Videos of our little walking girl!

Videos of Adalyn walking around the living room:



Walking with a shoe and avoiding toy obstacles:

Getting ready for the Big One!

We are getting ready for Adalyn's first birthday! Her party will be on Sunday and I can't wait until she gets into her birthday cake! It has been an amazing year watching our little baby grow up into a beautiful butterfly. We took some photos of her a few weeks ago and used one of the photos to make her butterfly-theme party invitation.

The photo from her invitation




















She has been walking around and learning many new things lately. I call her my little "busybody" because she she is always exploring things and is constantly on the go. She knows where her own and other's hair is and she touches it when asked. It is really cute to see her brushing her hand over her hair and if you hand her the baby hairbrush she pulls it over her hair, too! She has been learning and recognizing many new words and objects and points at or retrieves some things when asked. When I know she needs to be changed, I ask her "should we go change your diaper?" and in the last few days, she has either walked or crawled into her room and over to her changing table ahead of me. It is so cute, she justs heads over and turns around to see that I am coming right behind her!
She now has eight teeth, the four on top and four on the bottom. Her little teeth are cute but since she has the front teeth now, I miss her little "fangs!"

Roo's kitten pictures

In my post regarding our cat, Roo, I mentioned that we didn't have any digital pictures of Roo as a kitten. I had forgotten that we had taken some with Jamey's old digital camera and I am so glad my mother-in-law found ones we had forwarded to her. (Thanks, Coral!)
He was an adorable little fur ball of a kitten! Here are his cute pictures:







When we had flowers at home, Roo would always try to bite at them so we had to keep them up or in another room. Once, he stuck his nose in the pollen of a lily and had a yellow nose! This week we picked out a beautiful flower bouquet for our table in remembrance of Roo. We are sure missing his funny antics.

Videos!

Adalyn has been improving with her walking every day. Here is a video of her walking on the second day in the kitchen. She was being really cautious on the smooth floor. She is really fast when she crawls and still prefers that method when she wants to get somewhere quickly. I will work on getting another video of her improving skills soon!



She is really impressing me with her comprehension, too. In this video, she starts by talking to the cat, then I ask her where her little car is. She searches for it and finds it for me and brings it over. At the end, she makes the "car sound." She is really into cars now and makes the sound as she pushes one around.
She also identifies our dog Bailey and other dogs as well as toy dogs and images of dogs and now makes her "dog sound," which is her perception of barking. It is really cute! She seems to find a new trick every day and certainly keeps me entertained :)

Weekend at the Hot Springs

This past weekend we traveled to Fairmont Hot Springs for a holiday party with Jamey's employer, Tempest Technologies. We enjoyed some swimming, a fun dinner, spent the night and had a breakfast buffet the next day. We really appreciate Tempest for allowing us to enjoy this fun weekend getaway!

Adalyn was a little apprehensive of the pool at first but liked it the longer we stayed in, and we ended up staying in for about an hour. It was much larger and crowded than the other pool she tried a few months ago. After dinner, Adalyn entertained everyone with her new walking skills. She really likes being around kids and had a lot of fun walking around to people but she usually came back to me, like I was the safe "base."
We had a good time getting out of town for a bit. It was funny to think that last year Jamey and I attended and I was counting down the days until Adalyn's due date....and this year she was here to entertain everyone! Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Adalyn and Jamey ready to hit the pool


Little bathing beauty all ready to go (I love this picture!)


Hi daddy!


Turning into prunes


Going with the black-and-white motif


Visiting with the group


Adalyn coming back to the "mommy base"


Having fun with everyone!


Worn out from a busy day, in her favorite sleeping position!

First Solo Steps and Carousel Ride!!

