Weekend in the Ville

This weekend we spent some much needed time by the pool and hanging with friends. On Saturday afternoon we spent quite a bit of time in our respective flotation devices. Meredith and Duder came over for a bit to swim in the pool and play. Sunday we went to brunch at Avery's and had a delicious meal and then spent the evening with Karin and Greg.

Team Carlyle in the pool



Everyone at daycare says that they could be siblings. You can see it in this picture

Thanks, Papa for my hat! I love it and wore it all morning.

First Field Trip

Laurelea went on her first field trip to Germantown Splash park. We had a tough time letting her go so far away for a field trip and really struggled with the distance in the car (over an hour each way, on the freeway). She was able to ride with her friend Avery, and Avery's Dad Korey. A huge thanks to Korey for driving the girls.

 The day care only goes on one field trip per year and we didn't want her to miss out on the opportunity,  but also both of us couldn't make this trip. I had this horrible feeling about the trip and it kept me up for a few nights prior to her going. They say that mother's intuition is really something as Laurelea had her first major fall while she was at the splash park. She fell face first and her teeth went through her bottom lip. As the cut was inside her mouth, so stitches were not needed. Needless to say we are staying pretty close to our Bee right now.

L at the splash park (Thanks to Korey for the pictures)

Sunshine at the Splash Park

The whole gang

L and Sulma- they are pretty tight

This was in the car when Cory and L came to pick me up from the metro. She wouldn't look at me, which crushed me.

Here is where her teeth went through her lip. We are keeping it clean with peroxide.

Missing Grammy

Grammy was with us for just over a month and it's been a tough transition for us this week to have her gone. Laurelea has been asking for her and pointing to her room. She is pretty confused as she became so accustomed to giving her "night, night" kisses so she now runs around trying to find her Grammy to kiss her good night.

L and her Grammy

3 Generations

On Sunday night we went to Graffiato for dinner. We had an excellent meal.

Baby Shower for the Clarks

The food!

We were planning on having the baby shower for the Clark's out at a water park, but due to the heat wave that has hit our area we opted to have it at our house so folks could keep cool. We kept with the water theme at had a take a dip shower. It was a team effort to pull this together. A huge thanks to Esther, Lonna and Jess who really made this possible.

Fondue station- we had both chocolate and cheese fondue

Esther out did herself with her famous cup cakes

Lonna, Esther and Molly

Hanging out by the pool

Duder and Laurelea playing in the sprinkler that Meredith shared for the party. It was a huge hit!

L

Duder and Meredith in the pool

Rachell and Tricia

Jacob reading to Jackie and Lucy- Lucy got some big sister Olivia books

17 Months Old

Our little Bee is 17 months old. Between Maine and Grammy being here it's been non-stop fun for an entire month. It feels like you are now officially a toddler. It makes us sad to not have a little baby anymore, but also thrilled to see your sense of independence and willingness to try things without us.   You have actually started to sign more to help indicate your wishes -- you sign when you are hungry, need help, and need more food. We've lost track on how many words you can say but I would guess it is over 20.  My favorite development of this month is that you call you dad, Daddy and Cory. Cory when you want his attention and Daddy when you need something from him. It is pretty adorable to hear you call his name. It sounds like Cooray.  We both thought that this might be a phase that we would have to go through when you were 16 years old!  But, it just demonstrates to us how observant you are because you even use the same tone and inflection that I do when I say his name.

Physically you have also developed a lot this month. You love to climb up on everything! You can now get up onto the couch and chairs. Your Daddy has taught you to get down going backwards and so most of the time you are really cautious in your dismount, which we are thankful for. You are so close to jumping and getting both feet off the floor. You also have learned how to kick, spin and dance this month. You are a moving machine and we love having dance time in the evenings when we crank up the toddler tunes and watch you go.

Our pool has been a highlight of this month and you are fast becoming a little water bug. We are still pretty nervous about getting water in your ears but so far we have not had any ear infections. You love your "poo-poo", which is what you call your pool. The first few times we thought you could be pooing in the pool but quickly realized what you were saying.

The hardest part about this month for me is that you are starting to wean. I know it's time but it's hard to give up the connection. We starting feeding just during the morning and night, but more recently we only feed when you ask for it. You generally always still want to feed in the evenings before bed, but you have gotten up on a couple of occasions without needing any milk in the morning.

We love you Sugar Bee and can't wait for all the adventures we will get to experience this next month!

So after a traumatic experience with Princess Fiona, L was not a fan of Woody this month

This was about as close as we could get her

Grammy tried by showing her pictures on her phone

Lucy tried by showing her how to brush Woody's foot

The best part about today was waking up to find that Lucy was still around to play

L loves her some Lucy

Cory's Belated B-day Bash

We celebrated Cory's birthday on Sunday afternoon with a pool party with friends. We put down some turf out by the pool and it was a big hit with all the kiddos.

Our fam

Pete and Jackie

George

pool time!

corn time

like father, like daughter

Princess Fiona's Cookie Castle

On Friday night at about 10 p.m. we were hit with the worst storm to graze this area since 2003. It was a special type of storm called a Derecho and we were bowling at the time it hit.  The power went off midway through the third game (Clay was leading that one at the time and I think according to amateur rules we were far enough into the game to call it a win for him).  Our power at home went off at the same time; being some of the lucky ones, our power came back on after 40 hours.

On Saturday we went to the Gaylord hotel to meet Princess Fiona and welcomed the reprieve from the heat. I'd purchased these tickets months ago and we were all excited to build cookie castles....

Baby Shrek's

Princess Fiona

L spotting Fiona with the tingles of fear in her heart

. . . and a little icing was all she needed to forget about Princess Fiona. 

Candy and a special cookie castle help too!

It was time to meet Fiona . . . a certain someone was not a fan

Not sure what we expected but we were hoping she would learn to love large scale ugly green creatures (hmmm we don't get the parents award for our child trying to jump vertically off Misty)

So we went back to building our cookie castle

Add more icing and again the world is better!

except when your family makes you take a picture with her on the way out...
Our lesson has been learned for a little while :)