A Birthday, Some Pumpkins and a Bengals Game

This past weekend was full of so many fun things and lots of family time.

On Friday we celebrated my sister's birthday with my family. She requested a "breakfast for dinner" menu and apple pie as her "cake". We had a great time enjoying a leisurely dinner at my parents' house and just spending time together as a family.

Unsure about why Todd wrapped her gift in an old screw container. 

Todd had to work Saturday morning, so I stayed home and took care of some cleaning and things around the house. That afternoon we went to our nephew's football game. They won and are now headed to a tournament! We are so proud of him and his team.

After the game we headed over to a nearby pumpkin patch. None of us had ever been to a true pumpkin patch before. I mean, every year we go to the same one, but they always just have piles of pumpkins already picked and you can select the one you want. We had to take a hay ride from the parking lot out to their patch and then walked through the fields trying to find which pumpkin we wanted. It was quite the experience. Our oldest nephew was super into it and kept trying to find the biggest one. His younger brother was running around pretending to be Spiderman and wanted to pick the best pumpkin to eat. And our little girl was pretty oblivious to the whole thing and just wanted to play and wave to everyone she saw. It was quite the comedy act. haha. Todd's sister brought her nice camera with her and was able to capture some sweet photos of our little girl for us. We let our nephew pick out one for us, we took the hayride back to the main building, picked up some fresh apple cider, local honey and a quick snack and headed back to Todd's parents for some dinner and to watch some football.

Some friends invited us to the Bengals vs. Seahawks game on Sunday. Todd is a big Bengals fan and the Bengals were going into this game with a 4-0 record this year. Needless to say, he was pretty pumped. We didn't take our little one to the game, but she was certainly dressed for the occasion. My parents watched her while we were at the game. We met up with them before hand to drop her off and snapped a couple photos of the 3 of us in our game day attire.

This was my 2nd time at a pro football game. The stadium was so loud, the energy was contagious. Our friends had excellent seats 7 rows up from the field. The game was so exciting. We were down at the beginning of the 4th quarter and many people started to leave. We stayed to the end and are so glad we did, we saw one of the best come backs. The 4th quarter ended in a tie and the game went to overtime. We ended up winning with a field goal that bounced off one of the uprights. Such an exciting game! We had a blast with our friends. Thanks so much for inviting us!!

All in all, we had a great weekend. So many fun memories were made with dear friends and family.

9 Months

Sweetest baby girl,
You have learned so much in the last month. You have started to clap your hands and it is absolutely adorable! We have also started to teach you some baby sign language like "more" and "all done". We are hoping this will help you to communicate with us while you're eating. Right now your "more" is basically you clapping your hands. And when you want more food, you screech and bang your hands on the table, it is quite a noisy experience. You're figuring out your own way of communication and it is really fun for us to watch you learn and figure things out.

When you are standing and holding on to something, you've started letting go and are slowly figuring out your balance. You are crawling everywhere and once you get to a piece of furniture or a wall to hold on to, you stand up and cruise right along them. We picked up a little shopping cart toy for you a couple weeks ago and you love pushing it around the house. It took you a bit to figure your balance with it, but you love it now. Everyone has started to guess when you'll take your first steps, I'm sure it will be soon. If you see something you want, you crawl over there just as fast as can be. At bedtime when you are getting sleepy and just want to be held, if I walk to a different room, you will chase after me and climb up holding my legs. You certainly love to snuggle up with us at bedtime to read a book, have some milk and drift off to sleep.

You are starting to get more hair and after your bath, the hair on the back of your head gets the cutest slight curl. Right now it is a light brown, but in certain light it has a reddish tint. Your eyes have been changing color too. They are the most beautiful hazel. In some light they look brown and other times they have a green/gold color. People often comment how beautiful you are, especially your eyes. I wonder if you'll end up with dark brown eyes like your dad or if they'll stay a hazel-green like mine.

Your top two front teeth came through this week. So now you have two on top and two on the bottom. Apples, celery and carrots are your favorite foods while you're teeth are working on coming through. For the most part you really don't seem bothered by teething discomforts and you go about your day, just as happy as always. You have been waking more at night and you like to be held more during the day to help comfort you, but you also still love to play a lot.
Speaking of playing, you absolutely love playing with your dogs and us. You could also occupy yourself for hours if you had the right toys. You love to entertain yourself. You also love to work a crowd. If you know someone is watching you, you can be quite the entertainer. You laugh and laugh and if someone has a reaction and starts laughing with you, you just laugh harder. You are such a happy little girl, full of so much personality and joy.

