Sunday, October 9, 2011

Jumperoo

A rainy day today meant the kids were bouncing off the walls, literally.







Sunday, September 18, 2011

World Traveler

While going through our pictures, Rob and I realized that no matter where we are, the pictures of Lily Jane are always in her infant carrier. She could be anywhere! So while checking out alligators in Louisiana last weekend, Rob texted me this series of pictures with the following captions...

Lily Jane at Gators & Friends in Shreveport!

Lily Jane at the Empire State Building!

Lily Jane at the Eiffel Tower!

Lily Jane at the Giants game! 

Lily Jane at the Smithsonian! 

Just trust us.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Four Months

Lily Jane is four months old! Her stats:

Height: 24 3/4 inches (50-75%)
Weight: 18 lbs 1 oz (99%)
Head: 16.5 inches (99%)

She's wearing size 6 and 9 months, and I've already had to put away an entire box of clothes that no longer fit her.

She is a super happy, smiley little girl who loves to coo and gurgle and generally "chat."  She's growing up so fast, she's already....

Sharing a laugh with her brother
Cheering on her favorite teams! 

Going to the prom !
Batting her big brown eyes to get what she wants! (and here she says she wants some rice cereal, and she wants it now!)

We've also had some fun with friends and visitors....
Cousin Lindsey came to town with baby Amelia, giving us all a reason to get together. Represented here are first cousins, second cousins, and first cousins once removed (I think? We need a genealogist to figure out all of the relationships here)

The kid table is certainly the cool place to be

 And after the second hottest summer on record in Dallas, we finally had a break on Labor Day and enjoyed a picnic in the high 80s. We almost needed a jacket! 



Monday, July 18, 2011

Hooray for Cousins!

For Nanny-sippi's 70th birthday, Rob's brothers and their families came from the East and West coasts to celebrate with us at our house last week. I didn't get many pictures due to the chaos, but wanted to share a few....

Cousin Cecilia from California (say that three times fast) and Tate instantly bonded and had a blast together. They also got in lots of book reading with Nanny-sippi:  



On the actual birthday, we had a party at our house and the grandkids all wore matching "R" shirts (in a bandana print in honor of the Texas visit!)  with their names monogrammed on them just for the occasion.  Pictured with Tate below are Caroline (9, almost 10, yrs old), Cecilia (2.5 yrs) and Beck (7 yrs). Caroline and Beck live in Silver Spring, MD and Cecilia lives in Fairfax, CA.
Surely another aunt or uncle got a better shot?!? Anyone? Anyone? 

Then it was cake time....



And what party is complete without a little dancing? In this picture, Tate may be teaching everyone the "bottom dance."  Or this may have been during "Baby Got Back." Both occurred.


Then it was off to Legoland, where Tate tried to distract Dirk Nowitzki with his balloon sword in order to steal away the basketball. He's been watching too many thug Lakers and Heat players: 

There were a lot of Legos.


There was also much water park visiting, movie watching, food eating, birthday shopping and, well, just baby chilling:



Sunday, July 17, 2011

Two Months

Lily Jane turned two months on July 2...


I picked the picture above because it best symbolized how she started her second month of life: very fussy, but still cute as a bug. By the end of the month, though, she was all smiles: 



Luckily, we made it through the colicky period, and she is now a happy and content baby. 

Her measurements: 

Height: 24 inches (75-90 percentile)
Weight: 14.2 pounds (above 95%)

She's a chunk! People can't believe when I tell them old she is. 

This month she started lifting her head during tummy time:  

 And started clearly demonstrating that she's a daddy's girl. She smiles every time she sees Rob and  adores him...and the feeling is mutual:

She also likes to "talk" a lot, which the doctor even noticed. She makes a lot of very cute sounds and apparently has a lot to say. The doctor also noticed that her head seems to be a little lopsided toward the right, and he suggested we vary her sleeping positions, switch her car seat position with Tate's, read the New York Times and Mother Jones to her, etc in order to give her a more well-rounded brain before a baby helmet would be necessary. We'll keep you posted on "Operation We Can't Have a Right Wing Baby!"

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Fourth of July

We had a great July 4th weekend, the highlight of which was our Hometown neighborhood parade and festival.

Such a quaint, wholesome little neighborhood...just ignore the man on the curb with his kids drinking a beer at 8 a.m.

We decked out the sit & stand stroller for the parade, but sadly lost the "most patriotic toddler" contest to some stinkin identical twin girls wearing giant red white and blue bows. Next year we are taking Uncle Todd's suggestion and sending the kids on a tour of Iraq and bringing them back wearing purple hearts. Eat that you star-spangled twinnies.  (Plan B is to adopt some triplets in time for next year's contest.)

