Etta is 9 months old!

Weight: 18lbs 7oz (49%)
Height: 27 1/2 (50%)
Head: 17 1/2

So to all those who make comments about her looking big for her age or chubby: she is completely average size-wise. But we are all aware that cuteness wise she is in the 90% !!

Maybe I will post some pictures tomorrow, but I at least wanted to get those numbers out before I forgot.

Pictures from our most recent trip to Vancouver

(for those of you who do not look at the Picassa web album)

Pool time with Papa

Papa Shark

Fishing

Splashing in the kid pool

Obviously we forgot to post the "no bare buns" rule

Aunt AJ learned a secret to keeping Etta happy: 

hold her & give her mum-mum crackers

Is Asa pushing or is Addie dragging?

See that baby bump on Cheryl? She is due end of Oct

Grandma Ellie's playland always has enough toys to keep all the grandkids busy

Playing together quite nice

Aubree & Addie in tutu's

The new kitten loves to play

(the old kitten was, we think, eaten by a coyote -

 but without clear evidence we just say she is missing/lost)

The kid table will need to get bigger soon

The bib says it all (adorable)!

Think they look related?

Up your butt

I have had yet another incident which makes it perfectly clear that I need to choose my words very carefully because little ears hear everything and little mouths repeat everything.

Before her nap the other day Addie was wearing her underwear but no pants. I noticed that her undies were on backwards and suggested that she fix them because they were currently "up your butt crack." oops. "Up your butt" my little Addie parrot said, "up your butt, up your butt". I was careful not to laugh as she said this but I sure wanted too. Thankfully she has not repeated this in any other contexts.

I'm a grandma!

Addie has made it very clear that she is Lion's mommy. There have been times that last few days where I refer to her as Addie and she corrects me "I Lion's mommy". She has clear mothering instincts.
Another development along this line is Addie's realization that if she is Lion's mom, I am Lion's grandma. So now it is "Lion's mommy go out in car. Lion's grandma babysit Lion." She will leave me with a bottle and clear instructions on what I am expected to do with Lion (feed him snack, change his diaper, put him down for nap). Then she quickly comes back in her car (horse on wheels) to check and make sure I did what I was supposed to. Did she learn this from me on the rare occasion that I leave the girls with babysitters?

Anyways... not sure how I feel about not yet being 30 (less than a month now though) and being a grandma!

Who? what? where? when? why? how?

Addie is learning the art of asking questions. So far, thankfully, this has not consisted of the word "why" repeated 20 times in that many minutes. Instead it is:
"why computer broken?"
"who park their car there?"
"why her doing that?"
"how mommy fix it?"
"what inside the package?"
"when daddy come home?"
"where we buy more?"

Often they are very logical questions and I truly enjoy her curiosity. She is still working on her use of pronouns, etc and there are times when only Matt or I can understand what her words are. Speaking of words, Addie & I are both looking forward to when Etta has words she can use instead of her loud shreaks :)

Marston family reunion

This weekend we had a family reunion at a lodge near Mt Rainier. A big thanks to May for sharing the pictures she took. If any other family members took some pictures, please share! No one even attempted a group shot: there were almost 30 adults, 10 kids and 3 babies, plus there are 3 babies-on-the-way due in January (don't worry there are 3 different moms, not triplets). It was really nice to have time with the group all together. We see some, but not all, of these people at Christmas time as well. A big thank you to those who drove or flew from places like Pullman, Boise and beyond.

And now for the pictures:

Our car stopped at Alder Lake for some playtime before going to the lodge...

Addie in the classic childrens summer pose: bum in the sand, hands busy at work

Etta normally loves water but was not such a fan of this particular water. 

She preferred being an observer like her mama.

Pictures of some cuties & their relationship to us:

these first two you should recognize

Camilla (she is Matt's cousin Paula's sweet 1 year old)

Camilla with Serena

(Serena is the youngest of the 4 Pook kids. Their mom Camille  is Matt's cousin. 

I used to babysit the 4 of them and also worked as an assistant to their dad Jon)

Silas

(his mom Janelle is Matt's cousin)

Ellie (Matt's brother Mike's little peanut)

Sam (Matt's "cousin" Susy's daughter)

Maya (Addie's favorite dog) & Stewie (a very cute little puppy)

Etta trying to either kiss or eat Maya

Matt & Addie went on a hike with some family.

  TJ (Susy's older daughter) & her dad Steve went on the hike too.

 Addie was in the pack most of the time, but I hear that TJ walked almost the entire time. 

And now for a parting shot of the splendors of the Pacific Northwest.

Can anyone name that mountain?

Chilling in the Cooler

We have had our kid pool blown-up on-an-off the past month. At one point I was trying to think of a way for Etta to enjoy the water without being in the big pool with Addie becuase I did not want her getting splashed or accidentally knocked over by Addie's friends, and I did not want her attempting to eat every single blade of grass that made its way into the pool. So this is what we came up with:

She is the perfect size for the shallow cooler!

 At one point she had pink water in her mini-cooler. It was very pink & I really wish I had a picture. No she did not excrete something nasty that discolored the water. She did the classic baby move of pulling off her hat and dropping it in the water. But I guess this hat had never been washed before because the bright pink bled into the water. Addie was almost upset at first by this color change but then she wanted a turn in the "baby pool" with pink water :)