11 Months Old!!!

Bailey's 1st year is FLYING BY! In less than a month we will be celebrating her 1st birthday & watching her dive into her birthday cake. WOW!

Bailey is doing great! I am trying to wean her off of the bottle close to her birthday or soon there after. Right now she is getting her lunch & snack bottle in her sippy cup with a straw. It is slow going, but she usually gets it all down. She has just started eating Stage 3 foods and is capable of eating the whole jar when she wants too! Her appetite is finally back after she had a little cold several weeks ago. She is also taking a stab at finger feeding with real food besides her favorite fruit puffs. This past weekend we gave her Gerber Graduates ravioli.She likes them a lot & is able to get about half of them in her mouth, the rest end up on the floor or in the high chair. She's the funniest kid though, she won't feed herself banana or peaches! She'll cry if you put them in her mouth for her. But she loves those fruits in baby food. Go figure. Maybe it's a texture thing. Lord knows I have issues with "textures!!!" She is mainly on store bought baby food now. I lost most of MY stash during the 36 hour power outage in our neighborhood. Oh well.....we could have lost a lot more like some of our neighbors with trees down and shingles off! We were the lucky ones!!! (Glad we got our Bradford Pear thinned out & 6 ft. cut off the top last year!!!) The neighbor lost theirs about 20ft from ours!!!!

She is also crusing everywhere these days. It is finally functional for her. In the past week she will also walk with you if you hold her hands for a significant distance vs. 2 steps, sit then crawl to her destination. Crawling is still her main mode of transportation because she knows she is way faster at that!!! She still has just the 2 bottom teeth and some others should appear within the next couple of weeks I should hope. She is destroying her favorite board books from chewing on them! They are her favorite teether. :(

She is still putting herself to sleep at night!!! We read her a few stories while rocking her and put her in the crib drowsy. Sometimes she goes right to sleep, other times it takes her 30 min. She is mostly quiet just trying to settle down. I don't go to sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow so I don't expect that of her either. As long as she doesn't cry. :) So far so good. I am not sure when she finally started putting herself to bed by herself. Neither one of us thought it would work at the time we were working on it....sure enough it did!

She is still doing awesome with the potty! We started that when she was 8 months old and now at 11 months old she still does great! She will even pee on the potty if you put her on there after she wakes up in the morning or from her naps up to 10 minutes after she wakes up!!! The only time she really goes #2 in her diaper is if we are away from home, in the car etc. Not much you can do about that! She knows what she is supposed to do on there after daily repetition from the past 3 months. I just hope she keeps it up when it is time to potty train, if she does....it'll make my job a lot easier when that time comes!!! We'll see....It's Bailey...she is very independent & has a mind of her own...:)

She really doesn't say any words yet. She has her own word for kitty kitty. It's consistent when she sees the kitty. She has virtually stopped saying mama, nana, gaga & baba....mainly just says dada and her new sounds with her tongue. I can barely do it myself. She loves to make various noises/sounds with her mouth & tongue. She wants you to mock her. When you do she laughs and will continue to do it. Kinda like Simon says. It's funny. However, she doesn't really like to play the game if you start it. Mainly on her terms!!! She isn't saying words but she understands a few. Example: Drink, Stand Up, No, Down, Kitty Kitty....we are working on book & ball etc. So I know her ears are doing ok if she understands certain things. She also loves to wave (with her left hand only!!!), clap & she has pointed a couple times (with her left hand) at the kitty.

This past weekend her best friend Aubrey turned 1!!!! Bailey enjoyed the party and really enjoyed watching Aubs eat her cake. The girls are so cute together!!!

In other news: Keenan is doing AWESOME at his training for the half-marathon! He is up to 9 miles on his long runs!! I'm so proud of him. His legs feel great some days and hurt other days. We just hope he can with stand this traning for a few more weeks! Oct. 12 he has to run 13.1 miles!! GO KEENAN GO!!!!

Our Fishing Trip

Sunday (Hurricane Ike Day) Keenan and I thought it would be a good idea to go to Barren River Lake to fish since it was so close to mom's house. We heard there would be 20mph wind gusts.....Nothing we haven't seen before. It obviously was more windy than they had predicted and our boat was a little difficult to control. We loaded up to head home early that day!

