11 Months Old!

Daddy with his big 11-month-old...and Rocky!

Walking with the Walker

While I'm getting ready in the morning, Serena will usually play on the bathroom floor. I try to find something for her to play with to keep her occupied. A lot of times I'll get out her little soft-bristled brush. First, I'll brush her hair with it and then hand it to her. Then she'll try 'brushing' her hair with it! It's so cute! Then, this morning, she had gotten the curling iron out of the drawer, and was putting it up to her hair! She may be little, but she's definitely a girlie girl! ;)

Serena still loves pushing her walker around, but hasn't ventured out on her own yet!

Can't Think of a Title Again

Hi!  We're on a walk at Raccoon River Park

 Two munchkins peeking over the couch at me 

(Yes, that is a pink scrap of material tying the fireplace doors together.  It was the only thing on hand at the time, and I've never gone back to find a better solution!  :P)

Sitting in my boppy

Eating yummy carrots

Look at these cute toes!

Talking to my toes is fun!

"This little piggie went to market..."

Peek-a-Boo and Kennel Time

Serena thinks it's hilarious to play peek-a-boo behind the curtains!

Ever since we set this kennel up for Rocky, Serena has been trying to get inside. Jordan was cleaning it out and planning to put it away today, and then decided to let Serena play in it. She thought it was great! Macy, on the other hand, couldn't believe we were making her get in the kennel...with Serena, no less!!! What an insult! ;)

Tired Eyes, Happy Eyes

Stuffing My Face

AT LEAST Thirty-Second Thursday

Thanks to Grandma & Grandpa and Aunt Anna, Serena has a new trick! Now she can show you how BIG she is! SO BIG! :D She was eating at the time, so she only used one hand, but normally she uses both.

The first part of the video features the latest Serena & Rocky moments! :)

At Anna's Softball Game

Serena had a lot of fun at Anna's softball game, even though she didn't watch very much of it!

Bed Head

You can tell she hasn't been awake for very long in this picture! Check out that bedhead!!!

Emptying the First Box of Cheerios

Serena laughing at me for wanting to take a picture of her with her first emptied box of Cheerios.

Seriously? Is this what I've come to?!

Oh, it's FUN to be a mom! ;)

I love my Serena-smiles!

Pretty girl face!

Father's Day

We celebrated a pretty low-key Father's Day. We ate at a great little local restaurant called Maddie's Again. They were serving dads for free! :D Keeping track of Serena & Rocky at the same time is keeping us pretty busy. Plus, there are the you-probably-wouldn't-believe-how-frequent trips outside for Rocky. Oh, PLEASE get this house training thing down SOON, buddy!!! :P

As for you, Miss Serena, God has blessed you with such a wonderful daddy! I know you understand that in your simple childlike way. It's obvious by the way you light up when you see him and how you apparently think he is the funniest person EVER! But you've taken it to a new level this week by demonstrating a bit of jealousy when you see Daddy holding Rocky and you want NOTHING but to be held by Daddy! Even Mommy won't do! I know it's going to be really sweet to watch how your capacity to love and to express your love deepens over this coming year!

Serena getting squeezed by Daddy

Daddy put Serena in the back of the truck! What an adventure!!

Proud daddy with all his 'kids' ;)

Jordan said this was the best Father's Day ever! Woohoo! ;D

Serena 'Sat' Through Church!

Tonight was the very first time in a VERY long time (newborn days?) that Serena made it through an ENTIRE church service without leaving. Not even once! She did say 'da-da-da' pretty loudly once and also made some other quieter noises, but nothing escalated to the point where I felt like she needed to be taken out. She just played quietly in the pew emptying out my bag. Everything ended up on the floor. Most of it she dropped down at my feet, but a few things apparently required special treatment. She picked up the more interesting items and stood up in the pew (facing the back of the church) to examine them. She would look the item over, shake it, and taste it; and then she would finally let it fall. Thankfully there were only a couple people behind us, so she wasn't too distracting to anyone! :D One of the people behind us was the assistant pastor and at one point he and Serena were waving at each other. She started giggling a little and I was just starting to get nervous that it might turn into an all-out laugh, but then she lost interest and went back to her important self-imposed job of emptying the diaper bag!

