Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from our little 'punkin'!

Her costume fits her a little differently this year than it did last year! ;)

Coordinating

Serena and Anna just happened to coordinate their outfits today! Aren't they cute?! ;)

Marshmallow Baby

While I was in the shower this morning, Serena was busy keeping Daddy, Grandma, Uncle Grant, and Aunt Anna entertained! ;) At one point, she marched off to her bedroom with that particular air that she has when you know she's up to something! Soon, she came back with a jacket. At first, everyone thought she had gotten it from her drawer (which she's not supposed to take clothes out of), but then they saw that she was picking it up from the pile of clothes next to her changing pad where I had left the things she'd worn the day before. It wasn't long before a pair of pants came out, as well as a sleeper and a onesie. Next, Jordan offered to put them on her, and of course she was MORE than happy to participate in that game! When I got out of the shower, this is the sight that greeted me:

She was wearing (from the inside out) a sleeper, a pair of jogging pants, a jean jacket, another sleeper, and then a onesie! Pleased as could be in her special outfit!

AT LEAST Thirty-Second Thursday

One of Serena's favorite things to do is to 'wash' things. Just give her a washcloth and she'll get right to work!

Serena's Happy Working Song

In this one, we have: Serena eating breakfast (she just had to have a Cheerio with every bite of oatmeal); Jordan plays a game with Serena where he traps her...as soon as he does it, she starts growling and grunting as she works her way out, haha; Serena can now climb onto the couch by herself; Serena making faces and just being cute! I think that's all!

Serena & the Doggies on a Big Rock

Big Shoes to Fill

When Daddy took Macy to the park for a little morning training session today, Rocky and Serena were left standing at the door awaiting his return. Rocky was pretty intent on watching the door for any signs of movement the whole time Jordan was gone, but Serena soon began looking around for other things to amuse herself with. The next time I looked over at her, she was trying to get Daddy's boot on!! I SO wish I could have gotten a better picture, but you get the idea! It was SO cute!

Evening Walk

Sometimes I just wonder what is going through Serena's head! This afternoon, she threw her piano out! No, I'm serious, she really did! It was in the room over by her bedroom, and she was over there playing with some different toys and now and then I heard her plink away at her little piano. It looks just like this, only it's yellow instead of red.

I picked it up for $.10 at a garage sale in Fairfax earlier this summer. Anyway, the next thing I knew, she was trotting through the kitchen on her way to the back door carrying her piano. Every now and then, she'll take a toy outside to play with it, but taking the piano out there is definitely a first. Come to think of it, she hasn't really played with the piano at all since we moved here! So, I watched her carry her piano to the open door (see my post about that over here). She stopped, and then raised her piano as high as she could, and literally CHUCKED that piano as hard as she could outside!!!! I was standing back in the kitchen laughing so hard (silently, of course; I don't want her to get any big ideas that throwing things is funny...so far we've been able to avoid that particular toddler game!). Then, she proceeded to work her way down the little step onto the cement patio and she played with her piano outside for a few minutes. So, apparently that was why she threw it out there. It was just so funny to watch! Usually, she is bringing smaller toys out there and is able to maneuver the step while holding the toy; but I guess she figured she needed to have her hands free and somehow she needed to get that piano outside! Obviously, throwing it was her only viable option! ;)

Somebody was very tired for tonight's walk...even though it wasn't even 7 o'clock yet!

Can you find Serena?

Our walk tonight took us back behind our development to where they just put in a bunch of HUGE telephone poles. They left their pay loader out, so of course we had to get a picture! ;)

First Molar Sighting!

I actually first caught sight of it a couple days ago, but I forgot to post about it. Today I got another look at that little pearly in her mouth and I'm pretty confident we've got a molar!!! In retrospect, I'm pretty sure that's what her runny nose and rough nights were all about a week or two ago! Now she's sporting the clear runny nose again (though so far the nights haven't been horrible...last night she was wakeful/restless, but she never cried or woke up completely), so I'm pretty suspicious of more 'teefers' moving around underneath those gums! Her new tooth is on the top right, apparently leaving a space for the 'eye' tooth or canine or whatever-you-want-to-call-it! Although we're still quite a ways from having the first 4 molars in (it seems like Serena's teeth move really slowly, even once they break the gums!), I'm excited for her to have some teeth that she can actually chew with! Should make mealtime a little easier on me not having to worry so much about what she can gum up and what I need to mash or break up for her!

We'll leave you with a smile from Serena tonight!

