Pre-Halloween

I decided to take pictures of you in your costume early. We actually will be coming back from our trip to Boston on Halloween night, but I am pretty sure you'll be asleep by the time we get home... so here are a few that I took of you. Happy early Halloween!
You are an adorable little bunny!

Bunny's don't sit like that, but you do!

Hop, Hop, Hop ... up the stairs

Next to your baby pumpkin

Stayed in the basket just for a second, enough for me to take a picture

In the last week you've gotten a lot stronger on your feet. You pull up on everything within your reach and stand for a long time and you've now learned how to sit your butt down gracefully too without falling backwards when you let go of whatever it is that you were holding on to. Yesterday you let go of the walker and stood there without anything holding you for about 3-4 seconds, I couldn't believe it. The activity walker that I took video of you in is no longer safe. The last few times I put you in it, the whole thing almost flipped on its side. You no longer walk around it, you run around it as fast as you can... it's so funny, and it's not really stable enough for your weight.

You're very chatty, although it's hard to make out what you're really saying. You're a real chatter box sometimes. You love your 2 little pink bears and sometimes when I give them to you, you get super excited and grab it immediately and hug it and even kiss it and then you start talking to it. Ah... so cute!

The 3 teeth which I was convinced were coming last week are still not here, haha, so I guess I was wrong... may be they'll show up while we're gone, we'll see.
We haven't left yet, and I miss you already. I really thought I would handle it much better, but it's so hard and nerve racking, it's all I can think of today. :(

Morning routine

Morning time with daddy has become quite special. You wake up sometime between 6:30 and 7:30 am and either one of us comes to get you. You have a huge grin on your face when you see us, and it's just priceless. Sometimes you're so excited we can hardly get you out of your sleep blanket. You get your bottle and watch "Wilbur" until Lada gets to our house at 8 am. Seems like it's yours and daddy's favorite show ever since he's discovered it. The main puppet is a cow by the name of Wilbur and the other puppets always find some sort of problem which they solve by reading a book. It's a cute little show and you just love it. Afterwards you read a book, just like the characters in the show. Of course when it's not on, you are just as happy watching something else like Sesame Street or Curios George. You cuddle up with daddy either in our bed or downstairs on the couch under a blanket and watch it very attentively. This of course makes it that much harder for me to leave the in morning. Here are a few pictures I took as I was leaving, I just couldn't help myself. Since you've become super mobile lately, these times when you sit still and cuddle up next to us are so rare and so special.

Watching Curious George

Close up of the 3 of you... Daddy, Sascha and the Baby Bear

Oops

I accidentally gave you some pineapple and now you have the worst diaper rash ever. I feel so bad. Last night you woke up at least 2 or 3 times and cried, and the whole time I just thought you were crying for your pacifier. The reason I thought that, is because it seems like you're about to get 2 or 3 more teeth. They like coming in pairs I guess. You've been a bit fussy and you make really funny faces trying to teeth on everything you come in contact with. I've been avoiding giving you a pacifier to bed, but since the teething started again it looks like it makes your gums feel better. I even put the pacifier in the fridge along w/some other teething toys. Well here I thought your teeth were hurting you, but last night that wasn't the case at all and we didn't realize until this morning that you had pooped at some point during the night, and we didn't change you right away (since that pretty much never happens) so the result is a really bad diaper rash. I am sorry :( I don't even know how much of it you ate, I left it out for Lada to give to you in the morning with your cereal and it looks like you may have had quite a bit of it. I've read that you're supposed to wait on citrus fruit till 1 year of age, because of their acidity level, but it didn't dawn on me that the same goes for pineapple. No more of that!

I've stayed home with you today mostly because I've been feeling under the weather, but at least now I can keep an eye on your little bottom. Hopefully those teeth will cut through soon and stop causing you discomfort.

On a different topic, you've been pulling up on things left and right, especially your crib, you like cruising around it and shake the sides of it before you get all tuckered out and settle down for a nap. Most of the time you don't want to sit on our lap but you want to stand or walk with our help. Standing is definitely the new thing this month. Lets see how long it will take till you start walking.

