Elizabeth makes Frankie laugh

No one can make Frankie laugh quite like Elizabeth. Here's a video Heather took of the two of them laughing:

Bumper Stickers

In South Carolina, most of the political bumper stickers are very pro-Republican, and anti-Democratic, to the point of being obnoxious. Here in Cambridge, the opposite is true -- everywhere you turn you see anti-Republican bumper stickers. Now, I'm not saying whether I agree with any of these sentiments, but I'd like to share some of my favorites:

• Wanted for Crimes against humanity: (and then pictures of Bush, Cheney, and members of the cabinet).
• Bush Cheney - No Child Left a Dime
• Dick Cheney shoots his friends
• 1.20.09 -Bush's last day
• Voldemort votes Republican
• Baltar for President '08

Okay, so that last one may not be party-specific, but for all you fellow Battlestar Galactica fans (I know, I know, that officially makes me a geek), you'll appreciate that one.

Anyone else got some more?

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year, and have much to be thankful for. Starting with all the wonderful friends who came for the day and dinner and were willing to bring food and cram 10 people around a 6-person table in our kitchen. Sarah was going to help me set the table, and asked if there was another leaf for the table. I smiled and said "no", and Sarah cheerfully worked on a configuration that accommodated 9 adults, 1 toddler, and 3 babies.

We were joined this year by the Polks (it was the third year in a row for the "McPolk" family Thanksgiving in which Kristen makes us all delicious pies), the Warrens, the Murrys, Linda and her daughter Leilei. Linda is my friend from work who is sharing and office with me this fall. She is a visiting Chinese faculty member, and this was her first American Thanksgiving. Nell and Macai stopped by during the day to spend some time with us as well!

We are so thankful for our friends and neighbors here in Cambridge who love us and so thoroughly care for us. It's overwhelming for me when I think about how God has provided for us in this way specifically.

We are thankful for our church, and a pastor who seeks God's heart.

We are immensely thankful for our little girl. She is so sweet, and we fall further and further in love with her every day.

We are thankful for family who love us, even when we are at a distance, and can't wait to see us and spend time with us when they can.

Pam and Patrick

Nell and Macai

Frankie plays Mindtrap

Leilei loved Maisy!

Sarah and Hannah

Matthew and Nathanael

Chris carves the bird (and Maisy waits, sentinel, by his side for a morsel)

Pictures

I finally got some good pictures of Frankie yesterday.


This was Frankie wearing the hat her great-Nana knit for her last February, when she was about 2 weeks old.

This is that same hat yesterday. I guess I'll have to put that one back away with the 0-3 clothes. She has also figured out that if she tugs at the poof on top that the strings come out.

This is one of Frankie's "heebie-jeebie" moments. Many of you have witnessed Maisy get the "heebie-jeebies", where she gets the crazed look in her eye and runs around the house or yard with her butt tucked under like a banchie with no regard for anyone or anything in her path. Frankie gets a similar look in her eye when she starts waving a piece of fabric in front of her face. It can be anything - a sock, a burp cloth, this hat, but it's always fun to see her get so excited. In this picture you can also see her two teeth!

My big girl.

I like these two because she looks like a rock climber.

Give and (not quite) Take

Frankie has started to "offer" other people the object she's holding, although she has yet to relinquish the item. I'm sure we'll get to that half of the process at some point. This morning, she "offered" Maisy a Cheerio, as I watched with amusement. I thought surely Maisy would take the Cheerio from her, thus encouraging Frankie to see that when she offers someone (or somedog) something, they are inclined to take it from her. Our sweet, gentle dog, however, licked the Cheerio and tried to nibble it from Frankie's hand, but she would let go. Before I could intervene Frankie stuck that now-dog-saliva-christened Cheerio in her mouth.

I believe these are the moments for which we pray.

The Blooper Reel

I've been keeping an album in Picasa called "The Blooper Reel" of Frankie's out-take photos. Seriously, she doesn't look like the child I know in most of these photos. Here's the blooper reel for the first 9 months of Frankie's life:

9 months!

Frankie is 9 months old today, and what a big girl! Here's what she's up to these days:

• Crawling. She's still not super-fast, but the army crawl has turned into a proper crawl, and she's much more willing to crawl to get places now . Especially when she sees Momma or Daddy across the room, or Maisy's stuffed chipmunk (seriously, why does she always want to play with the one toy that belongs to our dog and is nasty?)
• Cruising. This is her favorite pastime right now. She'd spend all day standing and moving laterally up and down the room using various furniture to hold on to if we let her. This has actually been quite nice for me, because she's good enough at it that she doesn't usually fall, so I don't have to be right there with her.
• Pulling herself to a stand. It's still amazing to me to walk into her room and find her standing up in her crib!
  
• Dancing. She shakes her head back and forth, and bounces up and down on her legs. So cute. She was doing this at church yesterday during worship.
• Recognizing words. When I ask her where the dog is she turns her head until she finds Maisy, and will often point at her. She also understands milk, momma, and daddy (at least that I can tell, there are probably many more!).
• Sleeping from about 7 or 7:30 until 5:30 most nights without much waking in the middle. She usually takes 2 90 minute naps during the day (one at 9, the other at 1:00). I'm hoping that as she nears a year she'll start sleeping longer again at night, but I really can't complain.
• Eating mainly fruit and carb-loaded snacks like Cheerios. She's always been a bit of a picky eater, and recently she's started "holding out" at meal time for something better if I'm serving her vegetables or meat (she will eat some chicken and beef these days). I've decided we have to draw a hard line, and have not been offering her additional food when she starts doing this. In talking with Melanie (one of my founts of child-rearing wisdom), she advised to start working on this behavior, because what it can easily turn into is mom or dad making several meals during the course of the meal in the hopes that the child will eat one of them, which leads to a lot of waste, and starts to get ridiculous. Instead, I'm trying to determine before we sit down what Frankie should eat for the meal, which always includes at least one thing I know she likes. As long as there is some of that food left, and she's refusing food, I've decided she's either done, or it's a preference thing, and if she were really hungry, she'd eat the food I know she likes. She does usually like to eat whatever Chris and I are eating, which is helpful, and I try and encourage this by giving her some of what we're eating when I can. In this way, we've discovered that she likes flavorful food, even some with a little spice to it! The goal is eventually to get to cooking one meal for all of us.
  
• Not stacking blocks on an 18-month-old's level. Actually, not stacking blocks period.

Pictures will have to come later, we were too busy playing and running errands today to take our 9-month photo shoot!