8-9 Months- Full speed ahead

Well, I neglected to post her 8 month post in time so I decided to combine her 8 and 9 month post.
Malaika…. Is the craziest, cutest, most inspiring, loving, AMAZING, curious, most beautiful thing I have ever been involved with!

She is growing by the day and keeping me plenty busy with her new budding curiosity. I guess I will try to list the MANY things she is doing.


*Definitely crawling all over the place. She is crawling like a pro now from room to room getting into anything and everything she can. We are trying to teach her the word “No” but I am not having much luck yet. So until that day we say no and then move her on the opposite side of the room. But I think she can find mischief wherever we put her.


* She can pull herself up to a standing position. Aunt Susanna got her a toy that she can stand up on and push buttons to play music. She loves to stand up and walk around the outside of it. She can walk from one end of the couch to another. She has not been brave enough to walk on her own but if I am holding her and let go she can stand on her own.


* She is eating all kinds of food. I think her favorite is Chicken. She likes to eat chunks of chicken and croutons from our salad. We have been surprised by how much she can chew with only two chompers.


* She can get out of her vibrating bouncer… I used to put her in it while I took a shower so she could play and not be to far away… The other day I heard a “THUD!” and then there she was right in front of the shower door trying to get in. LOL I don’t know how she didn’t hurt herself.

* She is enjoying swimming in our new pool. I think she is going to be a water baby.




*I think she has her upper teeth coming in but we can’t see them yet.


* When she see’s other kids she growls at them


* She still LOVES Dora the explorer. Our friends Lori and her daughter Hailey gave us a Dora the Explorer Playhouse with a bunch of dolls and Malaika loves them! I think I have the theme song down pat now!


* She is very curious and loves to get into drawers and the fridge. She likes to take toys out of her basket and then put them back.

* She likes to smell the flowers with my mom. Their daily routine is to go outside and water and smell the flowers. It is pretty cute.

* When I did a home measurement of her the other day she was 21 lbs and 28 inches long. She is wearing size 4 diapers and 12 -18 month clothes
* I cut her hair and evened it out because it was driving me insane! I think it looks a little better now but it is a little short.


I really cannot think of anymore at the moment. She is getting prettier and prettier everyday! I am so thankful for this blessing! I can’t believe it has almost been a year!

My Birthday – a day at the zoo

On July 25th I turned the big 23! I know I know I am getting up there =)
Malaika was sure to be the first to wish me Happy birthday every hour on the hour throughout the wee morning hours. I tried to be as thankful as I could.
My mom had the day off so she wanted to take me out to breakfast and take me to the zoo for my birthday gift. I LOVE THE ZOO!

I could go to the zoo every day of the week and never get sick of it. Every time I go, there is something there I didn’t see before.

I also love to go because I get a good workout without even noticing. By the end of the day I am tired, tanned (ever so slightly), and twitter painted. I love animals!


We also took Malaika with us and it was fun to see her reaction to the animals. Last time I took her she was more amused by the leaves and the grass.



This time she actually saw some of the animals and was curious. I have a great video I will post of her with the Orangutan’s.

After that my mom and her boyfriend offered to baby-sit Malaika so Edwin and I could go out for a birthday dinner and movie. This part of the night was all a surprise. Edwin had been planning for a few weeks and wanted me to have a nice birthday. It was such a nice evening; it reminded me of old times! He came home with a dozen roses which is ALWAYS wonderful! First we went to Du’s grill; it is a little hole in the wall teriyaki chicken place that has THE BEST chicken, rice and salad. It is over by Portland Bible College and we used to go there a lot because it was yummy and cheap! Then we went to Bullwinkle’s family fun center and played video games for a few hours. We collected almost 700 tickets so we got to pick out a few trinkets to take home to Malaika. THEN we went to the new Will Ferrell movie “Stepbrothers”. Edwin is a HUGE Will Ferrell fan. It was definitely a laugh! He also got me my new phone! I was in desparate need of a new phone since mine was shorting out.
I also talked to my dad and he and Cindy got a $25 gift card to the movie theater and a $25 gift card to Claim Jumpers (which is an excellent restaurant) and my friend Maria also got me a Gift card to Nordstrom which will be put to good use! Thank you everyone for a great Birthday!!

Summer days

We have been pretty busy these last couple of weeks. Here are some of the things we have done.

* Painted the outside of the house. It had to be done before the end of June. We still need to paint the trim and finish some touch-up work but it is looking really nice.

* Fourth of July- We had our friends Nicole and Everisto over with their two daughters Lauren (5 yrs old) and Amelie (11 months old) It was really nice and relaxing to hav them over and BBQ. Lauren was even brave enough to swim in the pool.

* We bought a pool! It is about 4 ft deep and it has been so nice on the really hot days. We have been trying to get Malaika used to it but it is not her favorite

* Went to LaGrande- This was a nice trip. Susanna and I went down for 3 days to go see my dad and "try" to see as many friends as we can. I decided that next time I am going to let people come to me.. it was so hard on Malaika to be in the hot car and drive around so much. I felt bad by the end of the 3 days she was exhausted. I was really nervous to make this trip with her because I didn't know how she would be on a 4 hour drive. Surprisingly she slept through the whole drive. I did not even have to stop. She is such a good baby. It was so nice to see my dad and Cindy. Malaika really likes Cindy. It is always good to see my dad interact with her (She is still not to sure about him.) We are hoping to make the trip again in September so for those o you I didn't get a chance to visit maybe we can see you then!

* When I got back from LaGrande I was making dinner when someone knocked on the door. It was our next door neighbor and she wanted to invite us to a cookout that they were putting together for a few of the neighbors. It was on Saturday evening and we told them we would bring some pie. I was really excited to meet the rest of the neighbors since we have not lived here very long and I have not been brave enough to go meet them.
We went there around 6 and they had set up a swing for Malaika and had some baby crackers for her to eat. (Most of our neighbors are elderly so they all LOVE malaika and think she is the best thing ever) It was fun to get to know all the different personalities. It is also nice to know we are in a neighborhood that is safe and fun and the neighbors actually care about eachother. Around nine they wanted to set off some leftover fireworks. Talk about "leftover" There was about $100 dollars worth of fireworks and they lasted for over an hour! Malaika is not a big fan of fireworks yet, so edwin had to take her inside. It was a really fun night and I am looking forward to more of them.

*This week has been pretty uneventful. We have ben trying to organize the house still and put some finishing touches. I think we will never be done with that. Today I am taking Malaika for some more professional photo's. I love living in a big city there are so many free lance photographers wanting to get more baby photo's in their portfolio's so I get killer deals. Today We are going to a free session in greshem and she will give us one free 8x10 as well as unlimited online photo's that have a lower resolution. Which is perfect for us because we don't really print the pictures. I will post some of them for everyone to see.

*OHHHHH and the last thing
I decided to go to an advisor because I have been taking a lot of random classes while taking my nursing pre-requisites. Turns out I had 99 credits just with PCC which is enough to get an associates degree!!!!! So all I needed to do was fill out some papers and I need to take it in and pay 10 dollars and I will get the certificate! This was such a blessing to find out. I felt like I have been in school for so long with nothing to show for it.. but now I will have something to put on my resume! Hooray! I will also be able to apply for 4 different nursing schools in the fall.. so PRAY that I get into one of them.

I will post Malaika's 8 month post this weekend. Hope everyone is having a great summer!!!