Happy (Belated) 4th of July

Meline Drifting Off to Sleep

Nothing is more precious than a little baby drifting off to sleep. Here is Meline 'talking' herself to sleep. What a delicate little flower she is....

Nathan the Engineer

Here's a picture of Nathan hard at work, building legos (in his underwear, of course... :-)

This is one of his latest creations. He built it all by himself.

Here it is in motion! If he doesn't become a scientist (as he currently claims is his profession of choice), he can always fall back on a career as an engineer.

Chatty Meline

Another attempt at getting Meline to talk on film. Notice Nathan in the background trying to do his part to coax her into chatting (we hear this A LOT!) Chatty or not, she sure is happy! :-)

Meline Standing

While she's not that interested in rolling over or sitting up, one thing Meline has looooved to do for ages is stand up. You try and make her sit and she immediately stiffens up her legs in active protest, with the hopes you'll let her stand. Think she'd do it all day long if we let her...

Blanket Monster

Here's a picture of Meline relaxing in our bed, all by her lonesome.... riiight????....


AAAGGGHHHHH!! Its the Blanket Monster!!!!!!

The Upside of All This Rain.....

So this has definitely been the rainiest summer I've ever experienced (and thats coming from someone who grew up in Florida). While that mostly has downsides, the one upside has been the incredible growth of our front yard garden. I think its grown more this summer than all prior years combined. Here's a shot of the front of our house.

Here are the hydrangeas. They were tiny last year and barely grew all summer.

Here are the hydrangeas and daylilies on the other side of our front door.

Close up of the hydrangeas. I can't get over how many blooms there are on each plant!

A side shot of our front yard.

Here are my daisies.

They are so big that they are taller than Nathan!!

The Bumbo

So Nathan apparently was on the fast track in terms of his motor skills development as he was sitting up by himself at 4 months, crawling at 5 months, pulling himself up at 6 months and walking at 10 months. With this in mind, I wasn't sure what to expect with Meline, but it appears she is taking a much more laid back approach :-) This is fine by me as I learned with Nathan that there are distinct disadvantages to your child becoming 'mobile.' But, babies who aren't yet sitting on their own end up spending a lot of time with the back of their head resting against something, increasing the risk of getting a 'flat head' (flat spot on the back of the head). In an attempt to avoid this, I recently invested in a Bumbo, which gives babies that extra support to sit up without having to rest their head up against something. Honestly, I think Meline just looks so darn cute sitting in her Bumbo. Couldn't resist adding some pics to the blog... Here's Meline chillin' with her paci...

See? She loves the Bumbo...

Or maybe not???

I Can't Believe I Went There....

If you had asked me a year ago whether I was going to have a 'girly' girl, my answer would have been an emphatic NO. I was never into frilly dresses, pink, and bows. Yet, somehow I now find all of those things creeping into my parenting of Meline. It started with the pink clothes. In fact, one of the teachers at Meline's daycare told me she was wondering who the new baby in the class was and it took her a minute to realize it was actually Meline because she WASNT wearing pink that day. Well, today I was at Target picking up some other baby supplies, and was hit with an overwhelming urge to buy some hair bows. Here's the result:



I also got some tiny hair bow clips, but she doesn't have enough hair yet to actually hold them in place.... Here's a purple bow.... I'm beginning to think I might have a future cheerleader in the midst (that is the next step in 'girlydom' right???)

or maybe not....

Captured on Film: The Elusive Laugh!!

Finally got it! Enjoy :-)