"Getting so much better all the time"

Scarlett is getting so much better using her toys. The rings which accompany her ring stacker are no longer just irksome, but rather entertaining after all. Oh...and please excuse the new parent "YAYS!" subsequent to every successful stack. If Joe and I cheer like this over the fact that Scarlett can stack rings, what on earth is going to happen when she wins a gold medal in the Olympics? Scarlett starts off with the blue ring. It's the biggest and therefore the easiest to put on the stacker.

And with complete and total determination, Scarlett moves on to the more challenging green and yellow rings. The orange ring is currently MIA. It was thrown somewhere in Scarlett's "I hate these rings" phase. The red ring, the hardest of them all, is still being mastered. It actually has distracting rattley-shakey bits in it, which Scarlett cannot see past. How's a kid supposed to deposit a ring on said stacker when it makes a cool noise if you shake it. Come on, Fisher Price, what were you thinking? Will you ever learn?

Oh...and the "gumballs" get put away now too. She doesn't quite enjoy giving them up - as you'll notice when she frantically tips the gumball machine towards her to make sure the "gumball" did not fall into some black void and become irretrievable for eternity.

Yay Scarlett!

Maybe....?

There's no doubt - you've all decided that Scarlett looks like Joe, and I won't completely disagree. I do, however, have to bestow upon you these pictures, in which I feel there is an uncanny resemblance between baby daughter and baby mommy. May you find it in your hearts to appease a mother (or at least humor her) by claiming that her daughter, even if slightly, looks like her. Please? (Seriously folks. I'm two steps away from begging.)

Scarlett's first Easter

What a day! Scarlett woke up and received her first Easter basket ever. It contained some beach toys, baby crocs, bubbles and Raggedy Ann, whom she now loves...well, at times. At the times when she decides she does not love Raggedy Ann she is violently throwing her on the floor...and once she used Raggedy to bang on her toy piano...and once she stepped on her face - okay twice. Val, Andrei, and Carson met us at at church for an Easter egg hunt. It was very fun to have friends at church. Scarlett wore a special outfit that her Great Aunt Cathy from Prince Edward Island gave to her when she was born. To my delight, it fit her perfectly. Let the hunt begin!Carson started playing with some chairs - and of course, Scarlett copied him. Then we had cookies. Cookies with frosting. The parents had coffee...does it get any better than that?!I swear...if Scarlett's crib was in my car we'd have no trouble getting her to nap. We live 3 minutes from church and she didn't even make it home. Maybe Fisher Price can invent a crib with a motor. (back off folks...patent pending). Afterwards, some of the family came over for a visit. Here are "The Nan," Aunt Stephanie, Scarlett and I,then we'll throw in a dad and an Uncle Craig.We ate, drank, and were merry. Then 50% of us fell asleep on the couch. Just so you know - that 50% was not including Scarlett, who was wide awake. Apparently her one 20 minute nap in the car at 12:30 sufficed. That's it...that was our Easter. I hope yours was as good as ours.

Kid City...again!

This weekend, Scarlett brought her dad to Kid City. We were all prepared to go to our regular New Haven Children's Museum for story hour, but they were closed for the holiday (which very much fell on Sunday and not on Saturday, but I didn't argue). When learning that there would be no story hour, I had a brief moment of panic at the possibility of Scarlett having a weekend without culture. We had to get somewhere quick. So quick, in fact, that we made no attempt to soothe the savage beast that was Scarlett's hair on this particular day. She was having some seriously crazy baby hair. Here are some pictures of Scarlett showing her dad the ropes...with crazy baby hair.Scarlett was being a little cheeky, so we made her crawl the plank. There she is, folks, my cheeky baby.
Up to something fishy.
What can I say? The girl likes steam...and bowls for banging. Who doesn't? Scarlett was having a bad hair day, which is nothing but obvious in the picture below. Even mom spit wasn't helping. Quoting my friend Val - she was having a "Nick Nolte mugshot" hair day. They're the best kind.
I won't even tell you how long it took to get this picture. Long enough that my camera died three minutes later. We'll just leave it at that. Kid City...you never let us down. We'll be back Kid City...we'll be back. But next time, we'll have better hair.

Scarlett's first steps!

Well...kind of. This is more of a re-enactment of what Scarlett's first steps looked like - minus, of course, Joe setting Scarlett up so she is in perfect pre-step position. Come on - you can't really think that we just so happened to have camera in hand for this miraculous and wobbly occurrence. (I will never forgive myself). I assure you though, the actual first steps looked exactly like this, and they were taken by Scarlett without any parental assistance. I'm not saying they're bounding steps. I'm not saying they're graceful steps. But they're undeniably steps...kind of.

Turning 10 months old is nothing to laugh about...

Okay - yes it is. So is banging...and clapping...and the dog. In fact, anything that will get Scarlett out of finishing her dinner is very worth laughing at. Her 10 month old birthday present to me? Discovering that I've hidden vegetables in her mac & cheese, which she will now no longer eat. There goes that trick.

Scarlett and Lion make amends

Scarlett learned to crawl, obviously. She then learned to pull up on furniture and learned to cruise almost immediately after...and then she just kind of stoppped. I think her initial issue with perpindicularity rested on the fact that it requires one to be relatively still in order to maintain balance, and Scarlett and stillness never meshed well. That's one wild and crazy baby. Scarlett was quite content staying on the floor. And because of this she is now capable of crawling at four different speeds - sub-light speed, light speed, ridiculous speed, and, yes folks, ludicrous speed.

