Green Acres Is The Place For Me...

They say country life is great for kids and I must agree. Forget SpongeBob and Dora and video games...I get to do my own exploring on the farm! Because, really, how many girls get to don overalls and run around in the dirt these days? And how many girls still get to help their daddy drive an old farm truck? And how many kids do you know that help gather wood for the stove at night?
And what about walking? Most kids learn indoors, on even ground. Not me, I run around chasing kitties in the dirt while learning the importance of balance, good footing and getting back up and dusting myself off when I fall (it's not you, the sound is not working):

Yep, when you think about it, a farm is a great place to live, learn and contemplate the big questions in life:

New tastes, smells and skills!!!

A lot has been happening lately. Everything is so big and colorful and interesting. I feel like I'm really beginning to find my place in the world. To think that at this time last year I couldn't even hold my head up is crazy!

For instance, now I'm trying all sorts of new foods. One of my favorites is called crayon. My mom keeps trying to get me to hold it in my hand and hit it on paper, which makes absolutely no sense to me seeing as how crayon is so colorful and chewy. So now I pretend to make marks on the floor with it, then munch the tip off and clamp my mouth shut so my mom can't get it out.:Of course, sometimes I get a little on my face too.

It's funny that my mom thought it was amusing that I marked my own face, because the very next day she marked up my face, dressed me as a skunk, and paraded me around town. I don't know what sort of punishment this was, but while we were parading around we saw lots of other little kids being treated similarly. I guess it happens once a year and is called Halloween.
That's right, I was a skunk. At least no one else was wearing the same costume...
Oh, and to redeem her cake-making skills, my mom carved a pumpkin for me. I think it's better than the cake:
Finally, I decided to get off the floor and start walking:

Yep, I decided to do it right before my dad left for Spain so he wouldn't miss my first steps. Boy was he happy!!!

Uno!!!

That's right, folks, it was my birthday a couple of weeks ago (October 16 for your records). Yep, the big Oh-One. I can't believe it either. Seems like this time last year I was all infantile and needy and quiet and immobile and tiny. Now I'm 20 pounds and 11 ounces of walking, talking, into-everything fun.

But back to the birthday. Of course , it was great. There were balloons:And presents:And my annual traditional photo with my birthday bear:And there was a cake made just for me by my mom: I didn't know quite what to make of it, either. I think my mom is trying to instill that "It's the thought that counts" stuff in me early on. For some reason my mom was completely obsessed with making me a cake for my birthday. The thing is, she'd never made a cake. And I guess our oven isn't level. And she didn't know you had to buy tips for icing tubes to make fancy writing. And she didn't know about cooling things off. This is what she started with when the frosting ran out: Really, I think she did a pretty good job covering up the holes and gaps with Dora figurines and, let's face it, there is nowhere to go but up on the cake-making skills for her:My dad didn't want to be outdone in the personal parental touch category so he improvised with some Hello Kitty hats:
No, wait, it got more bizarre when he did a Statue of Liberty impression:
That wasn't even the weirdest part of the party...

In the end, it was a great party with ALL my grandparents in attendance. That made for some interesting conversation. As for me, I just hung out and got overstimulated and threw cake, like I was supposed to, right?

Who belongs in the zoo?

Boy have we been busy. Islands, mountains, cities. It's tough to keep up but I sure am glad my dad took the time off.

We spent last week at Onay and Papa's in Sacramento. We mostly hung out playing with some new toys but one day we went to the zoo with cousin Sid. Here we are pretending to be kangaroos:
And here I am checking out the big cats in my kitten t-shirt:They had this neat spider web to play on:
And, of course, my folks went to REI and bought me a brand new baby jogger. We were testing it out with cousin Sid. Isn't she special looking? Ha! I love this picture of her...
Tomorrow I turn the big Oh-One. I can't believe it's been a year already. I'm sure there will be pictures and other fun stuff coming soon.

Two weddings and an Ellen show

After our big vacation to Hawaii, we headed up to the Central Coast for MB's wedding, which, by the way was quite nice. No, I don't have pictures of the wedding people, after all, this is MY blog!

