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Livia had her 9 month check-up today. She is 28.5 inches long (78%) and 19 pounds, 6 onces (58%). After a great check-up and three shots we were on our way.

Livia is such a great sleeper - she goes down around 7:45 now and sleeps until at least 8 in the morning. It's awesome since Mommy's not a morning person. She babbles all the time now and mostly says mama and baba. She's a fruit freak, she loves blueberries, mangos, pears and bananas; she really loves to squish them with her baby fists of fury. She'll eat chicken now but she's still iffy on vegetables so we're going to have to trick her into eating them. We're trying a sippy-cup but she just chews on them so we'll keep working on it. She's everywhere now, cruises on the furniture and even lets go every now and then to see how long she can stand. It really won't be long before she stands up on her own. She waves, gives high 5s and is trying to snap her fingers (I don't know where she got that).

We're still doing KinderMusic and she loves it. She dances around, gets her arms flapping and just giggles. We found a program on HBO Family in January called Classical Baby and we ordered the DVDs and it's honestly the best $29.99 ever spent on Amazon.com. We can put her in her jumper while she watches her videos and get a good 20-30 minutes of quiet time. The Dance version is her favorite and her favorite dance is the Mambo where the monkeys are the band members.

We've made a few trips to the lake this summer and recently Papa and Gigi came for an afternoon for Papa's birthday. Last weekend Livia got to meet a bunch of family on the Paulsen side at Leah's wedding. She had a great time with her new buddy Cousin Emma and had a blast at the reception because she likes to watch the bigger kids run around. These are some pictures that Aunt Leslie and Gigi took because Mommy and Daddy have really fallen down on taking pictures lately.

Quack-Quacks

Livia got to see a real life quack-quack family this evening at the lake. Grandma was getting her out of the bath when I noticed a daddy, mommy and 8 baby ducks walk down the sidewalk like they owned the place. It was really cute. Our neighbor, Reggie, was feeding them so they hung around for awhile. Livia really wanted to get a hold of them. After a bit 5 or 6 more grown-up boy ducks came and starting bothering the mommy so she took her little ducklings to the lake. They were so cute and tiny! Hopefully we'll see more of them this weekend.

Clean Baby

After all of the hard work of splashing and eating bath toys this is what you get:

Bath time

Livia has turned into a little water baby. She loves bath time and now makes a bit of a mess when she's in there splashing around. Oh, and Abby keeps an eye on things after she jumps on top of the shower.

Flower Baby

Livia has a new bath towel...it's pretty darn cute.

How could I forget?

About a month ago Livia took her first trip to the zoo. We were in Omaha and when you're there you just have to go to their zoo - it's wonderful. It's hard to tell what she could see but she seemed to like the aquarium.

Downward Dog

Livia is trying really hard to stand up on her own. We call it her downward dog.

Memorial Day Weekend

Livia took her first boat ride at the lake over Memorial Day weekend. Our friends were with us so Livia had to borrow a neighbor's granddaughter's life jacket. She couldn't even sit up in it, she kept tipping over. In case you're wondering she was awake for about 2 minutes on the boat.

On the move

Livia is EVERYWHERE now. She's crawling all over the place, even going up stairs. She's also pulling herself up on anything and everything, a table, a couch, a cat...so far we haven't had too many wipeouts so please keep your fingers crossed it stays that way.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers/grandpas/great-grandpas/uncles - all of the guys! Livia and Daddy spent part of the weekend watching the US Open. This is exactly what Mommy thinks of watching golf too.

Sorry again

It's been too long - sorry, we've been busy!!

We had three weddings in a row and the middle was Daddy's cousin, Tom. Livia got to go to the reception like a big girl and Daddy even fed her cake when Mommy wasn't looking.

Spring Game

Livia went her first tailgate on the hill this spring. We met some friends, tailgated and had a fun time at the family zone where you can run on the practice field, get autographs and bounce in the bounce houses. We had a lot of fun, even though we didn't make it into the game because KU scheduled it during nap time.

Livia's party

We celebrated with brunch after Livia's baptism. We had a yummy cake with Livia's special bible verse: "For you are fearfully and wonderfully made" and her friends and family sent her very special gifts. Thank you all for a wonderful weekend!