A Week of Play Dates:

It has been a busy week, filled with lots of fun play dates! 

Monday we met some of our friends at 'Parents Place' for the Tots in Motion class (it was like a baby gym), and Charli had so much fun crawling all over the place, climbing all over everything, and playing with all of her friends! It was a fun filled Monday that's for sure! 

Tuesday was Play Group, and our friend Jenny hosted a Curious George Swing into Spring play group at her house! 

And Wednesday we had a perfect play date at my friend Lauren's house! Charli loved getting to play with her friends Ryan and Lexi! 

It was such a fun week! 

We are really going to miss all of our friends here, and all of our play dates together!

Weekend Update:

Another weekend closer to being back on the East Coast... Can't believe how close it is!

It was an absolutely beautiful sunny (and warm I might add) weekend here in Monterey!

Friday we enjoyed a family date night Happy Hour! Margaritas, sunshine, fire pit  and my beautiful family... Doesn't get any better than that! 

Such a cool little girl!

I forgot all of Charli's snacks and sippy, so she got to drink water from a big cup for the first time! (And she loved it!) 

And she got her first restaurant french fry! 

This weekend was the Sea Otter Classic. Steven raced in it last year and he raced in it again this year! So Saturday was a full day out at Sea Otter, cheering on friends who were racing, walking around, watching Dual Slalom, Down Hill Racing, Trails Stunt Show, and enjoying the 80 degree weather!

After a full day of warm sunshine, fresh air, and lots of walking... It was an early night in the Hall House! We were all in bed before 7:30pm... And it was lovely! 

Sunday morning was Steven's race. Steven and his buddy Kris have been training for a couple of weeks now, and it definitely paid off for the both of them! Out of 70 racers, Kris came in 5th and Steven came in 17th! I was so proud of my hubby! He did amazing! Good job guys and way to go! 

We decided to head down to the beach later this afternoon to soak up some more of the Monterey sunshine! Our friends live right there, so Lauren and her little guy Ryan came down to hang out! It was a perfect way to end the weekend! 

She was completely unsure about the sand... And really didn't like it! haha

She would rather climb all over Daddy instead! 

Hope your weekend was just as fabulous! 

Charli Adele: 9 month update:

Ok, you know what I am thinking, so I'm not going to say it... Oh whatever, I'm going to say it... WHY is she growing up so fast?! Why, Why, Why?! How did we get to Nine Months so quickly, where has the time gone... It makes me sad, but yet I am filled with joy as I watch her grow and learn every day! 

This month has been so much fun! Charli literally learns something new every single day! She amazes me! But yes, like any mother can attest to, I also get frustrated, or mad, or cranky, or irritable (I am only human), and I think being a stay at home mom sometimes makes it worst, because I don't have an outlet, I am with her ALL day every day (which don't get me wrong, I absolutely love it, and honestly don't know what I would do if I did have to go back to work), but she is the light of my life, and I can't ever imagine my life without her! Mommy and Daddy love you so much Charli and we look forward to each new day with you! :)

We have had a lot of firsts this month as well! Charli started crawling right after she turned 8 months old, she has officially started pulling herself up to standing, and she is ALL over the place! She crawls faster and faster every day! I have pulled dog food, dog hair, mulch, grass, and just about anything else she can grab, out of her mouth. Bogey and Bailey have officially entered into "Oh No, here she comes, get me out of here mode" ;)! haha! Charli see's Bailey or Bogey and starts laughing and goes right after them... Bailey and Bogey on the other hand are not laughing and run the opposite direction! Charli's personality is hilarious, she thinks everything is funny, and has so many different laughs, I love it!

And I have to admit to all of you that getting these 9 month pictures have been by far the hardest! (Oh My Goodness this child!) She showed interest for the first time in the sticker and would NOT leave it alone (and mind you, I was doing this alone and without daddy...) I did not have enough hands to take pictures, hold toys to make noise, crinkle paper to get her attention off of her sticker, and try to move her hands away from the sticker... All while she was trying to crawl off of her chair! Needless to say, I was pooped after these shots! 

