Little things.

I have not been blogging much. I am farming. What fun and so relaxing.
As you saw...Nick is now riding his bike and loves it. He is also delighting in 2nd Grade. That is so important.

Let me tell you a little about Emily. She is such an odd duck, our sweetheart Emily. You can not beg, borrow or steal a "SO BIG" from her. She is stingy with all those normal things that babies do. However, this little girl of ours whistles. Yes, she actually puckers up and makes a noise. A noise we can hear. She especially does it when she is watching the bird. Another little trick she picked up is winking. So off the wall. Both eyes at the same time but believe it or not...she is getting better at an actual one eye wink. Then there is Psssst. Our way of getting someone's attention. We would do that to get her attention. Now she does it to us. She is finally waving Hi and Bye and is starting to actually say Hi. Tomorrow she will be 11 months and shows no sign of walking and very little of pulling up to her feet, even though when I stand her next to a toy or somewhere she loves to stand there. We have great long winking, whistling and talking sessions standing in our crib when we wake up from a nap. She is more a delight now then I could ever have imagined. I am very lucky to be in a position to take care of her and watch her grow.

Below...Emily winking at Gramma.

I know I have been horrible.

But I have to share this. Susie and Elliot...now we can ride outside with the cooler weather. YEAH!!!

A little backround for those not in the know. Nick...and actually his friend Elliot is the same way....takes forever to do some things....never WANTS to learn so avoids it. Then ONE day...it is just there and he can do it. Swimming was conquered this summer now riding his bike..up and gone Becky tells me.

Poor tortured baby.

"Woe is me!!!!! It is later then normal. Mommy should have me home taking a bath, giving me my bottle and putting me to bed. Instead I am still at Gramma's because Mom had to go to a thing at Nick's school. Nick and Gramma went out in the yard. I am stuck in the house. Instead of saving me and taking me outside too, Gramma comes in the OTHER door, grabs her camera and takes a picture of poor tortured me."

Please pay no attention to the door. LOL. We USED to have a cafe handle on the door and when Lucy was just a pup she learned if she jumped up she could hit the handle and get the door open from the outside. Obviously this continued over the years. Now we have changed back to a normal round handle because if Lucy OPENS that door and I am not right there Emily could crawl outside and be in the pool before you could blink. Hopefully the door destruction will stop soon. (She still makes her swipe at it.) When it is over we will fix or replace the door.

TGIF

It has been a long long week. John was out of town and both kids were here. But LOOK. We all survived and it is 7:30 PM and Emily is happily playing behind me while Mommy and Daddy and Brother are out. We took a bath in the sink and jammies are on.


Elliot and Nicholas were in an art camp all week from 1 to 4. How wonderful it was. They came home with a bag full of goodies...projects they had done. The biggy though was their robots and their t-shirts. This place is 5 minutes from the house. Walking distance if not for the big road to cross. Elliot has taken the classes before but this was Nick's first. Both boys had a wonderful time and really enjoyed the class and creating. This will be something that will happen as often as possible.


The t-shirts are also their creation. They made the stamp for the design. Another thing they made was a comic strip about their robot and a mobile that is a flying saucer for their robot.

It is really interesting...some of the "things" they used to create these robots. One of the interesting things to me is the round part of Nick's....below the head...is a blown up balloon. Elliot's, below, the top part of his head is a balloon. The legs are little drinking cups...bottom to bottom. The robot project was worked on all week.


BTW...here is a recent picture of Walter Wiles. 5 weeks old now.

Birthdays

Happy Birthday to Maggie....the 14th...and Colleen...today. Another great family gathering by the pool yesterday. We were thrilled to welcome Jayson's Mom, Dad and brother yesterday for the first time to our home. I think fun was had by all. The weather was pretty darn good. Better then past swimming parties for Maggie...or maybe we are getting used to it. The pool water was PERFECT. Cool instead of the usual bathtub hot at this time of year, so it felt refreshing to swim. The kids showed off all their skills to the adults. This was the first time The Wiles met our Emily and Em was a joy, going to everyone without hesitation and eating her dinner with the company of Jayson's brother, Travis. Most of the guest stayed until close to 10 PM, with kids swimming and having fun until then. I pity my neighbors, since it gets so loud. Kuddos to the friend of Colleen and Jayson who made the cupcakes. They were absolutely DELICIOUS. John, as always, barbecued chicken and as always it was delicious. I love seeing people after they toss their plates and are supposedly done eating, standing in the kitchen by the sink with "just one more piece of chicken" being eaten. Susie, our neighbor, brought salads and they were totally wiped out as always. She truly makes the best. We seem to always end up with too many left over snacks from our parties so this time I told the girls to keep them down. Funny how everyone seemed to want to snack yesterday. LOL. Good thing John had also put out shrimp to munch on. All the snacks were wiped out too but I think there was plenty.
Great Day!!!