This evening, Adalyn surprised the heck out of me by taking at least 5 steps on her own! I left the living room to start her meal and came back to the doorway and baby gate and watched as she stood up and just took off. She covered about 3 1/2 feet and then fell/sat down. It was pretty funny that she waited until I left the room and then tried out her walking skills on her own. She didn't even know I was watching her until she was sitting down again and I started cheering for her. I was frozen when I saw her walking alone and I think I just stared with my mouth open:) She walks around with her push toys and takes a few steps in between furniture and to us but this was without any support at all. It is pretty amazing when your little baby has grown up enough to take some steps on her own! Of course she wouldn't walk on her own after I came back in so hopefully I can get a video sometime soon.

Last weekend we really needed a distraction to keep our minds off how much we were missing Roo and we took Adalyn to the Carousel. We only took one ride but Adalyn really enjoyed it. She was looking around at all the horses and liked the organ music and lights. We took a few pictures, nostalgic style.

Adalyn and Jamey


Adalyn was too interested in the lights and horses to look at the camera :)


Waiting for our turn to ride


Sitting on our chariot (hint: face forward, not out, when riding in this! So dizzy:)

Goodbye to our Roo

I am so very sad to say that our cat Roo passed away on Friday. I had mentioned in my last post that he had been recently sick and we were hoping for the best while he had been at the vet's since Sunday night. We tried everything to figure out what was wrong but were not able to save him. We were surprised to find he had lymphoma despite relatively normal labs and x-rays.

We are really missing him. It is not the same around the house. The other cat, Ellie, and our dog Bailey are acting different and I know they miss him too.

We have so many memories of Roo and we want to share some of them.

We brought Roo home as a little white ball of fur as a small kitten. His coloring and markings developed as he got older. He was the cutest little thing ever! He had the most beautiful blue eyes and gorgeous coat, which he took great pride in and excellently groomed. He was the first pet we got when we were on our own. He adapted well when we added our second cat, Ellie and dog Bailey to the family. He liked dogs but he wasn't sure about most human visitors :)

Roo loved:
-Jamey more than anyone. I was second :)
-scratching the heck out of his scratching posts
-sleeping curled up on our bed and stealing our spot when we got up from a chair
-getting "whisker tugs" and "old fashioned rub-downs" from Jamey
-carrying socks around in his mouth and leaving them outside our bedroom door at night as presents, mewing loudly while doing it
-trying to sneak tastes of yummy food like tuna, milk, Adalyn's cereal, and even brownies by jumping on the counter and sink when we weren't looking
-biting on the broom and running the bristles through his teeth like he was flossing!
-wrestling with wrapping paper tubes, he would wrap his body around them and kick the heck out of the tube!
-catnip and small plastic toys and his small stuffed mouse toy
-jumping, he would leap over the baby gate like a deer and seemed to jump over things just for fun!
-"playing tag" He would chase or be chased by Ellie, Bailey or us, streaking by from room to room, continuing for several rounds!

We weren't sure how Roo would be when Adalyn joined our family but he was always so good with her. He let Adalyn pet him and he helped her learn one of her first words--cat.

Roo had a big personality for a cat, and was known to have a bit of an attitude but that is what made him so unique. He was so curious and always had to be where the action was. He was sure to let us know to be quiet when he was napping! If we sneezed or coughed, he would wake up and give us a meow and a "look!" We will miss all of his antics and everything we learned from him. We'll miss finding those socks strewn around outside the bedroom door and hearing his odd mewing sounds in the middle of the night. We'll miss chasing him off the counter and table. We'll miss picking his long hairs off our clothes. Mostly we'll miss his presence and simply seeing him stroll around the house. He left us much sooner than we ever expected and we will cherish the 7 1/2 years we had him in our lives.

Here are some of our favorite pictures of Roo. The pictures of him as a kitten are not digital so I am not able to post them but he was sure cute!

Roo ready to party


Such beautiful markings


Letting a young Ellie hang out with him


Always curious


Our handsome boy


Teaming up for two against one!


Lounging in Adalyn's room


He loved hanging out in Adalyn's room


Looking at the caged baby


Our Rooski, you may be gone, but you will never be forgotten. We'll miss you!