"More" and "All Done"

Video evidence of Noella's comprehension and use of the signs "more" and "all done". I am a speech-language pathologist by trade, so you understand my pride for her possession of these skills.

Old Friends With a New Game

Zeb has, for a long time, truly enjoyed sticks. Every walk we take him on, he usually finds a stick. And if it's really good, he'll haul it home with him. We have quite the collection in our "yard". Noella has been observing him coveting his sticks, and therefore, wants them. If she sees it, she goes for it. It drives Zeb bonkers, but he lets her have it every once in a while. Sometimes he makes her crawl in circles for it. It gave me a laugh today.  Behold, the play by play: 

Zeb tries to move away.

"Hey, wait a minute, I want that"

"Don't mind if I do"

"Got it"

"Oh Zeb... is THIS what you want?"

Zeb goes in for the steal.

"Ha ha! Got it back!"

Maybe I should have just posted the video.

Noella and the Great Pumpkin!

We finally made it to the pumpkin patch. NoJo LOVED every second of it. I had a feeling she would, as she's been obsessing over the one white grocery store pumpkin I purchased a few weeks ago. We dressed her in her halloween kitty sweatshirt and headed outdoors for an afternoon full of sunshine, leaves, pumpkins, apples, pears, carmel and milkshakes!

I want this pumpkin! 

Oooh, and this one....

And these two as well...

And this one...

Noella could have crawled around the patch all day and climbed on every pumpkin if we had let her.  But, she made it across most of the area I'd say....

 Meow!

Purrrrr!  

Adam busted out the guitar that evening that we got home from all of our fall excitement. Noella watches in awe while daddy plays her a tune.

That is almost as good as my pear...

Apparently she thinks she can learn guitar by osmosis. 

Now that we have all of our pumpkin patch treasures, all that's left is to carve them. I'm sure the wee one will be ecstatic to see the jack-o-lanterns. I don't know how she couldn't, as she squeals with sheer delight anytime we walk by anything remotely colorful. I thought she was going to hyperventilate when we saw a bunch of balloons during one outing. She cried when it was time to go back in the car away from the balloons. 

It is so funny what a difference a few weeks makes for babies this age. I swear she went from baby to toddler over night. She is all personality, excitement and fun these days (not to mention "assertive" and "strong-willed"). She is also getting extremely communicative. We've been signing "more" to her when she's eating b/c she's always wanting "MORE". Just a few weeks ago something clicked and now she's signing for "more" of everything. She's starting to get "all done" as well. And the facial expressions! Priceless.  I need to get documentation of all of these "latests". Don't fear, I will get there.

Fall is absolutely glorious out here. Crisp, cool mornings. Warm, sunshine-y afternoons. Leaves turning.  The fall harvest crops are overflowing the farms around here. We'll be getting our share of apples and pears this week so Noella can have some homemade sauce!

Kisses from the Great Northwest!

Walkin'

Here's our little cruiser!

Walk or Ride?

Hi again. It seems we are busy busy busy this fall. We haven't even had time to go to the pumpkin patch yet! But we most definitely can't wait for that. This past weekend we had the fortunate experience to travel to our favorite weekend getaway (Bend, OR) for a friend's 30th birthday celebration.  There were 4 couples with babies who shared a rental house.  Saturday was divided so moms and dads could take turns riding the fast trails of Bend.  And of course, in Oregon, most activities end with a rewarding stop at the brew pub. There were babies and dogs and bikes galore! Everyone had such a great time.

Here are all of the dads doing their job of feeding the little ones well:

Liam and Noella:

 

Noella even got in some walking practice while we were there. She's getting close to independent walking! This girl has grown up way to fast....