A Game of Cat and Mouse

Carly has enjoyed petting Jake and is really quite fascinated by him. Unfortunately now that she is mobile and he is recovering from surgery (and no longer on pain medicine) he is not interested in her. She will crawl towards Jake, pet him for a few moments, then when it is safe he BOLTS. This lasted all afternoon, and was a blast to watch. Jake did get smarter as the day progressed. When Carly got into his non-peripheral vision(the head cone currently limits his vision) he would immediately leave and go into another room.

So all afternoon Carly was the cat, and Jake was the mouse. And their game of Cat and Mouse kept them both entertained until the afternoon thunderstorm hit.

Clever Suggestion

This post is for nursing & pumping moms...

Yesterday during Carly's playgroup another mom mentioned a storage method for pumped milk that I LOVED!! Instead of freezing and storing her milk in the plastic milk storage bags, she poured the milk into ice cube trays. Each ice cube section is 1 oz; therefore she was creating ounce cubes. Then when the tray is frozen she dumped the cubes into a zip lock bag and labeled it. This allowed her to easily pull out the cubes as needed. For example - when Carly was 6 months she drank 5oz bottles, now that she is 8 months she is drinking 6 - 7 oz bottles and uses 2 oz in her cereal. However, my milk is all frozen in 5oz increments. I also think this would save a lot of money, those freezer storage bags are expensive.

Fun Times

Carly hosted a play date again today. This time we had 5 girls and 2 boys, which resulted in a lot of fun, a lot of noise, and a huge mess. Everyone seemed to have a fantastic time, Carly expressed her enjoyment with an afternoon nap.
Thank you to everyone who made it out, we had a wonderful time!!

New Tricks

On Saturday evening Carly demonstrated a new trick for her Daddy and I while we were preparing dinner.


So on Sunday her Daddy showed her a new trick of his own by installing cabinet locks.


We really have quite the little mover and cruiser now. She is more interested in pulling herself up using different furniture and walls than her toys. Occasionally she will crawl to a spot with a toy in her hand, pull up, bend down and pick up the toy, and play with the toy on the elevated surface (coffee table, love seat, sofa, etc).
She is also very interested in opening and shutting doors and cabinets. During our story time at the library we sing a song to start and end this time. During the song we sing "open, shut them..." and open our hands and then bring them together to shut them. We have also been singing this song at home and Carly will mimic the hand motions on occasion. I'm thinking there may be a correlation between the two events; however, if there isn't then I'm trying to help her develop this connection.
Luckily she is currently not interested in the items in the cabinets and closets; however, I do know it is only a matter of time.

Wordless Wednesday (literally)

I can't hear you. Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala

Happy Birthday America!!

In "my world" birthdays are celebrated for longer than a day, maybe a weekend or two or over the entire month as you celebrate will different family members. So it makes a lot of sense to me that we would celebrate America's birthday for at least 4 days. Our celebrations started Friday with Dave working the afternoon from home and dinner out at our favorite pizza restaurant in town. I then ventured out to Wal-mart (nothing is more American than that store) for a restock the pantry shopping trip.

Saturday, Dave washed and waxed the boat for majority of the day in preparation for an evening cruise with more good friends. We boated to many of our favorite spots, while Carly took a nap in my arms and played with our friend Jason. Upon arriving home we had a yummy grilled dinner and headed out for a firework show. Carly really enjoyed the firework show, although I think Dave and I enjoyed it more. Two blocks away from where the fireworks were going to be is a yummy ice cream stand. During dinner we made the plan to go to the ice cream stand right before the show was to begin and eat ice cream while watching the show. Many others seemed to have the same idea, so we didn't look out of place with our chairs, blanket, toys for Carly, and water cooler for us. Carly continued to play waiting on the show and then watched the show intently in the beginning. Then she decided to multi-task by playing and watching the show.


Sunday got off to a slow/delayed start thanks to Saturday's fireworks show. However, once we were up, we were up. We watched our neighborhood's Fourth of July bike parade, although there were lots of wagons, motorized bikes, scooters, walkers, and two firetrucks!!


Following the parade we strolled down to the pool for a yummy hotdog (or two) and to celebrate.

A short nap by Carly was followed by a trip to a friend's house for a cookout and yummy smoked ribs. Carly also was able to make a new friend who is only a few days younger than she is.

Today was more relaxed. We made trips to both home improvement stores, had slow cooker BBQ, did some planting, cleaning, etc.

Happy Birthday weekend America!!

Helping Mom