Thanksgiving Snow

Thanksgiving Day started out like this....

And by the time the day was done, it looked like this...

And just like that Winter was here.

Ten

Sweet Baby Girl is ten months. 

All of a sudden she seems so grown up.

She still speed crawls everywhere and steals toys from her brother all day long.

She can now crawl up AND down the step from our kitchen to our living room.

And can stand for a bit on her own.

 She has some sweet dance moves.  She is quite the party animal.

There has been more than one occasion where we look away and within seconds realize she is half way up the entire flight of stairs.

She knows how to wave bye bye.

And if you give her a phone and say hello she knows how to pretend to answer it.

She has three words.  Mama, dada and baba (bottle).

Smart Cookie.

She never keeps her socks on.

And when she finds her stray socks laying around the house, she tries to put them on her own feet.

She LOVES real food and has started to scoff at baby food. She is a super clean eater.

She still drinks her 6 oz bottle every 3 to 4 hours.

She will take a short nap in the morning and in the afternoon but there is really no schedule to it.

But at night she is SO ready for bed by the time 7pm rolls around and she sleeps until 7 or so in the morning.

Tatum, at ten months old you are a riot.

You make us laugh all day long and we cannot possibly keep up with you.

At this age I avoid taking you shopping at all costs as you just don't enjoy it all. I think there is still hope that you will grow up to be my little shopping buddy. 

We often find you playing in the downward dog position and your energy is refreshing!

I really would not be surprised at all if you grow up to be a gymnast

OR a club owner...you really are the life of any party. 

We love you so much pumpkin noodle. 

Your lovable spunk is such a treasure!

Little Cindy Lou-Hoo

My mom kept referring to Tatum as Little Susie-Lou Hoo this weekend because sometimes she looks just like the little girl from the Grinch.  Big blue eyes and long eye lashes with the side swept bangs. 

After looking it up this morning, I realized the little girl's name is actually Cindy Lou-Hoo, but I knew exactly who she meant.

 

So there you have it...our Little Susie Cindy Lou Hoo. 

Our Homeless Looking Ladybug

 Our happy little ladybug

Was looking more like a homeless ladybug by the end of the night.

All the fresh air and festivities wore her right out!

Maybe Halloween Isn't So Bad

After the Halloween Party on Saturday night, we knew the puppy costume might not go over so well for Trick or Treating.  So I looked in the closet and I had another costume in Benny's size. 

A Dinosaur.

And this time, I did not call it a costume.  I referred to it as Dinosaur PJs. 

 "Bennett, do you want to wear dinosaur PJs trick or treating?"

"YEAH" he exclaimed.

I swelled with pride as I outsmarted my 2 year old.

And he thoroughly enjoyed himself.  He never got scared of any other trick or treaters and he loved collecting candy in his bucket.

When it was time to go back to the house, he had a lot of fun giving out candy to the rest of the neighborhood.

I think he likes Halloween after all!

The Ladybug and Her Unhappy Puppy

I am not sure that Halloween ranks very high on Benny's list.

He did not want to wear his costume. 

He did not want to have his face painted.

And he REALLY did not want to see anyone else dressed up in costume.

But after the party started and he got to see that it was a time to play with his cousins and eat Halloween treats, then he really got to enjoying himself.

Tatum looked so cute dressed up like a ladybug and even Grandpa and Grandma were dressed up for the party.

Tatum the Ladybug and Joey Micky Mouse were kissing cousins.

What does a puppy say??

And Mindy, Pat and I recreated a Halloween memory from the early '90s when Jim and Rita had Pat, Dan and Mindy dressed up like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from the Old Testement for their All Saints Party at church.  They have never been able to live the story down so we decided to bring it back to life!

Once Ben figured out there were cookies, everything was A-OK.

Halloween Memories 2012!

Snip Snip

It was long overdue.
Tatum desperately needed a haircut.
It was almost turning into a reverse mullet.

It was "Party in the Front".

And "Business in the back".

She was really quite intrigued by this whole haircut thing.

At first she seemed content as she sported her "Rocker Chick" look.

Then she got kind of wiggly.

All in all she was a happy girl from start to finish.

And here is the "after" shot.  It's the best I could get from Miss Wiggles. 

9 months old and sporting her new hairdo.