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.