Trick or Treat? We think she is a treat!

Pumpkin Head!!

Trying a lollipop for the first time

Me and my friend, Angel

Storytime and Pumpkin Patch

Tuesday's are for story time for Elizabeth. I started taking her when I was home on maternity leave and her dad has continued the tradition. It is just for 20 minutes at our local library but she LOVES it. Up until yesterday she would stand in front of us and participate with the music and clapping and listening to the stories but would not venture away from us. Well, yesterday a whole new Elizabeth broke out at story time. She stood right in front of the "teachers" and clapped and rocked to every song. Then would turn around and wave at everyone in the class. Then she would walk off around the room and check everyone out and then make her way back to the front of the class. She had a blast and everyone got a kick out of her!

Elizabeth and her friend, Olivia

I was able to join them for story time yesterday and was soooooo glad that I did not miss this show. She was definitely enjoying herself and entertaining everyone else in the room at the same time. I just wish we had taken the camera in so I could have photographed some of her antics!

After story time we went across the street to the pumpkin patch and picked out our pumpkin. She loved walking around and hitting those big orange balls! It was difficult to get her to stand or sit still for a photo but I was able to snap a few. Her friend, Olivia, also was at the pumpkin patch and we made their picture together as you can see.

I went back to work and Elizabeth and her dad came home and carved the pumpkin we bought. It was carved into the "scary" face that Elizabeth is now famous for. There is a picture a few posts down that shows her doing her "scary" face for everyone. She does it all the time and particularly likes to do it if she thinks she is getting in trouble for something!

Another pic of Elizabeth with Olivia

Until next time.........................

Can you believe it has been 3 months?

Looking out of the sliding glass door















Our four legged child!

















Doing my favorite thing-swinging!

This week marked a huge milestone for us-3 months since Gotcha Day! Can you believe it??? I say this every month that passes that wonderful anniversary but in some respects it was like yesterday and in other respects it was a life time ago. We are just so in love with our girl. She makes us laugh each and every day. She just fits in our family. My sister says all the time "it is hard to believe you did not give birth to her!"

She is now walking all over the place. She continues to love music, even just hearing 1 or 2 beats of music and she is rocking and clapping along. She is vocalizing more and now says Dada, Mama, dog, bye bye and meow. Now some of these words are not 100% accurate with the pronunciation, but we know that is what she is saying. She is very friendly and social-waving at everyone and everything. When we are out on our walks she is usually waving at the cars that go by whether we know the people or not. I took her to her first gym/play class yesterday and she walked all over the mat in the class just waving at everyone. She is a huge imitator-whatever we do she tries to do as well.

She now weighs 15 lbs 5 ounces-almost a full 2 lb gain since we got home. Actually I am surprised it is that much now that she is walking because she is up and about constantly! I think she is around 29 inches tall but haven't checked that recently. Food is still somewhat of an issue for us. She has a very hard time with stage 3 baby food and is also not transitioning over to table food like we think she should-but then again she ate her first raw apple 2 weeks ago and LOVED it. When I was grocery shopping yesterday and put the apples into our cart Elizabeth started clapping! It was hilarious. She likes all chips-Doritos, potato chips, she loves Gerber puffs and Cheerios, cereal bars, yogurt and steamed egg. We finally were able to transition her to milk in a sippy cup, but she still takes a bottle at bedtime. Mainly for the calories (that she needs) and also because I love holding her close and loving on her. She doesn't sit still any other time of the day so I take advantage of those few moments when she takes a bottle.

Life has changed so drastically for us-all for the better. I could never have imagined how much we could love this little lady and what a special gift she has been to our family.

Here are just some fun pics of our girl-not doing any thing special but just enjoying life!

Until next time.......................

A little taste of fall

We FINALLY had a break in the weather here this weekend. We were actually having heat advisories last week with temps feeling like they were around 102-103 in the afternoon, but on Friday we had a front blow through that brought our first cool weather. Saturday dawned sunny and chilly- I think it was 59 degrees out and only warmed to around 70 degrees all day. That is pretty cool for us Florida people. Then today (Sunday) it was more of the same thing and also breezy. We were just outside talking with the neighbors as the sun was going down and between losing the sun, and the breeze that was blowing all of us were complaining we were cold!

