1st Birthday

I tried to make a deal with Lea that she would stay a baby until her first birthday... does this photo look like a baby? No, she broke her deal, she became a little girl much too quick. This photo was taken a few weeks ago, but the others are from her actual birthday or her birthday party. We had a wonderful time.

QUICK NOTE: There is mostly video here. For more pictures and another update go to http://www.babysites.com/sites/leannette/
and for all the photos go to the walgreens (this link should link to all the photos from the past year, but especially the new birthday photos and birthday portraits)
http://photo.walgreens.com/share/p=59831154617541623/l=7861172/g=3332328/cobrandOid=1009/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

All the kids seemed to have a great time and the parents (especially those with more than one) said that all the kids had plenty to entertain themselves and while I was worried about uncontrolled chaos, it was explained that for 8 kids in a room — that WAS controlled chaos! Everyone played with toys and then we headed to the back yard where all the kids got a bucket, a boat, a duck, bubbles and a sailor hat. We had half barrels (for those from Wisconsin — not a keg — actual barrels cut in half - for those in West Texas, they were from a cow pasture used to feed & water livestock) and we floated boats, splashed and played in sand. There were some kids' clothes in the dryer before it was all over! Lea didn't know what to make of it in the beginning, but then jumped in with both splashing paws!






Lea also got to partake in some of her favorite pasttime — Swinging — sorry I forgot to keep the camera straight for a few seconds. I get used to taking pictures that way. But hey it creates an interesting effect, if it doesn't make you dizzy.



After play time we opened presents. Lea got wonderful presents from everyone! She played with everything Saturday night and Sunday. Sthoroughlyoughly thrilled with her new toys! What wonderful friends we have!

And of course there was cake eating! This is not video of the actual birthday cake, but later after dinner Lea had chocolate cake... and continued to enjoy herself.




On Tuesday, July 25, Lea's actual birthday I got to take the day off and we spent all day together playing on the swings and going to a water spray park. I can't believe we didn't get any pictures there, but it was very overwhelming for Lea. There were a lot of squealing kids and one boy almost lost his shorts and ran around with with his tushy hanging out. All the water coming from the ground and tubes and towers kind of scared out little one, but we found a sigeysergeiser" and played for a long time with that. It was fun to do something different on that special day. Then Grandma came to town and we went to Applebee's for dinner. But not before Grandma got Lea her first baby doll and some new shoes. Lea is getting used to wearing shoes and taking it in "stride" but she walks a little different still in shoes. Here is Lea in her new shoes and her "birthday suit" ... no, no, no... no more bath pictures... this is the outfit she wore to dinner. Lea also got (from Grandma) a Hokey Pokey Cookie Monster -— We managed to have an Elmo free birthday - that sings and dances the hokey pokey and says "That what it all about!" It is so cute!

Bathtime fun

Last night we filmed some bathtime. Is this inapproriate for the web? Well I can't help but post this cute little tushy picture! We always have a good time at bathtime.



If you look very closely at this second photo you might see some teeth! This is a great open mouth laugh showing her bottom two teeth poking through. They are taking their sweet time becoming actual teeth, but they're there and she knows how to use them. I noticed this morning she was tearing pieces of toast with her teeth, taking actual bites! What a girl!


Bathtime:


And once the splashing began, we couldn't quit!

Watching Big Big World

This is Lea wearing her 4th of July outfit (I think it was actually Flag Day, though). I'm trying to get her dancing or clapping to Big Big World - her favorite PBS show. She gets very excited when the big sloth sings.



Lea and I sat at the back door yesterday and watched the rain. Yes for those of you not in Texas, it actually rained in July! It actually rained 4th of July too to put a damper on our fireworks watching, but perhaps that's a story I've told. So Lea sat in my lap getting a few raindrops splashed on her watching the rain hit the sidewalk. She seemed facinated and I certainly enjoyed it. Until however our retractable screen door snapped shut when Lea touched it... that sent her into crying fits, as it scared her pretty bad. It was time to shut the door and put the rain away for another time. Until then, however, it was a rather peaceful few moments.

Overall the weekend however sucked. Lea had a tummy bug on Thursday (so she didn't get her birthday picture taken) and Mommy got it Saturday and was down for the count. Daddy had it most of saturday night and sunday, but was able to play through the pain for mama and baby. Without him we'd be huddled on the floor starving to death. Yeah dad! But we all seem fully recovered and Lea's photo shoot has been rescheduled.

Queen of the Straws

There is new video of Lea wielding straws. I don't know if this will work, but its supposed to show up in the post. Lea believes every straw in the house should belong to her. She takes the straws from my glasses and walks around with them.

This video also shows her adorable little babble. I was trying to get a shot of her from the front, but she kept turning the other way. She's a wiley one that Lea.

The first blog

We'll give blogging a try.

Check out www.babysites.com/sites/leannette for the latest baby update. I know I've ignored it for so long, many of you are jaded, but I promise it's new, with new photos and an update.

I guess what I didn't say there was about our very scary car ride in June. We went to help my mom move from Arkansans and while hauling her big brown van (once known to Gavin and I as "the party van" because we drove it to Houston on occasion and it was so huge we felt we could bring the whole party home with us) we had an accident. While going around a cloverleaf highway interchange we jack knifed and it was very scary. Thanks to Dan's expert driving skills we were all fine, but it was very scary. Dan's dad was following us and he said it was even more frightening watching and being helpless to do anything. Thank God we were all ok. There were so many things we kept saying we'd do differently, but I said if one thing had been different perhaps the out come also would have been different. That whole "Everything happens for a reason." So we're just thankful we're ok, and despite some cosmetic damage to the truck and van we got home in once piece.

As for our 4th of July, Lea and I spent it with my mom who has just moved to Emory. I worked pretty hard unpacking and all, but its worth it. I'm so excited to have mom here and her place is so beautiful and peaceful.


But it rained here on the actual 4th, so we put off going to see fireworks in favor of haning with friends sipping some peach wine (thanks to fresh peaches from Dan's dad and Linda!). I did see the tips of fireworks over the trees. I was a little bummed, but it will be more fun next year when Lea is scared out of her gord with the kaboom and kapow!

Well that's it for the first post. Adding photos is not so much easier so I don't know if this one will stick, but we'll give it a go.