10 Months

Alisha says: A lot has happened in the last month and Skye reached some big milestones. First she started sleeping through the night!  Hallelujah! The second is that she started crawling! The day she started crawling was August 14th. Dave coaxed her into it by bribing her with some cheese. Now she is quite the little expert crawler and can really get around, although she still really likes to be held and carried. She is already starting to pull herself up to a stand and will stand and play while holding on to something. She still needs a spotter when she is standing because she is pretty wobbly. It is fun to watch her world expand a little as she has developed into this new stage of getting around.

I feel like we have really settled into a good, predictable routine this last month. She wakes up around 6:00 am and has a bottled followed usually by a walk, hike or bike ride. Three hours after she wakes up she is ready for her morning nap which is usually about an hour and half. When she wakes up we will play, run errands, eat lunch. Then three hours after she wakes up from her morning nap she is ready for her afternoon nap which is usually only one hour. Then we play, read and attempt to prep dinner. When Dave gets home from work it's pool time. She likes splashing around. I am trying to do my own little version of swimming lessons until I take her to real ones. I make her float on her back, grab onto the side, and we usually dunk her once or twice. After the pool we have dinner. She is an enthusiastic eater and usually grunts and makes lots of noise. She mostly eats what we are eating. Around 6:30 we read a few books, have a bottle and then put her in her crib where if she isn't already asleep is pretty good at falling asleep herself and then sleeps through the night.

Other cute things she does is making funny faces. One is where she scrunches up her nose, pursers her lips together and then breathes loudly in and out through her nose. Another one is more of a suprised face with big eyes and her mouth in an "o". The last one is sometimes she will shake her head around and kind of roll her eyes around, it's not a "yes" or "no" nod but more random all over the place. She first started doing this when she was eating and seemed to like whatever it was. She also has 7, almost 8 teeth.

I have been trying to teach her a few basic sign language signs such as milk, more, drink, eat. She doesn't sign any back yet but I know that she recognizes the milk sign. I can do it, without saying milk, and she will start to get excited and know that she is getting a bottle. She is really good at clapping also.

She will giggle when I smother her in kisses, tickle her, make funny faces, play peekaboo, and when Dave is holding her and I chase them she will giggle and hold on to Dave. She really is a lot of fun, a good little traveler/adventurer, and we love her so much!

Who wants some s'more?

Alisha says: We went camping last weekend with some friends and had a fun time. After setting up camp we took a short drive over to Woods Canyon Lake for a little walk/hike. Dinner back at the campsite was classic tinfoil dinners followed by s'mores. I really enjoy sitting around a campfire in the woods and Skye liked playing in the dirt and watching the campfire.

My New Riding Buddy

Alisha says: We decided to take Skye out for a little ride around the neighborhood the other morning and she loved it. She was looking around, kicking her feet and making cute noises the whole time. Since the neighborhood ride went well we have since taken her out on the easy dirt trails at Usery Pass. It is so fun taking her out for a little spin, I love to follow when she is riding with Dave, she looks like a little spider monkey on his back. It is so cute.

9 Month Update

Alisha says: Skye is quite the little joy in our lives. She still doesn't crawl yet but is getting really close, it will be any day now that she figures it out. She is a really good eater and eats lots of different table foods. Her stats from her 9 month wellness appointment are: 

Weight: 18.8 pounds (60%0

Height: 29 inches (92%)

Head Circumference: 17.5 inches (60%)

Durango

Dave says: Our last summertime escape was to the mountains as we headed up to the beautiful town of Durango, Colorado. Skye is getting good at adventures and we brought Debbie along for some help as well. We got in two mountain bike rides. A short and steep one up Animas Mountain and a long and steep one down the last section of the Colorado Trail that we did with Debbie as our shuttle to the top. Even with the shuttle this was a long and tough ride with a killer uphill in the middle but the scenery was beautiful.

We took the Pilot offroading outside of Silverton on some dirt roads up to the ghost town Animas Forks. It is a spectacular drive and a gorgeous place for a picnic. Walking around the old cabins makes you appreciate that you didn't live 200 years ago. We came during the best time of the year but the other 10 months would not be so pleasant in Animas Forks at 11,000+ feet in the mountains.

