10 months

Our sweet guy is 10 months old.  That sounds scarily close to one year! We love, love, love, love him so much.

• He has the funniest sense of humor.  He just starts giggling at the randomest things: pulling Josie's leash, the luggage falling onto the baggage claim...it's always so fun to see what he finds amusing.  He also loves peekaboo, and the other typical things.  
• He's a big boy!  We had his well child visit a couple weeks ago:  22 lbs 5 oz (75%), big head (97%), and I don't remember his height, but it was in the 90%.  He's in 18 month clothes, depending on the brand.  I think he'll be a tall boy.  Everyone that holds him says how solid he is.  It's true: my arms feel like they're going to fall off after holding him for about 5 min.  
• Still wears the helmet.  Yuck.  We hate it so much.  He's had it almost 3 months and they initially said it would be 3-4 months.  Hopefully he gets it off soon.  
• Has gotten much better at eating solids.  He eats three meals a day: fruit for breakfast (his least favorite meal of the day), oatmeal for lunch, a snack of yogurt in the afternoon (if I remember--usually on my lap while we watch Ellen), and veggie/protein for dinner.  He likes to eat, but absolutely hates getting into the high chair.  He doesn't calm down until I put food in his mouth. Strange.  He has not grasped the concept of finger foods.  He gags whenever something that isn't pureed enters his mouth.  
• He still nurses 3x a day and twice in the middle of the night.  
• He is super smiley.  He smiles all the time.  Especially when someone says his name.  He also loves to wave his arms up and down when he's excited.  He loves to pound on the table.  
• He has suddenly become a fantastic napper.  Hooray!  He takes two naps a day, each one is usually 1.5-2 hours long.  I wouldn't have believed you if you'd told me 6 months ago he would ever nap so well.  Back then his naps were about 20 min. long.  
• He can use a sippy!  He's still not incredibly efficient at it, but he'll do it.  He loves water.  Juice--not so much.  
• He can crawl! I first saw him do it on Monday, April 16th, but he wasn't incredibly motivated to do it.  It was only if he saw something he really wanted.  Just this past week he's gotten more comfortable with it and pretty much moves around all the time! 
• He pulls himself up to standing pretty well and stands with ease.  He doesn't fall anymore.  
• Finally got his first tooth!  Cam noticed it while feeding Andy dinner on Monday, April 16th (big day for him! Also the day he figured out his sippy cup).  It's his bottom left tooth.  It looks like his bottom right will pop through any day now, too.  
• It feels like he's had a runny nose all month.  *Luckily* his favorite thing is to wipe his nose on my sleeve all day.  That's much more fun than letting me wipe his nose, which he hates.  
• Still loves Baby Einstein.  We love that he loves it so much!  Oftentimes we play it during dinner so we can actually eat. :)
• He loves books.  Especially his abc book and his animal touch 'n feel book.  And he loves to tear the flaps in his books that have flaps.  
• Absolutely drenches us when he bathes.  He is a splasher! 
• He had his first trip of the season to the pool.  He absolutely loved it.  I think we'll live there this summer.  
• He loves to nibble on his pointer finger.  He also loves to play with his toys.  He crosses his ankles all the time too.  Especially while nursing.  Adorable.  
• He has gotten much better at entertaining himself.  He loves to sit by his basket of toys, dump it out, and examine each toy. 

Favorite time of the day: after bath time, rolling around naked, playing with his blue cup.   

Dad is his best friend.  He gets super excited when he comes home from work!  Sometimes we go and wait outside for his car to pull up.  

Visiting Grandpa Greg in Utah.  Yummy dinner at Market Street Grill.  

With Uncle Ben and Aunt Christine at Rachel's graduation; 10 months today! 

"I love to chew on everything." 

Ignore the boogers and look at my sweet smile.  

People I Love: Sara

My wonderful sister Sara (also known as Sar-Bear) celebrated her 19th birthday a couple of weeks ago, so I think it's time I make a list of things I love about her! 

