this is halloween

today we went to the neighborhood halloween party. it was kind of on the small side but we did get there a little late. i was so sure maria would win the costume contest but a 10 month walking harry potter took the prize. whatever- his parents were politicking for him. . .

after the party we came home and chris and maria carved the pumpkin. i think chris really enjoyed scraping out the innerds. maria was a little ambivalent to the whole process.

chris and i sat outside with our next door neighbors and handed out (ate) candy until a little before 8pm. we had a lot of fun covering our dogs in glow stick necklaces. i wish i had gotten a picture of daisy glowing in the dark but she was too fast. 

couple more pix

here are a few more pix of maria (as if there aren't already a zillion!) these were taken monday morning when chris was playing with her.

i'm not really sure what she is doing here- it looks like she is stretching her hamstrings!

baby halloween

got the camera back today. i thought i had taken more pictures. oh well.

here's a funny pic of maria. she fell asleep on the way to the grocery store this morning. i caught her with her mouth open!

kid art and other firsts

here is maria's first drawing. it is from glow draw (an ipod app).

 

today included a few other firsts. this morning was the first time i took her on a walk in the stroller without using the carseat. she seemed to enjoy it although she did fall asleep rather quickly. i was a little worried that the stroller straps are still too loose but it we were just walking in the neighborhood on the street not off-roading. i missed being able to look right at her and tell her about everything we were seeing while walking. the other first was that we got together with some other moms/ babies today for a halloween themed get together. it was a lot of fun and the babies looked adorable in their costumes. i left my camera at my friend's house otherwise i'd be posting pix of that. the other first was that maria was really splashing in the tub tonight during her bath. it was super cute. i think she splashed out half the water!

 

look who is almost crawling!

i always feel like someone is watching me

little pink aliens for you and me.

this is maria's halloween costume that grandma bonnie made. my heart melts a little everytime i see her in it!

gweat gwandma!

here are a couple of pix of maria with her great grandma! (chris's mom's mom)

here are a couple of pix of maria with her second cousin, jordan, outside at (great) grandma's house.

marwedge. . . .

her are a couple of pix of maria with her grandparents at my cousin's wedding.

austin two times over!

today maria and austin and i hung out in austin! we went to tyler's on the drag for t-shirts and then strolled over to campus. after that we drove down to the capitol and looked around and then went to the capitol visitor's center (why yes, i got a texas ranger star with the name of walker!) and i bought some cheesy souvenirs. then we drove down south first to the trailer park eatery and has some 'man bites dog' and cake balls. we walked off lunch by going to auditorium shores and the new park with the man made hill. it was a fun day with austin and maria!

milestone (mostly)

maria is mostly sort of sitting up on her own.

cute pix

maria and daisy were super cute this morning.

the great zuchini!

tonight we tried zucchini for the first time.

turtle turtle

right as we were sitting down to eat dinner daisy was freaking out barking and howling in the back yard. she was barking a turtle! we have no idea where it came from or how it got into our yard. it was gone by the time we were done with dinner.

Bug Life: Month 5

wow! maria you are 5 months old today!! what a month it has been! you had some big accomplishments. you are rolling over and eating solid food now. you are really good at grabbing things and picking them up. you are very vocal- laughing, cooing, squealing, blowing raspberries. you kick and wiggle so much. you have gotten so strong- i think you might start crawling any day now! speaking of mobility, you have been travelling! we went to waco, houston, all around austin and out to marble falls. you have met a ton of relatives and friends. we started going to the library and getting together with other moms/ babies. we got a deck built across the back of the house so we can sit outside and rock and enjoy the backyard. you still love being outside. we go for walks with daisy almost every morning. you love looking up through the trees and listening to the birds.

you are still sleeping in our room in the pack n' play. i would move you to your room but i love waking up to your little squeals and coos in the morning. we mostly have a night time routine down. we feed you a solid food about 7:30pm and then give you a bath. we play for about 10 minutes in the bath and then get you dried off and lotioned up. we play a little bit and then i feed you one last time. you always fall asleep when i feed you. i like watching you sleep- you look so sweet and peaceful.


we love you maria bug!

pumpkin patch!

today we drove out to marble falls, tx to sweet berry farm to pick out a pumpkin for halloween. it takes about an hour to get there from our house in south austin. the drive was a gorgeous stroll through the hill country. we got there about 11am-ish and we were not the only people! it was so crazy! i was not expecting that many people and strollers and little kids! it seemed a little chaotic at first but we got the lay of the land down pretty quickly and then it wasn't so bad. 

one of the coolest features was a huge 7 foot tall corrugated culvert pipe that ran underneath fm 1980 so you can access the farm on both sides of the road. we walked through the flower fields for a little bit and then crossed under the road. we stopped by the goats to say hello and perused the pumpkins. i took maria through the kid sized corn maze. we asked about the full size maze and farmer evan said it would take about an hour. i didn't think i would have that much patience so we did the kid maze. it was fun- maria kept grabbing at the corn stalks. we found the bell and rang it and maria left with some corn leaves! we picked out 2 pumpkins, walked around a little more and then took off.

we had our first car diaper change and car bottle feeding- both were successful but we need a bigger vehicle! all in all, it was a fun trip and the first seasonal tyler family outing. 

this is really the 'kid maze' not the labyrinth through your unconscious motivations 

i'm glad we have the uber-stroller that can hold 75 pounds!

maria is feeling much better post diaper change/ bottle feeding

all zonked out after a big day