pigtails

Not the best light for photos, but Daddy did a bang-up job with Libby's first pigtails!

halloween 2009

Gimme a break!

We're ready to roll!

This is pretty fun, don't ya think, Gus?

Suckers are waaay better than pacifiers!

Libby spent Halloween trick or treating with her buddy Gus, and we hung out with Gus' mom and dad, Doug and Sue. They live on a much quieter, much flatter, much more kid-populated street than ours, so we trick or treated at their house in Madeira. Gus wore his grumpy Pooh face while it was light enough to take pictures, but he really was having a good time and became his usual smiley self a little later. Libby was Miss Congeniality, as usual. She and Gus kept swapping unwrapped candy so they could chew on it, and Libby kept chucking her trick or treat bag out of the wagon. My favorite moment was when she received a sucker from the firefighters and carefully set her pacifier down in the middle of the street so she could eat the candy. We spent nearly 2 hours strolling the neighborhood, and our little girl was tired. But she couldn't have asked for a nicer first beggar's night.

signs and sounds

Libby's signing vocabulary continues to grow, so we added a list of the signs she knows on the right-hand side of the blog. We also have a list of the words she's saying. The latest is that she can both sign and say "bird." So cute!

P.S. We promise to post Halloween photos this weekend!

baby signing time

Libby is obsessed with her "Baby Signing Time" DVDs, which feature a lady singing songs and demonstrating sign language with babies following along. Every morning--and all day long--she makes the sign for "baby" to indicate that she wants to watch one of the two videos in the series that we own. We've been working with her on some signs, but she's picked up a few more that we've never demonstrated, directly from the DVDs. She now can sign eat, more, drink, water, milk, cracker, sleepy, hat and book. It's really great that she can communicate with us in this way since she's not really speaking yet (a girl can't get by on "cat" and "more" alone). And it's keeping Aunt Katie on her toes! Libby can also identify her mouth, ears, teeth, belly and nose. I don't have any photos of her signing, but here's a shot of her and Gilmore watching the DVD together. Gilmore has not picked up on any sign language yet, unless you count tapping people with his paw and staring at them intensely.

fall fun weekends

Sarah, Libby and I have been busy these past two weekends. Fall is our favorite time of the year and my work travel has slowed down so we took advantage of the great weather these past two weekends to get out and take it in. Last weekend we went to Neltner's Farm in Camp Springs, KY with the Whites and this weekend we went to HallZOOween with the Hoods.We also managed to sprinkle in some walks with Gilmore, brunch with our dear friend (and new Cincinnati resident *YAY*) Liz Truitt, and an impromptu dinner party with some of my oldest friends Jason, Michael, Liz, & Tyana.
Below are pictures from our trips to the farm and the zoo. As always, several more are available in our Gallery. I've also added a couple of videos at the bottom showing just how excited Libby & Maddox were to be playing together at our house last night. Maddox was maybe a little too excited to give Libby a kiss goodnight, but I've got my eye on that boy...

So as the leaves are just beginning to turn down here, we're looking forward to several more beautiful weekends together over the coming weeks.
Happy Fall to All!

Libby & her goat friends

Giggly Gus

I'll just take this tiny one

Our Family on the Farm

Two cuties checking out the animals

Two Silly Monkeys

Daddies and monkeys

Mommies and a monkey

Hanging out with Big Boy

Picking the perfect pumpkin

birthday video

I know. It's been a month in the making, but here it is -- our video from Libby's First Birthday Party! She may have seemed a little overwhelmed by all the love and attention she got, but she had a great time! Trust me.

thirteen months

Just wanted to point out Libby's 13-month chair photo. We'll be updating this feature monthly instead of weekly now, so look for it each month around the 27th.

It's crazy how quickly Libby has gone from baby to toddler in the past few months, but we're enjoying every minute of it. She's exploding with personality and activity.

She has 4 teeth now, and is getting 2 more. She's walking really well and hardly crawls anymore, although she is an expert at walking on her knees, which she still resorts to occasionally. She says a second word now — "more" — but it comes out more like "mo." Katie thinks she's trying to say "bird" too. And she now does the signs for milk, water, more and eat.

Oh, and one more milestone: We spent our first night away from Libby for our 5-year anniversary last weekend, while Grandma and Grandpa Whitman stayed at our house. We really enjoyed the time away, and Libby did just fine. Thanks Keith and Kathy!

five years

Believe it or not, Sarah and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary this weekend!
Look at these two kids. So young and in love, if they only knew what life had in store...
Five years is one of those things that seems like forever and five minutes at the same time. I think we're both just so excited to see what the next five years holds for us, and the rest of our lives for that matter.
But here's to my beautiful bride, I love her more every day.

dress up

As you saw in a previous post, Libby loves putting underwear on her head and wearing them around her neck. She has expanded her wardrobe to include a grilling apron, which she wears as a cape, a pink scarf, and a bracelet from her Fisher Price Pretty Learning Purse. It's soooo cute to watch her take her little bracelet out of her purse and put it on! She's just fabulous.

chowhound

Although you couldn't tell from looking at her, Libby loves to eat. She's eating finger foods almost exclusively, except for the yogurt we feed her for breakfast and the baby food we use to round out some meals. Luckily, she likes a wide variety of food and she hasn't shown any sensitivities or allergies. We introduced peanut butter last weekend, the final food on the "highly allergenic" list, and she loved it. Her favorite foods include cheese, berries, bananas, grapes, veggie dogs and crackers. She's also drinking milk out of a sippy cup really well now. I feel quite lucky that it's not a struggle to get her to eat, especially since she's kinda teeny tiny. She can really pack it in!