a little boogie

No - not the gross kind! The dancing kind! Some little darling in our house likes to move it, move it each and every time he hears music. I love it, love it!

pumpkin painting

 In what is becoming an annual tradition, Sarah the Great came over to paint pumpkins with the little giffords a couple weeks ago.  As you can see this is quite a messy activity, so the kids all put on their yucky clothes and had a blast covering themselves their pumpkins in paint.

 The finished products are a little hard to make out with all the spider web, but we have [back row] Sarah's spider, Wyatt's ghost, Kellen's evil scientist, [front row] Cade's baby nerd (painted by Elliott - that's why it's got so much pink), and Elliott's baby spider.  So much fun!

three quarters

My little guy is 9 months old!  I took a few (dozen) pics of him on the day he hit 3/4 of a year, and I put a couple above.  I honestly could've posted every single one of them, because that's how cute this kid is.  I mean, those dimples... Oh his mommy's heart can hardly stand it.

At 9 months, Cade still doesn't crawl.  He sort of (and only barely, really) scoots around the floor after things, but he's not at all mobile.  Some mom's might freak out about that.  This mom is grateful.  Being able to put him down somewhere and know that he'll stay there is something I'm in no hurry to move beyond.

What he apparently lacks in motor skills, he makes up for in verbal skills.  He says mama, dada, hi, bye-bye, bite and spoon (which sounds like "poo") and knows what they mean.  He also says, ahem, boob.  Yes, seriously.  And he knows what he means when he says it.  He'll repeat (or try to) just about anything you say to him.  Quite the parrot.  

He's still tiny.  He weighed 17 lbs. and 4 oz. at his 9-month checkup.  By comparison, Kellen, who weighed less at birth, weighed more than that at 4 months.  He still has just 2 teeth - also strange since my other kiddos had 6 by this age.  He doesn't sleep great, and usually wakes up somewhere between 4 and 6 times a night.  In other words, he's pretty much the same as he's always been: a tiny little non-sleeper who has his mommy wrapped around his tiny pinky! We love you, Cade!

the giffords go to the beach

 Swimming.  Sunbathing.  Digging holes (BIG holes).  Burying a sister.  Napping.  Taking walks.  Tossing football.  Having fun.  Being together.  That's how the Giffords spent a week at the beach!

cade's first gator game!

What sort of mama-blogger would I be if I didn't at least cover all the important milestones in my baby's life?  For us, a first Gator game is a major milestone, so I snapped a picture of Cade watching his first-ever game.  So happy, isn't he?  (And, can you believe, that outfit he is wearing was Wyatt's?  *Sigh*  Where does the time go?)

If we were all rockstars...

As many of you know, my little Wyatt has the heart of a poet.  He has been writing songs (some of them downright good, if I do say so myself) since he was in kindergarten.  I've collected most of them. I think what I love most is that I find him writing lyrics off in some corner somewhere when I could've sworn he was outside shooting baskets.  I guess when the mood strikes him, he drops what he's doing to write.  

Apparently the mood struck today.  He showed me this little ditty, and I asked him if it would be ok for me to share it here.  It's not that I think it's particularly great in its structure - frankly, many of his others are better.  But I love the message so so much.

If we all were rockstars, who would be the crowd?

If we all were doctors, who would be the patients?

Do what you want, go be free.  Life is beautiful.  You'll see.

Don't do what someone else does, just because they're you're friend.

Or don't make a job decision just because of the money.

The world can change from a smile, so be happy every once in a while.

The sound of sadness rolls through my head.  

And if we all lived, who would be dead?

Do what you want, go be free.  Life is beautiful.  You'll see.

-Wyatt, age 10

Thanks, Wyatt.  The lesson is one many grownups take years to learn, and one I'm awfully glad you're grasping at such a young age.

best friends, rain or shine

These days, Kellen pretty much always has a shadow -- a little, 3-year-old, blonde-headed shadow, come rain (on their way to feed the horse and dog)....

...or shine (on their way to the beautiful Emerald waters of the gulf coast).