Catching...

Here's a catch up post for you... because apparently at our house, we're really good at catching things.  As in bugs.  The sick kind, not the crawling kind.

MiniM.E. was sick for a week or so, had a few days of feeling good, and then got sick again.  Then Bob got sick.  Then I got sick.  And we're all still a bit under the weather.

And if I thought it was hard to find time to make blog posts with a healthy baby, it is infinitely harder with a sick baby.  Especially when she's up a million times a night.  And I'm not feeling good either.

So even though we're both still a little under the weather, I finally feel like I can stay awake during one of her naps and write a post longer than three sentences.


Exciting news!  Someone took her first steps!! We're on our way to walking!

In other, less exciting news, we've been spending most of our days outside.  I think I have a budding gardener on my hands.  (Or at least a budding mulch-eater).

We've been to the park to feed the ducks a few times

We celebrated MiniM.E.'s 11-month birthday by buying her a musical walking toy.

Of course, the best part is the box it came in.

The second best part is playing with it sitting down.

She also likes to crawl behind it.

We haven't really gotten to the walking part yet...

We also took her in the wagon to the playground near our house.  It's a pretty awesome playground.  Unfortunately it's sort of geared more towards big kids, but we played for a while and MiniM.E. seemed to have a good time.

Yesterday we went up to Lake George for the Jazz on the Lake jazz festival.  We were all still a little under the weather, but fortunately it was pretty relaxing.

Molly's favorite part of the day was petting a couple great danes we ran into.

The other thing she really like to play with were the trees.

Between the dogs, the trees, the jazz and not feeling so great, we must have really worn her out because she fell asleep in the car on the way home and slept until this morning!

11 Months?!?

Just a quick post to say we're one month away from having a one-year-old.

I can't believe it.

Neither can she:

Happy Birthday H!

MiniM.E.'s NH boyfriend, H. (remember him?  No, check back here, here and here) turned 1 last weekend!  Time really does fly when you have a baby... seems like just yesterday they were meeting for the first time.

We drove to NH for the weekend.  H.'s party was on Sunday, so we had a little bit of time on Saturday to play in the pool and in the backyard.

On Sunday, while we were getting ready for the party, MiniM.E. decided she wanted to take a bath.  Must have been that she wanted to be squeaky clean for her boyfriend.  Unfortunately, she was already dressed for the party...

peek-a-boo!

H. had a great party a park close to my house.  Surprisingly, MiniM.E. was pretty good, considering everyone was paying attention to the birthday boy and there were lots of toys that weren't for her.

Greeting H.

Birthday hand-hold (almost!)

She might have wanted a few things H. had.  Like his hat...

and shoes...

and sit-n-spin. 

H. lost interest... so she had it all to herself.

Both a little confused at all the excitement

MiniM.E. licking some of H.'s new toys

H. wondering why MiniM.E. was on his present opening blanket

MiniM.E. with her favorite of H.'s new toys, the diaper rash cream.

Petting puppy was definitely a highlight.

So was trying grown-up food

HAPPY BIRTHDAY H.!

And, just because I think my baby is the cutest in the world... a couple more pictures from the weekend... 

Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor Day!  I'm not really sure I've ever really gotten into Labor Day, though I don't know many people who find Labor Day to be their favorite holiday.  For most people I think it's all about the day off from work... which I guess they deserve for having worked all year... since it is a holiday celebrating workers....

We had a pretty relaxing weekend, with a few cook-outs and some family visiting.

After seeing a flyer for a local dairy farm and checking it out online, we decided to stop by, sample some food, grab some milk and eggs and pet some cows.  Unfortunately, it turns out you aren't allowed to pet the cows for health and safety reasons, and they didn't have any samples, so it wasn't such a fun trip.  At least we got to look at the cows...

We made it downtown for an hour or so to check out the Final Stretch Music Festival.  MiniM.E. wasn't super excited about it, it was late, and a lot of the bands were on a break, but it was nice to get out and go downtown in the evening.

Though I have to say, moms don't really get the day off... so I wasn't as excited about it as Bob, who couldn't wait to sleep in (a whole extra hour!) and relax.

We decided to take advantage of the nice weather and the day off and spend some time outdoors.  We packed MiniM.E. up and went back to the Zim Trail for another bike ride.  This time we chose to go early in the morning.  Which normally would have been a great idea since MiniM.E. is her best and most cutest early in the day (things just go downhill from there... I mean, she's always cute and adorable, but the Mommy-itis, clinginess, fussiness, etc. definitely get exponentially worse as the day goes on), but since she is recovering from some bug (she's had a fever the past few days), we didn't even get as far on our bike ride as we did last time. We were going to try, but after a few minutes of screaming and an attempt to climb out of the trailer, resulting in her lying sideways (how she got that way, we can't figure out...) we decided to take a break and turn around.

Fortunately we were by a playground when the meltdown occurred.  And playgrounds are MiniM.E.'s new favorite thing.  She knows what they are and points to them, which is pretty cute.

Until today, we've only really been to one other playground where we found out she loves the baby swings almost as much as her swing at home.

until she tried to climb out the front

 At this playground they had other things she liked too!  Like the bouncy seesaw:

And the dome jungle gym:

sitting with Daddy

practicing standing

standing all by herself!

By far, the best part of the playground was playing with the mulch:

She climbed into the dome all by herself!

 Later in the day we went downtown for a relaxing stroll:

And a couple rides on the carousel:

After such an exciting weekend, MiniM.E. was pretty worn out... and is taking a nap.