11 months old

11 months old and a post dedicated completely to today!! Matt was skiing with the boys today so McClellan and I had a perfect chance to get in a Mother-Daughter day. Here's is this month's shot ... wanna guess how many "out takes" there are this month? Needless to say McClellan is just as stubborn as I am so taking direction isn't really one of her favorite things. She decided that she would grab a book and read to Charlie. Even though this really didn't fit into my "perfect monthly photo" plan, it actually turned out perfect! This is one of her favorite books so it was only fitting that she grab this one and "read" it to Charlie. She loves pointing out the ladybugs and "counting" them on each page. And sometimes, in the midst of McClellan not following directions, really amazing things happen...like this. I got all choked up when I saw this one in the back of the camera and then again when I downloaded it.

For her "birthday breakfast" I made her a breakfast quesadilla inspired by one of my favorite websites http://weelicious.com/2010/11/29/mexican-egg-cheese-quesadilla/

McClellan took a close look...

and then chowed down. Eating 3/4 of the thing!! It was a soft taco size but pretty full and she went to town! I love that she is such a healthy eater and I love that she has, so far, not turned her nose up to anything.

Afterwards while I was cleaning the kitchen McClellan put on a little concert for me-singing and drumming her way around the kitchen.

And then singing turned into squealing.

Eventually the sunny day turned into a snowy day. McClellan decided to get a closer look at the patio door. She tried to catch snowflakes on her tongue through the glass...and I got no cleaning done because watching her and experiencing the world through her eyes was so much more fun.

How could I clean and miss this?

Looking up trying to watch the snowflakes fall...

Eventually all the fun had to stop and we had to head to my office for awhile. I was sick, seriously sick on Friday with a horrible 24-hour flu, so I had to run in and get an idea of where things stood before walking in there tomorrow. Not my idea of a fun way to spend the day, but when McClellan's around there's always fun to be had!

While I was on the phone with one of the Sergeant's who is testifying for us this week McClellan decided that the buttons on the phone looked like they'd be fun to push...so she did. She found every pen, every piece of paper, every paper clip, every.single.thing. on my desk and "played" with it. So about every other word of my conversation with this Sergeant was interrupted with something like "No. No thank you. Please give that to me..." It was funny, at least to me!

I love how in this picture she looks so serious and so all about business. Maybe I should put her in charge of some of my more difficult cases? With that look maybe she could get witnesses to return their waiver cards and defendants to plead straight up? HA!

After we got home McClellan was ready to crash after delaying her nap for quite a while...so she took a 2 + hour nap while I did some cleaning and cooking.

For dinner McClellan decided to play the "I Spy" game..."I spy asparagus on McClellan's head"...can you find it?

The perfect day with my girl is exactly what it was. I don't get enough of these days so when I do, I soak up every single second.

Happy 11 month birthday McClellan - Thank You for an amazing day!!

*~10 Months Old*~

Note: This is now a month over due...whoops! I had it started, worked on it and never finished it...so here it is, complete or not, in it's "original, unedited format." Our girl is 10 months old today!! I'm not even going to go on with the obligatory "where does the time go, can't believe how fast..." spiel. That's a given. This past month was full of more fun times and more firsts. Here's a peak at some of them... February 13th - McClellan took a look at the stairs and decided they were for climbing! There was no practicing, no trying to figure it out, she just "ran" right up them! Needless to say, those gates are more important than ever now! February 14 - McClellan celebrated her first Valentine's Day and her "school" had a little party-how cute! All the kids passed out little valentines and everyone brought in treats to share. Of course McClellan really couldn't have any of the treats but it was still fun. I had these grand plans to make "Love Bug" cupcakes that were going to be adorable. That was the June Cleaver in me planning though. The real life, working mom however, ended up making these. Very simple. Quick. Easy. Maybe one day I'll be able to pull off those "Love Bug" cupcakes. "Happy Valentine's Day!!" McClellan posing for an early morning shot with she and Daddy's Valentine's Day loot!

February 17 - MiMi came to visit us!! When MiMi comes to visit it means two things. An entire piece of luggage dedicated to just the goodies she brings out for McClellan and that we'll be shopping so that same piece of luggage doesn't go home empty! This trip was no different!

While MiMi was in town we headed to Champs to cheer on the Jayhawks and grab a yummy bite to eat. McClellan loved Rock Chalking with Mimi!

We hit up Snooze for the first, and if I have anything to say about it, LAST time. The wait was ridiculous, the service just "ok" and the food was "whatever"...McClellan however, loved sharing blueberry pancakes with her MiMi.

The weather was gorgeous so we headed to Wash Park for a day in the sun-we did the 4+ mile loop and McClellan got in some good "swing time", it was just what we all needed!

March 2 - We headed up to Estes Park for a weekend getaway. We were in desperate need of some R & R and this was exactly what we needed. We did some shopping in town, some site seeing, some elk watching and most exciting...we took McClellan on her first snowshoe trip! She loved it! The only thing she didn't like was when we would stop to check on her-she just wanted to keep moving!

A visit from Mimi!!

My mom came to visit for a long weekend and we couldn't have been happier! Every time she visits it's the same, very busy, little down time, lots of shopping, eating out, walking and catch up. This time was no different and I wouldn't have it any other way!!




On Saturday we went to cheer on the Jayhawks and watched the game at Champs over a yummy lunch.




McClellan loved watching the game and cheering on the 'hawks to victory!

We went to breakfast at Snooze...and waited, and waited, and waited...

Until finally, two hours later we were finally eating! McClellan shared blueberry pancakes with Mimi and loved every bite!

