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.

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.

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.

Some Zoo pictures from John's camera.

These pictures are from James's brother John's camera. John took some of them and James took some as well, so I am not sure who took which ones, but I think John took all of them except the last one in the post. Obviously James couldn't take the ones he is in!

Jake's first carousel ride.

As you can see and read about in the post below we ran into someone we know at the zoo!

Jake and Conner together again!

While at the zoo we ran into Connor and his parents Joe and Elizabeth. Joe, Elizabeth and I were in the Mississippi Teacher Corps together and Elizabeth and I were at the same school and had the boys three months apart. Last year they were in Japan teaching English and even though they have been back since this past fall we have not managed to meet up with them again until this accidental encounter (If you remember fall I was VERY pregnant with Mari and we are just now trying our luck with traveling). Hopefully we can find some time this summer to get together again!

Jake was very interested in everything Connor did. He was very tired when we ran into them (no nap on Saturday) but he asked about him after he left. I think he was just in shock that Connor exists in real life as we look at pictures of him on his blog all the time.

Above Jake and Connor look at some Pink Flamingos. Below is the last time we were together at the Mississippi Teacher Corps graduation, middle of May 2006. Joe is holding Connor who is almost 9 months in the picture and James was holding an almost 6 month old Jake. Connor is three months older than Jake to the day (both born on the 25th).

Our long day at the Memphis Zoo

Last Saturday we went to Southaven to visit James's sister, Cheri, and brother, John and John's girlfriend Angela. While there we went to the zoo with John and Cheri (Angela flew in later that evening). We had a great time but when we got home we were all worn out and spent Sunday recovering! This is the longest trip we have taken with Mari. The camera setting got nudged in the camera bag and we didn't realize it was on black and white for quite some time. We still got some cute pictures though!

Mari was grabbing at James' face and giggling.

Jake was very proud of his hat and was holding it on at the slightest hint of a breeze.

As you can see we ended up carrying both kids and pushing the stroller.

The first and last time Jake went to the zoo he was 10 months old and his two favorite things were this exit sign and the elephants. As you can see Mari did not particularly care for the exit sign.

Halfway through the trip Mari finally decided she would ride in the stroller. She took a few catnaps and played with her toys.

Above is Jake on James's shoulders, John and Cheri and Mari in the stroller (although you can't see her). They are standing in front of the Panda but you can't see it either.

Jake's first ride on a carousel. He looked nervous the entire time!

After his carousel ride he was so excited he just had to wake up Mari and tell her about it!

While Jake and Cheri look at the Polar bear swimming, Mari checks out her lightening bug toy.

While looking at some monkeys, Jake kept yelling "Hey Monkey!, Hi!"

It was a lot of fun and we plan on going back this fall/winter when Mari can enjoy it better. No one got sunburned this time either so that was a plus. All in all we were there for around 5 hours.