I told Peep the morning we were leaving that we needed to eat breakfast because we were leaving to go to Florida.  She went to the front door, reached for the handle and said, "Me me ah Florida."

Her speech and vocab have improved so much in the past week, it's incredible.  She's got a big thing with, "Oh no!" lately.  As in, "Oh no, my bucket (baby, blankie, penny, juice, milk, etc.)!"

An allehhh-yator (Peep's pronunciation) we spotted behind our cottage.

We laid her down in our inn room for a nap (in a pack n play, bless you Anchor Inn & Cottages!!) and we laid down to take a nap too.  Peep says, "Hi, Momma. Hi, Momma. Hi, Momma."  I didn't respond.  Then she says, "Momma sleep. Night night Momma, night night!" I hear her lay down.  Approx. 30 seconds later she stands up and repeats the process.  She did that, oh, 3 or 4 times.  I'm just laying there trying not to laugh out loud.

She ADORED the beach. She'd have spent all day there, no problem.  I don't even think she would have stopped for lunch. She waded into the surf, scooped sand with her shovel and bucket, watched people, picked up shells, followed seagulls and other birds around (that was too cute).

Wedding weekend...

First we hit Greaserama. Gorgeous day to check out hot rods and rat rods and see some friends.

Then head outta town for Sam and Alison's wedding!





Weekend snippets:
Peep on Aunt D*'s lap during the wedding ceremony, rifling her purse. Thanks D*! You were a lifesaver, I didn't think she'd sit down for the wedding! :D
Peep leaning her head back on Uncle Tony a long time in a Peep style hug.
Peep walking a big circle around the wedding crowd, doing a little nature walk waiting for wedding time.
K* doing a little ballet spin while Peep watched, then Peep leaning forward, arms out behind her going Ohhohoh- her version of a ballet move I guess. :D
K* about Peep, "She's a mess maker!" (Usually when we get together Peep will shriek or yell or something and K* says, "She's a noiser!")
At the wedding reception Peep squealing and then running to Nana arms wide open.
E* bringing me a little folder with a folded piece of paper stuck in that stuck out when you opened it. I said, "What's this a nose?" E*, "YES!" Then peals of giggles. :D
Laughing over margaritas with some of the family post wedding.
Hanging out with Uncle Al and his lovely girlfriend Laurie.
S* and A* exchanging vows while she tried to hold his hands and hold her dress down.
Peep putting a piece of banana to her ear and doing her talking on the phone impression, mouth open in an O, saying Oh, oh, oh.

Gorgeous wedding and a fun weekend!!

Ps. Can I just say that it's hard to believe that this was nearly a year ago!! Peep has changed so so much. Love that little rascal. xoxo

Vacation July 2010

What a lovely trip to the lake... Peep has grown and changed so much in the two weeks we can't believe it. She's suddenly saying a lot of words.

We discovered she is ready for and loves the sandbox...

She's climbing up on more furniture AND we've taught her how to turn around and climb back down! She never ceases to amaze us with how bright and sweet she is.

We saw lots of geese (in fact everything was "geese" as far as Peep was concerned), swans, ducks and even had a sandhill crane who liked to fish of ours and neighboring piers in the morning. Peep loved to watch all the birds. I especially like the crane because he looks so comical walking around on those long legs with knobby knees.

Vacation moments:
Driving in the van, heads bobbing to Love Machine.
Peep at 5 a.m. from pack n' play - "mama? maamaa?" some shuffling and then she's back asleep.
Peep - Patting screen door with both hands saying, "I go, I go, I go." Gets shoes and sits on kitchen floor and fiddles with the velcro.
Pooch's first few jumps into the lake off the pier are so tentative and he usually dunks himself a few times, then by the end of vacation he's flying off there like a champ!
Hanging out with family - lovely!
Peep hanging over side of rowboat as we are motoring across the lake, trying to touch the spray kicking up.
Peep pointing at ducks, swans and geese saying, " Geese geese geese!"
Peep following Grandma and Grandpa's granddaughter) around and then standing at a closed door saying, "Ooee? Oooeee?"

The Evolution of a Mother

A week or so after giving birth I started wondering what the heck I'd gotten myself into... Peep's a bit colicky.  I wanted to go out to the movies and out to dinner and go to China and Belize and go get chai tea whenever I wanted.  But then at some point along the way I quit worrying about what I was missing and started enjoying my new responsibilities, started enjoying Peep's smiles and quit minding so much when she cried and just focused on making her happy again.  I started feeling like a mom.

