August in a Nutshell

We've been working on having people over more often, and going to visit people more often.  In August we had dinner with friends several times.  Little A is a very social baby and loves to have visitors, but when she's tired she likes to be at home in the quiet and go through her normal bedtime routine.  She's gotten better this month about dealing with noise when she's tired and going to sleep somewhere other than home.  We had family home evening with some friends one night.  My friends husband doesn't really enjoy playing games so he snuggled little A while the rest of us played.  He must have been a good snuggler because she eventually settled down and went to sleep!  Usually she fusses unless I have her at night.  It was nice to play a game without holding her in my arms. 

A loves to be laid down in her crib when she's tired, and then she'll play until she goes to sleep.  Sometimes she'll lay in there and giggle herself to sleep.  That's my favorite.

We also got to play one of our favorite games with some other friends, The Construction Game.  Usually Allan and I lose horribly when we play games with other people, me coming in dead last and Allan second to last.  We must have had some good luck that evening though because I came in first and Allan second.  Ha!  While we played their little boy discovered what was in the kitchen cabinets.  They don't let him play in the kitchen at all so he was extremely thrilled to finally get inside some cabinet doors.  I really enjoyed watching him figure everything out.  He especially loved the sandwich bags and the plastic lid to one of my aluminum pans.  Little A loved their little boy and screamed happily at him until it was time for bed.

Play time with Momma.

One of Allan's former co-workers, who we became good friends with, sent little A a gift.  A pewter silver cup with her name engraved on it.  It's so pretty and goes perfectly with the pewter plate and mug handed down from me.

Little A loves to wrestle with Daddy.  She's really good at getting him right in the throat.

Grandma H made A this Strawberry Shortcake quilt and Aunt K3 gave her this Strawberry Shortcake bib.  They are made from the same fabric and go perfectly with her strawberry pajamas!

Strawberry quilt, strawberry bib, and strawberry pajamas - you can't see but there is a big strawberry on her bum.

She loves to get her toes when she's sitting up.  For a long time this was the only way she would play with them. 

 Little A has started moving her right arm a lot.  She's never been very big on using her arms.  That's been nice in some ways because she doesn't pull my hair and isn't very grabby, but I've been trying to encourage her to use them more.  Her favorite thing to do is move her right arm up and down as fast as she can.  Allan calls it her karate chop, lol.  She has always loved her rattle, but I took it away from her because she would wave it up and down in her hand and hit herself in the head over and over again.  I got a little worried that she was going to hurt herself.  So now her new favorite toy is the keys.  They're softer so she can hit herself without too much pain, they still make some noise, and she can chew on them. 

Hawaiian dress from Nana and Pops handed down from cousin P.

One Sunday in August my hair must have been especially curly because the class behind me just couldn't stop boinging my curls!   This used to happen me a lot in our last ward but this was the first time it happened in this ward.  It cracks me up when they do it, especially when I hear a little whispered "boing!".

She's wearing a shirt with an owl on it and playing with her owl taggie.

A loves to sit in her high chair and play with toys while I work in the kitchen. 

We've given her some baby mum mum's and some puffs.  She liked them both at first and would feed herself the mum mum's, but now she hates them and just throws them on the floor. We gave her a lick of BBQ sauce.  That was probably the funniest face I've seen her make.  She was totally horrified.  I wish we'd had our camera with us.

Snuggling A at the end of the day.  She wiggled around until she was in this position and then fell right to sleep.

A friend gave us these adorable overalls.  I think she looks like a boy in them.  A very cute boy.

So we added a bow so she'd look like a very cute girl. :)

One of the outfits from the baby shower, I think from K5.  Love it.

I often read scriptures while little A plays on the floor.  She'll play really well for a long time as long as I'm near by, and this allows me to have a good scripture study before Allan gets home from work.

Blowing on her cheeks.  She LOVES this!  It makes her giggle more than anything else.

One of the cute outfits from K1.

You can't see them in this picture but this outfit has the cutest plaid shorts.  I love them.

Another cute outfit from a friend here.  These are some of the shorts I made for her.

Reading stories.  A loves to be read to and has just recently started helping me turn the pages.  She likes to touch the pages where I touch them and rarely bends or grabs them.  I'm hoping this will last and we won't have to worry about ripped books.