Funny Face

First, Serena has this necklace that I got her around St. Patrick's Day. It broke a while back and she hasn't really been interested in playing with it anyway, so it's been sitting in the bottom of her box of toys. Then, the other day she found it and ever since, she loves walking around with her necklace on! Apparently, it is great fun to put it on and take it off over and over and over again!

~~~~

She's our little munchkin! What else can I say? I don't even know how to caption these pictures!

Chewing on the Bones...No, Really!

Tonight we went to Outback Steakhouse to celebrate Jordan's birthday!

YUMMY!!!!

In spite of the fact that she is apparently teething again (clear runny nose, blah!), Serena continues to be in her characteristic good mood (THANKFULLY!). Of course, nighttime is usually a different story when she's teething, so we'll see if we get much sleep tonight. :P

Anyway, she did so well at the restaurant. She ate a little of the bread, and some of the food that I had brought for her. By that time, Jordan was almost done with his plate (he had ordered baby back ribs) and was just polishing off his fries. He shared a couple with Serena, and then told her that they were all gone. She looked his plate over, and then started pointing to the bones from his ribs. "Mm! Mm!" It was apparent that she wanted one! Jordan picked one up and looked it over and then gave it to her. She put the end of it in her mouth and chewed a little, and just seemed very pleased to be eating off of Daddy's plate (she never looked at mine once during the entire meal! Only Daddy's!). After mouthing the bone for a few minutes, she put it down on the table, and made her sign for more and pointed at Jordan's plate again! We laughed so hard as she continued to 'eat' several more bones before we left!

Chewing on the bones

"More bones please, Daddy!"

AT LEAST Thirty-Second Thursday

1st part - Serena playing with the phone

2nd part - Serena playing with one of Jordan's old shirts. Partway through, I had tried to get her to say bye-bye to the camera (I edited that part out), so then throughout the rest of the video she randomly blows kisses which is pretty funny! She was being so silly that night!

Softball Night!

World's Cutest Softball Fan

Sorry the picture is a little blurry tonight! I used my phone, which doesn't do the greatest at night! :P

We had a lot of fun at Jordan's softball game tonight! Serena just loves walking around and watching everyone! The team that was going to play after Jordan's game arrived almost a whole hour early, and she did a lot of mingling with them. She would walk down to where the men all were standing (none of whom she actually knew) and she would stand right in the middle of them and just watch them all, listening to their conversation. Then, she would finally turn around and come back to where I was sitting on the bleachers (probably 25 yards away), grinning so big like she'd just come back from some great adventure! There were a few girlfriends/wives who had come along with that same team to watch them play, and they were all sitting on the bleachers too. One of them had a big dog (Jordan thinks it was a Staffordshire Terrier) which Serena took immediate interest in (the girl who had him seemed really nice and said it was okay, so I let Serena meet him on her own). She walked over and looked at him for a little bit, and then she reached out her hand to him. He immediately started licking her hand, so she apparently figured that meant he was friendly and stepped in closer. Pretty soon, he was licking her face and she was all smiles and giggles! After that, I could hardly keep her away from him for more than 5 minutes at a time! :D

It was Daddy's birthday today, but he spent most of the day painting the neighbor's house; so, we spent some time over there watching him work. This particular neighbor (Gary & Sandy) live right on the edge of the park with the big rocks. Serena is getting really good at walking on the terrain over there! She used to fall a lot when we went to the park, but now she picks up her feet really well and can even go pretty fast if she wants to! She's really starting to show more independence, and she would wander out pretty far from me. I just kept an eye on her to make sure she wasn't going up by the road or down by the woods, but otherwise I didn't interfere with her explorations. Every now and then she would come back to me all smiling and proud of her great accomplishments! ;)

Little Stinker

The Little Stinker got into Daddy's stash!

Jordan has a carton of pop in the pantry and Serena has just lately discovered its whereabouts! Now if when we open the pantry she is anywhere nearby, she will hurry over to grab a pop. Then she carries it around the house as proud as can be, stopping often to throw her head back and pretend to drink from the can!

A Dolly in the Rocking Chair

My mom & sisters will recognize this little rocking chair. It's the cutest little thing, intended for dolls, of course. However, Serena is absolutely fascinated with chairs, so when this one caught her eye she just had to try it out. The Cabbage Patch Doll landed unceremoniously on the floor and Serena took her place! Pretty good trade, though! ;)

My new Cabbage Patch Doll!

Just Serena