I do, however, have a few pics of me from the wedding. Here I am in my best dress:
Doing tricks for Auntie Spotted (I don't know where the carrot is, but it looks like she had one at one time):Posing with the girls:And having a beer with dad:
That wedding reminded me of my first wedding, that being my parents' wedding of course. You may remember from my very first post on this blog that it was a shotgun wedding. Well, if you don't remember that little fact, perhaps this clip from a recent episode of the Ellen show will help you remember:

Yep, my mom is certifiable. She didn't even remember sending the picture in to the show.

And just so you know, Sarah Palin is a wedding crasher. She wasn't even invited to my parents' wedding, let alone asked to bring her gun! Maybe that will make tonight's news...

Aloha!!! My first big trip!!!

So my dad's been on paternity leave to bond with me and I've got to tell you, there's no better place to hang with your dad than Hawaii. Just look at us. After all, who couldn't be happy in a place like this?
There are so many fun things to do there, like swim in the pool with mom:Have a few cocktails with dad:Take a nap in a nice hotel bed:Go on a sunset dinner cruise with the family (we even saw some spinner dolphins):Play in the sand with dad:
Oh, wait, that sand thing didn't work out quite so well:It's amazing how easy it is to take a header at the beach. It doesn't hurt much but it's pretty tough to get the sand out of your nostrils.

Finally, the last very cool thing to do in Hawaii is hang with Uncle PD, aka "Dipshit":

A special thanks to Uncle PD and Auntie Allicat for hanging with us and allowing their nerves to be frayed by my constant neediness while teething on vacation. Yes folks, I was 'that baby' on the plane ride over. I was so bad the guy sitting next to us gave me the birthday present he got for his daughter just to shut me up for 20 minutes. I responded by sleeping the whole way home - a flight he wasn't on...Note to parents: The red eye is worth it to everyone but you.

Toys for Boys?

Some of you may know my mother, and if you do, you know she used to be a heavy equipment operator in the Seabees. So I guess it's only fitting that rather than buy me a nice pink and purple My Little Pony or Fairy Princess walker toy, she'd buy me a Tonka dump truck walker, right?

The good thing is that I'm a baby and I don't notice anything but the honking horn, colorful parts, and toy compartment under the dump bed. So to Tonka's "Built for Boyhood" campaign I say "pffft" and request they add "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" to their list of songs played by the dump truck.

Yep, all hell is about to break loose once this princess starts really walkin'.

My Second Fair, Stairs, Pianos and More!

Remember when I went to the State Fair last year? Yes, that was a lovely picture, and no offense to Mom, but I think I look much better in the butterfly this year:
Dad is in Spain or something so Mom and I headed up to Sacramento for the long weekend to visit Onay and Papa and Grandma and Grandpa (who work the fair but insist they are NOT "carnies"). We stayed with Onay and Papa and had lots of adventures. We even went swimming for the first time. My mom didn't get any pictures because she was in the pool with me and no one has forwarded any yet but I'm sure they will soon. Trust me, folks, I looked pretty cute in my new Speedo swimsuit.

Since there are no pics of me in the pool, here's one of me in the bath with Onay. You can see how much I like the water:
And here I am with my first homemade hasher-style pancake. I went straight for the eyes and nose but was not allowed to eat them. What a tease that cook is!
Onay and Papa had some pretty neat things at their house. The first was something called stairs. I headed straight for them and right on up. Then I practiced every day, many times a day. It sure was fun:

When I wasn't working the stairs, I practiced piano with Papa. I think I'm pretty good...
We also went on some walks to see and feed ducks and play on the swings and even went swimming with a cute boy named Lance. That was all good, clean fun.

And then there was this:

Those are my cousins Alex and Griffin. Alex is the nipple-lover. Griffin is engrossed in the TV. My mom has already warned me about this sort of thing and now I am pretty sure I will never understand boys.