We bought her a lion walker toy - and as opposed to helping her, it instead horrified her. I came home one night and Joe was holding an upset Scarlett. Lion was way over on the other side of the room. Lets just say the two of them were not on speaking terms for quite some time. Now though, I am happy to announce that they have made amends. Scarlett loves Lion, and I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual. Here are a couple videos of Scarlett with her new friend...

"Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale..."

Scarlett has a lot of books. I'll admit that. Until recently, she has not shown much interest in them. She would chew on them. She would bang on them. She would even bang two of them together. But open them? Hardly. Turn pages? Rarely. Sit still long enough to look at them? UNHEARD OF! Well tonight, Scarlett crawled over to her book shelf, picked out a book, a then retreated to our rocking chair where I, her mother, make a desperate attempt on a nightly basis to read her a story. With a little parental assistance, Scarlett cozied right up in the chair and read herself a book. Admittedly, it was Mickey and Minnie's Barn Dance and not Shakespeare - but hey, you gotta start somewhere, right? Now...if I could just get her to read Tom Jones for me before my book group meeting next Tuesday...

Battle Royale à la Stacker

Here it is folks, the infamous ring stacker. Scarlett loves this toy. She really loves it once she gets those pesky and annoyingly colorful rings out of the way - because honestly...what are they good for? Now that stacker though...oh, in its prime and naked glory...is good for the greatest thing known to mankind. Banging. When Scarlett gets hold of that stacker - look out world cause it's bangin' time. No wall, dog, coffee table, head or eye socket is safe from stacker-armed Scarlett.

That being said...Joe went to pick up Scarlett from daycare yesterday and he was greeted with a little story as to how Scarlett had spent her afternoon. Her daycare provider has this same ring stacker toy. Her daycare provider also has 2 other babies in her care, aged 14 and 18 months. Apparently, babies and stackers don't mix. They all love this stacker - and I repeat - not the rings...just the stacker. Her daycare provider witnessed these three babies fighting tooth and nail over this stacker (which, of course, is going to happen at a daycare). She said they were all sitting in a circle holding onto it like their world would end if they let go. After the story, Joe looked to his right and who do you think was sitting there holding the stacker? My bruiser baby, Scarlett. He picked her up, and the second she was off the floor the other 2 babies came running over to fight over the stacker again. Oh Scarlett...was it something you said? Did you stacker attack them? The world may never know.

Some quality nan time

Scarlett got to see her nan this weekend. She babysat for Scarlett twice...which is as good for Scarlett as it is for Joe and I. Scarlett was acting a little crazy...which has come to be quite typical behavior of her royal cheekiness. We caught her craziness on film. Observe... Oh Scarlett...nan is supposed to pinch your cheeks.

Who wants grilled cheese for dinner? Raise your hand...

Scarlett has been doing very well with finger foods. Her favorite food to date - grilled cheese sandwiches. She loves them. It is currently quite convenient because we can share a sandwich. I just so happen to enjoy a good grilled cheese sandwich myself. Half for Scarlett, half for mommy = a whole lot of convenience.

"If I had a boat..."

New toys

Scarlett has gotten a few new toys recently. She really likes them. Her favorite song is currently a V-Tech rendition of "All Around the Mulberry Bush." It's her jam. Here you can see her face light up when it comes on. She also busts a move or two.

Here is Scarlett playing with her new gumball machine. She has no problem getting all the "gumballs" out - putting them away is another thing. She has done it once so far, and Joe and I were so excited you would have thought she had just recited the alphabet...backwards even.

A lazy mom equals a boring blog

I have to apologize....Scarlett has been doing all kinds of fun stuff and I, lazily, have not been posting any of it. Now it's time to play catch up. We've got some waving action, high fiving, and her favorite silly lip flubbing trick...all that from only one sitting in her high chair. Here are numerous videos for your viewing pleasure. Please forgive me for not sharing them with you earlier.

Kidcity!

Today we went to the Kidcity Museum and we had a blast. In attendance were Val and Carson, and Val's friend Marna and her daughter Penelope. Little Miss Penelope was kind enough to give Scarlett a tour of the museum, which was much appreciated because it is gianormous. We didn't get to take too many pictures - mainly because I had my arms full of baby and baby accessories - but we did manage to get a few. Unfortunately, Penelope wasn't in any of them. To meet her, visit her blog by clicking here.

Swim lessons have begun!!

I know you've all been on the edge of your seats in complete and total anticipation of Scarlett and Carson's swim lessons. Well...they've begun, and they're awesome. Scarlett and I flew solo to the lessons so we didn't have our cameraman (a.k.a. dad, a.a.k.a. Joe) with us...but we make guest appearances in Carson's spectacular movie "There's Something Fishy Going On." I am seriously proud to show my face on such work of genius. It even has a soundtrack for crying out loud! Kudos Carson's dad, kudos. To see his skills, click here.

Here comes Scarlett Cottontail...

but she wasn't really hopping down the bunny trail. She was more gliding through Target strapped into the baby seat of a shopping carriage. But...hey, Easter's still on its way! We went to Target to pick up 20 pairs of bunny ears for our church, United Church on the Green. They will be hosting an Easter egg hunt on Easter morning. How exciting?! Scarlett can't wait...obviously.