Seattle Day 3 - A Tale of Two Henrys

On our third day in Seattle we went to visit some friends!! We had really been looking forward to this. Our first stop was at my friend Jennie's home in the Magnolia area of town. She and her husband Matthew have an adorable almost-two-year old named Henry. We had a lovely brunch at the marina and then went to an awesome playground close to their home. Morgan had never seen a sandbox before and she jumped right in. As you can see from the picture I had her all dolled up in a cute outfit and white socks and sandals...we didn't anticipate the sandbox that day.

Digging right in with the shovels and buckets

Cool spinning thing that looked a bit like a large suction cup. She loved it!

Here's adorable Henry. FYI - he's standing on a box of some kind watching his Daddy out the window. He and Morgan are actually about the same height.

Here's me and Jennie and our munchkins. Who knew we'd still keep in touch since becoming friends in middle school?!

Oh, but there's another Henry we met that day! When I worked in Coeur d'Alene I met April, who is a rep for a publication we bought advertising for. We became fast friends and bonded over the road to becoming mommies. She and her hubby Greg live in West Seattle in a beautiful home overlooking the water. Their little Henry is about 5 months old. I forgot how little they are!! He was a bit of a preemie, so he is smaller than most 5 month olds too.

Henry and David

April reading to Morgan. She brought the book right to her. She must really have liked her!

Morgan nuzzling Henry

We wondered how Morgan would react to a tiny baby. She did what she does to my belly...she put her head right up to him. She also did this at our neighbor's house yesterday with their 6 month old. We'll see how she feels when her little sister comes along...then doesn't go away. After a wonderful homecooked dinner and some great company we headed back downtown. The next post will conclude our trip...then it will be back to the day-to-day events in Spokane. Its great to get away, but also really good to be home.

Kisses

Morgan's friend Elijah and his Mama, Migdalia came over on Saturday night to watch the Shock game. They were playing in Boise and we planned on watching the game via streaming video on the computer. We had a great time! We barbecued some burgers and Morgan and Elijah played while we gathered around the computer monitor.

Elijah loved the "popping" toy. It is similar to a lawn mover toy he has at home. Morgan is holding her favorite book of the moment, "Moo Moo Brown Cow."

Don't you love Elijah's Shock jersey?! It has his name on the back.

David and Migdalia glued to the monitor. The Shock won!

The highlight of the evening. The kids in their jammies. They were showing each other how they can blow kisses!

It looks like Morgan is kissing Elijah's hand...but most likely she is licking it. Yuck!

Baby vs. Lovey

Morgan at 6 weeks old with "Lovey"

This morning with her new "baby"

Morgan loves her "Lovey"! It is a soft little security blanket that has a bunny head and a little blanket for the body. She's had it with her in her crib since she was about 6 months old.

Yesterday we took a trip to Toy R Us. I had to return a few things, so we browsed a little too. We passed by the baby dolls and Morgan got a BIG smile on her face. I had bought her a doll a little after her first birthday, but did not give it to her because she started a terrible round of teething and was chewing on everything she could get her hands on. Yesterday I decided it was time to give her the doll. We needed to start some "baby training" too. I was curious to see how she would play with the doll.

So, when we got home I pulled the doll out of the closet along with a toy stroller a friend gave her for her birthday. Once she got ahold of the "baby"she immediately hugged it, then either kissed, or licked her head. Hmmm. I told her she needed to be gentle with the baby and she complied by hugging her and kissing her head some more. I think she was just placating me, because later in the day she showed her true colors.

Enter the Lovey. Yesterday I also decided to move Morgan's gate to the top of the stairs instead of the door to the bonus room. I left her bedroom door open, but closed the other doors upstairs. She had so much fun playing in her room. She "read" her books. She also took to walking the whole length of the hallway. She's never had such freedom before!! So, her Lovey usually just sits in her crib waiting for naps and bedtime. Now that Morgan can play in her room, she's been bringing Lovey out to play from time to time. The first time she brought "him" out (I don't know why we call it a "him" since it's pink) she headed straight to the doll stroller, forcefully threw the doll on the floor and put lovey in the stroller. I think we have some work to do. It may take a while for Morgan to warm up to the baby doll. Lovey certainly reigns supreme at this point.

