10 Months!

Yesterday I turned 10 months old! It's been a crazy month with lots of traveling and trips out in Chicago. It was a great month for Family as I got to see all my grandparents and aunts & uncles... although I missed Jake the dog and Maggie the dog. Hopefully I can see Maggie over Thanksgiving and Jake over Christmas though.

What else? I'm walking! Well, not totally on my own yet, but with the help of my Learn and Play Walker. I can also clap now... go ahead and ask me to play paddy-cake! I'm a master! Waving good-bye and hello is a cinch now too. And of course, I am still a dancing fool!

I am still sleeping from 8 - 8 and taking 2 naps. I've been a little crabby lately though because I think my second tooth is coming in! It'll be nice to have more teeth so I can really start chomping down on food. I did add some new items to my pallet though... Yogurt (yum! especially blueberry yogurt), Cheese (american and white american so far), cookies (well, technically they are teething biscuits, but they taste like cookie to me!), rice sticks and of course the Mac n' Cheese! One of my favorites for sure!

I can't wait to see what this next month will bring!

Baby Steps

So now that I've got this crawling thing down I've decided I need to embark on some bigger and better endeavors. However those things will need to start with baby steps. I'm still a little wobbly and slow, and require the use of my little "learning walker" but Mom and Dad keep saying I'm doing really well! I think they are just being nice to me though; they love to shower me with encouragement.

The Baptisim

This weekend was a very special weekend... it's the weekend I got baptized! My cousin Will and I decided it would be fun to do it together so he wouldn't have to wear a dress alone and our parents thought it was a great idea too. It turned into quite the family affair, my Uncle Joey flew in from Denver and then Grandma & Grandpa Stoltz flew in from Texas - and Will's other Grandparents (Papa & Mimi Roberts) came down from Michigan for the event. They didn't bring Jake though so I was a little sad, but still glad to see them again.

The big event took place at Great Grandpa Roehr's church, he's an Elder at the church so he got to introduce us all. A whole bunch of my second cousins and aunts and uncles were there too. Oh and my God Parents! I was really excited to see them, Madeline (of Madeline, Pat & Charley) is my God Mother and Andy (of Andy & Emily) is my God Father - he was my Dad's Chicago roommate and best friend before my Mom and Dad become roommates.

When it was time for Will and I to be center stage we performed exceptionally well. No crying at all! I did end up swatting away Rev. Sweet's hand though - but that's only because he sprinkled water on my head like 3 times and I was worried about my bow. All in all it didn't take long at all and was a really cool experience - I'm so glad I got to share it with Will!

After the church service we all headed back to Great Grandpa's house for a little lunch and some cake. Will and I got to take off our dresses - my dress was also worn by my mom's cousin, Krista, and my mom,  and Will's dress was a serious family heirloom that is at least 150 - maybe even 200 years old! It was great to get out of my dress so I could crawl and walk around more freely. We all ate lunch - I got to have some mac n cheese! And then opened presents - it was so nice and very unexpected of everyone to bring us presents so thank you again!

After presents it was time for Mom's favorite thing - a photo shoot! She's seriously lucky that I am willing to put up with all the pictures she makes me take! I know that one day I'll be glad to see myself smiling in all these pictures instead of crying though, so I pretend to like it....

Here's a few more shots of me in my sunday best - and my bling! I almost forgot to tell you about my bling. My Great Aunt Helen (Grandma Stoltz's sister and Krista's Mom) send me this beautiful bracelet to wear for the baptism. It was so pretty, I loved wearing it and Mom says when I'm a little older I can wear it everyday, but not until I stop trying to eat it (I just thought it might taste good since it looks so good!) Thanks Aunt Helen!!

Oh and one last detail my Mom asked me to include. Here's the present I gave to my God Parents. Mom found a bunch of quote and poems about god parents and this is the one I picked out because I liked it the best. I am so lucky to have such wonderful family and friends surrounding me as I grow.

More Mac n' Cheese Please

This weekend we went to AJ's birthday party. AJ and Diana are mom and dad's friend and they don't have any kids yet, but they are still really fun to hang out with. AJ had his party at a bar and there were big booths for us to play around in and when the sun came out a huge outdoor patio. They had giant glasses and take home plastic cups and Mac n' Cheese! Mac n' Cheese represent my first office non-baby food food - well if you don't count fruits and veggies like bananas and avocado's which I eat normally, so I don't count them. Mom is a little embarrassed it was bar food mac n' cheese and not fancy organic mac n' cheese, but I told her I didn't care - it was GOOOOOOOD! Plus after 4 hours of being in this bar I deserved such a nice little treat. I was so overcome by it's creamy dreamy goodness I couldn't help but celebrate after each bite! Since then I've only had mac n cheese one other time, but Mom promises to make more of it... yummmm, I can't wait!

