Little Sunday afternoon photo shoot

Yet another adorable dress that needed a photo shoot...

Thoughts on Larsen...

My random thoughts on Larsen:

Larsen is truly happy and sweet MOST the time.  It is rare for her to be fussy or cry, and if happens it is always very justified (usually ready for nap or bedtime).  

She is having so many firsts right now, I just can't keep up.  She wants to feed herself and wants to eat everything that her big brother is eating.  

For example, this is what she ate today:

Breakfast: 1 banana pancake

Lunch: 1/2 peach & mandrin orange slices, few crackers

Dinner: cheese quesadilla, black beans and rice (from Chipotle)

She is so entertained by Anders and just loves to have his attention.  A few weeks ago we went through a stage where Anders was slightly jealous of Larsen -- clinging to me and hitting her several times.  But he now loves playing with her, making her laugh, and taking care of her...praise GOD for his change of heart! 

Larsen knows the hand motions to "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" amazingly well, and she claps her hands to "Patty Cake".  But the best is when she shakes her booty to the Ellen theme song (I often watch the show while nursing, so yes she is dancing while nursing).  

Larsen turns 10 months old next week and I can not believe how many moments I am looking at her and thinking "she is such a big girl!"

For some reason I LOVE these pictures...

Larsen's bath this morning (after her messy, messy breakfast)...

 And one picture after bath time..

Larsen in her big highchair

This week Todd & Anders assembled Larsen's Tripp-Trapp highchair.  So now we have two of them at our table! Here she is eating like a big girl in her big chair for the first time.  NOTE this is the exact sequence of how the photos were taken. (The choking picture is so awful, but I just had to include it.  She recovered right away)...

Pool is OPEN

This morning we packed up and headed down to the neighborhood pool for the first time this year.  Anders was excited for both the wagon ride and swimming. It was Larsen's FIRST for both, and I think she liked the wagon ride more than swimming.

I hate that I didn't have a good angle on this picture, but had to post it anyway...Larsen is excited and looks like such a big girl!

 Ready to go!

Debating whether he should get in (the water was pretty cold)...but eventually he did swim around, jump to Daddy, and have a lot of fun.

 Swimming with Daddy and not too sure about it...

 Showing off her adorable swimsuit!

 Eating her first goldfish...

 Heading out - time to go home for nap time (everyone napped!)

Our little eater...

Larsen needed several weeks to get used to eating baby food, but after a couple months she got to where she was eating 4-5 jars/pouches a day.  But a few weeks ago, she lost interest and refused.  Now giving her baby food is slow and not very easy.  At first I thought she was disappointed that I had run out of the gourmet flavors (used coupons to buy the expensive blends).  So I went and bought her favorites (without coupons).  That helped a little, but it was still a chore to get her to open her mouth for the first few bites.  So I started giving her FOOD!  Most days she feeds herself really well and some days she isn't interested.  I am giving her a combination of baby food and chunks of food.  She has eaten: cheerios, watermelon, bananas, pear, blueberries, rice, avocado, one pretzel and a couple goldfish.  Yes, not too proud of giving her those last two on the list.  But with a big brother eating in front of her, it is so hard to not let her have one too!

Eating bananas one afternoon...

 Having her first avocado this morning...she LOVED it!

Naked day/Larsen pics

Surprisingly Anders started off the morning fully dressed, but each piece of clothing eventually got wet and was taken off.  I think this was the day that he stood on the bottom step of the deck and peed off into the grass.  I did not know what he was doing until he came back up the steps and proudly announced he had peed in the grass.  I thought it was pretty harmless, so I just laughed about it.  If only I had known that a few days later he would poop off the bottom step...I would have talked about it then, but now he knows: 1) pooping is hard to do standing up and 2) even though Bella poops in the grass, he can only poop in the potty.  

Working hard and watering the flowers...

Must put on shoes to go play in the grass, of course...

Larsen wearing an adorable outfit that the Banta's gave her...