November Update

Hi everyone. I know it's only been a few weeks since I posted last, but a whole bunch of new things are going on with me and I wanted to fill you in. I have officially decided that crawling is for suckers. My new plan is to roll onto my belly and cry until someone (usually Daddy) either picks me up to move me or brings me what I want. If you think about it, crawling is rather stupid anyhow. It's a slow and inefficient way of getting around the world. Who wants to coordinate all four limbs to move anyhow? That's why walking is the way to go. Sadly, I can't do it quite yet though. I found out that the first step to learning how to walk is to learn how to stand up all by myself. I've been holding myself up at a footstool for quite some time now, but recently I started pushing myself back off of it and balancing on my teeny-tiny feet for a few seconds before crashing down either back onto the footstool or onto my butt (Did you know that if you stick it out while you're falling you don't hit your head on the floor? Pretty cool huh?). I'm getting really good at it. Today Mama was helping me to get balanced, then letting go of me to see how long I could stand. I did it for 10 whole seconds before I fell. She was very excited and proud of me. I'm also working on pulling myself from sitting to standing on a footstool or the side of the bathtub while I'm waiting for Mama to fill the bathtub. I've only done it a few times because usually my feet get all tangled up underneath my butt and I can't quite get them set up right.

I still don't have any teeth yet, but my mouth has been hurting a lot lately so I'm hoping they come in soon. I can't take much more of this. I think it's driving my Mama and Daddy crazy too. They don't seem to enjoy me waking them up every two or three hours to cry about how much it hurts, but I really need to them to help me so they'll just have to deal with it. l

A few days ago I got to meet a new family member because Daddy's Grandma Pat came to visit for Thanksgiving. She's really nice and bought me this awesome hat that glows in the dark. She didn't know that it did that, but I think that it is absolutely fantastic. Mama and Daddy like it too because if we go on nighttime walks they can see my head bobbing around in the stroller even if it's dark. I'll get to see her again on Thanksgiving, which apparently consists of everyone eating a lot of food together. I'm hoping that Mama will give me some mashed potatoes, and maybe even a little bit of pumpkin pie. They're just about the right consistency for me, and they're delicious. I'll let you know how it turns out.

After that Mama, Grandma Diane, Grandpa Dean and I are going on a vacation. Daddy has to work so he won't be able to come with us, which makes me really sad. We're going to go up to Whistler to stay at Great-Auntie Sue's place up there. From what I hear it's going to be cold and snowy outside, but we'll have a nice warm place to sleep. I've never been out of the country so I am really excited about that. I really wanted to get a passport, but Mama says she'll just bring my birth certificate with us so I don't need one. We might even get to go on a sleigh ride while we're up there which I think sounds really fun. I might sleep through it though. We'll have to wait and see. I'll make sure to have Mama take a lot of pictures so I can put them up here for you all to see.

More new stuff I can do

First of all I will tell you all about my visit from Auntie Jenn last week. She (like Mama) is currently not working (stupid economy), so she decided to come visit me for five whole days. The day that she was coming in on the train I went to a playdate with some other kids my Mama met through some group. None of us are crawling yet, so we didn't do very much together, but our Mama's got to spend time talking to each other. Then Mama and I went to pick up Auntie Jenn way down in Seattle. We did lots of stuff together over the next few days and I smiled at Auntie Jenn every time I saw her. I really like her. We went to wander around stores a lot while she was here and it looked like her and Mama had a great time. I even got to try on her glasses and high heel shoes. I was pretty fancy. On Halloween we waited patiently for Daddy to get home from work, then we went out to show off my pea pod costume. We only got to go to one house because I was really crabby and all of Mama and Daddy's friends were out doing fun grown-up stuff. I had fun though. I saw lots of other kids out in their costumes and can't wait until next year when I can walk around in my costume and wear something really cool like a zombie princess costume.

After Halloween Auntie Jenn had to leave and I was really sad that she couldn't stay here forever. I still look for her every morning when Mama and Daddy come in to wake me up. Speaking of waking up, I am really proud of myself that I have been sleeping all night (11 hours!) by myself in my crib with only fussing once (but when Mama or Daddy comes in to show me they're still here I go right back to sleep). I've also been taking all of my naps in my crib just like a big girl. Aren't you all proud of me? I've also been working more on learning how to crawl. So far I can get up on my hands and knees, then move my legs forward like real crawling, but then I fall on my face and do it again. I move forward like this, but it's really slow. I'm much faster at crawling backwards. Plus I can wedge myself under various things and it makes Mama laugh. I've started trying to pull myself up to stand on my legs, but I'm not very good at it yet. This morning at story time Mama helped me put my legs in the right place so I could pull myself up on the basket of books. It's really low though so I just stood there with my butt stuck up in the air and Mama supporting me so I didn't fall. It was really exciting, but Mama says I cheated because she helped me so much. I'll do it on my own soon I'm sure. I think I might just skip right over crawling and go straight to walking and/or running. I still don't have any teeth, but they still hurt my mouth. Mama and Daddy are starting to think that I have invisible teeth, but I think they're crazy. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Next week I'm going to go down to Grandma and Grandpa's to stay for two days to see my cousin Henry and my friend Ruby June. It should prove to be quite exciting.