This morning Morgan played in her room for a bit. I was in the bonus room and called her name a few times. Out Morgan came with Lovey in her arms. She had retrieved him from her crib again. She made sure that I said hello to Lovey and off she went to play some more. So cute. We'll keep working on the "baby" though.

Baby Hugs

I think I mentioned in a recent post how Morgan has been learning how to give hugs. I'll put her on my lap and say "give Mama a hug" and she'll lean in with her arms out. It is so sweet! Lately when she's been walking back and forth between David and I she'll give a final "leap" into our arms for a big hug. Oh...yes, she's walking now. Not full time yet, but she's getting braver every day.

Back to the hugs, yesterday she did the funniest thing. We were headed home from dropping Grandma and Grandpa B at the airport (more on that visit in posts to come)...and I decided to stop by the mall to get my favorite frozen coffee drink. When we got there we had to wait in line and there was another Mom with a few kinds in front of us. Morgan spied a girl, a little older than her and she watched her for a little while. The girl was holding her Mom's hand, and she was checking Morgan out too. I put Morgan on the floor and held her hand too so she couldn't get too far. She toddled right over to the little girl. She got herself right in front of her, let go of my hand, leaned in and put her arms out for a hug! Unfortunately the girl had no idea what to do, so Morgan didn't get her hug...but she was so sweet to try! I told her she was a good girl and picked her up for a big hug. Somehow all of this happened without the girl's mom noticing at all. I think she was trying to corral two older boys who were wandering all over the shop.

I'm really curious now to see if she does this with other kids she knows. Her friend Kirsten is a big hugger and I know she'll return the hug with gusto! Too cute!

Elijah's Birthday

We had the privilege of attending our friend Elijah's First Birthday party on Saturday. We had a great time and Morgan got to play with her buddy too. Here's a few photos of some playtime they had with his new toys.

No, we will not come out from under this table. We are hiding from you.

Now, Morgan, you cannot play with this toy, it is my favorite!

Mom, Morgan's sitting on my new toy!

Oooh! A hippo computer!

Here Morgan, let me show you my Blog. You'll love it!

Happy Birthday Elijah! Thank you for inviting us to your party! You'll have to come to Morgan's in just a few weeks.

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

More Milestones

Morgan managed to do two brand new things on Thursday morning within about an hour of each other. When the milestones come, they come fast and furious. Morgan's friend Taylor was visiting yesterday while her Mommy had an interview. She brought over a fun new toy to play with and Morgan was fascinated!!

The toy has all kinds of buttons that play music and teach things like colors and shapes. Morgan pulled herself up to her knees this time. This also shows you how big Morgan is. Taylor is THREE months OLDER than Morgan. She's on the smaller end of the scale, but wow!

After a outfit change, I sat her down in front of it again and next thing I knew she pulled herself up all the way to standing! There's Taylor about to crawl into another area I haven't baby-proofed yet. Sigh. The girls had fun.

Once she stood up, Morgan's feet stayed like this. Not so stable yet, rather funny though.

Next, it was nap time. I put Morgan in her crib and about five minutes later I looked at the video monitor to see her head MUCH closer to the camera than usual. I went in the room and this is what I found!

She looked a little stunned, wondering how she did this...and what she should do now.

I can't remember if I lied her back down, but she managed to take a decent nap after this. What a big girl!

4th of July Fun!

We had an eventful Fourth this year! We started the festivities at the Liberty Lake parade. This is a cute community parade where residents decorate their golf carts, make up fun dances/routines to perform and create rather crude, yet creative floats. The best part is that the parade participants throw candy into the crowd for the kids and it's a big race to grab as much candy as you can. Trauma always ensues as some get more candy than others, but the parents try to keep everything as fun as possible. Here are a few photos of our friends and Morgan's friends Kirsten and Kelsey. Notice the cute Old Navy outfit from Auntie Ali. One of our friends declared Morgan "best dressed baby" of the day.

