rocks

On the morning Grama Bama left, Danny woke up at 6:26. He's been doing that a lot lately.
I, for one, am quite tired of it...literally.

I was ok with it that day though. I was glad he'd be awake to give Grama a hug and a kiss good-bye. Sadly, when the time came for farewell, he got all huffy and refused to kiss her. She kissed him anyway.

As we waited in the early morning hours for Grama to stop by on her way to the airport, Danny helped me clean up my flowers. I picked the dead ones off; he picked the not-so-dead ones. Then he got creative with some rocks and made a crocodile
(in the picture above).

This rock was named Grama Bama.

Jarrett and Kris arrived and started dumping dirt on the sidewalk.
They claimed to be making a rock tower.

There's the Grama Bama rock again.

Pretty soon an entire rock family was formed.
According to Jarrett, "Every rock that's tiny is a piece of the love."

Then it turned a little morbid when they started adding flowers.
It looked like a little burial site.

All this fun before 7:45 in the morning.
Ug. I'm tired.

couldn't resist

another flashback...

one year ago today...

my almost six-week-old baby girl

pictures by photographer extraordinaire, Candis

first words

On July 17th I heard Cate say Daddy for the first time.
She was standing in front of the window in the living room.
So was Danny.
They were watching Dan mow the lawn.

Danny said, "Daaaaaaaaa-deeeeeeeee!"
Then Cate said, "Daaaaaaaaa-deeeeeeeee!"

On July 26th I heard Cate say Mama for the first time.
I was washing dishes.
She wanted to be held.
She got up on her knees and reached her hands up towards me.

Then Cate said, "Ma ma ma ma ma ma."

Today I heard Cate say another word for the first time.
She had just woken up from a nap.
I went into her room and said, "Did you have a good nap?"
She nodded (does that count as saying yes?),
looked down and touched her diaper.

Then Cate said, "Poo poo."

And she was right.

my little cowgirl

These boots were made for walkin' crawlin'.

bye, Grama Bama

Grama Bama left us yesterday.
Apparently, she thinks she has a life and responsibilities outside of the state of Utah that must be attended to.
Whatever.

We had one last hoorah at Judy's house on Monday night.
Cate practiced giving Grama Bama some perfectly adorable open-mouthed kisses.

If I remember correctly, Grama wasn't fast enough and got bitten on the lips.

Enjoying a little quality time with cousin Kris.

Taking a little break on the trampoline.
Cate's favorite thing to do on it is crawl around and around in circles as close to the edge as possible.

Danny had fun splashing in the water. He still has not actually gotten in and enjoyed the pool. I can't say that I blame him though. The water is a lovely shade of green.

After he had soaked himself sufficiently, he stripped down to his birthday suit and helped Aunt Judy in the garden.
No pictures of the stripping or the helping.
(You're welcome.)

The hoorahs moved to the front yard for a few pictures with Grama Bama before calling it a night.

Come back soon, Grama Bama!
We miss you already.

look-alikes

I stole this from Aunt Cindy's blog.
I tried it way back in 2007 when she shared her results.
Back then I had no blog.
No way to share my celebrity look-alikes.
That was then.
This is now.



Corey Feldman? Seriously?
Yuck.
Jodie Sweetin? Sweet!
I love Full House.



Young George Clooney? Yes!
My little man's going to be a star!

Young JLo with braided pig tails? Ummm...
I think not.

Interesting that Alexis Bledel is on Danny's and Cate's though.
Whoever that is.



I can see Katie, Judy and Reese...a little bit.
But Gary Busey? Is it the nose? I'm confused.

Interesting that Cate got young Clara Bow and I got the older version.
Like mother, like daughter.



A young Greg Brady? Love it!
A young Obi-Wan Kenobi? Love that too!
Studly Mel Gibson? Woo hoo!
Sweet little Dakota Fanning? Makes me giggle.

Thanks, Cindy. That was fun.

the twenty-fifth

We didn't do fireworks on the 24th.

Tired baby.
Grouchy two-year-old.
Too windy anyway.

We lit them up on the 25th instead.

Sleeping baby.
Semi-grouchy two-year-old.
Just right.

cousins and grandmas

We had a few visitors today.

