mmmmmm, peas

For those of you who know him, you know how much Dad LOVES peas (yeah, right). He's made it pretty clear to Dalia that he thinks they are nasty and she has just figured out that she can make us laugh. You'd think having a pyschologist in the house would prevent us from positive reinforcement of such bad behavior, but she's just so dang funny. The day after this video was shot she had some peas after a few other things. She was her lady-like self with all the other food, but as soon as she tasted the peas she got a sh*@-eating grin on her face and proceeded to spit it out all over the table again. We're trying not to encourage this hysteria, but Mark can't seem to resist egging her on and I can't help laughing. There are two videos as we couldn't get it all in one, but you get the idea.

standing

As we've said, Dalia can now stand. All she wants to do is pull herself up on anything (you may notice the absence of the coffee table in our living room from now on - it's moved downstairs for now after two gnarly falls). Here are a few photos of her in her new favorite new pasttime (in the background of photo two is our great friend Archer chowin' down on Dalia's favorite minibook and SITTING UP!!! Go Archer. BTW, Dalia seems to be a risk taker. Just as she has figured out standing, she is now trying for climbing. So much for enjoying the crawling stage.

playing guitar

Mark enjoys playing guitar for Dalia almost as much as she likes him to. Now that she can stand, she can now strum, strum, strum (hand, hand, fingers thumb reference for those of you who have kids). We have a video but it's not downloaded and I'm lazy and sleep deprived these days so a photo will have to do. She really did figure out how to strum, y'all. She's a musical genius like her dad, I think.

A weekend with friends

Because our good friend Oralea came back to Portland for a few days, we had a rare opportunity to spend a few days hanging out with the Phillips and Oralea, whom Dalia was particularly smitten with. Here are a couple of shots from the weekend. We miss you, Oralea. Come back soon!

our trip to the beach

We went to the beach for a couple of days with Rachel and Adele. Dalia experienced the wide expanse of sand while we were there. Adele thought the beach was the greatest thing that ever happened while poor Dalia wasn't so sure. The two of us ended up leaving Rachel and Adele for a while and taking a needed walk in the warm stroller.

making music

It was hard to decide what video to post after all these weeks of shining moments. This doesn't show her crawling or standing up (yes, folks, standing already thanks to her wanting to do all the things her new friend Adele can do). But, it does show her talents as a budding musician. Rachel and I stayed in a new construction condo with those door stops that actually bend - unlike the potentially dangerous impaling objects found in our old house. Well, after discovering that the heat vents make a sound not unlike a harp, she couldn't get enough of this.

picture perfect

So we got this new camera and I love taking close up pictures of Dalia. She was outside under an umbrella watching Daddy clean up and found the lighting and her mood just right for some of these (if I do say so myself) perfect shots.

First from our visit with Adele and Rach

Finally, Dalia and Adele meet! They were fast friends. The first photos are right after they met on Friday morning. We are having such a great time! Side note - Dalia just got stung by a bee on her thumb. Yup, she was picking it up with her little pincer fingers and mom FLIPPED OUT. I wonder if she would have been stung if I hadn't freaked. Oh well, she's fine and now we know.

First day

The other day was Dalia's first day in short sleeves! It's since gotten unbearably hot and she has shed sleeves of any kind and pants for a sundress (thanks Jen and Anth). But here are a few of her looking unbearably cute and cool.

amy's having a baby

We also went to a baby shower for Amy and Matt who are gearing up for parenthood. Amy, as always, looked beautiful. And, it was, as always, a blast to be at the Jenny/Shannon/CC ranch for a party.

new camera

Mother's Day was just a great excuse to buy a cool new camera, which Mark gave me after taking Dalia out for early morning coffee so I could have some free time. Can you believe that it was the first time I was alone in my house since Dalia was born 8 months ago?! It was a perfect mother's day gift and topped off with a new gadget to film my oh-so-camera-shy daughter (not). Here are some fun photos. Did you all forget we had a cat that once was the center of attention? Yeah, we haven't taken her picture in a long time.










dalia's new favorite past time is picking up very small particles off the floor - my floor never looked so dirty.

3 new videos

So, as we have noted before when D was learning to roll over, it seems once she figures something out, she's ready to move on to the next thing. She went from this:


to this:




and this is just so you all can hear how she babbles when she doesn't know the camera is on (it's so hard to get candid shots with her so Mark had to be stealth about it, hence the coffee table action).

shiner update and out with Grammy

We took Grammy out to dinner tonight - we went back to Russell St. as Juli cannot get enough pulled pork these days. Doesn't Grammy look great? She just got back from Peru, the Amazon. Took the opportunity to do a shiner update as well. Turning that yellowish old bruise color now. But don't worry folks, there's sure more to come. Just today she wacked her forehead on the rocking chair. Who uses a rocking chair to try and stand anyway? She face plants daily now. Our nerves....our nerves....

shiner

Dalia made contact with the edge of the coffee table yesterday. Here's a shot of her first shiner (much more impressive in person). I was out seeing a client and Mark called to tell me. While the report is that she wailed and cried for a long time, by the time he called me she was back to her old self, playing and screaming away. I like the first one, cuz she looks tuff.