10 Months

Uh oh, this one is a late entry!! Our pretty peanut is now 10 months old!! Amazing things have happened over the last month. Now instead of just babbling syllables things are becoming more distinct, mama and dada seem to be words instead of just run-ons. Her favorite thing to do now is to feed herself. Cheerios, in particular, are her absolute favorite but she will also eat baby puffs and crackers as well as kiwis. She also loves to gnaw on apple cores after we have eaten an apple. She uses a sippy when she feels like it; the skill is there but the novelty is intermittent. She crawls fast! Holy moly, you can't hardly blink and she is off. She also pulls to stand on everything. Her personality is also starting to shine. When she sees her favorite toys and books she squeals with glee and if she doesn't want something she huffs and puffs with pursed lips. She just gets more fun every day!

The Pumpkin Patch

Last Saturday we decided to take Claire to the pumpkin patch. Daddy being the Halloween fanatic that he is, already had purchased our carving pumpkins but we wanted Claire to have the full experience and Burger Farm has a puppet show, Pumpkin Land, hay rides, and farm animals. We thought we would take advantage of having the whole weekend off and also show One and Marine what Halloween is all about. Unfortunately, Claire skipped her morning nap and just got a twenty minute snooze on the way to the patch. We couldn't get her to smile for anything. She seemed so apathetic with the puppet show, animals, and pumpkins. On the return trip on the hayride she officially fell asleep. Poor thing! You can tell how tired she is in most of the pictures; I am just glad she looked up for a couple of them.

She was much perkier after a two hour nap. We took turns playing with her while we all ate dinner and carved some pretty fancy pumpkins. I think we are getting better at it, though the pumpkins Marine and One carved look really awesome, too.

Zoo Brew

This past Thursday I actually got to go out for an adult evening!! The female faculty and fellows try to have a ladies night on occassion and this time picked the Cincinnati Zoo Brew. It is a really cool event because your ticket price goes toward research to save endangered animals and then food and in the case Samuel Adams provide food and beer. The animals are also on display with a number of them in the crowd to pet and then some that have special evening shows. For the zoo brew they fed the polar bears frozen watermelons and the manatees played "football." They also have three similar wine tasting events in the summer. The weather was not ideal (cold and a little drizzly) but that didn't stop us from having a great time! Most of the beers were good... NOT the blackberry, though... and the best part of the food was a belgian waffle. A waffle? Yep, it was sweet and savory and delicious without any syrup. I will definitely be taking the family to Findley Market so we can all enjoy them. All in all the company was what made the evening.

Claire's First Tutu

So here is the streaming thought process I had this afternoon.... What should I do? Clean up the kitchen? No. Clean up Claire's toys? Na. Laundry? Definitely not. Put Claire in her first tutu? Bingo!!

Doesn't our little girl look so grown up in her tutu? She really loves it! Now all she needs is a matching hair bow. I know you are shocked that she doesn't have one but none of her bows are the right pink or dramatic enough for this outfit. Keep checking back, you only get two pictures for now because Kodak Gallery doesn't want to share my album right this second.

Finally in a High Chair!!

Since Claire was so small when we started feeding her solid (okay, semi-solid) food, we just fed her in her Bumbo chair. What people did before the Bumbo, I have no idea. She tolerated that just fine until about a month ago when she became a squirmy worm and spends most of her time trying to get out of the Bumbo and grab a toy. So now we often feed her in her high chair, which she enjoys. It is also nice because we can put finger foods on the tray for her (the Bumbo tray just does not hold up to her 9 month-old strength) and give her a sippy cup to practice with. Last week, however, I boldly asked for a high chair at a restaurant so she could sit up at the table with us. She loved it!! She ate great and really seemed to enjoy the vantage point. Where did my little baby go? She seems to have been replaced by an almost toddler!!