Sasha at 11 Months

It's still really hard to believe that Sasha is 11 months old.  Even counting down every month didn't prepare me for all of this!  I didn't do any comparison shots from last month cuz well... it just seemed pointless with how little she physically changes each month.

Of course, since Sasha has learned to walk she has been walking non-stop since a week after her 10-month point.  She is SUCH a little trouble-maker!! Now that she has so much mobility, she has realized that she can climb into (the bathtub), onto (the arm of the couch) and over (she has tried the baby gate and fortunately failed) EVERYTHING!  She also likes to close doors and walk through open ones no matter where they go!  This can be a real problem at church whilst wandering the halls.

She also likes to push our buttons with what few rules she can actually break, like playing with the DVD's, turning off the TV and pulling out the electrical outlet covers. 

 She has had a few obsessions this month.  The first is water bottles of all shapes and sizes.  She walks around with them in her mouth, trying to drink out of them.  Her sippy cup is not as satisfying unless it has juice in it.  OY!

 Her other obsession is wipes.  She will sit and suck on them or walk around with them and wave them like a white flag.  If she is in a bad mood, a wipe is almost as good as a pacifier to calm her down... just don't ever take one from her.

Sasha continues to love cuddly, fuzzy things.  This pillow was inherited from her Aunt Tashina and was an instant hit!

This is her little purple bear that occasionally makes it to her crib for company, always good for a cuddle!

This month Sasha finally got to have the opportunity to spend some time with Bowser (he's such a heavy clutz we don't let him near young babies).  She seemed to like him a lot but squinted if he got too close

While at the park with Bowser, I let Sasha try to walk around in grass, which she decided should actually be crawling through grass.  Then her watering eyes and lack of movement told me needed to be turned into safe observation from the stroller.  For whatever reason, the grass was just not appealing that day!

This past month, Sasha has had a weird sleeping schedule.  She will wake up earlier in the morning (5:30/6am) and I will eventually go check on her, get her resettled and she will usually go back to sleep till 7:30/8am) It drives me a little crazy since I prefer to get up at 6:30.  It's worse when she never goes back to sleep and then gets super cranky by breakfast time.  I've tried a few things to help (fan off, fan on, thicker blanket, more food), and she still does it.  Silly girl. 

 She is also kind of fickle in her bottle feeding lately.  At first it was hard to get her to finish one because she would get so interested in other things she would just squirm and squirm! Now she just likes to hold it for the last few ounces.  Just shows a little more of her demand for independence.  We got a fun pic of Daddy and Sasha, though!

 EVERYTHING and EVERYONE needs to be pointed at.  Sasha's life is not complete unless she is pointing, especially while being held.  This pointing makes it obvious that she knows who everyone in her family is.  We've asked "Where's Kaleb?" and the pointing ensues. She even calls me "MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA" and will holler it whenever I leave the room.  She calls Ammon "Dad-dy" but only in whispers.  Her favorite word is by far "More" pronounced "Moe" with very puckered lips, since that is usually what gets her extra goodies!

It's been fun to see Sasha's personality really come out this month.  She doesn't get frazzled or cry easily (by getting pushed down or any pain really), but when she gets frustrated she will give out a yell that sounds like "Aah" as if to say "Hey!"  and she makes an annoyed little face.  It makes me laugh usually, but when she is cranky it can come up a little too often.

As she has discovered her teeth, there is a recurrence of this lower-jaw grin that looks a little evil!  She also likes to grind her teeth, so occasionally you can hear a strange clicking coming from her direction.

She just makes some of the funniest faces!!

Kaleb and Sasha's relationship in a nutshell. 

And this is Daddy's and Sasha's relationship in a nutshell!

But then again, I think we all kinda put Sasha up on a pedestal!

Sasha at 10 Months

Here she is at 9 months:

 And again at 10 months.  Her hair got a little longer.  I tried to switch things up with a new outfit, but at this rate I think Sasha is going to be a disappointment in the drastic-changes department. 

 This month started off with an ever-so-nasty cold.  It wouldn't have been so bad except it made her nose run with the nastiest green goo.  This picture doesn't do it justice, but I remember it well.  YUCK!!

