It seems like overnight I've gone from having a newborn to having an active infant! Gabbie is 10 months old this week - if I had a dollar for every person who has said, " I CANNOT believe that" I would be one wealthy mama.

This age has brought so many new things including 2 teeth that finally popped up last Friday (June 12th)! She has been quite the little champ with them - I heard all sorts of horror teething stories, but apart from wanting to chew on anything and everything, she really hasn't been that affected by them. I think her gums have been bothering her for a few months so those little guys finally coming through probably gave her some relief.




We are crawling. Everywhere. I have dug deep in the creativity department to barricade her into our living room area since our living room and kitchen are one open space.


Not sure why I didn't think to do this earlier especially after last week she discovered she could get into the dog bowl. Now she thinks it's hysterical - once she sees it, it's like she attacks it with a vengeance crawling as fast as her little knees and hands will take her. Before I can catch her, it's flipped over and she's overcome with laughter playing in the puddle on the floor. It IS really cute actually and it's hard to get onto her as she's having a blast and it doesn't hurt anything. Oops - I guess that's the first hint that I may not be as tough of a mom as I thought I would be....fun.



I definitely had a tough lesson this week when I turned around and she had made it to the top of the steps in our house. My heart dropped but thankfully she froze in shock as I screamed her name. Oh. That was a horrible feeling. Please don't scold me any more - I did it enough to myself and will no longer be upstairs without the gate being up. whew. Now that I told on myself, let's move on to happier things...

Eating is becoming more and more fun as she requests in her own little way to feed herself. We've not resorted to spoon feeding some foods and letting her feed herself others just to make sure she's getting enough to eat. This past week I had a good friend suggest letting her hold a spoon while I feed her - she loves to think she's actually doing something. We have quite a variety of foods in our menu now including salmon. She had it for the first time last week when I cooked it for dinner for Brent and I. She loved it. Immediately. I've given it to her since and she still enjoys it. That's the only meat she's had so far and I'm ok with that. She's getting protein in other forms like a few scrambled egg yolks for breakfast which she loves.



And of course we have the old stand by's only now they're in solid form instead of pureed: black beans, green beans, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, strawberries (she had these for the first time the day we picked them and without having any reaction!), tomatoes (she ate these at outback last week and loved them), zucchini (since we have a plethora coming in from our garden these days), yellow squash, apples (still as applesauce), bananas, yogurt - she LOVES yogurt, mango, and the only thing she isn't loving right now is avocado. I've tried several times over the past few months for her to eat it but she just doesn't love it. I think it's a texture thing maybe. I'll keep trying though - it's so darn good for her. Fletcher is loving this stage - he patiently waits at the foot of the chair for any of her droppings, which are plentiful. I know she's figured out that he likes the food she's eating - I have caught her a few times just straight up feeding her. It's very cute.
Both of the dogs are so sweet with Gabbie - they know when I'm going upstairs to wake her up from her naps and it's as if she understands they will be there with me too. She wakes up and immediately looks out the side of her crib as if searching for their cute little faces on the edge of her mattress. She gets excited when I'm holding her and they come running by us as if she knows they are her little play mates. Love it. I need to get some cute pictures with them. They've recently figured out they will get trapped on the wrong side of the gate if they don't come when I call. Last week I put the gate upstairs and called both Fletcher and Fiona to come up before I set it up. Fiona came, but Fletcher wouldn't. A few minutes later, Fletcher was sitting on the top stair peering through the gate as if to say, "Darn, why didn't I listen? Please let me in.." So funny. (those times pay for the times they destroy something in the house when I leave them out by themselves only to come home later and have to clean up....argh....but I do love them)

Anyway, back to Gabbie....We've had a VERY busy summer so far and I love it that way! I'll do more posts on all of our events, but our days have been filled with pool hours (well one hour is probably the most she can do). We're headed there today hopefully. She is quite the water baby and while I'd love to try to take the camera for some shots, it's not going to happen. Just trust me - she loves it. Yesterday she became even more adventurous and crawled into water up to her chin (we have a zero entry pool). I saw a little girl (probably about the same age as Gabbie) with painted toenails and it was sooo stinkin' cute - I went home and did the same...I'm hoping by starting her early, she won't do the old right of passage of spilling an entire bottle of nail polish in our carpet. At least in my head that's how it will work...we'll see. In the meantime, have you ever seen toes so stinkin' cute?!



She made a few friends and pretty much every little girl between 5 and 12 always comes over and talks to her which she adores. We have spent a few days with our friend Mayme and Katherine - Mayme is just a few weeks younger than Gabbie and they love playing with each other as I've mentioned a few times in previous posts.


Moncrief Photography has been SUPER DUPER busy lately (as in weddings every weekend and now trekking across the U.S. via bike!) , so we haven't gotten any pictures recently. It's probably better that way it forces me to make more pictures on my own. Here's a little collection of some creative shots to capture my little lamb these past few weeks...enjoy!