early birthday

Daniel's Papa and Grandma, along with Great-Grandpa, came to visit this past weekend so we had a little early birthday celebration.

All this for me?

Hmmm, what have we here?

Frosting, you say? Well, it's fun to play with!

Tastes pretty good too! Yum!

Happy birthday to me!

I get presents, too?

Now I can be an engineer like Daddy and Mommy! Oh wait, you guys don't drive trains?

he's walking!

Daniel has started walking! A few steps at a time, and he tends to face-plant if no one catches him, but at least he thinks the falls are funny. Oh, and apparently I annoyingly shriek, "Good job! Good job!" every time he walks. I'm going to have to work on that...

thisclose to walking

Daniel is finally starting to get brave enough (with a LOT of encouragement) to let go of the safety of the furniture and venture out towards Daddy and Mommy. He usually only makes it a step (maybe two) without falling into our arms, but he's trying! We're attempting to get some video, but so far that just distracts him and he tries to crawl after the camera. He also thinks it's a pretty fun game to just let go and fall straight into our waiting arms. Wouldn't it be nice to have so much trust in the world that you knew someone would always catch you?

Anyway, lots of fun and laughter here! I have to admit, though, the first time he let go to head towards me, I teared up a little as I cheered and hugged him - it's yet another reminder of how big our baby is getting! Stay tuned, hopefully we'll have some video of Daniel's new adventures soon.

a giant frog in our backyard

And it's trying to eat my son!
We're trying to beat the heat so we bought a fun little kiddie pool for the backyard. Daniel wasn't sure what to think at first, especially the sprinkler on the front.
But he decided it might be kind of fun, and definitely better than sweating in 90-degree-plus weather.
But eventually he was ready to be rescued from the jaws of the giant frog.
And he settled in for a snack of animal crackers - take that, froggy!!

feeling left out

The poor kitties. Ever since Daniel was born their lives just haven't been the same. Lately they've been complaining that they never get any blog time - it's all Daniel, Daniel, Daniel. And they're right, they're pretty great kitties and they deserve some attention too. So here are a couple of the latest kitty photos (yes, once in awhile I do still pull out the camera for pictures of the cats!).

Here's Licorice perfecting his yawn. He's had lots of practice at this over the years.

And here's Taffy, relaxing in one of her favorite spots.

summertime

Just a few photos of our cool cat rockin' his sunglasses on the 4th of July. He managed to keep them on for all of 5 minutes, a new record. You can see how he felt about it though!





He also got a haircut this past weekend (as you can see in these photos it was getting kind of long again), but I don't have any photos of his new clean-cut look yet.

11 months old...

... and won't sit still!

I've been trying to take photos of Daniel sitting in the same spot on the sofa every month, so I can see how much he's grown. That was really easy in the beginning when he was little and non-mobile. Now, it's nearly impossible because he tries to dive off the sofa as soon as I sit him down. This is probably the best one I managed to get!

Here are a couple of the outtakes.

"Here I come!"

"Well, if you won't let me dive off the front of the sofa, I'll just have to go over the back!"

And finally, this is what he really wanted to do! (Don't worry, Daddy was holding his feet so he didn't fall on his head.)
He just continues to grow and become more of a little person every day! He still loves the cats (too bad they don't feel the same about him), he eats everything in sight (seriously, at some meals I think he eats more than I do), and he knows how to wave, clap, and give a high-five. He's ready to take off walking any day now, and he sure has a lot to say (although we're not smart enough to figure out what he's talking about yet). We're looking forward to more adventures as his first year draws to a close!