Helping Mama in the kitchen

"BOO!"

This Little Piggy

Cutest little piggy I know!

Jordan & I are constantly amazed at how Serena can put down food! She loves eating! This is the girl about whom the pediatrician was worried that by not feeding her by 6 months of age we were going to miss the opportunity for her to learn how to eat. We waited until 9 1/2 months of age to introduce food to her diet, and she has apparently defied science and eats like a pro! ;D (Seriously, I still can hardly believe he said that!)

Anyway, Serena is 14 1/2 months old now, and still wearing her 9-12 months clothes. She has really only grown in height over the last 5 months! I weighed and measured her, and she is 18.4 pounds and 28.5 inches. According to the growth chart at babycenter.com, that puts her in the less-than-5th percentile for both height & weight! She's such a shrimp! Most people are shocked when I tell them Serena's age...they usually say they were going to guess 9 or 10 months old!

She's a little piggy, though! Here's her diet for today, which was fairly typical of any day:

For the last almost 4 months, she's had the same breakfast every day: 1 serving (1/2 cup dry) of plain cooked oatmeal with water and a few handfuls of plain Cheerios. I had imagined that as she got older she would be interested in having some blueberries or apples or cinnamon or something in her oatmeal, but you should see how excited this kid gets about her plain oatmeal every morning! And being the lazy person that I am, I have not yet offered to dress her oatmeal up! Seriously, for about a month, she would cry every time I put the oatmeal in the microwave because she wanted it and I guess she was afraid I was putting it away or something? Anyway, lunch today was about a 1/2 cup of leftover chicken fried rice (last night's supper) with peas, carrots, and eggs. She was still hungry after polishing that off, so she had a cooked apple. For afternoon snack, she had 5 or 6 whole wheat Ritz crackers and an entire banana. To hold her off till supper (we went to the mall over the time we would normally eat supper tonight), I gave her more Cheerios. She probably had 1/4 cup or so. Then, for supper, she had about a cup of halved grapes and half a 6" egg & cheese quesadilla. Oh, and then she had some plain organic yogurt before bed. She drains her sippy cup full of water 2 or 3 times a day, and breastfeeds 4 (sometimes 5, depending on her need that day) times a day (she's been officially night-weaned for about a month now!).

I'm sure she'll hit a growth spurt one of these days! She can't stay this little forever, haha! If she does, I'm going to have to get her some more clothes because the ones she's in are starting to show their wear! :P For now, I'm just happy that I don't have too big a baby to lug around since my inside-baby is growing and making it harder and more uncomfortable to lug around my outside-baby! ;)

BIG grin! :D

Imitating & Climbing

When I looked over and saw Serena with her foot up on Rocky, my first thought was that she was going to step on him! Then, I realized that she was moving her foot around to 'pet' Rocky with her foot like Daddy was doing!

Somehow or other, this box ended up in front of this chair, and Serena just CAN'T pass up an opportunity to climb! She was SO proud of herself for getting up on the big chair All By Herself!

AT LEAST Thirty-Second Thursday

This evening, Serena & I went with Jordan & the dogs to an area in our neighborhood where there's a walking trail. On one side of the trail are the backyards of the houses and on the other side of the trail there is brush and long grass...perfect 'cover' for training the dogs in. Jordan takes them over there a couple times a week or so. Serena & I stayed on the sidewalk and watched from afar. We also had the responsibility of watching whichever of the dogs was not being worked by Jordan at the time. When the training was over, we all walked a little ways down the sidewalk together. It didn't take long for Serena to want to do what I think every toddler wants to do when they're this age: push the stroller! We weren't walking very fast anyway, so I let her push with me. It was so cute, and she was having so much fun! She took a few spills, and I was really surprised that she wasn't hurt! Then, it happened! She fell, and suddenly there were tears! I picked her up and looked at her knees. Sure enough, the left one was bleeding. Quite a bit, actually! Poor baby! She's skinned her knees before, but never enough to elicit much blood. She cried for a bit, but then she wanted to get down and push the stroller some more. Then she walked holding Daddy's finger for a little while. When we got home, I washed her up and put on a Bandaid! Isn't it cute?! ;)

Bandaid!!!!

Today's video isn't too exciting. 1) A little clip of Serena at the end of lunch the other day. It's so funny how lunchtime digresses when she starts getting full! 2) A very little clip of Serena growling at the lion in her book. 3) A clip of Serena clapping to some music on Daddy's computer.

I thought I had a clip of Serena's "Goodnight" ritual with Jordan from tonight, but apparently I didn't hit the "record" button hard enough! Bummer! :( I'll try for it again tomorrow night...they do the same thing every night!

Softball Night!

