Ella on the floor

If you're really patient--and quiet--you'll hear her say dadadadada (that's me!).

Halloween

Ella playing piano

Amelia Climbing The High-Chair

Blowing Blobbles

"I see broccoleez."

Haha, this is possibly my favorite video ever, so far--because Ella pulls Amelia's hair at the end. Sisters!

Please enjoy Amelia reading to Ella.

That's the sound...

of the men, working on the chain gang. It's also the sound of Amelia teaching Ella to dance.

Ella Cooing

Man, it really sounds like she's got something to say.

Yertle, is that you?

We took a trip to the Natural History Museum before that tropical storm rolled through last Saturday. Here's a picture of the girls in front of a big turtle. Yertle?

Now that's an armadillo!

Honky Tonk Blues

The girl's got moves.

Ella Hangs Ten

Here's the first in our series of vacation photos. Ella's learning to surf.

This is a preview of my "vacation."

12 children in 1 house. The oldest child all of 8 years old. We love it though; we're sadomasochists.

"It's 'melia's [!] birthday!"

Yes it was, and she got to spend it with a lot of her cousins.

She had a lot of activities to do at aunt Cheryl's. 
Cheeeeeze.

Go ahead and claw my eye out.  It's cool.

Weekend Activities

Using binoculars is an important skill. We're getting an early start.


Is that a monkey in the tree?

Relaxing is an important skill too.

Cheeeeeeese.

Baby, baby, tomato.

Ella (left @ 2 mos), Amelia (center @ 2.5 mos) and Pink Brandywine (right @ 3 mos) .

Smiling

If I ever choose to look for a new job and during the interview they ask me what my strengths are, I'm definitely bringing up my making super-cute baby girls skills.

Do you know the warning signs of appendicitis?

I thought we did but we had self-diagnosed this as food poisoning with all the vomit and, uh, well you know. The abdominal pain wasn't localized at the appendix, so we thought it was sore vomit muscles. In our defense: diarrhea and vomiting aren't normal appendicitis symptoms.

Celeste complained she was ill on Wednesday morning. We gave it 24 hours; after 36 hours of increasing suckiness we thought we ought to get to an emergency room.

It was acute appendicitis. After being diagnosed at 2:30am, the doctors quibbled over whether to treat her for 6 weeks to reduce risk of damaging inflamed tissue (seriously doctor?) from neighboring organs. Luckily the smart doctor won out.



Pre-op action photos:

Busting through the O.R. doors. That's right, just like on all those medical dramas.
Post-op morphine induced faces:
I may get in trouble for these portraits.
Grinning and Bearing it:

What We Did For the Fourth.

We traveled to Nader and Lauren's weekend abode in Connecticut. It was in Litchfield County along a river with a name. We renamed it Lazy River and floated down it in tubes; just like the lazy river at every water park in America. The beer can you see in the foreground is for a game called Brew-ski, but that's another post.
The house was converted from an old railroad station thing. The field stone foundation wall is nestled up about eight feet from the river's edge. It was picturesque and we really enjoyed their hospitality and patience; our abridged family of four (we left the two dogs and cat at home) is a traveling circus except our circus has no clowns or any proper acts and we have lots more smelly diapers:)
The lazy river, above and the makings of a portait of Celeste, Amelia and Ella. See if you can figure out why


(Photo credit: Lauren) Matching outfits courtesy of Aunt Rene!
(Photo credit: Lauren)

(Photo credit: Lauren) That's our blog's namesake, fully realized. Yes, it is Tostitos Brand Salsa con Queso (Medium), for those of you scoring at home.

(Photo credit: Lauren) Nader and Amelia discussing the 60's political protest songs we listened to all day. Can't get much more American than that.


(Photo credit: Lauren)

Sisters, sisters.

"Sisters, sisters
There were never such devoted sisters,
Never had to have a chaperone, no sir,
I’m there to keep my eye on her"

-Irving Berlin

Balloons Make Me Happy

"I am a child, I'll last a while.
You can't conceive
of the pleasure in my smile.
You hold my hand,
rough up my hair,
It's lots of fun
to have you there."

-Neil Young "I am a Child"

Please disregard the disheveled state of our living room. It's kind of like a five o' clock shadow these days.

A new hat.

Playing in the construction zone.

I hope I'm not incriminating myself by posting these.

Sunday Afternoon

Chilling with grandpa and great grandpa on the swing.

Watering grandma's chicken head.

Happy and Healthy

Nothing else to report.

First Full Day

This is the view from Celeste's bed in the nursery. Very Memorial Weekendy, no?


I'm going to compensate for my hair loss with pictures of my daughter's beautiful new 'do. I honestly believe that when they close the shades in the nursery, during non-visiting hours, the nurses and doctors whip out some pomade and go to town with all the newborns' with hair.




Grandma Willis restraining Amelia from Ella. Amelia only kicked her once during their first meeting, and not that hard. So their first fight was pretty mild. ;)

Mother and child.