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The girl is now 9 month old. 3/4 of a year (because Lee says month birthdays are silly). We had out doctors appointment on Monday. She is perfectly healthy, hurray. She is 29 inches long and weighs 20lbs 3 oz. Partway through the appointment our doctors said, "It sure sounds like she said hi." Yep. She says hi to everything she sees. Mostly is is more of an "excuse me...acknowledge me" than a salutation. Poor girl, no one ever pays attention to her.

At Mommy and Me this week, a lady came from the Symphony school for a musical day. At one point she passed out egg shaped shakers. We were supposed to be shaking them and matching the rhythm of the song she was playing. What did my girl do?

Everyone had a good laugh at the "fat girl" for trying to shove the whole thing in her mouth.

What happens when Lee dresses the Girl...

Notice the pink and green polka dotted dress with the cream and navy polka dotted tights. He tied the whole ensemble together with sheep slippers. Reason #357 to be a stay at home mom...

St. Patrick's Day Parade

It was a big day. The first parade. Both Lance and Lulu got to watch their first parade (don't ask me how the kid is almost 20 years old and has never seen a parade...). Nanny got there first and Lance, Lulu and I joined shortly after to save spots for the whole gang.

The girl waited patiently for the parade to begin.

Everybody. There were a whole bunch of us flanked by thousands of others.

Brotherly bonding. Lance and Lee with the girl.

Lance got the Uncle of the Year award for walking around with the girl when she got restless.

My girl and I. I love her.

Farmers

Last weekend we went out to the farm because Uncle Lance is home from college for spring break. It was pretty nice out so we got the wagon out and walked down to the barn. The girl loved it.

The rocks made her ride bumpy, but she giggled the whole time.

Lee was showing her the horses

The whole fam: Lance, LuEllyn, Lulu, Lee, and Jerry.

I was trying to get a cute profile shot, but her cheek almost eclipses the rest of her face.

Grandpa is convinced she is going to show horses. He always says, "Girls love horses." I usually roll my eyes and laugh. I try to tell him most girl like to look at horses and say, "oh, aren't they pretty." I tried to explain that that is a lot different than riding them and showing them. Oh well, I guess we will have to let Lulu choose for herself.

I was trying to an artsy shot...how'd I do?

After dinner, Grandpa and the girl went outside to enjoy the evening. He sang to her and rocked her to sleep. It was pretty cute.

Weekend

This weekend Katie and her boys (Scott and Amelia were in AZ) came to Iowa to visit. Spring-like weather was getting close, so Scotty and Papa decided to go for a bike ride on Saturday.

We stayed inside with the babies. Lulu holding onto her dad for support.

Mac hanging out with Nanny and reading some books together.

Sunday afternoon, Pap took the boys on a 4 hour adventure and when they got home, they were ready for more. Hank and Scotty ran around and were daredevils. Hank pulled the wagon while sprinting and Junie jumped in and out as the spirit moved him.

We audience watching (and waiting for someone to get hurt).

Junie might have gotten a couple of scratches from skidding on the driveway.

While we were sitting on the driveway in lawn chairs (can you picture it?), some old family friends walked by. This is Leo and Lulu checking each other out.

They decided to hold hands.

As they walked away and we returned to our lawnchairs/blankets strewn about the driveway, we realized that it might have looked a little trashy. Lulu, Mac, Katie, Lee, Nanny and Junie (Hank went inside with Papa) basking in the white trash glory of it all...

Time to clean up...

Growing Up

Lee thinks it is time to teach her to walk. They were going ona little stroll before bed the other night.

Her first biter biscuit. She examined it toroughly.

I think she enjoyed it.

Life Lessons- Generosity

Lee and I have worked hard at trying to instill positive character qualities into Lulu these past few months and we are finally beginning to see the fruits of our labor.

The other day she very clearly demonstrated her generosity and selflessness. We couldn't be more proud. You can even hear the pleasure of making someone else happy in her voice.



I am going to dedicate that video to my sister and animal lover, Katie.

Creepy Crawling

Last week the girl started to crawl one or two steps and then flop down onto her stomach. On Thursday, she went probably 4-5 steps and so I finally got it on video yesterday. We went out to the farm for lunch, and so we had to show the grandparents her new skill. Please try to ignore the boys talking about sports in the background.

The Girl

I have decided that most toys are a waste of money. The girl's current favorite "toys" are a toothpaste box, a hotel-sized conditioner bottle, and unused computer-ish cords. She recently discovered the printer. She likes to pull a piece of paper off and wave it in the air. She also likes to scrunch it up so it makes noise.

Other new tricks include pulling herself up to a standing position. She is very proud of herself. She is just so anxious to start reading she wanted to choose her own book.

On our first beautiful day (over 60 degrees), Lee took a vacation day and we played outside. That meant Lulu and I hanging out on a blanket while Lee scooped Tuni's poop from the last 5 months. I think I got the better end of the deal. Lulu had plenty of items to keep her entertained, but what does she do?

Dives for dead grass and small sticks lying next to the blanket. Oh well. Now I am ready for weather that lets us be outside. Sadly it has been raining and I hear it is supposed to be in the single digits this week. Brrrr.

Milestones

We had our first hair snarl last night. What an important first, huh? I am just so glad she has hair; I don't even care if it gets snarled. Someday she may end up with hair like Lee's (approximately 4 strands), but for now, she has some and it got knotted. Is it too early to buy her conditioner?

Confession

My name is Karoline and I have something to admit (judge me if you will). I cried when I watched the Girls Next Door series finale (if you have no idea what I am talking about, you might want to quit reading this post). First Bridget leaves for four months and then Kendra. I was never even a big Kendra fan, but when she had to say good bye and thank you to all of the mansion staff, I couldn't keep the tears away. I thought I was done with tears, but then Hef started to talk about how much he loved Holly, but couldn't give her what she wanted and that she was starting to seem unhappy, I lost it again.

What is sadder is that I DVRed it. I know, I have an addiction to crap TV. There are worse things to be addicted to, right?