Your First Thanksgiving

Your first Thanksgiving was a little uneventful since there wasn't any family in town to visit, but it was still nice. We went over to my parent's house on Wednesday night and you got to eat dinner there. You LOVED Thanksgiving dinner both times we ate it. Since you are now eating some table foods you devoured everything except for the mashed potatoes. I think it is the texture. I had a major fail on the picture taking arena. I promise I will be better at Christmas. The only picture I got was with you and your great grandma. However I think it is such a perfect picture that it makes up for the fact that I only took one picture. You were the highlight of the dinner table as everyone watched you eat.

On Friday we had your Dad's family over to our house for Thanksgiving. I cooked a turkey and all of the fixings - including pie. This is where the highlight of the holiday came in. After dinner I was clearing plates and my marionberry pie plate was sitting on the couch and you managed to crawl over to it, stick you fingers in the remnants of the filling and then place them in your mouth. You gave a look of sheer enjoyment and then did it again. I couldn't help but smile as you grinned at me with your fingers in your mouth. You definitely enjoy Mom's sweets!

You Have Teeth!

It took quite a while... but you officially have teeth. I don't have an official date as to when you had them since it wasn't an overnight thing. You started off by being able to see just the corners of the bottom two teeth and then they slowly started coming in. They are here now though and thank goodness since you want to eat all of the food in sight that you can get your hands on!

Adventures in Food

Your Dad and I have both discussed that one of our favorite things about being a parent right now is feeding you new foods. You have gnawed on pickles, had mashed potatoes, lentil soup, drank water out of mason jars, and much more. Here are some of your recent adventures in food that I love.

A few weeks ago Restaurant Week occurred in Boise. This is when the upper scale restaurants offer a prix fixe (fixed price) menu that consists of a 2 or 3 course meal. It is a great opportunity to try fine gourmet food for a reasonable price. We decided to go to Red Feather Lounge this year - and we took you with us! This was pretty awesome because people looked at us like "really, they are bringing a baby in here" when we arrived. However you were a complete angel (like we knew you would be) and sat in a booster seat in the booth with us while we ate. You go to eat with us. In fact, now that you are exploring table food you get quite upset if we don't offer you our food... more to come on this in a bit. So, dinner consisted of baked potato soup which you LOVED, sourdough bread, salmon, steak with squash (which you also ate) and a berry cobbler and cheesecake for dessert. You devoured the soup and squash and by the time we got to the hockey game after dinner you had entered a food coma. We laughed as you sat in my lap at the game with your hands on your belly just like an old man does after eating and you literally twiddled your thumbs until you fell asleep.

Fast forward to last night... you have had sweets before but never like this. Whole Foods opened in Boise this week and your Dad and I were VERY excited to go since we have had a love affair with this since we visited places like Vegas and went. We ended up getting many delicious foods, but the highlight was a huckleberry chantilly cake. Last night we ate it and gave you a few bites. We have never seen you so excited to have food. You were literally lunging at your Dad to give you bites of this cake as you babbled and grinned with every bite. It was very adorable. You just might be a foodie like your Mom and Dad. We have given you so many different types of food and to date there hasn't been one that you wouldn't eat. Oh, and I might have just found your first birthday cake if I can recreate it.

Then today I was eating a cookie. As I was eating it you looked at me longingly saying "are you going to share with me?" in your eyes. However this wasn't a cookie that I could safely share with you, so I finished it. As I put the last bite in my mouth you dropped your head and started to cry, very upset that I didn't share. I immediately cheered you up with a banana that we shared.

I'm sure there will be many more food experiences, and we look forward to them!

Another Visit from Your Nana P and GG

We so lucky to have your Nana Pari and Great Grandma Linda come to visit us towards the middle of October. It was just a wonderful visit. They drove down on a Thursday and then left Monday morning. We had a pretty eventful weekend!

