Cousins

We have been here in Las Vegas for almost a week now to celebrate Thanksgiving with Steven's family. We have been having a great time, and one of my favorite parts is seeing Aubrey with her cousins:

Yes, Aubrey is pulling David's ear, which put a quick end to this photo session...

 Seeing them all together brought back so many memories that I had playing with my cousins growing up. I remember one time we tied up my aunt's entire house in string while our moms went shopping. Oh to be a kid...

We are also super excited for my sister Nicole to have her baby, so Aubrey can have cousins on both sides!

11 Months

I can't believe that she is almost one!

At 11 months....

She is getting pretty good at walking between furniture and she loves to walk holding a hand. 

Steven calls her our "kamikaze baby" because she has no fear and thinks that she can just walk anywhere... even though she is not quite there yet!

She loves to hang out with her friends and is still my social little girl, but she has finally found some stranger anxiety... mostly afraid of strange men.

She has FINALLY decided that she has an appetite! Life has gotten so much easier now that mealtime is not such a battle.

And 11 months = boundless energy and less sleep. Despite the fact that I am totally not ready for it, she is trying her best to transition to just 1 nap a day. I don't know what I am going to do when she stops napping all together.

She has become great at imitating actions. She "talks" into anything she thinks is a phone, puts her hat on her head, etc.

She gets into everything and is REALLY quick. 

 

She is a babbler and has down the b, k, g, t, m, d, and f sounds. Mama, dada, and "hi" are the words I THINK she says with meaning, but at this age, it is really hard to tell. 

 

Even though she isn't even close for weight, she outgrew the length requirements on her car seat. She seems to like her new ride, even though the car is not a favorite place in general:

She is always on the go and I find it hard to get much of anything done. Hence, the complete lack of blogging this past month. 

 

Can't wait for the holidays and for her birthday!

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween here in the Foote house. One cute little lady bug couldn't contain her excitement:

Except when it came to taking pictures. She is usually such a ham for the camera, but we didn't get ANY good pictures. You get the general idea though...

We went to a Halloween party with a bunch of friends and a whole bunch of other babies. One two year old, one 14 month old, and 9 kids under 1. Pretty crazy.

Aubrey (the one who won't stay still) had a little ladybug twin (on the couch).

I had fun making these strawberry chocolate ghosts to take:

Aubrey had fun trying to break open a pinata:

And Steven had fun as Mr. Monk:

I will admit that we are not creative with Halloween costumes. I like to save my excitement for Christmas. Steven, however, does a pretty darn good Monk impression, so we found it fitting to "dress-up" as Monk and his assistant Natalie. 

If you have never seen Monk, then watch it! It is a favorite show of ours.

Happy Halloween!

Canada

Aubrey and I took a little vacation to visit my home and parents. Our week here is almost over and I have loved to see my family and get a little taste of cold weather. However, Aubrey has had a little bit of a rough week. There have been some great parts...

Always loving the park and swings. Nicely sporting her winter hat, which I think is pretty cute.

We don't have any stairs, so this was her first experience. Took about 10 seconds and now she is a pro at climbing up. And loves it.  

Greeting all her "fans" while going out to eat. She is a little flirt. 

And, of course hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa.

Not so great parts?

• Aubrey hitting a full glass of water all over the guy in front of us on the plane. We were popular. I don't even want to think about the flight back.
• She got the stomach flu.... and all the symptoms that go along with it. Was up ALL night crying and miserable. I hated seeing her in so much pain. 
• Went to a Halloween party and got a trial run of her costume. I win the "bad mom" award since I forgot to run the costume through the wash first. She now has hives all over her face and neck. 
• Oh yeah... and she is cutting another tooth.

So, all and all... she has been pretty darn cranky. 

But, we still had a great trip and I will miss my family when we leave. But, I am so excited to see Steven again. 

Why can't I be in more than one place at once and be able to be with everybody I love? *sigh* Such is life. 

10 Months

Little miss Aubrey is already 10 months old! She is growing and changing every day and I love watching her happy little personality develop.

• She now has 5 teeth... and cut the 3 new ones on top in one day while on vacation in Las Vegas. That was not a fun day.
• Puts herself to sleep, takes great naps, sleeps through the night. BUT she is definitely an early riser.... sleeping in until 6:30 now feels like heaven. 

•  She is my climber and takes any opportunity she can find to swing her little leg up to higher ground. Keeps me on my toes.

•  Learned to drink from a straw which I'm grateful about because I'm hoping to wean her at one directly to a cup. She is getting better at eating now that she is mostly feeding herself but we have our days. Her pediatrician called her "strong-willed." Very fitting.

• Now says mama and dada fairly frequently along with a host of other continual babbling. Not always to the correct parent but it still feels great just to hear the sound!
• She learned to use her pointer finger which is really cute.... except for the few times she decided to "point" at my eye.

She is happy, and social, and wins hearts with her mega-watt smile. 

We Looooove her!

Buddies

These are Aubrey's little buddies:

Sometimes there are a couple of little girls that come hang out with us, but for the most part it is Aubrey and her boyfriends. 

Steven is a little worried about what that means for the future :)

I'm just so glad that we have found good friends here with kids Aubrey's age. They already love to hang out... and we moms have a good time too. Like, spending Thursday afternoon at the pool in the middle of October....

Yes, the weather is still hot and I am loving it.

Vegas Recap

We just got back from our trip to Las Vegas this morning. We took an EARLY (6:50 am) flight, and boy am I exhausted.

Flying with Aubrey was exponentially harder at 9 months than 6 or 7. Seriously.... our sweet little girl WILL NOT stay still. And, I am flying again to Canada by myself in just a couple of weeks. Pretty sure that is going to be a nightmare. It is a good thing she is so darn cute.

Vegas was a blast... here is a recap:

She started standing by herself for a few seconds at a time. We were pretty excited.

 Fun times at the park with Grandma.

 Spending time with Grandpa.

These two are definitely "kissing cousins." Here is Aubrey going for it. David wasn't quite sure at first since Aubrey is a little bit more aggressive.

Steven, Jason, Kimmy, and I went on the Big Shot ride at the Stratosphere.

Went to the lake

Don't think Aubrey will remember the lake.

Tourists on the strip. 

And... the main reason we planned the trip was to see Jason! Steven's little brother got home from his mission last month and we couldn't come to his homecoming. These two brothers had a great reunion. 

We had fun.... can't wait to go back next month for Thanksgiving.  Lots more traveling coming up in the next couple of months.