Catching up

Here I am posting again this week, can you believe it? I am some pictures from the vacation that I haven't posted. I wanted you to see the dolphins Lori and I swam with, do you see them? There were several dolphins, Nic counted 14 that were swimming in groups in the water, Lori and I saw them, not real close up, but they were just swimming and jumping. I tried to get some pictures for Eric & Gwen who were walking around, but it was like I was on one of those whale expeditions you know where everyone is taking pictures of water. Yep, that was me.
Gwen relaxing in Dad's lap while she was taking a break.
Gwen is really attached to Lori now, she walks right up to her and puts up her arms after class and wants Lori to hold her, sadly Katie is starting to get jealous.
When Katie saw I had the camera out she just couldn't help hamming it up!

These pictures are from our Monday fingerpainting experience.

She started folding the paper and putting it in her lap to make like a ink blot picture of her own.

All done Mommy, what is taking you so long to get this stuff out off of me!

She didn't eat as much "non-toxic" finger paint today, so I am happy with that. We are going to try and keep painting every couple weeks maybe every week to keep her creative juices flowing. She seems to think that crayons are for eating so we haven't delved very deeply into coloring. Maybe soon.

SHOES!

I am very behind in my postings. I don't seem to have the time I need to have to get this stuff done. Eric being at home at night, is nice, but he is cramping my posting and general playing on the internet time. Blast you!...(j/k sweetheart!)

Gwen is getting more chatty, I think she is actually saying more words, but we don't realize it because of all the babbling she does. She doesn't talk much/or at all in public, but she does chatter up a blue streak at home! Today though, there were 2 incidents that made it clear that she is saying words. Tonight while I was making dinner I could hear her coming towards me talking I wasn't paying much attention until I turned around and realized she was holding my shoes saying "shoes,shoes,shoes....shoes" and was in fact holding them up to me to take them from her. I, of course, dutifully put on my shoes and finished what I was doing...dinner had to be in the oven for 20 minutes so I sat on the floor with her and asked her about her shoes. She walked right up to them picked one up came over and sat in my lap, handed me her shoe and stuck up her foot so I could put her shoe on. So, I dutifully put her shoe on the correct foot and she walked around for a couple seconds before bringing me the other shoe to put on. Unfortunately for Gwen, I was a terrible Mom and stopped putting pants on her at 4p. Gwen has been trying to drink from her sippy cup without the sippy cover, which makes for very wet pants! But here are some pictures of Gwen, in her stylin' outfit!

I don't usually look at Gwen and notice that she looks like one of us our another, but in that first picture, it is like looking at one of my baby pictures, I don't know if my Mom will agree, but I have seen that expression somewhere in our old photo albums...BTW Eric thinks I am nuts.

Here are some pictures from Friday, I tried to take a video of Gwen using her scooter, but the old camera doesn't really have as good resolution and you can't really see anything. She is pretty funny on the scooter, she kind of hops and then pushes herself backward, pretty funny. Lori gave Gwen this hat when we went on vacation a last week. Gwen likes to wear it around. Eric was putting it on different was, like backwards.


It is getting increasingly hard to take pictures of the moving target, especially with the old camera, it is very slow and many of the pictures are blurry, I apologize for that, but I think you would rather blurry pictures, than none at all, yes? So, the saga of the camera continues, I have yet again returned my camera to the store (this would be the 3rd visit for those keeping score at home), the last time the camera was sent out the people at the camera shop said that there was nothing wrong with it, well low and behold as soon as I tried to charge the damn thing it wouldn't work. BLASTED CAMERA! The guy at the store said I had to have it returned 4 times for the same problem before they will authorize a new one. I am not clear whether I would get a new camera of the same type of if I could fight to be able to get a new better camera that wasn't a lemon! I don't know if time #3 will count because the camera shop could not duplicate my problem. UGH! Anyway, have a great evening, hopefully I can kick the husband off the computer ever once and a while so I can post...I don't get to spend any time on the computer during the day, unlike some people!

PS have I mentioned that molar 1 is in molars 2, 3, & 4 have broken through the gums and hopefully we will soon have 4 molars and a better eater!

Vacation

We are back from vacation. We had a nice time, mostly. Gwen decided the only time she could sleep was in the car. She hated the water and the sand. Truly she was difficult, but we still managed to have some fun. Here are some pictures.
Gwen and Daddy getting ready to go.
This is the only time Gwen touched the water...a nice view of my butt, yes?
Gwen is not so sure about the water.
Some family pics taken by Nic, you can see Gwen is unsure of this water thing!

Gwen loved the swing on the beach, but the packed up the swing set the 2nd day we were there so we had to find somewhere else to play.
Gwen was up earlier than Katie and everyone else in the condo so we ate breakfast outside.
This was our view in the morning, well anytime really. You can sort of see Nic fishing, Nic did a lot of fishing at least what I know as a lot of fishing. Eric also did some fishing with Nic, I got no accidental pictures of them fishing.
We were in a very nice 3 bedroom condo, Gwen stayed in our room and that mostly worked out, besides the aforementioned no napping thing, she did learn how to sleep in the car. Today she tried to sleep in the car on the way home from meeting Eric for lunch. But she did take a 2.5 hour nap, so the little tyke is very tired!

Seattle

I have never been to Seattle, but the husband has, that is where he went several weeks ago and it was requested that we post the pictures. I asked him to make comments, but he said they didn't need any comments, they are self-explanatory. So here are the pictures, if you need to know what they are and what the significance is I will have to apologize and put you in touch with the husband.

I can never explain the pictures the husband takes, this is why we have a whole page in our honeymoon scrapbook devoted to statues!

Blast

It appears that I will not be getting my camera back before we leave for vacation on Sunday. The camera shop called and said that they aren't having any of the problems with my camera that I am. BLAST! Hopefully sometime soon they will be getting to the bottom of why my camera is on the fritz. So, here are some pictures with the old camera.
Here are Gwen and Eric today...Gwen already knows how to empty Eric's wallet, are we in trouble or what?
And she knows to hide what she wants from Daddy...when he is not looking.
Gwen and her new wheelbarrow for the beach. The wheelbarrow also has sand and beach toys that she likes to play with already also.
What Eric has been up to lately, running he did a 5K on Labor Day. Gwen made it difficult to get a good picture or any other pictures for that matter.
And our latest home project progress/the reason I am unable to post regularly...or at least that is my excuse this week.

Gwen has started babbling in a new way, that cracks us up. Hopefully we will be able to get it on video for you.

Creative

I wanted to post these pictures of Gwen finger painting. I know that I took more pictures, I just haven't been able to locate them. Poop!

She seemed to enjoy herself well enough, but it took a while for her to understand that you don't eat the paint. Glad it is non-toxic!
Things are pretty good here, Eric and I started the next house project, so our evenings will be taken up with finishing the flooring. Our only problem is that now that Gwen is awake longer we have much less time for housing projects. Which means it is going to take us way longer. But, we are out of practice so once we get back into working on the floors it probably won't be a problem, but this does beg the question, what are we going to do when we decide to do the kitchen tiling project!?