Parenthood Quandary

I know I have blogged about this before, but I can't seem to grasp how in the world 11 months have flown by in a blink.  I suppose that is the quandary of parenthood.  To always be excited and anticipating the next great feat or accomplishment of your child while also longing for days past.  In our case, I firmly believe that time hitched a ride on the Speed of Light as we were wheeled out of the delivery room.  Again, I adore watching Tate and Ainsley learn new things , which happens at an astonishing rate, but just sometimes I wish that old Speed of Light would breakdown so maybe Time could hitch a ride on a turtle instead.

Since their birthday is on Saturday, I thought I should get their 11 month pictures posted before they are no longer 11 months old.

Ainsley wasn't shy about letting me know how she really feels about monthly pictures.

At 11 months old little Miss Ainsley is a pure joy to be around!  This is the first month that she graduated from a 3 month onesie to a 6 month onesie!  She says Dada, Mama, Tate, and baba...along with a lot of other words that I'm sure make sense to her.  She loves her Dolly and all of her stuffed animals...and Tate's. She squeals and gives them each hugs and kisses when she sees them in the morning or after her naps.  She is quite the little dancer and she loves to have music playing.  She loves to splash and play at bath time but she hates to have her hair rinsed.  She has been quite the stubborn eater lately.  She likes to feed herself so when we try to feed her something like oatmeal, she purses her lips and it takes a fair amount of coaxing to get her to eat enough.  She loves to play on the swing at the park but is scared of the slide.  She has the most wonderful belly laugh and she lets us hear it quite often especially when we play peek-a-boo with her pants when she is getting her diaper changed.  She loves to look at and listen to all of her books.  In fact, she can tell them apart.  I can say the first couple of lines of any given book that we have and she will crawl over and find it.  She is so close to walking and stands on her own but has not yet taken her first steps.  I'm sure that is coming soon.  She gives wonderful  kisses and has started to pat me on the back when I hold her to burp her or rock her before she goes to sleep.  If I am sitting on the ground she loves to stand and rub her hand over my back.  We love our Ainsley girl and are so thankful for her fun, sweet, and loving personality.

Our little Tate man makes us giggle and smile all through each day.  He loves to make noise and is talking, yelling, growling, or giggling most of the time.  He thinks water is the greatest thing ever and gets so excited when I let him drink out of a cup or a straw.  He loves to play with Ainsley and is more content when she is in the room than when he is by himself (if he wakes up before her.)  He loves to eat and will eat just about everything we give him.  He especially loves bean and cheese tortillas and pizza.  Tate will probably be the first one to walk as he spends long amounts of time standing unsupported.  He got his first haircut a few days ago (just a trim around his ears) and loved getting squirts out of the squirt bottle.  He loves to explore and puts everything he finds in to his mouth. He loves to watch how things work and clamors to be lifted up and held if the printer or Cricut are running.  He repeatedly opens and closes things or pushes and pulls anything that moves.   He is still quite attached to me and will play just fine if I'm not in the room, but if I am in the vicinity he crawls over for hugs every five minutes or so, which this mom doesn't mind at all!  He loves to lift his arms high above his head and giggle.  We have taught him to do it when we say touchdown.  He thinks it's just about the best game ever.  He loves to crawl and climb all over anybody that happens to be sitting anywhere near him.  He is rarely sitting still.  Tate loves to go down the slide at the park and his hair looks awesome with all of the static when he gets to the bottom.  We sure love this little guy and look forward to his hugs and kisses each and every day.  

Tate and Ainsley have a special relationship with their dad.  They get so excited when they hear his key in the lock as he comes home from work and love to wave to him from the top of the stars when he leaves in the morning.  Matt, of course is just as enamored with them as they are with him so it is fun to watch them interact.

The morning farewell.

We're so glad when Daddy comes home.

For Christmas we decided to give each other bikes.  We finally got around to it a few weeks ago and have decided it was a great idea!

Our first bike ride.

Tate and Ainsley's helmets arrived a few days later.  Tate didn't mind his at all and actually thought it was pretty fun to bang his head against the gate in our front room.  Ainsley, on the other hand, was not a big fan.  Her helmet is a little too big so she would get upset when it would slide down.  She'll grow into it.

Ainsley and Tate had their first (of many) peanut butter and jam sandwich last week and they LOVED it!

Tate loves to make this face and breathe really hard through his nose...and then giggle like crazy.

Ainsley had it spread all the way up to her elbows.

Before Tate's first haircut (a little hard to tell that he needed one but the back was getting to be very mullet like.)

The "after" picture.  I didn't get any "during" pictures because I was too busy distracting him with the squirt bottle.  As you can see, he is super excited and proud of his standing alone capabilities.

Not much is better than a bottle and story time with your best friend.