Shopping Day

Today we went shopping in Frisco with Aunt Julie!

Play Day

Today we just stayed home all day and played. In the afternoon, we took a walk to the park (complete with a trip to Sonic at Happy Hour!)! It was a really pretty day!

Serena had so much fun at the park! She cried when we left! :(

Serena was completely worn out from playing at the park!

In the evening, Serena turned into a big goof! She went and found her boots (which she L-O-V-E-S!) and wore them all over the house (after wearing them on her hands for a while first, haha!).

Sunday

Sunday mornings usually include a bath for Serena!

Serena wore such a pretty dress from Aunt Julie to church today, but unfortunately none of my pictures turned out...she wouldn't stop moving! :P She did pretty well in church today; I just had to take her out for the last 10 minutes or so. She was playing pretty well on the floor in front of our seats when all of a sudden she started crawling underneath my seat! Looking at the little space between the floor and the seat in front of me, I was thinking, "Surely she won't go all the way underneath the seat...there's not enough room for her! She'll back out in just a second!" But, no, she went all the way through! We were in the last row, so then she had all kinds of space to play, haha! Shortly after that I took her out. ;)

Serena was fascinated by Aunt Julie's iPhone!

Daddy got home late this afternoon. Serena was playing on the patio when he came in the door. As soon as she heard his voice, she let out one of her high-pitched squeals, "Aah!" and then she hurried over to him as fast as her sturdy little legs could carry her! I don't think I've ever seen her walk so fast! It was really adorable and sweet!

A Day Minus Daddy, Plus Aunt Julie

Last night, Daddy & Macy left on a weekend hunting trip, so it's just Mommy, Serena, and Rocky around here! We had a busy day getting ready for Aunt Julie's greatly-anticipated arrival!

Serena laughing at Mommy playing peek-a-boo with her on the way to the airport (don't worry, it was at a stoplight!)

Busy at Play and a Bonus Video

This morning's playtime started off with Serena finding her book of nursery rhymes, opening it up to the "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" page, and bringing it to me! After I had sung it to her a few times, she took it to Jordan. As he sang verse after verse, she danced and clapped her hands. It was SO cute!!! Then, she chased after him to get him to sing again until he finally managed to hop into the shower and she forgot about it, heehee!

Serena spent a good part of this morning collecting things in the bathtub. I guess we know where to look if something's missing! ;)

There are certain sounds that often bring Serena 'running' as fast as her little legs can go. One of them is the dishwasher opening. This afternoon, when I opened the dishwasher to unload all the clean dishes, Serena hurried over and grabbed a spatula. As I put away the dishes, she put the spatula in the dishwasher in every possible way, and then kept playing with it for quite a while, mostly pretending to eat off of it! ;)

Pretending to eat off the spatula

Serena has a new dance move where she swings and flails her arms all around! It's hilarious!

AT LEAST Thirty-Second Thursday

Lots to report on the Serena front today!

First thing this morning, I decided to weigh that little girl again. She's been eating more than ever the last week or so! "Seriously, kid, you just ate TWO apples! How can you POSSIBLY be hungry still!?" Anyway, as of this morning she was 20 pounds! That's up 1.5 pounds in the last 2 weeks! WOW! I think we've finally hit a growth spurt! :)

This morning, Grandma, Aunt Anna & I were sitting around in the little room outside Serena's room chatting and watching Serena play with her toys. After a while, she brought her book of nursery rhymes over to Grandma and wanted to look through it with her. Serena loves turning pages more than hearing stories right now, so Grandma was barely getting in more than the first line or two of any of the nursery rhymes before Serena would flip to another page. When she came to "Old MacDonald Had a Farm," Grandma started singing it. I happened to have the xylophone right in front of me, so I pecked out the tune for her. Serena was enthralled! She left that page open and just listened. And whenever we would get to the end of a verse and stop, she would look at us expectantly for more! This afternoon, after we said goodbye to Grandma, Uncle Grant, & Aunt Anna, Serena & I came back into the house and I got busy picking up the kitchen and Serena got back to her business of playing. :) I checked on her a little while later, and she was sitting in that room again with the book of nursery rhymes on her lap opened to the "Old MacDonald" page and she was singing!!! It was SO cute, I just stood back in the kitchen and didn't dare disturb her in case she might stop! It was all babble, but it was definitely connected and sing-song-y! And she left it on that page the whole time!

One more thing before I wrap this up! Serena finally has a new word! She can say "Book"! Well, it actually comes out as "Boop," but we'll take what we can get! I've tried to encourage her to say it for quite a while now (I figured it uses sounds she already makes, plus it's something she loves, so it would probably be relatively easy to get her to say it). This evening, she brought me a book and I tried again, "This is a book. Can you say 'book'? Book! You try it, Serena!" And she ACTUALLY DID!!! "Boop!" in her high voice! Haha!

In today's video, we have a clip of Serena working on getting her audience to clap for her (one of her favorite things to do when she knows she has an audience, haha!). There's also a clip of her climbing up on the game cube followed by a little bit of chatter. And at the very end is a clip of her right before bed tonight (you'll see her tired eyes in that one, haha!) saying "Boop"!

In the Big Girl Swing

We took a walk to the park and Serena REALLY wanted to swing on the big kid swings rather than the baby swings! I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that Daddy has let her swing on them in the past? Hmmmm.... ;)

Clap for Me!

Today, Serena mastered the ability to climb up onto the game cube by holding onto the back of the couch and pulling up while simultaneously pulling up with one leg on top of the cube (yes, she's practically doing the splits to accomplish this!). She's VERY proud of her new trick and does it over and over...and over, and over, and over, and over...! ;) And nearly every time, as soon as she climbs up, she sits down and starts clapping and looking around at everyone very expectantly. Then, after climbing back down she stands there and does the same thing! She definitely loves having an audience!

"Clap for me!!!" ;D

Silly Girl!!

Nighttime can really bring out the silliness in Serena! These were taken right before bed tonight.

Big smiles!

Playing Peek-a-Boo

Finding her belly-button!

Grandma, Aunt Anna & I were so entertained with Serena's antics tonight, and she was loving having such an appreciative audience! Her nose is still a little runny sometimes, and at one point when she breathed out, a BIG bubble (like bigger than a quarter, haha!) blew out of her nose and popped on her lip. Of course, she felt it, and started rubbing her nose with her hand. Then, apparently feeling that was not taking care of the problem, she grabbed the front of her SHIRT and smeared it under her nose! AAAAHHHhhh!!!! :P THEN, she came towards me holding the snot-smeared front of her shirt out to me, "Deh! Deh!" I just laughed at her, so she headed towards Grandma doing the same thing! We were laughing SO hard at her!

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!

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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!