Tickles

Holding Cortland today he sneaked his hand in my sleeve and tickled me, which made me laugh, which got him excited and made him wiggle his fingers, which tickled even more and made me laugh harder in turn entertained C making him wiggle even more. Vicious cycle. What fun!

I was in the kitchen doing dishes when I heard C's toy start singing. He made it make noise on purpose for the very 1st time!

Not a Badge of Honor

Conversation with my hairdresser in September:

ME: Angel, do you see any gray in there? Because I swear I found a gray hair last week.

ANGEL: Nope, no grays. Not a single one. You probably found a really blonde hair.


Fast-forward to the conversation last week at the hairdresser:

ME: It's such a pretty day. It's so nice to get out of the house. How have you been? How's your daughter? Grace did the cutest thing yesterday... We need to remember to make an appointment for Alan... Angel? Angel? Are you listening?

ANGEL: (while picking up hair and looking at sections all over my head) Have you been painting your ceilings?

More IA Pictures

More pictures of IA courtesy of
THIS LADY!


The mad scientist and his loyal minions.

Mwhhhhhh, haahaaaaa

Two of my favorite crazy people.

Simon and Cortland


Thank you Corie for everything!

Video

Trip to IA

We went to Cedar Rapids, IA this weekend to visit my family. Thank you for all of the wonderful hospitality. (And by hospitality I totally mean Lemon Bars. I could have eaten the whole pan.) We had such a good time and it was so nice to see everyone. We appreciate everyone adjusting their schedules so we could see you.

I was sad that the snow was almost gone because I wanted to see Alan with blue lips after he got back from sledding. Some strange lady in line at Michael's overheard me say that and was not shy to voice her opinion. In fact her exact words were, "We're not going to keep this damn snow around any longer than we have to just so some southerner can go sledding." She sounded like she needed a little nappie-nap.

At least there was enough snow for a little snowball fight right after we got there. I won by the way. My opponent was shaking snow out of his/her clothes forever after the fight, and it still melted down the back of his/her pants. I'm not going to point fingers or name names, but you know who you are. Totally owned. I'm the winner winner chicken dinner. (Heeeheeeee. I've been waiting for a chance to say that!)

Cortland held up very well. Every day was just a little louder than the one before. The last day consisted of a cheerleading and dance competition in Iowa City. I heard Alan tell Cortland that after the noise of the 2,000+ cheerleaders and spectators in the coliseum that he's now prepared for a visit to an active volcano. Maybe a field trip for next month?

We're home now and I miss walking around on the hotel carpet that felt like rows of little sponges.

We look forward to going back for another visit soon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Zachary, Simon and Olivia excavating a brick looking for valuable stones. What you don't see is Alan sitting on the other side of the table. He took his turn just like the rest of them, wearing the goggles and all.


Below is Olivia who is the one who was competing in the cheerleading competition. She was very good and I'm glad we got to see her perform. I just regret that we didn't bring our camera in.

Taylor

And now for all of the holding baby photos. Corie has a few more that I hope she will email me.



Zachary thought that the sleeping Cortland needed a doggie on his shoulder for moral support.

In the hotel in St. Louis.

The Theys

Sometimes The Theys get it right. And sometimes they get it wrong.

Here is one of my experiences.

1. The Theys say if it hurts during breastfeeding then you're doing it wrong.

I thought The Theys were C-R-A-Z-Y when they told me this. C would do okay for a few days and then it was like his tongue was made out of sandpaper! It's much better now. I'm not sure what changed. Maybe his mouth grew. Or maybe my boobs have lost all feeling and are permanently damaged. No, that one can't be it, because every once in a while C will roll my nipple around on the roof of his mouth like a Skittle. That hurts.

I have to mostly agree with The Theys on this one. Breastfeeding does get better after awhile. Of course I hold the right to revisit this topic the next time C cracks my girls.