A Sandy First Mother's Day

For Mother's Day, we drove out to Pensacola Beach after church on Sunday. We ate lunch at Peg Leg Pete's and then headed across the street to the beach. As usual, the beach was sparsely populated, and we hope it's always that way. Although this wasn't Ayla's first time at the beach, this time she was able to get down and crawl around, which she really enjoyed. I think she was a bit skeptical at first about the loud sounds the waves were making, but after a while, she was okay with it all. I first tried to get her use to the water, and she enjoyed kicking her legs, but would then look up at me like, "Okay, Mom, pick me up now!" We stayed for about two hours and had a really nice time!

Ayla was full of sand, but we got her washed off and changed, and she was very sleepy. I don't know what it is, but there's something about the beach and salt air that makes you tired. She took a really good nap with me when we got home, and later that evening, we all went to Quizno's for dinner and opened our Mother's Day gifts. I opened mine from Ayla & Brett later that night, and I was delighted to find that I'd been given a pendant with Ayla's birthstone, which is also mine, and I got a charm for my charm bracelet of a mother and child intertwinded into the shape of a heart. :+]

New things: She does this new "fish face," she's much more balanced when pulling up, and most recently, my mom taught her how to say "hot," which sounds a lot like the way Jackson says it. He'll put his hand up to anything that we've told him is dangerous and say, "Ha!"

That cute little foot, in the sand!

Here she is playing with my mom! That's Brett in the background. He's shell hunting! BTW: Notice the lack of people on the beach. It's GREAT!!
Tossing sand in the air!

Here she is about to eat some sand, and below with it going in her mouth. I thought she'd cry or at least act irritated, but she wasn't bothered a bit by it! My mom assured me that when I was little I injested plenty of sand, and although some might argue, I believe I turned out okay!

Below are a few rhandom pictures I've taken since my last posting!
BTW: This is the "new" face she's been making. I didn't quite catch it well enough, but that's what she was doing. It's a "fish" face! :+}



Here she is last Friday, the afternoon of her 9 month well-baby visit. She was 9 months old this day! We learned she was 28 inches long and weighed 18.4 lbs., which put her in the 75th percentile for height and 50th for weight. She had a runny nose that day, but wasn't running fever.