Best Buds

Last week, Aneta at day care told me that Liora is really into sharing. She likes to give toys to the other babies and watch them play.

We have started to see a similar behavior at home--she loves to share Zooks' toys with him! Well, at least she loves to play with his toys. Zooks doesn't care if she is playing with him or the toy, he tends to think if someone is holding his string toy, that person should be swinging it around for him.

I first tried to take some pictures of this. It went the same way the photos of stacking cups went, but even more blurry.
So now we have a video! It's not super exciting, but it's cute (isn't it always). It's also a little shaky; I think I was having trouble not falling over while filming!

Notes: Yes, we only let Liora play with these toys when we are supervising. And yes, they are probably dirty, but a little bit of dirt is good. And yes, once she starts crawling we will have to keeep all of these toys out of reach.

Rabbit Ears and Block Towers

A few months ago, a good friend got Liora some soft rubbery blocks. She loves to chew on them and throw them around. Lately, she has also enjoyed knocking over any tower that mommy and daddy build for her. (thanks June!)

This video shows that at work, along with a stuffed animal rabbit ear sucking...I guess she likes how it feels in her mouth.

Loving Her Stacking Cups!

This is a great age, if only because the toys that capture Liora's attention the most cost about $5. I vow to appreciate this while it lasts.

Last week, I got Liora a set of stacking cups. She had really seemed to enjoy Sammy's, and so I made the investment. It has bought us hours of fun.

Next, I tried to capture the joy on film. It is really hard to do that.

FINALLY, a stop action shot of her banging them together.

And now, our homegirl says, "what's up yo!"

Visit with DeeDee and Grandpop's Memorial Service

This weekend, we traveled up to PA to visit with DeeDee. It was also a special occasion--we held a memorial service for Grandpop.

Liora loved visiting with DeeDee! It is always nice to get out of DC. DeeDee was so excited to see Liora and build blocks with her (she is starting to enjoy knocking down towers and waving her arms afterwards--I guess a first step to clapping?) On Saturday, we just hung out, ran a few errands, and made a bbq dinner.

On Sunday, we held a memorial service at the church for my dad. It was a really special event--a year later, his dearest friends and family got together to remember him and talk about what he meant to us all. It was nice for all of us to have this time, I think. Liora helped to lighten the mood with her cuteness! I think everyone took a turn walking her around the house, including my dad's brother, her great Uncle George:

And she was giving out hugs to everybody! I think it was so nice to be reminded of life's bright spots on this day.

She also got to visit with cousin Lane again. I think she looks forward to these babies in the family getting older so they can play, play, play! She was all kisses and grabbiness with Lane...and he was pretty oblivious to her.

Hanging out with her grandmother DeeDee made her very, very happy!

All in all, it was a welcome time for us all to be together. It's been tough these past couple of weeks remembering the hard times we encounterd last year when we lost my dad, thinking of the loss we all have been feeling since this time last year. But, we've also been feeling so much joy! With all of these family babies and our ability to be there for one another through it all, we have a lot to be thankful for. Grandpop would be proud.

Daddy's Home!

When daddy came home on Friday night, mommy breathed a sign of relief. Although we made it through the week just fine, and mommy eventually got the hang of doing everything, it was so nice to have him back home.

We spent the weekend starting to babyproof the house! Liora isn't crawling yet, but we know she will be soon. Babyproofing here isn't just putting up gates and locking up the cupboards; we still have a lot of piles around of things we need to unpack and organize. So, we did some filing and started getting everything up to snuff for our little one--she is sure to be a mover and a shaker!

But first, we had to have breakfast at our favorite spot:

Liora has become quite the cuddler!

After running errands for what seemed like most of the weekend, she and I had a little down time in the back yard, staring at the trees.

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And then daddy joined us for some more fun outside! She loves going upside down now, and quite often pushes herself backwards. She is also constantly trying to get out of our arms to do more walking.

Zooks Chooses Us & Visit with Grand Pop-Pop

Yesterday, mommy came home to find that Zooks, our new kitty, had somehow slipped out while Nina was taking Liora on one of her many walks. He didn't greet mommy at the door like he normally does. Lexy, the other cat, seemed unusually chipper. After checking everywhere (including the dryer!), mommy realized he was outside somewhere.

Saving many of the details of running around, finally meeting all of our neighbors, dialing up bff Elizabeth and begging her to come help, and trying to get Liora ready for bed while creating flyers...mommy was up all night. Mommy kept checking the yard, walking around banging on his food dish. Liora didn't help much when she woke up for close to 2 hours in the middle of the night for no apparent reason.