 I introduced the sippy cup to Sasha this month.  She doesn't have problems getting stuff out, but she doesn't seem to have enough arm length to get it up very high.  If it's full she can get a little out, but it's too heavy for her... She seems to like it though, which is always a good sign.

 We've also had some great adventures in exploration:  Climbing into laundry baskets...

 And onto Kaleb's stationary bike.

Onto our couch!!  That freaks me out since there is nothing but bare floor behind this couch.  Thankfully she hasn't shown much interest unless someone is actually sitting on it.

 And of course, as expected, Sasha started walking this month.  Her first steps were just a week after her 9 month mark, but gratefully she likes to master something then immediately move on to something else, so she didn't advance much in the walking department over the last few weeks.  She would take just a few steps, then plop down to crawl.

Here's a little video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiEPaLFtLSM

 Since Sasha was walking, I figured it would be best to start putting shoes on her.  Not only is it difficult to keep them on her since she has very thin feet, but she walks like a cat with tape stuck to its foot.  Apparently she is not a fan of the shoe.  I'm keeping them off until she gets a little more confident in her walking. 

 Some other exciting steps include her ability and utter excitement in clapping!  Plus she likes to wave "bye bye" now.  She finally cut A top tooth.  She has had three teeth now for three weeks, but it looks like she is gonna cut the next top three within a few days. 

 She also loves to lift her hand up high and twist it around like she is unscrewing a light bulb.  Still don't know why.

Something I have found a little funny but sort of obnoxious is Sasha's need to put her hands in the mouth.  It's the worst when I am feeding her a bottle, but even when just holding her and talking to her, one hand ends up shoved in the mouth.  She also likes to play a game where she grabs my face and pushes it to the side.  She can be very determined, so it can often hurt, but it makes her giggle, so it's almost worth it. 

   Sasha is FINALLY able to sit up in the bath.  I know that seems a bit late since she has been sitting fine for months... but she is such a spaz in the bath.  She has FINALLY learned you can't just try to squirm your way out like a catfish.  We even tried to give her and Kaleb a combined bath, but HOLY SMOKES!  She is not ready for that kinda freedom just yet. 

 Sasha is also using a lot more sounds like "oooooh" (as in "that's interesting") and "Doh".  She makes the cutest little duck/kissing type face that just cracks me up.  She also has the horrible habit of SHRIEKING with excitement.  It gets a little out of hand sometimes. 

 And of course, with getting older means realizing frustrations.  She likes to cry when somebody takes something or if she wants to be held or if i don't feed her when I'm eating (that's only a problem with mommy, not anyone else).  I think that little lip is just adorable though.

 A wacky new tendency for Sasha lately is to tap her forehead on things she likes.  She does it with Ammon and me, she will bonk our foreheads together.  This is a photo of her constantly placing her head on the high chair cuz she was enjoying her snacks.  We have a book with a mirror in it and she will just push her head up against it and kick her legs with joy.   My favorite was when she wanted to put her head onto her bath water cuz she LOVES baths... needless to say, she ended up with several face-fulls of water. 

Sasha also loves to look up and throw herself backwards.  For a mom who has such deep-rooted paranoia, this is not a healthy habit.  She also likes to shke her head in a very purposeful way which makes you think she is refusing to do something, but she seems to just like the different view it provides... plus it makes for some fun dancing when strapped into a car seat. 

 A funny thing that was recently pointed out to me is how lucky I am... Sasha LOVES her car seat.  It's not that she always wants to be strapped into it, but during church I would place her in it for nap time and until a few weeks ago, she would eventually fall asleep.  If she didn't she would lay there quietly.  For the longest time, I would usually just put her in her car seat for naps while visiting others since she preferred it to a playpen.  So stinkin lucky! Of course, now that she's getting so big we like to leave the car seat behind for church... sigh...

Kind of a fun side note is that not only does Sasha know her name (she has for a few months), but she also knows who I mean when I say "Mommy" or "Daddy" or "Kaleb."  She is so stinkin smart!!

 It's hard to say what Sasha's favorite toy was this month.  She definitely has a strong interest in looking at my phone. 

 And pushing around Kaleb's dump truck. 

