Sweet Faces

Annie

Kate

Birthdays, Baseball and Bachelorettes

We headed to Cleveland this past weekend for all sorts of fun activities. On Friday, we visited with the Puchmeyers, where Annie and Bella played nicely in the basement with the toys with minimal supervision! Yay! The day we'd been waiting for! :) Unfortunately, and rather oddly, neither Callista nor I took any pictures. Maybe that's why they were so well-behaved....

The next night was Erica's bachelorette party at the Indians game. My smart, funny and ever generous cousin Allison watched the girls (thanks again!) when I went.

The party was lots of fun. We had a suite at the game (oh, the game. I think the Indians won it right at the end, but I can't be sure because honestly, I watched about a total of 46 seconds of it). Erica was on the Jumbo-tron, and Slider came to visit.

Speaking of Slider, being born and raised in Cleveland, I just accepted and loved Slider. I didn't need to label him or question his weird presence. Lindsay, however, not being from Cleveland, asked me, "What is that bird?"

A bird!? Slider is not a bird! But when she asked me what he was, I was speechless. It was an excellent question, and I still don't have an answer. Any Clevelanders want to help out my Columbus friends with that one?

Here he is making out with Erica.

The whole partay

On Sunday, we visited with Grandpa Ralls and Pauline...where Kate took her very first step!! She took two tiny steps while we there. When she did it, we all yelled and probably scared because she stopped smiling and was staring at us. We were unsuccessful at capturing anything on film, but we're still trying. Way to go Kate!! :)

After that, we went to Carol and Matt's house to celebrate GG and Pa's birthdays. It was the first time in a long time that Matt was able to attend a family function, so it was great to be there.

Pa, GG and all the great grandkids. (L-R) Mallory, Ella, Annie, Maddee, Kate and Adam. Brady is up top.


Kate is no fool. She went directly to those most likely to give her ice cream. Mallory and Ella were quite happy to share.

The "big" girls Ella, Mal, and Annie with Kate.

Annie and Pa

Katie Bug

We started calling Kate "Katie bug" as soon as she was born. Over the past 10 months, that nickname has evolved from Katie bug, to Katie buggy, to Katie buggy baby, to Buggy baby, to just Buggy. Sometimes, Annie goes long stretches referring to her only as Buggy. So when I saw the ladybug pajamas, I just couldn't resist.

And how does Kate keep her blond fuzz so perfectly coiffed, you ask? Annie swiped diaper cream all over the front of it 4 minutes after bath time.

The Robot Dance

We haven't done anything to our guest bedroom. It just sits there, completely plain, housing an air mattress for guests and an Ab Lounge. The mattress gets used exponentially more. The mattress is also way more fun for the girls. Annie calls the room the "bouncy trampoline room." The girls both love to go in their after their bath and let off the remaining amount of energy they've stored. Usually, Annie jumps and bounces Kate around (off) the mattress. On this day, she decided to add a new dance routine to the mix. The Robot Dance, as she calls it.

At the end of the video, Kate is attempting a somersault. She desperately wants to do one, after seeing Annie do it. But her big baby head is preventing her from that joy.

And a few bonus pictures because videos don't show up when I make blog books. :)

The Muffin Anne

Annie loves making muffins in the morning for breakfast. The Jiffy muffin mixes are awesome because they are really cheap and yield about 6 muffins, perfect for the girls and I to eat breakfast. Annie has gotten really good at helping me with the muffins. She pours all the ingredients in and stirs. She even scoops the mix into the pan.

However, she does also love to taste the muffin mix. So far she appears to have the Hageman stomach because the large amount of raw egg consumed as she "tastes" every time I turn my back has thus far done nothing to make her sick. :)

Happy Birthday Matt!

Happy Birthday to Matt! I wanted to post about him back in June, but time sort of got away from me. He is officially a House Officer II now. A lot has changed for us since his last birthday-new baby, new house, plans to stay Michigan state residents for quite some time. But some things haven't changed at all. He's still a great dad and husband. And even though we still don't see him as much as we'd like, we love him just the same. Hope you had a great day, Matt :)

Good Thing We Know A Pedodontist

Kate's teeth are coming in so strangely. Her bottom front teeth came in first and all was well. Then, the teeth on either side of the top front teeth came in. She looked sort of vampire-ish and just a little weird. Now, her two front teeth are coming in. They came in one at a time, though, so the front of her mouth was all different levels. We think her big smiles are still beautiful, and we're sure the teeth will grow in nicely. But just in case, good thing our dear friend Dr. Weitzel will finish his residency in time to help her out. :)

I'm sure she'll love these photos when she's older.

More Labor Day fun

We went down to the port of Cleveland to check out the Air Show on Sunday. We thought the show would be a little more exciting from our vantage point, but we did see some planes and the kids still thought it was great fun. I thought it was terrifying and wonder who flies those planes and why.

Annie and her cousin, Annie. The girls are six months apart and both named Anne Patricia. (Annie's middle name is my mom's name, and my mom was named after the other Anne's grandma) :)

Aunt Jackie and Kate

It was really windy.

Jackie and all the little girls. My mom was calling Jackie Mary Poppins. All the girls love her, and she was playing games and telling them stories. :)

By the end of the night, Annie was filthy. She was sweaty and gross and having a ball.

The next morning, we went out to breakfast. Here's Uncle Mike and Kate. Kate was not very cooperative with him when he tried to take her picture over the weekend. Hope you managed to get a good one!

Kate was exhausted by the end of the trip!

End of summer...

My parents have started having an end of summer tiki party every year at Labor Day. This also happens to be around my mom's birthday, so it works out quite nicely. The girls and I headed to Cleveland for this occasion last weekend.
The tiki party was a lot of fun. The decorations were really cute, there was tons of food, and we got to see a lot of people we don't see too often. There were tons of people to hold Kate, and Annie loved running around with all her cousins and staying up way past bedtime.

Annie and Liam were little buddies. They had an awesome conversation just after I took this picture that went something like this:

L: I can touch these flowers because I'm taller.

A: (silence, but she looked pretty impressed.)

L: You can stand on the chair and try, too,

A: OK.

L: How old are you?

A: Two. (and holds up fingers to show him.)

L: I'm four. (Holds out fingers to show her, and counts for her.)

Liam sort of lost Annie at this point, but he did make a nice effort at explaining how four was more than two. :)

Annie, Emma, and Uncle Owen. Owen requested that the girls call him "Uncle Owen" rather than just plain old Owen. And so Annie did.

Annie, Papa, Emma and Kate.


The Smith grandkids and great grandkids with Papa and Aunt Ruthie.

So, that's Kerri holding Kate, Matt, Brian, Emma, Jackie holding Annie, Maggie holding Megan, Owen and Liam.

Ten Months!

Kate is ten months old. She is a wonderful, smiley, happy 10-month-old, and we love her. She is into everything. She crawls at supersonic speed to reach things we think she cannot. She is not interested in standing on her own or walking yet, but she's Kate and always does things when she is good and ready. :) She'll continue to walk along the furniture and behind her little cart (when Annie lets her use it).

One thing Kate is excellent at is eating. This kid loves food. Pretty much anything placed before her will be devoured. I remember poking and prodding and coaxing Annie into eating table food. There were no such struggles with Kate. Food on tray goes into mouth. End of story. Awesome.

And, dare I share this on the blog and jinx it, Kate is sleeping through the night regularly! It just took a little crying and a little ignoring, and she sleeps like a champ. Only took a little over 9 months!

And some pics: