Peek-A-Boo!

Fi may actually be THE MOST SPOILED little girl alive! And no one deserves it more. She is constantly surrounded by adoring fans, who first comment on how beautiful her eyes are and then how chunky her thighs are... probably this last one won't be much of a compliment when she is 30 or so. Daniel adores her and is constantly hugging her, Daddy is wrapped around her little finger and Eric talks to her at length about Godzilla and Batman movies.



Sophia is sitting up on her own for long periods of time now. She loves her stacking rings and her blocks. Dan was never into them. Sophia can sit with them for a half an hour before she falls over and rolls across the room. Here is Sophia with her rings and sitting up.



The Woob playing with the Bear and the Little Lion cub.



Here is Fi playing her new favorite game... you guessed it... Peek-A-Boo!


Dan and I have been getting the guitars out at night and playing them. Dan is a BIG fan of (yes Elvis, but also...) the Man In Black and especially enjoys Folsom Prison Blues. If you listen carefully you can pick out some of the lines as he sings his ballad... perhaps on our long commutes I should push Sesame Street more and Ray Charles and Johnny Cash less...

Daddy and Dan and Sophia reading Doctor Dan the Bandage Man before bed.

Goodnight.

Who knew we had so many paper bowls?

Today Sophia is home sick from school, so that means Dan and I are home as well. I was cleaning out the laundry room while Sophia was taking a nap and came around the corner to find Dan chanting the number "18" over and over again with a bunch of paper bowls on his head. I couldn't figure out what he was talking about...



I don't know if you can see the HUGE scratch on Daniel's eye. Apparently he got into it with another little boy at school yesterday. It is nice that he can talk now b/c the teachers will just tell you "Another child touched him." Now, when we leave the classroom I ask who did it and Dan comes right out with it. It helps to know who is getting the crummy tasting candy when we have to make Halloween bags :-) (Just kidding...)

Here is Soph trying out her first "Cookie." Mmm. Yummy.
ALL HAIL WALLACE the Bear! He has his own fanclub following.

Happy Birthday to Eric!

Sophia is sitting up! With a little assistance. Just wait till the next post. She'll probably be jogging. I guess she figures that there is just so much going on around here, lolling around on the floor is a surefire way to get stepped on (or over!)

Woobie's 11th birthday was on Thursday July 3rd. It is hard to believe it has been 11 years that he has graced this world with his smile and good nature. wow!




Eric got a BLIZZARD Oreo Dairy Queen cake. He got model cards, gift certificates to the game store, subscriptions to car magazines and of course, money. Here are some pics of Eric opening his presents.

The Fourth of July was pretty low key. The boys went to the beach while Sophia and I did stuff around the house. We cooked out on the grill and then we went over to see the neighbors and share some sparklers and ice cream cake. This was the first year Dan has done sparklers. He did very well and didn't once try to lick them while they were lit or put them in his sister's ear.

Here are the kids in the fort they built. Maybe what they say about these later generations is true... they are too used to the creature comforts. They even built a "kitchen" and an air conditioning system into their fort. Mmm....

Here is Soph talking.



She is well on her way to having her own talk show!

We're melting...

So much has happened since the last post, it would be impossible to tell it all. Most importantly FI said MAMA this week. Yes, before she said DADA.

I heard it with my own ears!

Luckily for our baptismal guests who stayed with us this past week, they left just in time! The air conditioner went out and has been out now for four days. It could be another week or more. ugh. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't 98 degrees outside. The kids are wearing bandanas soaked in cold water and we are all congregating in front of one large box fan. Ah, it's like camping, without the bugs. (as Mark says).

The heat has brought us closer together though... not just in front of the box fan. Yesterday Daniel reached out and patted Soph and said "You are my best friend."

Summertime has brought an important slice of Americana to our neighborhood. The ice cream man. He comes every Wednesday night, just a little after seven o'clock, and you can hear him from a few blocks away. He was playing Christmas music from the truck until about two weeks ago. Now it is normal summertime music. Daniel gets very excited and we take our few dollars and meet the truck at the bottom of the driveway. Now Dan thinks that any white truck he sees is the ice cream man. You should have seen his face fall when he found out the van in the driveway when we pulled up was really the Cable man. There was no explaining it to him...

Daddy's Little Girl...

Sophia was baptised on June 22d at the Wren Chapel on the campus at William and Mary. Here is a website if you want to read more about the history of the chapel. It was a beautiful, small, short, heartfelt ceremony and Aunt Lynne was our honored guest and did the baptism herself. Here are some pics from the service.

This the Wren Chapel:

Susan and Catherine

Nana and Soph
Grammy and FiPop and FiTwo ladies who made the entire day possible: Celeste and MaryBeth (both of whom are the bomb diggity!)
Also a big thanks to Erin and Patrick, who saved the day in the nick of time... or at least made sure everyone got fed. If I had an awesome pic of them I'd post it. I was slow with the camera this day. We value each and every person who supported us on this special day so thank you all for coming!

Thanks to Rene for taking the great family photos! The baptism offered the family a chance to get together. And play wrestling dinosaurs with Uncle Mike.

Uncle Ken didn't waste anytime attempting to vogue for the camera with Sophia.

Aunt Lynne also got to spend quality time with us after the baptism for a few days. Here she is helping Grumpy with the baby chores.

There were long talks with Daniel about Coconuts and life on the back porch over chocolate milk...


And time to spend with Sophia (notice Fi's Brittney Spears look...)

Summer IS Here

The calendar may not say summer, but the weather certainly does. It is hot!!! And, as if to prove the fact that summer is truly upon us, I began teaching summer school this past week. Luckily, Grammy and Grumpy were able to come and take care of the Fi while I went to work. Here is Grumpy introducing Dan to gang signs.

Here are Grammy and Fi trying to tame the wild Daniel

Grumpy and Fi (notice the fashionable spit up stains on Grumpy's shirt. We call them formula kisses)

Dan and Fi watching CSI with Grammy and Grumpy (Just kidding!)

Woobie came to visit and got some quality sibling time

Here is Dan and the little girl down the street at her birthday party. Dan gave her a very pretty flower and a gift certificate to rent Dora movies. He had his share of blue-icing cupcakes too, as you can tell from the picture.

We took the kids to the zoo this weekend. It was Dan's second time at the zoo and Sophia's first. Dan loved the animals.

He also REALLY liked the monkeys.

After our long day at the zoo everyone was pooped.

Sophia is now eating four different solid foods. Rice cereal, oatmeal, applesauce and green beans. This video pretty much shows how she feels about green beans.

While Fi is anti-the green vegetable, she is ALL about toes. Do you remember when you could do this?