Noodles are fun...

Noodles are fun to throw in you face!

Noodles are fun to eat!

Noodles are fun to throw on the floor!

Noodles are fun to pick up???

10 Months Old

Here she is trying on her new Spring "puppy coat." I think she likes it.

Doing laundry

Can you believe our baby is already 10 months old? Nathan and I were commenting that we are already having trouble remembering her as a newborn. This past month she got her first two teeth. She also starting standing up. My new favorite thing is that she gives kisses, but I am sure Nathan's is that she started saying "da da."

Obama and Braces

We usually do not let Gretchen watch TV but we thought this was educational.

She must really like Obama.

Here she is making happy silly faces with Daddy.

Here is our last picture together before I got braces. It does not hurt as badly as I thought it would. However, I did not anticipate how much the skin on my cheeks would be aggravated by the metal rubbing. Nor did I realize how long it would take me to eat. I am not ready to post pictures of me with braces yet. I think I look funny, but Nathan says I look fine. This is also the man who lets me leave the house with huge stains on my shirts and says he did not notice.

Gretchen in church

Gretchen has always liked being around people. Since Christmas she has taken it to a whole new level. Now if someone is not paying attention to her she starts trying to get their attention by any means possible. Usually she smiles and waves and that does the trick but this weekend at church was a different story.

She did her little smile and wave and got attention like normal from most of the people around us. However when we were walking up to communion she wanted the man in front of Nathan to turn around and play with her. When he did not, she took matters into her own hands. She reached out and grabbed his hair! The man is mostly bald and needs every hair he can get. Luckily he turned around saw it was a smiling baby and proceeded to wave and smile at her. I had to keep from busting out in laughter as I walked to the front of church for communion.

Just keep swimming

Here is a good action shot of her working on kicking.

This is just after we poured a bucket of water over her head. I love this picture.

Here she is loving getting her toes wet.

Before we got started with swim class a woman came up to me and said "Watching your baby last week was so much fun, she is so happy. She makes me want to have another baby." I thought that was a pretty big compliment.

Standing up

Here are a few kissing pictures taken the same morning as our video post.

I really do think she is going to skip crawling altogether and go straight to walking.

Survey Says

So what do you think of the green paint? Our goal is to make the cut out over the fireplace pop. I really like the cut out, but I am a little unsure of the green strips along the top. Those green strips are really there. The drywall sticks out a few inches. from the rest of the surround. Nathan thinks it looks like a face and wants to paint them yellow again. I do not know if I like it yet, I need some feedback. By the way the green paint matches our freshly painted kitchen. So there is a tie in to the rest of the place. I am waiting until we put in a tile back splash before I post pics of the kitchen.

Giving Kisses

Here is a video showing Gretchen just learning how to give kisses. It does take a little prompting to get her to try.

bachelor party

http://www.skyzonesports.com/Media/tabid/89/VideoId/8/3D-Dodgeball.aspx

Nathan thinks this is a cool idea for his brothers bachelor party. I just hope no one breaks their neck.

Since Christmas

We had our first swim class today. In typical Gretchen fashion she loved it. She spent the whole time splashing and screaming for joy. I took a few photos before hand where she was deep in thought trying to figure out what we were doing. I think I might ask one of the moms of an older child that does not get in the water to snap a few shots for me next week.

Gretchen has discovered books come off our books shelf. She always goes for the Stephen Hawkins "A Brief History of Time." I wonder if that means anything?

Here she is working on crawling... were not there yet but we are getting close.

9 month check-up

We went to the doc for Gretchen's 9 month check-up. She weights 21lbs 4oz and is 29 1/4 inches. Those stats make her the size of an average 1 year old. Doc also told us she has four teeth coming in on the top and two on the bottom. We have seen the bottom ones but the top ones we had not noticed yet.

Gretchen so far is a very social person. She will let anyone hold her and she loves interacting with new people and exploring new things. She loves other babies and tried to kiss them when she sees them. She attempted this with several of her cousins over Christmas. She still sleeps like a champ at night (last night she slept just under 13 hours!). Napping is still a struggle, she only takes 2 one hour naps throughout the day. I am hoping the naps will lengthen as she becomes more physically active.

Gretchen is not crawling. Instead she has decided rolling is her method of travel. She rolls quite fast and can get into anything. We think she might skip crawling altogether and go straight to walking. She does an excellent job with waving, clapping and giving high five. The doc said she seems to be ahead of the curve in terms of using her hands and interacting with people. We already knew that though, the grocery store as become an experience. She waves at everyone and they always stop and play with her. In fact an older woman asked Nathan if she could buy Gretchen the other day. He told her she was not for sale.

Christmas (part2)

Uncle Matthew and Gretchen

Sara and the two little ones.

I thought this was a nice shot of Sara and Shawn.

I love this shot of Sara and Gretchen.

Matthew and Ali on "Christmas morning"

Lauren and Gretchen enjoying dinner together.

Aunt Kay and Gretchen and the Schaeffer gift exchange.

Everyone is looking at the camera!

Gretchen and her Godparents.

Sara and the girls opening presents.

A cute close up of Great Grandpa and Gretchen.

Well we tried to get all five great grandchildren to smile...my picture did not capture that. If anyone has a copy where all the kids look nice please email me.

This is my favorite picture of Anna and Gretchen to date.

Anna loved her dress up set we got her for Christmas.

I like how Aunt Ali and Gretchen are looking at one another in this shot.

The three amigos

Our little family