These booties are made for walking ... sort of

The big question is ... will Nicole crawl first or will she walk first? She gave some hints yesterday that she could soon be ready to try either. She supposedly crawled at day care, but it's more like scooting. If you put her down and leave her be, she won't end up in the same place. But it's not quite crawling yet. Still, she looks like she's getting ready. It could be any day. As for walking, that's a lot farther away. But as you'll see in the pictures, she can hold herself up and is just about at the point of pulling herself upright. I'll be teaching her how to play softball in no time.

Here are the pictures.

Time change

Just a reminder for anyone who cares that with the end of daylight savings time, we are now TWO hours behind the east coast and ONE hour ahead of the west coast.

Halloween and a visit from Bubby & Grandpa

Once we explained to Nicole that we would put her in a costume and take her around the neighborhood collecting candy, she asked how she'd be able to eat the candy. We told her she needed teeth, so on Saturday before Halloween, with Bubby and Grandpa in town as witnesses, she got her first tooth. What timing. She also attended her first baseball game, learned how to clap her hands on demand and, of course, enjoyed her first Halloween. Tonight we continue Nicole's series of firsts, and continue the sports theme, taking her to her first football game (Jessica's old high school). She likes watching football at the bar on Sundays, so she should enjoy it tonight.

Here are pictures from Halloween and Bubby & Grandpa's visit.

Quick photo update

Here are a few shots from the past month or so. In case you missed it, Nicole is 6 months old (closer to 6 1/2 now), sits up and is eating cereal and veggies now (she likes carrots more than peas, and who can blame her?). She's such a happy kid, always smiling and laughing and very talkative. She's sleeping through the night, about 8 pm to 6 am. So all in all, things -- and Nicole -- are great.

Click here for the pictures.

Nicole turns a half!

Hard to believe it's been six months already. She's growing up so fast. I intend to get more pictures and possibly VIDEO! on the site soon, so you can see what she's looking and acting like. The main change is that her hair continues to grow in. It's not really long enough to do anything fun with, but it's at least brushable. More hair than me, at least. She's also sitting up, which you've seen some of in pictures, but she's much more stable now.

We just got home from her 6-month checkup. She's sleeping off the effects of her shots. Nicole measured 26 inches (sometimes referred to as 2'2"), which puts her in the 50th percentile and is 2 inches taller than at 4 months. She weighed a whopping 14 pounds, 2 ounces, which is only 20th percentile, but also a 2-pound gain from last time. And she's more than doubled her birth weight, which they say is the goal for 6 months. Her head circumference is 50th percentile, which really only means that she can fit into her Ravens hat for the rest of the season (which, by the looks of it, might be ending in December not February).

Up to new tricks

Trying to make up for lost time, since we were sans camera for several weeks. Here are some new pictures showing you what Nicole is up to these days.

Click here for pictures.

The camera's back, and so is football season

The camera was fixed and delivered about 4 hours before kickoff. Unlike the Ravens, I didn't drop the package as soon as the Fed Ex person handed it to me.

Nicole enjoyed her first real Ravens game and was all dressed up, as you can see. There wasn't much good to come out of it, though, except for these pictures. Plus, we learned that the magic cookies still have some of their powers. For those who don't know, eating Jessica's chocolate chocolate chip cookies brings good fortune to the Ravens. It all started last year when the cookies brought them back from a 21-0 hole against Tennessee. In fact, I packed some cookies when I flew to Louisville on the day of the playoff game against the Colts. However, they lost my luggage -- with the cookies inside -- and I didn't get it until it was too late.

Fortunately, Jessica had just whipped up a batch of the cookies this weekend. They were in the freezer, waiting for Yom Kippur, but the Ravens needed the help early. So, with them trailing 19-13 in the fourth quarter, we quickly wolfed down a cookie. About a minute later Ed Reed ran back a punt for a touchdown to put them team up 20-19. Sadly, that was all the cookie could do, as their powers are no match for Billick's play calling or the referees' penalty calling. I won't be surprised if Nicole's first words are "Why the hell aren't they running the ball?" after I was shouting it for the last 6 minutes of the game.

Looking forward to a better result on Sunday. In the meantime, enjoy these pictures.