Baby steps

It's the moment we've been waiting for . . . Mimi has taken her first steps! She was watching her friend Emerson walk, and I guess she decided she could do that too. Since it was July 4th, we'll always remember the date! Here's a photo Emeri took while she was taking the first step and a short video.

July 4th was a special day for another family member -- it was Spike's 16th birthday. Spike has been with Clint since he was in 9th grade -- imagine My Dog Skip but with a Rat Terrier in Batesville, MS. The first time I met Spike I realized he is the most peculiar little animal with his funny little trot, all his sniffing around and the way he answers to a secret language that Clint's family spoke to him . . . "Itty bud, wantsompintoEAT?" Sure, he might hike his leg and pee in the house occassionally, and, yes, he constantly begs for food and wants nothing more than to be left alone . . . but he's become family to me and I hope he's around for another 16 years.

Since Mimi is getting close to the one-year-old mark (yes, I'm still in denial about this), we bought her new, forward-facing carseats so she can see the world from a whole new perspective. And the most excited part of this of course is the boxes! She has had so much fun crawling in and out of them . . . and it looks like Clint did too! At eleven months old, these are some of Mimi's favorite things (sorry this is so long but I'm afraid I'll forget if I don't put it somewhere!):

Food: Bananas (she says "nana" and reaches for them whenever we're in the kitchen), tomatoes, squash, rice, beans, and goldfish crackers . . . and anything off my plate.

TV show: Sesame Street -- we LOVE to turn it on just to watch her reaction to the song and Elmo (this usually consists of lots of smiling, hand waving, and booty shaking).

Songs: she likes to sing "EI EI EI" when she hears Old MacDonald, and she rocks back and forth and says "Row Row" whenever I sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat.

Toys: anything that can be pushed down the hall or lights up and plays really loud nursery rhymes. She also loves any toy that Ruthie has -- and she seems to think Ruthie might also be a toy.

Words: although she can say Mama, Dada, hi, bye, ball, etc., her favorites things to say are "dugga dugga dugga" and "doy doy doy." What? She is very chatty right now and feels the need to constantly talk . . . I wonder she gets that from?

Her "tricks": She loves to point at ceiling fans and say something that sounds like "round and round and round" while she waves her hand in a circle. She makes a really funny scary face. She shakes her booty from left to right on command and has even added a new twist move over the past few days. She likes to drop things (especially food) so she can say "uh oh."

What makes my heart smile

Tonight I needed some therapy. The past few weeks have been hectic -- I was at a sales meeting for a week, Clint's birthday, Father's day, vet appointments, pediatric appointments, etc., etc. -- and the stress of being pulled in different directions has finally caught up with me. Clint is in Chicago this week, so I'm at home with Mimi, Spike and Ruthie with lots of time to breathe and reflect.

I made myself put down laundry to pour through the over 300 photos Lauren took of Mimi in May, and my breath has been taken away. They capture single moments in her little life that won't ever be the same again -- it has already been over a month since these photos have been taken and she's already grown and changed inside and out. This has been great therapy for me. Here are some that really capture Mimi:

Ten Months Old at the Beach

Last weekend Mimi made her second trip to the beach in Santa Rosa, FL. The first time we took her she was 8 weeks old, so it was much different this time around. For one, she doesn't sleep quite as much during the day now, so we were concerned about making the long drive and keeping her happy. Despite all our worries she was such a trooper in the car and was easily entertained. Clint even let her drive some!
Although she looks happy in this photo, the crashing waves and gritty sand really freaked her out at first. She seemed excited when we walked onto the beach but was hysterical when we dipped her feet in the waves or tried to set her on the sand.
She spent a lot of time playing with her toys on a blanket under an umbrella . . . and sunbathing topless! Ha!One night we went to the beach to search for crabs and for Clint to fish a little, and Mimi was so excited. Maybe it was because the sun wasn't so bright and there weren't as many people around, but she really didn't mind the water and sand as much as she had during the day.
We couldn't keep her out of this cabinet in the den of our condo. It was just her size! Mimi is now officially the loudest squealer in the world. Although we think it can be really funny at times, we've found not everyone agrees. Therefore, we sadly accepted that a couple of our favorite beach restaurants wouldn't be option on this trip since they are small and quiet places. Instead we settled for the noisy, kid-friendly places like Elmo's and Stinky's, and I'm so happy we did. We couldn't have asked for better seafood and Mimi went crazy over the loud music. I think she is flirting with one of the band members in this photo.