Clearly wanting nothing to do with this! ;) haha!

Mommy finally gave in and gave her some paper to play with

climbing all over the chair 

And toys to play with...

And LOOK at that face... HAHA! If that is not a little attitude coming out, I don't know what it is! ;) (this was after I finally took the sticker off of her onesie... and wouldn't give it back to her) haha

Charli's Stats:

*21-22 lbs and 29 1/4 inches (her 9 month appt is next week)

*Clothing: majority is 9 months, still wears a few 6 months, and getting into a few 12 months

*Diapers: Still in size 3; Pampers Swaddlers

*Teeth: we officially have 5 teeth (3 top, 2 bottom), but I can see the corner of tooth number 6 poking through (also on top)

*Crawling great

*Pulling herself up to standing

*She has learned so many new tricks too! She can clap, give high fives, she can say "bye bye" and wave, she still does "sooo big", blows raspberries, and my favorite one (have no idea what it is even called, so here goes my amazing description...) I would run my finger up and down on her mouth and she would make the cutest sound "lelul lelul lelul" haha, well she now does it to herself!! haha! Pretty darn cute! 

*She is still taking 2 naps (9AM and 1PM). She is not the BEST napper, but each nap is usually 30 min to sometimes 2 hours (she just doesn't want to miss the party! And I am not including the past week because she has been teething and well... it has just been one of those weeks! ;) Although her naps have still been right at an hour this week... It has just taken her an hour to actually fall asleep!) ;)

*She still nurses about 4-5 times a day; When I am nursing her before naps and bedtime, she starts playing with her eyelashes as she falls asleep (cutest. thing. EVER.)

*She has finally noticed freckles and moles... I have a few freckles on my chest and one tiny mole on my collarbone, and she tries to pick  scratch them off... (and yeah, it hurts... a lot) ;)

*We know when she is tired because she grabs her ear!

*She totally sleeps like her momma! All over the place! She likes her leg up in the air resting on her bumper when she sleeps! (pretty funny). And I noticed the other day, that every time I nurse her, she pushes my arm down in between her legs, and it is so she can wrap her legs around it! hahaha!! (side note: I HAVE to sleep with a pillow in between my legs! Coincidence? I think not) ;)

*She is still amazing at bedtime, and loves her bedtime routine! We do nakie baby time before bath and she LOVES it! (Yes we have had a couple tinkle mishaps, but it is so worth it to see her chunky legs and tooshie crawling all around!) I could just squish her!! 

*Still loves bath time and all of her bath toys now!

*Since Easter, she has had an obsession with her plastic Easter eggs. She LOVES them, but she only loves HALF of the Easter egg! She pretty much has half of an Easter egg in her hand at all times! haha! It's pretty hilarious!

*Food: We have officially started giving her solid foods! The solid foods we have done are bananas cut up, her baby puffs, gluten free crackers, great northern beans, avocado chunks, Veggie Sticks (best things ever and she loves them!), we have also given her her first piece of pasta, her first french fry (I made burgers and fries one night so we gave her one to try... even though I ate the entire outside and only gave her the mushy inside! haha! I think next time she will be good to go for a whole one!). We also got the "OK" from the GI Doctor that we should not need to worry about her having my issues, so she said go ahead and give her wheat products (this will obviously be daddy/daughter wheat dates as Steven likes to say)... With that being said, Steven was excited to give her a few pieces of his french toast (no syrup) when we went out to breakfast last week... I of course was still watching her like a hawk to make sure she did not have a reaction, and she didn't!! WOOHOO!! There is still a lot we have not tried, but we are getting there! 

*She now responds to hearing the garage door opening to daddy being home, and she gets SO excited! Starring at the door and full on crawls straight over there to greet daddy when he walks in! (maybe this is the cutest. thing. EVER.)!! 

Happy 9 months sweet baby girl! Mommy and Daddy love you!