Happy Anniversary!

Two years ago today, on drizzly September 17th, Jay and I said "I do".  So much has happened in the last two years and our lives look pretty different!  What a whirlwind adventure!  We look back 10 years to when we first met and how far we've come - exciting to imagine what life has in store for us moving forward.  Cheers!

11 months!

11 months already....time has really flown!  No steps yet but we set Wren up for standing and she can make it a few seconds before she decides it's time to move along, squats down and crawls away.  She has a turbo crawl speed now and zips all over the place!  Wren now holds her little hand up for us for a high five and we are working on teaching her to make fishy faces by sucking in her cheeks. I miscounted in the last post - Wren only has 5 teeth that have come in so far.  #6 is holding out on us!

Wren's first week of being 11 months old has come with a slight shift in normalcy.  We said goodbye to our beloved Shepdog on Sunday the 9th and his bed is no longer in the living room for Wren to lay on and he isn't here for her to follow around. Wren learned from Shep how to give very nice pats and we have many memories to share with her in the future.  And after my appendectomy last Saturday the weight restriction I was given has left me unable to pick up our girl for two weeks.  So Jay is getting a lot of high quality daddy-daughter time in and I am spending a lot of time stealing hugs while sitting on the floor.  I am definitely looking forward to being able to tuck Wren into her crib and toss her up on my shoulders again soon.

With the upcoming season change we are looking forward to pumpkin patch and corn maze outings!

Best shot of the teeth!

Cheap child proofing - it works for now! 

Sunflower seeds.... 

Sweet Wren and Waterbaby

Tribute

On Sunday, September 9th, 2012, we said goodbye to our Shepdog.  Shep was diagnosed with prostate cancer earlier this summer.  After his official diagnosis Shep's health and comfort improved for a few weeks on a mix of medications and we took advantage of each extra day we had with him.  While we had time to think about life without Shep, the heart break is more than we could ever anticipate.  His spaces in our house, yard, and lives can't be filled and Jay and I have been hearing phantom sounds of his nails clacking on the wood floor and his snores at night.  Shep was an amazing dog who loved us unconditionally and greeted us with unending enthusiasm, whether we had been gone a day or just 10 minutes.  I miss our stolen glances and silent understanding of each other.  We learned many things from Shep about ourselves and we are better people, partners and parents for having Shep in our lives.  Just over seven years spent with Shep and millions of memories made of his soft ears, land and water adventures, inter-state road trips, dog parks, snuggles, walks, quiet times.  Our first "child", our best little buddy, a huge part of our relationship.
We love you, Shep.  We miss you terribly.  Rest in peace.

Upgrade!

While it was a bit overdue, we finally traded out Wren's little carseat for her big girl convertible carseat.  This bad boy had been sitting in its plastic covering in the garage just waiting to be installed.  We made an appointment last evening with the same gentleman from the fire department who installed the little carseat originally.  So far Wren seems pretty happy with the change!

Laid back, headed to daycare

10.5 months!

Wren started walking while pushing her activity table around (it's actually cousin Karsyn's activity table.  Thanks, Karsyn, for the loaner!).  Good practice for walking unassisted in the future.  Wren hits the buttons on the activity table while motoring through the house and we like to put on little dance shows for her with the varying tunes.  Taking a cue from our mad dance skills, Wren now dances/bounces. She likes to do this while standing, kneeling, crawling, laying.  Our tiny dancer!
"Uh-oh" is a popular phrase in our house now. Wren likes to say "uh-oh" when things accidentally or not-so-accidentally fall/get launched to the ground.  "No" and "ya" are heard often, too, though they don't carry their true meaning with Wren.  This morning we asked if she had a dirty diaper. "Ya".  Not true!  What a trickster. 
The last two weeks have been interesting sleepwise.  Wren woke up one morning at 5:15.  Then 5:45 the next.  Then back to 5:15.  4:45 another day. This continued until just this week when she has been sleeping in until 6:15 to even 7 AM one morning!  On those very early mornings we were lucky to get Wren back to sleep for even 15 minutes, so everyone got up bright and early.  Wren would then snooze on the 25 minute commute to daycare while I watched with envy through the car seat mirror.  Even though we weren't stoked about being up so early we are really very proud of how well Wren has been sleeping lately.  We usually need to give her back a pacifier once a night, but her nights and naps have been great.  What a turn around from a month or so ago! 
Our daycare provider took a week of vacation this month and Gramma Sondy made the trip west to spend time with Wren.  The two of them took many walks and spent a lot of time playing and reading.  Thank you, Gramma Sondy, for watching our gal!  The fourth day of that week was a daddy daycare day for Jay.  Daddy daycare doesn't get to happen very often with Jay's schedule so they really make sure to enjoy it when they can! 
The fifth day was last Friday and a travel day for us, driving just north of Seattle for a family reunion.  We left at 9:30 AM, just in time for Wren's morning nap.  After a 90-minute stop for a tire replacement (the tread had separated on a rear tire and could have blown anytime, we were told), oodles of stalled traffic, and a 30 minute stop for a change of scenery for a cranky Wrengirl, we arrived at our destination at 5:15 PM.  Yep - it took us almost 8 full hours to travel a distance that Google Maps claims should take just under 5 hours.  Blech.  As soon as we checked into our hotel Jay and I set about rearranging the room to accommodate Wren's Gocrib, which involved moving a nightstand, a whole queen size bed and base, and jamming a comforter into the space between the pictures and the wall to darken her temporary sleeping quarters.  Good thing those babies were bolted down! 
This month Wren started eating figs (this household has gone fig crazy!) and yogurt and is practicing feeding herself with a spoon.  We are working on high fives and Wren is very interested in climbing.  We found her recently standing inside her little toy bin in the living room while holding onto the coffee table.  The two teeth next to her middle top two are growing in and those make 6 total so far!

