Morning musings

I love not having to leave until 11am, so much more relaxing!

This morning, I found out that someone on my scrapbook message board who is on my FaceBook as a friend went to HS 5 years ahead of me and was on the Mexico trip with our German exchange student, Stephan! I probably saw her get off the plane at the airport! Small world, eh?

Valerie is cutting 5 teeth, bringing her total up to 7 very quickly. She's healing well from surgery, her knots from stitches are still attached and she'll give you hell if you try to pull on them.  This week she's discovered how fast she can crawl on arms & legs (she still army crawls, but not as much) and not only is she pulling up constantly (not content to be on the ground much anymore) but she's cruising along the furnature. She's loving the increase in mobility and smiles like she's won the lottery every time she "walks" to a new location. Henri's very upset at the fact she can reach more of his toys. 

She also shakes her head and loves to shake her head and laugh and go "no" when I'm shaking "yes"

Valerie eats an entire bowl of oatmeal

and another 1/2 and a handful of puffs. Babysitter last night said she ate a yogurt, a banana and a pasta bowl for dinner last night.

This video is of her eating the entire bowl. It's approx 3 minutes long.

We have a winner.... for breakfast

I love those little boxes of Oat Revolution and if you find them on sale they are 20 cents a packet, cheaper than Quaker sometimes...  Valerie loves them too...  she'll finish a regular serving plus some puffs for breakfast.

Swinging

Valerie's been checking out the baby swings lately.  She's getting too adventurous to keep on a blanket.

Note the lovely stream of spit coming from her mouth. This happy baby is cutting 4 teeth on the top AND 1 next to the 2 she's had since 8 months...

And since it is July here in Seattle, we have to go in the morning with a wool cap and a sweater on.  I'm wondering if summer is ever coming????

The Zoo

We did an experiment. We tried the zoo with the sit & stand stroller rather than the double.  It went alright.  We met up with friends there...

Henri kept trying to go over the fence to get a closer look.

Henri & Allison discovered they had a lot in common...

Checking out the penguins...

We checked out the dinosaurs

Val fell asleep on our way out.

Valerie turns 1... almost

With the busyness of summer, this weekend was perfect for a birthday party for Valerie, so we threw one together at my mom's house. 

Valerie wowed everyone with her new tricks...

Henri unwrapped gifts...

Valerie wore the new outfit my mom made her...

Trip to Penninsula

Mom and Dad got us a gift certificate for  B&B on the Olympic Peninsula. 

We took a ferry to the island... where we met my friend Jenn and her son Henry. Who is 8 months old and weighs almost as much as our Henri... he's absolutely pinchable!  This was a treat as Jenn lives in the midwest and we don't see her as often as we'd like.

She suggested we check out the beach at double bluff...

Then we headed up the island to get some ice cream while we waited for the ferry to the penninsula...

We got to ride a new ferry to the route...

After checking in to our B&B we had a wonderful steak dinner, hot bath and promptly passed out at 8pm and slept until 7am....  then we checked out the state park...

we stopped at the farmer's market and picked up some fresh rolls and truffle cheese & cheese curds and had a lovely lunch on the ferry ride back...

 we also saw some submarines on our ferry ride home...