Aunt Jenny and Cousin Sierra Visit

Aunt Jenny and Sierra came for another visit! The girls really started interacting with each other and were both so active. Check out all of the pictures below to catch a glimpse of the fun that we all had together! (And, don't forget, you can click on a picture to see it enlarged... it's especially useful to do on the double pics so you can really see their cute expressions).

The girls got to sit next to each other when we went to California Pizza Kitchen. They giggled at each other and reached towards one another. Larkin scarfed down all of the food we gave her... she had pizza crust and broccolini. Sierra wasn't as into the whole eating thing... Jenny was successful at sneaking some avocado into Sierra's mouth, much to Sierra's dismay!

Here are some pics of the girls playing at Grandma and Grandpa Hittle's house. Larkin's really into crawling and pulling herself into a standing position, while Sierra's is totally into trying to walk and even run. She still needs assistance, but she is fast! Larkin looks a little upset in the group photo because Brian had just walked in from a business trip and she was crying because she desparately wanted him to hold her! It made Brian feel pretty special.

Here I am practicing for Annie's wedding. I don't know if I'll be able to pull it off or not since together the girls weigh nearly half my weight, but Annie had the idea that I could carry the two girls at her wedding in May. I'm doing pretty well here, eh? Brian thinks Larkin looks like Shiloh in the second pic (they do, in fact, share the same birthday). Too bad I'll never be confused with Angelina.

On a beautiful early spring day when the temperature was in the 70s, we all headed to the playground at our neighborhood school and had a blast. Larkin rode her first swing ride on her Daddy's lap, and then later was able to ride for the first time by herself in a bucket swing. She seemed to really enjoy it. Larkin also tried to eat her first rocks. Yes, rocks! While we were sitting on the playground's pebble ground, Sierra played with the pebbles and Larkin tried to eat it! As Brian put it, "The pebbles look like a buffet of bread to Larkin". I guess Larkin takes after her mommy and loves bread! It was so windy up on the hill where the school is as you can tell in the pictures. Check out Sierra's hair blowing all around!

Finally, here are a few other pictures of the girls playing. During our dinner, we put Larkin in her playpen and Sierra in a walker. Sierra came to visit Larkin and it seemed as though she wanted IN the playpen while Larkin wanted OUT!

It was a great visit and we can't wait to get the girls together again in 6 weeks at Annie's wedding!

Larkin Crawling!

She's finally crawling forwards and she's even starting to pick up speed! After several weeks of Larkin crawling backwards, she has now learned how to turn her gears from reverse into drive. Since she started crawling forwards a few weeks ago, she has learned how much fun it is to really be mobile, and she is starting to check out the world all around her. Larkin seems to be especially attracted to things we don't want her to be near - think computer cables, dog bones, yep, you know what I mean - and we've been doing quite a bit of redirecting. But we're loving it all... this is such a fun time. We love watching her explore and try new things. And, yes, the baby gates (we got retract-a-gates) are going in this weekend....



Larkin is working hard to develop her large motor skills and now that she's mastered crawling, walking is her next goal! She's good at standing while holding on to something, but the idea of taking steps while being a biped is a fairly new concept for her. She has just started cruising this past week, and here's a video of some of her early steps to practice walking a few days ago. Her Grandma Hittle is holding her hands and her Grandpa Hittle is cheering her on. Go Larkin!

Grandpa Bud visits

Grandpa Bud came to see us and we were so excited to see him! Larkin has grown a lot since he last saw her... she's feeding herself finger foods, she's crawling (albeit backwards!) and she's so much more interactive. We all had such fun... aside from the head cold we all shared!

Here are a couple of pictures of us out to lunch. Larkin does really well out at restaurants.



Here's Grandpa Bud doing what grandparents love doing best...giving his grandbaby a bath!

Here are Grandpa Bud and Larkin standing tall and snuggling up. Thanks for the cute outfit, Anne!

These pics give you a real taste of what Larkin and Grandpa Bud spent a lot of time doing during play time on the floor. He'd build up towers and she'd knock them down. He'd put the rings on the post and she'd pull them off. Destruction is her favorite game right now!