At 5:30 this morning, Zooks meowed loud enough in the back yard to wake mommy. I opened the back door, and in he walked. We are soooo thankful to have him back. We've only had him for a month or so, but he's already a member of the family. And we're glad that he feels that way too!

Liora loves him too. They are BFFs:

On Tuesday, we decided it was time to go visit Grand Pop-pop while he is convalescing at a nursing home. This was a day when no one else could see him, so Liora and mommy took a half-day off of working from home to drive up to Gettysburg.

Pop-pop was so happy to see us! He adored Liora (as did everyone else there), and Liora adored him...wanting to hold his hand, play with his buttons, and look at his beard.

We can't wait to see him again! Keep getting better Pop-pop!

Liora Walks & Talks!

Remember how I said that Liora was talking now? She was a pretty quiet lady in terms of conversation for the most part, but after meeting cousin Sammy, she learned how to coo and talk.

Here she is, doing her two favorite things, walking and talking to the cats. Any time she is in my arms, she starts leaning down to practice walking. My back is hurting!



This past weekend, we did our usual running around. After Daddy had his double-header of softball (that we missed, since Liora was napping), we went out to lunch.



Liora charmed everyone around, like she does everywhere we go!

Liora seems different

Today, and really since we have gotten back, Liora seems different. She just seems more sure of herself, and is happy to start telling us about it. She is eating her solid foods better, trying to walk more (with support), and we have heard reports of attempts at crawling from daycare (though we haven't seen that at home yet). Mommy and Daddy are so pleased to be hearing more from her, and see her developing. We can't believe she is seven months old!

Telluride, How do we get a job here?

Monday marked our last day of touring around! We were all a bit pooped, we will admit! But, we wanted to take full advantage of being in Colorado. SO, with a yummy breakfast in our tummy (mommy misses Paul's smoothies! And egg sandwiches! And salads...hmm, maybe I should sign on for the paleo diet, as long as Paul cooks for me). I digress.

We retraced our steps from over five years ago (WAY before kids), taking the gondola ride down into the town.

We went out to a fabulous lunch. I don't know what it was about this food, but we were all enjoying it so much. Even Liora, who munched on Aunt Gabi's sunglasses:

From there, the rest of the day continued to revolve around food, whether it was the yummy home-made ice cream, the locally made truffles (a chocolate taste-testing later that night was awesome), or the zukes pet treats to bring home to our new kitty Zooks.

We basically strolled up and down the main drag, enjoying the sunny day and lollygagging around.

We took one last group shot...wish Liora was looking at the camera, but I think she was just too interested in her Uncle Paul!

 

This marks the last entry of our trip to Colorado. We had the BEST time. Gabi, Paul, and family were wonderful hosts. Thank you for everything, including your patience with Liora as she let us know just how much she did not want to be in a car seat each time we embarked on a new journey. We were already talking about our next visit with each other...which we hope is soon!

Liora was a perfect angel AGAIN on the ride back to DC. She held it together, even when mommy barely did, when we found out our seats were not together on the long leg of our trip; instead we had two middle seats, one in front of the other. Thankfully, when all hope was lost, our savior appeared! A man said he would gladly take a middle seat so we could all sit together as a family--said he was paying back karma for all the times someone had done that for him and his family. Whoever you are, we love you.

Liora is already back on her schedule at home, though mommy and daddy are not. We came home to two kitties who were happy to see us, and you should have seen Liora's face when she saw her cats, her crib, her everything--true joy. She truly has a sense of place this little one. Though she was happy to roll around in her crib here at home, it is clear she misses her cousins and Aunt and Uncle. This formally quiet little lady is starting to vocalize...a talent we are sure she learned from Sammy.

Mesa Verde

On Sunday, we all went to Mesa Verde, Paul's new employer!

Although the entrance to the park is only a short 10-minute drive or so, getting to the top is another story. We all suggested Paul learn how to hang-glide home--it would be much, much faster. As Mommy did with her last visit, she got a bit car sick and so had to drive part of the way to the visitor's center.

We learned that the tours we could take a baby on were all sold out (the ones with three-story ladders and 12-foot-long tunnels were out of the question), and so we opted instead for self-guided touring.

We stopped off at Paul's office to eat lunch at picnic tables, where we were joined by a coyote! Funny story: Daddy tried to tell us all that a coyote was in our midst, but he said it with so little emotion that we all thought he was just saying the word out loud for the heck of it. Only after the third or fourth time did someone finally say, "what are you talking about." Then he pointed behind Leo to our little furry friend who was looking for handouts. (sorry no photos)

From there, we toured the cliff world of the pueblo people.

Then, we went home and relaxed, preparing ourselves for one more day of day-trips before we headed home.