I'm so glad the long weekend is almost here!

My brother Dave just left for Green Lake. He's going to visit my dad for about a week.

Since it's his camera I've been stealing to take pictures and update my blog (and he took his camera with him) that means there won't be any pictures on here till he's back. At least, not new ones.

I got quite a few comments on the blog revamp. Thank you. That cute little bear picture was blatantly stolen from someone else's site so I've finally found a picture I can use for a header instead. And ended up changing everything else too.

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I never really say anything on this blog until my camera gets taken away and then suddenly I feel a need to fill the empty space (left by a lack of pictures) with my words.

If you can believe it (because I can't!) Elisabeth will be 11 months old in a week. I've had an idea in my head for her birthday party for about a month now. It's starting to come together, but I'm hesitant to start inviting people. Cause that means I'll actually have to have it and again, believe it or not, I've never hosted a party that people other than family have come to. At least not on my own. And for an introverted recluse like me, that's a big deal.

Anyway, she's 10 months and three weeks old and as of today:

• She splits her time about 50-50 between crawling and scooting. She actually started out scooting and that remains her favorite method of getting around when she is outside, on a rough surface or wearing anything that bares her knees (she's smart is this one!) But she's getting faster and faster at crawling too now that she's decided it's an acceptable mode of getting about.
• She still only has two teeth - although her third has broken through and there are about three more which are this close to breaking through too. One of her top middle teeth is definitely showing white through the gums, but hasn't actually broken through yet. The one that has broken through is another bottom chomper.
  
• Yesterday Kathi ran upstairs to answer the phone and pulled our door shut but not closed. Elisabeth pulled it open and (I was changing David so I sent Jade to see where she was) made it up about three steps. Today on two separate occasions she pulled the door open and once was about half way up the stairs when I caught her. To our knowledge she'd never been on stairs to crawl up them before.
  
• She says "what's that" (sounds more like 'sthat?'), mama, dada, day day (for davey), uh oh, hah hah HAH, and on my mum's birthday she said something that sounded exactly like "happy birthday"
• She can sit up and pull herself to standing and loves walking around furniture. When she's engrossed in playing she often will stand without holding on to anything, but no steps yet.
  

David is getting molars and as far as I can tell it must hurt like the dickens! He's been getting them for quite some time now which means he's a fountain of drool again (in fact, he napped in our bed this afternoon and when he woke up there was a huge pool of wet from drool. YUCK! He's also not eating much when they're at their worst so he's getting very tall and skinny. He's fitting the best in size three right now though I still stuff him into old size 2 shorts from last summer occasionally and for pants the size three is starting to look a bit short (which reminds me, Elisabeth has pretty much made the transition from size 12 months to size 18 months. But since most of her summer clothes are between the two sizes, and short skirts are "in" for babies this season...)

David talks up a storm. According to strangers he talks better than most three year olds, but I always tell them he hangs out with a three and a half year old girl and a bunch of women all day. Of course he's going to talk well. He sings constantly and makes up his own songs. He likes to make believe and that has it's good and bad points. He's so creative but sometimes his imagination makes him more scared than he probably should be. He's decided he's scared of trains now, but we're hoping that will pass.

Anyway, looks like dinner is ready (the bbq chef is making signs that way...) so I'm off to eat!