Wren's first day of walking while assisted by the activity table - 8/19/12.  Since this video she has gotten much faster!

Munching on plastic corn while riding a dump truck at a family reunion.  That's country livin'!

Her buddy, V, is 2 days older than Wren. 

See ya!

10 months!

Yowza!  We are only 2 months away from the big birthday!  Wren is such a big girl already!  She has been sleeping amazingly well and doing a great job taking her naps.  Wren chatters away and has a lot to say at all times.  One of her new talents is throwing tantrums!  Each day she has picked out one or two things to carry around with her at home and if you even try to take one of them away....well, you've been warned.  What she decides to carry around has been fun to see.  One day it was a strawberry-shaped teether and a blue comb, another day she had chapstick, and yesterday she dragged around the dress from one of my Cabbage Patch Kids (see last picture and caption for the best set of items so far).  Wren can stand up next to anything now and she is getting very good at getting into stuff, even trying to pull open drawers in the kitchen.  We had to relocate the food dehydrator to the garage when Wren discovered this week she could pull the front off and the trays out.  Smart cookie! 
This past weekend Wren had her first trip to the beach when we headed south to Bandon for a friend's wedding.  Wren did a great job on the almost 4 hour drive.  The weather was pretty nice but windy on the beach, so we didn't linger down there but we otherwise had a really good family weekend away. Wren was very well behaved during the quiet ceremony except for when she blew a loud raspberry on my cheek! As always, it was good to get home on Sunday and back to normal.
Both top teeth are quickly growing in and resemble little hippo teeth - they look so big!  Jay and I have always talked about how between my little teeth and Jay's not-so-little teeth our child would have the perfect set of nicely sized teeth.  Now we're wondering if she has my little lower teeth and Jay's not-so-little uppers!  Yikes!
Wren does not like tofu at this time, stays away from avocado, prefers everything else on her tray to zucchini, but loves grapes, pears, cheese (throw in a bottle of wine and I'll attend that picnic!) and bananas.
Words - Wren can definitely say "No".  If you tell her no-no, she will reply with "No".  And the "No" is not sweet and delicate like most of her other conversation. "No" is forceful and sure of itself.  Sometimes "No" comes with great timing -Should we change your diaper? "No".  Smart cookie, I say again! Yesterday as we put toys away and one fell to the ground I said "Uh Oh" and Wren replied with a sing-songy string of sounds that almost resembled my "Uh Oh".  So cute!  Wren calls many things "Dada" and "Da"(dog?).

Checking out the backyard with her daycare buddy

 

Downtown Bandon

First time at the beach!

Her loot for the day - tampons!

9.5 months!

What a time of new and exciting experiences!  Wren seems to be learning new things all the time!  Pulling up to standing came very recently and now Wren is a pro and can just walk her hands up any old surface to stand.  Still not super steady on her feet, though, so we have had a few tumbles.  But for the most part Wren does a great job of lowering herself onto her bottom for a gentler landing.  Now we are making sure that items accessible to Wren when she is standing are safe for her - blender, food processor all got promoted to higher cabinets.  We thought we were pretty smart to slip a wooden spoon through the cabinet door handles to keep Wren out but she's smarter than us!  Out goes the spoon and her little hands get right in!
Wren had her first outing for blueberry picking - you have to like blueberries to fit into this family!  Our picking session was followed by a contest to see which of us (between Jay and I...Wren sat out of this one) could fit the most blueberries in their mouth.  Jay made it to 28!!  Unfortunately there are no pictures to share.  Opa and Oma came for a visit that day and just missed the contest!
Wren is thisclose to figuring out how to use her snacktrap.  She puts her hand in now but comes back with nothing.  So her method of getting out her munchies still involves holding down a flap on the lid and shaking the cup.  Genius!
Wren is now learning how to crawl through the legs of the kitchen chairs.  Previously she would get under the chair and be stuck!
Swim class has ended but we live so close to the aquatic center that we can easily take Wren to Otter Beach to play in the water.
Wren's number one place to head to when she's on the go is Shep's bed, whether he's there or not.  She crawls right onto the bed and lays her head down.  She has been more gentle with Shep and gives him nice pats.  She still likes to grab his legs and paws here and there but Shep immediately evacuates the area.
Clapping is back!  After the initial week of clapping then nothing for weeks we are seeing it again just starting today!
Tooth!  Upper left is on its way in!
Food!  Wren is eating a greater amount and variety of solid foods.  At daycare during lunch Wren seemed pretty jealous of the other kids feeding themselves so most of Wren's meals now consist of soft finger foods.  She has tried cheddar and colby cheeses and they are both a hit!

Our little gymnast!