Bethany walking - almost 11 months

Bethany has been taking a few steps over the last couple of months, but this past weekend she took 17 steps in a row and Dan caught it on his phone. She really wanted what I had and I kept taking it away to try and get her to walk a few more steps - I'm sure she was annoyed with me :)

Good job hunny, you are getting so big!!!

Mexico!

We had a wonderful time on vacation... and wish we were back there now that it has been cold and rainy yesterday and sort of today. When we found out Dan's mom would be out of the country for a few weeks we knew we needed to take time off to watch Bethany for a few days so we decided to go on vacation. There were some great deals in Mexico since it is hurricane season so we chose an all-inclusive resort in the Riviera Maya district south of Cancun. It was an amazing resort with wonderful service. We had lots of fun swimming in the pools and in the ocean. Bethany enjoyed her first real experience in the sand and had a lot of funny expressions tasting it as well as the salt water! We just hung around the resort and ate, slept and swam all day. Sometimes we'd nap at the same time as Bethany, and other times we'd take the video monitor out with us to the pool to relax and it even reached one of the outdoor seafood restaurants. They had a big screen setup on the beach so we watched the Vikings game Thursday night and also parts of Avatar another night. The variety of restaurants was nice and the people were so friendly. I realized that with a baby we are only known as "Bethany's mom and dad" and all the locals loved picking her up and watching her for awhile. While dining we'd see someone take her on a "kitchen tour" and try to "sell" her to other tables for $20. She loved the attention and would crawl right over to new people to meet them. There were 2 older couples we met on the van ride to the resort that we ran into all the time and they would yell "Bethany!" and come over to talk to her. She always had big smiles for them and would happily babble away. She did great on the plane rides and it was nice to have a layover in Atlanta to let her get out and crawl for awhile. She enjoyed looking over the back of our seat on the plane and saying hi to other passengers. It was her own game of hide and seek and she would laugh contagiously until she had the attention of everyone around us. I was so glad she didn't get too antsy on the plane and slept most of the way. Everything was so much fun that we are already talking about our next vacation. It would be fun to go with another couple with kids to trade off watching the babies but we really enjoyed the family vacation together. So relaxing!!

View from our room over the marina and adult pool- we had great weather except for one brief shower (while we were taking a nap)

family pic along the ocean

Bethany's waiter friend

Bethany's football game friend

The two ladies that loved Bethany

Someone smiling at Bethany

On September 11th they had a whole program on remembering the event and flew the American flag at half-mast

Our "babysitter"

Wearing my swim diaper

They had these awesome lounging beds along the ocean - fun to watch the sunrise from

Trying all the fun new food

I love the beach!

Yea, sand!

Hi, Dad

They had these fun swings along the ocean too

We took a ton of pictures, but this is a good sampling for now. Bethany is soooo close to walking. She pulls up to standing all the time and stands for 20-30 seconds sometimes. She pushes her walker around like a pro and even turns sometimes although ramming into furniture doesn't bode well for her driving skills quite yet. She tries to sound out new words sometimes, like saying "brr" for bird because we saw a lot of those near the open-air restaurants. She was so brave in the water and could crawl out of the pool on her own. She does "so big" and claps when she is happy and bounces up and down too. Her laugh is so funny and cute. We love you Bethany and really enjoyed our first family vacation together!!!

Jesus Drama Video

I love this video... very powerful.

summer pictures

Here are some pictures from August/September 2010 - Bethany is 10 months old!

Peek, I found you!

At the RiverRats water ski show with my parents, Amber/Brent/Charlie/Bella, and Aunt Lynette

Aunt Lynette with both babies!

Bethany and Charlie love their watermelon!

I love Auntie Amber!

Helping Uncle Brent

swimming with daddy

ahhh, I just woke up

what you looking at?

moooo!

I like Sweet Martha's cookies at the fair too!

Bethany and her boyfriend Wilder. He is a few weeks younger, but will be a big boy - already 24 pounds and 34 inches tall!

10 months old and summer catch up post

It has been awhile since I've posted so I'm going to attempt to catch up. The last few weekends we have had friends out to the cabin which is always a lot of fun. We had Dan's friends from Mankato there one weekend - usually we go up to the Gjovik's north of Brainerd but this year it worked out better to come to our cabin. It was fun to go boating and for Bethany to meet Asa who is a few weeks younger than her.

Climbing the stairs together.
Here they are playing on the musical table together

Then we had my sister and her family and my parents over. We actually took Charlie on Friday while Amber and Brent went to a wedding and so Bethany and Charlie had some cousin time. Here are some cute pictures from bath time. I was very wet sitting there watching them because they splashed so much!

We went to the State Fair this past week and enjoyed cheese curds, endless cups of milk, Sweet Martha's cookies and Australian battered potatoes. Bethany grabbed one of the cookies while we were darting under cover from a pop up storm and had chocolate everywhere! We also visited the Miracle of Birth center where Bethany got to come face to face with some of the animals we read about in one of her books. She loved seeing the little pigs, sheep and calves.

Labor Day weekend we finally had our Bethel friends out to the cabin. We'd been planning it since before Memorial Day trying to find a weekend where everyone could come. It was a blast! Kevin and Jon both brought their cameras to take some pictures of Bethany and we got a few cute ones I think. When they send them to me I'll be sure to post a few.

I'll do another post of some other pictures over the past month as well, but in the meantime Bethany turned 10 months old! She is learning so many new things like raising her hands by her head when we say How big is Bethany? She claps a lot and sometimes waves too. She definitely knows the meaning of "no" but usually does the no thing and looks at us to see what we will do. I thought we were going to get by, but Bethany has learned to drop things over the edge of her high chair. She eats 3 solid food meals a day and loves to try everything we give her. We play hide and seek and peek-a-boo around corners a lot and she loves it! She loves to be chased too if we crawl after her but usually stops and turns around to try to have us pick her up after awhile. She is standing on her own for longer periods of time and goes between pieces of furniture by taking a step sometimes. I think she'll walk by her 11 month birthday....

She gets sooo excited when she sees people she recognizes, especially us when she hasn't seen us all day or for a few hours. When she is interested in something she'll get quiet and look at it with her big eyes and sometimes make high-pitched noises or squeaks with her mouth slightly open while switching between looking at us and the item of interest. She sleeps very well with 2 solid naps during the day and between 11-12 hours of sleep at night. Very few times does she wake up and need us - mostly she can put herself back to sleep. She loves her books - especially the animal book when we make the sounds. We read a Bible story every night before bed and I can tell she knows its bedtime when she sits on dad's lap in the rocking chair while I read the story. Dan prays and then I cuddle her for a minute or two while she lays her head on my shoulder. Then she lays down in her crib and usually doesn't cry before drifting off to sleep.

Bethany you are at such a fun age where you love mommy and daddy and others too! We love your sweet personality and how you comfort others when they are sad like the kids at daycare or friends at home. We hope you continue to display empathy for those around you. We can't believe that you are standing on your own and feel a little sad that you may be walking soon! That means you are becoming more of a little girl than the tiny baby that we took home from the hospital last fall. We love you so much!
Here are some fun 10 month pictures of Bethany by her monkey:

She looks like a little girl instead of a baby in this picture I think