After the parade we had a festival and they asked all of the veterans in the neighborhood to come forward. Rob went up there even though he missed the memo that all veterans should wear goofy hats. 
Tate played on the water slides and then had some shaved ice. 
Lily Jane observed from her patriotic chariot and plotted her  "most patriotic toddler" getup for next year.  That new tricycle WILL be ours!
Happy Fourth! 

Friday, July 1, 2011

Splitting Hairs

Tate has always been known for his signature haircut which has been described as "anchorman hair" or "church hair." We get his hair cut at Cool Cuts 4 Kids because it has a train table and he can sit in a fire engine and watch Dora and not scream bloody murder like he does at any other salon that does not have the above-mentioned amenities.

The problem with Cool Cuts is that the turnover is high and we always have a different stylist. But I always give the same instructions: "clippers set to '4' on the sides and scissor cut on the top, leaving it long enough for me to brush the bangs to the side." (aka: anchorman hair)

The result has been decent, usually:



But EVERY SINGLE TIME I go to get his haircut right before a visit to Mississippi -- where he will be seeing relatives he only sees maybe once per year -- the result has been consistently off. Mississippi is the land of shaggy frat-boy haircuts and yet Tate has been there sporting...


The Bowl Cut
Mississippi 2009

The Army Cut
Mississippi 2010


 The Hairstylist Was Drunk or Standing On A Rocking Boat When She Cut The Front Cut
Mississippi 2011

Monday, June 27, 2011

Sip & See

A few pics from the super sweet sip & see hosted for Lily Jane by my high school friends this past weekend...

Kellie and Kim -- good friends and FedEx colleagues

Lily Jane has grown so much already that she was too big for the daygown I originally planned for her to wear!   This sweet smocked gown was just perfect, though. 

Sarah, Valerie and Kasey -- the hostesses and my best friends from high school
I wish I had a picture of the spread...they set up an ice cream sundae bar that was adorable. And although LJ has been really, really fussy lately, she was a dream at the party. (whew) Thanks to my family and friends who came out on a hot Sunday afternoon to honor Miss Lily Jane! 

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Ole Miss Reunion Weekend

We took our first trip as a family of four this past weekend to Oxford, Mississippi. We rented a minivan  (or "money-van"as Tate called it) for the occasion and drove 1200 miles with a 3-year-old and 6-week-old. Amazingly, we lived to tell about it...

We were there for the 100th Anniversary of The Daily Mississippian, the student paper of Ole Miss. Rob, his father, and I all served as editor of The DM when we were students. Rob's mother was managing editor. The family distinction was referenced several times during the weekend.
Charles Overby recognizes Jimmy, Rob and me at one of the events.
(Why did I even bother straightening my hair in Mississippi??) 

Several of our colleagues/dearest friends from The DM also came back for the reunion and we had a fun night out with them remembering some of the crazier moments from our newspaper days. It had been 13 years since we had all been together but it felt like nothing had changed.
Emily Boling Giffen, me, Natashia Gregoire

Rob, Chris Shaw, John Scanlon

One thing that DID change was that we were all up early at breakfast together after a night out...not because we had stayed out all night, but because we all have toddlers:



In addition to the DM Reunion being a family affair for us, it was a grandparents affair for Tate and Lily Jane. My parents graciously came to Oxford to be our "traveling nannies" so we could enjoy the events without worrying about finding a babysitter out of town. This meant that Tate and LJ got to spend time with all THREE sets of grandparents in the same town at one time. We don't think that will happen again until graduations or weddings...and we can't take any more visits like that anyway because of how supremely spoiled they were the whole weekend!

There was Big Guy and Mia (not pictured) taking them for a walk around campus:



There was Poppy and Linda (not pictured) giving zerberts:


And there was Nanny-sippi offering ice cream:

It was also the first time Nanny-sippi had seen Lily Jane:


Tate was soaking up the attention (and presents) while Lily Jane just chilled most of the weekend...

And after a weekend of celebrating the fact we worked for the paper, we actually made it in the paper via news story and not via byline:

Such a great weekend of family, friends and college memories!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

LJ Words

We had fun coming up with "Tate Words" for the blog such as Levitate, Meditate, Regurgitate, etc, etc.  Click here to see all of them.  I'm reviving that theme for Lily Jane and doing "LJ Words."  And our first installment of LJ Words is....

Little Jenny