7 Months!

Tough Girl and the Ballerina

Annie and I have started taking Mom and Babe ballet classes on Friday mornings. Today was our second class and Annie really seems to like it a lot. Generally there is a lot of prancing around in circles, or hopping...waving wands and silky scarfs around. I have to say that Annie is a natural! Future ballet star for sure. So that is the Ballerina portion of the post...now onto the Tough Girl! For the last 2 weeks or so Olivia has had some pretty bad poo problems and a really bad diaper rash. Since we had recently started her on solid foods I thought maybe that was the problem. So last week we stopped feeding her anything other than milk and rice cereal. Still the poo kept coming, but only in the mornings so I almost didn't believe her daycare teachers when they told me she had been going through diapers left and right. So yesterday I took her by the doctor and we found out that she has a horrible ear infection! I was very surprised because 'Libler hadn't once made a peep about having ear problems, in fact I can't remember the last time she cried. So she is on cherry flavored medicine now, and a probiotic, and special diaper cream, and something else...I can't remember. Anyways, we figure that she has a high tolerance for pain, and I guess that comes from having Annie the Amazon as a big sister!

Go Pinks!

Two weekends ago the Salt Lake City Nuetzels (Mark, Piper, Jonah, and Faith) came for a visit. What did we do...can't remember exactly, but I know we did have a good time. Annie and Jonah got along great and both learned a few new games from the other. It did put a strain on their sharing skills once in a while, but overall I think they had a great time, and Faith hung in there too and I'm sure next year she will be more in the mix with the big kids. Here is our attempt to get 4 kids all smiling and looking in the same general direction. While they were here we went to an apple cider festival on Saturday. I was sure that Annie would be afraid of half the things there, but she wasn't. She rode the ponies (all by herself) she rode on the barrel train (I was going to ride it with her, but she told me she didn't need me to, she could do it by herself) then she rode on the hanging swing ride (I was sure she wouldn't want to do this on her own, but she did...I guess she doesn't need me anymore). Anyways, I guess you gotta let go sometime. Other than that, one of my favorite moments was a conversation between Annie and Jonah. Jonah told Annie his favorite team is the Browns. Annie told Jonah that her favorite team is the Pinks. Annie is so awesome that I decided to make her a tee-shirt for her favorite team...

Do you know who is running for a State House Seat?

Annie does! Lately she has been figuring out that word in books and on signs mean something. She asks me every so often what a certain sign says, or tells me what she thinks the words are. For example, there is a sign on the corner of the sidewalk by her school. The other day we were walking out to the car and Annie, lolly-gagging as usual, walked the other way towards the sign and asked me what it said.
Me – It says, “come over here”
A – Oh, it says “come over there?”
Me – Yes, now come over here, let’s go home!

Yesterday on the way out of school she walked over to the sign and told me “This sign says Come over there”. She’s got some memory!

Anyways, finally in the car and further down the road we passed some political signs. She saw them and said, “Does that sign say Molly Cullom? Is she running to the State House?” Now this I did not tell her about previously. I wonder if she remembered the lady that knocked on our door last week trying to get us to vote for Molly Cullom, or maybe she is considering a career in politics…she did enjoy the trip we took to D.C. a few years ago.

6 Months!

O-Baby, Baby O is half a year old! Look how cute she is...big ears and all! So what is new with her? She can sit up now, somewhat reliably, she babbles constantly...she has a rock solid grip and in fact has almost ripped my cheek off a few times already (ouch!) She loves to stick out her tongue...loves to smack her lips together to make funny sounds. She is weighing in at close to 16 lbs and I can tell is gaining more every week. And following in the foot steps of big sister Annie...head circumference in the 95th percentile!

Here is Annie at 6 months...seems like just a few weeks ago when she was that young, but I can't really remember it either! And yes, that's the same hat...poor 'Liblear doesn't get anything new...

I thought this might happen...