We did the "must do" tourist attraction in Durango which is the narrow gauge train ride. We did the leg back from Silverton to Durango which takes 3 hours but is very scenic. We started the ride in the indoor car but soon left for the outdoor car where the breeze was flowing and the sights were grand. Skye did quite well on the train.

Silverton is a charming little mining town that has been remade for the tourists and the railroad. There is one main drag to walk but the town and the mountains are beautiful.

One of the most fun parts of the trip was floating down the Animas river through town. There are enough rapids to keep things interesting and enough slow parts to relax. We got high centered on a few rocks but the tube held its air and we didn't tip out. On day 1, Debbie and Alisha floated the river and I got my turn with Alisha a few days later. The combination of cold water and warm sun was perfect.

We did a short but grand hike in the mountains near the top of Molas Pass outside of Silverton on the Colorado Trail. The views were amazing and the gradient wasn't too steep. Skye is a good little hiker and loves being outdoors.

In some ways life has changed with a little one but in other ways we just keep on adventuring. Skye does great with all the new stuff and when we travel in the car we leave super early and she sleeps most of the way. Debbie was a lot of fun to have along and is great with Skye. Some of our not pictured adventures include Debbie and Alisha going to the Bar D Chuckwagon for a western dinner and music. We walked around Fort Lewis College one evening up on the mesa which had great views of the town below. We checked out the Durango downtown on another walk. And, although Skye is a good traveler she only sleeps with her parents on the road and rolled around between us in the hotel bed every night while her pack and play sat empty.

8 Month Cutie

Alisha says: Time is really flying by. Skye has now been out of the oven just as long as she was in. She is growing and getting bigger everyday. She now has 6 teeth and sometimes bites with them as the top four are still coming in. She can sit really well all by herself and will roll around on the floor but isn't too interested in crawling yet. She has tried many new foods and likes swimming. Unfortunately she does not sleep through the night very well. Oh well, we sure do love her!

Escape to the Wonderful Pacific Northwest

Alisha says: After the temperature reached 118 degrees at our house we planned a spontaneous trip to get out of town and escape the heat for a bit. Skye has been a good baby so we decided to try flying with her and booked us tickets to Seattle.

It was definitely a bit more tricky navigating the airport with the extra baby gear (car seat, backpack, etc.) but we make it and Skye did great on the flight. After picking up our rental car we drove to Mount Rainier National Park and met Christine and her family (who are on a summer road trip) for some hiking. There was still a bit of snow at the Paradise visitor center but we did a short hike to a waterfall and then to a lake. It was such a gorgeous day and we were treated to wonderful views of Rainier. It is such an impressive mountain and it was really refreshing to be in cooler temperatures surrounded by such beauty.

                                                  

The next day we met Christine's family in downtown Seattle for the day. We first walked through Pikes Place Market and then had some Piroshkies for lunch followed by a walk to the ferry terminal. Everybody enjoyed the restful ferry ride to Bainbridge Island where we did a walk followed by some ice cream before catching the ferry back to Seattle.

The next few days were a little rainy but we still got out to some our our favorite places such as the arboretum, Magnusun Park and Ravenna Park.

Sarah was brave and watched Skye and her 2 month old while Chris, Dave and I went mountain biking at Galbraith Mountain. It was fun to ride in the rooty forest again.

We hiked the Ira Springs to Mason Lake on a super gorgeous day. The 7 mile hike with 2,500 ft elevation gain was the longest hike we have done with Skye in the backpack. She liked looking around and taking naps on and off. Dave and I traded off carrying her so that we could each get a little break. It was so rejuvenating to be hiking in the forest again.

Chris and Sarah were so nice letting us invade their house. We had fun visiting with them and meeting there new little baby, Nathan. For the last two days we headed over to the Olympic Peninsula. We hike out to Cape Flattery which is the northwesternmost point in the continental United States. It was a neat short hike through old growth forest to some amazing rugged coastal views of cliffs and sea caves. It had that northwest rainy feel to it.

We spent our last night in Port Angeles. The next morning we did some hiking at Crescent Lake to Marymere Falls before heading back to the airport for the flight home. This vacation was just what I needed and also reminded me how much I love the pacific northwest in the summer, it really is a magical place.