• I remember a few years ago telling one of my friends about Sara, as we were scheming to arrange Sara's marriage to my friend's brother.  I said, "The best way to describe Sara is sunshine!  She lights everything up."  That is still so true.  She is always a joy to be around.  She makes everything more fun.  She has a magnetic personality.  Everyone wants to be her friend.  
• She is absolutely beautiful.  There are so many times I look at her and think, "Dang, she looks good! Why didn't I get those genes?!"  She has a way with fashion, style, makeup, etc.  She always looks so pretty.  Whenever I'm not sure about an outfit, I can always trust Sara's opinion. :)  She has an eye for decorating and crafts too.   

See...isn't she pretty?

And here, too.

• She is kind.  She has such a soft, sweet heart.  She is so tenderhearted.  She's always looking out for others and wanting to do something nice for them.  
• She is FUNNY.  She has the craziest sense of humor.  She always does the randomest things in public.  We were at the beach a while back and she all of a sudden started dancing ballet around all these people we didn't know.  Of course the entire beach was staring at her, pointing...but she loved it.  :)  Once we were on a sight-seeing boat and she put on a really weird hat and started acting like the boat was swaying so much and she was going to fall over any second...even though it was probably the most mellow boat ride ever. Some other pictures that showcase how crazy she is:

• She is so upbeat and positive about everything!  
• She is super talented.  Piano (she would have easily gotten into BYU's piano dept if she wanted to), dance (probably got that from me), singing, and school.  She is smart! She puts on a ditzy act sometimes, but don't let that fool you.  This girl got a 5 on her AP Calc test!  
• She is a good sport.  She has put up with endless facebook, phone, and email pranks from me. 
• She has such a sweet testimony.  You can just tell by the way she lives her life that she loves the Savior.  

I LOVE YOU SARA!  Hope this year is a great one. :)  

I love him.

Oh my goodness, I love my little Andy.  We got more of 6 month pictures back and I can't stop looking at them.  It makes me almost want to sneak into his room to wake him up and cuddle.

The past few months...

We've had a great past few months!  I don't want to forget some of the fun things we've done, though I don't have pictures for most of them, but here they are in no particular order:

• Our good friends Juan and Cami welcomed a beautiful baby girl in January, Maya Vera.  Not to brag or anything, but I was her first babysitter. ;)  

Here is the little beauty wearing the headband we gave her. 

• Cam surprised me with an early Valentines Day date.  Kasee and Jason were sweet enough to volunteer as babysitters the night before Valentines Day so we could go out.  We went to Hopdoddy (our favorite burger bar) and the cupcake truck in Austin.  So fun!  (He really surprised me well...I had dinner in the oven and hadn't showered that day. Ha!) 
• My mom and Abby came out for a weekend in February.  I can't believe I didn't take any pictures!  We had a blast!  We ate way too many Round Rock Donuts,  shopped at the Domain and the outlets, hung out downtown on South Congress, and ate at Rudy's and Chuy's.  I want them to visit every month!  It was so much fun.  
• We watched our first season of the Bachelor (where have we been?!)  and enjoyed watching it every week with a group of friends.  It was fun to trash Courtney all together!  
• This past weekend we went to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin.  It was nice to get out for the day and see something new!

• Cam is enjoying work!  He just finished his first role in Corporate Accounting and now he's started his second role, Treasury, which he loves.  He's really had a great experience at Dell so far.  
• At church, I play the organ one Sunday a month and Cam plays the piano for primary and ward choir.  Sometimes I cover junior primary for him so I can listen to all the hilarious kids.  
• We've been enjoying the mind blowing new park in Round Rock!  It's in walking distance, which is great.  I can't wait until Andy's a little older so he can enjoy it more.  Right now, he's mostly interested in the swing.  
• Our friend Kasee is always throwing the most fantastic parties!  (She has a fantastic food blog, check it out: theaprongal.com.)  She threw a Panini's and Pop Party!  It was a blast, and as always, very delicious. 
• Our friends Bart & Janssen threw a Pi(e) Party on Pi Day!  We each brought pies and basked in the deliciousness.  (I stole this picture from her because I didn't get one.)  

