining. I still can't quite figure it out. I talked to my neighbor who is a pediatric nurse practitioner and she said sometimes babies go through growth spurts that make them just really "out of sorts" for a few days. I'd say that's definitely what's been happening with Morgan. She's just not herself. Yesterday was topped off in a big way. We have our church small group on Thursday nights and lately we've been hosting it at our house because it's the only way both of us can attend. Our group doesn't seem to mind and we are grateful for that.

So, the group showed up at 7:00. We'd gotten Morgan ready for bed, so all we needed to do was give her a bottle and put her in her crib at about 7:30. All of this went as planned, except we think Morgan was just a bit overstimulated with having all these people in her house at night. We usually have our group downstairs, but last night we needed to have it upstairs so we could watch a DVD in the bonus room. Morgan could hear us as we were close to her room and she took a while to fall asleep. At 9:00 I heard her crying. This is not unusual for her to wake up a few times and she makes some noise as she changes position, then she goes back to sleep. This time she just got louder and louder to a point she was semi-hysterical. I went in her room to discover she'd vomited all over herself and her crib. Poor thing! And yuck...she was sure stinky! We got her up, stripped her (and her bed) down, threw the sheets in the wash and the baby in the bath. We repeated the bedtime routine and got her back to sleep. She was really tired after all this. She did wake up and eat a little later in the night, but went back to sleep OK.

She woke up this morning and was amazingly more herself! I can't imagine how. She took a nice 1.5 hour nap this morning and is now down for her afternoon nap. She seems much more cheery and content. Hopefully the worst is over, but just in case I might have our neighbor check out her ears to make sure she doesn't have one of those "no symptom" ear infections I hear about. Poor sweet girl. Let's hope the weekend is easier for us!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Impending Toddler-dom?

Yesterday was, well...challenging. It made me think how close were are to "toddler-dom" and the onset of tantrums and strong wills. Here's my saga...

David was off for an overnight trip to Yakima, so I decided that we would have a "Mommy and Morgan" adventure! Great intentions, but I knew things weren't going well when Morgan staged a huge protest regarding her morning nap. She finally slept for about 45 minutes, not great, but not terrible either.

Once she was up, we set off for downtown Spokane. I had not taken her down there for a while and thought the new scenery would be nice. And it was...we wandered around the mall and checked out the main library. Then it was time for a bottle, so we headed to Starbucks for a treat for Mommy (thanks Ali!) and a bottle for Morgan. All was well and good there. Next we got some details on the children's museum. We'll save that one for when Daddy can come along.

Next we headed for Riverfront Park. We love this park. It is right downtown and borders the Spokane River with a great view of the waterfalls. There is a huge carousel and a playground. We first went past the carousel to a play area that has a huge red Radio Flyer wagon. It is so big that there are stairs to climb up and a slide to get down (the handle, of course). Then I noticed there were some ducks wandering around. Morgan has never seen real ducks before and they were quacking just like her ducky book and bathtub. We went a little closer and I knelt down by her stroller. To my surprise, one of the ducks charged right up to me. As I stood up and it came closer and it actually bit my leg! Morgan was right there and I maneuvered rather quickly to get her out of the way. Mind you, there are several people standing around watching this. Apparently these ducks are fed frequently and expect food when someone comes close. I was told this a little too late. I was kind of pissed that no one warned me. One of them could have bit Morgan since she was right at eye level with them! We vacated the area pretty quickly as I didn't want Morgan to recall and "duck fears" she may have had in the past.

