Alice waving and saying ba-bye

Now that I've learned how to upload videos to youtube I'm working my way through dozens of videos that were meant to be shared with Grandparents. They are old news now but I can't resist posting this one from September 21st on the blog:

Alice Walks

Alice took her first steps two weeks ago. I encouraged her with chocolate chips and she took maybe 4 steps at once but I didn't get any good video of it. It took me a week to finally got some proof that we had a new little pedestrian on our hands and this weekend I finally learned how to upload videos. I know, I know, I am basically a baby boomer when it comes to technology. When I ask Bryan to explain anything I have to say "imagine you're speaking to a 50 year old" because obviously a 5 year old would be better at understanding than me. So really, this video is an exciting documentation of both Alice and me reaching milestones.

Slap Happy Alice

Dallas World Aquarium

My sister Emily and her daughter Evelyn drove over from Shreveport LA last weekend so my parents could see both of us. Last weekend was really cold by Dallas standards and after shivering at the stockyards we were ready for an indoor activity so we headed to the Aquarium. Evie and Norah are just two months apart so they make great companions and quickly declared themselves best friends. It was so sweet to watch them play together – even if there was a little bit of this at timesEvelyn LOVES babies and was very interested in baby Alice. She wanted to tickle her and give her kisses and talk to her every chance she got. I love how even in this group photo Evie is interacting with Alice.This picture is from the next day before Emily and Evelyn had to leave. I wanted to get a picture of my mom with her granddaughters and I could manage to get a single one of them to look a the camera! Not one – good grief!

Fort Worth Stockyards

Last weekend my parents came out for a visit and we went to Fort Worth to see the stockyards which is a historic section of the city. They say that Dallas is the end of the east and Fort Worth is where the West begins and after visiting this past weekend I have found that statement to be accurate. Dallas really feels like any other big city to me but Fort Worth is what I imagined Texas being like and the stockyards were like a cartoon version of how I pictured Texas.The main attraction at the stockyards is the cattle drive down East Exchange avenue and while we waited Norah was able to visit with real cow boys. They were all very friendly and let Norah pet their horses and complemented her on her cow girl boots and there was even a real cow GIRL (pictured below) for Norah to meetNorah was also treated to a pony ride on “Blackie”

Norah had a great view of the cattle driveThis is what she sawIt was pretty anticlimactic. Police officers were walking around making sure everyone was safely on the sidewalk so I thought things were going to get pretty exciting and expected the cattle to run down the street with the cowboys whipping them but it was a very leisurely stroll. Alice was a little disappointed too.But overall she had a great time

Norah, Harper and Willa

or Norah, Willa and Harper?The following pictures were all completely candid

Alice is 10 Months

Alice is 10 months as of yesterday and it seems like every day she has a new trick. Just in this past week she has learned to stand up (as opposed to pulling herself up) and point. She has been pointing at her sister, food, and animals at the zoo. She has been waving when we leave or when someone else leaves for a while but now she is also waving “hello” when people come in a room and she is perfecting her timing so that people also see the wave (as opposed to waving bye bye to Daddy when he’s already out the door). Her bye-bye wave is often accompanied by a “baba” and it must be about the cutest thing in the world. And just today, I heard her say Mah-ma very clearly meaning me. She has said ma-ma a few other times but I haven’t been sure it was intentional. She has been saying Dada for a few weeks now – I’m not sure when that happened for the first time because it is just hard to know when we’re flattering ourselves but she definitely said Dada first, baba (bye bye) second and Mama third.

Last weekend we went to the arboretum to see the pumpkin village

Notice her pointing in this pictureAnd here is Alice at the arboretum again today – we go a lot