So much to be thankful for!

Whippin' up Birthday Fettucini

Checking out the touch tank

Mesmerized by the fish

The after bath Lyle Lovett hair!

Standing!

crawling!

What a great week! I had a wonderful birthday. Brian made one of my favorite meals, chicken fettucini. Mmm! So good! Fiona and I brought Brian lunch at work on Tuesday. She's lucky enough to have a Papa that works at the Touch Tank, a Kodiak hotspot. She loves looking at the fish and crabs in the tank and splashing in the water.

Fiona is also a girl on the move these days. Suddenly something clicked and she started crawling on her hands and knees. She's everywhere now! Between crawling and pulling up I can't turn my back for a second!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with our friends Paul, Tina, and Sahale. Fiona enjoyed the turkey and sweet potatoes. I made Uncle Bob's sweet potatoes although I still think he made them better! Paul made a delicious turkey... I'm off to eat leftovers! It was a great day spent with great friends!

Fiona's Animal Sounds

I think she's destined to be a farm girl! Maybe with Fiona on my side we can talk Brian into getting goats one day! Enjoy!

Girls Weekend

standing in a box

thinking about crawling (and then deciding not to!)

Our apple tree covered in snow (no it does not produce apples, unfortunately)

It's just us girls this weekend. Brian left Thursday to go fishing for rockfish for a new project he's working on. He'll be collecting rockfish for a few days in November, December, and January. Not my idea of fun! It sounds VERY cold! Fiona and I went to a Christmas bizarre this morning which turned out to be a dud. I'm hoping to get back into the bizarre scene next winter. We've got to pay for our eggnog lattes one way or another! It has been snowing off and on these last few days. I love it! It puts me in the holiday mood. :)

These days I have been totally amazed by my little girl. She is talking and signing more and more. She has started signing stars (she eats these star shaped puffy things that we call stars- I know, baby junk food. It's terrible!) and ball. She has added hi and ball to her first words too. She is constantly repeating sounds and often repeats the first sounds of words as we point things out to her. It is pretty amazing to see her language development unfolding before us.

She is not too interested in crawling beyond her little army crawl in short little stints. She goes on hands and knees quite a bit but doesn't move around that way. Standing is a different story! She can't get enough of it. She loves to pull herself up! Although she is still somewhat wobbly, I can see her getting stronger everyday. You can see her in the top photo practicing.

Fiona Signing "Puppy Dog"

(For some reason when this video is on blogger it cuts off part of her head. Just ignore that part!)

Fiona started signing dog a couple of days ago and I wanted to share this video. As I was editing the video she kept hearing my voice asking her to sign dog and she was doing it over and over again! You can hear her work on the sounds as she is signing. To sign dog you pat your leg and then snap your fingers as if calling a dog. (She skips the snapping part.) I think she likes this sign so much because the dogs do come to her! Such power for a little girl! She loves it!

Enjoy!

9 Months Old!

I can't take any more of that camera!

Back to my sweet self!

Somehow our little baby has become a big baby. I don't mean in size, she is only 15 pounds after all, but in her development. I feel like one day I looked up and here was this big girl and I could see glimpses of a toddler! Really, her development has taken off. One evening last week we were playing on the floor and in that 30 minutes she started rocking on hands and knees (although she still army crawls to move forward), pushed herself into a sitting position instead of us having to do it for her, and pulled herself up to standing! She was so proud of herself! She's really into standing now and is trying it more and more.

A few days later as one of our daycare friends was leaving she said bye bye! I wasn't sure at first but she said it again clear as day. An hour later when her other friends were leaving she said it again. So cool! Granny was lucky enough to hear it over the phone that night too! She has Mama and Papa down too. For some reason she whispers when she says Papa which I think is pretty cute. She has also begun to sign "more" off and on and she signs "milk" consistently when she wants to nurse. We do lots of reading in our house. She loves to turn the pages of her books. Sometimes I have to shorten the pages to keep up with her enthusiastic page turning! A favorite book is Noisy Farm which is an animal sounds book. She often repeats the sounds of the animals. Aaaa for the sheep and goats, mmmmm for the cow, and doodoodoo for the rooster. By the way, we bought that book on Whidbey to remember the farm (and the Farm Cousins) while we are up here in Alaska.

Fiona at 9 months is a blast! We are loving every minute with her.