Who Is This Toothless Beauty?!?

Ohhh... it's our little Helena from way back in May!!! Gosh, she's really grown up over the past 5 months - so much has changed...

Hey, not bad... this is an inside cover spread for the Chicco autumn/winter catalogue!!!

Too bad my scanner doesn't do her (or the photographer) justice...

Oh, and this is the back cover of a take home flier/catalogue - what a cutie!!! But these days are long gone...

I guess now's as good a time as any to share a bit of Helena's highlights since I sorta missed her big birthday write-up!!! She's a total sweetie - she likes to nuzzle in for cuddles from both Tony & me, she blows kisses and will actually kiss/lick those lucky enough to hold her. She's very helpful - she'll put the Legos back in the box when it's Hunter's job (you can see how that may benefit him in the future), she hands me hangers when I'm doing laundry and she'll generally do what I ask if it'll help someone out. She's also very determined and when she wants something she really goes after it, holds on to it or makes enough ruckus til she gets it!

She's got a whole lot more teeth than in May - 8 to be exact. Not sure when the others will arrive, but she's got a symmetrical smile - well, we just noticed a chip in two of them (same place both teeth - must've been a pretty good face plant) so hey, she's got character!!! And she smiles, smiles, smiles all the time!!!

She's an adventurous little girl!! She loves climbing - though she does her mama proud by climbing feet first most of the time. She likes playing with Hunter's bike when he's not on it (of course that doesn't last long because once he sees her on it he wants it...). She loves going outside and seeing new things - now she's quite squirmy and really wants to see everything that's going on... and not from her stroller seat either.

She's fairly inquisitive... she likes to look around and touch things to try to figure out how they work. She likes sounds - whenever we walk into our lobby she starts hollering so she can hear her echo... it's pretty funny. She sings songs when we ride bikes too... it's so cute! She loves the music during worship time at church and whenever music's on in the house she's swaying to it.

"I'm a walker, oh yeah, a walker - oh yeah!!!"

And yes, just this past week: Mei-mei's mobile!!! She loves her new skill and wants to test it out everywhere... though keeping track of two mobile ones is going to make my daily life a bit more exciting!!!!

She does have a ferocious bite that sends Hunter running - it's funny to watch though of course we don't condone such behaviour. (But she's half his size and weight (almost literally on the weight) - what would you do if your big brother kept taking things away from you?!?)

Anyway, that's the 411 on the little princess... we absolutely love her! She is such a delight and her personality is really starting to shine through! What a blessing to raise such a dear little girl...