Happy First Birthday, Alyssa!!!

Alyssa is now officially one year old!!! And man, has it been a whirlwind year.

Alyssa is now walking (and usually running), has 16 teeth, and is 1 going on 16. She's got quite the spunky personality and is a barrel of laughs. She loves playing with older kids and trying to keep up with them. She'll be going to preschool starting in January, and we're sure she's going to love that.

We celebrated with family and a few friends and had a whale of a time! Here's a little taste of the fun...

Hanging out with Grandma...

Opening presents...

Oh wonderful cake...

"Alyssa, you want some cake?"

"Yes, I think I'll have some of cousin David's."

And he wasn't too happy about it.

She ate her WHOLE piece of cake all by herself.

I'm not sure if this is a good thing.

Happy Halloween!

Love,

The Pumpking Patch Family (aka the Brimleys)

Playing With Daddy

Baby's First Steps!!!!!

Alyssa has been taking a few steps and then falling for the last week or so. Then, yesterday, she up and walked all the way across the living room. I guess she finally got over her fears and went for it. Now, all she wants to do is walk. All the time. And she's been practicing her all-out flailing temper tantrums when she doesn't get her way.

So we got some of her walking and playing on video tonight, and here it is. The video camera is finally being used for its true purpose! Stay tuned, there will be more walking videos to come, I'm sure.

I Miss That Baby!

You know, the one who used to sleep all the time, stayed in 1 spot for what seemed like hours on end, and was content to just lay in my arms. This "new" baby is the busiest thing I've ever seen! If I could bottle her energy, I'd be a billionaire!

Alyssa is now a crawling machine and is starting to walk. Sometimes she gets crawling so fast her arms and legs can't keep up and she nose-dives into the floor. It's pretty hilarious. She can walk around as long as she's holding on to something, and has started to stand on her own for brief periods (as long as she doesn't realize she isn't holding on).

She's learned how cabinets and drawers work, so we've finally finished baby-proofing the cabinets in the kitchen.

In other news, I've started my second year of teaching high school science. I've been able to work full-time this year, which is great for the extra pay, but bad for my quickly diminishing amount of leisure time. I'm still working on getting organized and my classroom is a mess, but I'm pretty happy with how my classes are going so far.

Mike has transferred sites to be a roving behavior support assistant, going to various schools around the district to work with the students with the most severe behavior problems. He's also working part-time as a real estate agent. He got a lead today to list a 5 million dollar house and has a meeting with the owner next week. Woo hoo!

Busy with a Capital "B"

For me life of me, I couldn't figure out why I've been so busy this summer. Sure, I have a double load for summer school (teaching chemistry and physics at the same time - ha!), but I'm still working fewer hours than the normal year. I haven't gotten much done from my lengthy summer to-do list either. So what the heck have I been doing?! Oh, that's right, chasing a crawler around the house. I never realized how much more time Alyssa takes up now. And I have a feeling it'll only get worse as she gets even more mobile.

Not only have I been busy, but Alyssa's been busy too. She got quite chunky over the first 5 or so months of her life. But since she's crawling around like crazy and starting to pull herself up to stand, she's been working hard and burning off her baby fat like mad. A couple of months ago, she couldn't get her toes in her mouth because her tummy was too big, but she doesn't have a problem with that now.

The Military Crawl

Alyssa is now crawling. Man, I'm not ready for this. She's 7 1/2 months old already. Time flies when you're insanely busy and having fun.

Alyssa started pushing herself around with her right foot and left shoulder a couple of weeks ago. I called this her military crawl: tummy on the ground, low and slow. But in the last week, she's become proficient at crawling on her knees, which has greatly increased her speed and maneuverability. So in response, I've been madly baby-proofing the house for the last week, because if she wants something then she just goes and gets it. I'm about halfway done and so happy to be decluttering my life. It's amazing how much crap you acquire when you live in one place for several years. I've been meaning to make a huge give-away pile for at least two years, and now I'm finally getting it done. Check out the Salvation Army store in PB for some cool stuff.

One of Alyssa's new favorite activities is trying to follow mommy or daddy around the house. She isn't that fast yet, but she loves when we stop so she can catch up. She also loves tootling around the kitchen while we're cooking dinner trying to catch us. She also, also loves going for walks in her stroller. We went to the county fair a few times last month and she refused to take naps because there was too much to look at while we were walking around.

Other amazing (at least to me) developmental feats she's recently mastered include pushing herself to sit up from laying down on the floor and pulling herself into the standing position. We predict that she'll be walking in no time, which we're REALLY not ready for. But, then again, I thought she would be crawling at least a month ago, so don't bet on my predictions.

One thing we need to get better at is getting her to sleep through the night. She started sleeping through the night a couple of months ago, but then she started teething and it was all over. I'm thinking it's time to start letting her cry it out so she learns to put herself back to sleep at night. She's been getting up every couple of hours and needing to be held and given a bottle before she'll go back to sleep. We're exhausted and need a good night's sleep. Bad. Any suggestions from experienced mommies and daddies???