Paper monster

This is what Jake calls Raya and it is pretty fitting.  This little girl is obsessed. OBSESSED. with paper.  She loves to rip it and eat it.  Yes, eat it.  And she's quick.  I'll take one piece out of her mouth and before I know it she's turned into Houdini and made another suddenly appear and she quickly eats that one too!  If Easton wants to play cards or do any of his school work he has to do it up high or the little paper monster will find him and tear it to shreds!  :)

I think she'll be taking her first steps in the next couple of weeks.  She loves to walk along furniture and pushes her walkers all over the place but has yet to try to take any by herself.  She knows she can move much quicker by crawling if she wants to get someplace... like to the tiniest piece of paper she's somehow spotted across the room.  ;)

She absolutely loves music too.  We have lots of dance parties at our house and she just LOVES them.  She puts her hands up in the air and bounces up and down.  It's pretty darn cute!

Jabber-box.  She loves to talk and growl - especially when she's getting her diaper changed she just talks up a storm.  Words we recognize:  Dada, Mama, Baba (bottle), bbbrrr (brother), wow.  She can also sign "more" and has been doing that lately when she wants more food.  She has 4 teeth.  One poked through while Jake and I were in Vegas.  So, the Grandparents got to experience the joys of Raya teething.  Poor girls has such a hard time with her teeth - especially at night time - which results in us not sleeping either, unfortunately.  I think she's working on another top front one now too.  Poor thing.

Cannot believe she's going to be 1 year in just a couple weeks.  Where oh where does the time go?  We're going to have so much fun this summer though - she loves playing outside and she should be up and walking by then (hopefully)!

Walking to the park. I love my days at home with these 2 monkeys! 

Weeeeee!!  So much joy in that face!

Dangerous

Dancing to music.  Won't let go of the phone because it's playing music.

Puzzle time.  She only likes to take them out.  Wants nothing to do with putting them back.

Cutie pie

Enjoying the beautiful weather

First time getting put down in grass.  She was terrified.  Thankfully she has overcomes this fear :) 

11 months

She is not a happy camper

Checking out her Easter basket

bahaha

Singing itsy bitsy spider.  cutest thing ever when she does the actions

one cool babe

Favorite past time

She loves her animals

Little Miss Raya is growing up so fast.  She has gone just about a week without nighttime feedings.  We decided we needed to put an end to it -- she was drinking so much in 24 hours it was ridiculous.  She has done pretty well.  We just need to sit with her for about 30-45 minutes while she falls back asleep but she has yet to scream/cry for a bottle.  Last night she actually slept through the night (after a brief waking at 9pm from spitting up a ton)!  So she made it from 9:30-6:30.  Woohoo!  It looks like her 2 top front teeth are about to poke through soon.  Hopefully they don't come in while we're on vacation and make it miserable at night for the grandparents!

At 11 months, Raya loves:

• To suck her thumb
• Her animals
• The song, Itsy Bitsy Spider -- and doing hand actions... the. cutest. thing. ever.  EVER. 
• Crawling up the stairs
• Starting to walk more behind things
• To swing outside 

She can say, "mama, Dada, and Baba (bottle)"  

Twinsies

We both even wore our older brother's hand-me-down boy jammies!  :)

Poor Miss Raya

Our little sweets has been sick for about a week now.  Last Friday she was up all night with what seemed to be a tummy ache and then Sunday night she came down with a fever and has had one since and horrible diarrhea.  AND she's been teething HORRIBLY.  So with all of that she's in tons of pain from her teeth and has had one heck of a time eating.  Her fever hasn't been back today so fingers crossed that she's finally on the mend.  Jake and I haven't had much sleep all week.  On Wednesday night she literally cried for 8 hours with only sleeping for about 2 the entire night.  Poor babes...  and let's not forgot poor mom and dad. ;)  Thankfully I've been on spring break this week so we've had lots of cuddle time.

Jake and I leave for Vegas in 2 weeks and I'm a mess about it.  Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited for a much needed vacation with no kiddos but on the other hand I am an anxious mess.  I've never been away from my kids for more than 3 nights and 3 nights was horrible on me...now I'm going to do 6 nights.  My anxiety is in high gear right now.   I was never afraid to fly in the past either... then I went to Portland for work and I was so excited to get home that I was so scared my plane was going to crash and I'd never make it home.  Needless to say, I'm going to need to be heavily sedated.  Here's your fair warning, Grandparents - I am going to need a ton of updates and pictures to make it through the week.  I'm sure the kids won't even notice we're gone (well, maybe they'll think we're at Target or something) ;)  Good thing Vegas has lots of booze... kidding (kind of).

Raya helping fold laundry while we're up in the middle of the night
 

She loves Charlie

April fools trick on Mary and Mom.  They fell for it too!  :)

Enjoying the nice weather and a nice mohawk.

Trying to clean my house and this is what happens.  Pointless I tell ya. 

Swing time

Playing with brother

She just loves looking out that window