Adventures in NOLA: Day Four

Thursday was birthday day for Nana and Brighton. Brighton turned one and Nana turned 45, I think. That is the story I am sticking to anyway. I have a two day ride back with her coming up soon so I better not tell the the world wide web her actual age. Not that it is old...Anyway, I won't be covering Brighton's big day in this blog because I don't want to steal Becky's thunder. She will post pictures and write about it on her own blog later. I might come back and add pictures to this post next week after she has had a chance to put some on. The big events of the day were shopping at ToysRUs for the kids (I got some more shopping done for Callie's first Christmas) and then we went out for a great dinner and then came home for cake. Callie had a rough day because of teething. Thanks to Nana's persistence, she is finally eating certain things. At the restaurant, she pigged out on baby puffs but wasn't content with just those. I gave her a saltine and she immediately started biting off bits, chewing and swallowing. All without gagging or making the "grodey" face. She finished off two whole crackers before she was content to just play with the crinkly wrappers. Here are some pictures from the day.

The floor on this side of the table was an absolute disaster by the time we left!

The floor on this side was slightly cleaner!

Will decided he needed to take some pictures of the birthday celebrations. It is very difficult to get a good picture of him lately, which is why I don't have many posted from this week. He is a bit stubborn about posing for the camera.

And what first birthday would be complete without some pics of the birthday suit. We have been bathing the girls together every night. They seem to enjoy it!

While Brighton was playing with the spigot, Callie thought it would be appropriate to try and bite her butt. Unfortunately, I didn't get it on camera, but you can just imagine the scene!

Adventures in NOLA: Day Three

Today we went to the city to have binets at Cafe Du Monde, site-see, and then go to the zoo. It was an exciting day for all. Mom wore her camera out taking pictures of every balcony with pretty plants and every animal at the zoo. Will had a nice conversation with a strange bird that was "hanging out with the giraffes" (at least that is what the bird told him) and Brighton got to eat her first binet and make a great sugar mess all over the floor. Callie had a great time too. She sang and cooed all the way through the French Market and then was thoroughly ammused by all the kids at the zoo. But she didn't seem to get very excited about the animals. She liked the pictures of the animals at each exhibit more than the animal itself. The two things that she seemed to get very excited about were the giraffes, because we were very close to them and they were moving around, and the elephant water fountain at the center of the zoo. Here are some pictures from the day.

Vest girls - the morning started cool but warmed up quickly.

Looking out at the Cafe.

Brighton enjoying her binet with one bare foot.


Mom bought us scarves at the market.

Callie on the baby elephant at the zoo.

Here is Callie's favorite part - the fountain!

Here is her reaction to it!

The big guy was one of my favorites. I just wanted to curl up next to him like I do with Ollie.

They had a really interesting Lousianna swamp section with great displays. This is a replica of a campboat. People used to live on these and pull them around the swamp with their little jon-boats. Sometimes they had toilets on the back porch. The green surface underneath looks like a solid floor but it was solid algae pond water.

Adventures in NOLA: Day Two

Today was a stay at home day. Becky had to teach her co-op class this afternoon for a few hours so we decided just to stick around the house and play. We went on a nice long walk/bike ride together. The girls rode together in the wagon, Will (or "Blue Gloves", one of his aliases) rode in the stroller. Mom and Dad did all the hard work while Becky and I rode bikes around the neighborhood, just like old times (but without the neighbors' german shepherds chasing us!) We enjoyed the tour of the neighborhood. The houses are all beautiful and each one is unique. The outing took us by the river which looked more like a stagnant pond to me. But Becky said it was actually deep despite being so windy, and that it was not an unusual site to see someone on a sea-doo or boat riding around on it. This afternoon was spent playing in the yard and Callie got to swing in a "big girl" swing for the first time. She loved it as you can see from the pictures. Tomorrow we are going into the city. Jon is taking the day off and we are all going to Cafe Du Monde for breakfast and then to the zoo.

Spending quality time with her aunt and uncle.

Callie is borrowing Brighton's walker for the week.

