The Sweetest Days: October 2011

OK so my intentions were to start this blog a year ago when Mabel was about to be born. I had this idea that I could document all the little wonderful things she accomplished along with cute photos to prove them.
So not the case! Aside from some facebook photo albums, Sam and I have definitely been keeping our super star mostly to ourselves. So here is a long overdue update of all things Mabel...

Mabel is a few days shy of 11 months and I can't believe how time has flown by. She is a sweet, quirky little girl with quite the sense of humor. She loves puppies, music and reading books. Most people don't believe us when we tell them this but seriously we read about 10 books a day. We recently got her a library card as Sam and I are growing tired of reading her staple favorites over and over, "Jamberry and "Peek-a-Who".

Mabel had a great summer in Sedona! She had lots of visitors, Grandmas, Grandpas, and Aunties. She took swimming lessons and went to the grocery store a lot! Sedona is a small town so there are not many places to go. Also Mabel and I took a trip to North Dakota for week this September to visit family.

Mabel started eating real food this fall and I must say has a refined palate. She loves good flavorful food! We recently took her to our favorite Indian restaurant and she couldn't get enough mushroom korma.
This fall has been such an exciting time for us as she is hitting so many milestones. She said her first word in August which of course was "Dada" even after all of my coaching in hopes "Mama" would be first. She learned to clap her hands, play peek-a-boo and wave bye bye. She does say "Mama" now as well as "duck", "puppy", "baby" and "ba ba". Those are the words we can identify anyway, she has the sweetest little voice.
Mabel is now moving and grooving! It's so fun to watch her explore her surroundings and see how proud she is of herself when she gets from one place to another on her own. We are thinking she will be walking sooner rather than later. She stands up and balances on her own which might eventually put me on blood pressure medication. I'm still in the over protective phase where I am scared she will fall and hurt herself on our tile floors. It's hard to come to the realization that my little baby is going to fall and bump her head every now and then and that I can't save her every time. I'm getting better, I did talk myself out of buying a helmet for her to wear around the house.
Mabel recently started going to music lessons at the library. She loves to see the other kids and dance to the music. One of her favorite songs is "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands". I think it's her favorite because she is the best in her class at clapping :)
In typical girl fashion she also loves to pick out her clothes in the mornings. She rummages through her drawers until she finds what appeals to her. She also loves to go through my drawers and pull everything out. The other day I watched her attempt to put on one of my shirts. She struggled but eventually she got it over her head and one arm through!
We are really looking forward to the upcoming holidays with Mabel. Next week is her first Halloween and she is going to be a pink squiggly pig. Sam is also very excited as he gets to dress up as the pig's farmer :) We will spend Thanksgiving at home this year with Sam's Family and then the week after that will be Mabel's birthday. For her birthday Sam, Mabel and I are taking our first family trip to San Diego where we will go to the zoo and do other fun stuff. Sam turns 30 in December then finally for Christmas we get to go to North Dakota!

I will be sure to post lots more updates with pictures of all the fun stuff we do this Fall/Winter.

For now I will leave you with some pictures of none other than Mabes!