Officially in Double Digits!

A week late, but that's right - I'm 10 months old now! It seems very hard to believe. This time last year, mom and dad told me they were painting the house and moving in and getting ready for me. Now they are chasing after me, laughing with me, reading to me, and having fun with me every day. What a difference a few months makes.

I am crawling all over the place now and can pull myself up on pretty much anything - the sofa, my toys, a pant leg - you name it and I can stand up on it. I even get so excited some times that I move my hands and forget that I'm not holding on. That's when I usually tumble. I clap my hands all the time now, give high fives, wave, and imitate raspberries really well. I am entirely off of baby food and eat "big people" food on my own now! Shredded cheese is a favorite and much to dad's chagrin, I LOVE broccoli :) Razmatazz has decided that she's had enough of me. Now that I can get to her quickly, she's started to get a little snippy with me. She "bit" at me the other day, but just in a playful way to tell me to go away. So mom and dad have to watch me very closely when she's around! Now that the stairway gates are up, poor Raz can't (or won't) get over them.

We had another fun filled weekend last weekend and have another one coming up this weekend! Grammy and Grampy Clements came to visit me last Friday - I had so much fun showing off all of my new tricks - crawling, standing, making my "scrunchy face", eating real food, chasing after the kitty, the list goes on and on. I blew raspberries at them too. Mom told me that they got stuck in some awful traffic going home, but I hope they had fun while they were here!

Saturday, we went to a birthday party at Arabelle's house. It was her grandpa's 70th birthday and her mom set up the baby pool for us to play in. I had a BLAST, but would not sit down in the water. Now that I'm a "big girl," I'm fine standing - no need to sit! Arabelle was so nice and shared her toys with me. She also though it would be funny to dump a bucket of water on her other grandpa's head while he was teaching her how to blow bubbles in the water.
























Having fun with my friend Arabelle!
























Happy Baby :)




When we left there, we went back to Wolftrap. We had tickets for the symphony performance of John Williams music. The skies were somewhat ominous on the way down, but dad kept checking the weather channel and it said it would be fine. WRONG!!! Right after we got there and got set up, the skies opened up and it POURED! It was so windy and was just a torrential downpour. Luckily I was in my stroller and had a pretty good shelter. Mom propped up the umbrella over the stroller and fed me my dinner while trying to hide under the umbrella to stay dry. My chicken got soggy, but I didn't seem to mind. The rain finally subsided and mom sat at the front of the lawn with me until it started to rain again. When mom tried to duck under the roof, the ushers told her that she had to move, so we ended up hiking back up the hill and hanging out under some shelter for the rest of the show. We couldn't see anything, so it was not ideal, but the music was great anyway! I really enjoyed the music from Indiana Jones - I danced and bounced in mom's arms. We're going back to Wolftrap tomorrow night to see Blue Planet. Hopefully it won't rain this time (although the forecast looks like it's calling for rain)!

School has been fun this week, but I'm ready for another weekend at home with mom and dad!

Not ready for another week!!!

We had another fun weekend and I'm not ready to go back to school tomorrow! Mom and dad took me to the DC United game yesterday. I enjoy the tailgate much more now that I can try to escape from the blanket :) I can even eat most of the tailgate food now, so at least that keeps me occupied for a little while. I've been eating the chicken there for a while now, but mom let me have some cheese ravioli and watermelon this time. Yum yum yum. Arabelle was really nice and shared all of her toys with me and mom got me a new DC United soccer ball at the game. We got to use the third row of seats in the Jeep and dad finally agreed that it was a good idea to buy this car, even if it only gets 15 mpg ;) We were able to fit us, Ken, Marie, Arabelle, all of our chairs, the canopy for shade, a cooler, and all of the toys for Belle and I! We didn't have our camera there, but if someone else happens to have taken photos, we'll gladly post them here!

Mom and dad just signed up for the Screaming Eagles 5K in September, so mom's hoping she has enough time (and motivation) to train for it. We went and bought her new shoes the other night and she says that helps. Dad says he's going to run with me in the stroller - I'm excited I get to go for a ride. Dad is also running a 10K in a few weeks, so wish him luck!!! Mom and I will be there cheering him on.

Today mom and I went shopping and dad took a photography class. I've not been feeling well the past few days and my schedule has been way off the past few days, so we couldn't get much done, but she did manage to get me some cute new clothes :) Dad really enjoyed his class and I was waiting up for him when he got home, even though it was WAY past my bedtime. I just needed some daddy time before I was ready to conk out.

