Happy Halloween!

Alia had a fun first Halloween experience. We were in a parade at the library, had a Halloween party with our play group friends and did lots of fun art projects. Tonight she is going to help us pass out candy ... until bed time of course. Here are some pictures of our Halloween fun!

Mommy helping Alia show off her costume!

Daddy and Alia posing outside.

Look at all those cute pumpkins! Where did Alia go?

Alia and her friends Carson and Davis at the library.

Douglas Family Pumpkins 2009

Halloween ghost art project. Finger painting and footprints are always a good time!

This is a spider on its web. Can't you tell?

Cruising

Houston! We have a cruiser!

Owl Sounds and Ears

We have been working on what an owl says with Alia ever since Karen visited. They read a book together with an owl in it and kind of started that whole thing. It is pretty darn cute because Alia moves her mouth like she is going to "hoot" but no sound comes out. We love it! Alia has also learned where her ears are. We aren't exactly sure how because we haven't worked on that one with her much. We have been working on hair, eyes, mouth and nose. When you ask Alia where her hair is she usually touches our hair which is why I think she went for me and the camera when I asked her that question. We haven't really gotten the eyes, nose and mouth ones down yet, but we'll keep working on it :-)

Standing

Alia is now pulling herself up to a standing position very well. We are having fewer and fewer crashes each day .... which is a VERY good thing! She loves to stand and play at her "big toy" and at the coffee table.

Alia and Cousin Katya

We were so lucky to have some visitors this month. Alia's Aunt Karen, Uncle Eric and Cousin Katya stopped by for a few days while on a road trip up and down the coast. We had fun going to Powell's Bookstore, having beers at Rogue, playing Phase 10 and Rock Band, going to the Japanese Gardens and checking out Voodoo Donuts. We also really enjoyed taking pictures of the girls just hanging out. Between us I think we took nearly 250 pictures in about 48 hours! It's hard not to when you have subjects this cute!

Roloff Farms Pumpkin Patch

During an unexpected stretch of beautiful weather this afternoon, the Douglas family packed up and headed out to our local pumpkin patch. For those of you that don't know, the family from Little People, Big World on TLC own a pumpkin farm about 4 miles from our house. We went out there and picked out our pumpkins, took a wagon ride, drank hot apple cider and just enjoyed a gorgeous fall day. We did see the film crews following around the family members, which was kind of neat. One of the sons was driving the truck that we rode on for our little tour.

Alia helped us pick out our pumpkins.

Mommy and Alia

Daddy and Alia climbing the hay mountain

The Douglas Family pumpkins

Gymboree

As many of you know Alia goes to Gymboree classes. She absolutely loves it! We have missed a few classes because of traveling and going to weddings, but we were able to go today. It was Alia's first class since learning how to crawl. It was a whole new world! She had so much fun. It was so neat to watch her crawl around and explore the things that she wanted to explore. Here are a few pictures from class.

Alia and Mommy doing an activity that helps Alia learn about walking.

Daddy showing Alia that the tunnel is not scary at all.

Alia crawling though the tunnel all by herself. She enjoyed it so much that she plopped down in the middle and just kicked her feet and laughed. Mommy and Daddy are thinking that a certain little girl might be getting one of these for her birthday!

Children's Museum

Jason and I took Alia to the Portland Children's Museum for the first time this afternoon. I have a feeling that Alia is really going to love that place once she is walking, but she seemed to have a good time today too. We did lots of playing in the Baby Garden and explored the rest of the museum a bit too. Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Crawling Update

Here is a clip of Alia crawling around and exploring the Baby Garden at the Portland Children's Museum today.

More Vegas Pictures

"Breaking" News

Alia's very first tooth poked through today. We had a feeling while we were in Vegas that she might be teething, but with the exception of a couple of extra night wakings and a little more chewing than normal, it was pretty uneventful. Today we felt a little tiny bump break through. We are kind of waiting to see if it gets more uncomfortable, but so far we haven't had to give her Tylenol or anything.

In other news, Alia has become quite the proficient crawler and is even starting to pull herself up. She is currently going through a stage where she is absolutely in love with stuffed animals. It's hysterical to watch her hug and kiss them! She is saying "mom mom" and "dada" with relative accuracy and certainly understands what we are saying when we say "we're going out". She absolutely freaks out with excitement when we go out.

Trip to Vegas

Last weekend the Douglas family packed up and went to Vegas. One of my very best friend's got married. My mom flew in from Michigan to do some babysitting while we went to the wedding and such and my brother flew in from Tucson to hang out with us. Alia was a VERY good traveler yet again.

We had lots of fun just hanging out at our hotel, but we also went to Circus Circus, Caesar's Palace, the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay and to the Bellagio to watch the water fountain. Here are a few pictures from our weekend.

Hanging out with Uncle Jamie

Stopping for a bite to eat at Slots O Fun

Being silly at Circus Circus

Loving her Grammy

A very tired Daddy and a very tired little girl sleeping on the plane on the way home

Art Activities

Mommy read about water painting in a book and tried it out with Alia one day after breakfast. It was a big hit! Paper is totally optional. Alia had lots of fun just splashing in the water and banging the paint brush.

Here is a picture of a finger painting that Alia did over at Jamie's house. It's hanging on our fridge now.

Here is another finger painting that Alia did at home with Mommy. Things got a little bit messy but we had lots of fun!

Backyard Photo Shoot

More Crawling

Alia has already made a ton of progress with her crawling. I thought I would get a quick clip to show all of you. As you can see, she wasn't wearing the best crawling attire, but she still made it work. We use Daddy's Intel badge as motivation. She loves that thing!

More Breaking News ....

Alia pulled herself up to a standing position for the first time this morning. She was very proud of herself and loved the reaction that she got out of Mommy and Daddy!

Crawling ... sort of

Here is a clip of Alia's version of crawling. This video was taken on Tuesday morning and her "technique" has already improved. If she wants something bad enough, she certainly finds a way to get there.

Rocking

Just a short, cute video for you of Alia learning that the big chair rocks!