Last weekend we had a blast celebrating daddy’s birthday. He worked most of the day but when he came home we played and then went to reveal his surprise. Mom had invited 9 of daddy’s friends out to play softball! They had so much fun and afterwards went out for a nice manly meal. Mommy got dad a new FOX shirt because she is sick of sewing up holes in his other FOX shirt that he wears ALL the time. I think he liked it a lot. Back to me... Well some may not call it crawling, but it is good enough for me! Check out the video. A whole new world of discovery has opened up for me and mom and dad are having fun watching me move around and find new things.
I also started climbing. I mostly climb to my feet on mom or dad and in the bath. Mom watches me very closely in the bath and is always scared I’m going to fall.
Another new thing I am doing is grinding my teeth. It makes mom shiver and clench her jaw. She hopes I do not do it for long and I am just exploring the feeling of having teeth on the top and bottom. Can you tell I’m thrilled about this picture?!? Mom has been working with me this week to help me learn to feed myself better. She is using small pieces of grape which I love. Most of the time I am pretty good, but some times I get lazy and eat this way:
Finally… the Ashley Lake post. The trip up actually went pretty darn good. Instead of doing it in one day like we usually do, we left after dad’s work, stopped about half way and stayed in a hotel. This way we could all get good night sleeps and get to the lake around lunch time the next day. I was a much happier baby doing it this way. Mom and dad made a bed for me in the little room with the bathroom sink. It worked out great and I slept very soundly. After we got there, mom, dad and I took a ride on the boat. I wasn’t that enthused about it at first, but then dad hit some waves and it made me laugh. Dad had never been out of the little section of lake where all the Canadian Cabins are so this boat ride opened his eyes to how big the lake is and how many people enjoy it. Uncle Mark, Aunt Laurel and Cousins Ashton and Nick arrived the same day as us. I had so much fun playing with Ashton and Nick. Nick is very gentle with me and we can entertain each other for a while. Mom and Aunt Laurel really liked this. Ashton still loves to hold me and show me knew things. He thinks it is really funny when I “talk”. On Saturday we had amazing weather and we really took advantage of it. We were outside clearing trees and swimming and in the boat, skiing, wakeboarding, surfing and tubing all day. I even got to go on the tube with mom and dad.
Sunday was crazy because the rest of the family arrived. First came Grandma and Grandpa Schlenker along with Uncle Derek and Pseudo Uncle Andrew. Then came the whole Smith clan excluding Larissa. It was time for the super fun times (and crazy times) to begin. Monday was another amazing day weather wise but a sucky day as well because it was time to say good bye to daddy. He had to drive back to Utah to work. Mom and I were really sad to see him leave, but also happy he finally got to experience “prime time” Ashley Lake. The rest of the week was so fun and I’ll let the picture slide show do the talking.
The ride home was probably the worst ever. Our only ride back to Utah was with the Smiths. Lucky they had brought 3 vehicles so there was plenty of room. We got off to a rocky start when Auntie Richelle’s car wouldn’t start once at the lake and again in Kalispell. Then we kept hitting lots of construction which slowed us down even more. We left at 8:30 that morning and we pulled into our place at 11:00pm. Needless to say I was very tired and kind of a wreck. Daddy was so happy to see me and mommy and we had a great weekend together.
Sorry I am behind a couple of weeks. I have been working on gathering Ashley Lake pictures for the Ashley Lake post. I will hopefully post that in a couple of days. For now, here is an update since we have been home. Now that I am ten months old, mom decided some changes needed to occur. In the recent past she has still been nursing me 5 times a day. Apparently typical babies my age nurse only 3 times a day (or so they say) which she was not aware of. Ten months old marks the age, mom felt, that it was time I started sleeping through the night. She knows I am capable but we have developed some habits. So far it isn’t going that bad. I still wake up in the early morning hours once but many times I just sing myself back to sleep. Here are some cute shots of my sleeping. Mom and dad have a silly habit of racing like little giggly school girls to check on me before they go to bed. They are so embarrassing.
Today I had a rough day because my two top teeth are coming in. My gums are pretty swollen and I like to suck on ice. Hopefully this will not effect my night sleeping improvement. They are a little hard to see so maybe I’ll post a picture next week.
One thing my parents have noticed since I discovered my feet is that I am very coordinated with them. This video shows a couple of examples of how I use them.
I am still not “crawling” but I am starting to make ground other ways. Check it out.
One reason this week has been a little sucky is because the BYU football team started fall camp. Dad has been gone all day, everyday. Mom and I are sad that we rarely get to see him and when we do he is super tired. It is going to be a long month, or season rather. We are grateful, however that he is working hard and learning. He makes us very very proud!
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