Whoops, haven't updated in awhile!

I've really been slacking in the blogosphere lately. The last 5 weeks or so have been filled with laughter, tears and frustrations... and poosplosions. Seriously, it's been a crazy 5 weeks!

I haven't even blogged about Aryn's 1st birthday!!!! Wow.... I am really slacking!! So I'll make it quick: it was, in 1 word, awesome.

It started on your actual birthday, when mommy invited all of your Baby & Me friends over for a playdate. We had cheesecake cupcakes and you all played for a couple of hours. It was awesome! You even got some presents from your little friends! Mommy is very grateful for the Baby & Me group - you've made some great friends in the group and mommy really enjoys spending time with all of the other mamas!!

Then, we had Grammy and Grampy over for supper and we had meatloaf (your favourite as of right now!) and a big carrot cake. Mmmm it was sooo good!

 

What did grammy and grampy get you?? A big outdoor playcentre with a swing and slide!!!! You looove the swing!!

 

Then, on Saturday, September 17, we had a whole bunch of people over to celebrate YOU. Grampy made some delicious cupcakes (as it was the theme!), you had a beautiful dress made just for you, and everyone played and had a blast!! You were so spoiled and you got so many toys and clothes.

 

 

Uncle Curtis and Auntie Jill even stayed over night with their little man, Kaeson, and we had a great time with them too!!

After Aryn's super awesome 1st birthday, she went from being my baby to being my toddler. She just grew up! I noticed it that day; she was no longer a baby. She is always standing up on furniture, walking along furniture and toys (she still has yet to let go and walk on her own... 13 months and counting, little one!! Walk!), and turbo crawling after Bauer.

Giving her baby kisses!

One thing that has really developed the last few weeks is her humour. This kid is friggen hilarious. She SCREAMS in delight. She loves being scared, chased, and bugged. I still believe that if she was born as a second child, she'd be happier because she always wants attention and someone to play with!

 

Oh my sweet little girl. I love you so much!!

Also, in the last 5 weeks, Aryn has gotten not 1, not 2, but FIVE NEW TEETH! With one more on the horizon. Dear Lord.... WHAT were you thinking?! What did we do to deserve that?? On the teething chart, a child is supposed to get much of their teeth by 1 year. Not us. In a matter of 1 month, Aryn got her 4 front top teeth and the one to the left of her 2 bottom teeth is poking through. The one to the right of her two bottom teeth is swelling her gums so I'm sure that's coming too.

And the diaper rash.

Dear Lord please...... heal that diaper rash.

From being woken up to painful gums, to poosplosions that were - literally - poosplosions, to trying to rip off her diaper to soothe her poor rashed-up skin.... this kid has had one awful, sleepless night after another.

This is Aryn and her BFF Keegan!

Mama is tired. Daddy is tired. And Bauer wishes you'd let him cuddle in peace.

But with some new medicated cream (I buckled and decided to cancel my plan of healing your rash with all-natural ingredients), some Polysporin, naked bum time (and pee and poop on the floor!) and multiple night time diaper changes, it looks like we're on the road to recovery.

I hope!!!

But all of these challenges this month aside, you have made us smile more than ever before!! You are sooo funny and sweet. You give the best little kisses, and you are always running to us to give us hugs and cuddles. You love books, and throwing toys and playing with the expensive electronics we have rather than any of the billion toys you have.

 

And you looooove Bauer. You love playing with Bauer. You grab Beary or Bunny, shove it in Bauer's face, squeal with delight, and then throw it so that he runs after it. Then he brings it back to you, and you do it all over again. Daddy and I have watched you two play for up to 5 minutes at a time. This is ground-breaking!

But, if you EVER try to touch Bauer - even his toe - he will snarl at you and run away. Playing and feeding him is ok, apparently, but no touching. No touching.

You love your walks. Whenever you get whiny for no reason, I put you in the stroller and go for a nice walk and you talk talk talk talk talk the whole way. You help me hold Bauer's leash, you smile at strangers, you point at whatevers, and you do everything you can to take your touque off. Simple love.

And your smiles. Ohhh Aryn, your smile. You started this whole cheesy grin thing a few months back and recently, you do it all the time. And it's hilarious. You give the cheesy grin to strangers, to mommy, to daddy, to the grandparents... and sometimes you do this *sniff*sniff*sniff* thing when you do it. It's so funny and you know it.