After church we went out to eat, so by the time we got home it was going on 9 o'clock and Serena had been awake for over 6 hours! (That's a really long stint for her!) When Jordan went to get her out of the truck, she was totally zonked! I got her out of her carseat and took a few pictures and then carried her upstairs and changed her diaper, took off her dress, put on her jammies, brought her back downstairs and put her in her stroller and she was STILL ASLEEP!!! I was shocked! We then went on a long walk (a little less than an hour) and she was still asleep when we got home. I got her out of her stroller, carried her upstairs, and laid her in her crib and she's STILL SLEEPING! Poor kid was apparently REALLY worn out! Haha!

I'm still just so excited that we sat through a whole church service! Yay! :D

Holding my sweet sleeping beauty

On Daddy's Shoulder

AT LEAST Thirty-Second Thursday

A little video of Serena eating Cheerios. She's getting so good at it! She used to have such a hard time actually letting go of them into her mouth! Heehee!

Also some more video of Serena & Macy playtime. They were playing tug-of-war, but by the time I got the camera out, they had pretty much stopped. :P So in this video, Serena is just trying to get Macy to play with her again!

Rocky's Arrival

The day has finally arrived, and our new puppy Rocky is here! He's a really sweet little guy! He's very content to sleep in your arms, but he can become very spunky when he's on the ground with Macy! We arranged the first meeting between Macy & Rocky to take place at a nearby park. Macy was interested in Rocky, but she was much more interested in hunting the surrounding area! :P Serena, on the other hand, was immediately infatuated with this new little creature. She stared and laughed and crawled up to him and pet him and pat him and laughed some more! It was so funny! After a bit, we drove home and let everyone play in our yard. Macy was much more interested in Rocky at home, and they got a lot of playtime in together. Rocky was so funny because as much as he loved playing with Macy and Serena, he was very easily distracted with everything else (i.e., leaves, twigs, Serena's toes, etc.).

We've been teaching Serena how to pet Macy, and it paid off today when she pet Rocky so nicely! However, since Rocky is still so little, Serena wants to pick him up! In the top left picture, she was trying to pick him up around the neck; in the top right, she had just picked him up by the scruff and lifted him out of the kennel and then she sat there laughing and petting him!

Rocky following Serena across the yard. "Hey! Let me chew on your toes! They look really squishy!"

Serena was so excited and wound up, she hardly quit 'talking'! You can really see the excitement in her face in this picture!

I just really liked these shots! :)

Girls' Night

Jordan had to work in Cedar Rapids and Waterloo today and tomorrow, and it didn't work out for Serena, Macy and I to go along this time! Boo! On his way home he is picking up our new puppy, though, so we are looking forward to that big event!

We girls have been living it up around here today. I got a couple girlie movies from Redbox, so we watched those, and played and played. Macy & Serena even played tug-of-war together, which was REALLY hilarious to watch. Unfortunately, I wasn't very lucky at getting it on camera. :P

Big goofy grin

Self-portrait attempts (Serena didn't tell me that we were supposed to make silly faces for some of them!) ;)

We can't wait for Daddy to get home!

Exersaucering and Climbing

Just for kicks, I put Serena into her exersaucer this morning. She likes to play with it from the outside, but I don't think she's been in it for 3 months or so. She thought it was really fun, but she seemed so BIG in it! Here's the post from the first time I put her in the exersaucer (about 6 1/2 months ago)!

Serena is all about climbing these days. She climbs over any obstacles she finds, very much preferring climbing to crawling around. A couple of times, I have found her climbing the stairs or just sitting smugly on the landing (2 steps up).

When we got home from running errands this afternoon, Serena played on the floor while I tried to get some things done. After a little while, I looked to see what she was up to (mostly to reassure myself that she wasn't in Macy's water dish!), and I found her in her carseat! She climbed in all by herself and she just looked at me like, "Is this a good activity, Mommy?"

Serena Moments

Ever since she could pull herself up on the coffee table, Serena has had a fascination with knocking the coasters onto the floor. This week, though, she's taken that game to a whole new level! After she sends them spilling onto the floor, she drops down and starts putting them back into the holder! Now if I could just get her to put them back up on the coffee table when she's done! ;)

Serena-faces (as you can see, she was saying da-da-da-da in a few of these pictures!)