Will trying to hold Callie's hand while Nana reads a story.




(crawling lessons)

Big girl Brighton standing and eating. Notice Boo under the table waiting for bites.

"Blue Gloves Schumacher"

Callie was completely pooped after the ride around the neighborhood.

This is blurry but I couldn't resist this joyous face!

NOLA Adventures: Day One

Callie and I are in New Orleans (Covington, to be exact) to visit Becky, Jon, Will and Brighton. Nana and Papa are here too. The four of us set off on a two day drive Saturday and arrived late Sunday afternoon. Today was our first full day and I thought I would blog about each day whenever possible. Daddy is not with us and I know his is missing his little girl and will like seeing pictures of her each day.


Today started out in true Becky and Amanda morning fashion - leisurely drinking coffee and eating bagels while the kids played. By lunch time, we had all showered, dressed and worked up an appetite for Chic-Fil-A. We took our food with us to Fountainbleu State Park for a picnic. After playing on the slides for a while, we walked the trail back to the wetlands of Lake Pontchartrain. That was about all the sun and excitement we could handle so we came home for naps. Tonight we will eat dinner at home and play games once the kids are in bed. Callie is having a great time with her cousins. She and Brighton are really enjoying being together and Callie is enjoying being able to keep up with them this time. She is not quite crawling yet but I think she might be by the end of the week. She is also on the verge of cutting those bottom teeth so she may leave the deep south with a new shiny set of choppers.

Papa enjoyed reading to his hokie clad baby girls this morning.

Brighton was more interested in Callie and Callie gave me this winning smile as soon as she saw the camera. She is getting so well-trained.

Everyone enjoyed the slides. I didn't get any pictures of Will but his spent this time chasing Papa and swooshing down the big slide.



Nana in the middle! We were a very packed bunch. I was nice and cozy in the front seat letting Nana do all the work keeping the babies occupied.



We spent a lot of time trying to keep my little pink baby out of the direct sun.

Teething

Callie screamed through an entire night last week so I took her to the doctor and...here come the teeth. I thought she might have had an ear infection because she didn't want to nurse and was pulling her ears. But the doctor said she looked perfectly healthy and that her lower gums were tender. Callie won't let me get a good look but she has definitely been drooling and chewing on things more than usual. We love her little toothless smiles and can't imagine her any other way,m but I am sure that she will only get cuter once those mean ol' teefers finally get here. Here are some pictures of her chewing on everything, including her own lips. And, by the way, if you go through the Walgreens drive-thru in the pouring rain with a pitiful baby and ask for baby motrin, they will be nice enough to go out into the store and get it for you!






She's actually singing in this picture, her other favorite pastime. Forget hearing the TV!

My little pumpkin is 6 months old!

Things have been very busy around here lately. Fall isn't any slower this year even though I am no longer working. Callie turned six months old on Thursday. She is 28 -1/4 inches long (99%) and 17lbs. 14oz. (85%). She is neck and neck with her cousin Brighton so far in her growth, which I find very interesting. Callie is sitting up on her own now which is a HUGE help for me since I am now able to give her toys to play with on her own while I paint. I plan to really enjoy the next few weeks/months until she starts crawling! She seems to really love her new independent play time also and she is very proud to be sitting. I have been trying to feed her some solids but she now has learned that she has a choice in opening her mouth. Tomorrow morning we will start trying it in the morning instead and she will get her first "real" food because I am going to give her some kind of fruit with her rice cereal. She did get to sample mashed up banana this morning but she preferred to play with it and cringed whenever a tiny bit got near her mouth.

Playing on the guest room/studio bed while I paint.

Callie also had a fun fall treat last weekend. Michelle suggested that we all take her to a nearby farm for a hayride and petting zoo visit. Callie enjoyed the entire outing but her favorite parts were the chickens/roosters with the weird "hair" and watching the trees overhead as we took the hayride. We all had a great time and then went to eat Mexican afterwards (my favorite part!).

Callie was cute, but so was this "kid".

On the hayride, watching the trees.

Sensory overload!