1 year, 10 months

It was raining too hard for Keillor and I to have our monthly pictures outside this evening. These are the best we could get from the living room!

Tons of fun this past month. My weekdays were spent with Grandma Linda and we kept busy. Often times Dad and Mom would come home from work and find that my nap was delayed by 15 or 30 minutes because "we were just having so much fun and lost track of time." Grandma and I are experts when it comes to all the area library branches and can tell you which ones to go to on specific days for the various story times, crafts and shows.

My physical therapy continues to improve. I love my walker and use it most evenings over on campus while Mom or Dad toss the ball for Keillor. Classes for the college students started this week so it seems as if there's a never-ending supply of people to say hi to as I stroll along. Grandma bought me a new pair of shoes last week and they've put a little extra pep in my step, as well. I'll stand without support for a few seconds and I'm getting good at walking while only holding onto something with one hand. The next step (that's punny) will be taking some steps with no support!

The amount of words I'm using is growing exponentially. I'm getting good with colors (purple is my current favorite) and the Sesame Street characters. The funny thing is that I've never seen an episode of Sesame Street, but the characters are on my diapers! My favorite numbers at the moment are two (that's been a longtime favorite) and five (because I can hold my whole hand open as I say it).

Dad's been having fun teaching me facial expressions throughout the month. His favorite is my surprised look. And when I try to do my angry face it ends up being a smile along with a cute growl. So there's still some work to be done there.

And just in the past two weeks I've started to enjoy my stuffed animals. Before that I would ignore them or shove them out of the way. Now I've become quite attached to several of them. In fact, this morning Dad couldn't get me into the stroller without allowing one of my stuffed dogs to ride along. Hopefully Keillor's not getting jealous!

Big changes in store starting next week. Grandma goes home to Minnesota tomorrow and I go to my new Montessori school starting Tuesday!

Pre-nap nap

A bit of background for today's pictures: I woke up a little early this past Saturday and then we had a busy morning going to the library and trying out three separate playgrounds. By the time lunchtime rolled around, I was getting a little punchy.

After lunch, Dad had to go to the kitchen to set some of our plates down, then into my bedroom for a washcloth and then back to the kitchen to get it wet. That whole process couldn't have taken more than a minute. Here's what he found when he got back to the dining room:

What makes it even funnier is that we had the baseball game on for a special treat. Even the Minnesota Twins couldn't keep me awake (insert mediocrity joke here).

 
FYI: My regular nap time is typically after lunch so I slept through getting my face and hands washed and then got to go right to bed.

Sand

Dad built my water table so that it could hold sand, as well. We finally tried it out over the weekend. I loved it, but the sand doesn't taste as good as the water.

Out for dinner

Mom was out with the girls last week so Grandma, Dad and I went out for Italian food. It is by far my most favorite cuisine.

River

My favorite part of last Sunday's adventure to the Golden Fine Arts Festival was our stop at one of the tube/kayak landings along Clear Creek where we could put our feet in the cold water!

 

 

 

 

 

Ladies

A quick group shot of the ladies while heading home from the art festival last weekend...

 Ham.

Art

We visited our friend Julie at the Golden Fine Arts Festival last weekend and I had fun at the kids art tent...

 

 

 

Safety

Ready for action!

 

 

You'll have to wait until a future post for the action shots (since we keep forgetting to take the camera with us on our bike adventures).

Aw shucks

Grandma and I were in charge of helping prepare dinner the other night:

 

 

 

Walking

I'm no longer a passenger when we take Keillor on walks each evening. I actually get to do some walking along with him! With a little assistance as you'll see below.

 No hands!

And here's me in action:

Big box

Additional benefit to having your bathroom renovated? The re-purposed bathtub box!

Picnic

Now that Mom's pregnant, Dad and I try to be extra quiet on weekend mornings so she can sleep longer. On Sunday we went for a picnic breakfast!

When I need Keillor to stay, I hold out my hand and say, "Stay." But to untrained ears it comes out as, "Ha!" Evidently Keillor has untrained ears because he doesn't listen to me quite yet!

Birthday party

It was my friend Isaiah's first birthday party on Saturday. We had a lot of fun playing with his toys in the backyard.

This is me demonstrating how I don't need to hold on with two hands any longer. 

I'll even go with no hands every once in a while.

Water dish

I was helping Dad make dinner last week and once again things got a little too quiet.

What you can't see in this picture is Keillor standing right behind me supervising!

Sneaky

Dad was making dinner the other night and I was playing in the living room. And then things got too quiet for Dad's ears...

Note to self for next time: Make more regular noises when trying to play with the laptop computer.

Pool party

Cousin Cindi lives just north of Denver and she invited us over for a pool party on Sunday night!

 I really did enjoy myself, but I sure wasn't going to smile for Dad.

 Still refusing to smile.

 Just after throwing a ball to Cindi.

 I finally said, "Cheese" for Dad and he only caught the tail end of it.

And then we had brats on the grill and drinks with straws. 

Senior portrait

Dad says that we'll return to this tree and take the same picture in 16 years.