Thursday, June 24, 2010

Bliss

We miss you, Daddy.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Always Playing Ketchup

When I was little, I used to think that when people said something like, "I need to catch up on my work," it involved dumping a bunch of the delicious red dipping sauce onto their papers, the ultimate Take That! to the responsibilities of the adult world. It wasn't until later I realized catch up =/= ketchup, but the humor of the mistake has stayed with me to this day, so that even now, when I think about all the things I need to catch up on (like blogging for our poor, neglected readers), for a split second I think about playing ketchup, and the kid inside me smiles.

I believe the last post was a bit of a teaser about our wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Sorry about leaving y'all hanging like that. But life doesn't slow down to wait for you to ketchup. Jobs get busier, travel comes around again, family gets visited, and somewhere in the middle of all that are the multitude of chores that crowd our days . . . and somewhere in the middle of all THAT we have to find the time to raise a baby, spend time together as a family, and reconnect in our marriage.

But now, right this moment, the laundry is done, the dishes are clean, the baby (and the husband) are napping . . . time to ketchup.

1. The lake. It was awesome. If I wasn't already excited enough about going out on a boat with our friends, when we got there I heard "tubing" mentioned and I about flipped my lid. Tubing, for those of you not raised near a lake, is where you plop yourself into a tube connected to a boat by a long rope, and then the boat pulls you around the lake at high speeds until you either give up and let go or are flung off. Awe.SOME. We don't have any pictures of that because we were all too busy laughing our brains out. But we do have a picture of this. Fresh air + the steady white noise of a boat engine = nap time for Ali.

2. Now that we have settled into the full heat of a Texas summer, we are spending every opportunity we get to stay cool in water. Thank goodness our little bear seems to really enjoy swimming! Not only have we gone to our neighborhood pool, but there's a sprinkler park close by, as well.
We even got a small pool for our own back yard!
You know when it's time to get out of the water? When you start seeing piggies turn into prunes.

3. Since we're spending so much time outside, we're working on Ali wearing her sunglasses (rather than ripping them right off her face and sticking them in her mouth like she is wont to do). It's a work in progress.


4. Now that she's mobile, baby girl is really starting to enjoy crawling into, under, over, around, and through things. We have had a great time building forts with our couch cushions and chasing each other through them.

5. That's right. I said crawling. As in, full-blown, hands and knees crawling. As in . . .

As in . . . (Yeah, it's long. But adorable. Deal.)


6. Oh how I wish there were sound with this picture. Ali only sometimes tolerates the tosses right now . . . but Dad has the best luck with them, and when we catch her at just the right time, the laughter that bursts forth is the most incredible, wonderful sound EVER.

 7. Last weekend we traveled to Dallas to celebrate G-Mommy and Granddaddy's 30th wedding anniversary!! Congratulations to them--what an incredible, wonderful milestone! It's a good thing Ali is such an easy-going baby . . . we were in Dallas literally less than 48 hours, and had nearly every waking minute packed with visiting people. Not only did we get to spend some time in G-Mommy and Granddaddy's pool (we need those pictures, Zeydie!), but on Sunday morning we had a delightful breakfast with three of Ali's greats. Here she is teaching Great-Grandma Thorn how to clap.

Here's the whole gang . . .
Just one of  the girls!

Here she is teaching them all how to clap. She's such a slave driver.

8. Ali currently has four teeth on bottom and is breaking her top two middle teeth. I know you all secretly wanted to know that.

9. On Tuesday Ali turned NINE MONTHS OLD. She has officially been an outside baby for longer than she was an inside baby. We celebrated by taking her in for her 9-month checkup, where she given a "perfect! wonderful!" bill of health. She is 28" long and 17 lbs, 11oz.--long and skinny. I keep telling her to enjoy! Here are a couple of shots of our 9-month-old (notice in the first one how her left leg is lifted? Yeah. She doesn't like how the grass feels on that leg, so she keeps it in the air. It's hilarious!)

10. And last but CERTAINLY not least, today we celebrated Alex's first Father's Day (well, first one with an outside baby)! Here are the proud papa and his baby girl. We love you, Daddy. Thanks for being such a great Dad.
Whew! So there you have it. All caught up. Just in time for the beginning of another busy, busy week. I hope this finds you all well and not having to play ketchup too much.