Yesterday Grams and Granddaddy came to visit. Elizabeth just LOVES when they come because she gets all the attention every single minute that they are here. And of course, they brought a Halloween basket with goodies in it for her. This is the first time they have seen her since she started walking and they were just amazed at how well she is walking and toddling all over the house. Not sure what we did all day but somehow managed not to take a single picture-sorry!

But none the less here are a couple of our girl. The first pic is her enjoying her very first apple! I was eating one for a snack and she watched me very intently for about one minute then started waving her arms like crazy and making "bop bop" sounds with her mouth. So I picked her up, sat her in my lap and just held the apple in front of her. Well, she bit right into it and was actually able to get a little pulp off and of course the juice, and she LOVED it. She continued to sit in my lap another 5-10 minutes just biting off small amounts and eating away. Now this is coming from the girl that won't eat stage 3 baby food if there is any chunks in it at all, but she'll eat a raw apple-go figure!

My first apple!

The second pic is her just out in our backyard wondering around and chasing leaves last nite. It was cool and her and our dog were feeling pretty peppy and just had a great time running all around the back yard and exploring together.

Unfortunately, the cool weather comes to an end this week and it is forecast to be back around 85 degrees by mid week. But we loved the quick glimpse of fall we did have and can't wait for our next "cold" snap!

Until next time.....................................

And a good morning to you!

Good morning everyone!

Just checking in

Breanna and Elizabeth-Saturday, Oct 10th

Hello all, it was a fairly busy week last week, and the end of a 12 day haul of working for me so I was definitely looking forward to the weekend! Elizabeth and I went into Orlando on Saturday and met up with my college roommate, Lynn and Lynn's daughter, Breanna. It was so great to see them both! However, I felt quite old as Lynn was 5 months pregnant with Breanna when Patrick and I got married and now she will be turning 13 years old in December! Good Lord where does the time go?????!?!?!

Breanna played with Elizabeth so well and was so good at keeping Elizabeth entertained and busy. Elizabeth is now walking all the time and just gets up and goes at free will. Well Breanna kept up the pace with her and it gave Lynn and I the opportunity to play catch up with each others lives. I have really missed seeing her regularly like we used to when I still lived in Orlando. We lived together for a couple of years in college and then continued on as roommates after college until Lynn got married. Those were the times!! Here are some pictures of our visit.

Lynn, Elizabeth and myself-Saturday, Oct 10. I think Elizabeth wanted to go home with them

This pic is a little blurry but it is Elizabeth playing on her wheely bug. When she first came home her legs wouldn't touch the ground when she sat on it. Now they touch and she can get off easily but hasn't quite mastered the art of getting on and also scooting around on it-yet! It is just the cutest little ladybug design and will try to get some pics of her on it and where you can see the entire toy.

What do you mean what am I doing? Lying on my parents bed, watching Spongebob and resting

my legs on this great foot stool-this is the life!

Until next time.......................................

Want to see some of my tricks:

What do you mean I am not supposed to be up here?

And now for my new trick, walking across the bed!!

Hard at work and it isn't even 8 am yet!!

Want to see some funny faces??

This is me sitting on my stool in the kitchen. Now which cabinet were those pots in that make alot of noise????

Just hanging out playing with my ball activity center

This is what I call my "scary" face. I stretch my bottom lip out and my jaw and if I am really serious about it, will also make my whole body tremble. Who needs a Halloween costume?

See all my new teeth????!!!!!!

This is me walking!

Elizabeth has decided she is going to walk pretty regularly now. She started taking a few steps about 2 weeks ago, but was alternating between crawling and walking. Slowly over the last 2 weeks she has gotten more confident and is walking more and more. She will still crawl some when she wants to get to something quickly, but I think those days will be over soon. Here is a short video taken about 1 week ago when she still wasn't quite so sure on her feet, but none the less, you can see she takes a few steps to give the dog his toy. They are such good friends!