Monday the 3 of us accompanied Grammy and Grandpa Wendell to the Sante Fe to the Cruise In there. It was a bit chilly but Bailey really enjoyed listening to the live band they had there....her first concert...;-)

Tuesday we took out early and headed for Lake Barkley for our fishing trip. Grammy volunteered to keep Bailey overnight a couple of nights for us. I of course was a nervous wreck, but a few phone calls and a couple of text messages throughout each day checking on Bailey...made me feel much better. All I heard the whole time we were gone was, "Bailey is the best girl!" So...why worry. :) I needed a break to relax, so I did. However, I intened on fishing with Keenan as well as scrapbooking and sleeping in. Well, needless to say the last 2 things did not happen. When you are married to a fisherman, the day tends to start earlier than a normal day when you are home. I had forgotten :(.
We were out on the water early and came in in the evening. That schedule absolutely WORE me out! Tuesday evening, our friends invited us over to their lake house for a cookout. We gladly accepted. Tasty meal, Gloria! Keenan was in heaven with the cheesecake she made. I guess I need the recipe.
Overall, we had a great trip and a nice stay at the Lake Barkley Resort. We caught a lot of smallmouth, something we've never caught a lot of. (They are fun to catch!!!) We also caught a lot of largemouth bass. I wouldn't be surprised if we didnt' catch around 90 fish between the 2 of us during our trip. They weren't huge fish but they were fish. It beats those days when you don't even get a bite. :)

I've posted the rest of the pics on the PICASA slideshow. Click the slideshow in the top right corner.

Playdate & Family Photo Shoot

(if you click on the "scrapblog icon" you can view the scrapbook full screen.)

Aubrey invited Bailey over for a playdate Saturday. The girls really enjoyed it as they do more and more each time! It's great to see. Aubrey has been sick a good portion of the summer so the girls haven't gotten to interact as much as Cheven and I would've liked. Now that she is feeling better, hopefully there will be more playdates! Bailey just loves Aubrey's toys.

The 3 of us finally got our beloved Colts jerseys this weekend. What better to do than take pics of us as a family. I enlisted the handy services of my tripod to get the family shots...hence, why Bailey looks at the ground in all of them....No one to get her attention to the camera. Oh well! We had fun!!!---Even though our COLTS DID NOT!!!!


Our weekend was much more laid back than the previous, which we enjoyed that a lot!!! Next week is our "mini vacation"...I HOPE I DO OK!!!! We are really looking forward to it. And yes, I am sure Bailey and Grammy will enjoy their time a lot more than I will out fishing..WHY? I am sure it will RAIN!!!! :-D
Fall? Already? Well, it is around our house. Keenan said he was going to get up in the attic, so I took advantage of it and had him get my fall decor down....I picked up a few mums for my pots out front...changed the flag out front...and PRESTO....FALL at the Hape's house!

Labor Day Weekend

Pool Time Labor Day Wknd 2008 @ Yahoo! Video

We had a very busy holiday weekend. Unfortunately we designated it to be, pressure wash & reseal our aggregate weekend. Keenan was to do it all but at the last minute I decided I needed the exercise and extra fresh air before the nice weather is gone. So, Keenan got LOTS and LOTS of one on one time with Bailey this weekend while I sweated off a few pounds working outside. It sure does look nice....making it all worth the effort. It took us a lot longer this year because last time we did it we both worked together, not this year...no one to watch a girl. That's ok..Daddy and his girl enjoyed their time together.





Sunday afternoon our neighbor called and said we could have their pool all to our self. Needless to say, that is what we did. Family pool time! Bailey really enjoyed relaxing in her floating toy box, giving daddy kisses, splashing the water & have her toes for a snack. It still felt great even though the water temp was 84 degrees. She is the best girl during pool time. I am going to miss it for the next several months. That's my favorite time of year!!!
THANKS CHEVEN & JASON!!....Aubs too. :)




Mommy has also been busy trying to get Bailey's scrapbook finished. I have a LONG ways to go...thank you Keenan for all of your help around here while I stare at the computer. :) I have also signed myself up for a free internet class to learn Photoshop CS3 Extended, a new program I have. It is a long semester of evening classes 2x/week. I figure if it is too much for me, I can always quit & take it again some other time. I am really excited though at the thought of learning this new program!!! That will be right up my alley for all of the pictures I take and for my digital scrapbooking!

Keenan and I are really looking forward to our "mini" vacation coming up. "Grammy" has been asking since I was pregnant if and when I would let her keep Bailey overnight....The time has come. September 16th & 17th Bailey will spend the night at Grammy's while Keenan and I stay at the Lake Barkley Lodge for a couple of nights and of course go FISHING. Bless his heart, he has been the biggest sport with having a baby and not being able to do what he has been used to doing ALL of the time. GO FISHING. He went from going virtually every weekend to just a handful of times...with ZERO complaints. We both knew that was going to be a sacrifice with having a baby. We are both looking forward to our little getaway...and THANK YOU in advance Grammy!!!

Bailey also decided that she likes to have her little teeth brushed & her gums. It probably feels good on those sore areas where her teeth are trying to come through. They make the toothpaste flavored for babies & it is safe for them to swallow. It's like dessert for her.