Snow baby (or not)

One morning, a few weeks ago, we woke up to this:

It was so darn awesome, we ate breakfast at the window...

Ready or not, here we go!

Helping Mommy shovel the driveway...

Nah, Hollie want big shovel!

So, being out in the cold was fun for about ten minutes, and then someone (not me) was at the door begging to go back in.  

We spent the rest of the day staying warm and taking silly pictures...

...and being silly in general.  Look at these two goofs...

I love that last one.  And yes, that's Hollie's hair in a little ponytail.  She needs that first haircut, and I'm leaning toward doing it myself.  If it happens, there'll be pictures, I promise.

New video

So, that was a nice little hiatus.  We haven't even been particularly busy.  Maybe just recovering from a few weeks of being really busy...is that a real excuse?  We just haven't had much going on worth talking about.  Daniel had a major hell-week (or two) at work, and things have since slowed down but he's still catching up on sleep and down-time.

Hollie is still jibber-jabbering away.  She is pronouncing "book" much better.  I love that she refers to herself, and to all her stuffed animals and dolls as "baby".  She gives them kisses and then makes me kiss them too.  She has gotten sooo loving and affectionate.

It is really tough to get good pictures of her these days.  She is always moving.  Really fast.  So I have a bunch of very cute but very blurry pictures.  Now that I've remembered that I have a blog, I might post them all together soon.

In the meantime, a new video.  One morning a few weeks ago I caught Hollie reading a book to herself, and it was so adorable I had to break out the video camera (which I know I need to do more often).  From the moment I turned the viewing window around so that we could see ourselves while filming, it quickly escalated from book-reading, to nose-picking, to camera-grabbing...and, well, you'll see.

When I played back the video for us to watch, Hollie thought it was the coolest thing ever...she signed "more" and demanded

Mo' bebe!

"It sounds like she's counting in French"

It's hard to hear, but that's what Daniel says from the other room at about 17 seconds.  

United States map place-mat = endless entertainment at dinnertime.

Also, you'll notice she's not eating at her little table.  Not long after we swapped out the high chair for her own little table and chair, she started always wanting to be in my lap during dinner.

She enjoyed using the little table all day for her meals and snacks, but you could tell that at dinner, when Daniel and I sat up at the big table, she was just feeling a little left out.

So, we decided to swap back.  Since she's too big now for the high chair, we went with one of those little chairs that straps to a dining room chair...and I gotta say, I love it.  It's so good to have her up at the table with us!

When ordinary chores turn into the most fun she's ever had...

[airplane passing overhead]

The apple trees aren't doing great. But we keep watering and fertilizing and hoping...

You know its been a good day when it ends like this...

But wait, there's more!

Video schmideo

Here are some videos I've been meaning to post, but haven't gotten around to yet because I hate uploading them. I've linked back to the original posts that they belong in.


Signing "more"




When we went to the pool in Phoenix