Bliss

We miss you, Daddy.

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.

Weekend Sneak Peek

WHAT a Memorial Day weekend we are having!! My goal is to give a complete update for Ten on Tuesday, but until then, here's a little peek at what we've been up to this weekend.

A little bit of this . . . 

An afternoon of this . . . 

And a whole lotta this . . . 

Happy Memorial Day!

Ten on Tuesday

Oi, a lot to catch up on!! Buckle your seat belts, folks, you've got a picture-filled post!

1. Several weeks ago we had a family reunion with my mom's side of the family. There were roughly 20-25 people around my parents' house at any given time (yeah . . . I come from a big family). Ali handled it all like a champ and loved getting passed around to all the adoring family members. She especially loved watching her cousins Zoe, Dylan, and Chase play!

Here are Ali and cousin Zoe playing a rocking game.

 Here are Ali with her two favorite boy cousins, Chase and Dylan.These guys were a constant source of entertainment and energy!

 And here's a fav from the very last day. Four generations. I'm so glad I had a daughter. She was born into an amazing line.

2. Before we headed back out of town, we visited with Ali's great-grandparents. Always so good to see greats any chance we get!

 3. Have I told you yet that Ali has my hair texture? It's true. I know it looks all smooth and tame in her pictures, but that's 'cause we brush it. This is what it looks like in all its natural glory, straight outta the bath. Pretty awesome, huh?

4. There's just something about them together that makes me melt.

5. We also had a reunion with my dad's side of the family. My (*cough*yankee*cough*) cousins were in town from New York City (get-a-rope) and we took the opportunity to gather and do what we do best . . . eat a lot and drink some good Texas beer.

Here's the motley crew . . . 

And here's Ali being initiated in the ways of Texas.

6. And THEN we had Alex's parents in town for a visit! (yep! We got a lotta family!) Ali love-love-loves her Bubbie and Zeydie!

7. Want to know what happens when Aunt Katie wants to squeeze in a Skype session during naked time? That's right. That's a plastic bag.

8. Then last weekend, we headed to San Antonio to visit Grandpa and attend cousin Addison's first birthday. Our first stop was a gorgeous park in downtown San Antonio, where we hung out and enjoyed some burgers and hot dogs off the grill. It was the first time Ali had seen ducks up close and personal. She was so intrigued . . . they're small like our cats but what are those wings???? Ali also got her very first taste of watermelon . . . she's a fan!

 Here Ali and Grandpa Studly are checking out some duck action.

9. After the park we headed to the San Antonio Zoo. Ali was a total champ even though we were waaay late on her nap. She checked out everything from the comfort of her stroller until the heat, watermelon, and day's excitement finally overcame her. She napped contentedly for the rest of our zoo trip. Oh well . . . we enjoyed seeing the animals, at least.

Here is Grandpa Studly helping Ali see the bears from the comfort of her stroller. Now that's seeing the zoo in style!

Here are Ali and I in the butterfly exhibit. She LOVED watching all the butterflies flitting around!

And here are Ali and Dad in front of the flamingos. As you can see, Ali thought the pink birds were pretty cool.

10. We took advantage of our first free afternoon in WEEKS to head to our neighborhood pool for Ali's first pool experience. She loves bath time, so I was confident she'd like the pool as well . . . if she could get past the fact that it was cold water and not delightfully warm water. She was a little apprehensive at first, but we eased her into it and showed her how to splish-splash just like in the tub. Once she caught on, she was a pool pro!

Here's Ali trying to explore a water spout. Luckily it wasn't turned on at the time.

And here is our pool princess . . . can you tell she's just having a wee bit of fun?

Today is brought to you by the letter "C"

C as in Clapping.

She claps! She's been kinda-clapping for a while now, which for her meant waving her entire arms up and down (and usually whapping herself in the stomach) while yelling, "AAAAAA," which I'm pretty sure was her version of "Yaaayyyyy!" which is what Alex and I say everytime we clap. But this morning, out of nowhere, she brought her hands right together like she was a pro at clapping and had been doing it right all along! I got so excited and clapped right back at her, which prompted her to clap some more ("Sweet! Look what I can make Mom do!"). We just kept right on going, clapping back and forth, me saying "Yayyyyy!" and her saying "AAAAAA!" and both of us clapping our hands.

And C as in Crawling.

It's true. She's MOBILE! She's been rocking back and forth on her hands and knees for a couple of weeks now, and she could spin herself in circles and move backwards, but as of last night she can officially get to where she wants to go. It's kind of a army-crawl-wiggle-worm-scooch move, but it's effective! I'm so proud of her!! Time to get serious about that baby-proofing business!

Video Monday

Wow, how spoiled are y'all?? Two video Mondays in a row?

We had Ali's Bubbie and Zeydie in town this weekend for a lovely visit, the highlight of which was Ali's absolute, unmitigated DELIGHT at watching a ball roll! We have gotten her to laugh before at tickling her or tossing her in the air, but this was the first time she had cracked up so much for so long. It was a laughing fit . . . and this is just the tail end of it! What an awesome, awesome sound.

Happy Monday!

Video Monday

A couple of new videos to put a smile on your face this Monday morning!

This first one shows you how Ali has learned to smack her lips! She does it when she's hungry or when she's eating something she really likes. (This one also shows you how enthralled with the camera Ali is . . . I love in the first couple seconds how you can see that she was all smiles and having fun . . . and then BAM! A camera! And stares. Funny girl.)



And this one shows you Ali's newest trick--for lack of a better name, we call it "Bub-bub-bub." She will also do it to herself if we aren't around to do it for her, strumming her bottom lip like a guitar string. It's a pretty funny thing to hear over the monitor in the morning!!



Enjoy and Happy Monday!