Alice: 10 Months

New Skills:  She is walking great.  She has started to pick things up with her pinchers rather than her whole hand.  She also has learned to give me kisses.  It's more like mouth-to-mouth but it's still sweet.

Likes:  Chasing her shadow.  Bouncing to music.  Playing "I'm going to get you".  Using any sort of cup to go "waa - waa" (see video below)

Dislikes:  Being told "no".  Holding still while I change her diaper.

Firsts: June 14th - First long car ride and trip to Baton Rouge.  She did really great and slept most the time.  She was also really patient with the house hunting.

July 6th - First fireworks.  She surprisingly wasn't scared by them.  But she was more interested in the glow stick someone gave her.

Her "waa-waa"ing:

Her new favorite toy:

It's an empty sprinkles container that she grabbed off the table.  She loves it silly girl.

Outside she loves walk around with a tall weed stalk.

She also likes to walk around at the park that is in the common area of our neighborhood.

She also thinks its funny when you pop out from somewhere and say "peek-a-boo!"

 I thought this picture was funny because she looks like she is using the flamingo as a phone.

Your monthly cuteness overload:

Alice: 9 Months

Weight: 16.8 pounds


Height:  28 inches

New Skills:  So much has happened in the past month.  She started standing on her own.

Then she took her first steps.

Then she started walking.  (I mean "walking" as in she can even from one room to another walking)

She has learned how to give raspberries.  It's really funny.

Likes:  Chasing the cats.  Going outside.  She really likes looking at the trees and feeling the breeze.

Dislikes:  Sleeping in her crib.  I attempted to get her to start sleeping in her crib at night.  We put it right next to my bed.  She did alright for a few nights then she started waking up about every hour.  I would nurse her back to sleep and put her back in the crib but she would wake up again an hour later.  So she is back in bed with me.

Firsts: May 17th Alice took her first step.

June 7th Alice got her first cold.  Thankfully it was very mild and only lasted a few days.  Mostly just a snotty nose.


First steps:

Walking for real:

Alice and her buddy Tiger Lily.

Giving Daddy "back rubs" aka using daddy as a jungle gym.

Helping with the laundry.

Silly faces.

Her hair is finally growing in.

Cute faces.

Nashville Botanical Gardens

So to celebrate Mother's day and my birthday we spent a Saturday in Nashville.  

We went to the botanical gardens.

It was fun but I was disappointed by how few flowers there were.

But we got take some nice pictures and I got to wear around the new ring sling I made.

Our backyard is mostly dirt and weeds so this was Alice's first time sitting in the grass.

She really likes the grass and the outdoors.

 She was not the biggest fan of actually laying in the grass.

She fell asleep by the end of the walk around the gardens.

After that we went to a gourmet popsicle shop.

I got a strawberries and cream popsicle dipped in chocolate and Stephen got a chai popsicle.  They were so good!

Then we went to a craft brew place and tasted some beers.

After that we went to whole foods and picked up some different cheeses and went home and had a cheese platter with some wine and watched Star Wars VI.

It was a pretty great day :o)

Alice and Her Soldier

Last month Stephen was in the field for about 10 days.

"In the field" is when they go and train, usually in a field in tents, and don't come home at night.

Stephen calls it "playing Army".

His brigade was training for their upcoming deployment.

He mostly read the whole time since he was given a task that didn't require him to do much.

It was the longest he has ever been away from Alice.

It made me wonder again how on earth other wives survive deployments.

I am so grateful I haven't had to.

Here are a few picture I took when Stephen got back, it was really cute to see the huge smile on Alice's face.

She loves her daddy!

Alice also likes to play with daddy's combat boots.

Here are some pictures I took of her one morning before Stephen left for work.

These pictures were also the inspiration for my long overdue blog makeover.

Also, in case you can't tell, her onesie has a wolf cub on it, adorable right?! (thanks Barths!)