8 months

Happy fall!  Welcome to my favorite season Fiona!  Little miss is about the same,  15 lbs. and  26.75" long.  Fiona has been welcomed to the future tooth fairy club, she got her right bottom tooth on 9-24 and the bottom left came a few days later on 9-28.  She has been letting us know how she feels about these latest developments, she is not a fan.  Since those new pearly whites have broken through Fiona likes to have her tongue hanging out like a dog feeling them.  She has not figured out crawling but she has managed to move around in a circle using her harms when she's on her belly. She has learned to lift her arms up for you when you go to pick her up and she is working on waving hi.  Fiona has not started to babble but she has found her voice and does enjoy screaming when she is happy and when she is mad.  So she is getting more vocal, for better or worse ;)  She is getting better at using her sippy cup but not fully there yet.  She has completely refused the bottle now and won't drink my milk from it no matter who is feeding her or what they put it in, so needless to say, Fiona and I are inseparable.  She has been trying new baby foods, no solids yet.  She likes bananas, spinach and pear mixture and anything fruity.  She does not like peas, no matter what it is mixed with, she knows haha.  Sweet little girl is doing better sleeping now, we let her cry it out and she did pretty well figuring it out on her own.  When she is tired during the day and fighting sleeping, she likes to nuzzle her head into your shoulder and rub her eyes, that's a pretty good sign!  She usually takes one long nap during the middle of the day and then sometimes gets 1-2 shorter naps in the morning or late evening.  Bedtime is about 7/7:30 and she has been sleeping until about 3/4am, eats then goes back to sleep till 6:30/7am. We have a video baby monitor so we can see her throughout the night and she is kind of like Logan when she sleeps, constantly in a new position. She sleeps a lot on her side and a surprising amount of time on her tummy. Teething has sometimes thrown a wrench into that nice nighttime cycle but she's doing much better then a month ago.

bottom teeth!

playing with her favorite shaky shake maraca toy

lounging on the floor with mommy

bath time

We had another busy month enjoying the last of summer and welcoming the nice fall weather.  Our outdoor adventures will probably slow down now that things are getting cooler and the days are getting shorter thanks to day light savings time.  We had a long hike up in Estes Park to Fern Lake, apparently we thought 7 miles was doable with 2 kids...which it was but it took us 8 hours!  We had a good time though and came down from the hike in time to watch the Elk come down for some rooting.  Another weekend we went kayaking at Brainard Lake, the last time for this year since it was already cold and rainy up there!  Erick got a new kayak for his birthday so we went up with him and Mike to take one last trip before next summer.  On the way back from the lake we got to stop and take pictures of all the pretty fall colors.  It was a pretty drive.  We got to go to Albuquerque to see Auntie Dre and go to the Balloon Fiesta for the weekend.  The car ride there went pretty well, it took us about 7.5 hours and Fiona and Logan only lost it for a little bit towards bedtime.  The rest of the trip deserves its own post since we had a full weekend!  Fiona did get to go to the zoo for the first time.  She enjoyed sitting with brother and looking into the water exhibit for the polar bear the most I think, even though they never saw the polar bear ;)  Fiona also got to meet Andrea's parents, Karen (#1) and Mike (grandpa mike) and grandparents nana and tata and Fiona's great grandma Ruby for the first time also.  The drive back was a little more rough then the drive there, but I feel like that somehow always happens on the way back home.  Overall the kids did well for the car trip and the weekend and we had a lot of fun.

Fern Lake

Brainard Lake

Albuquerque Zoo

 Balloon Fiesta

 Meeting Great Grandma Ruby

And here's one more comparison for baby Logan (6.5 mos) and Fiona (7 mos.) in Logan's old jammies.  They are looking different now!  Fiona is on the top and Logan on the bottom

Ride On!

Logan has officially learned how to ride his big boy bike all by himself!  Almost exactly one month after he got his pedal bike he figured out how to ride without help (or ever any training wheels) on 10-13. He was really good at his strider bike and had been talking about wanting a pedal bike so for his birthday we bought him an Ironman one. At first he was a little cautious and worried he would fall so he did a lot of riding the Ironman bike as if it were his strider. Dom would help him get started and he could ride by himself on flat or downhill but he was still afraid so wouldn't go far once he realized Dom had let go. Slowly he got more confident and one day out with Dom he just got it and from then he figured out how to start by himself and now he can go all by himself!  He still needs a little help pedaling uphill since he's not quite strong enough for that yet otherwise he's an independent little bike rider!  We were all very excited for him and so proud. Such a fun moment for us all!