First trip to the playground

We've taken Mary Lawton to many fun places and gone on some great outings, but we've never taken her to a playground. I don't know why. I'm embarrassed to admit it.

Yesterday we went to Stone Mountain to the fabulous playground there. I've passed it a million times on foot and on bike and never noticed that it doesn't have swings. What? A playground without swings? A sort-of wasted trip, but Mary Lawton went down the slide a few times and crawled in the mud/grass.
Today we went to the park near our house that I know has baby swings. She LOVED swinging. She started crying when I took her out, so we stayed and kept swinging.

Higher!

Peace on Earth

December 13, 2009: 9 months, 3 weeks, 6 days old

10 months old

Technically, Mary Lawton is 10 months and 1 week old today. She told me she forgives me for this late update. I think this has been my favorite month with Mary Lawton so far. She is so much fun and has shown us that she's going to be pretty feisty and--what's the acceptable term to use now? Willful?--willful.Food: She eats whatever she wants, as long as it's small and not too chewy or crunchy. In all I think I bought about 30 jars of baby food and made the rest, and now no more baby food! She still loves vegetables, but I have to remember to give them to her first. Otherwise, she'll eat all the chicken or turkey and demand more before eating her veggies. She really likes most everything--including yogurt! The experts told me that babies sometimes have to eat a food 10 times before deciding they like it. They're right. She loves yogurt now.

Party tricks: She claps on command, whenever we say, "yay!," and whenever someone else claps. She waves hello and goodbye. She waves at me when I tell her "no"--I guess to tell me, "no, it's ok, Mom!" She also plays peek-a-boo...sometimes she even initiates it.

She says something that sounds like "bye-bye." She also says "baby," which sounds like "bayeee." To any skeptics out there, I'm convinced she's saying these things in context. She will bring me something when I ask her to (Will you bring me the ball?). She crawls on hands and knees, pulls up on anything she can, and cruises around the furniture.

Love bug: Mary Lawton is such a sweet girl. She loves her mama and is a mama's girl when she's sleepy, and she loves her daddy and is so excited to see him when he comes home and she's tired of her mama.

Dislikes: Whenever we touch her face (wiping runny nose, wiping dirty face). This drives me insane. I can't stand for her to have a dirty face, and she will fight me 'til the bitter end on this.

Another milestone: That tooth. It's still a tiny nub.
First trip to Toys 'R' Us. She was in total disbelief that we'd been keeping this from her and she's been playing with boxes.

Little chicken, we can't believe you're in the dougle digits already. I love every single minute with you and can't wait to find out what each new day will bring. Love you, sweet, darling girl.

The biggest laugh I've had in a long time.

The scene: Daycare this morning. Dropping ML off. Four little girls playing quietly. And in the background I hear the beautiful refrain of "Escape" by Rupert Holmes...you know, The Pina Colada Song. Really, is there a more appropriate song for a bunch of babies? They love pina coladas. And getting caught in the rain. I just called Sweet LJ and told him. We laughed 'til we cried.

It's a Christmas miracle.

On Monday, December 7, at 9 months, 3 weeks old, we finally felt a tooth in Mary Lawton's mouth. It's the left, front tooth on the bottom. She won't let us look at it.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

There was a family in my hometown that decorated their front yard at Christmastime by stringing white lights in the trees. I loved the way it looked--like the lights were suspended in the air, dancing in big loops. (I can't recall who lived there--the Lowders, maybe? St. M people will have to help me. They lived down from the police/fire station.)

The Saturday after Thanksgiving my darling Sweet LJ hung hundreds of white lights in our cherry tree. It looks beautiful. I still need to take a picture.

We also found and decorated our Christmas tree and decorated outside. Mary Lawton hasn't been too impressed with the tree, thank goodness. We'll see what happens over the next month.

Getting Mary Lawton's approval

Back home with my Christmas elf

Looking for mischief (leaves to eat)

Thank you, thank you for my white lights, Sweet LJ! xo

Hands and knees

Mary Lawton has graduated from the army man crawl.



And already is crawling away from her mama.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

I'm a little late in wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving. I've been having some trouble catching up since then.

We had a wonderful day. In the morning Mary Lawton and I went running while Sweet LJ went to the gym. We played, we went for a walk, one of us took a nap, and then we went to dinner at Chateau Elan. We went to Chateau Elan last year, too. This year we didn't go on a thousand-mile bike ride, nor did we spend the night at the inn. We had a lovely meal, though. Mary Lawton ate zucchini and peas from home, and turkey and cheese ravioli from the buffet. She really liked the turkey. I ate a crazy, random assortment of delicious things, including mussels and chocolate mousse (separately). Sweet LJ had a more traditional Thanksgiving meal.

Give me more turkey.

I think next year I will be cooking again. I really like cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Who knows? Maybe I will run a half marathon again.

Wishing everyone a thanks-filled day.

Happy girl

Another aquarium visit

On November 22 we visited the Georgia Aquarium again, and it was our best trip yet. We arrived a few minutes before it opened, and it was so nice and uncrowded. We had an amazing view of the big tank in the Ocean Voyager exhibit, and we got to see them feed the fish. They pump food through pipes into the tank. First the little fish get to eat, then they pump in larger food (baby squid, shrimp) for the bigger fish. Later on, men in rubber rafts guided their rafts along a rope with one hand while scooping food out to the whale sharks with the other hand.

big grouper waiting for breakfast

Watching fish. There appears to be a chubby man in a yellow shirt in the tank, but there wasn't. This was at the tropical reef exhibit.

I always want to watch the otters but never get a chance because the 2 otter exhibits are always so mobbed and no one moves to let other people take a look. This was my day! There were two trainers in the pen with the river otters, each training an otter to do tricks. No one was around, so we got to watch for awhile.

There was a celebrity siting, too: Bernie Marcus was leading some people on a tour.

Mary Lawton was interested this visit. She watched the fish, waved at them, and tapped on the glass.