Saturday, July 30, 2011

smiling in Baton Rouge

Well, the votes are finally in - we have another "smiley"! Lydia has started giving us real smiles over the past two weeks.

She smiles when you talk to her ...



... and when you put her on her changing pad.


When Eden plays with her ...



... and when Eden smiles, too.


Her smile is contagious ...



... and is starting to be followed by laughter when you tickle her.





Overall, Lydia is a very happy baby and very loved.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

she got me

While sitting on the couch with E watching PBSKids last week, I said ...

 I'm gonna go put some clothes in the dryer. Call me if you need me.
E: No, don't go.
Me: Why not, baby?
E: Because I just love you so much. [said without moving her eyes from the TV]

So, I watched the show with her and cuddled on the couch.

And, tonight when she came out of her room for the sixth time, she said as I carried her back in ...

I just really don't like being alone.
Me: I know baby.
E: Thanks for calming me down ... ... ... Can you please rub my back for one minute?
So, I did, and she said, I really like how you rub my back.

I can easily say no when she's whiny or screaming, but her sweet talk gets me every time.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

georgia, oh georgia


Eden loves her Georgia. We started this relationship when Eden was  9 months old at her first Christmas. We have since gotten a bit wiser and added two more identical "Georgia's" to the mix (one dirty, one clean, and one emergency back-up for PDO). Georgia's various names ... geor-goer (jor-jor), georgee, georgia with the face (she has another animal-print lovee she calls georgia without a face - Ashley made when Eden was a baby, and Eden has to have that one every once-and-a-while).

While she isn't a neccessity all the time every day anymore, we love her still just the same.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

lsu gymnastics camp

Last week, Eden got to venture to LSU's gymnastics camp. It was Monday through Friday starting at 9:00 and ending at noon each day. She was excited to go - partly due to Ashley watching gymnastics with her and talking it up - but the drop-off was a bit rough the first day (similar to the first day of school). She was okay when I gave her Georgia and a blonde gymnast came to carry her away (her favorite teacher, Katie).

Here she is towards the end of the week ...

After the first day, she was super excited to go back - apparently it was fun with lots of balance beam, bar, jumping, and dancing activities. One of her favorite things was to jump into a large pool of square, blue foam blocks (they called them blueberries). Perhaps her favorite thing, however, was the pizza restaurant we went to as a family ... and once with her friend, Sylvia.



Our favorite part was watching. There was a small viewing room upstairs with a two-way mirror ...


... and Lydia tended to sleep through the pickups.

We also had a parents day the last day - they did all their activities for us to show off their mad skills.


The first activity was the obstacle course which started with rolling down an incline ...



...followed by walking down the balance beam...

...then jumping into the bluberries and jumping over a series of stacked mats.

[Ashley loves this photo because it documents us in all our supportive-parent glory.]



Then there were a series of balance beams ascending in height followed by jumping on a long trampoline (and jumping onto some blue mats - the favorite part of many of the kids).




From every station they went to the next in a train line. She finally joined the rest of the gang after the trampoline ... she was a little upset and wanting Ashley to hold her for some reason between the first and second stations - one of her teachers found a white bear to calm her, and she was back to normal within 2 minutes.


Finally, there were the uneven bars ...


...they walked across then went back to the middle and lifted both legs for 5 seconds. Quite impressive!


Here is Eden with her favorite teacher, Katie.

And the happy family at the end of a great week!

Friday, July 22, 2011

our little actress

Here's Eden pretending to be sad about the missing cookies (that are actually on her plate). Seems like she really got into the scene. And, no, this is not a skill we are encouraging; she doesn't need any more help learning how to fake us out. See for yourself ...

Lili at Ballet



inspired by her new book ...




Thursday, July 21, 2011

missing from May

nursing her baby ...




meeting Marie and Conner ...



meeting Jennifer, David, and Josie ...






Eden showing her "I'm pretending to be asleep" face ...



Lydia's first time in the swing ...