So Big!

Arden is a little over 11 months now. That big first birthday is coming up fast (and Mommy is not ready for it - emotionally or actually). Here's a quick update on her sweet personality.

Arden is walking around like an adorable little toddler now. She had a slower transition to walking than Huston did, taking her first steps on August 26th, then having a big walking breakthrough on grandparent's day (September 12th), then continuing to do a mix of walking and crawling until about three weeks ago when she decided that she preferred walking and would purposefully get back up into a walking position anytime she fell down, instead of continuing her journey by crawling, which is what she did before. So now she is toddling all over the place, and I just can't get enough of her little tiny self step, step, stepping all over the house.

She loves stuffed animals right now, especially Huston's giant dog that Mimi got him from Ikea. It is enormous compared to her, but she gets so happy when she sees it and will carry it all over the house and talk to it and lie down on it. She snuggles and squeals with almost any stuffed animal you hand her, but that's her favorite by far.

She is soooo much more verbal than Huston was at this stage, jabbering to herself all the time, pointing at things and making sounds, and saying things that sound like "Hi," when she waves. She still loves dogs (and most animals) and makes the most adorable "woofing" sound. She raises her hands over her head when you ask, "How big is Arden?" and she LOVES reading books. Just in the past two weeks or so this has become an obsession with her. Her favorite is Pat the Bunny, and she does everything the book says. She pats the bunny, feels daddy's scratchy face, smells the flowers, looks in the mirror - it is so cute!

She loves pointing to things and making little noises to indicate her wants. She likes all kinds of drinks and always wants to taste what you have in your glass. She thinks whatever Huston is playing with must be cool, and always tries to play with his toys. She is determined and can really show her temper when she doesn't get her way, but is overall pretty laid back and calm. She likes playing with car keys, splashing in the bathtub, running around outside, swinging at the park, and just exploring the world.

She's my little sweetie pie.

Potties and other Huston things

I have no time for cleverly composed posts these days, so this will just be a brain dump of Huston-related things. Enjoy!

We discovered black mold under our kitchen sink this weekend. It seems to have been due to a leak in our sink, so we headed to Lowe's after church on Sunday to buy a new sink. Huston was delighted that he got to play with the "potties" at Lowe's, which is one of his favorite things to do at this playground of a store. They have six potties in a row and he just walks around pretending to flush them and saying, "Huston just made pee pee in the potty." Then he'll walk around to the sink that's on display and pretend to wash his hands.

Huston has also been lately obsessed with a flashing strobe light down our street that someone has out as a part of their Halloween decorations. He can't stop talking about it, and makes his hand open and close and says, "Huston has a flashing light. For it was daytime you just turn your flashing light off for it won't waste electricity. Your flashing light is red." He was talking like this on our way home from Clarke's parents's house Sunday night. Clarke asked, "Did you buy your flashing light at Lowe's?" (because Huston had previously said that) and Huston said seamlessly, "Oh no. You just bought it at Tops." (get it? Lows? Tops? He created his own store with the opposite name.)

I thought that was pretty creative. Then yesterday he was walking around the house with a clothespin stuck to his shirt (because it looked cool), and I said "I like your clothespin." He replied, "Oh, it's an open pin." (get it? close? open?) I don't know where he's coming up with all these opposites, but I like it.

I also love how he says the following things:

starter up: meaning to start up, as in, "I have to starter up the car."

the earlier: meaning anything in the past, from earlier the same day to a few days ago to a year ago, as in, "The earlier you went to Mimi's house."

picked: meaning picked up, as in, "I just picked Bear Bear," or "Cranky picked Thomas," (from a favorite Thomas episode where Cranky the Crane picks Thomas up off the tracks).

drop down: meaning dropped off, as in, "Grandma just dropped me down at preschool."

Swinging - A Video Debut!

We went to the park by our house late this afternoon to enjoy the beautiful fall weather. Here are some videos of the swinging action that went down. (In case you're wondering after viewing the first video, Huston did not, in fact, poop in his underwear at the park. Thankfully.)

Blossoming

Here's my hilarious boy playing in a big tub of dirt, enjoying this fall weather that's letting him play outside more often. Huston has truly been blossoming lately and becoming more outgoing and less afraid. I think a big part of that is due to preschool, which he has been loving more than I could have ever dreamed. Tonight, while Clarke and I were at a new Bible study, we dropped him off at a house with two baby sitters and the other kids from the small group. The old Huston would never have allowed such a thing, but the new Huston didn't even blink. I mean, not even a whimper when I left him there. And before we left the house to go, he was saying "You're ready to go to that house now. You're ready to go play with the boys and girls." I could hardly believe it. When we picked him up, he was happy as a lark, talking about how they had a playground with rocks in it and how his "teachers" told him it was time to go upstairs (he seems to see everything through his school vocabulary). He just seems so grown up.

Clarke and I went through the drive through to pick up dinner after Bible study, and while Clarke was ordering, Huston rolled down his window (which he can reach with his foot) and started ordering out of it, saying, "Umm... you just want a chicken plate..." It was pretty hilarious.

One final Huston moment from today. Clarke came home and was asking Huston how his day was, and Huston was being stubborn and not responding. Clarke threatened to take away the ipod that he had let him hold if Huston couldn't be polite and respond to him, and Huston starts holding back sobs and in a weepy, quavering voice, says, "You just had a great day!"

He's a little character.

The Dress my Mommy Made...

Since who knows when I'll sew again, I made Clarke take a picture of me with Arden in this little dress I made for her. I don't even really feel like I can say I made it, since I needed step by step help from my mom, but I did do all the actual sewing, so I guess it's okay.

Isn't this just the cutest picture of Clarke with Arden?

We were on our way to our friends' Zeb and Ally's house to hang out when we took these pictures. Huston got to hang out with all of our friends' kids, and had the best time following Enoch around the house. He thinks anything that Enoch does is awesome, and at one point during the party Huston came up to me and said, "Enoch said 'I'm Spiderman!', I'm going to be Spiderman, too!" He then started singing, very seriously, "The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout...."