Jordan's been playing softball for the Denton Bible team in a community league. Serena & I love going to watch him play! Serena wanders around checking things out and trying to catch glimpses of Daddy in the dugout. :)

I just thought this was a funny action shot! I was going to take a picture of her drinking from her sippy cup. For some reason, she was tipping it WAY back (even though it's a straw!) until she lost her balance and landed on her bottom!

For just a moment, Serena got serious about watching the game

"Did you see that play, Mama?"

On the way home tonight, Serena was getting a little antsy to be out of her car seat, so we started talking about Macy & Rocky, which usually distracts her pretty well. Sure enough, as soon as she heard Macy's name, Serena started howling! Haha! It's so funny when she does that! I've been working on teaching her that Rocky says, "Ruff! Ruff!" (just for fun to differentiate between Rocky and Macy...especially since Rocky doesn't even howl!), and she did really well with that tonight too! "What does Rocky say?" "Ruff! Ruff!" "What about Macy?" "Hooowwwwwwwwww!!" :D

Sidewalk Chalk

The sidewalk chalk is a big hit! A couple of the pictures are from yesterday, hence the two different outfits in this collage!

Well, last night was one for the books. Not in a good way! Serena went to bed really well at 7:45 just like normal. Then, she woke up around 9:45. Not too unusual, but normally I can get her to go right back to sleep. This time was different, though! She was so restless, and even when she was just laying there her eyes were wide open. It is SO discouraging to look down at your extremely tired baby and see that her eyes are OPEN! :P The minutes ticked by, and she was obviously tired (yawning and rubbing her eyes) but still wouldn't fall asleep. The later it got, she started crying off and on and just was miserable overall. After a while, I gave her some Tylenol (maybe it's her teeth?), but that didn't faze her at all. When a couple hours had passed, I tried nursing her, but that didn't seem to help either. Bummer, that's usually a no-fail remedy for anything! ;) I finally ended up out on the couch (even though my rocking chair is very comfy, I was getting a little numb after 2 hours!). Serena didn't actually fall asleep until a little before 2. I'm still a little amazed to think she stayed awake that long in the middle of the night! When morning came, she woke at her usual time of 7:30ish. I woke up to the sound of her playing with her toys and books in the corner by the couch! I was just glad she was in a happy mood! Today she took 2 naps - 3 1/2 hours total! She was a little touchy and needed Mommy a lot, though. I really hope she is better tomorrow! I'm ready for my old Serena to be back!

Rough Day

Well, Serena still has a little bit of a runny nose, but I definitely thought things were getting better. However, in spite of the fact that she woke up at 6:30 and crawled all over Jordan & I for an hour quite happily, as soon as we all got up she started being a big crab! :P And she kinda stayed that way all day. Just easily frustrated and very attached to Mommy. Makes me wonder if her teeth are moving, cause that's the way she acts when she's teething. Of course, she won't let me look in her mouth, so WHO KNOWS?! We can just hope that tomorrow is better, I guess!

Sometime after 10, she started acting really tired. She would want to be up on the couch with me (I was on the phone) and then she would lay down on me for like 30 seconds or so and then get down and look at books for a few minutes before repeating. Finally, I decided to stop being a bad mommy and got off the phone so I could put her down for a nap. She only slept for about 30 minutes before she woke up crying. As soon as I picked her up, though, she laid her head on my shoulder and fell back to sleep. I was pretty tired myself (my throat's been kinda scratchy so I think I'm fighting the little cold thing that she has), so I brought her out to the living room and laid down on the couch with her. It wasn't long before I was out and we took a nice nap together for about an hour and a half. Finally, I got up and started working on other quiet little projects while she continued to sleep for another 45 minutes! Poor baby was so tired, I guess! Too bad getting a 3-hr nap didn't really help her mood out as much as I'd hoped it would! :P

Sound asleep on the couch. Isn't she starting to get that toddler look lately?!

Look at those big round eyes! I snapped this one while she was eating some late lunch (it was 2 o'clock!) shortly after she woke up from her nap.

This afternoon, Serena was losing interest in her toys and just kinda wanted me to hold her a lot but wasn't even really satisfied with that, so I racked my brain to come up with something that could distract her from whatever was bothering her. Then I remembered that we had some sidewalk chalk that I had not gotten out for her yet. At first, she just wanted to watch me draw with it, but pretty soon she started making marks on the patio herself. After a while, she got really into it. She would march over to one corner of the patio and make two marks, and then she would get up and walk (with a very serious, trying-not-to-smile-look on her face) over to the opposite corner and make two marks. Then she would go back to the original corner and repeat this little ceremony. It was so funny, I was just cracking up at her, especially because of that look on her face! What a goof! Who knows what's going on in that curly head of hers?! So, it turned out to be a fun evening. Hopefully tomorrow she'll be back to normal!

