Fall

As much as I love summer, fall is such a wonderful time of the year. Our schedules are almost always packed, but they are usually packed with family activities. One very important fall tradition is apple picking and unfortunately, the one Saturday that worked the best for us this year was when the Chicagoland area was getting hit by torrential rain. We drove through the horrible rain up to Wisconsin hoping to beat the storm and when we arrived we were able to jump out of the car and pick a bushel of apples before the rain had caught up to us. We took a few pictures and found a great selection of apples so we felt it was all worth it even though our trip was greatly shortened. The line for apple donuts was far too long despite the weather so we opted for some Culvers' ice cream and then enjoyed the delicious Wisconsin apples at home. 

For Mr. Bluth, fall is not complete unless it involves a BYU football game. In our household life all but practically stops if a game is on and if there is a game close enough to drive to then we make the trip. This trip was extra special for Mr. Bluth because he was able to bring his daughter. He wore her in the Ergo and could hardly stop smiling as it was a rite of passage that he has been dreaming of for a long time. The game was special for me because BYU actully won. My first BYU game out here against Notre Dame was a lose for BYU and I almost lost my toes to frost bite. The game against Michigan was a complete blowout. We never even got to sing the fight song and we were sitting in the middle of Michigan fans so I never wanted to go back to Michigan. Michigan State played a good game, but luck was on BYU's side. I like to think that Adaline brought the team some luck this year. We also lucked out with pretty decent weather which is crucial for me to enjoy a game. 

Chicago had an Indian summer and it was just magical. Going to the playground in November with short sleeves on was a dream of mine until this year. We spent most of our days exploring Chicago and the beauty of fall and I feel like I can accept the bitter cold days that are just around the corner. I think Adaline's first fall was a smashing success. 

 

 
 

11 Months

Babies are change. One day they learn a new sound, the next they learn a new expression. Every month has brought a different phase and different abilities. From month 10 to now, baby girl has made some of the biggest changes yet. And it has been fascinating and exhausting.

A few changes:

Walking
Her entire life she has preferred standing to sitting. So we suspected she would be an early walker, but we still were not prepared. Nearly a month ago she started pulling herself up on the couch and then letting go. She didn't seem to be testing her balance, she just seemed to forget to hold on. Soon enough she was walking along the edge of the couch while holding on. That phase lasted only a few days before she started taking a few wary steps away from the couch before sitting down heavily.

Eventually she would just stand up in the middle of the room by herself. A few timid steps. Then a few more. And then all of the sudden she walked all the way across the apartment. It wasn't her fastest mode of transportation, but she seemed to get a kick out of it. And since then, she now refuses to crawl. She is a full-time walker.

Eating
Eating for Adaline has been more of a chore than a pleasure. Sometimes she has been picky and she never eats too much. But during this last month, she has found a new joy in eating - and her stomach is reflecting this development. Even her thighs have noticed (or maybe that's muscle from all of the walking?).

However, she is very strong-headed when it comes to what she puts in her body. She likes to be in control. For awhile, I would load her spoon with yogurt, hand it to her, she would eat the yogurt and then hand the spoon back for a refill. (She eventually realized that was not the most efficient method and now lets us feed her).

She also likes food rich with flavors and seasonings. The more the better. Some of her favorite meals are soups that Mrs. Bluth makes with butternut squash or sweet potato. She'll gobble down those tasty morsels without thinking twice.

Playing
She has started playing. We sometimes play a game where I hide a small ball in one of my hands and she gets to guess which hand it is in. She loves finding the ball. She also enjoys knocking over any tower constructed of blocks.

She even wrestles. If we get down on the ground with her she will throw herself on top and wrestle us to submission. She strongly dislikes being pinned down, though. So we can't go too hard.

Alas, she has not quite developed the motor functions to throw a ball. We are still working on that one.

Halloween

When we found out that I was pregnant one of the first things I thought was "what should we do for the babe's first Halloween costume?!"

Now to give little more of a back and side story to why on Earth I would think that sentence to myself. First, let me say that Halloween is one of my least favorite holidays. I do not like Halloween because I stress to such a high extent of what I should be for Halloween and how to achieve that goal. Honestly, I usually can never decide on the "what" so I never make it to the "how" and therefore never get dressed up. Some of my issues are due to the fact that growing up I always had awesome costumes because my mom is a wizard when it comes to sewing. She could create whatever I wanted to be and do it with such a professional look. Another culprit to all my issues is because I danced and dancers care about every aspect of a costume (Fishnet or tan tights? Choker? Hair in bun?). When it comes to costumes, I believe that one should go big or go home.

As with past Halloweens, October came and we still had not decided on Adaline's costume or even if we were going to have a family costume. We had some fun brainstorming sessions and came up with ideas such as:
- King Kong (Mr. Bluth); Damsel in distress (Adaline); Skyscraper (Mrs. Bluth)
- Caterpillar (Mrs. Bluth); Butterfly (Adaline); Eric Carle (Mr. Bluth)
- Secret Service (Mr. & Mrs.); Hillary (Adaline)

And since we could not find a baby pantsuit we went with the easiest option and Adaline went as a flower and we wore, yet again, our bee costumes.

