Baby Bird

Watch this one closely. Alex was babbling very animatedly during breakfast, but got skittish once I turned on the camera. And then, Dear Readers, approximately 16 seconds into the recording, she flips me the bird. Gratitude, folks. Gratitude.

Forward! (Mostly)

Yup, she's mobile now, and now that's she's crawling forward instead of backward, she can actually see where she's going. This is a plus, since it was getting tiresome untangling her from the couch legs. KIDDING! It was actually pretty fun untangling her from the couch legs.


I neglected to post about it, but Lily did have a birthday last month. I'm just now posting because I think we're finally done celebrating it. Lily managed to stretch her birthday out for the better part of a month - pretty impressive for someone who just turned three! We were traveling to Erie on her actual birthday for Eric and Katie's wedding, and Amy and Dan gave her an awesome afternoon birthday bash, complete with Tinkerbell ice cream cake. Then we had a second party the following week in New Jersey, which was a good thing, because Lily wasn't entirely sure that birthdaydom could cross state lines - the entire trip home she was asking us if she would still be three when we were back in New Jersey.


So we had a handful of Lily's friends over for pizza, kiddie pool, and trampoline, followed by gummi bear cake. The next day we took Lily's birthday money - which was an impressive pile of cash for a 3-year-old to be in control of - and took her shopping. Included in the haul was a tricycle and helmet, an Ariel doll, and a deluxe parachute guy. She was quite pleased with her shopping experience.


I'm pleased to say we have nothing exciting planned for August. Well, I'm turning 37, but other than that, nothing planned. With these two crazy girls around, there's no such thing as 'nothing exciting'.

What a difference a month makes! Alex has decided that table food is tasty now. As a matter of fact, she has now moved completely past baby food to finger which, it turns out is what she wanted all along. She eats waffles, cheese, yogurt, berries, peaches, applesauce, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, and last night, she stole some fish sticks and french fries from Lily. Lily was unimpressed.

Alex had her nine-month checkup this week - she is squarely in the middle of the charts for height and weight, and off the charts in cuteness. She is crawling now, but only backwards, which makes her very frustrated, but she has now learned how to turn around and back towards whatever toy she's after. She's not so great with forward locomotion, but she is crazy smart.

Lily had her second trip to the emergency room this past Monday. She was carrying a watering can in the backyard and tripped, cutting open two of her fingertips.

The cuts weren't that deep, but they wouldn't stop bleeding, so Jason took the night off, we dropped Alex with a friend, and took Lily to the hospital. She was her usual charming self and had all the doctors and nurses smiling. Not only did she not get stitches (just Steri-Strips), she got SIX Disney princess stickers. They wrapped her fingers in gauze in a complicated kid-proof way and sent us home with orders to follow up with our pediatrician.

The kid-proof gauze lasted almost all the way out of the parking lot.



Mostly we're just trying to beat the heat - it's been in the high 90's for most of July, so we're playing outside in the mornings and retreating to the air conditioning in the afternoons. Lily is increasingly interested in helping me in the kitchen, so we are working our way through a pile of kid-friendly recipes. Here is Lily's oven-baked macaroni and cheese -

Baby Food!

Remember the cute pictures of Lily trying new baby foods, when we would feed her new fruits and vegetables and she would grin? And eat? Like this one -







I bet you're wondering why I haven't posted pictures of Alex trying her first foods and looking adorable. Well, it's because all of Alex's 'Look, I'm eating baby food!' pictures look like this -














Which makes me think of this. And we'll just leave it at that.

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Draut!!!

Congratulations to my eldest brother and his blushing bride, Jennifer. The ceremony was held in Galveston, on the cruise ship that they sailed on for their honeymoon. Lily was the Flower Girl, a role she has been diligently studying for several months. She performed admirably for someone who is not quite three years old, strewing flower petals with reckless abandon, wandering aimlessly during the ceremony, and most importantly, performing the traditional Groom/Flower Girl fistbump at the conclusion of the vows.

Not to be outdone, Alex made copious loud farting noises during any and all quiet moments during the ceremony. We can't wait to see the videotape on this one.

But what if the goblins DO come and take her away right now?

Yes, that's a Labyrinth reference. Lily has been exploring the Netflix instant queue on our Wii. It's taken several conversations, but I'm pretty sure that she now knows that David Bowie isn't a woman.

It's been a busy, sleep-deprived month. Alex has decided to stop sleeping through the night, since she's been learning to roll over. And is teething. And, we discovered upon our return from Texas, has Scarlet Fever. This sounds a bit scarier than it is - Scarlet Fever is actually a rash caused by a Strep infection (I didn't know this. Thank you WebMD!).

We got back from Texas Wednesday night with two cranky tired kids, but only one of them had a fever. Alex had been a bit out of sorts for a few days, and I was going to call the Pediatrician anyway since she is due for a few shots. She woke up from her nap Thursday afternoon covered almost head to toe with a bright red rash. I'm not generally one to panic, but that one freaked me out. She is on antibiotics now and feeling much better, but still inclined to wake up twice a night.

Why were we in Texas? I'm glad you asked. Partly because we hadn't seen the family since before Alex was born and we wanted to introduce her. Partly because I really missed Whataburger and Shiner Bock beer.

KIDDING! My bubba got married!!!!!!!!

I was just thinking to myself yesterday, "I wonder when I'll get time to blog again," and then Alex woke up at 4:30 a.m. and just wanted to hang out. Problem solved!

Lily has started dance class. She loves it, and immediately demanded 'real dancer clothes'. Jason immediately volunteered to get her ABT sweatpants, a Diet Coke, and a pack of Marlboro Lights, but we opted instead for this.

Alex has officially rolled over a few times, but routinely forgets how. We started solids, but she isn't interested, so we're taking a week off from it.

When we're not wrangling crazy girls, we've been planting a garden in the back yard. Lily is fascinated by the strawberry and tomato plants, and is convinced that our pumpkin plant will grow jack-o-lanterns.