Hayden is 11 months old!

Wow, we're almost at 1 year! I really can't believe that this time last year I was still pregnant, and we had no idea what kind of baby we were going to have - a sweet, adorable, funny, and easy-going little girl!

This month we finally got another tooth - so now 3 total! Two on bottom, and one on top - not in a hurry to get all her teeth! Hayden continues to crawl and climb all over the place like a champ, but has decided she is no hurry to start walking. We thought for sure she would be an early walker due to her physical abilities early on, but I guess we'll have to wait a bit longer until she decides it is time.

Her newest talent is dancing! She is a dancing queen, and starts boogying anytime music comes on - her toys, the TV, radio, us singing, whatever. It is too cute and she really has some great moves! She's also getting very good at pointing to things or people we say - she points to Daddy, mommy, sister, doggy, light, and her favorite is airplane!!

Family fun at the park

We've had some great weather lately so we've tried to fit in a few end of summer visits to the park!

1st day of school at The Children's Garden

Emmie had her much-anticipated (by her and her parents!) first day of preschool at the Children's Garden last week. Despite her normal uneasiness in new surroundings, she did great and appears to be settling in very well, and loving it! What a great place, where all the kids, families and teachers are very creative, involved and supportive! We are looking forward to two years of many fun activities and school memories.


Meeting teacher Bonnie

We had all the girls over for a playdate before the first day so Emmie could get to know them - what a great group of fun girls!

Trying to figure out what to wear on the first day!

Emmie's masterpiece

I left Emmie alone for about 15 minutes, and I came back to find her just putting the finishing touches on this beautiful painting! I've always known she is a natural artist, but this just floored me. It is a picture of one of the Disney fairies, Rosetta. You can see her wings, of course, and in her left hand is a flower (because Rosetta is a garden fairy), and the line at the bottom is the ground, but of course, Rosetta is higher because she is flying! The thought she put into it just amazes me, but more than anything, I can't get over how proportionate the whole picture is - I really think I could not have painted a fairy this well! She clearly did not inherit her artistic abilities from me. :)

Trip to Whidbey

While daddy stayed home for a long weekend of campaigning, mom and all the girls (even the dog) went out to Whidbey for a relaxing weekend with grandma and grandad.

Hayden is 10 months old!

Miss Hayden is now 10 months old! It seems like I say the same thing about her every month, but it's still true - she is such a fun, happy go lucky baby! She makes us laugh constantly and we love her to pieces.

This month she began sharing a room with big sister, which was a risk for us all! However, so far, it's turned out to be alot of fun. Hayden is sleeping pretty well, just up every few nights once or twice, and it never seems to wake Emmie, thankfully! My favorite thing about them sharing a room is to hear them "talking" to each other when they wake up in the morning. I am always so tired in the morning that it buys me a few extra minutes of laying in bed while I listen to them chat away with Emmie calling out "good morning sis!" and Hayden responding with lots of shrieks and clapping. This continues for 10 mintues or so until Hayden remembers that Emmie cannot actually get her out of her crib, and then it turns into crying so mommy will come get her out to play!

Hayden has perfected the art of "turbo crawling" - she is sooo fast it's hard to keep up, and she is still into everything, putting it all into her mouth so fast that I'm sure she's managed to sneak in quite a few pieces of fuzz, dirt or leftover cheerios off the floor before I notice her! Her little stubborn streak shows itself when I say "Hayden, no, no no" when she's trying to put something in her mouth, and she responds by shaking her head and laughing at us! She is pushing her walker along like a champ and it was the oddest thing to see her take off doing that for the first time! Her best new trick, though, is giving kisses! If we say "Hayden, give me kisses!" she will plant a huge slobbery one on us - basically she just opens her mouth wide, sticks out her tongue and licks us! It is so sweet and cute and wet!

Emerson goes to cooking school!

Grandma Betty started taking Emmie to cooking classes at Cookalicious Club in Issaquah. Emmie has been a huge fan of mixing, cooking and concocting her own recipes for quite some time now, so going to cooking class has been great fun for her. She has been learning all the "correct" techniques to use, so maybe she can teach mommy a thing or two!

So far they have made sweet potato casserole, tilapia w/dill sauce and banana cookies! Though Emmie told grandma before the class when they made tilapia that she doesn't like fish, she tried it like a good sport and told grandma afterward that she "loves fish!" yay!!

So cute in her very own chef jacket!