MN visit and misc

I'm a little behind on posting pictures, so you're forewarned, there are lots of photos (and one video that might not some through quite right). We got back Tuesday evening from visiting my friends and family in Minnesota. The weather was fantastic, in the mid to upper 70s and sunny the entire trip. It was a nice break from the hot, humid weather here in Houston. I think we bring warm weather to MN when we go, when we went in Oct. it was warm as well. We are hoping to go back at Christmas, but that will all depend on airfare.

We had a great visit, although it was jam-packed as usual. We stopped to visit Beth and her three kids when we got in on Friday. She's the best!! Her youngest is exactly a year older than Lila so she lends us clothes for Lila each time we go. Then once Lila's outgrown them we return them back to her so she can pass them on to other friends who have babies. She has saved us hundreds of dollars!

On Saturday we stopped to see Shannon and Joe and kids at their house and then Roman dropped Lila and I off at Michelle's baby shower. It was a beautiful day and the shower was outside by the pool at a family friend's house. She got really awesome gifts for baby Elliott! After the baby shower we saw some of my dad's side of the family at his house. My Uncle Pat and Aunt Ann brought their two cocker spaniels over and Lila got a kick out of them. They are really cute and do fun tricks.

Monday we had lunch with Dick and saw some friends that evening. All-in-all travelling with Lila wasn't too bad. She's in a stranger anxiety phase, so she was fussier than normal, but otherwise I think she did alright.


The neighbors were going to throw out this little play set, so we took it for Lila. She loves to climb up the ladder and go down the slide. It's so hot during the day that we can only go out in the evening to play (hence her being in her diaper).














Michelle and Lila




My cousin Joe's kids, Landon and Lydia



Father's Day (blurry, but it was the best pic of them)


Cousins Tori, Louis, Joe, and Jackie


Jackie and Lila


Aunt Mary, Lila, Pugsley, and Louis


Grandpa Terry and Lila


She loved the laundry basket. She was having a great time being pushed around in it, until she saw Grandpa Terry eating some food. She wasn't so interested anymore hence the somber look on her face in the video below.

Swimming

Lila went swimming for the first time over Memorial weekend--yes it's already that hot. We set up the froggy pool my mom and Kent got her for her bday over at their house on Sunday. Then on Monday the neighbors invited Lila and I over as Roman left to go to Canada in the afternoon. They have a salt water pool, so it's so much nicer on your skin. She wasn't particularly interested in the froggy pool at first. She's never been in water any cooler than bath water so when I tried to sit her down in the pool she wanted no part of it. She warmed up to it after sitting on the edge with her feet in for a while. She was the same about the neighbors pool. She didn't want to get into the floaty, but once she was in it, she was fine. She liked smacking her hands on the water and watching it splash.

Jenna, the neighbor, was trying to block the sun for Lila

She just decided to take a rest on Daddy's foot

I was folding laundry and she got my socks and was trying to put them on her feet. Roman put them on her and let her run around.

I mentioned before I'd post a picture of the front garden. Doesn't look like much, but it sure was labor-intensive. Hopefully it'll fill in nicely.

Update

It seems we've taken a bunch of pictures lately so I thought I'd update the blog. Not much is new around here. Roman has been in Peru since Tuesday, and will be home very early tomorrow morning. He said they are staying in a nice area of Lima, but outside that area things are pretty sad. Very poor, people digging through garbage, etc. Makes me grateful to be an American, esp. as we approach Memorial Day. He also said they have been meeting with a lot of different companies, so hopefully that will translate into some good opportunities for him. Since our trip to the Bahamas was cancelled so he could go to Peru we are trying to figure out what to do as far taking a vacation. The summer in The Caribbean is the rainy season so we will save that for another time. I think we will probably just end up taking a trip to a domestic destination, or perhaps one of the inland cities in upper Mexico.

I have been trying to finish up our garden. It's been so hot already, in the 90s and very humid, so I have to wait until Lila has gone to bed to work on it. We did a bunch of planting the last couple weeks and now just have to get the rest of the mulch down. I'll try to remember to take a photo when it's done and post it. Everything with Ms. Lila is good. No teething at the moment, however she has taken to pitching little fits now when she gets frustrated. They're short, but I guess I should take them as a preview of what's to come. And she's discovered if she stands on her tip-toes she can reach the edges of the counters, so now we have to watch things on the tables and the counters.

Well, that's about all I've got for right now. The last series of pictures is of her with a little monkey backpack on. It's one of those backpacks that has a tether, so you can keep track of them in a store, etc. A friend of mine had used it with her son to no avail, so she let me borrow it to try with Lila. We figured out later that we had it one backwards, but she loved wearing it around the house. We'll see what happens in public. The video at the end is also of her with the backpack. Hope you all enjoy!

Good Morning!

I let Lila feed herself breakfast.

All clean!!

Roman was giving her watermelon and there wasn't anymore on her tray. She got frustrated and grabbed her hair with both of her messy, sticky hands. This was the resulting 'hairdo'.

On backward

With Grana Nana

On the right way

She wanted to get in her wagon with the backpack on

Mother's Day

We had a fairly low-key Mother's Day. We went to brunch with my mom and Kent, and then worked on planting some plants in our garden. I got a very nice ring that Roman say Lila picked out. He took her shopping and he said he showed her a piece of jewelry he picked out and she shook her head, and then he showed her something else and she both shook her head and waved her hands at him to take it away. When he showed her the ring he said she smiled, so that's what he got. I couldn't get a good picture from their website, but you get the idea from the one below.

I included some misc. photos of Lila I took the other day in addition to those from Mother's Day. At the bottom is a short video of her too. It won't come through if you get this update via email so you will either have to download it or go to the blog site to see it.

Grana Nana, Lila, and me

Grandma and Lila

My ring

She found my swim suit top and put it on herself.

Pushing her dolls around in her shopping cart

This is actually a picture from Easter, but I thought I'd post it.

Fort Myers

Last weekend I went to Fort Myers for a girls weekend. My friend Shannon's parents have a house there so we stayed there a couple nights and then spent one night in a hotel on the beach. It was the first time I'd been away from Lila--I'd never even been away from her overnight. I really missed her when I'd see other people with their babies, but I did fine. Pictures below.

Since we're on the topic of vacations, I have more news. Roman and I were planning to go to the Bahamas at the end of the month, but we're going to have to postpone the trip. Roman has a huge business opportunity in Peru and it falls on the same days we were planning to go. The upside is that we were able to use some of our frequent flier miles to get Roman a ticket to MN, so he will be able to come with me and Lila next month.



Nikki, me, and Shannon


All the girls


Willie, our vacation mascot


I missed some spots applying my sunscreen. Really the photo doesn't quite do my sunburnt parts justice.


Me and Shannon





Yes, she always gets tan like this.


Shannon's sister Cami, boyfriend Mark, Shannon, and me on our last day at the beach. Notice I am covered, due to my sunburn from day one at the beach.