The Morrison Girls and Shoes

Shoes, shoes, shoes! Seems like it's a commonality among us-- we love our shoes! I just recently purchased a pair of sneakers for Claire (when she starts walking) and a pair of black dress shoes (to go with her Christmas dress), and she is in love with them. Yesterday morning, she spent 15 minutes opening and closing the Velcro and asking me to put them on her little feet.







Then there's Carly who loves shoes too, but unfortunately, in a destructive way. After numerous offenses, Carly was hauled off to the Doggie Dentention Center and booked for destruction of private property.

Mima Visits Texas

Shelly came out for a Fall Visit this past week. She was here for Claire's second Halloween and got into the spirit of the holiday with a fabulous she-devil costume. Since I was terribly out-numbered and the Gator game was televised (but poor FSU did not get coverage!), Claire got dressed up in her UF cheerleading outfit-- don't worry, my fellow FSU alumni-- she has a Nole one too. (Gotta love grandmas... Mom and Shelly were both out shopping, different times, different days, and picked out for Claire their own child's alma mater-- same sizes, too!) We did some shopping, went out for lunch, and had a nice time playing around the house. Shelly was here for the Election Party and got to see Scott's solo in the Requiem concert at church last night. "Scott did a wonderful job!" says the proud wife. I did video-tape it, so hopefully I will soon learn how to download digital footage.

Claire has really been on the go! She loves playing in her new sandbox, in which she was making cakes with her mima. She has also started to climb on things-- chairs, Reese, the dishwasher. I am on my toes now more than ever!

Happy Halloween!

Claire was a princess for Halloween-- it's so weird to think that this is her second round at the holiday, but our year of "1sts" is over! We went to the little Halloween festival put on by the city, rushed home to nap, and was all set to go pick up Claire's Mima at the airport until her nap ran long-- never wake a sleeping baby! ; ) Fortunately, Scott was able to get his mother and brought her back. We did walk around the block in costume-- all of us-- and stopped by houses of our friends to say hello. We usually do an after-dinner-stroll, so we stayed in our routine for baby and dogs' sakes.

Owen's Farm

We made our first trip today to Owen's Farm here in Richardson today. The experience included a pumpkin patch, hay ride, petting zoo, and time to play in the hay. Rafi and Laura joined us for this fun excursion, and it was the perfect afternoon-- cool, blue sky, a few clouds, and sunshine. Claire did pretty well with the goats at the petting zoo. They were so cute with their little tongues, licking up all the food you placed on your hand. Claire fed them once and was then content to let me feed them. Towards the end, she was confident enough to reach and touch the horns on one goat and stroke his ears. ("They're big and floppy just like your doggies," I kept telling her.) Claire and Rafi played with the stem of a pumpkin-- so sweet-- before finally choosing their own pumkins.

Another Gorgeous Day

We went to the Dallas Arboretum this week with our friends, Amy and William. We have been really enjoying these wonderful fall days that Texas has given us! Claire and William posed in the pumpkin patch together and played in the hay-bale maze. William is walking, so Claire got lots of photo time as Amy had to chase down William. All the mums were blooming, and with Dallas being in the flight path of the Monarch butterfly, there were some great photo ops.

Mmm... Ravioli!

Every baby has a picture of them eating/wearing spaghetti... spaghetti=ravioli for us. Claire ate ravioli for the first time and definitely enjoyed the process! I cut the pillows into 4 squares and let her eat it as finger-food. She insisted on separating the different pieces of pasta and fishing out the meat. It's another "adult" food we can add to her list of favorites. So far, her menu includes: mac 'n cheese, tuna, salmon, chicken, tomato soup, grilled cheese, yogurt, waffles, pancakes, and whatever Scott and I are eating.

Claire is 13 months old!

Well, here we go! I am going to take my friend's advice (thanks, Erika!) and try to do this blog thing, rather than send out the monthly emails.

Claire is 13 months old today. She has become quite the "physical" baby. For ex., right now she is lifting up my shirt and giving me a raspberry on my tummy. Ever so innocently, I can feel those little baracuda teeth! (She has 9 of them, including 1 molar!) She has moved on from raspberries and currently has the remote control, trying to turn on the TV (which she successfully did a week ago!) and watch The Price is Right. Remote control time is over and she is currently "patting" Reese. He continues to be so good and patient with her!

Another "physical" example of little Claire would be her eating habits. She loves to squish berries (raspberries, blueberries, etc.) between her fingers and then throw them down to the dogs. My big Hoovers love this development.

Sitting still and playing is a thing of the past. (I can hear Lindsey laughing...) She actively moves everywhere. We were over at her friend's house, William, playing in his sandbox. After a while, Claire realized she could fling sand about and enjoyed dumping it outside the box. I took it as a cue that we were done. What fun!