10 Months Old

October 27, 2011

Double digits!! Ahhh! Marin you are growing so fast! At 10 months old, you....

• Say many sounds and know who mama and dada are. When you are happy and playing, Dada gets lots of attention. But when you are tired and crabby, we hear "mama" in a very cranky tone. I so look forward to our teenage years together. 
• You love your crib. We rarely get through our little routine (book, song, bed) anymore before you reach for your crib and basically tell me to get out. But we can hear you over the monitor talking and singing until you fall asleep. 
• You are getting into a good sleep routine (traveling can cause some hiccups) but this week you are heading to bed at 7pm and we don't hear from you until around 5am. I usually nurse you and you will sleep until 6:30 or 7:00. I won't lie. I miss our late night visits. So when Hollis demands that I free up some space for her, I go to the bathroom and then sneak in and check on you. 9 times out of 10 you are on your belly with your booty sticking in the air. It takes all the self control I have not to scoop you up and kiss you all over. But I let you sleep....
• You absolutely love, love, love to CLIMB!!! And you are quite good at it. Stairs, slides, ladders...you love them! 
• Your favorite toys are still your stacking cups but the Little People and buses get a lot of play time as well. And FLASH CARDS!?!? You love a Dollar Tree set of flash cards. You will pull them in and out and look and bend the cards. Plus your Jingle Bell singing dog can make you dance and giggle! 
• Your favorite book is Guess Who? 
• Other random things you play with....the floor lamp (argh) and all your empty gas drop, vitamin d, and lotion containers. 
• You love dogs.
• When we say "baby", you get your baby doll. And we can say kiss and you will give her a sweet kiss. I've got to get this on video some time. You are going to be the best big sister!!! 

You love to shake the floor lamp.
And you know you aren't allowed to do it...that's why you get this really sneaky, yet proud,
grin on your face! 

Winter Wear

Chicago weather is a bit tricky lately. Some days it is nice and warm and other days it is CoOoOld! Cold isn't always fun. But if I get to see this cute bundled up Beluga during cold weather, I'm not going to mind so much! 

Love the puppy dog hat!
(And she is wearing a shirt under her coat. We pulled it down before we went outside. :o)

She knows we are going somewhere...happy, happy! 

Kansas

We went to Kansas last weekend to visit friends and to take Marin to her first college football game. It was a fun weekend and of course, I did a horrible job taking pictures but here are some....

KU band...Marin loved it. 

Proud Dad and his little Jayhawk

Listening very intently to the band walking by....

We got to see all the Watson's!

Burke with Brett and Beau 

Uh, I won't make any comment about Kansas football because I love my husband.
Sooooo, isn't that Jayhawk on the field pretty!?!?!?

Marin did so good at the game! She looked around and checked everything out and then....

she fell asleep.
Hollis makes a great pillow apparently. 

Marin's bed head has a little curl to it. :o) 

And when she got hot, we did what any good parents would do...
we put her on the ground.

It was a great weekend! Thanks to Ryan and Ashley for being such wonderful hosts. Always great to see the Stephens' family! And it was so great to meet Amy and Ashlyn!

A New Dance Move

Marin now moves her arms back and forth to dance. It is so funny. If she hears music, she does her dance!

Hollis- 20 Weeks

This post is a couple of weeks late but here is our sweet girl at our 20 week appointment. This little girl is soooo good to her Mommy. The second trimester is still going so very smoothly and I couldn't be any more thankful. She looks healthy and is growing, growing.
She is a mover and a groover. Hollis greets me most mornings with a few kicks and then she says good night with some kicks. And when Marin and I sing our little songs, I usually can feel some dance moves going on in there. And if my bladder is too full (her favorite place to sit), she lets me know quite abruptly at times that she needs some more space and that I should go RUN to the bathroom to accommodate her.
But I do love the movement. It's like she knows I need a little reassurance that she is happy and healthy in there. (Thanks, Hollis!) We are so very excited about our new little girl!

Yogurt

Marin wanted to feed herself yogurt last week. It was a fun and messy time for the Beluga! (It has actually become a very frequent event. It's pretty funny to watch how excited she gets when you hand her the spoon.)

Pumpkin Patch at Park

Today we went to a little Pumpkin Patch/Fall Festival at one of the Chicago Parks. We love the Chicago Park District! It was a perfect little fall outing for the Beluga. We picked out a pumpkin, took some pictures, rode a horse and wagon, and went to a petting zoo. They also had pumpkin decorating and face painting that we skipped but  she will probably appreciate that a lot more next year. The weather was beautiful, cool, and windy....very "fall-ish." 

Marin isn't sure why that strange man has Mommy's camera!?!?

Love these two. 

As Hollis grows, Marin gets more and more of a little seat to sit on....

Snuggling with Daddy and checking out the park on our horse and carriage ride....
I LOVE this picture. 

Meeting the horse....

Checking out the animals in the petting zoo....she was very intrigued by the animals. 

Quack Quack
Marin would do her fake cough sound every time the duck quacked.
I guess the quack sounded like a cough to her. 

LOOOOVED seeing all the animals! 

We got another (bigger) pumpkin and will carve and decorate it the week of Halloween so those mean squirrels don't eat it this year. I can't wait to see what Marin does with pumpkin goo!