Danny and Cate got to chill with both Grama Bama and Grandma Olds.

Danny got to practice his almost non-existent sharing skills with 4 of his cousins.
(There wasn't much need to share with cousin Rusty.)

Let's do this again some time after November 20th (Danny's birthday) and before December 21st (Kris' birthday).
That way we can have:

one six-year-old (Jarrett)
one five-year-old (Ricky)
one four-year-old (Kris)
one three-year-old (Danny)
one two-year-old (Billy)
one one-year-old (Cate)
and one none-year-old (Rusty)

Thanks for the visit!

good-bad-ugly

Danny went to the movies tonight. It was his first time. I was a little worried. Sitting still, paying attention and being quiet are not among his strengths at this point in his life. Here's how it all went down.

The Good: Spending time with Grama Bama, Aunt Judy, Cousin Jarrett and Cousin Kris

The Bad: Not being heavy enough to stop the chair from folding him in half

The Ugly: Asking me if we were all done yet...during the previews


The Good: Telling me he needed to visit the restroom

The Bad: Not getting him situated on the toilet correctly before the "stream" began

The Ugly: Bending over to get him situated and having my 3D glasses fall onto the floor, right into the fast flowing "stream"


The Good: Going to the movies instead of cooking dinner

The Bad: Eating popcorn, candy and Diet Coke for dinner

The Ugly: Having a semi-chewed Sour Patch Kid spit into my hand


The Good: Hanging out in the empty arcade while the rest of the family enjoyed the movie

The Bad: Listening to the noise of the video games for who knows how long

The Ugly: Watching Danny touch every joystick, steering wheel and plastic gun in that arcade and wondering how many contagious diseases he was catching


Two more Goods to end with: Seeing Danny looking way-too-cute in his way-too-big-for-him 3D glasses and having the manager guy give me a Rain Check since he could see that I was missing half of the movie.

Maybe Danny will be ready to try again when Ice Age 4 hits the theaters.

Maybe I'll let his daddy take him.

If I have to take him I might need my own prescription for Nitro...instead of just borrowing Grama Bama's.

moms

Me: Danny, who is my mommy?

Danny: Bama Bama
(That's Grama Bama.)

Me: Who is Daddy's mommy?

Danny: Nudder Bama
(That's Another Grandma. Happy birthday today!)

Me: Who is your puppies' mommy?

Danny: Innie Pooh
(That's Winnie the Pooh.)

Me: Who is Winnie the Pooh's mommy?

Danny: Me!

Maybe we need a little lesson about:

1. Only girls can be mommies.
2. Boys are daddies to babies, not bears.
3. Puppies have dogs for mommies, not bears.
4. Winnie the Pooh is a boy so he's a daddy.

Or maybe not.
I'm confused just proofreading that.
I'll just leave well enough alone.

my babies

Thanks to Candis for these perfect pictures.

Thanks to Dan for these beautiful babies.

Thanks to Grama Bama and Kris for going on a wild goose chase with me to find this park.

Thanks to Aunt Judy for letting me borrow the bench.

Thanks to me for restraining from posting all 48 pictures.
It was a challenge indeed.
If you want to see all of them, go here.

I need to go brush my teeth now. These babies of mine are just too sweet.

a troublemaker

This time the troublemaker was not a six-year-old.
Or a four-year-old.
Or a two-year-old.

It was a sixty-something-year-old.

This is what happened when I went inside for five minutes to change Cate's diaper.

Grama Bama is a troublemaker.

And we wouldn't have it any other way!

how to

...pitch a royal fit, baby style

Step 1.

Crawl around whining.
Stop.
Raise one arm.

Step 2.

Crawl around a little more.
Whine a little more.
Stop.
Raise the other arm.
(Don't let that smile fool you. It's gonna get ugly.)

Step 3.

Whine some more.
Actually, a lot more.
Raise both arms high above the head.
Arch the back as much as possible without falling over backwards.

Step 4.

Cry.
Execute an overly dramatic face-plant.
Cry.
Cry.
Cry.

I could be totally mistaken. This could just be some kind of baby yoga that I'm not aware of. I think those first two steps are called "side camel pose" and that last one looks like it's trying to be "downward dog."

Whatever it is, I can do without it.