Saturday, June 14, 2008

Why my housework never gets done these days...

...and why my blog updates are scarce.
Everytime I turn my back, a little monkey is into something else that he should not be!


Here is an example of how he is teaching Mari things. She never realized she could grab the butterflies and pull on them until Jake climbed into the portable crib (for daytime naps downstairs) and showed her!

Starting the day off right!


Mari: (YAWN) I am so tired. It is so hard waking mama up two to three times a night just to get some food and then she is too tired to put me back in my bed so I have to put up with Daddy's snoring! It is tough work being a baby.

Mari: Mmm, this smells good. Mama drinks loads of it so it must be something I need to grow big and strong like her.

It is not half bad, I think I could make a habit out of this!

Mari has a fascination with cups and is always trying to get her hands and gums on them. Don't worry, no babies were given coffee in the making of this picture sequence (although she got closer than I planned at one point as I was taking pictures with one hand and holding her and the coffee with the other) and in fact as you can tell from the cup turning black (the picture of an incredibly cute Christmas Jake from 2006 only shows up when the cup is warm or hot) the coffee was cold so she was in no danger of being scalded.

A moment of meditation alone in the garden.



Tuesday, June 03, 2008

A trip to Ballard Park.




This top picture is my favorite because it really captures the essence of Jake's all over the place at once energy!













May holidays at my parents' house (Nana and Papoo's)


Jake tries out his first rod and reel while James shows him how.

Mari seems quite entertained by it all!




Mari enjoys swinging but we have to wrap her up in a blanket as she is so cold natured.

Jake catches his first fish with James' assistance.


Above, Jake enjoys some peas straight out of the pod after picking them with my dad. Below, he throws rocks at the fig tree and play with his toys from the sandbox.

More pictures from Memorial Day (James' family)


Miss Mari sporting the latest summer fashion in baby swim suits.


Above and below, James' mother Ann, Jake, James' Aunt Leslie and his cousin Emily.


Above, Emily sang a hand jive 'Miss Mary Mac' to Mari.

Mari took a nap on my lap after a long float in James' sister's pool. We didn't get any pictures of her in the pool because I was in the pool with her and James was watching Jake (I think James' aunt Leslie got some pictures though). Jake and Emily had lots of fun in the pool together (and so did James, John and Cheri). Jake kept asking James "Daddy fall down in water, make Jake go up and down" which was Jakese for asking James to jump (cannonball) into the pool to make waves.

Monday, June 02, 2008

Wild America


Above, in the late 70s Wild America's Marty Stouffer with a baby bear, below and some time later, Marty Stouffer with a baby Mari.





Over the memorial day holiday we had the pleasure of meeting Marty Stouffer who produced and appeared the Wild America PBS documentaries in the late 70s. Even though James and I were not even born until the early eighties, we both still grew up watching the shows on Mississippi Public Broadcasting and now Jake watches the DVDs. James' brother John is working on a website for him and so he is around there a lot these days. Jake was very excited to meet the bighorn sheep man and enjoyed wearing his hat. As you can see from the pictures Marty is good with human babies as well as other baby animals.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

The half year mark...


Both of my babies reached a half year mark this past weekend. On May 24th, Mari turned 6 months old and on May 25th, Jake turned 2 and one-half years old. I took these pictures earlier in May as part of a project I did for mother's day. I will post some more pictures later as we have a lot going on here at the moment.

Jake is 30lbs and 37 inches tall now. Jake is a laugh a minute as usual. I think I must have permanent damage to my tongue from all the times I have had to bite it when he does something that he is not supposed to to keep from laughing. I am amazed at the things he comes up with. First thing in the morning when he wakes up he is generally a puppy. He somehow thinks puppies are immune from following the rules that Jake must follow (i.e. puppies can climb on the furniture and dump food on the floor). When I go to get on to him, he just barks at me. When I address him as a dog, he then starts pretending to be a cow or chicken or duck or another kind of animal. Sometimes I just don't know what to do with him! Sometimes he can be very noisy and I learned a trick, by watching my mom, to get him to be quiet when Mari is trying to sleep-I just ask him to be a mouse! There is definitely never a dull minute at our house. His favorite foods are still oatmeal and vegetable soup. He eats quite healthy even when given the options of unhealthy foods. I hope that we are as lucky with Mari! He loves playing in the back yard with our dog Daisy and he is trying to teach her how to shake her head yes and no! I think he go the idea from the book, "I will teach my dog 100 words." He speaks well and I amazed at how far back he can remember. He seems to remember things from Christmas and his birthday very clearly and likes to talk about things that happened at Christmas.

At six months old Mari is 19 lbs and 28.5 inches long/tall. She is quite mobile and very keen on getting into everything. She will be crawling soon, but for now she gets along just fine by rolling and scooting. She is quite fond of Jake and her face lights up when he gets in her line of sight. She loves to grab my hair and bite me on the shoulder. She still has beautiful blue eyes and her hair has not really gotten much longer since birth although she has had more hair come in (none has fallen out) but it is a softer texture and lighter in color. She likes to 'talk' to us and she is already telling on Jake and has quite perfected her little sister scream (when she gets annoyed at Jake, even if he has done nothing to her). Unfortunately, I punished Jake two or three times for aggravating her before I realized that he wasn't always doing something to her. My favorite times with her are first thing and the morning and last thing at night. She wakes up before Jake and goes to be before Jake (James entertains Jake while I put Mari to bed) so it is our alone time together. She also goes to the store by herself with me some times (I alternate taking just him or just her-I take both if James is not home of course). I love the way she hangs on to me when she is tired and the smiles she gives me when she is first waking up. I love the happy dance she does when I pick her up or when she sees me come into the room.