Next I decided the playground and some swings might be a great idea. It was!!! Well, mostly. I put Morgan in a swing and she laughed herself silly, having a great time as I pushed her and tickled her! Eventually it was time to get back home for lunch and a nap. Unfortunately every time I tried to take Morgan out of the swing she started to cry. I put her back a few times, hoping she'd get bored and be ready to leave. No...she was all smiles in the swing, but cried every time I tried to take her out. This girl just loves her swings! Finally I had to get her home and in the stroller she went. She cried and whined her way back to the car. At home we had some lunch and I put her in bed for her nap. If I thought she protested that morning...itwas nothing compared to this. She did her usual put-her-in-the-crib-she-poops-and-won't-go-to-sleep routine. I changed her diaper and put her back in her crib. As soon as she realized she was going back in she starting crying that cry that makes me cry too. So sad. After another 15 minutes of watching her standing at the crib rail in the video monitor I decided there was going to be no napping and I went in to get her. When I walked in I discovered she'd dropped her Wubby (pacifier) on the floor in front of the crib and she was gnawing so vehemently on the cloth crib rail cover...get this...it was bloody. Yikes! My poor baby! She'd chewed on it so hard that she'd rubbed her gums raw and was bleeding! So out of the crib she came and into the wash went the crib rail cover. The rest of the afternoon/evening was loooong....and I wasn't too sorry when it was bedtime. Sigh.

I think we've got a kid with a strong will here. It is showing up more and more each day. I love that she is asserting her opinion, but yesterday was hard! As I'm writing this, my little girl is sleeping peacefully in her crib for this morning's nap. We're doing better so far. Let's hope today will be a better day than yesterday.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Morgan's Dedication

Morgan was dedicated to the Lord on Sunday, October 12. Our church does this as a short, but sweet ceremony after the greeting time in the service. We went up on the "stage" of the church (our church is HUGE, with a big auditorium. Very modern, no stained-glass for us). My sister, Ali was in town. She graciously accepted our invitation to be Morgan's Godmother. We also had some close friends and our life group (small group) come up front with us. Our pastor, Joe, introduced us and had David introduce our family and friends. Then Joe prayed for Morgan and us. Morgan did very well, just checking everything out. She got a little wiggly during the prayer, but I managed not to drop her. Hee hee. She also got and official certificate of her dedication and a sealed letter to open and read on her 12th birthday. I'm totally curious what it says...maybe I should ask instead of trying to steam it open?


After the service we invited our friends back to our house for some hang-out time and food. Here are some scenes from the day. We had several babies there that are close in age to Morgan. I had the pleasure of being pregnant at the same time as their Mommies. It was nice to share that experience with them and have them continue to be great friends as our babies grow up.

Morgan and Elijah

Showing off her pretty dress from Grandma and Grandpa B
Morgan, Taylor and Elijah playing...notice Morgan is moving the other babies' hands AWAY from her toy. She was being very bossy. She does this to me sometimes when I try to play with her activity table too. Somebody needs to learn how to share.
Kirsten, Taylor and Elijah
Our wonderful friends

Monday, October 13, 2008

Greenbluff

Aaack! I didn't realize that I haven't posted since last Thursday. Things got a little busy this weekend with Aunt Ali in town and preparing for Morgan's Dedication on Sunday. It was a fun weekend! I'll have to leave updates in a few different posts.

On Saturday we ventured out to Greenbluff, north of Spokane. This is a pleasant 45 minute drive from our house. Greenbluff is a conglomerate of farms that hold festivals and other events in the summer and fall. September and October are really the best because they have their Apple Festival. The farms are decked out in beautiful fall colors and have a variety of pumpkin patches, homemade pies, hay rides and corn mazes. Morgan was a bit young for some of this, but we were able to get some great pictures and ate some yummy treats.


This was in the pumpkin patch at Harvest House. This was the best picture of the bunch. There were all kinds of people getting pictures of their little ones with pumpkins bigger than they were. Here are some more shots from the patch:


For lunch we got some yummy chicken and rice bowls and Morgan ate little bites of our food. We're gradually moving away from any "baby" foods to regular "table" food. This is first time we were away from the house that we fed her some of what were eating. She really seemed to like it.

Then we headed to the High Country farm for some apple and huckleberry pie. Here's Morgan patiently waiting with her Daddy while Mommy and Aunt Ali were in line for the pie. Morgan even had some bites of her first apple pie herself!

Thursday, October 9, 2008

New Sounds

Morgan is making all kinds of new sounds lately. At her Dr. appointment last week the pediatrician pointed out that she can make an "n" sound, which I hadn't noticed. The doctor said that was a good thing, by the way.