Where's Larkin?! She was playing with this toy one minute and then under it backwards the next... she needed a little rescuing this time!

Ah, the beloved interactions between a girl and her granddaddy. Buddies forever!

9-month doc visit

Larkin turned 9 months old today! Alas, my baby is growing up (oh, but what fun it is)! We had a good doctor's visit today and as you can see from her chart, she's "not missing any meals" as her Grandpa Bud likes to say! Larkin weighed in at exactly 20 lbs. She's what I endearingly call my "Chunk-A-Lunk". That kind of has a nice ring to it, no?

Well, my Chunk-A-Lunk got a good report card and a clean bill of health from the doctor this morning, only to come home and start running a low-grade fever only hours later. Hmmm...something is not quite right with that! Larkin has what we generally call "the daycare crud". Nothing major, just good 'ole immune building bacteria and viruses. Well, I apparently caught this crud too, because today I started losing my voice. Yuck.

Anyway, back to Larkin's appointment... she's growing just great and the doctor even predicted that she might be tall when she's grown...he's predicting somewhere between 5'6"-5'8". Wow! He also thinks that she might end up left-handed because her right crown seems like it might be becoming more dominant (which means she'll likely part her hair on the right side of her head). 80% of the time, a right part means left-handedness... well, Larkin's Grandpa Hittle and Great Aunt Mara are both left-handed, but I'm one of the 20% who have a right part and am right-handed...so, I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Brian was really excited to have 3 Valentines this year... me, Sera and now Larkin too! Larkin looked as cute as Cupid in her festive "Love You" pants (check out the feet on her pants in the first pic) and she had a blast making her Daddy his Valentine's card (see the other two pics). The paint got all over, but she had so much fun krinkling the paper and playing with the paint that it made it even more precious. And, thanks to washable crayola gel paints, cleaning it up was a cinch. Happy Valentine's Day to all of you!

Sippy Cup and Magic Wand

We're starting to introduce Larkin to sippy cups and she's all game as long as its got warm formula in it! She still needs help holding it up to her mouth while tipping her head back, but she loves to play with it on her own. Here's a pic of her flipping it around this way and that.

Another thing that she loves to flip around is her "magic wand". Who knew how much fun a kid could have with a honey comb?! Our fairy princess most certainly has us under a spell!

Super Bowl XLIII

Grandma and Grandpa Hittle came over to watch the Super Bowl with us. It was a beautiful day so we enjoyed a great family walk and then settled in to watch the exciting game. While the rest of them rooted for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Larkin and I cheered on the Arizona Cardinals. It came down to the last minutes, but the Steelers just eeked out the win 27-23. Good game! Here are a couple of cute pictures of Larkin and her beloved grandparents that night. Doesn't she look so cute in Grandpa's cap?!

Ripping Up Paper!

One of Larkin's favorite activities of late is ripping up paper. She loves doing it and we think its so funny to watch! Here's a video of Larkin ripping up some paper from the last time she was at the doctor's office. Enjoy!

Grandma Cook Visits

Grandma Cook came for a visit and the week went by too fast, as usual! Grandma Cook stayed busy playing with Larkin, singing to her, and generously cooking up all sorts of great meals for us. She made enough for us to freeze several meals...thanks, Mom!

While we thoroughly enjoyed Grandma Cook's home cooking, we also went out several times, of course. Here are a few pictures of Larkin and Grandma at Cracker Barrel, one of our favorite breakfast spots. Larkin had fun entertaining the tables around us, by flashing them her cute gummy smile and kicking up her feet and rest them on the table!

A special memory for me from this visit was when Grandma Cook sang to Larkin each day. She'd sing Larkin her "Good Morning" song when Larkin awakened, and then would put Larkin to sleep by singing her "I Love You" lullaby that she wrote when Dana and I were kids. It was the last song she'd sing to us before putting us to bed, and if we weren't already asleep, that song would do the trick. I love that song and I really loved hearing Grandma Cook sing it to Larkin as they cuddled. Here they are cuddling together and getting as warm as a heater!

