nobody knows... a sis or a bro??

For those of you who are waiting on the edge of your computer chairs to find out if I will be having a brother or a sister in March.... I'll spare your nerves & get it out of the way right now..... It is a SECRET :o) Nobody knows (well, nobody except Mr. God & the sonographer).

Without the support of the grandmothers (ha! ha! - just kidding!)... we've decided not to find out if we're having a girl or a boy. We did go for mom's 19 week ultrasound last Friday and the nurse was successful at keeping the surprise a surprise! I am so excited that I got to go to the ultrasound with mommy & daddy.... I was all about watching the little "alien-looking" creature on the screen!! I would point to the screen and say "baeeeby, baeeeby". I also blurted out a new word, that just about brought tears to my mommy's eyes..... I said "haaut" (aka: heart) several times while we watched the little munchkin's ticker working! The sonographer was very impressed with my interest during the whole visit. All in all, the visit was a successful one... the sonographer & doctor both gave mommy a great update, so all is well on the baby front.

I have included a photo of mommy's bump at about 18 weeks (to the left)... it is from about a week ago at our cousin, Tiffany's, wedding in Grapevine. We had a fantastic weekend at the wedding.... it was absolutely beautiful (despite the chilly temps and rain). Tiff made a gorgeous bride & the whole ceremony was so very sweet & personal.

You'll see that I enjoyed running around the grounds at the bed & breakfast, where the wedding was held. The rain didn't slow this girl down one bit - I had DooDah & every other attendee chasing me around the place in the drizzle. I've included some photos from the weekend... in addition to the wedding, we went to Grapevine Mills Mall for some shopping and made a stop at Rainforest Cafe (still on the fence about liking all of the busy animals at that place).... hope you enjoy!

PS - - there has also been quite a bit of progress in the kitchen demolition project at our house, so look for updates to the remodel slide show (to the left of the page) - - coming soon. We're finally getting started... yahooo!

I can't stand for my feet to be dirty, so I've turned into quite the toe-picker these days :o)

wad'da ya think of my splits?

am i talented?... or am i talented?

Ok, ok... so you're right - most people would not call this stuff talent, but at least this girl ain't skeered to try new stuff! I thought you guys might like to see a few random videos of me from this week. You'll notice in the first few, that I am wearing one of my gymnastics leotards. If ever I spot one around the house, I get the urge to put it on immediately. I've been doing my "gymnastics walk" a lot, too (tippy toes with my arms over my head)..... oh, yeah - I'm pretty good at it!

There is not much explaining to do for these videos - they're just silly snippets. The first is of my"gymnastics walk". The second is of my new "dog calling" technique. The third is of me getting Keecha to give me a high five. The last is of me being SUPER SILLY - make sure you watch all the way to the end, when I get curious about the camera & mom turns the view-finder around, so I can see myself in the video camera!!!

Hope you enjoy & hope you all have a great weekend!

PS - this photo is from last October... it's one of mom's all-time favorite photos of my precious little self, so I thought I'd throw it in, since we didn't have any new photos from this week to include here! Just a reminder... FALL IS HERE (now where are the lower temps???)

beam 'n' bars

I have been hanging out with my friend, Sydney, a bunch this week. We both went to gymnastics class on Saturday... and I must say that I can't get enough of the gym these days. I get excited when it's announced that we are on our way to gymnastics... I run into the gym when we get there - without any hesitation... I have actually begun to take part in the warm-up (previously the worst part of the hour).... and I am even better about letting the coaches help me on the different events!

As you can see from the photos, we did bars & beam this week... I'm not a pro at the beam yet (especially the one that's 4 feet off of the ground), but I did walk on the low beam by myself this week... improvement, eh? I also like the bar rotation, even if my little hands barely wrap 1/2 way around the big bars. Every once in a while, mom tries to make me straighten my legs & point my toes, but for the most part - she lets me get away with monkeying around! It's definitely more fun now that I have a buddy in the class... Sydney LOVES to play in the donut mat... you'll see several pix of us popping up & down out of it.

Then, yesterday... Sydney invited us out to her GiGi & Pop's house to play. They have 3 big dogs (there's nothing better than dogs to get this girl revved up) and lots of room to run & play in the grass. The weather was perfect, so it could not have been a better day to be outside. The multitude of green grass and sun made for some good photos.... enjoy! Thanks so much to Sydney, Miss Ashley, GiGi, & Pop for letting us come out to play!

new blocks & new bedtime ritual

Mom made a couple of big pots of chili last night (I think she was taking advantage of our unseasonable mild weekend in the lower 70s). We had a nice evening... all four of my grandparents came over for a chili-night to celebrate Grandparents' Day.. how much better does it get for a little girl than to have 4 super-spoilers at her house on one night!?!?

Anyhoo... while mom was making the chili, I discovered that bean cans & chili powder containers make darn fun blocks. I will admit that if they topple from about 4 high, it definitely SMARTS when they land on your toes, but nonetheless I kept myself busy & was angry when it came time to add the beans to the pots.

Dad also thought that I should document my newly created bedtime ritual. When they started letting me sleep with a pillow a couple of months ago, I loved nothing more than to snuggle my li'l head on my new feathers... but now, I have found the comfortablest way to sleep. Each time they put me into my crib for a nap or for bedtime, I proceed to pull my pillow out from the end of the bed... line up all of my babies, ya-yas, bunnies, etc... cover my legs with my pillow... and scoot myself underneath my pillow (like it's a blanket). Dad got a video of it tonight, so enjoy!

oh, and...
Happy late Grandparents' Day to the bestest grandparents in all the world... MINE! :o)
(ok, ok.. so you may beg to differ with me & that's fine... I bet yours are amazing, too!)

wowzas - i've imporved my moves!

So, back in the day... when I was just a tiny little thing... I already liked to shake my tooshy! I've been told that from the time I could crawl, I would cruise over to the tv stand, pull my little shaky body to a standing position, and dance away. Music or no music... I was a dance machine.

The tradition continues, because I still love to show off my moves. These days, I love to be-bop to the music of the "Fresh Beat Band" on Noggin (a kiddo TV channel - for those of you not familiar with toddler television). Mom catches me rockin' out while eating breakfast almost every day.

I've included a couple of videos for your viewing pleasure... one is from last September, when I was only 8 months old. You'll see that even then - I bounced to the groove of my own music. The 2nd video is from a few days ago... a full year later - & you'll definitely be able to see my improvement. I may not be a pro, but you should agree that I've at least progressed from strictly up & down movement... to up, down, side-to-side, ... and even a few twirls! enjoy!

PS... also included a few photos from this past weekend... I had a blast swimming with one of my Uncle Bryan's labs - Sasha. That dog's a master swimmer! Mom also caught some of me bursting bubbles, too. Hope you all had a fantastic Labor Day Weekend!