...I just didn't think it would happen so soon! While we were in Ohio on vacation, we had planned on drive to Lake Hope State Park to camp with my sister Andrea and her 2 boys, Luke and Kyle. We got a late start from Lima and got tired in Columbus so we spent the night at a hotel down there. The next morning while walking out to the car, Annie stopped and looked at an inlet that was in the middle of the parking lot. She looked up at Tim and told him that rain came down from the sky, and went into the inlet...the she pointed over at a detention pond and said that the water ended up over there. Ummm...we were flabbergasted! Did someone tell her this or did she figure it all out on her own? I kinda figured she would someday be interested in engineering since that is what both Tim and I do. Tim said he was impressed with Annie's smarts but also disappointed that he spent 4 years in college to learn where water goes after it rains...I'm just disappointed that it appears that she has chosen to go into drainage engineering...couldn't she have picked at least structural engineering? I mean everyone knows water runs downhill...on the other hand, I guess it did take Tim 4 years to figure that out. Just Kidding!

Weekend Wedding and Camping Plus a Major Milestone!

This last weekend we attended Rachelle and Quentin's wedding up in the mountains around Vail. Of course we had to camp that weekend also. Honestly I was a little worried about the weather report. As loyal readers all know we've had a few "issues" with Poppy the camper, I wasn't too thrilled about camping when the weather lady says it could possibly snow. Tim, on the other hand threw caution to the wind (it was either that or shell out a few bills for a hotel room for the weekend!) I loaded about 10 blankets into the camper and some food and off we headed towards Vail on Friday morning. Anyways, cutting to the chase we were behind schedule and got to our campsite with enough time to get dressed and to find out that the camper had blown a fuse...heater not working! I was thinking to myself - Great, we just pulled a 2000 lb dressing room all the way to Vail. There was no way I or the girls were going to stay there that night without heat. Not to worry, a few switch a roos and we are out hot water but in with the warm furnace.

The wedding was great fun...great food, warm heat lamps...excellent cupcakes. In fact it was so fun that a local Moose decided to get a closer look. He came up to dine on the marsh grass that grew in the lake just a few 100 ft away from the wedding. Annie was pretty excited about that and I thought she would never want to come back in, until I told her that the dance was starting. She can never say no to an opportunity to run around like a crazy baby, so we went in to enjoy the rest of the evening in relative warmth. By the way, here is one of my favorite moments...Jeff dancing with Baby O and singing a totally inappropriate song to her...

The whole evening was capped off with a glorious sunset and a much welcomed ride back to our campsite by the nice shuttle driver.

Back at our camper I was thoroughly relieved to find that the heater was working great, I even woke up later that evening thinking it was too hot, but I was too tired to get out of bed to turn it off. Even better than the warm camper, and the best part of the whole night...Baby O sat up all by herself! Look at her...what a cutie pie!

The next morning we woke up to the wonderful melody of Blue barking at the Moose who was munching on some breakfast at the creek that was back from our camp spot. Tim ran out and saw him, but by the time we got Annie and I out of the camper he had headed for higher ground. We decided to get up and see if there were any more up by the lake but none were found. Instead we saw a fine mist rising up from the lake...pretty cool! Kinda makes you want to get up early every time you camp out in the mountains! After not finding any Moose, we hiked up a trail for a bit, got tired and hungry and went back for brunch. Since the weather was so nice, we thought about staying for another night, but I had not packed any food or clothes for Sunday. We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging and playing with the girls. Olivia and I took a nice nap together only to be woken up by a herd of people who thought our campsite was a parking lot. I'm not joking...I woke up thinking I was in a dream. Some man was yelling for someone else in Spanish not more that 10 feet from our camper. I got up to take a peek outside and saw 5 cars parked there. We were practically in the middle of the wilderness...couldn't they find there own place! Oh well...people...what can you do? Anyways, we had a great weekend, and only one minor problem with Poppy...I think he is finally warming up to us! Maybe our next trip will be smooth sailing (not!).

If you'd like to see more photos from our weekend...click here...

http://picasaweb.google.com/ReyneeandTim