Here are some photos from the past week. I'm getting much better at standing and am the wiggliest baby ever! It takes a ton of energy just to keep up with me :)





















See my pearly whites??? I even let mom brush them twice a day!!!!




















I'm barely holding on - sometimes I let go and stand for a few seconds, then fall down.





















I fell asleep and mom laid me down on my back. I immediately turned over and tried to sleep like this...


Have a good week everyone!

Fun filled weekend!

What a whirlwind of a weekend! On Friday, mom and dad took me to see my first symphony performance at Wolf Trap. It was a show called "Video Games Live" and featured the scores from many of the games that mom and dad played when they were younger. But it was performed by the NSO (National Symphony Orchestra) and had video explanations as they went. I had such a good time and danced my way through the first half. I got a little wiggly and mom made me get in my stroller and she walked me around and I fell asleep for the entire second half!

Saturday, I got to stay with Aunt Angela and Uncle Steve while mom and dad went to see Billy Joel and Elton John play in concert at the Nationals Stadium. I had a lot of fun hanging out with Steve and Angela and mom and dad had fun at the conert. I hear that the concert lasted for 3.5 hours and was really good :)

To add to the fun, I got to meet my Uncle Jeff, Aunt Lee Ann, and my cousins Jennifer and Christine on Sunday! They have been traveling the entire east coast for the past few weeks touring colleges and visiting family and I'm so glad they were able to stop and play with me for a while!

Here are some more recent photos.



















Showing off my teeth - I still have 5 - 3 on the top and 2 on the bottom.























My favorite facial expression. Makes mom and dad laugh every time :)






















I was VERY sleepy when we got home from Wolftrap on Friday night!






















My cousins Jennifer and Christine!






















Aunt Lee Ann!

Happy 4th!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had an enjoyable 4th of July. Dad tells me that this is his favorite holiday (other than maybe Christmas) and I can see why! We went to see the fireworks last night (in suburban VA, not in downtown DC) and I really enjoyed them. I was pretty fussy and wiggly leading up to the big festivities, but once the fireworks started, I stared for about 15 minutes, then just wanted to go to sleep. Mom definitely paid for keeping me up so late, though - I was up SCREAMING from 4-5:30 this morning, then decided to get up for the day at 7, ready to go. We didn't take too many photos yesterday because it was pretty dark by the time we got to where we watched the fireworks, but here are some from earlier in the day.




















I'm about to attack the kitty - she's in serious trouble now that I can crawl! Her ears stick right out there - perfect for me to grab on to!




















Happy as can be now that I can pull myself up on my table!

A fun weekend at Great Grandma Speichers!

Just an FYI - mom put links to the online photo albums on the right hand side of the page...there are a lot more photos there than are actually posted in the blog.

I got to go visit Great Grandma Speicher with mom this past weekend! Dad went to RYLA and Jenny and Kaitlin were visiting Great Grammy, so we decided to go visit for the weekend. I did NOT like the car ride up - especially with mom driving, there was no one to keep me entertained and I screamed for a long time. I hadn't met Jenny or Kaitlin before and we all had such a great time. I just wish they lived closer :( Or that Kaitlin was looking at colleges closer to here because I'd love to have her come babysit me!

Jenny gave me my first "car" - doesn't it look like fun? I love it, although I can't quite push myself on it yet. I can play with the toys on it and sit on it and wave uncontrollably. And guess what??? I'm a crawling fool now! Mom says that she and dad are in trouble now, but I don't understand why! I had crawled a few times before, but now it is consistent and I'm quick to get from one side of the room to the other. I'm also getting very good at waving hi and bye to people and if you blow me a kiss, I sometimes do what could be construed as kissing back. Mom just put away a bunch of my "baby" stuff like my bouncy seat and bassinet - I guess that means I'm growing up.

Here are some of the photos from last weekend.




















My new car!


















Waving to Great Grammy in my new fishy outfit





















Upside down binky doesn't bother me. I've heard that my cousin Beanie was really good at spinning her binky around with her tongue if it was in the wrong way - I get to meet her next week and I'll have to ask her to show me how!





















I love my car and my puppy! And now I can crawl from one to the other...




















Four generations of the Speicher family


I hear that this is a short week since the 4th of July is on Saturday. That means I get to stay home on Friday!!! Happy 4th everyone!