A few other photos:

Mother's Day, New Tricks, and the Pool

Happy first Mother's Day to me! I'm so happy to be Mimi's mom (and Ruthie and Spike's also, of course). It's exciting to have a whole new holiday added to my life each year! Mother's Day will always be about a week before my birthday, so it will be fun to get twice as many gifts in May now! Ha ha!Mimi does really funny things with her tongue now. When she's playing I notice her sticking out her tongue to the side and babbling.
Mimi learned 2 new tricks this week -- clapping her hands and doing the bububububu thing on her lips. She and her Uncle Tyler had so much fun practicing this trick.Mimi is starting to develop her own opinions about certain things now -- which foods, toys, and blankets she likes -- and I think her personal "style" should be no different. As much as I love sweet little pink smocked dresses, I think Mimi would appreciate that I also try to throw in some more fashionable, trendy options occassionally, such as this retro bubble and silver gladiator sandals. I know she'll thank me one day:)
I have been so excited about Mimi's first day at the pool, and it came a little sooner than expected when we were invited to her cousin Olivia's birthday party. The water was about 40 degrees, but Olivia and her friends stayed in the water for hours -- what troopers! Mimi and I stuck our toes in the pool and she was so excited about being splashed. Also, she had the cutest swim cover -- thanks to Libby!

Like I said earlier, Mimi is doing some funny things with her tongue now . . .

9 Months Old

We have gone through so many changes just in the past few weeks with Mimi: 2 new teeth, pulling up, crawling, and a new personality to go along with this. Around Easter she seemed so frustrated because her teeth were bothering her and she couldn't quite crawl, and we were aftaid her fussy disposition was here to stay. That's not the case anymore because she is so silly and LOVES to laugh! I'll put her in the floor in her room to play and will hear her cracking up at her toys and squealing. She has her own language now and speaks so passionately about who knows what. I caught her climbing out from under her crib a few days ago . . . what she was doing under there I'll never know, but she thought it was really funny!
She is stilly crazy about Spike and Ruthie and they are so sweet to her. I was really worried they might snap at her, but they sit patiently and let her play with their ears and feet and climb all over them.

Also, naptime and bedtime is a little more difficult than in the past because she would rather have a party in her crib than go to sleep. This is a video of what was supposed to be her nap.

Mimi on the move

Life is about to seriously change for Clint and me . . . Mimi is a crawler and climber! She is easily pulling up on everything and wakes us up by standing in her crib and squealing at us. She began CRAWLING on Saturday morning on our new favorite place, the front porch. She is so happy to be able to move around and get what she wants, but this has completely changed our lifestyle. Of course she never stays in her designated area (usually a rug or quilt if we are outside), and I have already caught her doing the following: trying to peel paint chips off the porch (probably lead paint), pulling up grass and eating it, digging in the bin in her room that contains scissors, and getting way too close to a very heavy, unstable fireplace cover. Yikes. I'll try to post a video of her signature crawl very soon. For now I just have this on of her on the porch swing being happy.

Mimi was so excited that her friend Hadley came over on Sunday afternoon. They had fun stealing each other's baby dolls and playing with Little People. Mimi tried her best to chase Hadley when she walked around but she's not a very fast crawler yet. Also, they loved holding hands and laughing at each other.

Every girl needs a pair of red shoes and Mimi is doing a fabulous job of showing hers off -- notice the popped toe!

Also, I noticed I never posted a photo of Mimi in her first Easter dress, so I thought this one would sum up some of the afternoon. Mimi had a sad, sad Easter trying to cut her teeth. Notice how concerned her sweet cousins JR and Olivia are :(. Of course I still took tons of photos because I think she's cute even when she cries.

Mimi's Eventful Week

This has been quite a busy week for Mimi -- in both good and bad ways. First of all, Mimi's first tooth has finally emerged! She has been doing some serious chewing and gnawing for about 5 months, but I'm glad to say it was not in vain. (If you can enlarge this photo you can see a little white speck on the bottom of her mouth). Thank goodness I found magical teething tablets that help with the pain!!

Last weekend we visited our friends Amery, Clay, and Olivia in their new, yet very old 1800's home. The yard was full of purple flox, so of course I had to take about 100 photos of Mimi.
Jordan, Amery, Me, Olivia, and Mimi in front of Big, Bad Breakfast in Oxford.

Mimi's friend Hadley has made it to the one-year-old mark and was rewarded with a fabulous red wagon! They had so much fun throwing their toys over the side!

Uh oh . . . Mimi discovered cartoons this week. She is sitting in the middle of fabulous toys but is mesmerized by Yo Gabba Gabba (Jack Black was actually on this episode. Strange, huh?). Our favorites so far are Max and Ruby, Charlie and Lola, and the Backyardigans. Lola is my personal fave. And now for the bad . . . a family stomach virus! It hit Mimi first on Tuesday night, me on Wednesday morning, and Clint later on Wednesday. Poor little Mimi was so miserable and we could do nothing but hold her and let her watch cartoons. So sad.

My sister's family visited us Easter weekend and we had a family egg hunt in my backyard. Mimi's cousins Courtney and Nick found all the eggs . . . and Mimi chewed on them. After the egg hunt, we went to the zoo and had a blast. Mimi completely skipped her morning nap because she was so excited about all the animals and other kids. Later in the day we went to the Overton Square Crawfish Party . . . and then she went to bed at 5:30!