The Spider and The Giraffe

Our building's Halloween party was last night, so Andrew and his buddy got all dressed up for the bash. As the only two babies in the building, it was their civic duty.

The Spider, our sweet neighbor baby:

And The Giraffe (you know this guy):

And The Spider and The Giraffe:
And The Spider:

And The Giraffe:

And the...

Okay, I'll stop now.

But it sure was a fun night. We feel so blessed to at last have another family in the building!

Andrew at 10 Months (WALKING!)

Here's our big boy at ten months!
As delightful as always, Andrew is developing such a sense of humor. He is all the time initiating games of peek-a-boo by ducking behind the coffee table and then popping up to 'surprise' us. Unfortunately, he also thinks it's hilarious when we tell him 'no.' Any attempts at correction result in fits of giggles from him and deliberate attempts to elicit more correction. What's a mother to do?
A third bottom tooth is making its way out at the moment and giving the little guy a lot of grief. Still no top ones in view yet, which I believe makes Andrew's a dental progress a little out of order, but I guess they'll all get here eventually. He's holding strong with the stage 2 foods (about 8 jars a day, plus a bowl of rice ceral and about 2 bottles). I've offered him stage 3 foods, but he hates the lumpiness and spits it right out. Cheerios and yogurt have become big time favorites this month. Lately, Andrew has taken to begging for whatever food we're eating: he'll make his way over as soon as he sees a plate and hold on to our knees, popping his lips, until we break off little bits for him. It's pretty funny. So maybe we'll just skip those stage 3 foods and go straight to table foods.

Andrew has an abiding obsession with aluminum cans. He loves to scratch them and bite them and crinkle them and just generally experience them.

He's also gotten to be pretty fond of his jumbo Lego set and Pat the Bunny.

Here's a crawling picture for old time's sake. Perhaps one of the last...
Yep, just to prove his mama right, Andrew is indeed walking in time for his 10 month update!!! In fact, he took his first steps just after we finished his 10 month pictures! These are among his very first steps. (Sorry I recorded it sideways, but it's worth the neck crane, I promise!)

Aaaaaand life just got kicked up another notch!

All Boy

He is completely and totally

100%

pure and unadulterated

all boy.

It's a beautiful thing.

Wowo's Birthday

It wasn't all illness and infirmity in Birmingham. Nope...while we were down there, we got to celebrate another year of my sweet grandmother's life!She's Wowo to us big kids, Grandmother to the middlers, and GiGi to these littlest ones, but she's just perfect to us all!
Happy birthday, Wowo!

*Thank you to Uncle Kent for the above photographs. You capture people so beautifully!

WowWee

Oh me, oh my, we've had quite a time recently! It all started a few weeks ago with a surgery I had in Birmingham to correct complications from Andrew's delivery. Jacob stayed down there and took wonderful care of me for a few days , until he had to return to work. He left with everything on the up and up.

And then my precious baby got swine flu, with an infection in both his ears and his throat. It was horrible, and he was so very miserable.I was still too sick from the surgery to take care of him myself, so my amazing mother carried him to the ER with a 102.5 degree fever and then nursed him back to health, while still tending to me. And regularly administering rounds of "This Little Piggy."

To keep the Lilybit safe, we had to pack her up and ship her out, Tamiflu in hand, with instructions to phone home regularly. By God's blessing, she stayed perfectly healthy. Meanwhile, I came down with an outer ear infection that, had I not already been flat on my back, would have put me there. My sweet Daddy carted me down to the ER (that makes two Family Snodgrass ER trips in as many days), and then, once again, Mama nursed the sick and the sicker. My ear and head were so swollen that the Cipro drops couldn't even get through. And the pain, oh, the pain!

On the bright side, Andrew learned how to fix his own supper. Just kidding...Mama did that, too!

Finally, what seemed like a lifetime later, Andrew's and my health began to improve and my fabulous mother-in-law came to Birmingham to help fly us back up to DC.

Where we were met at the airport by the sweet sight of my darling Jacob. Oh, we were so glad to all be together again.

So...that's why I haven't been blogging as of late. That, and the phones and internet at my parents' house went out for two weeks while we were down there. I tell ya, it was one thing after another. But we're back and we're almost all the way well and life is good.

The Rest of the Story

Lily's birthday party was a big success! Family and friends came from near and far to celebrate the sweet girl's first year.

This one came from far.
And this one came from near. She's Bebe Kate, the second of the four stairstep babies born in our family this year and the youngest member of my generation! Isn't she the cutest?But whether from near or from far, all had a good time with the birthday girl.Especially once she blew out her candles...

...and the cake was cut for the waiting throngs.

Happy 1st birthday, dearest Lilybit!

Lily Rose the Toddler

In just a year, my little niece went from Lily Rose the Newborn... ...to Lily Rose the Toddler.

What a treat to be in town to celebrate Lilybit's birthday!

Here's a peek of all that was pink and frilly in the land of Lily!

The rest of the pictures are a whole 'nother post--one I'll write as soon as I've gone back for that third piece of cake!

Breakthroughs

Each morning, as Jacob leaves the apartment for work, Andrew and I stand by the door and I wave Andrew's little hand up and down and tell him that his daddy is going to work, and Jacob waves back at us for a good while. Well, the little guy finally caught on. And he's waving up a storm.

Then, the day after the wave appeared, he started clapping when we clap!

I'm tellin' ya, the boy is pure genius!

Pssssst...

Pssssst...I'll let you in on a secret.

It's about a little guy I know.

Yep, that one.
You see this left-handed passy adjustment?

And this left-handed sunglass snatch?

And this left-handed cracker grab?

Well, it's almost always like that. The left hand leads and the right hand follows.

So whaddaya think about that?

I'm thinking we've got some left-handed baseball gloves in our future.

SCOTUS

I present to you...Andrew at the Supreme Court! He's the child of two lawyers. We just couldn't resist.
And he seemed to feel right at home.Which is a good thing, since he'll be working there one of these days.

On a different note...can you tell how much this little Chief Justice loves his daddy?
It'a whole, whole lot!