Warm November Days

 I tried taking some 9 month pictures of Maria one day.  She kind of looks like she only has one hand in this picture.

 A look of surprise...apparently she wasn't expecting her boot to come off or something.

 "(Yawn), are you done yet, Mom?"

 One nice afternoon a week or so ago, Jack and Maria were playing on the back patio.  Jack was "painting" the steps with bubbles and Maria was soaking up the sun and watching him.

 A little while later that same day, we headed over to the park.  Now that it's November we don't have a huge amount of nice days left before cold weather starts setting in.  Maria LOVES to swing.

 Jack on the alligator.  I think was pretending it was a school bus or something.  He has quite the imagination these days.  Some days he just cracks me up with his creativity!  It tends to spill over to the park if there's no one there...like this day. ;)

 Maria and I smiling for the camera.  One of those impromptu shots that get taken frequently at our place.

 Last Saturday afternoon we were at G & G Bockey's house and some of Jack & Maria's cousins were also there.  Jack loves playing with his cousins on both sides of the family.  He tends to see the boys and Olivia a lot since they live the closest to us.

Hi Mom!  We built a fort one morning and decided to hide in it from Dad as he came home from lunch.  Jack was actually really good about sharing the space with Maria.  I love how they interact with each other!  There's times that he gets mad at her (like when she's in his toys/space), but so many times he wants her to play with him.  It's fun to see!  Maria is crawling up a storm lately and is getting closer to standing on her own.  She's becoming more observant when things catch her eye, she tends to stare at it for awhile to check it out.  She's also starting to play with her voice some.  For example, her and Jack were almost growling at each other one day...sounds odd but it was funny to see him do a low, growly voice and then she would imitate him.  She's also very interested in bubbles.  I've blown a few while chewing gum and she thinks it's the coolest thing ever!  It's funny to see her giggle about it!