Maybe next year she will go as a bee keeper!

We celebrated by going to a church party, getting together with other city babies at the park, and trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.

This was not for Jimmy Kimmel's "I told my kid I ate all their Halloween candy"

10 Months

On October 22, Adaline hit that wonderful 10 month mark! The best way to describe the past month is simply stating that this girl is really becoming her own. She is fun and a handful all at the same time. Here are a few pictures that show how perfect she is:

Big Apple

Is it possible to do New York City in a day? Especially when slowed down by a nine-month old that likes an afternoon nap? And having never been there before and not being familiar with the layout of the city or how to use the subway? Let's give it a try.

We drove up Saturday morning from Philadelphia. The route took us through New Jersey, which was more industrialized than I was expecting. Really not a ton of neighborhoods, just a lot of industrial plants and factories. Soon enough the massive skyline was visible. It was a little weird to look at the skyline and not recognize it. We took a tunnel beneath the bay to pop out just a few block from Times Square; the pumping heart of tourist New York City.

Times Square in the morning was interesting but we decided we needed a better view of the city in order to determine where we needed to go. But first we got hungry for lunch. More precisely; hungry for New York style pizza. $3 got us two very large slices and a soda. As good as advertised.

Then we headed to the Rockefeller Center for the best view of the city. Pro tip: take a stroller with you, they let us cut all the lines with stroller. Very nice people these New Yorkers.

70 floors up provides some pretty fantastic views.

We could see to Lower Manhattan (clear in the back of the top pic) and all the way over Central Park to Harlem and even to the Bronx. This gave us a great perspective of the city. Adaline even snuck a quick snack in on top of the Rock (she hadn't gotten any pizza).

From the Rockefeller Center we traversed to Central Park. It didn't look that far and we wanted to soak up some rays in what might be the most famous and over-crowded green space in America.

We stopped for some chicken over rice at one of the food carts but it was not as good as the food in Philadelphia. Someone should investigate this.

After some hanging in the sun, we all needed to use the washroom. Fortunately, the LDS temple/stake center is just a couple of blocks from Central Park. How handy! We saw the missionaries giving tours and saw the familiar carpet on the walls. Once we were inside of the building, it felt so much like a regular meeting house that you could forget that you were in the middle of the loudest city in the world.

Each generation has an event that you remember exactly where you were when you found out that the world as you knew it was very different from your reality. Both the Mrs. and I remember where we were when the World Trade Center towers came down. In our one short day, we felt we should pay homage to an event that changed America yet again.

This required taking a more-confusing-than-Chicago subway clear to the southern tip of Manhattan. The trek was absolutely worth it. In my opinion the two dark, cavernous pits that serve as memorials rival any memorial in the world. We didn't have time to tour any of the  museums and other sites and so it is a site that we will have to visit again.

From that sobering and meaningful experience, we wandered our ways towards the Brooklyn Bridge. What an incredible engineering feat from 1883. And still used very heavily. Pretty much everyone was on there way to or from Brooklyn. We wandered halfway across before turning back in search of food.

With a little bit difficulty we found a delicious Asian fusion place in Chinatown where we consumed curry and mango chicken. Then we found ourselves waiting in line for Japanese style ice-cream and, more specifically, cones. They were freshly cooked waffle cones in the shape of fish.

Sometime during dinner the sun had set and it was quite dark by the time we finished our ice cream. There was just last one stop, one we had already been to. Times Square at night is another experience worth anyone's time. The closest thing that we have to an ancient Constantinople or Jerusalem. The centerpiece of Western culture in this era of globalization. Culture starts and ends in that square and we felt the pulse of the world for a minute.

Philadelphia

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” -Declaration of Independence, 1776

Sometimes in the middle of an election year and in the same year that a wildly popular musical about a lesser-known Founding Father comes to Chicago, you need to go back to where it all began. Thanks to some of our best friends moving to Philadelphia, we had the timely opportunity to visit the City of Brotherly Love.

The vacation was fantastic for several reasons: Adaline was a terrific traveler, we had fantastic hosts, and it was new territory for both of us to explore.

We arrived Wednesday evening and quickly caught up with the Robinson’s over, what else, cheesesteaks. The next day they had work and school so we loaded up the stroller and discovered that the city was fantastically walkable. They lived near the Schuylkill River but it was a short walk to some of the oldest buildings in the United States. We saw Masonic temples, town halls (with the William Penn on top), and LOVE signs. Turns out the Liberty Bell had been rung more than once (why did Mr. Bluth think that it broke on its first ring? Did “National Treasure” say that? Beats me). Grabbed tickets to a tour of Independence Hall. Saw the building where the first Supreme Court met. Saw names from textbooks and names from the aforementioned musical all over the place: Lafayette, Hamilton, Franklin, Jefferson, and Washington.