Posing for the camera with her gifts.


So excited over the laptop computer from Mimi and Popo. Jayson's parents.


Colleen's favorite. Her Starbuck's gift card. Sitting behind her is Jayson's Mom and Dad.


That would be Nick swimming in the water.


Elliot and Lucy. Body by innertubes. 3 to be exact. Not as easy as you may think. Especially with Lucy trying to kiss and play with you.


Emily after a dunking. She does love the water. Next year she will be in our favorite innertube on her own.
At least we hope so.

Travis and Emily

Catch up day. (This and That)

First off...Tuesday John and I faced 36 years of marriage head on. This makes me feel very old. No...not old. Out of touch. Out of touch with my previous life. Recently I joined Facebook. I am so glad I did. I have reconnected with many people who I spent the first 18 years of my life with. People who have had kids and now have Grandkids, just like me. I never saw those kids and now I see them in pictures. ALL grown up with babies of their own. This kind of depresses me to see how fast time has gone. I'll get over it but I am looking forward to the reconnecting. I just want to get on a plane and sit and have coffee with some of them. It would be hours and hours of catching up but I would love to be able to do that. Maybe in the near future, if they'll have me. LOL.

What is new around here? Colleen, Jayson and Maggie have a new family member. They have rescued a teeny tiny puppy, who was only a couple weeks old when they got him. They are doing bottle feedings and now in the process of weaning him. He is part Cardigan Welsh Cordi and the cutest little thing, even though I am sure he has changed tons since I saw him last Saturday. Then he only weighed in at a pound and a half. How can you not fall in love?



Coming up here on the 14th is Maggie's 6th birthday. We are going to have the family here for swimming and cake to celebrate. As always, we are looking forward to it, heat and all.

FINALLY we have professional pictures of Emily and Nick. They really turned out beautiful. Not sure what they black backround will look like on here. They are scanned in. Hopefully they look good. Now if I could just get it together and change out some of the old pictures I have hanging in frames. (RIGHT!!!)

Spinning Top

Who needs a "Sit and Spin"?

Finally...SOOO Big.

And clapping at the same time. Story here. Em watches us do everything...smiles and laughs but like her brother...never joins us. Never APES us. It is so frustrating but we can never get her to do any of the normal things when we do. Consequently we all have been doing a great job of SO BIG for months now with nothing but a baby girl laughing at us. It is so frustrating. Tonight Becky was sitting with Em doing Pattycake and out of nowhere...since we about have given up SO BIG...she asked how big Emily was. Not only did the girl put her hands up but she brought them down and clapped when Mommy clapped. Thank goodness she also did it for the camera.

9 months

Yesterday. I forgot to post. Emily turned 9 months yesterday. Time flies and she is a delight. More now then ever. Crawling agrees with her.

And that black eye? It went away that day, leaving a small scratch on the eyelid for another day or two.

Love that neat hair? Mommy trimmed her bangs last night and Gramma sprayed and combed her bedhead after nap this AM.

Shiner

Wonder how long this one will last. They seem to take forever to go away. Nick ran into the wall while swimming this AM. Was swimming with his eyes closed. Lea is trying to teach the boys how to swim without goggles. If they were to fall in water unknown to them fully clothed, etc. They would not have goggles on and they need to learn to open their eyes to find their way to safety. She also had them stay dressed this AM so she could toss them in and have them swim from deep to shallow with clothes on. All that extra weight, etc. The boys thought it was a real kick, but we could tell they tired much quicker.

Stolen from the Pearce's

Becky took this video last night. I know this because that is the outfit I had Emily in yesterday. She really can go now.

Times change

HELP!! Time to get the gates adjusted. Put the child locks back in place and just basically go insane. In the 10 days or so that Emily was not here she has become completely mobile. I took the dogs outside a bit ago and found her by the back door when we came back. Moved her to a spot with toys...she is in the TV room looking at the bird. The good news is Elliot decided to sell his "kitchen" to Emily so hopefully she will love it and start to want toys instead of getting into trouble. A new phase begins. Will she be like Nick or like Maggie? Nick never bothered a thing he was not suppose to have. Maggie, on the other hand, wanted nothing BUT what she was NOT suppose to have. Maybe there will be an in between....I type as I pull my headphone cord up out of her reach.