Since they didn't get in until late on Thursday, we didn't do anything on Thursday. In fact you were asleep when they got in, but your Nana was so excited to see you that we went into your room so that she could watch your sweet face as you slept.

I took Friday off of work and we were able to spend time at home with your Nana and Great Grandma. Aunt Megan came over to visit as well. Nana, you and I went grocery shopping in the morning then we spent the day just catching up and watching you be the center of attention. Nana helped out while I made lasagna for our dinner. Dad, you and I had pictures in the afternoon so we took off for a while. (Pictures should be coming in the mail soon and I am so excited!) After pictures we all headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Miklos' house for dinner. The whole family was there including Uncle Chris and Aunt Megan.

On Saturday we took Nana to the farmer's market downtown. We spent time looking at the crafts and buying fruit to make you baby food. Afterwards we came home and Aunt Megan came over then we headed to the craft store. After a long visit at the craft store you passed out in the car as we drove home. We visited for a while longer and then headed out to dinner just you, Nana, and I at TGIFridays. It was wonderful for Nana and I to be able to catch up and visit. After we got home it was fairly late and you went to bed then I went out with Dad for the evening while Nana watched you.

Sunday was spent at home again. We watched football on Sunday, red the paper, and visited. Aunt Megan came over for pizza at dinnertime. Unfortunately Uncle Chris was sick so he didn't get a chance to come over.

Monday morning was back to the normal grind. Fortunately we were able to take Nana to your daycare when I dropped you off. So she got to see your school and she was very impressed. After we dropped you off I drove her home and we said our tear filled goodbyes before I headed off to work. It was a wonderful visit and we are hoping she will be able to come down again for your first birthday!

Your Nana got you the cute puppy dog hat in the pictures!

A Few More Pictures From 8 Months

9 Months - Happy Halloween!!

Guess who is nine months old?!?!

You certainly grow by leaps and bounds every few months and this month was definitely no exception. I can hardly believe that you are almost a year old.

I took you to the doctor this week for your nine month checkup as well and you have changed dramatically on the charts. Fortunately this visit was a shot free visit which was a wonderful surprise for me. Your stats for nine months are:

Weight:  21 lbs 13 oz   69th Percentile
Height:  28 1/4 inches  47th Percentile
Head Circumference:  18 1/4 in  78th Percentile

New Things You Are Doing Developmentally:
* Waving 'hi' when you see people
* Taking your hands off of the couch for a few minutes and standing on your own
* Pulling yourself up on the walls and on people
* Eating quite a few different types of table foods
* Your two bottom teeth are ALMOST in... you can see the edges of each tooth. They just haven't broken
    through completely.
* You can sign 'more' and 'milk'


Things That You Are Doing That I Love Right Now:
* You wrinkle up your nose and smile/snort when you smile or think something is funny
* The way you wrap your arms around my legs when you want me to pick you up
* Your flirtatious look when you raise one eyebrow with a little twinkle in your eye
* The way you give me a mischievous look and smile right before you do something that you aren't supposed
    to do as if you are testing your boundaries
* Watching you play on Daddy's head while he has you on his shoulders
* You try to "share" with me by putting your pacifier up to my lips for me to put in my mouth.
* Starting to 'high five' us when we stick our hands out.

Happy Halloween!!

We had a great 1st Halloween! I had bought a costume last year for you before you were ever even born so on Halloween day you were a monkey. A darn cute one too! We went over to Grandma and Grandpa Miklos' and then went over and visited Great Grandma. We had every intention of visiting Nana and Grand popper as well, but you were so tired after the short visit we had at my parents that you fell asleep in the car so we just went home.

On Halloween weekend Dad wanted to dress up as a family, so we went as Star Wars! It was really so much fun to dress up together. Dad was Han Solo, I was Princess Leia, and you were the most adorable baby Yoda!

It wouldn't be Halloween without pumpkin carving. So we let you go at a pumpkin once we cut the top off. You were pretty intrigued with the insides and wanted to eat the pumpkin.