Larkin loves faces... and she really loves to grab at them! She'll grab at noses (like she's doing to Grandpa Hittle in the pic below), mouths, glasses, chins, you name it. With Grandma Cook, she even decided that it would be fun to teeth on her chin! She really bites down!

One morning, while we were preparing breakfast, Grandma Cook invented a fun, new game that Larkin loves... we called it the "Grandma Train"! We attached one of Sera's leashes to Larkin's walker and Grandma pulled her around and around our kitchen island while she said, "Toot, toot!" At first, Larkin wasn't sure what to expect, so she held on tight! Then, after about 20 trips around the island, she relaxed and enjoyed looking at everything around the kitchen. She especially loved being able to look inside the pantry at all of our food as they'd pass it by. They both had great fun doing this and they ended up doing it for 15-20 minutes non-stop!

Here's a pic of Larkin after breakfast and the Grandma Train. What a multi-tasker she is... she's doing gymnastics while eating a napkin!

These pictures below do a good job at summing up Grandma Cook's visit... Larkin and Grandma Cook really love each other!

Larkin's First Word "Hi"

Larkin was soaking up all of the attention. In addition to Mommy and Daddy, Larkin also had Grandma Cook (who's in town visiting), Grandma Hittle and Grandpa Hittle sitting around her and watching her rip up some paper (one of her current favorite activities). I had just gone around the room with the video camera introducing everyone and having them say hi, when Larkin decided that it was her turn. Larkin said "hi"!

Now, we know it was completely unintentional, but we still consider it her first semi-official word. :) Since she was really just exhaling, it sounds more like "hiiiiiii", but it's still so adorable. Make sure that your sound is turned up high because she has a soft voice. Hope you enjoy the video as much as we did.

Larkin's Famous "Monster Noises"

Here's a video we recently took of Larkin doing what we call her "monster noises". We call it this because the otherwise dainty-voiced Larkin started making this gutteral sound in October, a few weeks before Halloween. So, we joked that she was practicing to be a scary monster on Halloween. But, alas, Halloween came and went and she's still doing it. She only does it when she's happy, and no, she's not pooping! She even will do it on command sometimes. She's a growling smarty-pants!

Some people say it's like a growl, perhaps something she picked up from having a dog for a sister. Others lovingly say we gave birth to either a gremlin or a pirate. Whatever her inspiration, Larkin's endearing growl is her "shtick" and we love her for it. And, as feminist Mick so classically put it, "God knows we need more women that growl, than cry." Alas, Larkin does both upon occasion... Enjoy the video!

New Year's Eve 2008-2009

It's become somewhat of a tradition for us now... whenever we're in town for New Year's Eve, we celebrate it with Brian's good friend, Brandon, his new wife Elizabeth, and the rest of Brandon's wonderful family. Mick and Bill have generously been inviting us year after year, and it is where we want to be on New Year's Eve. This was Larkin's first indoctrination to a Prelogar New Year's Eve (although she experienced it in my belly last year), and she did great. After being passed around to different women who just missed holding a baby and wanted a turn, Brandon took Larkin for a spin on the living room "dance floor" while he serenaded her. So cute!

Then, Brandon (on the guitar and singing), Bart on the mandolin, and Barrett on the broken yukele got to jamming. Despite all of the distractions, I somehow was able to Larkin down to sleep (in Mick and Bill's bedroom in the lounger chair I brought for her to sleep in) at her normal time of ~9:30pm. She slept through it all until shortly after 12midnight. Here's a pic of the jamming and then Brian and me (and a classic Barrett move!) right after midnight. Happy New Year, baby!

It was like Larkin knew it was a special occasion, because she awakened only minutes after midnight, happy and ready to play! So, up she stayed for 1.5 hours, just giggling and making monster noises for everyone who held her. Then, we went home around 1:30am and as soon as we took her up to bed, she fell right asleep for the rest of the night. Good baby, Larkin!