sharing

FromMike: Mondays and Wednesdays are my day at home with Amelia. We have lots of fun chasing each other around the house, or if the weather is nice, we'll go out for a walk.

She's taking her second nap now, so I thought I would take this opportunity to share a couple of things she did today. Amelia has this new book of baby animals that she really likes. So, we were reading the book today and looking at the different animals. There's a tiger, a giraffe, a zebra, etc. When we got to the chimpanzee, Amelia took a long look, looked up at me, looked back at the book and said "Da-da-da-dee-da."

Well, it's only logical that she would think "da-da" when she saw the chimp. It has hair on its face, like Daddy, and it has a fuzzy tuft of hair on its head, also like Daddy. So naturally, I started making chimp noises and we had a great time.

Later, Amelia saw me eating some tortilla chips and tried to climb on me. I interpreted this to mean, "I want some snacks, too." So I set her up in the high chair and gave her a Zwieback toast (or, if you prefer our household term, "toastie"). She was happy, and now that she has a top front tooth, she likes to bite off little chunks of the toastie. After she was knawing on it for awhile, I knelt down so I could face the baby. Then, Amelia tried to put the toastie bit in my mouth. Wasn't that sweet? Her first time sharing. Of course, the toast was slimy and gooey and really really gross, but how could I refuse? So I found a little corner, bit off a tiny piece, and gave it back. She took it, waved it around for a bit, then shoved the whole thing in her mouth. It was as if she was saying, "Hmm... sharing. Tried it, wasn't for me." But I have high hopes that she'll get the hang of it eventually.

Well, that's all for now. Time to check some e-mail while the baby is asleep!

Maybe if I crawl like this I won't get my dress dirty.

Spring fever

Ah, beautiful spring! When a young mother's heart turns to joyous things like filing the names of her doctoral committee members.

I visited my advisor on campus today to ensure him that I was, indeed, making progress toward finishing a PhD. He was unconcerned. As usual, everything is going fine - I just like worrying a lot.

I had planned on taking Amelia to the park after my meeting, so that I could take pictures of her in her pretty new spring dress. The weather was, after all, simply fabulous today. But Amelia was getting fussy and tired even during my short meeting, so I decided to take picutures of her on the campus lawn.

My plan was to set the baby on her blanket with a toy and have her smile sweetly for a couple of pictures. But after I sat Amelia down she promptly started wandering off the blanket and attempting to eat dried leaves she found on the ground, ugh!

So, maybe we'll try this again when she's less tired. Still, you have to agree, Amelia is beautiful and so is her dress. She is the sunshine in many peoples' lives - especially her daddy's and mine. Her yellow dress just serves to highlight that sunshine radiance!

Lisa

Here's a good shot of Amelia's teeth. It's really amazing how fast they grow once they appear!

I hear Rounders is pretty good...

Amelia's favorite past times...

Amelia has taken a real interest in DVDs lately. Well, not DVDs exactly, but pulling them off the shelves. Every day she takes them down and every day I put them back...alphabetized and everything.

She also loves rushing to the refrigerator when the door is open. Today she pulled out a bottle of soy sauce and had a great time rolling it on the floor. Less work gets done as she becomes more mobile, but she's fun.

Lisa

Mommy and Amelia on the beach in California.

Back from spring break!

Hello!

Mike, Amelia and I are back from spring break. We had a wonderful time in Morro Bay, California, visiting my mom. We all really needed a vacation - time to just sit back and relax - and that's just what we did. We watched some t.v., played cards with my brother and walked on the beach. Mike and I also went out for dinner (sushi at Harada's) and a movie ($1 million baby - very good) while grandma played babysitter.

Amelia was great the whole trip. Even though she was teething (she now has two new, tiny teeth on the top front left side of her mouth) she slept well and had a lot of fun. She was very patient during the trip home. We left California Saturday and made it as far as Chicago when we elected to give up our seats on overbooked United and stay the night for a free round-trip ticket. Sunday, the flight was overbooked again, so we decided to stay another night and earn another ticket.

Monday was tricky. We were transferred to a morning flight on American, but American would not accept the two-day old ticket we had from United. Mike made the big trek to the United terminal (leaving me with a sleepy baby and a mocha - all was good) only to find the place in complete chaos. All of the United computers were down. Ticket salespeople were hand writing boarding passes for passengers. When Mike came back to us, and told me what happened, I was sure we wouldn't make it to Indianapolis in time for me to attend class.

At the American desk, they were sympathetic but unwavering. They simply would not give us a boarding pass without a re-issued United ticket. So, in desperation, we bought new tickets for the flight. Only 20 mins. to go and we had to rush through security with two laptops and a baby. Again, I felt certain we were stuck, but somehow we made it on the plane. When Amelia and I jumped on board I was still in my socks. Mike came on board about 2 mins. later with all our bags.

We arrived in Indianapolis on time, cursed the cold weather, and got our car. I put my make-up on as Mike drove us to Bloomington. He dropped me off for my first class five minutes before it began. I felt slick as Teflon, earning two free tickets and STILL making it to class on time.

So, in summary, we had a wonderful and relaxing vacation that had an exciting and dramatic conclusion. And we earned a total of four (4) free round trip tickets good anywhere in the lower 48 on United. Hopefully, now that we're back and refreshed we'll be able to keep up better with the blog.

Lisa

Traveling is so exhausting!

More sad news

From Mike: The day after my grandfather's funeral, my uncle Gerry passed away, unexpectedly, at age 52. The day before he died, I had a chance to speak with him by telephone to express my condolences for the loss of his father and my regrets about not being able to attend the funeral. As was his nature, my uncle took the time to comfort me. We had a brief conversation about death representing the end of life - his words, "It happens," will be etched in my head forever. Uncle Gerry, it happened far too soon for you. You will be missed by family, friends, and by all who had the pleasure to know you.