updates

well, we're into beatrix's eighth week and we're seeing some intriguing developments. we've got a baby tri-fecta going on-

1. her eyes are beginning to change. you have to look closely (which her mother and i have been known to do on occasion ), but they are definitely turning some shade of brown. are they on their way to some other shade of brown, or even green, or a little brown and green ( like daddy's )?
2. speech. sort of. like the smiles that went from reflex 'i'm pooping/milk drunk/asphyxiated' to actual, honest, 'i'm smiling at you, yes you!' smiles, we now have attempts to communicate. we of course have no idea what the hell she's talking about, but she's definitely grown from just passing air up her neck and getting lucky to actually screeching, whooping, and laughing. it's really quite scary. really.
3. drool. we were just talking today about how we hoped we weren't going to get a real drooler. sure, kids drool. but then some kids DROOOOOOOL. we were hoping for the former, but may have been stuck with the latter. she's pumping the stuff out like nobody's ( drool ) business, but we're hoping she can get it under control.

in other news, to kick off daddy's vacation we went out to mems' and teed's over the weekend. yes, we were tempting fate considering how well the last time went, but this time was better. for one, we approached the weekend not as the swinging young kids we were almost eleven months ago, but as the OLD couple with child that we are now. no staying up late, no loud conversations, music, distractions, etc. it was definitely a different kind of weekend than we're used to having there, but we were able to pull it off and bebe got to spend some time with the grandparents. since liza was snapping away with her camera all weekend long, i felt like taking some time off from that job and happily watched her shoot instead. i couldn't go the entire weekend without taking any pictures though, so here's what i got.

we had a deer come and hang out in the yard for a bit:

she ate some flowers and then went up the back hill, into the woods. if we had one of them huntin' helicopters and a high-powered assault rifle we coulda' done chased her back into the woods and blowed her dang fool head clean off. we had to settle for me sitting on teed's shoulders with a big stick while he drove us up the back hill on his tractor. we got stuck and tipped over just past the garden. so it goes.

there were a couple more great sunsets...

and a cool sunrise as well.

bebe and i took a walk through the goldenrod early one morning. we saw more yellow in one place than we've ever seen, and some pretty wild flowers ( seriously, they were pretty wild- they were drinking, and smoking, and cussing...) and TONS of fat, blood-laden TICKS that bit into each of us happily, infecting us with lyme disease. just kidding about that last part, but i could hear the conversation i would have with the wife later on playing in my head while my daughter and i traipsed around the nature: 'are you trying to give our baby diseases!?! you need to check her- look in all of the folds, that's where the ticks like to go, y'know! you'll feel so bad if she gets sick!' this conversation, in fact, happened once we were back inside. ask teed. and of course i was being extra careful and keeping her from harm's way. lb is right though, i would feel bad. bad for getting beebs sick, and bad for lying to my wife when i found a tick but told her the baby was clean. i hate being proven wrong about stuff.

beebs and her teed. she's awful happy when he carries her around like this. we're a little concerned she might be duck footed, though.

one last sunset for the summer, and we're out...