Thanksgiving...by Cutie

This is Rebecca writing. Mommy and Daddy are too tired to tell you about our fun and busy Thanksgiving holiday, so they let me do it.

It had been four months (over half my life!) since I saw Uncle David, so he played with me a lot and read to me using his British accent.


Here is Mommy goofing off with Uncle Stephen, Uncle David, and Aunt Emily. They did the chicken dance on piggyback and sang a bunch of songs they used to sing when they were little.

Meanwhile, Grammy gave me my first chess lesson...how to capture the queen!

My favorite part was staying up past my bedtime to play with Nana, Papa, and Benji.

On Friday, I helped Mommy and Daddy cheer for the Aggies, and they won! We were very happy!

Finally, we decorated Grammy's Christmas tree and got dressed up and took a bunch of pictures.
I was so happy when we finished and I got to get out of my dress!

Birthday Turkey

Today is my dad's birthday. He doesn't like a lot of fanfare, so I won't post a bunch of pictures of him or anything. We sent him a card and a smoked turkey (a long-standing family tradition), which both arrived today just in time. Save some for Thanksgiving, Dad!

A swinging time!

We took Little Cutie on a walk this afternoon and on the way back stopped by a neighbor's house who has offered to let us borrow the swing in their front yard whenever we want. They have a precious little girl named Abby who is 21 months old. Rebecca just used the swing for the first time this past week and absolutely loved it, so this time we brought the camera. I don't see her smile with her mouth closed very often, but I thought it was a sweet expression.

Here is a side view with her signature wide-open-mouth smile.

She can sit!

Cutie is finally sitting up well! She sat for several minutes today without falling over (her previous record was only a few seconds). Here she is sitting and holding her little cloth doll.

Up-and-down seven-month birthday

Little Cutie had a very up-and-down seven-month (already!) birthday today. She seems to be teething (even though none have poked through yet), and was tired and fussy much of the day. I had to wake her up from her morning nap (so that she would be tired enough to take a second one, which she never did); so I took the opportunity to take a picture of her sleeping, which I don't get to do very much anymore, since it usually wakes her up. Isn't she cute? We've had to take out the crib mirror, bumper pads, and the few stuffed animals we had in there, because they distract her enough to significantly delay her going to sleep.

This evening we had to have an "emergency" bath, after Cutie had fallen asleep with the bottle in her mouth, and I took it out of her mouth and milk spilled all over both of us. Of course, that woke her up, and we had to get cleaned up quickly before going night-night again. It's been awhile since we've given her a bath in the sink, and she thoroughly enjoyed socializing with the cute little baby in the mirror!

Cute Little Face

I think this is one of Rebecca's cutest faces. She has this expression often, when she's just looking around and observing everything, but I haven't been able to catch it on camera very much, so I was really excited to get this picture. She is wearing a 6-9 mos. size shirt, which fits her perfectly; and 12-mos. size pants, which are too short on her! I wish I knew how to change my camera settings so that I could eliminate the shadows from behind the head. This happens in lots of my pictures.

Cute Little Musician

I bought this little piano at a garage sale last weekend for $3. I liked it because it is a full octave (unlike some other toy pianos), and the notes are clear and all in tune. The only improvement I would make is for it to be slightly elevated so a little person could sit and put her legs underneath it without it falling over. At first, Little Cutie preferred for Mommy to play, since she couldn't figure out how to get much of a sound out of it herself. Yesterday, she started to get the hang of it and fussed when Mommy was playing because she wanted a turn. Here she is enjoying her first instrument!

Cute Little Bookworm

On Wednesday, Rebecca started scooting forward several inches at a time, using her arms to pull herself. She is getting really good at it, although usually she doesn't go very far because I tend to put her down on the floor right next to all of her toys. Imagine my delight when I put her down on her toy mat surrounded by stuffed animals, stacking cups, and other toys, went into the other room for a minute, and came back to find that she had scooted away from all her toys in order to reach her favorite book, Goodnight, Moon!

Close to crawling

This past week Rebecca started rocking back and forth on her hands and knees. At first it was just occasionally. Now it is every time I put her down on the floor, and often when I put her in her crib. She will move all four limbs at the same time, so that she falls flat on her tummy, but I know it won't be too long before she figures out how to coordinate her movements. I wonder if she will start crawling before she learns to sit!

Who needs to sit?

Rebecca is still not sitting up by herself for more than a few seconds at a time. She doesn't really show much interest in it. She is perfectly content to lie on her tummy on the floor and play.

I've tried using the Boppy pilllow to encourage her and get her used to being in the sitting position...but who wants use the pillow as a support tool when you can lean over and play with the tags on it? :)

Houston weather

So it's mid-November, and the high temperature today was in the eighties. I've been taking Rebecca on walks the past couple of weeks, but yesterday the mosquitoes were awful! I counted sixteen bites on myself, and two on Rebecca's head (the rest of her was covered up). Thankfully, they don't seem to bother her too much, but I'm waiting for it to get colder so we don't have to worry about them anymore. We have enjoyed a few cold days here and there. Here is a picture of Rebecca in her pink hooded sweater that was passed down from Aunt Emily.

Baby food update

Thanks to Tricia's suggestion that we try finger feeding (instead of spoon feeding), and Gran's suggestion that we make the texture more liquid, Rebecca has been doing a better job of eating new foods. She still is not crazy about cereal (rice or oatmeal), even though I mix it with my milk; but she seems to be doing pretty well with vegetables, and fruits are kind of in between. It is still sometimes a challenge to capture the right moment to attempt solid feedings (hungry, but not starved, and not too tired), but I think I'm gradually getting better at reading her. Carrots (as you can see in the picture) seem to be her favorite so far.

Sixty-one years

Today is my grandparents' 61st wedding anniversary! We are so grateful that God has given them to each other (and to us) for such a long time. Maybe next time I see them I can get a copy of one of their honeymoon pictures to scan and post (they don't have any wedding photos). May you have another blessed year together, Nana and Papa!

She's on the move!

Rebecca is closer to crawling than I thought. She can now scoot backwards enough so that she can get off of her blanket (which I put her on top of when she plays on the floor). Once she started fussing because she couldn't reach any of her toys anymore, and she couldn't figure out how to move towards them; but another time she discovered a whole new world of lint, dirt, and carpet fuzz. Time to start vacuuming more often, and being much more cautious about what we leave lying around.