Sunday, March 28, 2010

Big Girl

We were at a friend's son's first birthday this weekend, and I look over to see my baby girl doing this:
Cue heart attack.

Friday, March 26, 2010

A Trip to the Park

One of Ali's very favorite things is being outside (she must take after her momma in that!). Now that the weather is getting warmer again and the sun is shining, we are taking every opportunity possible to spend time outdoors.

While Alex's parents were visiting, we took a nice afternoon stroll down to our neighborhood park. What fun!!

Ready for some fun in the sun!

We needed Ali to come along and balance out this crew. Two guys, two girls!
Ali loooves riding on Dad's shoulders!
Seriously cute kid.
Lovin' time with her Bubbie and Zeydie
Privyet from Ali and Zeydie!
She really isn't too thrilled with slides . . . yet.
He looks totally natural holding a baby, right? Right?
Just one of the gang
The whole crowd!
Walkin' home with Uncle Genes . . . what a day!

Monday, March 22, 2010

Planting Trees (#30)

See that? Right after the two words in the title? Could it be??? An actual reference to my 101 list! No, I haven't forgotten about my 101 goals. We got a little . . . sidetracked. I guess that happens when you become parents. But have no fear! I remember that my 1001 days are rapidly drawing to a close, and I am still looking for ways to accomplish my goals.

Today's success: planting trees!

Our city had a grand opening party a couple of weeks ago to celebrate the official opening of the new park area by the lake. At the party, the Parks and Rec department was giving away tree saplings. Score! Unfortunately, by the time we got there, all the trees had been given out (don't think I didn't give the side eye to a family who walked by with five of them). Boo. But I talked to the woman who was in charge of the giveaway, and she said that she would be happy to drop a tree at the local rec center the next day for me to pick up at my leisure. Score! Unfortunately, when I went by the rec center, no tree had been left. Boo. I left my name and number and hoped to not get lost in the shuffle. The woman called me that very evening, apologizing profusely, and offered to drive the trees over herself--that's right, treeS. Plural. I got a freebie free tree because she felt bad she had forgotten about me. Total SCORE!

The trees--a live oak and a bald cypress--then sat on our counter for a week as we went through day after day without being able to find the time (or accommodating weather) in which to make our little green jaunt down to the lake. The cypress actually started sprouting. On our counter. Yikes.

Today the weather was beautiful, so Ali and I carpe diem'ed and headed out!

We picked a great spot by the marshy bird sanctuary corner of the lake, right at the head of the pathway to the lake so that our trees will always be easy to find. The live oak went to the left of the trail, the bald cypress to the right.
Problem: a shovel that won't unfold. Note to self: throw away useless rusty shovels so that you aren't falsely reliant on them in the future.Problem solved: luckily I had also brought along our only other gardening tool, which google tells me is called a "three-pronged cultivator."Clearly Ali was very excited to be helping me cross another goal off my list. Success #1: live oak planted!Success #2: bald cypress planted!You can see both trees in this shot. No? Well, both trees are visible in this shot, at least. The live oak is a little hard to see in the background. But it's there. Oh, it's there alright.Here's Ali lovingly looking over our green deed for the day. What's that you say? Looks like she's totally ignoring me and playing with her toy instead? Eh . . . moving on . . . Hooray!! Success!!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

GORGEOUS

Here's a sneak peek of Ali's 6-month pictures.

One word: GORGEOUS.


http://www.libbyannphotography.com/blog/?p=558

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Austin Kite Festival

The Austin Kite Festival was supposed to be two weeks ago, during the weekend we had aunts and uncles and grandparents and cousins in town. But much to everyone's disappointment, it got postponed for a week due to cold, rainy weather.

It turns out postponing it for a week was the best thing the organizers could have done, because the weather this last Sunday was GORGEOUS. Sunny. Warm. Breezy. They could not have gotten more perfect kite-flying weather if they had designed the day specifically for the festival! Another wonderful side effect of the postponement was that Ali's Bubbie and Zeydie were in town visiting! It gave us a wonderful activity to fill our Sunday with. We packed a picnic lunch, loaded up the camp chairs, and made a day of it.

Ali did awesome (of course!). She loves being outside, and with so much going on--dogs and strollers and adults and babies, and just a *few* kites--she had a never-ending supply of entertainment. She even managed to take a brief cat nap in my arms, a rare treat for me these days!

Enjoy the pics!

Ali and her Bubbie enjoying the gorgeous weather
Alex is showing Ali how to fly a kite.Of course . . . straight into the mouth.I love this shot! Ali flying her very first kite.They boys discuss the finer technical aspects of kite flying.Ali and her ZeydieDid I mention there were a few other kites in the sky?
Bad to the bone. The happy family!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This wee, part-Irish lass wants to wish you a very happy St. Patty's Day!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Is this a Milestone?

It's true. Add me to the ranks of adoring parents everywhere. I think I have the cutest kid ever. So I did what any proud parent would do: I entered my baby in an online cute kid contest.

This has to be some kind of parental milestone, right? You fall in love. You think your kid is the cutest kid ever created. You make decisions through the haze of the perma-fog that exists somewhere between the sleep-deprived state of newborns and the well-rested glory of a baby who sleeps through the night because you are still getting up in the middle of the night to pump. What? That's just me? Oh. Anywho, I did it. I took the plunge. Made the leap. Followed in the footsteps of doting parents everywhere. I submitted baby girl's photo to an online photo contest (okay, okay, TWO online photo contests. But one of them offered a free canvas print, so total score on that. Okay, not "FREE-free" since I had to pay $10 (cough$20cough) to submit the photo, but THESE ARE MERE DETAILS.)

She needs your vote, loyal readers! So take a sec and peruse these adorable baby pics online. And if my baby girl so moves you (and if she doesn't you have a heart made of STONE!), please give her a clicky vote.

Here's the direct url: http://modelsearch.parenting.com/contests/showentry/212188

And here's the nifty voting thingy the site provided for me to post to my blog:




Thanks, and happy voting!

Friday, March 12, 2010

Five on Friday

1. She finally ROLLED!! The hard way! Back to tummy! Hooray ALI!!

2. She rolled in her sleep. Which prompted her to wake up at 10:30 p.m. and cry in confusion and sleepy frustration. I would cry too if I got stuck on my stomach when I'm used to sleeping on my back.

3. When it clicked it REALLY clicked, because she was on her tummy again by 3 a.m., again by 6:15, she rolled again when I was taking her sleep sack off of her, and again in the 10 minutes it took me to finish getting ready. It is AMAZING to see how quickly they learn something when the light bulb finally goes on.

4. I'm not too thrilled with this rolling-in-her-sleep business because when she's on her stomach, she doesn't turn her head to the side. She face plants. As in, forehead, nose, mouth, everything . . . right into the mattress. Alex got up to flip her back over to her back at 3 a.m. (once I had seen her face down in the monitor, there was no way I was going to be able to fall back asleep), which had the unfortunate side-effect of waking her up. Grrr. New skills = new challenges and new things to worry about.

5. Not related to rolling, but check out these I snapped this morning. Ali's got her fun Friday outfit on. Seriously, have you ever seen a cuter baby??
These two make my world go round. Love love love.

Thursday, March 11, 2010