11 months

Dixie has been giving lots and lots of hugs this month. I think she finally knows who her mommy and daddy are. It’s really so sweet and we cherish every hug we get from her. In addition to being scared of the vacuum cleaner, we’ve discovered that she is also afraid of the harmonica. So whenever Im in need of a good Dixie hug, I pull it out and let out a little whistle from it. I get a good 2 minute hug session, so it’s totally worth her fear!

Dixie absolutely loves the park. She goes on the swings, plays in the sand and crawls around the play structures. She gets super dirty in the process! Whenever we put her in the stroller to leave the park, she throws a little temper tantrum. She stiffens her body, kicks her legs and screams. I think we’re going to have some major toddler temper tantrums on our hands soon enough. But her little face looks so cute angry, all scrunched up with that button nose, that I don’t think we’ll mind too much.

Dixie was a lady bug for Halloween. She was so cute in her little costume I wanted to eat her up. I took her to my work Halloween party and to the church’s trunk or treat. She had a great time at both, as she got to socialize with lots of little friends and eat lots of treats. She especially loved playing in the hay stack.

Dixie the ladybug

Dixie harrassing cousin Jaden

Dixie does not like to travel right now. We went to Phoenix for Jayden’s baby blessing (who is a complete doll), and she was a miserable little monster the whole time. I think a lot of it can be attributed to her teething at the same time. She wouldn’t sleep, she barely ate, and was very temperamental and hard to please the entire weekend. What was supposed to be a nice relaxing get away to meet our new nephew turned out to be a train wreck. Don’t get me wrong though, we’re so glad we were able to be there for the blessing, and we’d go again in a heartbeat just to cuddle little Jayden and eat Michelle’s yummy food. A positive note was that we took Dixie to the Zoo in Phoenix, and she LOVED it!

Daddy hauling Dixie around the zoo

Dixie in awe of the warthogs

She loved the fish, all the birds, and especially the wart hogs. It was so precious to see her awe and wonder. We had to hold her back from crawling into the fish pond- it was just too tempting for her.

Dixie is moving off of pureed baby food, and much prefers finger food. She loves shredded cheese, bread, pizza crust, and pancakes. I always throw in some fruits and veggies in the mix of food, but she is super smart and avoids these little niblets at all costs. She will eat around all the fruits and veggies and go straight for the carbs. Hmmm….. how can I get her to start eating the greens? I might have to pull out my deceptively delicious cook book and start disguising them as muffins.

Dixie the explorer crawling into her little cove and falling back out of it

Dixie’s movements are getting quick and confident. She crawls over and under anything in her way. She pulls herself up onto anything (even flat walls with nothing to grab onto), and she even stood up without support for a couple of seconds before falling flat on her face. I wonder how long before she starts to walk??

We had our Christmas Photo Shoot, and the pictures are fabulous. A hugeThank you to Lailah for doing such a great job (http://lailahmuetingphotography.com). You should all be excited for your Christmas cards this year. Send me your address if you haven’t received one from us in the past, or if you've moved recently and I’ll be sure to include you on my list.