Nora at 9 Months

Our sweet Eleanor reached the 9-month mark on Wednesday! She's getting to be such a BIG girl (in more ways than one)!
Anne Parks and I took little sister to her 9-month check-up on Friday. She didn't have to endure any shots, but her finger was pricked then squeezed and squeezed until enough blood was collected. Nora did not shed a tear or make a peep; she just looked on with interest. Anne Parks, however, was disturbed! She kept saying, "I don't like it! I don't like it!" I told her not to look, but she would say, "but I want to".

Nora, unfazed, tried chewing on the newly-placed bandaid. Here are Nora's 9-month stats:

weight: 24 pounds >97th %ile

height: 30 inches >97th %ile

head: 45 cm 80th %ile

The check-up revealed that our 9-month old is the size of the average 18-month old! And that's about how old she thinks she is. Our girl is all over the place!

In the last month she has:

--gotten her first two teeth

--started to crawl

--started pulling up and cruising
She's also started to:

--wave "bye-bye" and "hello"

--give the signs for "milk" and "more"

--say "no no no" while shaking her head

--say "mama" and "dada"

(and know who she's talking about)

She is just a joy! She's probably the happiest child I've ever seen. She is so sweet, but she's keeping us on our toes! I can't wait to see what she'll do next!

Bump

During Spring Break, Anne Parks got this lovely bump on her head. She tripped at full speed and went head-first into our bedpost. I think we were very luck that there was no bleeding involved. The picture really doesn't do it justice. It just looks awful. She's pretty proud of it, though, and has had fun watching change colors each day. We've seen red, pink, purple, blue, green, and yellow!

The Zoo

We had a great Spring Break, or "School Break" as Anne Parks kept calling it. The poor thing missed school so much! I don't know how she's going to take being out all summer! Each morning she'd ask, "Do I go to JA today?" When I'd tell her that we were still on break, she'd say, "Are my friends there?" She was so afraid that she was missing something!

The first few days of our our break, we had some special guests at our house: Emily, Reed and Smith. We had a great time and spent one of our days together at the Jackson Zoo.

We just loved the giraffes!

Anne Parks talked all day about wanting to see the pink b-mingos (aka: flamingos). She kept saying they were her favorite "because they're pink and stand on one leg like this" while balancing on one foot.

We'd all but given up on the b-mingos and were about to leave the zoo when she spotted them. I can't tell you how excited she was! I think she would have sat there all day if we'd let her!

What a fun day! We can't wait to go back!

Bad Timing?

As Carly has pointed out, I think my timing is a little off. To catch up after not posting for several weeks, I created a bunch of posts the other night and set them up to post daily for several days ahead. Little did I know that the day that my sunny spring post would come up was one that was snowy and freezing!

Spring?

We've had some wonderfully warm days lately, and although it's gotten a little chilly again, Anne Parks, Nora and I got outside while we could...and enjoyed every minute of it!

Pink Sponge Rollers

Every Saturday night when I was a little girl, you'd find me sleeping with pink sponge rollers in my hair, so I'd have curls for Sunday School the next day.
I got some rollers for Anne Parks, and we had so much fun rolling her hair. She just thought it was so special. She didn't sleep in them, though. She lasted about an hour with them in, so I'm not sure what her curls will look like...maybe next time.

Dance Portraits

Anne Parks and her friends had their dance recital portraits taken. They were all so cute and so excited to be wearing their recital costumes. Addy Katherine, Caroline, Gentry Claire, Mary Hampton, Anne Parks, and Harper Claire

These girls move too fast for me!

Gentry Claire, Addy Katherine, Mary Hampton, and Anne Parks

The Kitchen Sink

This is so much better than doing dishes!

Patriotic Bees

The Buzzin' Bees celebrated Patriotic Day with silly hats and a parade around the playground. Each child was supposed to make a silly hat and bring it to school. I asked Anne Parks what she wanted to put on her silly hat and her response was "I don't want a silly hat because I don't like to wear silly hats. I like to wear cute headbands." So, as you can see, we made her a "cute headband." In the pics, the bow is flipped up, so it is a little silly. Charlie, Mary Hampton, Anne Parks, Alex, Fisher, and Lauren W.

The kids paraded into the gym then sang some patriotic songs.

God Bless America!

Spring Cleaning

Boy! It's been a long time since my last post! We've been busy spring cleaning. A few weeks ago, we had a garage sale and got rid of a ton of stuff. Although it looks like it in the pictures, we did not have the sale inside our house - we had it on the front porch. That morning, we just carried the tables out the front door. We sold a lot and took a lot to Goodwill, but most importantly, we got it out of the house!
The crazy thing is that I'm still cleaning out. It seems like it never ends! Today I culled the girls' toys and have two more boxes for Goodwill! Where does all of this stuff come from?