Happy Birthday, Gigi! ~By Shepard

Today my Gigi is ## years old. Oh wait. Mommy said I can't put that. She is old enough to know lots of things and young enough to chase me. I love my Gigi lots. She was in the room when I took my first breath and so she has known me my whole life. I hope she has a great birthday. I'm glad that she's my Gigi. She likes to hold me and make me laugh.

I drew Gigi a picture but Mommy forgot to put it in the mailbox before we left for Thanksgiving. Mommy said that she's sorry. It will get in the mail today. I can't wait to see my Gigi and Pops in a few weeks, 'cause they are going to come up and see me and help out while Mommy sings in a play. They are fun and I love them both. Help me wish my Gigi a happy birthday. Ok, I have to go now because it's almost time for lunch. I like lunch almost as much as Gigi. Almost.

This Beautiful Mess

Sometimes a picture is really worth a thousand words.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Here's Shepard enjoying his lasagna and green beans recently. We are thankful for our sweet little guy, who really, really loves lasagna. He is very adamant these days about feeding himself with the spoon. Which is great, except most of the time, he turns it upside down before it makes it to his mouth. But he's smart and hungry. I'm guessing he's going to work that out soon. Thank God it was bath night.

Yuck Yucks...

We've been having lots of fun lately. Learning some animal noises...you never know which animal you're going to get. He's still working on it. Also, we're learning that some items you shouldn't put in your mouth. Instead of saying NO, I have been saying "Yuck yuck." I don't know why. It just happened. My yuck yuck noises were cracking Shepard up the other day as he kept trying to eat the purple crayon. Here's a little glimpse into our Sunday afternoon.

Toddler-hood

On Saturday, we had a major clean-up day. You know, the kind where the washer is spinning, the mirrors all get clean, and dust bunnies quiver in fear? That kind. I'm not 100% sure Shepard was keen on joining in to help CLEAN, but he surely did enjoy the dry swiffer. (try not to get distracted by these super-cute monkey jammers)

 He played with the thing for at least an hour. I finally had to trick him onto the diaper-changing table and leave it in the hallway for Daddy to fetch while the attention was diverted. He tried to swiffer pretty much everything in the house.

Of course, we'd love for him to learn to be helpful! Hopefully, he will model so many of the wonderful things his Daddy does around the house. Like swiffering!
In addition to this fine turn of events, he has been learning lots of new words and sounds. Seemingly something new almost every day. This week, we got "night-night," the RAWR of the lion, "fish," and MEE-MO (his way of saying Nemo when we show him our clownfish), and "cracker." He also does a terribly cute thing whenever he finds a phone or something like a phone. He holds it up to his ear and makes a funny sound like "hemmmmmmm." Not sure who he's emulating there.
This morning, as we left for the day, I pulled out the big golf umbrella to shield us from the rain. You would have thought I have given him his very own traveling circus tent. His little eyes lit up and he smiled and looked at me with that great curious stare, as if to say, "Mommy! What just happened!? Don't ever let it end."

Fall Round-Up

October was especially full. We were able to celebrate birthdays of Grandma, Aunt Jessica, and Pops! We all went to the SC State Fair. Then, we took in a fall festival at the Aw Shucks farm. The really great pictures here were taken by our friend Pranee Loffer at Beauty for Ashes photography. Then, we rounded it all out with Halloween and a sweet puppy costume. Whew!

Looking forward to the holidays, spending more time with our dear family and enjoying Christmas with our little ball of energy.