Lollypop in Action

Cause who doesn't love a squishy baby in a tub?  Really?

(This was her first bath out of the baby tub.  Happened around mid-May, I believe!)

Ten Months

Lollypop!

Sweet baby of ours.  On this, your Uncle David's 34th birthday, you also turn 10 months old!

Speaking of Uncle David, you are very pleased that he is engaged!  You love your Aunt-Leah-to-be, and she is so sweet to you.  They are planning for a wedding later in this year, and we are very much looking forward to it!

You're still pulling up on ev-er-y-thing, and I've caught you a couple of times trying to stand up on your own.  I don't know if you mean to do it, or if you start to do it by instinct, get halfway into it before you realize that you really don't have anything around you to hold onto!  I figure we get to enjoy your crawling stage a little bit longer.  At least I hope so.  It's so sweet, and you're really pretty effective with it.  You can get from one end of the house to the other on your own.  (And you're usually looking for me when you do it).  I love the sparkle in your eyes when you crawl over to my desk chair, pull up on it and say whatever is the consonant of the day to get me to pick you up.  Speaking of consonants, you're saying "ma-ma's" (not for mommy), "da-da's" (not for daddy, yet), "ba-ba's", and you've just started this crazy "ha" sound that is accompanied by a crazy, wheezy, hyper-ventilating sound.  lol...  Sorry.  It's hard to describe!

You love to turn over the garbage can at my desk and take out every.single.piece of what-have-you that's in there.  And, yes, I let you do it.  It's pretty much just paper.  And it amuses you.  And I get a blog post finished.  It's all good.

You have become strangely uninterested in baby food.  You'll eat it, but not with the delight you had been having.  You want to eat cheerios and corn chex and things like that.  You want to nurse a lot instead of eating.  You like to squish beans and peas in your mouth, but you don't want to eat them.  It's a conundrum.  Thankfully for you, your mommy is so busy with all the rest of life, that I don't have time to worry about it.  I have enough of a memory left to know that it will all work itself out.  And since you're still nursing, I'm not worried about nutrition.  (And your blood tests from your last check-up confirmed that you don't need vitamins, so it's all good).

Tooter and Poodle both can make you giggle.  Your daddy can *really* make you giggle.  And I'm still the person you have to have at night.  :-)

As of today, you have your fourth tooth!  You now have two on the bottom, and two on the top (with the 2nd one on the top having juuuust broken through the gumline).  Teething is not your friend.  I was hoping that maybe you'd be less susceptible to all the pain of it.  But, maybe that will come with the later teeth, like it was with your brother.  I hope so.  Because your nighttime sleep is pretty yucky right now.  Not that I mind.  I mean, I understand.  And I know that it will get better.  I just wish you could sleep better.  Sweet baby.

You've been to Florida and Alabama in the past 5 weeks.  Had a nine month well-baby checkup with vaccinations.  Been through an annual meeting at church as well as Singing School.  Survived the kitchen getting new countertops.  And you're getting through the summer heat as best you can!  It's been a hectic month for you.  I will admit to some crazy-mommy moments because of all the activity, but you have that instant forgiveness for crazy parents that God blesses the babies to have.  Ahhhh, that we all could have that knee-jerk forgiveness trait again!

It's a little disconcerting that you will be a whole year old in just two wee months.  But I can not tell you how blessed we feel because of you.  You are loved by your family, by your church, by your siblings' friends.  (And their mommies!)

And your daddy and mommy feel lighter and brighter when we see you.  We feel warmer and more complete when we hold you.  And we know that our family is better because of you.  Happy 10 months, our darling girl!

Singing School - Last Day (Third Performance)

Singing School - Day Three (Second Performance)

Singing School - Day Two (First Performance)

Nine Month Portraits

A variety to enjoy.  :-)  Since Lollypop's newest favorite activity involves pointing at pretty much everything she sees or wants or momentarily thinks about, I had precious few pictures made without that wummy widdle finger pointing at something.  Thing is, that's what she is doing at nine months.  I like that this is what I will remember about her at this age!

Bye Bye everyone!  *mwah!*

Scientific Method

I really enjoy this fellow. He's just... well, you've got to watch this. Now, it would be great if you could go back and watch all five parts of this video, but if you only have 5 minutes, just watch part 5 of 5. It's a great summation of how the Bible is believable - not because you "want" to believe it, but because simple logic and basic intelligence leads to the end result that it is a believable document.

And the last thing he says is a reference to the beginning of his sermon here.

Nine Month Photos

We've been doing some PHO-tography 'round here the past couple of days to get Lollypop's nine month portraits done. At the end of today's session, the older two wanted in on it. So I got some shirts on them, put them in front of the camera and just started clicking. There was much noise and chaos, but we got a few cute ones!

I'm still working on editing the baby's pics, so those will come later. I want to brag a little bit on the quilt that you see behind them. It was made by a beautiful sister in Christ from my church. She has been making quilts for most of her life, and she made my mother a Dutch Doll quilt a few years back. A couple of months ago, she blessed ME with one of those beautiful quilts! Technically, it's Lollypop's quilt. But, I lay claim to it a little bit too. :-) Thank you so much sweet Sister Jean!

Vacay!

We just got back from Watercolor, Florida where we got to spend almost a whole week with Jmk's family! It was just as beautiful as I remembered it from October 2008.  That place is just THE place to go if you are looking for a relaxing, beautiful atmosphere.

Thanks to the generosity and uber-awesome planning skills of his Aunt Jennifer and Uncle David, we all got to stay in a perfectly beautiful resort home for a week.  Fancy digs for us, for sure!  We were only missing Brecken (who had just started a new management position with her company and couldn't leave) and Grandmother (who isn't in a position to do that kind of traveling).

Biggest fun of the week for Jmk was the deep sea fishing day!  Awesome amberjack for him along with a few king mackerels and red snappers for the whole group of guys that went.

 

NOW - how did the kids do?  Well, to be 6 and 4 and 9 months and to have no other kids to play with in the house and to be somewhat out of their routine, but still at the mercy of a baby's schedule...  they did awesome!  Granted, Jmk and I realize that we need to alter our idea of vacations now, moreso than we had already altered them.  But, regardless, being able to spend time with the family in such a picturesque setting (and before the oil got there) was such a blessing!

Brennan gets MAJOR kudos for his maturity and compassion and his truly accommodating nature.  Being a young, single guy staying in the part of the house with the family with the young kids takes a special person, and he was GREAT!  And it was such fun watching Tooter with his newest love, Megan.  (Megan 2, that is.  Poodle has already claimed Megan 1 as her own).  You see, Jmk has a couple of cousins who are brothers who are both married to/will be married to a Megan.  It's so cute!

What I don't have this time?  Pictures from the actual beach or the pools that are on the resort.  Not a one.  GrandCandy has some that she will send me, but I didn't take a single one.  sigh....  Well, what can you do?  It's durn near impossible to keep the camera protected at the pool or the beach when you are handling a baby and attempting to help your sweet husband keep an eye on the older two kids.  (And, I couldn't find our point and shoot camera before we left.  Whoops!)  BUT, see, it's okay.  I can assure you we made plenty of sandcastles and spent a lot of time getting thoroughly waterlogged in the Frog Pool.  You'll just have to believe me, even though I have no photographic proof of those activities.

Now it's back to reality and time to get ready for an upcoming church meeting, Singing School, out-of-town family visits and I'm sure a few other things that I've forgotten about.  And that's just June.  :-)