We played with bubbles a few times and those were a huge hit!

 But it's a toss up, I think, between the penny whistle (which she tried so hard to get to whistle, but would often just nibble on)...

 Or a wet-wipe.  You give Sasha a lone wipe and she will be content for a good thirty minutes.  She likes to wipe it all over her face or chew on it (only possible with the Kirkland brand since all the others fall apart)... she even likes to clean.  I've seen her wiping furniture on several occasions, and there was even a time she just couldn't help but give Daddy's feet a good scrubbing. 

Out of Africa

The week after Kaleb's birthday we dropped Sasha off at the in-laws and took Kaleb on a little road trip.  He handled it very well, but got a little bored about half-way.  Since dad was driving I got the opportunity to sit in the back seat and play lions and tigers and dinosaurs with him for the rest of the two-hour drive. 

 Once we arrived in Out of Africa, we were rushed into the Safari bus where we got to drive through a make-shift Serengeti.  The driver (one of the park keepers) gave us lots of details about each of the animals. 

 We also got a few pieces of carrot to give us the chance to feed some of the animals.  We gave Kaleb all of ours, so he got to feed the giraffe...

 And the camel (he's behind a fence because he and the giraffe apparently do not get along).

 We also saw a bunch of other plains animals.  My favorite part was hearing Kaleb's voice holler each animals name so that the whole bus could hear. "Look, Mommy, ZEBRAS!!!"  It was fun.

 After a quick (but expensive) bite to eat, we got to walk around and see some of the animals.  Here are some grizzly bear cubs...

 And of course the tigers.  Out of Africa houses some twenty-something big cats throughout the park, most of which are tigers.  Kinda ironic considering there are no tigers in Africa.  It was really cool to get so close while they were just walking around. 

 After lunch was the main attraction:  Tiger Splash.  Trainers encourage the tigers to chase them around a pool.  Since it was pretty warm that day, the tigers were slow to get moving, but Kaleb got a great seat!!

 A few times, the tigers showed us some pretty impressive moves.  Thankfully, I caught one on camera.

Kaleb also enjoyed using Daddy's binoculars after getting splashed so much!

 After Tiger Splash, they offer the audience the chance to feed a tiger (with 3-foot tongs and for a small fee), so that was a cool experience.  Our tiger was getting kinda full by the time we got to her, but she was still an impressive sight!

 The day we went they presented a large snake show, where we got to learn about and pet a boa constrictor.  Kaleb was pretty hesitant at first, but once he saw the other kids and daddy get involved, he couldn't help but touch it.

 On the drive home, Kaleb was SOOO tired, but so excited that he never took a nap.  Near the end of the trip he was pretty slap happy, so we all had the giggles once we picked up a very happy-to-see-us Sasha. 

Kaleb's 3rd Birthday

I just realized that I hadn't posted anything about Kaleb's third birthday (since I wanted to cut his 3-year post down a little.  Anyway, Kaleb's birthday was marked by a lot of freebies, including his first blizzard.  I think it was chocolate with strawberries... but I could be wrong.

 And a happy face breakfast at IHOP... he ate his yogurt-in-a-tube and a couple of bites of eggs... that was it.. good thing it was free!

 Anyway, as we went to a couple of stores to get ideas for Kaleb's presents this year, it became very obvious that he was really interested in dragons.  He even wanted to ride on the dragon on the carousel at the mall. 

 So... I had my sister make him a dragon-themed cake.  You can see the little dragons on one side of the moat and castle ruins aflame on the other... the castle ruins say Kaleb, but it's kinda hard to make out.  My sis was suffering from morning sickness that week, so she did a really awesome job considering. 

 Kaleb got a cool ninja dragon:

 And a couple of dragon families (the babies were the ones on the cake)

 This is the first year Kaleb had no problem blowing out his candle and really being a part of the festivities. 

 He loved opening all of his presents.  Ammon's parents gave him several shorts/shirts sets and a bunch of puzzles.  He was excited about all of those clothes!

 And he loved almost all of his other gifts too!  That's his fake-for-the-camer- excited face.

 This is his face when he gets a bunch of underwear as a gift.  CLASSIC!