Playing with your food

Happy Hour

We had the most fun tonight. Reese was in a silly mood and the three of us just played and played. Check out this first video- our little girl is starting to WALK! (please ignore my hair and PJ's)

Then she was making funny faces.

And then she laughed... and laughed... and then laughed so hard she fell over!

It was the best night ever!

Reese is 11 months old!

One more month and we will have a 1 year old! That is just CRAZY. Reese is really growing up. She has such personality- she is sweet and stubborn and smart and totally awesome.

Badger Face

This month has brought some changes in her. She is still talking constantly but it has changed. Instead of just 'da da da da' over and over she really changes up the syllables and jabbers. I think she is really wanting to say things- she will get intense and you can tell she is thinking really hard.

Just today she got the hang of walking with her little plastic car/ walker. She gets more and more brave each day trying to walk between the furniture and stuff. Here is a little video of it.

She wants to feed herself more now. She will still take pureed stuff in a spoon but she needs finger foods in between to keep herself occupied. She does really well but it sure gets messy. We are trying to let that go and just roll with it. She will feed herself a bottle too, but we still hold her most of the time because that's as close to cuddling as we get. Also- we have started her on cow's milk. We had been working on it and she just wasn't loving it. But the other day she figured out how to drink out of my Camelbak. So we gave her some milk in it and she went to town. Now she has her own little mini camelbak and has milk with every meal.

Also- she likes to put bites on top of her sippy cup and then eat it off the lid. She will do that with toys too- put them on top of something and then pick them up with her mouth.

She is back to enjoying being read to. She will take a book off the shelf and sit and look at you like 'hey- come read this to me.' She picks the same ones over and over- Hand Hand Fingers Thumb, Gossie and Gertie, Count my Kisses, and I Love You Through and Through.

She loves to be chased. All you have to say is "I'm gonna get you..." and she'll take off. She also likes being tickled but only if she is in the mood. But when she is she will just laugh and laugh and it's so cute.

We are trying to give her (and me) more social interaction. We go to play group on Tuesdays and to story time at the library on Fridays. She does well with other kids for the most part. She just doesn't like it when they pull her hair.

She is in a big-girl car seat now. She is well over the weight requirement so we went ahead and faced her forward. She loves being able to see where we are going. She can also see us, which makes her whine a little bit more but she it figuring things out.

 She is just super cute and getting so big and next month she will be 1 year old!

For Grandma

So my sweet Grandma Edna loves Reese. When I call to talk to her the first thing she says is "how's my baby?" I'm so glad that they have a relationship and it's awesome that even though Grandma Edna has a ton of great grandkids and even a few great-great grandkids she still takes a personal interest in Reese. So I shot this video of Reese and wanted to post it so my sister can pull it up on her Iphone and show it to Grandma. We love you!

(we were listening to Disney music so just try to ignore the Pirates Life for Me in the background. Next time I'll pick a cuter song.)

Also, speaking of my Grandma, I have a random cleaning tip for you. Next time you finish cleaning your toilet (everyone's favorite job, I know) try this with the brush:

That way it can drip dry and you don't get gross toilet water in the bottom of your brush holder. My grandma showed me that last time I visited. Then I came home and showed my Mom and she thought it was the greatest thing ever. Maybe everyone does this already but it was a revelation to me so thanks Grandma!

More Christmas Fun

 So this year we did a lot of fun things to celebrate the season. We took Reese to get her picture with Santa (which reminds me, I need to scan it so I can post it- so stay tuned.) We went to the Festival of the Nativities at our church building. It was amazing- there were nativities from all around the world. They also had a live nativity (someone in our ward asked if we had volunteered. We laughed so hard- not only is Reese huge now but she is so noisy. It would not have been spiritual at all.) We went into Seattle to see the gingerbread competition they do at the Sheraton to benefit research for juvenile diabetes. We took our good pals Brett and Jenna Alvey with us. It was fun to take this picture because Reese was smiling and drawing the attention of everyone standing around waiting. She is such a babe.

We also went to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens again this year. They recreate the plants they have there in the Spring out of Christmas lights. It is amazing. This year they had a scavenger hunt to find all the animals throughout the gardens. It was for kids, but we had fun looking for them anyway.

The last thing we did (after Christmas actually, but that's ok) was go down to Tacoma to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium for Zoo Lights. It is similar to the Botanical Gardens but they have lots of animal scenes. They also have an old antique carousel that we took Reese on. It was so fun- we picked a tiger that didn't go up and down just to be safe. But she loved going round and round and waving at all the people.

 Here is a short little video of us on the carousel. Enjoy!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

 Even though Reese is crawling all over the place, we still wanted to get a Christmas tree. This is the 5th Christmas that Spence and I have spent together. Every Christmas- even our first one being married 1 month and living in a hole of an apartment that was $280 a month- we have named our Christmas trees. Petree (like on the Land Before Time), Steve (the name of the hedge on "Over the Hedge"), Mr. Norwall (like the weird whale on "Elf"), and Shaq ("ahhhh... the greatest in the universe"). We would like to introduce this year's tree: Mahem. Have you seen that Allstate commercial? If you haven't, here it is. It's hilarious.



There are lots more Mayhem commercials- check them out on YouTube.

 

We had talked about going to cut down our own tree, but then realized it would be me and Reese  standing in the cold while Spence worked the axe. So we went to the Home Depot instead. It was really kind of a non event- we walked in, Spence picked up a tree and said "how about this one?" It looked pretty good so we bought it. Reese and I left so the sound of the saw wouldn't scare her. We were done- easy.

 In true Watts family tradition, we decorated our tree and then sat on a blanket in the living room to eat doughnuts and drink hot chocolate. Reese loved the doughnut, but wasn't crazy about the tepid semi-chocolate flavored water we gave her in a sippy cup. That's how Spencer's family has always done it, so we are happy to carry out the tradition.

 After four years of marriage we finally found an angel we both like. Well, I like it and Spencer tolerates it. As you know angels don't have wings but we have never found a 'doctrinally correct one.' He tried to rip her wings off, but it wasn't worth the hassel. The only other problem is that she is HUGE. She looks like a dinosaur angel on top of our  tree. Oh well, we will just have to get a 12 footer next year.

Living Vicariously

So I didn't start dancing until high school but I loved ballet. I never got really good, so I have decided that Reese is going to be an amazing dancer so I can live vicariously through her. She has already started...

I'm pretty sure I saw a changement, a pas de chat and a petit jete in there. And check out that turn out! Swan Lake, here we come.