You are still nursing multiple times a day and have bottles of pumped milk while I'm at work. You love trying new foods. Some of your favorites are: Greek yogurt, avocado, apples, carrots, green beans, chicken, hamburger meat, cheerios and applesauce. We give you finger foods and you love feeding yourself. You also love sharing with the dogs and passing out food when you're done with it.

At your check up today, the doctor said you look very healthy. You made your presence known and were squealing and jabbering and babbling on and on the whole time. We were cracking up at how much you had to say. The doctor said most babies will say their first word between now and 12 months old. We are all guessing what your first word will be. You babble on and on with different syllables like: da, mmum, baa. The doctor said you are quite the active little girl and are healthy as can be.

Love you,
Momma


Weight: 16 lbs 11 oz.
Height: 28"
Head Circumference: 17.5"
Wearing: 6 month clothing, 9 month pajamas
Size 3 diapers

Loves:
waving to us, to the dogs, to anything really
climbing the stairs
bath time
feeding the dogs from your high chair and getting into their dog bowls at their mealtime
"helping" do the dishes - mostly climbing onto the dishwasher or holding the rack
being mobile and crawling everywhere - learning to balance and stand on your own now
pushing your toy shopping cart around the house
apples

playing peek a boo

clapping your hands
pointing at things and laughing


During this month's photos, you were cracking up laughing at your daddy. I just love your expressions and baby belly laughs. Your laughter is contagious and these photos bring me right back to that moment, hearing your giggles.

New Traditions - Apple Picking

I have always wanted to go apple picking and a few weeks ago we decided this would be the year to try it out. We were planning to go in a couple weeks, but some plans fell through this weekend and we ended up with a free morning. The weather was cool enough to feel like fall, but still warm enough that we didn't need coats. After a quick search online for pick your own apple orchards we had it narrowed down to 3 farms that all had great reviews. We opted for the one closest to home as this would be our first apple picking experience and we really didn't want to spend over an hour driving somewhere, especially when we had limited time before little one's naptime. We went to Iron's Fruit Farm which is just about 40 minutes away from home.
Little La was snoozing away when we pulled into the parking lot. Todd loaded her up into the baby carrier in hopes that she would stay asleep just a little longer. As soon as we approached their little shop, she heard the kids running around and was wide awake and checking out the scenery. Once we figured out where to go to pick the apples, we hopped on the hayride out to the orchard. The weather was just perfect, I would have liked a little more sunshine, but Todd said he wouldn't have changed a thing.

After seeing so many cute photos on Pinterest of families apple picking and babies in the orchard, I had it set in my mind that I wanted some cute photos of our little girl apple picking. Of course, she is working on her 3rd tooth right now, her first one on the top, so all she wanted to do was chew on an apple to ease some of her discomfort. Despite her teething, she had a great time. She loved picking up the apples and chewing on them. She was not a fan of trying to pick one off the tree. We held her up several times thinking she'd reach out to grab one, but she didn't love touching the branches and leaves.

She LOVED the hay ride back. She stood there the whole time just giggling away and waving her arms and bouncing up and down. She would wave at everyone in the trailer, then wave at all the trees we were passing and start cracking up watching the wheels on the tractor. When we arrived back by the shop we passed by some of their animals. La thought the emu and pony were so funny. We paid for our apples and picked up some fresh apple cider, apple butter and a pastry to snack on. We sat out at a picnic table and enjoyed our little treat. They had an old tractor out that you could climb up and sit on. I climbed up and Todd passed La up to me. She loved standing up there, waving to everything and holding the big steering wheel.

All in all, we had a great day. As we were leaving the farm we decided this is something we should do every year. I love making homemade applesauce so I'll be pretty busy this week peeling, cutting, cooking and mashing apples. I think this could be a fun tradition every year. Now that we have all these apples, I think I'll try baking my first ever pie this fall.

On Sunday, we went to a birthday party for the neighbor's little boy. They had the party at the park just up the street. The weather was just beautiful. While we were there we went over to the playground hoping to find some swings, but they didn't have any. Instead we opted to try out the slides. La had so much fun sliding with us.

Such a fun weekend of firsts for our little girl. We're looking forward to many more fun firsts with her. It is so fun starting new family traditions. I'm hoping to go apple picking every year, it will be so fun to watch her grow and change from year to year as she becomes more interested in picking the apples.