Kelsea's American Idol Audition Tape

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Hope your day was filled with a little peace, 

love and kisses

And the out-takes:

Me:  Honey, can you take Lorelei's paci out of her mouth for the picture

Kelsea:  I got it Mom

With Lorelei now walking, getting a photo of the two of them has reached a new level of difficulty (in case you couldn't see that from the photo)

Not knowing if there was even a halfway decent photo, thought I'd better take one of each of them, just in case...

At least one of the two stands still and smiles! :-)

Ten on Tuesday

1.  I heart Daylight Light Savings time!   Maybe with that extra hour of daylight I'll start running again, or watch Kelsea ride her bike, or play hopscotch, or do a load of laundry, or a little gardening...oh, the possibilities are endless!

2.  Kelsea sporting her new hat (and press-on princess fingernails) from Auntie Kelly.

3. I was informed today that Lorelei will be moving into the pre-toddler room next week.  She's been with the same teachers since she was four months old.  Sigh.

4.  Despite the pain in my heart of hearing my baby will no longer be in the baby room, I was quite content packing away the bottles this weekend.  And whole milk is way cheaper than formula.

5.  Somebody else loves the kitchen as much as her sister!

6.  Wallis was in DC last week, hence no blogging last week.  He'll be in Colorado for a week next month.  Still trying to decide if I or all of us should join him.

7.  Wallis was told his next job will most likely be in Palmdale (yuck), Bethpage, NY (had to look that one up), or San Diego (keeping my fingers crossed).  We'll see...

8.  I never sent out Christmas thank you cards.  Please forgive me.  The Laughreys are all very thankful.  Next year I'll do better.  (If I write it, it will happen right?)

9. My friend Cathy took some pictures at Lorelei's party.  This is one of my favorites.   My heart melts when I see it.

10.  My aunt Robie also took pictures and even got a video of Lorelei eating her cake. Thank you- thank you!  I would post it here, but I'm too tired to figure out how to do it (my brain starts to malfunction around 10pm).  So here's a darling photo instead!  Wish I knew what she was thinking.

Ten on Tuesday

1.  Hopefully a second shot at birthday cake today was better received!   Happy Birthday Jimmy!

2.  Kelsea was quite a fan of the jumper at Jimmy's party.  

3.  Happy belated Valentine's Day!

4.  Lorelei is 29.5 inches tall and 20 pounds 2 ounces, just 1/2 inch taller and 2 ounces bigger than Kelsea was at one.

5.  Lorelei's official one year photo.  I hope our next baby is born during normal waking hours.

6.  And her not so happy face when I greeted her with "Happy Birthday to you" 

7.  How Lorelei spent most of her Birthday and the two days following.

8. Yep, she's definitely not feeling well.  Not even a glimmer of an interest in her mini carrot cake.  Don't worry Lorelei, Kelsea will be sure to help you out with that.

9.  There is something truly magical about baths, because she was all smiles once in the bath! 

10.  Somebody else had a Birthday celebration!  Happy Birthday Stevie!

Her Party (our party)

Decorations: Flowers, balloons, table cloths, heart confetti (which we are still finding around the house), and this little banner my Mom and I threw together 45 minutes before the festivities began. 

And there was lots of food, thanks to those great chefs at the Loft.

A few presents.  I know, it's hard to resist buying clothes for little girls.  Thank you friends and family for all your contributions to Lorelei's registry.  We were able to donate two Hope Baskets, a gift of trees, two flocks of ducks, one flock of chicks and a goat to some needy families around the world!

And of course a birthday party wouldn't be a party without some cake.  

And  candle:

At least the adults are looking at the camera.  Lorelei is much to enthralled with what's been put in front of her.

And I think the cake was a winner!

She didn't leave much for leftovers, but she did discover frosting makes for good finger paint.

Luckily we had some wonderful friends and family to share (the other) cake with:

Uncle Steve and Aunt Jennie (carrying cousin Ben...which is short for a name that is still in debate)

Some pretty Mamas and their babies

Our beautiful aunts and cousin

The van Weezendonk family, who will be missed when they head off to VA this summer

Some of our littlest guests playing with our most popular toy:

Landon and his Grandma Marta

Just a week apart, Jimmy & Lorelei had no interest in smiling for the camera or even looking at the camera.  So much for their first Valentine's Day picture together!

And finally to wrap up this wonderful day, some of the birthday girl:

A few of Lorelei enjoying the warm sun on the balcony.

Look I'm walking, are you watching me Mama?

Oh Happy Day!

Oh my goodness, she's a year old!    We had a lovely celebration on Valentine's Day, since she is a "Love" after all.  She enjoyed her cake in case you couldn't tell.

And it's a good thing we celebrated on Sunday since she was tired and cranky today while home sick with Daddy.  Don't worry more Birthday pictures to come.

A Couple Weeks Ago

Some body turned 11 months old.  I'm having deja vu.  Oh yes, that was last months post title too. Only instead of the holidays, big sister's birthday got in the way.  Which is a good thing for me, because it's given me less time to dwell about the sudden onset of my baby tuning one. Sigh.

At 11 months, Lorelei is 29 inches tall and 21.5 pounds.

Lorelei is quite a fan of the swing still.  Now when she wants to get in it, she walks right over and starts pushing and hanging onto it.  In she goes, and a few minutes later she looks something like this.  A tough life our little Lorelei leads.

She loves, loves, loves her pacifier.   It's like her crack cocaine that she can't go too long without. We're  wondering when the addiction will end, and how many more months we are going to be hunting for the missing pacifier.  The good thing about them is that it keeps other things out of her mouth. 

She also enjoys bath time (to include pooping in the bath), meal time and snuggle time.  She sleeps on her belly in the crib, and I love how her bum sticks up in the air.  She still loves to dance, give kisses and wave goodbye.  When she's really exited you get the double wave goodbye.  She is a big fan of the ball popper and her sister's kitchen.  She also enjoys unrolling toilet paper and playing with the water in the toilet (when we forget to shut the bathroom doors).

Just tonight she started taking a few steps on her own, so may be she will be walking on her birthday.  

And speaking of birthdays, we've asked that family and friends donate to Heifer International instead of gifts for Lorelei.  She even has her own registry:  www.heifer.org/myregistry/lorelei 

And in case you want to know about the organization, they were featured on KCRW's Good Food program last month.  If you click on the link you can listen to the podcast which talks about the organization (about 7 minutes into the podcast).  Pretty spectacular idea that provides long term solutions for families all over the world, even rural United States.