Faye: Month 12

The last post of her first year! Pictures and videos from 4.07.11–5.06.11. Can't believe it. And what a year it has been!

Preparing for Faye's "Monster" party, we had some photo shoots with the monster hat that Auntie Vicki made just for the occasion. Faye has been enjoying a variety of adult foods—one of her favorites is eggs

(and if there happens to be a few shreds of cheese, she will attack it)! Oh, and if you were wondering, she still does the crossing of the (slimy) fingers, as seen below. Faye plays the piano with her favorite non-toy (Donna's phone).

Who would have known this would be the last time Donna's phone was photographed alive... She has discovered the curtains that hide the view of outside. LOVES string cheese. And still crossing those fingers. A calming toy we use during dinner is this little wooden music carousel from Germany. Grammy gave it to Faye, saying that Great-Grampy would have wanted her to have it. She LOVES it. When it stops playing she points at it until we wind it back up, then starts clapping when it starts up again. You can see Faye clap in the background. Faye reads while in the bathtub (kitchen sink). Mama loves her little clean duck. Just hanging out, eating, and crossing those fingers! Trying out celery. Mmmm Yes, that is a dumpling that we are letting her gnaw on. Got to start 'em young on chicken 'n dumplings! Faye finds the duck...



A few minutes to spare in the afternoon? Here is a glimpse into Templeton entertainment. What else would you do with a little bag lying around? I think it gave her a sense of superiority. She kind-of looked like a spartan! Faye models her Easter outfit. Who can resist a baby in a bonnet? On April, 23rd, Faye got to be part of breaking a world record... by having her diaper changed... cloth diaper to be exact! "Thousands of families around the world celebrate Earth Day participating in the Great Cloth Diaper Change on Saturday, April 23rd, 2011 at 9AM PDT to set the world record for the most cloth diapers changed simultaneously." So far the international number is at 6363 but the actual Guinness World Records final count is yet to be determined. Sarah was giving Faye and her daughter, Mabel, a pep talk before hand! This was the scene right after diapers were changed at Bambini in downtown Eugene.

(oh, and we got a free cloth diaper for participating!) There were over 25 cloth diaper babies at this location. Faye likes pushing things across the room and Mabel likes to ride...perfect friendship!



A normal scene in Eugene: rain. Another pretty common scene in Eugene: hail. Our little metal head. On the 26th of April Faye took her first independent step! Donna recorded it and is still kicking herself because when she was weeding through photos and other videos she deleted these precious steps. :( So the next day we gave it a go again, so here are a couple steps.



With the extra security of the wood toy, she takes a few more steps...



Faye's first ponytail! Look at the flowing locks! Faye and good friend Emmie hanging out at the park. Faye loves to be taken by the hands and speedily "assisted" to "run"! :) We took a very brief trip to CA for Corey's good friend, "Beaker's" wedding. It was too short but we did get to see a few familiar faces.

Faye and Yarin get some sun time by the Thompson's lemon tree in their backyard. When life hands you lemons...play with them! At the wedding (as well as the night before) Faye had a late night...past 10pm and was still going strong.

Good friend Jason "Animal" was helping out a lot and being Faye's escort while Daddo was busy in wedding festivities. It was a great time to see many friends from Corey's Christian fraternity days. We were able to see Donna's sister and bro-in-law as well as the little nephew before we went back to OR.

It was all too short but we are glad we got to see them at all! Faye and Bray got to interact a little bit more.



Faye LOVED bouncing on the trampoline.

And swinging on the swing. Look! No hands! And crazy hair! And a chicken in the background! Faye LOVES to make Auntie Vicki laugh (just like her mom).

Here she has already brought Auntie to laughing tears... she just keeps bringing the silliness.



There it is... 12 months of Faye. So from here on out there won't be a designated "monthly" blog, but we hope to update the blog with new pics of the family as they are taken (which we always take TOO many pics). So we might even have multiple blogs in one month... but don't get your hopes up... we will see! Faye keeps us pretty busy now that she is running around! Soon to come to the blog: Faye's first birthday celebration!

