Black Friday

For Black Friday, I did NOT go shopping. We decided to go to Muir Woods with much of the family that was in town. We were not as clever as I might have hoped, and Muir Woods was super more crowded than normal! It was still gorgeous. It is trips like this that convince me we live in one of the most lovely places on earth because of how many different kinds of natural beauty we have nearby.

These are some of the tallest trees in the world…

cutest little tree gnome I’ve ever seen:

That evening, I was lucky that Danielle was willing to watch Aiden while Isaac was at work so I could go to the temple for Curtis’ first time through. It was wonderful to see so much family there, and I was excited to see that all the lights were up already! It definitely gave me the bug to want to get Christmas decorations up at home!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a big Anderson Thanksgiving this year with both of my grandmas, Uncle Dean & their three daughters + family, Uncle Ryan & family, Aunt Janae & family, and our family minus Mandy. It was quite a big group, but nice to see everyone.

Aiden was pretty fascinated by his cousin (second cousin? cousin once removed? what is my cousin’s son to Aiden?), Finnley, who is almost exactly one year older.

We had a ton of food. Isaac and I did three bowls of veggies, and we have enough left over to last us a LONG time.

Some of the guys went out front to play football. I like how awkward Isaac looks in the above picture, lol. He really didn’t look so awkward in person.

Everyone enjoyed talking and playing cards, and Patrick entertained many of the kids for a long time by telling funny stories.

Aiden had so much fun on his first Thanksgiving that he didn’t nap (or even get cranky!) until everyone was gone, around 8 PM. He was pretty zonked by that time.

All in all, it was a great Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, Sophie broke into Haylie’s dog food container later that night and ate about four days’ worth of food, so she isn’t doing so well today. Apparently she felt left out of all the eating, having not gotten a single scrap. (sigh)

Nerd Post

I am in love with this new board book. I got it as a Christmas present for Aiden when Brooke took me to a gorgeous bookstore that has ladders and smells like books as soon as you walk in. Then I loved it too much to wait for Christmas. Good thing Aiden doesn’t understand Christmas yet.

I love this book because it has great vocabulary for a baby book (clever, yearns). It uses end rhyme and some alliteration, and the pictures are adorable too. It’s pretty amazing. I especially love that Aiden likes it!

New Hiding Place

Crawling is a fun new adventure for Aiden, who is finding exciting new places to play and hide.

For instance, he lately loves it by or behind the toilet in our bathroom, and he gets there lickety-split when I put him down to brush my teeth or do my hair.

You’d better believe we are cleaning around our toilet more regularly now than we ever have before.

It’s Getting Cold Out

So apparently we are going through La Nina, which means to me that our weather is harder to predict and more flip-floppy than we are used to. We’ll have a week that is so hot it’s setting records, and then we’ll have cold and rain. It’s weird.

Anyway, I am learning that it takes a lot longer to bundle up myself and a baby than it used to take to bundle up just me. He has little shoes that don’t just slide on like mine do, and wiggly arms that take some maneuvering to get in a jacket…

It’s worth the effort to get him snuggled up in this little teddy bear coat though.

Cruising

Aiden has taken to cruising around the furniture lately. He loves to pull himself to standing and take a few steps here and there. Sometimes he takes his hands off entirely and just leans on the couch or something. His balance leaves something to be desired, but he is certainly working on it. I find this semi-terrifying, but he thinks it’s a blast.

He is also working on his second tooth! This one is not coming in as smoothly as the first one seemed to. It makes me sad.

8 months old!

Some things I love about our eight-month old…

*how he turns around more often now when we say his name... I think he is finally recognizing it
*how he is fearless and trying to cruise around furniture a step or two at a time and trying to sit from standing even though he ends up falling down fairly often. This is also terrifying for me, but I'm trying to keep him as safe as I can without keeping him from learning.

*how he bounces himself to sleep sometimes in his JumpNGo

*how when he is dozing off in my arms, he looks up and me questioningly if I talk as if to listen for more, then smiles and/or coos and drops back off
*when he tries to give kisses (even though sometimes he just licks my cheek or often he grabs my face with one hand and my hair with the other)
*how he lights up when he sees me or Isaac or Sophie (or my mom or dad)

*the way he is getting more expressive every day… pulling funny faces and making his opinions clear

 
*how he looks like Peter Pan in the green sleeper he just started wearing... it has no feet, and for some reason, he reminds me of Peter Pan

Happy Veterans’ Day!

Thanks to all of the veterans, my grandpas included, who have been brave and dedicated enough to fight for the freedoms we enjoy in this amazing country we are fortunate enough to live in!

Aiden says thanks too. It looks a little like we posed this, but Aiden did it all himself and was kind enough to not move while I pulled out the camera, lol. He was so sleepy…

It was my first birthday as a mommy. We went out to eat. Twice. It was a lot of food.

We also had cheesecake. It was AMAZING. I am trying to ignore how fat I feel now.

What a fun thing to be a mom! I got a webcam for my birthday, so if any grandparents or cousins out there want to Skype or something… Aiden is now available!

Thanks to everyone who made this such a wonderful birthday! Love you all! and Happy Half-Birthday to Stephani!

First Haircut!

We finally did it. Aiden’s hair has been SO uneven… and it still is. At least now it won’t hang all long and mullet-like over his collared shirts/rompers.

We put the drape on him kind of as a joke… it didn’t stay on for longer than it took to get a picture. He didn’t mind the clippers at all. We gave him a block to play with and let him watch in the mirror, and he was perfectly happy.

Bye bye baby hair. I saved some of it for the baby book. Sappy, sentimental mommy? I suppose, but it’s just so soft!

He really wants some chompers to come in quickly.

Can you see his first tooth on the bottom yet?