Nine Months

Ok, so I'm cheating this month by using some of the family photos that my sister took instead of photos that I should have taken of Gwen. This month has been busy. Gwen babbles up a storm, crawls everywhere and gets into everything, and she's laughing a lot more, which is the best. She laughs a lot when I chase her, or when she's at the top of the stairs behind the baby gate and Ryan or I will crawl up the stairs. She goes nuts. Up until this month, I thought that Gwen's weird behaviorisms were simply just "babyisms." Nope, she's actually just crazy. Gwen eats a lot of different foods, now. I'll be sure to keep track of what she likes and dislikes for the next update. So far, there are few foods that she doesn't like.
I feel like Gwen is starting to understand me when I talk to her... sometimes. Other times I'll be repeating the same thing over and over in a stern voice and it just doesn't register at all. I guess she's still pretty young for that. (?) She also has so many cool facial expressions, now. Check out this gem of a photo, for instance. All these cousins have great expressions.

All photos by Ashley Rose Hamilton Photography 

Kiss the Chef

Hey! Long time no blog. I was at a family reunion in Albuquerque the week before last, and then I was sick all last week and didn't feel like doing ANYTHING. So that was a bummer.

Ryan's sister had a birthday during our reunion and her husband surprised her by taking us all to a cooking class that night. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was much more fun than I imagined it would be. The food we prepared was probably the best New Mexican food I've ever had. Maybe I just feel that way because I was able to appreciate every step of the process. No matter, it was still the best. My favorite thing we made were the chile rellenos. If I could go back in time, I'd eat more than just one.

We learned a few good cooking tips! I'd love to go take another cooking class again one day. 

Happies

Some little things that have made me happy since I last, last blogged-

-When Gwen is tired and does this little falling thing- she crawls a few steps and then collapses, gets up and does the same thing a few more times until I scoop her up.

-When we thought that there was a little crab at the bottom of Ryan's co-worker's pool during our Memorial Day barbecue. We made him go in the pool to see if it was real/dead. (None of us were swimming.) We all circled around the pool to see. It ended up being a little plastic toy.

-Buying cute things for Gwen's room.

-Zumba. You guys. I twerked. Or at least tried to.

-The soundtrack to The Fault in Our Stars.

-Watching The Perks of Being a Wallflower with the commentary on. All the main actors and the author of the book chat it up and it made me love the movie even more. When the author says that he likes the movie adaptation more than his own book, you know it's a good one.

-That one night when Gwen slept for 7 hours straight! I woke up realizing I didn't have to tend to her once that night and thought, "Oh my gosh, is she dead??"

-Working on my talent for the little talent show we're having at the Houpt family reunion. 

8 Months

These photos are a month late! We have moved into a bigger place since I last blogged, and we didn't have wifi for two weeks. And then once we finally got it, I was feeling especially lazy about updating the blog. It was a nice little hiatus. 

Gwen is now 9 months but here she is at 8 months- 

She has sprouted 4 teeth in the span of like, 2 weeks. We have stairs in our new place, so we've been baby-proofing left and right.