At 1 year old, I've read there are certain things you "should" be doing. But you are content (or is it lazy?) and don't want to, and while some moms would be worried, I am not. Why? Because you make up for it in other ways. Sure, you hold your legs up like us making you walk is the plague, but you are always doing everything possible to make us smile. Like crawling over to me, hugging my leg, and handing me a toy to play with you, or flipping through books, or playing with Bauer, or ... whatever. Everything you do, you always stop, look at us, make sure we're smiling, and continue on. If we're not smiling, you stop, come to us, and try to make us smile.

 

That, my sweet girl, is what makes you wonderful.

What is NOT wonderful, however, is your incessant need to clear off your high chair tray. No matter what is on your tray, no matter if you like the food or hate it, you try to throw it on the ground. Then you look, watch Bauer eat it, then throw him more food. It DRIVES.US.CRAZY. I've said no, I've slapped your little hand (obviously not hard enough because you squeal and laugh), and I've taken your food away. You continue to throw your food on the floor. I wish you would stop. Please, stop!!!

What else....

You talk talk talk. You make no sense (except when you say "Dannnnceee" and then you proceed to dance), but you just babble away like you are telling us the best story. And you use your hands in your stories and it's so hilarious.

And your dancing. You shake that booty like you're auditioning for So You Think You Can Dance. You hold your hand out, move your legs and your bum, and really groove. And to everything - whether it's the Parks & Recreation theme song, or a Hallmark commercial, you are dancing.

Aryn, you make us smile literally every day. Mommy and daddy love you soooo much!!!!

ONE

Dear Aryn,

You turned ONE today!! Mommy and daddy can't believe it has been a whole year since you joined us. It has been quite the year and you have made it absolutely spectacular. We can't imagine our lives without you!

You are absolutely hilarious and make us laugh every single day. You are so loving, and cuddly and inquisitive, and curious. You are also the fastest little crawler I've ever seen in my life! TURBO BABY!

 

This past month you've gone from being a baby to a big girl. Complete with the crab crawl and climbing up on everything and banging on the computer.

Bauer is also much better with you this past month and it makes me soo happy to see him give you little quick kisses before running away from you. 

 

You are a climbing-up-the-stairs pro, and you give the best, and CUTEST kisses. 

You are definitely a Grammy's Girl; your face lights up when Grammy comes in the room. She's like Baby Crack for you - she is full of fun and exciting games and tricks to teach you. And the smiles you give Grampy... wow. You love all of your grandparents! We went to visit Grandma Diana and Grandpa Butch this past month and you were not only a ham, raking in the attention and love, but you were a big entertainer and loved getting laughs and claps.

Aryn and Grandma Diana

Aryn and Grandpa Butch

Aryn and Grampy Bob

Aryn and Grammy Gina

Aryn, you have made this past year just phenomenal and mommy and daddy can't wait to see what this next year and every year after brings. Thank you for being you and for everything you are. You are amazing and we love you so much. Happy Birthday, sweet little Love Nugget/Monkey Face/Nugget. We love you.

Moving, Moving, Moving

We are officially moved.

We are also officially lost in a tornado of boxes.

"Where is *this*?" is pretty much the most-used saying in our house right now. We have the spare bathroom downstairs completed, my office is closer (computer is up - that's all that matters, right?), Aryn's room just needs decorations, and our kitchen is slowly beginning to look more like a kitchen rather than a landfill.

And the television. Ryan's prized possession is the huge built-in shelving unit in our living room.

We are so grateful for our new home!! I just can't wait until it feels more like a home instead of a stress-inducing mess.

So on moving day, which was Tuesday, we got up bright and early and started the last of the packing and moving. I took down all the photos in Aryn's bedroom, and placed each picture nail on the change table beside her bed. Rush rush rush. Then at 8:30am I put Aryn down for a nap. She tried to fight it, but she eventually fell asleep. At 9:30 I heard her call out for me - she's awake!! I go in there and there are nails EVERYWHERE. I mean, everywhere - in her crib. I quickly grab them all, cursing every awful word I know in my head. I look at Aryn and she's sucking on something.

I open her mouth and lo and behold... a nail. I tried to grab it but she pulled her head away and then...

*gulp*

She swallowed that darn nail!! I stood there in complete shock, praying praying praying that she wouldn't start to choke. Thankfully, my mom was there and she stayed very calm while I cried and freaked out and I am fairly certain if she had let me, I'd have sprouted wings and flown us to the hospital.

