obsession

any time dottie sees a ball, she says, "ba" over and over and over again. you might say she it is a little bit of an obsession. she has a collection of bouncy balls at the house that she goes back and forth between. she laughs when milo tries to get them from her and even sometimes goes for his. i wonder what the next obsession will be? we are hoping it's something that starts with something other than a B!

goin' my way

one of dottie's favorite new christmas toys was this little bike with a trailer (from the murphy grandparents). she sits on it and makes a little car sound...as you can imagine, it's pretty darn cute!

santa came to milwaukee

to see more photos of our christmas, click HERE

dottie had so much fun in milwaukee this past week when we went to visit the family. she was excited that santa found her in milwaukee, hooray!.........one of her top front teeth poked through on christmas day (this makes 3 teeth now).................she played a little in the massive amount of snow that came down while we were there and proceeded to melt. she didn't quite know what to think but we think she liked it and she got to show off her new snowsuit......she met ella opat (who was born 3 days before she was) for the first time and thought it was nice that she shared her toys...............played with 3 dachshunds at the same time and loved every minute of it (thank you to jackson, chloe, and finn for putting up with her)........she got to see auntie steph's expanding belly (only 19 more weeks)..............she loved seeing her grandma cam, grandpa bill, auntie steph, uncle paul, aunt ellen, aunt mary ann, aunt anne, uncle paul, james, and of course her great grandma clara

christmas

we just got back from milwaukee yesterday after a very fun christmas! here is a picture of dottie christmas morning playing with her new drum. more pictures to come later today or tomorrow.

cute girls

anna came over with the fam today to take pics for their christmas card. aida and zayneb were as adorable as ever and even let us snap a photo of them with dottie. very cute! aida was excited to hold dottie in lap and they both very sweetly gave her kisses when they left.

kisses

lately we have been amazed by how much more dottie is understanding. she knows and can point out a handful of words....baby, ball, book, birds, bear (all B words!), milo, monkey, mommy, daddy, car, kitty, bla bla (her mobile above her crib), kisses, nose, ear, etc.
here is a little sampling... (for some reason, she gives slobbery kisses on the nose. she does it to her babydoll too. who know where she learned that from!)

xylophone

lately when dottie goes into her toy box, she ends up pulling out the xylophone. the thing that has impressed us most lately is that even if the mallet for the xylophone is in the deepest part of the box, she somehow finds it and pulls it out knowing that they go together. then she proceeds to make some music! today she also found out the you can't crawl around with the mallet in your mouth because you are bound to almost choke yourself (or perhaps her mom found out not to let her!)

dottie gets a lift

we went for lunch with our friends basak and lula today and then went to their house afterwards for a little playtime. lula gave dottie a little lift with her new walker. the only problem was that she just wanted to keep on going when she got to a dead end which makes for a smooshed dottie!

ralphie...i can't put my arms down!

we are heading back to milwaukee for the holidays and i am a touch worried about keeping dottie warm in the cold weather. we tried a snowsuit on her today that was a touch big...

11 months old

dottie is officially 11 months old today! do you think she is ready for the hills with her daddy?

1st christmas present

today dottie received her first christmas presents in the mail from her uncle rollie and aunt nancy. we haven't let her open it yet but she is VERY curious about what is inside (notice the "deep in thought tongue")

just her size

this is not the tree we ended up with but it was awfully tempting because it was just dottie's size.

why is santa so scary?

spur of the moment, dottie met santa for the first time today at a local shopping center. in this picture, she really looks like she's having a great time but in reality, i don't know how the guy got this shot. she honestly started crying, with some major tears, the minute she sat on his lap. wow that photographer was good! why is it that santa is so scary to most babies?

spaghetti = bath

last night we went to our local spaghetti joint for dinner. it was seriously crazy how much she loved the spaghetti! she slurped up the long noodles and shoved them in her mouth. the more we put in front of her, the more crazy she got for it! needless to say, dottie really enjoyed the leftovers today and went straight to the tub afterwards... we were worried for a moment that her face was permanently orange!

for marie

oh yes we did!
dottie's mullet in pigtails...

lula and her pig

last saturday, we were lucky enough to be invited to lula's first birthday! basak and her husband did a lovely job decorating for the big event and lula was as darling as ever. her cake was a little cupcake with a pink pig of top. dottie loved lula's new red piano!

holiday shopping?

dottie was quite intrigued by mom's wallet this morning...