Little Sweetie

Playing Outside

Today's toy of choice: a disinfectant wipes container

Serena loves wandering around the yard with the doggies

It's fun to yell at the neighbor's dogs when they come out and bark

Stuff

This is actually a picture from yesterday that I forgot to put up. Serena loves Daddy's dog whistles. When she sees them on the counter or something, she insists that Jordan put them around his neck and then she stuffs them in his mouth in an attempt to get him to whistle with them! She tries whistling too, but is usually not successful. Yesterday, Jordan put them around Serena's neck and you could just tell she felt like big stuff! Look at how straight she is walking now, too! She keeps her legs together a lot better than she used to do. No more Frankensteinetta! ;)

Serena loves watching Daddy work with the doggies. She's very serious about it, and usually wants to get involved if it's at all possible!

This isn't that great a picture of Serena, but I was trying to get a shot of this weird gesture she does. She sticks her arms out behind her, but she only does it when she's jabbering very commandingly...usually at the doggies. Which is why it's hard to get a good picture of her doing it since her mouth is moving and her face is so animated! ;) I'm not really sure what this gesture is supposed to convey...or how she came up with it! I promise Jordan and I don't talk with our arms stuck out behind us! She came up with this one all on her own!

Big smile from Serena to say "Good night!" to you all! ;)

AT LEAST Thirty-Second Thursday

Serena is a huge talker...although not saying any words really yet. Lately, her favorite 'word' is "da-ga." She is constantly saying it over and over, "da-ga-da-ga-da-ga-da-ga-da-ga-da-ga-da-ga." So, I got some of her 'talking' and 'reading' her book to me for this video. Also, her newest sign: "Please." :)

Learning about Gun Dogs

Serena's sick! :( I think this is her 4th cold now. It makes me so thankful for what a healthy girl she's been! Thankfully, the days aren't too bad...she keeps herself busy playing and apparently forgets about how rotten she's feeling; but last night was horrible!

Tonight, I took her to watch Jordan play softball. We drove separately because he had an appointment right before the game. For the last few minutes of the drive, Serena started to get really fussy. Finally, as a last-ditch effort to make her happy, I told her we were going to go see Daddy and isn't she glad we're going to see Daddy and Daddy loves her so much and doesn't she just love Daddy he's the best! (You get the idea!) It worked like a charm! Suddenly she was all perky and 'talking' away back there with all her babble and "Dada" mixed together. When I had parked and came around to get her out of her carseat, she was still going, and she was doing her sign for "I love you!" :)

Serena is getting to be as big of a dog-lover as her daddy. Here she is sneaking a peak at his Gun Dog magazine while he was in the shower.

Mommy's Birthday

Daddy was gone all morning, so Serena and I had a nice quiet time together playing and reading books. For supper, we went out to eat at a nice restaurant and Serena did really well. I was glad because it's been over a month since we've taken her to a sit-down restaurant (we usually went at least once a week with church family in Des Moines). After Serena went to beddy-bye, Mommy & Daddy stayed up late watching a movie and eating Nestle Tollhouse Pie with ice cream and cool whip. Bring on the calories! ;D

Well, it's not too great of a picture, but it's actually the only one I have from today! I took it with my phone, so I guess we're lucky to even have this one! ;)

Upside-Down!

The last couple days I've found Serena in this bottoms-up position several times! She looks around, and then she sits back up and looks around, and then repeats the process. It's so funny to watch her check out how it looks from both angles!

Pretty Romper

I just think this little romper is so cute!

Silliness!

Crossing Her Ankles

One of Serena's cute little quirks is to cross her ankles almost every time she's sitting. Whether she's in her car seat, her high chair, or just sitting on the floor to read a book, she usually crosses her ankles!

A Special Day

Today was a very special day because we found out that Serena is going to have a baby brother! We're so excited and can't wait for Horak Munchkin #2 to join us!

I hesitated to post this picture as I know it will gross some people out quite a bit. This was definitely one of those times in a parent's life that you want to take a picture before intervening. Or am I the only person who finds herself in situations like that? ;) In this instance, Serena was giving and receiving kisses from Rocky and it made her laugh so hard every time! I just had to take a picture before breaking up the lovefest!

Playing at the little park area near our house. It was such a gorgeous evening!