Catching up

Seems like nearly a lifetime since I last posted. Sorry for the delay but I've been busy. In addition to learning to crawl and eat anything found within two feet of any floor surface, I've done the following cool things in the past couple of months:

First, me and mom and dad went to Monterey to a place where they have windows you look into and see fish. Here I am looking at some interesting and colorful fish:


And here's a video I'm not in but of something really rare that we saw. It's called a Sea Dragon:
After a day and night in Monterey, we met up with my cousins, aunt and uncle, and Onay and Papa for some camping at Big Basin in the sequoias. Here I am with my cousins Griffin and Sidney. You can tell a lot about our personalities from this picture: After camping we went to Sacramento for a few days and saw lots of people. Then me and mom and dad went home for a week. Then Onay and Papa came to visit ME!!! You wouldn't know it from this picture, but I was quite happy to see them:
I love that picture...but I was sad to see Onay and Papa leave:
Thankfully, my parents had the intelligence to get me out meeting new and exciting people in fun places, like drainage tunnels:
Actually, I felt kind of like Cleopatra crossing the river stinks here:
Finally, I've been spending lots of time with my daddy since he hasn't traveled in months. I think we're both enjoying it.

What do a pirate and a raspberry have in common?

Me.

Hey, it's tough to come up with titles when you're only 8 1/2 months old...

I went on my first camping trip with my folks the other weekend. It was one of their running club deals and it was at El Capitan State Beach. The theme was Pirates.

I guess everyone was supposed to dress like a pirate and drink beer on Saturday. I refused to put on my pirate costume but here I am with my parents in their somewhat unconventional Pirates attire.
Oddly enough, no one else was dressed like them. In fact, most folks had baggy clothes with stripes and frill and kept saying "Argh" and calling each other "Matey". Go figure.

Camping was fun. I got to wake everyone up in the middle of the night with my mom for once. I'm sure they appreciated it. And I got to ride along the beach in my baby jogger. And eat avocado. And see some old friends. What could be better?

In other news, I'm learning to communicate. It involves pushing air and spit through your lips while your tongue sticks out. It feels kind of funny and makes my tongue numb when I do it for prolonged periods, but it seems to be the only noise my mom and I share in common at this point. I hear there is an easier, less messy way to get your point across and am hoping to figure it out real soon.

Here I am communicating with my mom over lunch. Note to babies: this works best with a mouth full of something orange and gooey and when your parent is in close range:

Oh yeah, I heard about you all laughing at me practicing sitting (Cousin Griffin?!?!). Just so you know, I'm now doing it much better and am even starting to crawl forward!

Next week is my second camping trip and I heard we might go somewhere called an aquarium.

The importance of posture

So I'm learning to sit up all on my own pretty well. To you it may not be that impressive but I've only been able to hold my own head up for a couple of months and it's a pretty big step. Here I am peeking at my mom from my high chair.
And here I am practicing sitting up by myself. Don't worry, it's a short one:

Hey, don't laugh, it's really not as easy as it looks. Balance is key. On minute you're smiling and happy, the next you're toppled over not knowing what hit you.

Oh, and by the way, this learning to crawl before you can walk thing is serious and frustrating business. More on that next time.

More to love

We've all heard about my chubby cheeks, or jowls, or chipmunk storage units, or whatever wise cracks you want to make about them. And quite frankly, I'm tired of the jokes. I'm a baby and I'm supposed to have chubby cheeks. Perhaps that's why I sometimes appear a bit confused about all the chubby jokes.
Before you comment on the following, let me remind you that I am still a baby and my thighs are supposed to look like this:It means I'm healthy...And well padded...And could possibly survive several days on my own. It has been brought to my attention that my thighs are the same circumference as my mom's biceps. All that means is that she is scrawny and possibly malnourished. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if all these jokes about my fluffiness scar me for life...

Finally, if you think this means I'm a porker, I offer this video of my reluctance to eat anything placed before me:

It was mashed squash...

Bad hair day

Because my mom is technically in charge of this blog she sometimes exploits me. Seriously, what self-respecting baby would put something like this on her own blog:

Not cool, mom, not cool. I guess I should be happy I'm finally getting enough hair to style, no matter what style that may be.

Despite my mother's twisted take on recording my childhood, I am developing into what some would call a happy girl. Case in point, this extremely cute (if I do say so myself) photo of me at my mom's office taken today: