Catching up...eleven months

Eleven months

She loves her sheepskin and will crawl over to it to lie on it and snuggle into it

She really enjoys throwing objects now 

Those bandages on Mike's hand are from him nearly slicing his fingers off.  We had to bring him to the ER - fortunately, Elaine slept through the whole thing and we were in and out in about one hour.

She will love on anything.
Even diaper liners.

Tractor ride with Pop-pop.

A little mouse in my cabinet.

Outside with Mommy

Putting Lego's together 

This month we really noticed her sounding out words - we distinctly heard her say "cup" without us prompting and "ba" when she points at a baseball.  She has been pointing at everything and can recognize words and point to the objects.  She learned tree, moon, baseball (and would point to the baseball, then the display case on the wall), fan (she might have already known that one).  She started throwing the ball this month, and is surprisingly accurate.

We survived our first bloody incident.  One Friday night, Mike and I were going to our church bonfire and decided to leave her with a babysitter for the first time.  About an hour before we have to leave, Elaine fell and bumped her head on the coffee table.  Mike picked her up and I see blood dripping onto his sweatshirt...it was all over her chin, streaming down onto her shirt!  She must have cut her lip.  She was a trooper though, and she calmed down and went to bed and had a good night with the sitter.

 At a Villanova football game (we still get season tickets).

First time eating spaghetti

On Halloween, she only lasted about
two minutes in her costume.

Catching up...ten months

Ten Months  
The biggest thing that happened this month - she started crawling on her knees!  (9/25)  She also started putting shapes into openings.  Three top teeth were coming in, so it was a slightly cranky, needy month.

She was really into sticking her tongue out

Praying our weekly Rosary at Planned Parenthood
(two months later, it closed for good - praise God!!)

I had a great time at girls night hosting a Mary Kay party

When my car wouldn't start at 6:30AM

Riding her new car

Mom and Dad dancing in the rain at their church's
anniversary celebration

Catching up...the rest of August

August

Elaine and I were sick almost all of August with a summer cold, which was kind of miserable. At least Mike was spared.  He has been working very long hours on site of the project he's currently assigning to.

At nine months, several there were a lot of exciting things happening:

• She began getting into cabinets
• Got her first boo boo on the head (two actually - one from falling and one from a hit in the head from another kid at daycare)
• Had beans and rice for the first time
• Went to her first Phillies game and tailgate
• 8/19 She stood by herself at the window sill looking at the bubbles bottle and shimmied over to her stool
• She also started "gliding" along furniture
• Reacted to saying "splash splash!" "bang" or "shake"
• Began army crawling
• Started pointing!
• Has been waving for a while

It's just so hard to put that little
smiling face to bed sometimes

She does a lot of sleeping...

 

Asleep at the homebrew store

She is now getting into things
on the coffee table

Smiles for Daddy

I found a great toy at the thrift store
that she loves

Enjoying Daddy time on the weekend

Helping Daddy pack

Her first Phillies game

Happy baby

We had a blast at our pool party hosted
by our apartment complex

Another favorite toy from the thrift store

We got to visit with the Colliers.  Elaine enjoyed
playing with (and racing against) Mark.

We had a fantastic "Call to Holiness" retreat with our church.  Mike and I were both asked to speak.  It was such an inspiring and educational experience.  Some of the topics were:

Evangelical Catholicism - what is election and vocation?
Rediscover Catholicism - applying the Works of Mercy to everyday life.  (See my handout here!)
Responding to the call to holiness - religious vocations

She had a hard time at the retreat - she would not take a nap.