September & October

It's amazing how fast this first year has gone! It's hard to believe Sloan is 1. We had several milestones in the months of September and October. On the 11th of September Sloan threw a ball for the first time. This was a proud moment for mom! September 29th she took her first two steps. Also in September she gained three more teeth all within a week. October 23rd brought her first birthday. She had her one year doctor's appointment and continues to be growing like crazy. She is now 29 1/2 inches (85 percentile) and 23 lbs 1 oz (70 percentile). We started sign language at about 8 months so she could communicate a few things to us before being able to verbalize. She does well with "please, all done, more, and eat." She continues to increase her vocabulary and has perfected a few animal sounds. She can tell you the sounds for cats, dogs, lions and pigs. She also says "baby" (which usually means anyone under 12 years old) and "Doo" (which means dog in her world but also includes anything with four legs). She loves both. Her favorite word is "daddy". Sloan also went to her first Rocky football game and did some tailgating. She was a party animal and finally decided she could take a nap on the way home.

Sloan had a great first birthday with lots of family. She didn't quite know what to think about unwrapping presents but she definitely liked the end result. She enjoyed her birthday cake but spent most of the time throwing pieces of it on the floor.

Sloan dressed up as an angel for Halloween. She got to see all of her cousins and greet some trick or treaters. We will save the candy eating until next year!

July & August

The last two months have been filled with adventures. There were only two weekends in the months of July and August that we were home and didn't have company. Most of the weekends were spent travelling. We made trips to the cabin (near Yellowstone), Denver, Flathead, and the ranch. We are loving every minute with Sloan. She seems to talk non-stop now although we can't understand most of it. She does say mama and dada regularly and gama every once in awhile. Mostly she just makes happy noises. She continues to be a very happy girl and seems to always have a smile on her face. At her 9 month appointment she was 28 inches long and weighed 20 pounds and 6 ounces.

Sloan was baptized on July 11 and we were fortunate to have quite a bit of family come and take part in the festivities. She was very entertaining throughout the service. She squealed and shrieked on cue. She smiled and showered the congregation with spit from her raspberries. When the minister was walking her down the aisle for the congregation to see she played peek-a-boo with her gown. She would hold the gown up to cover her face and then pull it down quickly with a big smile on her face. She was a hit! Everyone loved her show.

We had a great trip to Colorado to visit family and friends. While we were there Sloan took her first dip in the pool. She loved it! While visiting Lisa's aunt, uncle and cousins she showed them one of her favorite tricks. Blowing bubbles. She started it in early June and has since perfected the technique. She gathers some extra saliva and proceeds to make it into bubbles. She spent about five minutes showing them the trick at the dinner table.

We made a trip to Flathead to see some friends, the ranch to visit family, and the cabin for the 4th of July. She was a great traveler and has started to enjoy watching Baby Einstein videos to burn some time in the car.

She continues to amaze us every day. I know all parents feel this way, but it seems like every day brings something new. She will pull herself up now and walk while holding the ledge. She likes to dance to music. Occasionally she forgets to hold on and stands unassisted for 10 seconds or so. Often times we hand her a book while we change her diaper and she now acts like she is reading it. She mumbles along and points at things. That must be what we sound like! She has always enjoyed crawling around with something in her hands. One of her favorite things is to put a large shoe on her hand and crawl around the house. She is now opening drawers and cupboards and emptying the contents onto the floor. She is so pleased with the messes she makes. She also loves to take lids off and put them back on.

May & June

Sloan has been very busy since our last post. She officially had a tooth break through at six months and two weeks. She then followed up three weeks later by pushing herself up to a sitting position all on her own. Just a few days later we had another tooth and a few more days later she officially crawled. The crawling process was very quick. She went from taking a couple "crawl steps" to full on crawling within two days. She skipped the army crawl and seemed to go straight to fast mode. We quickly assembled the gate above the stairs and plugged the outlets! We also found ourselves lowering the crib since she decided to pull herself to a standing position while waiting for us to get her. Teething has not been awful (easy for us to say!). With the first tooth, she seemed a little uncomfortable, drooled and wanted more attention than usual but the second tooth came without warning. It looks like the top two will come shortly. Hopefully they will arrive with ease.


She is very observant and constantly on the go. She now follows us from room to room. She likes to be where we are but she plays independently as well. All of this activity makes for a tired girl that sleeps through the night. Most nights she sleeps from about 8:30 to 7:00.

She continues to enjoy food and has tried most types of baby food. She especially enjoys puffs and will let you know with urgent pleading when she wants more. She has still been babbling quite a bit and seems to make new noises daily. Sometimes she even surprises herself with a high pitched scream. She is mastering the art of cause and effect. Drop toy from high chair.... toy falls to the ground... someone picks it up... repeat process. She also enjoys a game of peek-a-boo when one of us holds her and the other peeks up from behind the holder's shoulder. We go from side to side and before you know it she is anticipating the next move and is waiting for you when you get there.

We made a couple quick trips over the last few weeks. We headed back to the ranch for branding (it was cold and rained most of the time so Sloan and Lisa spent the day inside). We also headed to Silver Gate to open the cabin. After a few small obstacles we (Dirk) got everything taken care of. We took a drive into Yellowstone and saw three bears(at three locations). We credit Sloan for finding one of the bears. She had a strong aroma that forced us to pull over for a diaper change and when we did a black bear came out of no where.

We continue to love every moment with Sloan and feel so lucky to have her. She is a very happy baby!








I was trying to get some pictures of her first tooth. In the first picture you can catch a glimpse. The rest were just cute and showed some of her expressions.





Here she is reading her book. It was even right side up this time.





As you can see, her hair is still curly when it is wet. She loves her bath time!







These are a few crawling pictures. She was trying to get the strap on the camera so she just kept chasing me. You can see two teeth in some of the pictures.