• We had a super fun ladies night in February!  We went to Macaroni Grill to celebrate Cami's and Andrea's birthdays and then went to see "The Vow."  (very disappointing to us all) It was so nice to have a break from the babies and spend time together! 
• We went and visited Bryan and Aisling (Cam's cousin) in College Station a couple weeks ago.  It's always so fun to see them!  Though it was very rainy, we enjoyed some awesome fajitas, chatting, and playing Loaded Questions.  We got some super cute pictures of their little boy Carter with Andy. 

We've got lots of fun things coming up.  This weekend we're doing a boat cruise with a bunch of friends.  Yay!  Next weekend Cam's parents are coming to visit.  We are so excited to see them! Also, I just booked a trip to Utah from April 17-25.  Though we're sad Cam can't join us, Andy and I are very excited to see everyone there!  

Lee Family Pictures

Back in December, we had family pictures taken with Cam's family.  I haven't seen many of them, but the ones I've seen turned out really cute!  Cam's cousin Jessica took them and did a great job.  My favorites are the pictures of Andy.  They're his six month pictures and we LOVE them!  

9 months

I can't believe Andy is already 9 months old! That just sounds so...old.  He is definitely looking less and less like a baby.   He's growing up so fast!  We love him to pieces.

• He has learned some "words": na-na-na and da-da-da.  (Cameron thinks he's actually calling him dada. Yeah, right.  His first word will definitely be mama.)  He is extremely talkative.
• Though we still haven't seen a tooth, he experienced his first teething episode, which included a nursing strike, lots of screaming, and sleepless nights.  (We thought he was sick; the doctor said it was teething.)  Our only sanity those few days was Baby Einstein.  He loves it soooo much.  (Especially the little puppet that comes on-he always talks to it.) I'm guessing we watched it 30+ times those few days?  It was literally the only way to get him to stop screaming.  He starts beaming as soon as he hears the theme song because he knows what's coming.  
• He is such a LOUD baby.  This makes church very exciting.  He loves to surprise everyone with ear piercing squeals of joy.  
• Still loves the bath.  He gets really excited as soon as we turn the water on. 
• Loves to stand.  We got him a little keyboard he can stand up and play.  He loves this!  

• Can stand holding on to things, but still falls over (and screams) occasionally.  
• Still wearing his helmet.  Bleh.  However, his head is looking a lot better! Hopefully he'll only have to wear it 3 months instead of 4.  
• Loves solids!  Turns out we don't really have a picky eater...I'm just a bad cook. :)  I'd been making all his food, which he didn't like much.  We bought a few of the packaged baby foods just to figure out what flavors he might like and he loves every single one of them.  So much for being a hip, frugal, baby food making mom!  At least he eats now, though.  We're doing two meals a day and working on getting to a third.  
• He has a new favorite game: dumping out his basket of toys.  I don't mind at all because it keeps him entertained for quite a while.  
• We're trying to help him learn to drink from a sippy cup.  He's not really catching on.  He mostly chews on the nipple.  He does like water though!  
• As always, wakes up 2-3 times a night.  However, he did have his first time ever sleeping through the night!  (From 10-6:30) A blessed, random occurrence.  He must not have liked it that much because he hasn't done it since. :)  
• He got really good at flipping from his back to his stomach this month, but as soon as he'd do it, he'd get really mad because he hates his stomach.  We'd flip him back over and then he'd do it again.  Many naps were disrupted while he practiced this new trick.  
• Doesn't love his Johnny Jump Up so much anymore.
• Loves to cross his ankles.  Too cute.  
• Continues to love walks.  He always kicks his feet against the stroller.    
• Loves the swings, as always.  
• Loves touch 'n feel books.  He's always touching the textured parts.  
• Is really getting a lot better at moving.  He's close to crawling.  He's flipping front to back, back to front all the time and is scooting backwards and turning.  He gets up on his knees sometimes too.  Just this week he's learning how to go from sitting to falling forward onto his hands.  

And some pictures!  (I need to be better at taking more.  It's hard because he moves so fast, it's hard to get a good one.  I promise he doesn't have a blank stare all the time...that's just the only time I manage to get a picture that's not super blurry.) 

Hypnotized by Baby Einstein.  What will the sheep puppet do next?

Black beans are way more fun to play with than to eat!