Visit to Iowa (a long post)

I'm going to start with a couple of key points for me. I climbed all those stairs a zillion times Monday thru Thursday and I have no knee pain. No leg pain. I cannot remember a time that I have visited my sister's home, both homes had many stairs and I always lived in a ranch, that I did not come home achy from climbing up and down. This a big thing for me.

My Dad made the drive from Chicago to Iowa to join us on our visit. It was delightful to be able to spend time with him also. Delightful for him to spend time with his Great Grandchildren and they with him.

We flew out of DFW on Monday afternoon. Security was awesome in Texas. I took charge of Nick and Maggie, their booster seats for the car and their backpacks, along with my one carry on that I was able to tuck my small purse in. We were all in slip on Crocs so it was pretty easy to line it all up on the conveyor and head through the detector. I sent the kids through first and then I told security about my knee and I went through, setting off the machine, of course. I was taken straight forward into a glassed off area with a door at the other end. The wonderful people immediately guided Nick and Maggie to chairs at the other end and started getting out stuff off the conveyor as it came through so it was all kept together on a table behind the kids. Once that was done they brought me out of my glass enclosure to check me over. Nick and Maggie looked concerned and asked me what was wrong. I talked to them while I was checked over....reminding them of the knee surgery last year...telling them it is metal...having them listen when the wand went off around my knee. The person doing the check was also very sweet to the kids, explaining this procedure along with me, so the kids fears were laid to rest. By the time I was done Becky and Chris were coming through with Emily and all their stuff. Buggy, carseat, diaper bag, and carry on with two laptops. The wonderful people were just as kind, patient and HELPFUL with them as they were with me. It all went smoother then I could ever have expected. We had TOO much time to sit and wait to board. We boarded last so we were not in anyone's way while we settled in the kids, buckled them up and all the other stuff we needed to do. It was a small plane. Only 3 seats across. Because there was a few empty seats AA brought Emily's carseat on the plane and she sat next to Becky in her carseat. Emily was antsy on the plane so the 3 of us stood on our heads to keep her happy but she did OK. Thank goodness there were no delays for weather and the flight was quick and uneventful. We stayed on the plane while it emptied..again to be out of the way...but it was quick on such a small plane.
We needed two cars for transport all the time, but everyone came to the airport to greet us. We all piled the luggage and paraphenalia into the cars and headed home.

The first thing that happened was our greeting from the dogs. Peg has a new pup. Klink is a 9 month old long haired dachsund. No one knew how Klink would react to or behave with Emily so Em was sat in a chair and Klink was controlled. However....Klink barked and growled...happy bark and growled...like crazy and Emily absolutely cracked up. Never ever have we heard Emily do deep down, out of control, belly laughs but Klink had her going for about 15 minutes. We were all laughing so hard we were in tears. Klink never did leave Emily alone. He thought we brought him a puppy to play with and each time she was on the floor he would nip at her toes and under her chin and just basically try to roll around and puppy play with her. It was cute but we could not leave them alone for a second. Peg's house is so big though, we could take Em to other areas to crawl around and play without Klink bugging her. Maddy, Peg's old dog, wanted Emily to stay because Klink did not bother her at all the whole time we were there. Between Nick, Maggie and Emily poor Klick was dead tired half the time.

Peggy and Dan have a delightful big house on a good size property. They also have a pool in a beautiful backyard. A wonderful place for company. The weather was good. Plenty of sunshine with a few rain showers so the kids did a lot of swimming. In the evening we would sit outside and enjoy the cooler weather. We do not get fireflys here in Texas so the kids had a great time catching fireflys and putting them in a jar. The company was great. The weather was great. The kids were great. Emily slept all night, every night in the playpen. Took all her naps according to her schedule. Was in a great mood when up, laughing with the dog.
Maggie slept with me and slept great. Nick was on the floor in an area with my nephew Tommy and the boys stayed up chatting when everyone else was falling asleep. Chelsea and Tom are twins and will be sophomores in college this fall. Chelsea came home from school were she is taking summer classes and working, to spend time with all of us. We are so so glad she did. Paige is 15. My nieces and nephew are a perfect age to enjoy and entertain my grandchildren and that they did. As I said, it was a wonderful visit with everyone.


Maggie, Emily and Nick at DFW airport, all decked out in red, white and blue. They looked so cute.