This Monday Hubs watched Peep while I went to get a pedicure.  I had a terrible time getting out the door.  I said goodbye and kissed her little chubby cheeks several times before I FINALLY left.

I'm making sure to enjoy cuddling her and take time to rub my cheek on her fuzzy, lovely smelling little head.  She's not going to be little for very long, she weighed 11 lbs. 11 oz. yesterday and she's already 11 weeks old!

According to baby books, Peep's been sleeping through the night since she was about 3 weeks old, which means sleeping 4-6 hours at a time.  So not my idea of "through the night"!!  She was going to sleep at 7 or 8 and then eating between 12 - 2 a.m.  then going a couple hours before eating again. Last week she slept from 8pm to 5am several times, but she's reverted back to the old schedule... Before I know it she will be sleeping through the night by regular definition and I bet I will miss our sleepy middle of the night feedings.

We went to  see Hubs's family last week.  Peep was a gem on the trip out and was good throughout the week, napping better in the truck (diesel, very loud and vibrate-y) and at the cabin than she ever does here at home!  

Here was the highlight of the trip for me...  Peach cream cheese pie with fresh peaches (be still my heart) from Tiffany's, a little Amish restaurant...  No offense family, it was REALLY GOOD PIE!!

More Mexico...

A little compilation of lovely Mexico, click to see larger.  Including a picture of a limonada.  I drank a lot of these, it's no margarita, but they were darn tasty. 

Siesta time, even for el gato.

Akumal bay

Tulum, Mayan ruins on the beach.

Fun bar, good food!

 

Handsome...

Bump!

Akumal Bay again...

Mexico

Two weeks ago now we were basking in the warm sun on the beaches of the Mayan Riviera... (The buddha spreads out funny when I lay down.) I was nervous to bare the bump at first, but there are all sorts of body types out there, so what the heck!

We snorkeled a lot... The water was un poco frio so I bought a wet shirt. It didn't cover the buddha very well, but it'll work great when the baby comes and the belly goes.

Hubs's better at diving down than I am.

I'm impeded by the bump when diving down. Or maybe the bum cuz I think I was bad pre-bump.

Hubs zoomin' in Yal-ku Lagoon. The salt water was mixing in with the fresh there and it made the water look shimmery.

We didn't see any turtles/tortugas the first day, but the second day we figured out where to look in Akumal Bay and we saw five all in a row. Hubs took this pic with his aforementioned diving skills.

This one's kinda fuzzy (my photo, you'll have gathered why), but still a neat tortuga pic. I just gotta get closer to stuff.



Yal-ku Lagoon. I think this used to be coral, but now it's above the water, pretty crazy looking.

Other cool ocean sitings: 6 foot barracuda - we saw him twice, once when the water was pretty stirred up and we were practically on top of each other before we could see each other. We stopped and he veered off. whew! haha!). Wall of fish - we saw this twice too, once when I had no camera and once when the water was murky. Pretty small fishes (6" to a foot) as far as you can see left and right. As you swim towards them, they kinda bend away from you, it was pretty amazing how tight their formation was.

We also visited Dos Ojos Cenote which was so incredible. In one area you are swimming in a cave that curves in a half moon and opens all along one side. There are tiny fish in the water and ginormous boulders below you and stalagtites hanging from the ceiling. So crazy. I gotta admit I was nervous of the crevices in the boulders at first, but I realized there wasn't enough fish or vegetation to support anything very large in there (I hope!). ;)

A man in a little t-shirt shop called me "mamita", little mama, I think. I like it...

We ate some really scrumptious food...

Loncheria - Omelette ala Mexicana for me and Huevos Mexicana for Hubs... They had the BEST pico de gallo. The last time we ate there I made it a game to see how much I could pile on my omelette.

Lol Ha - Sea Food Pasta Buffet... You got to pick what seafood, veggies and spices, alfredo or marinara (to die for) sauce. Heavenly....

Lucy's Kitchen - Shrimp and fish tacos and smoothies, yum!

Ismelda's - Enchiladas - wow they were good and so filling. 4 enchiladas and rice and beans for like $3. We ate there the last day and ended up wishing we'd tried it earlier in our trip!

