Look who's 8 months old today-- sniffle, sniffle

Time has flown and Macie is already 8 months old! I can't believe it. I remember looking at her when she was in the newborn blob stage wondering if she'd ever do anything more than sleep, cry, eat, and poop. Here's what she's up to (I'm listing these mostly for my own personal record but hope you enjoy them, too).

Macie's officially a rascal. She's pulling herself up and cruising around our apartment, tackling Ryan, and getting into things that she really shouldn't. She doesn't like to be held much anymore--just loves to crawl everywhere and be active. She's still very, very tiny--just barely 14 pounds and doesn't have much hair. A lot of people mention that she smiles with her eyes and that she looks really feminine (must be those long eyelashes inherited from her dad). She's very tactile--loves gently touching things and loves being caressed on her head--it hypnotizes her. She twiddles her thumbs which I've never seen any other baby do. She does this bobble-head thing that cracks us up. She definitely loves Rich and has him wrapped around her little finger. Like Ryan, she's a total chatterbox. She loves blowing raspberries and making gargling noises. She lights up when she's sees Ryan and I swear when he's not with her she makes these noises that sound like, "Where's Ryan at? Why isn't he here with me?" The other day he was yelling right in her face and all she did was giggle--so cute, but that reaction probably won't last long:).

Some random stuff

Nothing huge has gone on but here's the latest. . . Our really good friends, the Russons, are moving far, far away and we're so sad. Ryan doesn't totally get the fact that 2 of his best friends are leaving. They are the perfect little buddies--get along pretty well, love the same things (catching potato bugs), and they lived in the building across from ours. I will especially miss my friend Stacy who has spoiled me and been such a true friend. Our phone bill will be large:). However, we are so happy for them and wish them the best.


Ryan and the Russon boys eating lollipops that have silly mouths on the ends instead of sticks. Definitely worth 99 cents.

And on to other things. . .


Ryan developing a new talent--eating scrambled eggs with his toes. Is Star Search still on the air?

Today we had the best of intentions of going to the tide pools but someone (ok, Macie) decided not to sleep last night as much as we'd hoped. So, we went to a cool close by park we'd never been to.


Ryan and Rich climbing a tree together.


Macie and me sitting by the little creek after lunch.


Ryan after he fell into the creek. Apparently rainboots aren't the best for walking on wet river rocks.


Um, total daddy's girl.


National Geographic shot of the day. I think this is a damsel fly--but not totally sure. These were everywhere and fun to watch.

I walked six whole miles in just 10 days

So, recently we went to Rancho San Antonio Park. It's basically a nice big hilly park with trails and a farm. When you go you have to walk a WHOLE:) mile to the farm and back which takes a while with kids.  Anyways, to make a long story short I've made the trek there 3 times in like 10 days. Once for fun, once to try to locate my lost keys, and then again for ward park day. I've become very familiar with that whole mile walk to the farm. Anyways, we loved the zillions of lizards, wild turkeys (other than my kids), a squished snake on the road, a beehive, a farm with baby goats, and all kinds of other nature-ish things. And Ryan was so funny trying to catch lizards for the first time. I took a bunch of pictures of the kids but none were that great so in the end my favorite was of this lizard who didn't run away from me. And hey, if you really want to see the kids just scroll down--they still look the same. And no, I didn't find my keys.

Ryan

So, I'm totally guilty of noticing (and writing about) the naughty things that Ryan does more often than the good things he does.  I've really been noticing Ryan's talents lately and I just wanted to write them down. I'd love to read about any of your kids' cool strengths.

#1 Ryan has a great sense of direction. He's only 3 but he totally knows his way around when we drive. One day we were driving and he asked where we were going and I said Target. He said, "This isn't the way to Target. This is the way to Natalie's house." He was totally right. I was driving a different route than usual which happened to go by his friend Natalie's house. We live in kind of a big city with lots of streets and freeways so I think this is pretty cool.

#2 Ryan has a great sense of balance. Of course he falls occasionally but most of the time he does an amazing job balancing on logs, rocks, and whatever else he can climb and walk on.

#3 Ryan is a normal, somewhat oblivious, 3 year old when it comes to noticing the needs of others. However, every so often he totally notices that someone is in need and he helps them. He recently did this when I got really sick. He just sat next to me and kind of rubbed my head. And at church he let me have his Sacrament water when he noticed that the tray would run out before I could get mine.