3 x-rays and 2 days later... we had us a nail in a big pile of poop that I had to sift through.

So it's been a very stressful, crazy week. And I'm VERY grateful that my sweet little love nugget is ok and healthy. Thank you, God!!

11 Months

Before I go off on the "I can't believe you're already 11 months old..." tangent, I'll just dive right into all the firsts you did this past month. Because, my beautiful baby girl, there have been a LOT.


1. Crawling. Just past your 10-month birthday, you started crawling. You were a little late in the game, but you sure figured it out fast. One day you were just plain ol' crawling, the next day you were a speed demon. Now, you're from one end of the kitchen to Bauer's food dish in 1.2 seconds flat - faster than mommy can get to you! And when you can't crawl, you are unhappy. You love moving and exploring and getting to things you want. And you huge booty makes it super cute to watch you move!

2. Standing. You started pulling yourself up on EVERYTHING this month. You won't stand on your own, and when anyone tries to put you down you hold your feet straight so that you get put into the sitting position, but you stand on everything. Chairs, the dishwasher, book shelves, beds... you are getting into everything. Everything is new and exciting. Especially things you're not supposed to play with. You sure keep us on our toes! Speaking of toes, I should also mention that when you're standing up, you are ALWAYS on your tippy toes. You'll stand on your big feet for a little bit, but then you're right back onto your tip toes. You just try to get as tall as you can so you can see more of the world!

Haha funny story... mommy put you on the floor in her bedroom so she could run quickly to the bathroom. 20 seconds later, you popped your head in the bathroom. There are 4 stairs in the bedroom to get to the bathroom. You climbed the stairs for the first time!! It was very funny, but very scary - you did this without being watched!!

Peeking around the corner

3. Crawling with one leg up. You love the grass... but you're more interested in eating the grass and little treasures you find in the grass than actually touching it. So, you've started crawling on one knee, and one foot straight out. It's quite funny to watch, and mommy loves laughing at you!

4. Bath time is still one of your most favourite things. You can be whiny and grumpy and just plain miserable, which is rare, but once you hear the water, you crawl over to the tub and watch it fill up with water. Then, once you're in it, you are as happy as a clam. Wait... are clams happy? I guess so! But you just love your bath. I keep buying you more bath toys but all you want to do is suck on a wash cloth and stand up in the bath, only to push yourself back into a sitting position with a loud splash and laugh. Mommy does not like getting soaked this way, missy!

5. Sleeping. For a few months, you went to bed at 7pm and slept until ~7:30am. Mommy LOVED it. You didn't wake up at all. Then, this past month, you changed the game plan. You now wake up sometimes just screaming your little head off, then once you see me, you hunt for my necklace, you hold it in your little hand, then put your head on my shoulder and nod off to sleep. While mommy loves these 2am wakeup calls, I could most definitely live without them. Twice, I've had to actually feed you to calm you down! And our 7:30am wake up calls have ended as well - they now come at 6:30am. Mommy's already awake then from daddy's alarm clock, but that extra hour of catnap was sure nice! You can go back to sleeping normally aaaaaaanytime now!

At Addyson's 1st Birthday Party!

6. Eating. Once upon a time, I couldn't feed you enough. Any kind of solid food in front of you and you scarfed it down like I hadn't fed you in days. Now, I put a bunch of food in front of you, you eat what you want, and throw the rest on the floor for Bauer. You'd think Bauer would like you with this new arrangement, but he still doesn't. But that's for another numbered story! You aren't necessarily a picky eater, but you just don't want to eat as much. So I don't have to be overly creative with your food anymore. Sometimes, when you're really hungry but refusing to eat, I have to mask it with yogurt or fruit cups. Mommy tricks you into eating just like she tricks Bauer into eating. You two are one in the same!

7. Hair clips. You look sooooo cute with hair clips in your hair. Namely, old people don't ask me if you're a boy when you're wearing hair clips. And they are just so cute. But this past month, Mommy has lost about 74 hair clips because you pull them out when she's not looking, and you throw them away. I don't know where you throw them, but I'm pretty sure one day I'll find a stack of hair clips in the corner somewhere. I get the impression you don't like wearing them... but tough luck. You're going to wear them again one day!

Yup! Pink toenails!

