Arden at 10 Months

Here is what Arden Kate is up to at 10 months....

1. She pulls up on everything--doors, legs, other babies. Whatever is in her line of sight.

2. She is a speed crawler. They call her the all-terrain vehicle in the church nursery because if

something, or someone, is in her way she just crawls right over them.

3. She loves her big sister. No one can crack Arden up like Claire can.

4. She loves to feed herself. Especially Cheerios. The girl loves her some Cheerios.

5. She babbles all the time. I think she calls me Mama, but that hasn't been confirmed by an independent party.

6. She loves her Daddy. Big time.

7. She does not yet have separation anxiety. Now that I've typed that, she'll probably get hysterical in the nursery on Sunday and I'll get paged to come and get her.

8. She has eight teeth and is working on two more. Unfortunately, it looks like she's gonna need some serious orthodontics.

9. She has recently learned to clap and wave bye-bye (or hi, whichever). If you say "Yea!" she'll start clapping wildly and says "Yea!" back.

10. She is still a horrible sleeper. Seriously. What am I doing wrong?!

Side note: She wore the outfit in the picture to Wal-Mart today. Note that there are huge pink flowers on both the shirt and jeans. Do you know what the checker asked me? "How old is your son?" To which I replied, "He's ten months."

Give the people what they want

I'm no idiot. I know my family and friends won't be visiting this blog to hear my thoughts on global warming (right, Missy?) or to get my take on the war in Iraq, or to see if I think Brad and Angelina are headed for splitsville (sorry, that just slipped out). No, I know what will draw them in--pictures. Lots and lots of pictures.

So let's get started with the shameless bragging...

No one does drama like Claire. I can't remember what I did to make her so mad, but whatever it was, it was worthy of this look. I probably didn't make matters much better by forcing her to hold the pose while I took her picture, but seriously, can you blame me?

Arden Kate is a girl on the move. She crawls! She pulls up! She looks just like her Daddy!

Here are a few "sisters" pictures...

And finally, a couple from last weekend's Backyard Bash at Claire's school. She had a great time jumping in the bouncy houses, riding the ponies and eating ice cream AND a snow cone AND popcorn. It really doesn't take much to make her happy... And Arden was content to be carried around and watch all the fun--as long as she got her fair share of ice cream and snow cones!

So Now I Have a Blog...

...and nothing to say. But since this is the inaugural post on my very own blog, I feel compelled to share something of substance to start us off.
I guess I could write about how I've been tricking Claire into taking her medicine by mixing it into her yogurt every morning, but that seems a little too mundane. Plus, it kind of implicates me in a lie and I'm trying to put my best foot forward here.
I could talk about how Arden bit my shoulder about a hundred times today, and how I'm worried that maybe she's turning into a habitual biter and not just an opportunistic one, but that seems a little too dull as well.
Or maybe I could share some funny anecdotes from our trip to Wal-Mart this morning, only nothing funny really happened there. Unless you count Claire's near-miss with the sparkling grape juice display.
Then there's always the story about Arden stealing another baby's paci in Sunday School yesterday. But that doesn't seem exciting enough for my FIRST! EVER! POST!
Actually, now that I read it back, it doesn't really sound exciting enough for any post.
But the point of this blog is not to excite, it's to help us remember. To remember what we used to do on Mondays when Claire was 3 and Arden was 10 months. To remember what it felt like when Arden gave me slobbery kisses and Claire still said "Hold you me." To remember bare foot nights on the swing set and days when we stayed in our pj's until noon. To remember "Hop on Pop" and Candyland and Polly Pockets and Dora and dress-up and craft time and Arden's paci-smile and Claire's bed head and....Well, you get the idea.
So while I may not always have something of "substance" to say, I'll always have something to say.