I had a blast using my crappy Spanish on taxi drivers. There was usually someone at the taxi stand who could speak English, but many of our taxi drivers only spoke a bit of English. The one day there was no one who spoke English at the taxi stand was the day we wanted to go to Xcacel Beach. I wanted to know if they would take us and wait, but couldn't remember the word for wait. haha! When we got to Xcacel the taxi driver taught me in Spanish and asked how to say it in English, pretty cute.

Every time we visit a country like this I'm struck by how simply people live. It makes me yearn to simplify, but then I come back to the states and I'm inundated by marketing telling me everything I NEED. It's so easy to get sucked into consumerism and the hurry hurry mentality.

Lake...

C and I spent the week at the little cabin on the lake.  It was so lovely to get away from it all, unplug for the week.  We ate extremely healthy (Pizza King, Pizza King, root beer, Pizza King), biked quite a bit, paddle boated, swam, read.  *sigh**** It was lovely...  

The Pooch snoozes in the back seat...

...until you look at him.  He has NO sense of personal space and he's quite the cuddler.  I was sitting on the front porch lookin' at the lake and he came and sat down beside me and scooted sideways to get flush with my side.  :)    

Hubs's mom and I went to Amish country - Shipshewana one day.  The town is so neat to see, a weird mix of old timey and current, with the Amish horse and buggies on the same road as cars and trucks.  They have an enormous flea market.  I was hoping for old junk and a lot of it was new junk.  

I'm looking for necessary items, such as a cake plate.  Do I make cake?  Rarely, but I really think I would if I had a cool cake plate.  No, seriously, I would.  From scratch too, scout's honor. ;)

Boundary Waters...

This is from C & mine's trip to the Boundary Waters in 2006... I never posted any of our pics from this trip. We had a great time, other than putting in at Angleworm Lake, which involved a 2 mile portage in. UGH. You have not hiked until you've hiked with backpack AND a canoe. That is hard. We'd bump into people while we were doing 1 mile or less portages and they'd be complaining and we'd just look at each other and roll our eyes, wimps. haha!

More pics from the trip...

Here's a nice picture of the view snorkeling... some little tropical fishes, coral, fan coral...

Here's us and a really nice couple from Canada (one actually a native of Australia) on a sailboat snorkel trip out of Caye Caulker. Crosswinds is the name of the company we sailed with (Zeus, Chuckie and Alex). We snorkeled, ate lunch, drank rum punch and One Barrel Whiskey. It was a spectacular day.

Wassup?

Here's another pic from Belize... I wished it had turned out better! We went out snorkeling one evening and some guy said he'd seen 6 or 7 tarpon (big silver fish) swimming around out there. So we were floating there looking out to deeper water when 6 0r 7 tarpon swim under us coming from behind us. We were all surprised, but then I look up from watching them swim under us and all the sudden there are 50 plus right there. I tried to take a couple pics, but unfortunately they are kinda blurry. This guy was probably 5 - 6 foot long and came with in that same distance of me. :)

You can kinda see a bunch of them in this pic. I'm not sure why it's so blurry, but I think it was because of the low light. Let me know if these pics are too lame to even post. :D

More Belize...

Here's the main thoroughfare on Tobacco Caye.  Pretty hoppin' place eh?  ;)

UnBelizeAble

Here are some pics from Belize!! It is such a neat place to visit. The people are super nice and it's a gorgeous place.

We stayed on Tobacco Caye for 4 days. It's a five acre island so there's no restaurant and you eat where you stay. This is the view off Reef's End's patio. Inside Ms. D served us some amazing food: barracuda, conch, shrimp and lots of other tasty things.

This is C and I on the patio. :D

This is part of a very sweet family we met. They were there from Dallas. We went on a boat to Bird Island and an offshore snorkeling trip with them. We almost saw a manatee. I saw the mud trail it left when it vamoosed, but no manatee.

This was the little cat that seemed to live on the balcony of our hotel. C called him Turtle Head for some reason so we'll call him Turtle for short. :) He was a sweetie.

I'll post more later. I need some zzz's.

Belize it, or not...

So C and I just got back from Belize last night.  What's that? Oh, you didn't realize I was even gone?  That's cuz I post dated blogs for while I was gone!  (I know, I'm a geek.  heh heh.)  Anyway, we were in Belize for a week and we had a blast.  I'll post pics as soon as I get them developed.  We snorkeled, snorkeled and snorkeled some more.  Laid on the beach, took a sailboat snorkel trip, ate good food, met some fun people.  **sigh**  It was wonderful.