Frankie is 11 Months

11 Months - where has the time gone? In just four short weeks we will be celebrating this little one's birthday!

Frankie has been eating everything and she really wants to feed herself with her spoon or hands, no matter what she is being served, whether it's jarred baby food, yogurt, or cut up fruits, veggies and meat. She loves to eat like her brother did (and still does) and she is most content when she's got her snack trap or a graham cracker or some kind of food in her hand. She has even snuck a few sips of her big brother's chocolate milk or raspberry lemonade. The second child always gets away with more than the first ever did, right?

Funny that I cleaned the tray before I thought to get a picture.

The tray and the floor got it even worse than her face!

I can't resist sleeping shots, but I hate waking a sleeping baby.

I just love the butt-up sleeping position!

Francess loves to walk using her little pusher. She is very proud of herself when she walks along. She loves holding our hands to walk also. I've noticed a bit of a blister on her big toes from crawling, so that's probably why she likes to walk with help. She also gets up onto all fours to move forward instead of her hands and knees, which is usually when she is outside because the ground hurts her knees or when she has a dress on that gets caught under her. Just in the last couple of days she has been standing for a few seconds without holding on to anything, so I'm sure very soon we'll be chasing her around the house. Actually, she already loves to be chased, she just crawls as fast as she can away from us!

She is really trying to talk. Her voice is super cute right now. She's using her high pitched scream less and less (which is FABULOUS) and stringing together cute babbling sounds that sometimes makes her sound underwater. She still gets very excited to see the cat and always very happy to see Micah. She loves looking at books, especially the ones with texture for her to feel. She likes to put things in places. She is pretty good at putting the toy coins into the piggy bank and she loves "working" in the kitchen with me, moving the lids from the container into the bowls.

Chelan 2011

Dave's family has a few condo units on Wapato Point for use four times a year. Sometimes the whole family is able to go but other times no one but our family can make it. This was one of those times. We made it for a long weekend. We left Thursday afternoon after Micah was done with preschool. He had to miss the last day and the class pizza party, but the final day he did have at preschool was at a jump house with large blowup slides, an obstacle course, and a boxing ring, so he had a blast there and he was super excited about going to Chelan. Also, the day we left for Chelan was David's birthday so Micah was especially excited about everything happening that day. We had a few friends come and enjoy the weekend with us.

Micah and I playing mini golf

Brooke and I with Cece and Frankie, who had similar strawberry suits

The whole gang, Wolfroms, Pearsons and Smees

Micah loves swimming!

Emma, Heidi, and Braden

Micah and Braden reading from Micah's toddler Bible

Cheering on the dad's shuffleboard game

Preschool Program

Early in June Micah had a preschool performance at the end of the school year. He was the star of the show! His teachers were hoping that he didn't have T-ball or some other sport that would take him away that evening. They wanted to make sure that he was going to be there because he knew all the songs and sang loudly and did all the hand motions. His teacher told me she knew if he were watching she could count on him to start the group singing. He took it very seriously and loved every minute of it! We got a video of each song but for some reason I can't upload the videos onto this blog. I'll work on that when I have time, but for now, here are some pictures.

He walked the June sign across the front.

How better to end the performance than to get the kids hyped up on ice cream sundaes right before they go home to bed!

10 Months

Frankie is crawling all over, pulling herself up to cruise a little bit along furniture, playing peekaboo, waving bye-bye and trying to do signs ("more" is done like clapping right now). She gets very proud of herself with a sheepish grin when we cheer her on with her signs. She takes a big delighted intake of breath when she sees our cat. And she tries to call out for Micah in her own way ("MA DA" or some variation) whenever he's not around. She's climbing the stairs, which we only let her if we're right behind her because she has no sense of falling if she wants to take a break and plop her bottom down! She gets up to crawl on her hands and feet (instead of her knees) if something doesn't feel good on her knees or if she has a dress on that gets caught under her.