Daddy's Girl

She lights up when he comes in the room.....I think we are raising a little Daddy's Girl!

Question of the Day

I have noticed that there are certain questions that just come with the territory in various stages of life.

When you get married, a million people seem to ask......How's married life?

When you're pregnant it's.....Do you know how much your life is about to change?

In the newborn stage it's....Are you getting any sleep?

These days, everyone seems to ask.....What is Hannah Cate doing now, what are her tricks?

She's getting really fun and doing lots of new things. She's clapping and waving. My favorite is that she will give kisses on request.....wide open mouth kisses!

She's just started pulling up on her knees and today, she made it all the way up to her feet by herself (she did this for Mimi while we were out, so we'll have to wait to see it).

She "dances" when she hears music.

She's eating finger foods (like Cheerios and Puffs) and drinking water out of sippy cup.

She can also drink from a straw with a little help.

We are having so much fun with all these new stages and tricks!

Baby on a Mission

Things are quite different around here with a baby that knows what she wants AND knows how to get to it! For the first time today, I walked out of the room where she was and she followed me. Her version of "walked out of the room" looks a little something like this (previously captured on her 9 month Birthday)

She's still doing more of the "army crawl" or "snake crawl". She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks around and takes a lunge or two forward before plopping down on her belly and snaking it the rest of the way. A few times lately I've caught her in a pretty impressive downward dog position. For those of you non-yoga folks, that looks a little something like this:

*photo courtesy of Yoga Journal

I'll try to get a picture of Hannah Cate perfecting her form soon. It's pretty funny!

Until then, here are a few more pictures that I snapped that same night. Some of her expressions are just priceless!

Sit up straight baby girl!

"This posture stuff is for the birds!"

"Mom, I saw that picture of me in my bathing suit on the blog....How could you?!?!?"

Nine Months

My Sweet Baby Girl,
How is it that you are already nine months old? I've been asking myself that question all day long because it just seems like the time has flown. You have officially been here in our arms longer than you were in my tummy. I can guarantee that the first nine months went by much, much slower than these last nine months! Nine months just seems so much older than six, seven and eight did. It feels like such a milestone, maybe that's because we are so close to the big o-n-e y-e-a-r mark. You are getting to be such a big girl in so many ways and for the first time I'm really starting to wonder what the coming months have in store for us. What will it be like to see you walking around? What will you look like with longer hair? When you start talking, what will your little voice sound like? Will you be a Mama's girl or a Daddy's girl?

I'll wait for the answers and soak you in just as you are. You are a bundle of joy, more than I could have ever hoped or prayed for. I still have to remind myself from time to time that you are really ours. I can't imagine our life without you in it and we are just so thankful for the blessing of Hannah Catherine Miller!

I love you sweet girl!
Mama

Bright Sunshiney Days

We thoroughly enjoyed our weekend. We took proper advantage of the lovely weather and spent lots of time outside. Hannah Cate made her debut appearance at two different parks in one day! I knew that she would love to swing based on her reaction to some doorway swinging in her bouncer....but it was really fun to see her reaction. And of course, it created a few great photo ops! But let's be honest, at this stage, what doesn't??!!

We headed to the Triangle Park on Saturday morning to meet Nicole and Ethan, Carson and Ryan and Robert and Emily.

And I was right, she loved the swing!

Ethan was too distracted by the ringing bell on the nearby church to smile for the camera!

We tried for a group photo, but Ethan wasn't interested. Doesn't Hannah Cate just look appalled that he would be crying like that while standing next to her?

We opted for Hannah Cate and Robert......

And then Ethan decided he wouldn't mind sitting in the back!

We left the park and went home to get Matt and the three of us headed down to Orange Beach for a little shopping and to see how Heritage (the Motorcoach Resort that Matt's been working on) is coming along. They have made lots of progress and we cannot wait for it to open later this summer! We met up with Nini and Deeda and hit up the Orange Beach Waterfront Park before going out to dinner with them.

This time we tried out the slide...
and it was a hit too!

A little more swinging for good measure and so the rest of the family could see the Baby Girl in action! I have a feeling we'll be doing lots of this over the next few months.

And to round out our weekend of outdoor fun, after church and a nap on Sunday, we headed down to the Bay for an afternoon stroll.

There are many things about Fairhope that I love, but one of my favorite has to be the amazing flowers that they plant on every corner. It's hard not to want to stop at each one for a picture!

It has been so much fun to watch Hannah Cate discover new things. On this outing she discovered the grass.....in between pictures I had to pry it from her hands before it made it to her mouth!

I'm not sure that I have ever been so thankful to see Winter go and Spring come.....I hope it's here to stay for awhile!

What's in a Name?

What if my name was Sandy?

I get called that by mistake a lot at work.....on the phone, through email, you name it....it really happens pretty frequently, especially lately. Mostly on email when I'm emailing with someone for the first time. They see the S and the Y and I guess just can't help but type Sandy not Sally. I have no idea. I guess there could be some correlations drawn relating to the pitfalls of email in business, laziness of people, lack of attention to detail.....but I won't over analyze. I'll just add Sandy to my list of names.....Sarah, Sally, Virginia, Barnes, Miller.... whatever you call me, I'll answer.

Mom, will you please add a quarter to my fund?


Yours Truly,
Sandy