Eleven Months

My ravishingly beautiful girl, just one month shy of a year, is showing herself as a comedienne.  Sometimes, while thumbing through books in her carseat, she'll start giggling.  To herself.  She can be quite a loudmouth.  And she's showing an early love for animals.  We often point to each individual animal picture hanging in her room, and I tell her the animal's name and what sound it makes, and she just grins.  She still cracks me up with those huge "toofers."

Almost All My Mothers' Days

We try and take a special Mothers' Day portrait of me and the kids every year.  It's getting more difficult to catch a GOOD picture the more kids we have and the bigger they get: there's always someone blinking, crying, or picking his/her nose.  But here's the best we have!  First one's from 2007 and taken in our backyard in Lathrop, CA; Jack was almost six months old.

Not sure where our 2008 pictures are!  We have them on a backup CD somewhere.  But the next pic is from 2009, in Mammoth Lakes, CA, when I was VERY pregnant with Kate.

2010, when we were living with my parents in Lewiston, ID, for two months:

2011, in Las Cruces.  Again, VERY pregnant, but with Maggie this time:

And, finally, 2012's picture, in Las Cruces.  Taken in a hurry because we had people coming for dinner.  And it was hot and bright and... well, we were a bunch of complainers.  But just look at this gorgeous bunch of children!  I really have no reason to complain.

Ten months

Maggie was ten months last month (I know, I know... I'm getting behind on my monthly baby posts, but at least I'm posting, right?!). Already I'm planning for her first (and Kate's THIRD) birthday party in June! She is 28 inches tall and 15.3 pounds as of her last check-up... quite a lightweight still!  Jack walked at about ten months and one week, and it seems as if she'll start walking in the next couple weeks too. She is into EVERYTHING... and throws an absolute fit when we take something away from her.  She still plays happily in her crib after waking up in the morning or from her nap (this habit of hers is what keeps ME sane!).  But when we enter her room to retrieve her from the crib, she gives us a huge grin, bounces around, and talks like crazy.  She has especially expressive reactions for big brother Jack, who runs to her every day when we pick him up from preschool, exclaiming, "MAGGIE!" while she bounces in my arms.  She's transitioning into her one-nap-a-day stage (earlier than my other two did), and just started drinking from a sippy cup and saying "dada" when she sees Brian. Here she is, enjoying sweet tickles.