Oh and here's a few pictures from the last week when Dad and I got back from Cincinnati and we were waiting for Mom to come home from Boston...

Cincinnati Again... x4

On Monday Mom left to fly to Boston for the week for work. Within nothing pressing to do in Chicago, Dad and I decided to hang out in Cincinnati for a few more days before heading home. I got to hang out with Great Grandma and grandma and grandpa a lot as Dad got a few rounds of golf in. But he was always home for dinner and even some walks to the park! We had a lot of fun and I was sad to leave, but I knew we would be back again in just another week. Thanks for all the good times Cincy!

Cincinnati Again... x3

On Sunday after the wedding Mom took me over to see Pat, Madeline and Charley for a little play date. I love hanging out with Charley and I think he's starting to think of me as more of a friend and less of a baby now that I can crawl and stand.

After Charley's I took a long nap and then headed over to Great Grandpa's for a family dinner with grandma, grandpa, aunt julie, uncle billy, cousin will and mom and dad! We had a lot of fun except for that one time when Will tried to run me over with the walker. I can't believe he would do that! You can see from my expression that I am clearly surprised he would do such a thing...

Cincinnati Again... x2

On Saturday I woke up early and played around at home in my awesome new sweatsuit... see that? It's polo. My great great aunt Ruthie bought me this, I love it, it's so soft and smooth.

Then Mom & Grandma took me on a nice long walk to the park. This park had a tire swing! I'd never been on a tire swing before but I really liked it - and there was no one else at the park, so I had the whole place to myself. It was awesome!

Later that night my second cousin Sara babysat me while my parents went to a wedding... Zack & Sarah's! Here's a few pictures of that too!

We're not done with Cincinnati yet though! I'll be back tomorrow with more!

Cincinnati Again...

Mom and Dad had to go to another wedding in Cincinnati so we headed back to Grandma & Grandpa's Roudabush's for a long weekend. There was a lot happening this weekend so I'm going to have to break this up into a few entries. First up, a visit with Miley the Dog! (oh I mean Shelly, my mom's best friend). Shelly and Jeff are a lot of fun, they let me play with their dog whenever I come over. Mom says next time I go over there, they'll also have a new baby for me to play with! As you can see Shelly is VERY pregnant - she's 4 days past her due date today! Hurry up already!! I can't wait to meet my new friend - and come back to play with Miley.

Shaking

I love my new bouncy seat, technically, it's not mine though. It's Joey's! He was nice enough to let me borrow it for a while. Mom and Dad especially love it, I think because once I'm in it they don't have to worry about me crawling over to the glass tables, eating crumbs off the floor, trying to eat my stroller wheels or computer power cords, etc. My nanny, Betsy taught me how to shake while I was in it... then my Mom taught me another kind of shaking in it (the dancing kind!). It's so much fun!

Brunch with Ella

This weekend we went to Brunch with Ella and her mom and dad - Shalee and Blake. We ate at this great restaurant with giant booths that we could climb all over! Ella was trying to teach me how to walk, but I can't do that on my own yet. She also loves princesses and was showing me how to feed puffs to the princesses! It was so much fun to be so free, restaurants can get kind of boring otherwise  : ) Ella went on vacation after we had brunch, but she's back now and I can't wait to go visit her again!

Louie Louie Louie

This weekend we went over to see Louie again!!! Louie is so cute, he's only 5 months younger than me but he's already such a little gentleman. His mom and dad (Kim and Matt) are really good friends with my mom and dad - and their other friends Diana and AJ. I guess before we were born they used to have wild game nights but I'm not suppose to really hear about all those. Anyway, we had a great time playing and hanging out for a few hours till we both got so tired we just passed out.

Climbing to New Heights

Wow, what a crazy weekend! We had lots of parties to go to. First, we went to a pizza party for Katie's (Joey's Mom's) birthday! You could see them making the pizza right through this giant window, it was really cool!

The next night we went over to Joey's house to have another party. Natalie was in town (with Kristin & Zack, her parents) from Cincinnati and Molly was there too (my new neighborhood friend with her parents Shannon & Bob) and Joanne & Zack, my mom's really good friends - who I like hanging out with too.

It was a great time! Joey has so many toys and we were all hanging out playing with each other - and okay maybe fighting a little over the toys. But then, I learned something new! How to climb up stairs! Natalie is the one who showed me how, once I got started though it was pretty easy - and so much fun! Now I climb stairs everywhere I can! Here's me in action!

Getting Bigger...

Just a flash back. Here I am at 2 days old (on my way home from the hospital) with the pink football Grandpa Roudabush game me... and here I am at 9 months old! That football was almost as big as my whole body! Now I dominate it!