That dog is so funny!!!!


A rare happening but laughing at the dog and playing with all the people plum tuckered Emily out.



Maggie, Paige (sitting on the ground) Chelsea (gray dress) Danny, Nicholas, My Dad, back of Peggy's head.

Peggy, Chelsea holding Maggie, Danny, Dad.


Paige, Chelsea and Maggie, Peggy and Dan, Nicholas and Dad.


The twins, Tom and Chelsea. Tom is working for a landscaping company this summer. Forgive his dirty, grubbing appearance.


Time for smores!! Danny built a fire and we all made smores the last night we were there. Maggie and Nick have never had real smores and believe it or not this non camper hasn't either. Maggie is giving me a taste. Such a treat us unheard of for Maggie and I was so glad all that sugar did not keep her up that night.


Nick and his smore.


Chelsea and Maggie. My Maggie is a major cuddler and loved having all the people to hold her on their lap.


Danny just had to give Maggie a little more sugar. LOL. I told him if she did not go to sleep I was sending her up the him to sleep with. The good news is she was out like a light after brushing her teeth and did not wake up until 9:30 AM.


Return trip. Iowa security...not as nice. I again took the two big kids and followed the same procedure. This time I was taken into the glass enclosure but not a soul paid any attention to the fact I had two young children with me. Nick and Maggie were left walking aimlessly through not knowing what to do. I am in this glass wall enclosure yelling to them to keep walking to the end of it and stand facing me. There was no woman around to do my check over so we waited. No one is getting our stuff off the belt and the kids finally started to do it with me in a loud voice telling them where to put it and NOT to come in the enclosed area near me since someone had already yelled at them for that. It was awful and Iowa's people were no help at all. My kids were GREAT though. I thought for sure Becky and Chris would be done but NO. Iowa had to be a pain with them also. Their time to get through was about 20 minutes of so because of one unopened can of formula. Yes, it was in a plastic bag and taken out of the diaper bag. All of their stuff was taken to a side area and every carry on was unpacked and each item was completely checked over for explosives. It was ridiculous. Even unopened boxes of baby cookies had to be opened. Then, of course, it all had to be repacked. It's a good thing we were early again. I just do not understand the inconsistency between airports. Another thing we noticed was the latest thing with shoes. Some airports no longer want shoes in the bins. In our case John had told us that DFW wanted them out so we were prepared. When we went through in IA we asked them and they also want them out of the bins. All in all though...it worked out fine.

Shopping is so exhausting on a hot day.

OK. She is trying.

AND this is my first attempt in my new iMovie to make a clip and add music. Sorry about the backround noise. I have to remember to shut off my air cleaner when I video tape. Enjoy.



Gotta love the rare paci. She had just banged her head in the kitchen. We keep them in the freezer and give them to her to chew on. It eases any teething pain.

Stand by

I was going to post about our long evening with the kids but Emily has FINALLY starting moving forward. Crawling soon? I will spend the day with the camera in my pocket.

What's new?

The most exciting thing today is Maggie's new haircut. Let me stick in a picture first, to remind you of the long beautiful hair Maggie had.

June 27th, 2008

She had a couple of trims since this picture, but did not go short. Today when Colleen took Maggie in for a "trim" Maggie told Mommy she wanted a haircut like Aunt Becky's. It is close. Not as short but really close. She looks adorable and she LOVES her hair. Mommy is not to happy, but Maggie loves it and that is most important. I can't wait to take my blow dryer and curling brush to it.

June 15th, 2009. Such a little lady. And those adorable freckles she is getting.


Today was also Nick and Elliot's first swim lesson of the year. Lea, the wonderful young lady who gives them lessons in my yard, was amazed at how secure they are in the water now. The boys are funny. The last few days they honed their skills. It was like they knew Lea was coming so they had to get ready. Both boys started diving down in the deep water to get rings they had thrown in, advancing their ability to hold their breath for longer periods of time and being able to push themselves deeper. Lea was extremely impressed with how far they have come. Now the boys have to get serious again and start using their arms. They tread water like pros. Nick floats on his back like a pro and both boys get where they need to go kicking but this year they will be working harder to actually SWIM. She had them coming off the diving board and swimming to the other end of the pool. Both boys were very tired after the lesson. We opted for 45 minute lessons this year and it is a good thing Lea said an hour was too long. I did not take any pictures or video yet but I am sure you will see some soon.

