Sitting Pretty and Pulling Up

You can put a hundred toys around Raeann and she doesn't care one cent about them. She would rather play with everything and anything else - specifically things you don't want her to play with. This particular night she thought her little cloth booties were the best toy in the world.

Pulling the string out of the bootie.

As if crawling wasn't good enough, Raeann has now started to pull herself up on things. I think the couch cushion is her favorite thing to pull herself up with. Luckily, right now she rarely gets past her knees. Mike and I are starting to wish she'd slow down a bit!

Jack-o-lantern

I finally carved the pumpkin we chose from the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago. I wanted to take some pictures of Raeann with it. This is pretty much the only picture where she even seemed to notice it was there.

She seemed much more interested in everything else around her and we had to place her next to the pumpkin several times as she would instantly start crawling away to check something else out. I think here she is interested in a particular spot on the concrete.

Finally I just held her so she would stop crawling away. As you can see, she's not all that excited about being made to hold still.

A Determined Sound

We noticed on Saturday that whenever Raeann would get very determined about getting somewhere or something she would clamp her jaw, scrunch up her nose, and make this huffing-puffing sound. Mike was getting her to do it by making the noise himself and then she would mimic him. This particular incident all started because she was determined to crawl over him to get the remote. It's hard to hear her make the noise, but you can definitely see the face she makes!

At the Pumpkin Patch

We started a new tradition today by taking Raeann to a pumpkin patch to pick our own pumpkin. It was $5.00 a pumpkin, so we will probably only do this once and get any more we want from Walmart, but it was a lot of fun.

A small one for our girl...I don't think this one is worth $5.00.

There were many pumpkins that looked like a good choice. We choose this one to sit on mainly.

I wasn't sure how Raeann would take to being put on the ground, as last time my dad placed her in the grass she started screaming, but she was more curious this time in what she could grab from the ground than the fact that it was something new and unsettling.

The pumpkin patch was so exciting that she slept for an hour in the car while Mike and I drove up to the Uncompahgre Plateau to look for some colors, but unfortunately all the trees above our elevation had pretty much shed their leaves already. Bummer...

Going Places

On Sunday Raeann officially started to crawl. She's been very determined to be able to go somewhere for some time now and I think she's delighted that she can actually go and get what she wants. I'm not too sure that our cat Tadd is thrilled with it however, after watching her diligently crawl after him even after he ran away and changed directions several times.

This is Wednesday...as you can see the crawling is no longer hesitant or slow. I think we are going to have our hands full shortly, as it seems we have a child determined to go places and at a fast rate too!

A New Toy

Raeann has recently grown just enough that she can now play in the exersaucer. This has been a long time in coming, considering that I put it together in June. I think she's enjoying figuring it out.

This is one of my favorite expressions! My friend Claire says that she may have Mike's face but she has my expressions. Is this the "I wonder what you're doing; I'm not doing anything" look?

Crib Fun

Raeann is getting so much more expression in her face and actions. You can certainly tell what she wants and how she's feeling.

Moments before I went to get the camera she was trying her hardest to eat the large rainforest noisemaker attached to her crib. Of course, once she saw the camera she decided to show off instead.