1 Month and counting

Seriously, has it already been 11 months? A few snaps of our 11 month old Elena B.

Playing under the dining table
Helping Daddy unload the dishwasherMoving in for her extreme close-up

Playing with her "new" activity table

Happy Birthday, Miss Bip

Well, I just barely made it thanks to our internet being down most of the day. Happy Birthday, Katy. A little visit from the Ghost of Birthdays Past.

Love,

Robbie-Bobbie-Booby, Heather, Kathryn & Elena

Happy Saturday

Saw Tara's and had to give it a try.

To quote Turtle

"Not dead yet". He spelled it differently. But it covers the situation. I feel bad for not having blogged for a week. All is okay. Nothing too major. I've been working my tuckus off since July 17. Got to love it when the government changes their mind, twice. Just got to survive the long hours until August 17. Hopefully after that I'll be back to my 35 hour work week. I'm soooo spoiled. And I love it.

Laney's been busy being a big kid. She's discovered pasta, fresh fruit (especially bananas, peaches and peeled & halved grapes), and other fun finger foods. Tonight she finally seemed to have a concept of how the sippy cup works and that apple juice is good. We mostly use Playtex drop-in bottles, so she tends to suck her milk out, using the vacumn action of the collapsing bag. This way she doesn't have to tip her bottle. But this makes it harder to learn to drink from a cup. Also, she has pretty much flat refused to drink anything but formula until tonight.

Also, she's standing on her own sometimes. At least until she realizes it. Then she plops down on her little diapered rear. But she's doing it more and more. She pushes anything that will move with her across the floor. I found Kathryn's old activity table in the attic and she is loving that!

She's moved to the big car seat in Daddy's car.

She's learned to play with her toys too. Right after we got back from vacation we realized she'd learned cause and effect - she pushes every button she can find to see if makes music, squeaks or lights up. She's also started to play with her stuffed animals.

She's got 1 1/2 teeth and she's working on a third. We had the sick day yesterday to prove it. Luckily, one of our good friends from church (and her cutey patooty granddaughter) came over for the day to watch her.

Finally, she's got a 3 word vocabulary - "Uh-Oh", "Dada" and "Hi!". Apparently the "Hi" thing is a source of amusement at day care. She says it every time some one walks into her classroom.

It's been a rainy summer. So it hasn't been hot, but life in the Swamp is not fun. Anybody want a mosquito? I can ship you about 3 billion. It also means we're not getting much use out of the baby pool, play house or swing. This bums me out! But we make it out there when we can.

Hope to be back soon, but we'll see . . .

What the heck

I haven't blogged in a while and this is my 90th, so let's be silly. This comes from Cup of Joe.

1. REAL NAME: Heather

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first 3 letters of real name plus "-izzle"): Heanizzle (I am not even sure how to pronounce that!)

3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color and favorite animal): Blue Penguin

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name and current street): Glencora Park Douglas

6. YOUR SUPER HERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink): Red Gin & Tonic (saving the world from limes everywhere)

7. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother's middle name and father's middle name - switch if you are male): Lee Victor

8. YOUR GOTH NAME: ("Black" and the name of one of your pets): Take your pick - Black Rory, Black Ebony or my personal fave, Black Scooter.

9. YOUR PORN NAME (name of your first pet + first street you lived on): Cinnamon Las Campanas

Who's that, Laney?

That's right, that's "Dada"!

Guess what Laney learned to say today? And to top it off, when she said it (several times) she pointed at him!

Last But Not Least

Our last family stop was an afternoon and night at Rob's dad's house. We got there early enough on Friday that Kathryn and Elena got in some play time in the backyard.
Rob and Elena
Nana Jackie & Elena

The birthday cake that Dick bought for Jackie and Kathryn
Kathryn and her cake
Kathryn & Dick take a trip down memory lane

All and all, good trip. And now I put away my slide projector and will stop inflicting family vacation photos on you for a few months.

Hello Great Grandma

Here's the post from the 2nd leg of our summer vacation.

Tuesday morning we departed GA and headed north up scenic I-85 to Rob's grandmother, Ila's house. I think that drive is gorgeous and some day I hope I can go back and camp at one or more of those lakes and rivers we crossed over.

It's a long drive - so we let Laney take the wheel for a while

We arrived at Great Grandma's in time for dinner and Ila and Elena took to each other instantly. Elena snuggled and jabbered and played her way across Ila's porch.

The next day I took Elena outside to enjoy the shade in Ila's back yard. Laney wasn't too sure what to make of the grass, she hasn't been out in the grass much, it's been too stinking hot & muggy to play in the yard at our house lately.
Ila took us out to lunch at this "little run down restraunt" on the river. The food was wonderful and the restraunt was a bit nicer than we expected
Rob and I get goofy at lunch
Afte lunch we walked to the river's edge for a while
Amoungst the things that Elena learned this week (she also learned to cruise and stood by herself a few times) she learned that sometimes when you press a button you get a result. Thus her obsession with Great Grandma's VCR and cable box. If we had never taken her toys out of the car, she would have been fine with those two pieces of electronics. Ila was happy to let her play too - the cable box is obsolete and the VCR rarely used.

The whole gang on Thursday night
We made Ila's morning on Friday when she fed Elena her breakfast applesauce while we packed the car
Ila and her great-granddaughters

Once again, the visit was a bit too short. We loved being in Virginia and getting to see Ila and she seemed to love having a house full of people to feed and hug on. Hopefully she'll be able to make it see us soon.

Things overheard

In my drive way last night -

"Let's see what this one does"

"Yummm . . . smell the sulfur"

"I love celebrating our nation's freedom by blowing up stuff made in China."

"Earkasplittinloudkaboomen" - this said by my husband before setting off an entire 100 count package of fire crackers


We had a relatively quiet 4th for us - in year's past this has been a big day for guests and birthday celebrations, but with Kat at her mom's and Stina on call, it was just Rob, me and our friend Neil from the usual crowd and the fun addition of my friend Tammy who is in town doing a summer internship.

We had dinner, played with the baby and the after she headed off to bed we went out to the driveway to act like pyromaniacs. (Side note - Elena slept through all of the fire crackers, artillery shells, and maniac barking that came out of her fire-cracker hating dog)

Neil and Rob get their pyro on:

Me and Tammy
Some of our artillery shells

So while not what we've gotten used to over the last 6 years, still a lot of fun.

The Photo Shoot

First, I have to credit Tara with this idea and it was her Target Photo membership that allowed us to order so many prints. I'll admit I had my doubts, but WOW! The photographer was amazing. To get so many great shots out of a 4 1/2 month old, 6 1/2 month old and a 10 month old was amazing. You've already seen her shots of Kathryn, but here is her work with the babies.



First, my girls:

Here are the little cousins: Elena (10 months), Derrick (4 1/2 months) and Evan (6 1/2 months)

Then the 4 grandkids together:
My little buddy Derrick:
And my little buddy Evan: Cute ain't they? I think I'll keep 'em.

Happy Independence Day!

Wishing all you a happy and safe 4th of July!

And a very special happy birthday wish to Stina. It just won't be the same without you today.