Our tour guide gave a fantastic and thought-provoking tour of Independence Hall. We were reminded that there was a lot of doubt and uncertainty going into the creation of this new nation. Also reminded that this new nation was not a rising sun for everyone that lived within its borders. Another park ranger put great perspective on Washington’s last action in office. By leaving office peacefully, he was teaching the nation how to say goodbye. People didn’t just give up power back then. And that message was spread through the rest of the world.

I could write entire posts about food. Let’s just emphasize a few things:

-Donuts. Chicago is a donut city. The Pennsylvania Dutch donuts in Reading Terminal rival anything in Chicago.

-Cheesesteaks. Glad we tried them.

-Food carts. Why do we not have these in Chicago?? They were fantastic and so cheap. Hotdogs or chicken over rice. I’m a simple man and these carts were perfect.

-Waffles. One with chicken, one with Nutella, one with Oreo. And loaded potatoes.

You know what we did in Friday? Kept exploring! Yes Philadelphia is small compared to Chicago, but there is so much history. We met up with our hosts at their work/school at the University of Pennsylvania for some food cart lunches. Some of the buildings were older than our country. We walked up and down the central quad and avenue. The students were out and there was learning in the air.

Soon we wandered back towards the birth of our nation downtown where we found a park with sparkly, Shakespearean clothed musicians. (Or maybe they were sparkly musketeers?) We found Benjamin Franklin’s home. Strangely they also marked where his privy out back was. We found the church where many of the Founding Fathers worshipped. We remembered the sacrifice of many at the tomb of the unknown soldier in Washington Square. Did we go back for more donuts? I wish we had. Instead we got some blueberry bread that we used for French toast on Sunday.

Saturday: See next blog post.

On Sunday, we attended the local branch which was in a brand new building which was across from the brand new temple. There was no carpet on the walls in the church! It helped remind me why we invest in these expensive and beautiful buildings. Because it eliminates distractions and fosters a great environment for more introspection and soul-searching. After another cheesesteak, we found Rocky’s statue. The line for a picture with the statue was much longer than the line to enter the museum that the iconic stairs lead to. And after wandering the riverwalk, our trip came to an abrupt end. Too soon.

We are grateful for the opportunity to pursue happiness and we’ll be back!

9 Months

How is it possible that our baby girl is 9 months old?! Lately our hearts have been bursting as she is really becoming her own and she is wooing us with her personality. A few of our favorite things are listed below about our strong willed Adaline:

-JT. I can't believe that we have neglected to mention Adaline's love for JT (Justin Timberlake). When I say love, I mean the strong and deep kind of love. For months now she has been obsessed with his song "Can't Stop the Feeling" from the movie Trolls. There have been times when the only thing to calm her down is to play the music video. If we start playing the song, she dramatically stops whatever she is doing and starts dancing. My mom heart has been melting as I have watched her start twerking ever since she started crawling. She gets so excited and will run to the iPad or phone that is playing the song and dance and smile. She dances to other music, but there is something special about this one song.

-Talking. Okay so it is really more the baby babbling, but she loves to have control of the conversation and will just keep talking. 

-Mimicking. We may have a future class clown on our hands. She loves to mimic those around her, especially her parents. She waves, claps, and changes the range of her voice to match the person who is paying attention to her. Mr. Bluth had a very proud dad moment when he was walking home and wearing her in the baby carrier one evening. He kept making a sing song noise for her and she would repeat him and they continued this for the walk home and every passerby was enamored. 

-Crawling. She crawls everywhere and is walking around all over while holding onto furniture. I think we actually have some time before she decides she wants to walk. She has the strength to do it, but just like everything else with Adaline, she has to do it on her own when she wants. We try helping her stand up and practice walking, but she refuses and sits down or just picks up her feet. She enjoys standing and letting go, but as soon as I show any ounce of excitement, she decides she is done. 

-Underneath Mrs. Bluth's chair. Her favorite place in this world is underneath her mom's chair. As soon as she is put down, she scoots underneath her mom's chair to play. Sometimes she plays with the tags and sometimes she just rests her arms on the chair supports and lounges. It's her little safe space.

At her 9 month check-up we saw for the first time some stranger danger. She loves people and she loves attention, but she did not like the doctor picking and prodding. It will be interesting to see how she responds when we go to the pediatricians office again as I have been warned that she will remember the place and will remember negative things such as shots. She has continued to grow the same and is about 75% in height and 25% in weight. 

We love this little girl and are grateful for her patience with us as we make countless mistakes. I sometimes worry about her inability to be controlled, but I am soon reminded that our job is to love her and help her grow and develop using the personality and characteristics that she possesses. I am excited for the future, although sometimes I just want time to stand still and for my baby to stay little.