So busy!

I can't believe I haven't posted here since the beginning of the month. Well, we had Alison's birthday, Christmas, my birthday and lots of holiday cheer in between. I'll get some of that stuff up but for tonight I will leave you with Andrew's latest. (the video of him walking was too big - I'll have to take another.)

A liitle peekaboo:

someone got a haircut!

It was Andrew's turn. Don't you think?

It was hard to decide to do it, but it was one of those things you just had to do before you thought about it too much.

Looking on.

His turn!

The suckers helped keep him still. He went through about 5 of them because he kept dropping them and then they would have hair all over them. Gross!

She was trimming his bangs straight across his forehead. That's a worried look on my face because. . .

this was the only image coming to my mind!!

She let him check the clippers out before she started using them. He kept touching them to feel them buzz.

And, he almost made it the whole way. Then the meltdown begins...

Make it stop!!!

But what a handsome boy. And not a Jim Carrey look-a-like in sight.

someone's in a big girl bed and experiments in cloth diapers

I love this girl.

But she's trying my patience. It could be that I took the rail off this week after she figured out she could crawl in and out of her crib with the rail up.

It could be that today is the first nap she's taken in a long time. It could be that she's just bored around here and I need to be more creative with her.

At any rate. She was SUPER excited to get the rail off and have a big girl bed. She's only fallen out a handful of times. Last night I went in to check on her and she was off the bed and had turned around on the floor. Oops!

Andrew was sick this week and that included a really bad diaper rash that needed to be aired out. In lieu of a bare bottomed baby and wet carpet I fashioned this cloth diaper for him out of one of his burp cloths. Which really is a diaper! - go figure. I just don't have a clue how to pin it on. The only reason I had diaper pins is from when I had to pin Alison's pj's on her so she wouldn't take them off in the morning - remember that?

Recent events

We took a little road trip on Friday down to Richmond to see Mike and Jenny, partly so I could give Jenny her new bag. I thought it would be fun to take pictures of everyone in the car.

Andrew was sitting right behind me, so it was hard to actually take a picture of him since I'm not a contortionist.

Alison looks thrilled doesn't she? Gone are the days of spontaneous naps in the car.

Nick was making all sorts of faces for me - but I caught this one while he was being normal. Except I just noticed, why is he looking down and not forward with his EYES ON THE ROAD?

That is Jenny's sweet mother-in-law holding Andrew. And of course cute Jenny and cute Aaron on the right.

And on an unrelated note. . .

After bath snuggling with Daddy. This has become a ritual and Alison, in particular, gets upset when we threaten to skip it.

You have to be careful about lying on the floor. The minute you do Andrew is on you and crawling all over. I think he likes seeing us at his level, instead of staring at our kneecaps all day. Speaking of eye-level, he's also standing on his own. AND, I have reports from daddy and grandma Jan that he's taken a step. Oh boy!

l-r 1. scrumptious 2.kissable 3. terminally cute

I especially like #2, because this is how I see him most - pulling up on my legs and smiling up at me. Awwwhh.

A haircut for Alison

My friend Rheannan is in cosmetology school and came home for Thanksgiving. So, I hit her up for a haircut for me and Alison. She did a great job on both of us! I don't have any pictures of mine however. Alison is cuter to look at anyway.

Before. . .

During. . . and she did such a great job holding still!

After. . . and are you kidding me with that hair!? Where did she get those curls?

Rheannan was nice and shared a new pink comb with her.

and here, Alison wanted to return the favor.

Thanks Rheannan!!!

We made cookies that morning too. . .

A real taste of childhood - licking the beater!

Andrew loves the little car as much as Alison has. Here he is looking at Alison saying, "Look here, PRINCESS, I am not your chauffeur!"

Okay, maybe I am....

We went to Terri's a couple of weeks ago to see the cousins and it's really hard to get kids to all look at the camera at the same time! At least they were having a good time together!

Terri is due tomorrow and we are all excited to meet the new little girl! I would post her belly pic here, but I'm not sure she would be too happy - so you can go to HER blog and look at it!

all about andrew - 9 months

9 months old on Halloween. My how the time flies. . . Or does it?

Andrew is almost 10 months old now. But he had his 9th month check-up accompanied by his first ear infection! Lucky him! I think it had something to do with the 4 teeth that were coming through - the last one appearing today. Poor kid. That's 4 teeth in 2 weeks.

I had to take him back for a follow-up and his shots and that's when we got his stats. 18 lbs 14 oz, 28 1/4 inch long.

The kid will Not Stop EATING. He easily out eats Alison at dinner every night. For example, Monday night we had barbecued chicken thighs - he ate almost 2 of them. Last night we had lasagne. He ate a bunch and then had 3 small bowls of it for lunch today. Not to mention he wants to nurse all the time.

I made some soup last week and tried to give him some of the kidney beans straight from the can and he was not interested at all. When we actually sat down and had the soup, he was loving them. Because they were warm. And seasoned. The other night, the chicken night, I made an apple crisp after dinner. Andrew was somewhere down the hall and he heard the oven timer go off. He headed over to me (by the oven) and I picked him up and started to walk out of the kitchen. He kept looking around me to see what I had taken out of the oven! He didn't see me make it, he didn't see me pulling it out, but he knows what the timer sounds like and he knows what food smells like! He had a big bowl of that for breakfast the next morning. I think I have a foodie-in-training. And if we can afford to keep him fed, I really think I'm going to like it!

He is a growing boy, for sure. I'm pretty certain he's the same size Alison was at a year. I'm already having to cook for 4 grown people, it's crazy.

okay, so it's not ALL about Andrew, here's a little about Alison:

she is my best apple peeler. She's done all the apples for the last 4-5 pies/crisps I've made.

Thanks Auntie Willow and Ashleigh (and grandma for bringing it)! She loves her new doll bed. Her donkey and panda get to sleep in there a lot - especially since they make sleeping noises.

just some leafy fall pictures

because the sun was too bright - this is what their faces looked like when they looked at me.

We went to the Marine Corps Birthday Ball on Saturday night. It was really nice and MUCH better than last year's. We actually ate at 7, instead of 10:30. Thanks to Karen for lending me her dress!

I took this picture of Alison the day after Halloween. I think this is the post-sugar coma look. We were 'sweeping' leaves off the deck. That or playing in them. One of the two.

These two really have a good time playing together. This makes me very happy. I think it makes Alison happy too.

It's really funny how they light up when the other one comes in the room. If Alison is in her room 'napping' or in the morning before she's up, Andrew will crawl to her bedroom door and push it open. I have to be careful he doesn't wake her up! She's always asking where he is too. "Did you put Andrew to bed?" "Where's Andrew?" I took her grocery shopping with me this morning and we left him home with Nick and she was confused she was not going to have her back seat buddy by her side.

These next two pictures crack me up. I got a new storage bin that isn't as tall as the other one. Andrew was going after something at the bottom and was pulling off quite the balancing act.

And yes, he did end up falling in.