We took advantage of the good weather and spent an afternoon at Wash Park.

McClellan loved the swinging as usual!

She and Matt tried out the slides...she loved those too!!

But the swing is still her favorite by far!

Her all-time favorite activity was spending time with her Mimi though...and Mimi was happy to oblige!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Happy Valentine's Everyone!!

I was supposed to pull a June Cleaver and make super cute "Lovebug cupcakes" for McClellan's daycare party...but as you can see the Working Mom won/lost out and they ended up being plain ol' chocolate cupcakes with a super quick icing heart and sprinkles on top. Oh well...there's always next year, right?



I went into work late that morning so that I could see McClellan when she woke up and bring her down to see her Valentine's presents. I never get to see her in the morning so this was my Valentine's present to myself!

My mom always put our gifts on the table so we'd see them when we came down on Valentine's morning. I loved that so much I decided I'd do the same thing with McClellan.

I got Matt some of his favorite beer and McClellan got him a Rockies shirt in hopes that he'll take her to a game or two this summer!

Matt and McClellan got me a cartridge for my Cricut-can't wait to break it open and create some fun layouts with it! Thanks guys!


McClellan was happy and excited about her new bath toys. Now that she's bathing in the big girl tub I decided she needed some toys to play with in there!

That night we took pictures with all of the cards she received and with this super cute hat that Miss Brandi, one of her "teachers" made her-she reminds me of Minnie Pearl in these and that makes me laugh!

She seems to be thinking "You have to be kidding me, Mom...enough is enough."

Sorry kiddo, you're just too darn cute and I'm just too darn in love with you! Thanks for to you and your Daddy for being the best Valentine's a Mom/Wife could ever wish for!

Time for a Big Girl Bath!!

Long overdue, McClellan had her first "Big Girl Bath" this morning. She's been out growing her infant tub for quite some time but I wasn't quite ready for this yet...today was the day!

I think you can tell by the look on her face that McClellan did not object at all.


Her favorite thing was splashing, splashing and more splashing. There was water everywhere!



She loves being in the big tub, but wow, keeping her contained and in one place is a chore! She crawled all over the tub, kicking, splashing and laughing the entire time.

HUGE success!

Blueberry Pancakes EVERYWHERE!!

This morning I made homemade blueberry pancakes for us. Even thought McClellan had already had her breakfast we decided to let her try some...well, needless to say it was Round 2 breakfast for Punky! She went to town on the pancakes!




She loves blueberries already, so I wasn't all that surprised that she loved blueberry pancakes.



She's been doing such a great job of feeding herself, but this was probably the messiest food we've had so far. When I give her blueberries, they aren't cooked and really don't make that big of a mess. Cooked blueberries however...HUGE mess.

Messy...big mess! "Who me?"

She was fascinated with the blueberry stain all over her hands! Despite the mess, the pancakes were a huge success!

9 months old already!

Here we are, another month has gone by and I swear that time just keeps moving faster! This past month seemed to have gone by the fastest. McClellan seemed to change so much and do so many new things this month!

January 10th we started "Big Girl Crawling"-no more army crawling! She is so fast, we are amazed at how she gets from point A to point B in no time at all! It's scary. We bought a gate, although not for a week or two after this...we still need more but for now are getting by with containing her downstairs in the lower level where she plays mostly.

Now that she's crawling all over the place she is also pulling up on things and standing on her own for a few seconds. We've also seen, on a few occasions, her pull up and then take a few steps holding on to things.

McClellan now has four teeth on the bottom and is working on some teeth up top as well. The drool is flowing non-stop these days at our house.

We had our first introduction to Pink Eye, and it super, duper sucks. I ended up getting it too and it royally sucked. The drops burnt my eyes so I can only imagine how McClellan felt when I put them in her eyes 3x's a day! Boo!

McClellan's favorite foods right now are, well, pretty much anything you put in front of her! She's a fabulous eater! So far there is nothing that she hasn't liked. She loves blueberries & turkey right now and wouldn't turn a green bean down if you paid her!

We have been giving her more and more "real" food and letting her feed herself & she loves it! The other night Matt put a roast in the crock pot, along with some carrots and potatoes. I pulled some out and gave some of each to McClellan and she went to town! She absolutely *loved* every single bite! We won't be leaving baby food completely behind-I'll still be giving her oatmeal/multi grain cereal & the baby food that I've made, we'll just start incorporating more finger foods into her meals as well.

So far McClellan has eaten:

Squash-every kind imaginable-Butternut, Acorn, Guatemalan Blue, Spaghetti

Plums

Pears

Apples-we made *tons* of crock pot applesauce with all of our CSA apples and it was a HUGE hit

Blueberries-fresh and also in pancakes

Cheese

Turkey

Pork Roast

Carrots

Potatoes

Green Beans

Peas

Spinach

Sweet Potatoes

Yams

Teething Biscuits (Earth's Best) messy as all get out but McClellan loves them

Puffs (Happy Baby-Greens, Apple & Banana)

Yogurt Melts (Happy Baby Mango Banana so far)

Pickles-dill

Grilled Cheese-with Dill Pickles of course!

French Fries (shame on me)

McClellan is "talking" a lot more these days-lots of "Dada" and a few "Mama's." She babbles non-stop it seems! She even "sings" if you're singing or if there is music on. It's pretty darn funny! Music is a big deal in this house so she hears music all the time. Matt said the other day he was playing some Almond Brothers and she was "singing" along with "Midnight Rider." Pretty impressive for a 9 month old don't you think?

You know what they say, "Time flies when you're having fun," and we're having plenty of fun these days!!