Yesterday I was climbing in search of the child locks from Nick. I discovered a few things way up on those closet shelves. One of them was a 6 to 12 month Old Navy cap. Blue Denim material. From Nick. I washed it and stuck it on Em this AM when she got here. Perfect fit Mom says, but she looks like a boy. Becky ordered a pink one from Old Navy but in the meantime I wanted her to wear it when I took her out shopping this afternoon so I fixed it so she looked like a girl. LOL. She got tons of attention when we were shopping because I had it sitting slightly to the side so the bill was not in her way. Mom took a picture when she got home.

When she sleeps she sleeps soundly.

I took about 10 pictures and not a flinch from Miss Em. LOL.

Now I have to go wake her up.

June

I cannot believe it has been a week or so since I posted. I had a delightful birthday. It hurts less to age when you get this old. LOL.

A trip to Iowa to visit the Ochylski's is in the near future. ALL the Pearce's, Maggie and I are going to fly. Imagine that. Baby carseat and buggy. 2 auto booster chairs for Nick and Maggie. That does not even count luggage for all of us. It will be fun. 1 adult per child...I think we can handle it.

Today is Nick's last day of school. "School's out! School's out! Teacher let the monkeys out!" Now I have the monkey. Nick will be with Gramma 2 days a week and 3 days at a summer program near by. Mondays we have swim lessons scheduled for Elliot and Nick again this year. I think they will be pros by the end of this summer. No other big plans except the trip to Iowa, short of the boys spending a lot of time together.
It just figures that my first week with both kids John has to go to DC. I will survive....I will survive....I will survive.

Speaking of John, all is well after having the stent put in. We don't even think about it except to realize when we get a bill that we were so lucky to have this caught before it was more serious.

Many of you may not know but I am an avid Audiobook listener. I used to love to actually read but I delight much more in the spoken word. Narrators make it so much more fun to listen. I devour books but recently, through a recommendation, I listened to Touching History :: Lynn Spencer.
Before downloading and listening I thought I had heard or read all I wanted to about 9/11 but this account of what happened in the skies the day of 9/11 had me in awe. So many things and experiences that none of us could have imagined. The pilots and flight attendants and their experiences. The FAA and all the other departments of our government who never imagined the horror of that day and were literally flying by the seat of their pants in trying to do all they could to put it all together. It is an amazing book. Non Fiction and I highly recommend it for a completely different outlook on a day that changed our country forever.

The most recent joy of our day is the band playing. Emily has discovered the joy of pounding on pots and bowls. The noise drives Lucy under the bed. I also may have mentioned Emily's dread of the bird. We have been working on that and I will get some pictures soon...but now Lucki comes on the kitchen table and has breakfast or lunch with Emily.

In honor of Great Gramma

My mother lived in MuuMuu's. Each trip to Hawaii, a yearly vacation for some 12 years or so, she would stock up. She had fancy ones and everyday ones and rarely wore anything else.
John and I were shopping last week and we still have a tendency to look at baby stuff. We..both of us...spotted this adorable little dress, fell in love and bought it. Becky says it looks like one of Great Gramma's MuuMuu's and she also loves it. We did not even think of it until she pointed it out and now we smile even bigger when we look at it. My Mom would also love it.

Mom would also have loved the raspberries I am getting while I take this picture.

Memorial Day

We had a wonderful holiday. All the usual suspects joined us for swimming and barbecue ribs. Family and friends brought sides and desserts. Everything was wonderful, including the weather. The kids had spent a couple hours swimming before dinner and just about the time dinner was ready it started to darken and the wind blew in. We were prepared and quicly dragged chairs and tables from the yard into the garage. The wonderful cool breeze kept it nice in there...door open...and bad rain never came. Just a little drizzle. When we were done eating the kids sang Happy Birthday to me and blew out candles on cupcakes. The sun did not come back out but many of us went back in the water. It was a good day. Regretfully I did not bring out the camera but Becky took a picture of Em in ONE of her bathing suits.

Da Da Da Da

First Words

Today I walked in far too quickly to get Emily up from her nap. She was making noise and my usual is to stand at the door a second, then knock, but I needed to get her up because Mommy was coming to get her. As I opened the door and walked in I started to think she was saying Da Da Da Da, but it was all too quick to be sure. I told Becky about it so she could confirm...or not. About 30 minutes later Becky called and said it is definitely Da Da Da Da and she said it ALL the way home in the car and has not stopped. LOL. Another step forward.

Needed a change.

So I made a change....in the colors at least. Google needs to get more templates.