Faye: Month 11

Faye is nearing the end of her first year... Pictures from 3.07-4.06. This month was a *little* less hectic, so we got back to our normal take-tons-of-pics and videos. To start this post off... we will share a photo shoot of Faye being adorable eating bread (super exciting... ok, maybe just to us!)

We love reading to Faye. Every day she gets to hear stories from several books. On this day, Donna noticed that Faye was mimicking the way that we read to her: pointing, following words with her finger, and using a "reading voice". After a few friends suggested that it be recorded, the perfect moment came to do so. All ready to go for a car-ride, I handed Faye a Petco mailer and that became the "book" to read! (at the start it sounds like she is saying, "the guy"...see if you can hear that!)

Faye attempts to help with the dishes before dinner.

Dinner photo shoot. Can't resist! (she is quite the animated one while eating)

Potty time entertainment: Star, Cow, Snake! (you will understand once you watch)

Faye and Donna visited Corey at school. Great lighting=picture time! She looks so old here doesn't she?! Sniff, sniff.

To the park we go! It's cold outside so Faye must wear a jacket—and what a jacket it is! Does anyone else think of the movie A Christmas Story? :) Faye doing the "Puffy-Jacket-Pose". The puffy crawl was rough.



But the puffy swinging was GREAT! Mother-Daughter puff jacket picture.

Dinner at the most family-friendly Thai restaurant. We actually WANTED to tip the server (rather than feeling obligated to do so). He was great (and cleaned up all the rice Faye threw on the ground). This pic below is before the meal entertainment.

It is hard to feed Faye when she is not strapped down or contained. But she has fun!

Faye is moving in leaps and bounds these days. Here she shows how well she can push her little wooden cart.

(If only it was a little vacuum, we would have quite the clean carpet)

Here, Faye discovers a favorite toy—spoons! She had so much fun grasping/eating/clanging/waving them.

Who knew they could be so entertaining?

Ahhh, spoons... held close to her heart.

Will there be a day where eating isn't an entire face event? Last post we mentioned how she started to point... this is a daily occurrence now! Too cold? Wear socks! Too hot? Take em off! Still not right? Just have one off and one on... it evens out to be "warm".

Our dear friend Sean came and spent a morning breakfast with the Templeton's.

So, of course, we put him to work! He did well at feeding our little monster.

Sean shares the same affinity we have toward Josh Garrels' music.

It played through the background of most of our breakfast. Corey and Faye tap and bounce to the beat.

Corey shows Faye the dance moves.

New little addiction: crossing fingers. She does it ALL the time. This was the start of it.

(yes, we realize that this picture makes her look like a thug doing gang signs...it makes us laugh) ...and apparently makes Faye laugh too.

Yeah, just hanging out, with my fingers crossed. The usual. Corey trying out a new look for Faye. Hmmm.... odd. Faye still does the "Corey" look, as seen below. Faye was just too cute in her little tunic, so we had to have a photo shoot.

First shots, dramatic crying. (she is very good at the drama) Crying and crossing her fingers! This girl has talent! Better now, but still have the big tears coming down! On with the photo shoot! Testing the cell phone durability.... ...then using it. (this is how she mimics us using the cell phone... guess our ears our placed abnormally high on our heads) HA! Thank you to the Perrines! Faye LOVES elk jerky! She laughs with it Plays with toys while eating it.And crawls while still eating it. Ahhh, life is good.More of her favorite "toys"—pots and pans—the clang-ier the better! Donna sets out pots

and other kitchen goodies for Faye to play with while Donna cooks dinner. Works well!

While on the potty, Faye reads a book to us so that we don't get bored while we are waiting for her to go. How sweet.



One more blog to go in Faye's year-o'-monthly-blogs!