Some photo peeks into our last few weeks (#9)

Well. I said I probably wouldn't keep up with my weekly posts. Prophecy Fulfilled! In all seriousness though, I'm getting back on the band wagon. Here is a quick picture edition of our last few weeks (in which Gianna turned 9 months old!!!)

 

She's currently into kitchen mischief. Opening cabinets, snooping around the fridge, climbing into (yes, into...and onto, for that matter) the dishwasher. 

 

 

Gianna was particularly uppity on this day in October. So, of course, like any good Mom, I took a picture of her.  I'm considering submitting it to "Reasons my Son is Crying" (the dad takes pictures and captions from other families, too). I guess the caption would be: I put her on a pink blanket. She did not like that at all. 

 

Gianna's breastfeeding acrobatics. Who doesn't love a downward facing dog and other invented yoga poses while eating? 

 

Sometimes, all the bibs are dirty. Enter the bandana bib! It works pretty spectacularly, especially with the crumb catcher mechanism. In my adult life, I have experienced this before with scarves. 

 

 

Something about the faces she was making just cracked me up as we were waiting for Chris to answer the phone. Oh yeah. That was when Chris HAD a phone. He lost it almost a month ago and we haven't replaced it. We miss our daily Facetime with Papa. The FaceTime feature on the iPhone is pretty much one of the only reasons I still have an iPhone.

 

 

I play piccolo for Gianna almost every day (some Baroque/Classical music like Telemann, Mozart, and Vivaldi, but also some songs she's familiar with like Do Re Me and Turkey and the Straw). It's so fun to watch her try to figure out where the sound comes out. She loves it and immediately lights up when I play. I opted to let her hold the piccolo versus my flute. The cheaper option by a long shot. 

 

In October, we took Gianna to the park for the first time and she LOVES the swings. LOVES them. She's also into climbing onto all the jungle gym areas and sliding. She can slide by herself going backwards on her belly and scootches down until her feet touch the ground.

I haven't posted videos in a while, but our computer makes it really complicated. I will have a video heavy post soon :-)

7 Peeks into our Vacation Week! (#8)

Finally getting around to posting again. I'll make excuses next blogpost, but for now, here's what we were up to last week!

Last week (yeah, so technically I'm a week behind), Chris took the ENTIRE week off from work. It was super glorious. One might even say it was EPIC. Chris was able to get some work done on the house and for deer season that he ordinarily would never ever ever get to do (because he like...comes home and puts Gianna to sleep and mostly of the time does dishes after dinner. Be super jealous, it's really okay.) AND we got to go on vacation! We took a short trip to Beavers Bend again. We liked it so much the first time, we decided it should be our "family vacation" spot. Here are some thoughts:


1. I am so out of shape. Last time we went to Beavers Bend, I was like 1-2 weeks away from giving birth. We hiked the crap out of that place. Lots of miles each day. Now, even while carrying Gianna in the Ergo, I'm 15 lbs lighter than I was in January, and I was super tired and whiny about how carrying her made my shoulders hurt. Yikes, mama. Time to work out again boooooooooooooooo hiiisssssssssssssssss.

 Out early enough that not one single person was in the parking lot

 Just in case we got lost on the nearly non-existent trails....

 Good lookin' brought his walking stick that he carved at home

 

 This picture basically sums up most of my and Gianna's attempts at pictures. 

2. Traveling with Gianna was refreshingly simple. Yeah. Weird, right? We got lucky that she slept okay (she's super persnickety about sleep). The best part was watching her on the porch of the cabin just excited to explore and lighting up with all the new scenery/experiences (like...eating a rock, for example. Yes. She spit it out. Eventually.). Granted, if I had to lug around bottles and formula and all that mess, I may not be singing the same song. Luckily though, I'm a mobile buffet and Gianna can snack on our food as well.

 

3. Experiencing boring things through your child's eyes make them pleasant and exciting. For example, I literally lost my mind trying to get us to go on this little 15 minute train ride around BB. Gianna wouldn't wake up from her first nap (she ONLY does that when I want to 1. get out, 2. go to a playdate I've already RSVPed yes for, or 3. have something else to do), but we narrowly made the second train. Normally, I would think it was the stupidest waste of money in the world. But it was great! Gianna had a blast and we got to be lame excited parents ogling over our daughter's first train ride.

 Those are some Christopher nostrils if I've ever seen them.

 She is REALLY happy to be here. No really, she is.

 Gianna wouldn't look at the camera, so we copied her.

 Gianna let me snuggle her and rest my head on the top of her head. Pretty much a first. It was sooooo excellent. 

 Train was moving and it was hard to get an "action picture" lol

Gianna got a kick out of standing while the train was moving. It was really fun until she started trying to lick the seat in front of us and crawl underneath it.

4. The Friday we left was the beginning of a yearly folk festival. If we had known earlier, we may have planned our trip to stay for the festival, but we at least got to eat fair food. 2 jumbo corn dogs with oodles of mustard, fresh squeezed cherry limeade (well...limes were squeezed...cherries were the HFCS variety with food dyes LOL), and cajun fried pickles. I LOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVEEEEEEEE fair food!!!!

5. I super failed at getting good Halloween pictures of Gianna, so I thought I'd try some new scenery to snap some good ones. My friend, Brooke, saved Halloween and let us borrow her daughters' costume from when they were little. In true Gianna form, however, she wouldn't stay still. Oh well, maybe next year, right??????

 

6. A lot of the trails on the hiking maps actually don't exist anymore...

 There used to be a bridge here.........

7. Fall leaves are sooooooooooooo beautiful!

 Isn't that a creepy mushroom?