Pumpkin Patch at Bates Nut Farm

We took you to your very first pumpkin patch. It was our first time going to this particular one as well, Bates Nut Farm was pretty far... a bit further than Wild Animal park, but it was huge and very much worth the drive. There was a petting zoo, pony marry go round, maze, hay rides, lots of food, music. And did I mention gigantic pumpkins? So you had a great time. There is a group of friends who goes with their kids every year and we joined in on the fun. We took you on the hay ride, and were about to go into the maze, but you fell asleep and since we didn't bring the right stroller, (rookies...) we put you into our friends stroller for a little nap. We had lunch, picked out our pumpkins and before we knew it hours have gone by. I think next time we'll make a whole day of it... so we'll be better prepared. 

It sure was bright out

You're definitely smaller than the pumpkin

A ride on a pumpkin?

...or a ride inside the Wheelbarrow next to the pumpkins

Pumpkins everywhere

Looking up at the big boys Trevor and Andrew

You were fascinated with the scarecrow that we're sitting next to

Enjoying the hay ride in daddy's arms

We took home 3 pumpkins, 2 big ones and one little one for you!

Around you go

Doing laps around the table... it wasn't too long ago when all you did was just stand and play with the toys.

Tooth #3

I saw another tooth coming in... totally by accident. We were playing pee-a-boo and I was hiding under the high chair tray and when I peeked out, you laughed and I noticed something white ... sure enough it was another tooth.

Shaking your head ... "No?"

You seem to know what you want... or what you don't want, even when you're so little. :)

10 Months

Sweet face is getting so big!

Determined to pull up on your own

You did it, and you're so proud!

I couldn't resist with this one, had to get a picture of your adorable little bum

Well at 10 months you are now pulling yourself up, but I've only seen you do it a handful of times. You are making a few steps holding onto both of our hands and you freely cruise around the perimeter of the pack n' play. Also sometimes you get into a funny yoga position - down dog while crawling. You get stuck there without knowing what to do. Sometimes you still prefer to army crawl with your arms and frog kick with your legs like you are swimming, instead of doing the normal crawl. You have definitely gotten much faster at crawling and you now easily go from crawling to sitting, whereas before you would get stuck crawling and would have to roll over on your back if you no longer wished to crawl.

One thing you refuse to do is hold your bottle. I've actually given up on trying to teach you how to do that... you just sit back and relax while we hold it for you, hilarious! In the last month you've tried some new foods including meat like chicken and we've given you little pieces of things here and there and you are just delighted, immediately trying to pick them up with your tiny fingers and shove whatever you get into your mouth. You've done very well with the sippy cup filled with water. I tried giving you formula in it a few month ago and you weren't interested. In fact, you tasted it and looked at me like "what was I thinking putting that stuff in there?" The doctor suggested I try it now... which I haven't, but I'll start pretty soon so we can transition you from a bottle to a sippy cup. You have kept your regular schedule of eating 3 meals a day along with 3 bottles a day, along with your 2 naps. Your best nap is usually in the morning starting around 10:30 am and lasting about 2+ hours and your other nap is in the afternoon around 3:30 pm and is about an hour long.

You've been enjoying throwing toys from your high chair and watching them fall to the ground.

You seem to like to see objects fall from the high chair. Your other favorite play time is on the floor with the fish tank. I would put little blocks into it, and you look inside and pull them out, this can entertain you for quite some time.

A few other things we've seen you do is copy some sounds, like a smacking sound we do with our lips. Sometimes when we ask you a question you will shake your head indicating "NO", I don't think you always mean to say No, but it's been amusing to ask you questions and you reply with your head shake.

Well last but not least, yesterday I noticed another tooth coming out. It's on top as expected, however it's not one of the front teeth on top, it's the one next to it. So pretty soon you'll start looking like a little vampire :)