Just to name a few, along with the usual "da da da's" and "ma ma ma's" she'll say "doh doh doh," "ya ya ya" and something with a "tsh" sound. Currently she is in her jumperoo making a high to low pitched yell of some kind. She just discovered it so that means she'll do it many times before she gets bored and moves on to something else. Loud yelling or even screaching is a common thing now. Sometimes it happens in very public places and I smile and just keep on going. She's also starting to string sounds together that sound somewhat like sentences. She'll look at us, make her "statement" and we'll say "oh, of course Morgan" and "yes, tell us more about it!"

Last night while having a diaper change, she looked right at me and said "ma-ma." This was similar to the event in her high chair a month or so ago. Like last time, I tried to get her to say it again with no luck. It could happen any time though. We can't wait for some "real" Mama's and Dada's!

Monday, October 6, 2008

10 Months Old!


Morgan is 10 months old! Her "photo shoot" was really difficult this time, even with David helping. She wanted to do everything, but sit and look at the camera. Here's are few more shots:

Hopefully all these images will still enlarge when you click on them. A few of you have said that sometimes you can't make them bigger. I think when I move them around to get them in the right place in the post, something happens to a few of them. I'm not sure how to fix it though.
Morgan had a fun weekend. We had a BBQ with some neighbors on Friday. They have two little boys who are 4 and 2 and a girl on the way, due right around Morgan's birthday. Morgan was fascinated with the boys and they were so sweet to play with her. Saturday was David and my 5th wedding anniversary. We celebrated with a great steak dinner and Morgan got to hang out with our friends Barry and Christine. She was so good! The nursery caregivers at church also commented on how good she always is. She's not a crier...at least, not yet.
Happy 10 Months Boo Boo Girl! We love you so much!

Friday, October 3, 2008

Whistle while you work

A few weeks ago while I was feeding Morgan some cereal for breakfast I started whistling. Long ago I was able to whistle really well...then I got braces so the alignment of my teeth and jaw changed everything. I am really out of practice too. So, I don't whistle much, and don't know why I did it at this time, but Morgan was FASCINATED. She stopped eating and just watched and listened. I thought, uh oh, I better work on this so it doesn't sound so bad.

Since then, both David and I have caught Morgan whistling while she plays! Its just a little monotone short thing right now, but we'll look at her and sure enough she has her lips in a little "O" and sound is coming out in-between breathy blowing. We can't believe she figured this out! When I whistled to her in the high chair I got really close so she could tell I was blowing out when I was making the sound. She caught on really fast.

Now, we don't think she'll be whistling actual tunes any time soon, but it's awfully cute! Both David and I are working on our whistling to keep her interested though. With a little practice, maybe I'll be back to my old whistling skills!

Thursday, October 2, 2008

"9 Month" Dr. Appointment

We finally made it to the pediatrician for Morgan's "9 Month" Well-Baby appointment (at almost 10 months). Here are the stats:

Length: 30 inches (90th percentile)
Weight: 21 lbs 14.5 ounces (just under 90th percentile)

She's a tall girl, but proportional. At one point the doctor said "she looks amazing." I guess that's good! She's meeting all her developmental milestones and even pulled herself up on the wall next to the exam table during the exam. The doctor was worried she wouldn't be able to get down, but I assured her Morgan would be able to, and she did. In the last few days, several times she scooted herself over to the wall in our bonus room and pulled herself up to standing, like she wanted to scale it. Odd...I don't know?

The doctor does want us to meet with an opthamologist to check on a possible blocked tear duct. Her left eye is a dead-giveaway for when she has a cold, but sometimes it gets weepy when she's not sick. Not a big deal. We'll get it checked out.

She also got two more of her scheduled doses of vaccinations as well as a flu shot today, also a toe-prick for iron levels, which were fine. She just cried a bit with the shots, but perked up pretty quickly. I expected her to nap longer this afternoon, but it was a no-go on that. She's just as animated and playful as usual.

So then, we're on to increasing her amount of table foods, moving away from the baby food-like purees. We've already been doing this, but will continue. Only egg whites, honey, shellfish and peanut butter are off-limits at this point. At about 12 months she'll start on whole milk. Our baby's growing so fast it is hard to believe!

Wednesday, October 1, 2008