We headed home after the parade to get ready to go to the beach...and Morgan started to act a bit odd. She was really fussy and her head felt warm. We took her temp...102.7! Of course all the Urgent Care centers are closed on a holiday...then we remembered one of our neighbors is a pediatric nurse practitioner. She came to the rescue and said it just sounded like a cold combined with some teething (more on that in a post to come). She gave us some baby Advil and within an hour or so her temp was back to normal and she was much more herself. Another nap helped out a lot too.

Later in the evening we went to our friends' home on Liberty Lake for the fireworks. We were a little sad because we had wanted to take Morgan swimming in the lake, but that will have to wait. Here a few pics from the rest of the evening. Our little one nodded off before the fireworks started and only stirred a little at the really loud ones.

Go Bananas! B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

So, we are continuing the journey of solid foods.

The biggest challenge I have when feeding Morgan is that she tries to lick or suck the food off the spoon instead of opening her mouth and closing her lips around it. Grrr...I figure this will come with practice, but for now eating is very slow because I can't put much on the spoon at a time. We were out to dinner with her little friend Elijah (and his parents) last night and he was just gobbling up his food! Though he's only three weeks older than Morgan, his parents started him on solid foods at around 4 months. He's had a lot more practice than she has.

Here's what we have tried recently:

*Avocados - She seems to be OK with it...but the "chunks" tend to come back out, even tiny ones. I think I need to try to blend them instead of just mash them.

* Bananas - Fairly successful. The first time I made them I added some water and they ended up too watery. I figured out all I needed to do was pop them in the blender and go. She seemed to like these too...but any chunks came right back out!

* Applesauce - We tried a baby food version of this. I haven't been brave enough yet to actually stew and puree fruit, maybe this weekend? She eats the applesauce pretty well, but we've ended up with two days of diaper "blow-outs" as a result. Daddy and daycare have dealt with the brunt of these. They are such troopers!

Within the next few weeks we are looking at trying sweet peas, peaches, pears and oatmeal. his should finish off her list of "Stage 1" foods. Yum! I've had her daycare start feeding her one "meal" in the morning of the foods she's already tried. Her teacher has been begging me to let her do this for a week or two, but I wasn't sure Morgan was ready. Apparently she's been sucking down her bottles quickly and acting like she's still hungry. I finally gave in yesterday. This should help her get more "eating practice" and fill up her growing tummy better.

So far this has been more difficult than I thought it would be. Making the food is not the problem, but the actual feeding part challenges my patience at times. I guess I thought she'd be more excited about it, but it is all a process of learning for her. I keep repeating that saying I've heard "before age one, food is just for fun." She will get all the nutrition she needs and will be OK if she doesn't progress quickly to more textured or table foods. We have lots of time.

Busy, Busy Bee!

We had a VERY busy weekend! Saturday night we went to the Shock game where the Shock clinched the Division title with an exciting last "second" win over the Central Valley Coyotes.

Sunday morning we had the privilege of attending the dedication of our favorite young man, Elijah. His Mom and Dad, Migdalia and Adam are great friends and we are loving watching our little ones "grow up" together. We spent some time at their home afterward and Elijah and Morgan had a great time playing together. They are both sitting up well, so they actually interacted a bit.

Wow, Elijah's got some cool toys!

What have we got in here?

It was HOT on Sunday...about 100 degrees! Later in the day we thought it would be fun to blow up Morgan's baby pool. Well, it's not really a pool...but it has lots of inflatable parts that you hook your hose up to and water spurts out all over.

Mommy, is it a dolphin?

Unfortunately the water was REALLY cold...so Morgan was not happy with us. Doesn't she look cute in her swimsuit though? And Mommy's striking a glamorous pose (totally unintentionally) in her new sunglasses.

Daddy, that water was COLD!!! I don't care how hot it is outside!

Friends

Now I couldn't do a post with pictures and not have one without pictures of the adventures of our little Morgan.

We are happy to report that the Shock won again on Saturday! We beat the Austin Wranglers 62-42. Still undefeated! Below is Morgan's friend Elijah who's daddy is the head coach. Elijah is about 3 weeks older than Morgan. Elijah's Mommy, Migdalia, is already teaching Elijah that he needs to "protect" Morgan when they start school together. I'm not sure what she needs to be protected from, but we like that she's already making friends. They actually acknowledged each other this time. Usually they barely look at each other. There might have even been a little hand-holding!