Serena loves clapping. Even if she just hears an audience clapping on TV, she immediately stops what she's doing and starts clapping too!

Serena got this little beeny baby from a lady in Mom's nursing home when we went visiting over Memorial Day weekend. I named it Lucinda after the lady who gave it to her. Serena absolutely loves Lu! As soon as she sees her, she starts talking to her. She also crawls around with her all the time, stopping now and then to give her kisses. I think this is the first 'favorite' since the flat-headed doll! ;)

Learning Cribbage

Serena was obviously impressed by Grandpa's skills

Knock, Knock! Who's There?

Serena is pretty fascinated with the concept of windows. She loves it when someone waves and smiles at her through a window! Grandpa is here to spend a couple nights while Grant is at YHEC, so here she is awaiting his arrival.

Serena watching Daddy & Grandpa come up to the house

AT LEAST Thirty-Second Thursday

The first part of this video has Serena waving at Mia and laughing. In the second part, Serena shows off her skills on the xylophone!

Serena & Caroline

It was Aunt Anna's 13th birthday today!

Caroline came over (and brought her mommy along!) in the early afternoon so we had a lot of fun playing with her!

Sizing each other up

Munchkin A-Comin'

Tonight we drove over to Jordan's parent's house because he needs to work in the Cedar Rapids office for the next couple days. At first, Serena was pretty quiet around everyone (she's definitely becoming more self-aware these days!); just watching them with her great big eyes and handing out shy smiles now and then. Finally around 9 or so, when Grandpa was playing "Where's Serena?" with her for the 3rd or 4th time, she responded with her classic "Aaah!" After that, she was all friendly and playful with Grandpa. Then, when he decided to go into the other room to watch TV with the boys, she hurriedly crawled after him, talking in her high-pitched voice the whole way. "Da-da-da-da-da!" It was pretty cute!

I'm comin' for that camera, Mama!

Teething Wears a Baby Out

Serena's working on cutting tooth #4. It's the upper tooth to the left of where her front teeth will hopefully someday be. ;) Right now she's got a nice little blister right there, so I know the end must be near! I can tell it's been pretty rough on her because she has never been this cuddly! As soon as she starts to wear out, she wants me to hold her and cuddle her, and honestly I don't mind a bit! She's never been one for cuddling (always too much to do!), so I'm definitely relishing these sweet times! Although, I'll be happy when I get to see my happy girl for longer periods of time again! ;)

Poor baby! Those eyes tell quite a story, don't they?

Playing Piano

After Mama's own heart

A Bee Stinger or Something BETTER?

After Chad's wedding and reception this afternoon, I took Serena to the nursery to nurse her before we headed back home. After she was done nursing, she was in a pretty playful mood so I set her down and let her explore the nursery for a while. After all, she would be cooped up in the car for the next 3 hours! She made her way over to an exersaucer, pulled up, and started playing with the toys. She looked so cute in her big froofy dress and cute lil' sandals and the darling jeweled flower in her hair, so I got my camera out. I was really glad I had it in hand when I saw what she did next! It was very funny!

"Oh! Look at this cute little bee!"

"Is that what I think it is? I didn't even know bees had those!"

"A good rule-of-thumb is to never pass up an opportunity to nurse...even if you JUST DID"

"Hmmm...that's weird. Nothing came out. Maybe I should have inspected it a little more closely."

She repeated this progression 3 or 4 times before moving on to something else! Silly girl!

Cleaning Lady

They said this would be like a little vacation, but as you can see they made me do the cleaning!

AT LEAST Thirty-Second Thursday

Serena can wave now...when she feels like it! ;) I was pretty happy to get it for the video today!

Waving 'hello' and a little Serena-chatter

Sippy Cup Attempts

I've been giving Serena a sippy cup with water in it to play with so she can learn how to drink from it. Poor little bottle-deprived baby is having a hard time understanding that she needs to tip it back in order to get anything out of it. She LOVES sucking on the spout, though, and seems pretty pleased when I help her tip it back so she actually gets a drink. Drinking out of cups, on the other hand, is not a problem at all...just messy. :P

I feel like such a big girl with my sippy cup!

Busy Girl

Serena spent about 15 minutes this morning 'reading' this book to herself! I got SO much done! :)

Silly Serena expressions