It's the Irish In Me...

Tagg celebrated St. Patty's Day in style...green frosting on sugar cookies with green sprinkles. He likes to lick the frosting off the cookies with his fingers so it's a little impressive that he can make such a green frosting moustache. Thanks to Nana for making the sugar cookies. You're the best!

9 Month Check-up

Sloane's 9 month well-baby check up went a little bit like this...

9 months? Lucky girl. No shots required.

How many teeth? Eight! EIGHT?! That's kind of a full grill.

Is she rolling over, sitting, crawling? Absolutely. And standing and climbing things.

Is she eating formula and some baby food? Well, she's eating formula, baby food AND bits of every single thing we eat. Including chicken, steak and other "big people" food.

Is she doing other things? Hmmm...like clapping? Yes, starting today. Like "so big"? Yep, on it. Like waving hello and good-bye? Yep. Like staring down people with observant eye contact beyond her years? Done.

Is she sleeping well? Down by 8pm, up at 7:30am. I'd say so.

How big is she? 28 1/4 inches, 18 1/4 pounds...perfectly average.

How did 10 months go by so fast?! We love you baby girl!

Tubby Time

 

Sloane is finally starting to dig tubby time. She's splashing and chewing on things and tolerating (sort of) Tagg pouring water over her head and splashing her incessantly. And, let's face it, they're probably both peeing in the tub.

The kids got a little extra washing help from Nana this week. We all got wet. Hope the kids got kind of clean. At least we all had fun!

 After their bath, Sloane is happy to rock her cute pink robe, as long as she can gnaw on a letter with all of her teeth. Or play with a diaper. Or the lotion. Hey! She has her priorities!

Could she be any more darling?

Baby Steps

Sloane is officially standing up, wielding a hammer and - thank goodness - not walking! But it's close. Like any day close. She started this standing up business a week or so ago but she's already able to hold a stand for a couple of minutes. With a plastic hammer. Thank goodness she can't take more than one step before she falls down or we might be in trouble. Scratch that. She's not even 10 months old and she's standing up. We're already in trouble!

We blame Harper, who learned to walk at 10 months, and then came over to our house and taught Sloane everything she knows. 

The other way we knew we were in trouble was last week when I ran upstairs for a second to put something in the garbage, turned around and - boom! - Sloane had climbed up the slide we have in the living room and was sitting on the top, happy as a clam, banging one of Tagg's cars on the slide. She was so proud of herself! NO concept of where the edges were (scary!) but loving her digs. New nickname? Monkey.

Anyone taking bets on how soon she's actually walking? My guess is next week!

Celebrate!

 

Not one, but TWO new jobs for my little brother! Becky and Harper were the first, but not the only ones to congratulate him on his new gig at Adobe. It's bound to be a big change but it will challenge him in all the best ways (not the least of which will be finding a Starbucks in Orem).

We all had a little toast with champagne, although the kids' version of "bubbly" was Sprite. This was Tagg's first experience with anything carbonated. I'm kind of proud of that. He is 2 1/2 and I think a lot of kids this age are already into Super Big Gulps. I should be especially concerned since every time we go through a drive-up I hear this little-dude voice from the back seat - "Mommy's Diet Coke?"

Don't worry too much about the bridesmaid champagne flute...it was just the littlest one we had. And if you can't tell, he loved Sprite so much he literally licked the glass. Luckily, has not asked for it again since. Whew! Mom's soda addiction has apparently not been passed down to the next generation.

To celebrate Marc's other new job — he traded up from Red Lobster (cheapskate, coupon-bearing, no tipping, all-you-can-eat-shrimp clientele) to the Wild Rose (lovely, 5-star but affordable, non-chain with a great wine list). I hope he likes it because I know I will enjoy eating there more! Tagg and Uncle Marc shared a little toast. Tagg has actually been doing "cheers!" for a long time. With anything. Apple slices. Wheat thins. Waffles. Noodles (that's not an easy toast, by the way).

We are so proud of Marc! He's worked so hard on his career and this new gig offers so much opportunity for him. Cheers all around!

Hat Heads?

Crochet Crew? Cats in the Hats? Too many choices! Auntie Leese miraculously crocheted a few bags full of these darling hats for the kids and presented them while Jeff and Lynne and the kids were in town. We were all so impressed by her skills. Are you kidding?! 

 You'll notice that Tagg is MIA from the photo. That little guy, who was always so cute in hats when he was little, absolutely 100% REFUSES to cooperate, even for 30 seconds by wearing a hat. Even when Auntie Leese made it. - sigh - Oh well, I am pretty amazed that we got these 5 kids to smile in their hats!

Sloane and Kayla/Eula* were pretty cute in their matching baby hats. The girls are always so cute together, even though they're still not super interested in playing together.  Unless Eula has some toy that Sloane wants...then she's like "hey! I'll take that." And Eula responds with "WAAAHHH!" (translation: I have a sister who takes stuff from me and I know how to battle back!). We found out that Kayla weighed in on her 6 month at 19 lbs - that's a full pound bigger than her 9 month old cousin Sloane. We are now confused about who gets the hand-me-downs.

Sloane with Grama, rocking the
hat while working on her walking skills.

 

Me with my darling niece Brooke. We're hat buddies.
And I hope she was standing on something because I don't
think I'm as short as a 10 year old.

* If you haven't heard the Eula story, it's fabulous! Kent and Nicole wanted to name their baby Kayla but 3 year old Ashley was adamant - like screaming "no Kayla" adamant - that the baby's name was Eula. She would get so mad if anyone called the baby anything but Eula, even before she was born, and she refuses to call her Kayla to this day. Strange. Where does a 3 year old come up with a name like Eula?! Well, that's where it gets interesting! Sandy's (Scott's mom) mom - so Ashley's great-grandmother who had passed well before Ashley arrived in the world was named EULA. But she went by Fern. So none of us even knew that was Grandma's name. But Ashley came up with that name on her own, and now baby Kayla is pretty much known as Eula. If you don't believe in spirits, you might want to start rethinking that one...shivers.