And another 1st

We are not crazy....letting her choke. A baby has to LEARN how to handle food when it "gets stuck" so we always give it a beat before we help. She is doing excellent. Cheerios are just around the corner.
Then goldfish. YEAH!!! Life becomes REALLY easy then. Time to breath between meals.

And sweeter

Life with Baby gets easier.

Roller Coasters

I used to love roller coasters. Going to big parks was not a thing my family did growing up so my experience is small but the few times I rode them I liked it a lot. Some jerked me around too much but all in all it was a fun experience. Caring for a baby is like a roller coaster sometimes. Actually I think a current mother or care provider for an infant/baby/toddler would probably agree it is ALL the time. LOL.
Our angel baby today is in a bit of a snit. It just figures. I went out shopping this AM after laying her down for what is usually a 2 hour or more nap. She woke up after an hour. A usual day, when she gets up, she will play for close to an hour in Papa's office and be perfectly happy. Not today. My poor angel was fussy, so when I came home Papa was feeding her lunch a half hour or so earlier then the norm. We have to assume these bad days are teeth pushing their way through but I sure wish they would pop. It is so sad to see her fussy and not be able to do much about it. Today I resorted to Tylenol. Usually the homeopathic teething tabs and gel works fine but not today. She is asleep again now and hopefully will take a long afternoon nap.

Monday night I finally got to meet "The Usual Suspects". A group of people John works with on a regular basis who have also become close friends of his. 2 were in from D.C. One from OK and the other lives here in Dallas but the opportunity never came up to meet her. It was great fun to put faces to names. Greater fun to enjoy in person the personalities I have heard so much about. We, well they, had drinks in the lounge of the hotel the out of towners are staying at then we went to dinner. Pappadeaux's Seafood, my absolutely favorite fish place. We did not get home until after 10 PM. Absolutely unheard of hour on a week night. I felt like such a "BIG GIRL" being out with adults. If your reading any of the "suspects", it was great to meet and spend time with all of you. I look forward to doing it again sometime.

Big post to catch up.

First off....John is doing great. They did put a stent in, but the rest of his heart looks good. He had to escape from the hospital because he somehow got dropped off the rounds list by the partners. That would be a first person I know to do that, even though I know many people who threatened it. He just grabbed his bag after about 6 hours of waiting past the time someone was supposed to be in and left. The doctor had already called in all the prescriptions so he figured to hell with this.
One of the scripts they had him on was Lipitor. A cholesterol med. One that is famous for the horrible aches and pains. Been there, done that myself. He took it for 4 days and quit it. He felt like he had been run over by a MACK truck. The other meds are all fine and we saw the doctor last Friday and dropping the Lipitor has been approved. He is good to go until August. Then he goes in for a recheck.

We have been sadly dismantling our pond. The liner was very old and had too many cracks and leaks to repair right now so we have had to give it up. It is pretty sad right now. Filled with bricks and sand and looking very ugly but hopefully soon we will have the time to get it looking decent. It will make a great spot for the grill in the future but not having the waterfall is a killer. It was a GREAT noise barrier. Now we hear everything going on outside the yard. I am also still in the habit of walking out there and going to see the fish. Now I see an ugly hole. I am happy to announce though, that the fish have a wonderful new home.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day. Despite the horrible forecast we ended up with a lovely day. We had warmed up the pool and just about the time everyone got here the sun started coming in and out and the drizzling stopped. Even Emily got to play in the pool and Nick, Elliot and Maggie were in for hours. It was a great day!!!

Emily just keeps growing and far too fast. The video is her new "trick". What a hoot it is. I keep working on Papa and she just clicks away and smiles at me.

No more dragging that heavy carseat with baby into the stores. YEAH!!! In fact John and I put our big girl carseat in the car this past weekend.


This shelf in the pool is just the greatest. It is Lucy's play spot or laying spot and comes in real handy for making sure Em was not going to freak out. Even if the little ones love a bath the pool can be overwhelming but she loved it. Nicholas, Elliot and Maggie are looking on as Em experiences the pool.


In her floaty.


"Papa got me all wrapped up in a warm towel when MOMMY was done in the water. I would have stayed in MUCH longer." Emily was a delight yesterday. It seems she is over her "stranger" stage. At least for now, and since she was "home" she took two great naps.


After Emily was done swimming she played outside for awhile on the mats. The big kids are more fascinated with the baby toys then Emily is. LOL. And in the picture below is Lucy taking advantage of a soft surface to lay one. Spoiled ROTTEN dogs.