a visit from grandma & grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa Whitman came for a visit with Libby this weekend. They brought their new Airstream camper down and stayed at Greg and Linda's house. Friday, they spent the day with Libby while Mommy and Daddy worked, then we had a cookout that night. Saturday, we grilled out fish and steak for lunch at Greg and Linda's. It was delicious, and their yard is beautiful. You can see some of the gorgeous landscaping in the photo of me and Kevin. Grandma and Grandpa headed home Saturday night, and we grilled out again. And again on Sunday! We even ate outside twice this weekend. Libby loves to be outside, so she was a little angel.

Libby wasn't feeling well earlier in the week, so I took her to the doctor and found out she had a virus causing blisters in her throat. She seems to be feeling fine now. We just gave her lots of Motrin and TLC. The only bummer is that we had to miss Gus's first birthday party on Sunday because she was still contagious.

She's doing new things almost every day again. Just this weekend, she started shaking her head "no," although she doesn't always use the gesture appropriately. She also started pointing and making a "duh" sound when we say "dog." She gets around so easily, moving from one thing to another on her feet, that I can't imagine she won't be walking soon. And she's eating so many things and loves to feed herself. She also took her first sips from a straw yesterday.

Kevin also hit the jackpot for Libby at a yard sale on Saturday. He got 40 items of clothing for her for $15, and a Mr. Turtle covered sandbox for $10! Most of the clothes are 18 months, which is the size we're guessing she'll be in next summer. We've been buying 12-month things for the winter when we find really great sales. She's just now squarely in 9 months, and she's still in some 6-month pants and onesies.

favorite toy

When given the option to play with any of her toys, what does Libby always choose?
This one!

happy father's day

I just wanted to say Happy Father's Day to all the dads in our lives. And especially to Kevin on his first father's day. Here's a little photo series from our lunch today at El Rancho Grande, taken on my new iphone. Enjoy.

my nephew -- a teenager!?!?

I can't believe that my nephew Kraig is going to be a teenager tomorrow. Surely, I'm not old enough to have a teenage nephew! Well, it got me reminiscing, so I thought I'd share a few pictures of my favorite teenage nephew.
Happy Birthday, Kraig! We love you!

Uncle Kevin & Kraig's First Christmas

Kraig and his new "Sis"

Flyin' High! I don't think we could re-create this moment today.

Kraig's Queasy Bake Oven -- Bugs and worms in mud, delicious!

My Junior Groomsman

Kraig & Libby's First Christmas

reading the paper with grandpa

These photos are a couple of months old, but I just came across them and thought this series of Libby reading the paper with Grandpa Whitman was priceless.

big girl

Today we went to the outlet mall. Libby rode in her big-girl car seat. And she sat in a big-girl highchair at Chipotle.

Dipe-n-Wipe Go Bags

My sister's mother in law is selling these adorable crocheted bags for diapers and wipes on Etsy. Check them out if you need a mini bag for these baby essentials or if you need a cute little baby shower gift! I saw my sister's, and it's really nice and super cute. She'll do custom colors too.

libby's 9-month check-up

Today we had Libby's 9-month visit with Dr. Z. Only 1 shot today! She weighs 16 pounds (25th–50th percentile) and is 27 inches (50th percentile)—a little string bean. She's a little on the light side, but the doctor isn't concerned at all since she gained almost 2 pounds since her last check-up. Plus, she's been super active since she started crawling 2 months ago, which is probably keeping her lean. She started cruising—moving along and between furniture while holding on and walking—a few weeks ago, and she's standing up and sitting down like a pro now. Friday night I even turned around and caught her standing without holding onto anything. I'm guessing she might be an early walker.

She's finally eating baby food from a spoon after 2.5 months of trying without much success. Her appetite seemed to just take off about the time she started standing and cruising. She now eats oatmeal and fruit for lunch, oatmeal and a veggie for dinner, plus some other finger foods (and nursing is still going very well). She really likes feeding herself, and she's head over heels for Puffs, these little flavored puffed cereal treats that pretty much dissolve in your mouth. She thinks it's funny to try to feed them to Gilmore, who gladly cleans up the mess when she's finished eating. She's consistently signing "more" now. We were afraid she thought it was just the sign for Puffs, but she signed it yesterday when Kevin was tossing her in the air, and she signed it last night when I was feeding her peas. It really is a very helpful communication tool because I have no idea how much she wants to eat otherwise. Oh, and her second bottom tooth finally popped through this weekend, a whole month after her first one.

Even though she's becoming more independent and strong-willed every day, she's still a ton of fun. She loves to clap, wave and bang things together to make noise. And she's really interested in Casey, Morgan, Gilmore and Tosh—"people" about her size. We were having some sleep issues for a few weeks, but we seem to have those straightened out. We were really coddling her, thinking that she was teething, having separation anxiety, reaching new milestones—all things that can cause sleep disturbances. But she got to the point where she wouldn't nap at all, and she was up half the night. Once we determined that she could get herself down after standing up in her crib and that she wasn't "stuck," we tried the Ferber sleep training method again and it was miraculous. It took one night and she was back to her two-hour naps, and she's even been sleeping through the night for a week now. It's like we hit a reset button!

That's pretty much it for little Libs. She's beautiful ("Those eyes," we hear all the time), healthy and happy. Enjoy a few recent photos as a reward for reading my long post!