8. Your first word. On July 20 (just past your 10th month birthday) you said your first word. And it was... drum roll... Bauer. Mommy thought she was mistaken, and asked you to repeat it and you did. I pointed to Bauer, said "who's this?" and you replied with "Bar." You just love that dog. And he still hates you!!

(see: #15)

9. Your toys. Mommy keeps buying you toys, with the hope that you'll love one enough to leave her cell phone alone but, alas, I cannot. You hate toys, but love electronics. You've since discovered Daddy's laptop and keep climbing all over him to get to it so you can bang on the keys. Once, somehow you made his computer screen flip completely upside down. I don't even know how he fixed it!

10. Walks. I haven't found much that you don't love yet... except chicken... and falling (haha). But another thing you love, is your walks. We take Bauer for at least 1-2 walks everyday and you just look around, smiling at everything, taking it all in, and talking up a STORM. You just talk, talk, talk on your walks. And say hi to the puppies we pass, and you smile wide for strangers. You are so much fun to take on walks!

11. About a week ago, Grammy & Grampy stopped by to see you. You crawled over to the gate, saw them, then took off crawling super fast. It's almost as if you get so excited that you don't know what to do except run away. You sure do love your Grammy & Grampy! We also drove to Lethbridge one day to visit Grandpa Butch in the hospital and you were in fine form, showing off for everyone how you crawl (on one leg!) and crawl up on stuff. Grandpa Butch just thought you were the funniest ever!

12. Elmo. Every time you see that Elmo on tv, you just get a huge grin on your face and you stop what you're doing to watch him. He's like crack for babies. You love Elmo!

Watching Elmo

13. Clacking your tongue. I don't know how you learned this, or where you got it from, but you started clacking your tongue this month. And you do it all day long. All we hear is "clack clack clack" from you. When I clack my tongue, you do it right away with a huge smile. It's just adorable.

Mid-Clack

14. Mommy taught you "Soooo Big" (you raise your hands in the air) and then you clap for yourself. You love clapping. You clap for everything. You eat, you clap. You poop, you clap. You fart, you clap (actually, when you fart, you laugh first, then clap for yourself... I think that proves you're part Sobol!). You clap for yourself for everything. This weekend, we were camping with Auntie Jill, Uncle Curtis (Rich) and Kaeson, and you were in your playpen while we were eating and I asked you how big you are. You were standing there, holding onto the side, and you raised your left hand. Then you put your left hand down, held onto the railing, and then raised your right hand. Then, with your one hand still holding onto the playpen, you clapped for yourself (with a huuuuge smile on your face).

I should also mention here that you ALWAYS SMILE. You're just always smiling! You're the happiest baby EVER!

15. You love climbing onto the bed (Mommy has to help you cuz you haven't figured out climbing yet) and then you race to Bauer's bed, and lay in it. You love it. You also love crawling over to the window ledge and watching the world outside. You try to get close to it so you bang your face on the window haha!

 

16. The day before your 11th month, you started giving kisses. Single handedly the CUTEST thing ever. Mommy said "Aryn, give me kisses" and you opened your mouth and put it on (over) my mouth. Then Daddy asked you for kisses and you did the same thing. You also gave Kaeson kisses. It makes my heart jump every time you do it. You are just the sweetest baby girl ever.

17. This month, Mommy started a Baby & Me Strathmore group so that once a week, we can get together with other mommies and babies and just hang out and play. It's become quite the little event! I am very excited about it every week, and you've made some great friends with Keegan, Treydon, Sierra, Reid, and a few other little friends. I haven't gotten a photo of everyone together, but here's a photo of you hanging out with other little babies at Addyson's 1st birthday party!

Just a couple other things... you were an awesome camper this past weekend. We went to Gull Lake from Friday-Sunday and you were great on the drive there, you slept alright, and you were just a super happy baby. You were kind of mad that you couldn't crawl around (you kept eating the rocks...) but you were just such an awesome little camper. Mommy and Daddy were so proud of you!

 

With Daddy ; Climbing on Auntie Jill and Kaeson!

Also, your very first home - 128 Camden Court - is now sold and we bought your second home. Mommy and Daddy are excited for our new home, but I am also sad that the place you first started crawling, and climbing, and all of your other firsts, will now be someone else's home! We do love this home and we can't wait to make a million other firsts with you in our new home!!

 

It has been a wonderful 11 months, Aryn. Mommy and Daddy love you soooooo much!! Next month is your 1st birthday... I can't wait to celebrate with you!!

Family Photo!