I'm 9 Month's Old and Happy Belated Father's Day!

Hi everyone! I am now into my 10th month - can you believe it??? I have 5 big pearly white teeth now and love to chomp down on anything in sight, particularly mom's shoulder when she's holding me :) I even figured out how to feed myself and don't really want baby food any more - yuck! I had turkey, green beans, carrots and a bagel tonight - yes, I'm a piggy...

We went to Penn State last weekend and had a great time. There was lots of singing which I really enjoyed and everyone seemed to love me! I even slept well in the hotel despite dad's snoring (mom tells me I snore too, but I don't believe her...). We stopped at the Lion on our way out of town to get a few photos - I was wearing my pj's because it was pretty chilly and I didn't have any other warm clothes!






















































I went back to the doctor yesterday for my 9 month well baby check up and the doctor said I look "perfect." I am 17 lbs, 8.5 oz and 28 inches tall (again, tall and skinny baby!). My head circumference is still very small, but my doctor said "Small heads mean small hats" and wasn't worried about it. Developmentally, I'm right on track or ahead of where I should be. And my cough FINALLY seems to be gone. My pertussis culture came back negative last week, so at least we know I didn't have what mom did. My doctor even gave mom the booster vaccine so she doesn't have to go back to her primary care doctor. If any of you haven't had it, you really should get it - it's the new tetanus booster (Tdap) for adults that now has the pertussis vaccine in it. It's relatively new (2005), so most adults have not had it yet. You really should get it, particularly if you are ever around small kids.

I'm guessing most of you heard about the Metro crash on Monday evening. Mom does take the Red Line train for work, but wasn't anywhere near where the crash happened. It just took her over 3 hours to get home - they had to stay late at daycare with me and I was hungry when she finally got there!!! Here is the latest article about the crash in case you haven't heard...

I'm back to not sleeping so well because I've learned a new trick. When I wake up now, instead of rolling over and going back to sleep, I sit up and can't figure out how to get back down! This goes on for several hours after mom puts me to sleep, then I finally stay down for the night (usually). Hopefully this is just a short phase and we can all get back to the "normal" routine and get a full night sleep soon!

I think daddy had a good first Father's Day, but he was pretty tired after the Pennharmonics reunion the night before. He got his big gift even before Mother's Day, but mom let me paint a picture for him that we gave to him on Thursday night. I had a blast with the paints, but I tried to eat them...mom didn't think that was such a good idea.








































I get to meet my Great Aunt Jenny and mom's cousin Kaitlin this weekend! We're going to meet at Great Grandma Speichers home in Indiana, PA. I'm excited and mom hopes I'm good in the car and I don't scream like I usually do. Mom and dad say that's pretty nerve wracking and makes it difficult to drive, but after a while, I just don't want to be in my car seat anymore!

Finally, HAPPY BELATED FATHER'S DAY to everyone! Mom is hanging her head in shame because the Father's Day cards that she wrote are still in her work bag :( She'll send them tomorrow, but I'm sorry they're so late!

Till later!

Hooray First Place!

We went to the DC United game last night - they beat the Chicago Fire and are now first place in the Eastern Conference! The game was a lot of fun, but it was pretty hot. Mom took some wet washcloths and put them in the cooler, so that felt good on my sweaty head, but it gave me some pretty bad hair ;) I got to wear the new shorts that mom got me at the last game and my jersey - I got LOTS of comments on how cute of a fan I was :) Everyone thinks I'm a boy, though, so mom and dad ordered me some pink Adidas shoes to wear. I had lots of fun with Gabriel and Arabelle at the tailgate and at the game. Arabelle learned to say my name and was really nice and shared her toys with me! Gabriel is just learning how to sit up and he hung out and played on the blanket with us. All three of us fell asleep during the second half of the game, but we were all awake by the end and said goodbye to each other.

I've been scooting backwards for some time now, but I moved forward a few feet yesterday! It wasn't quite a crawl, but at least it was forward motion. I tend to back myself into corners and get frustrated by not being able to get back out.

I hope everyone had a good weekend - enjoy the rest of it!





















My Barnyard Bath book cracks me up :) It's even funnier upside down!




















Helping mom pack the diaper bag























I decided I wanted to wear my turkey - I banged my head into the spoon when mom was feeding me!






















Soccer player in the making!