Rachel's Ready To Cruise!

Tuesday night I was sitting next to the bath tub with Rachel as I was getting her ready for her nightly bath. She started trying to pull herself up and look over the side of the tub. She wasn't quite strong enough to do it so I helped her stand up and she was able to stand by holding on to the side of the tub without any help from me. She's done this before and flopped down after 2 seconds or so. But this time she held herself up for a few minutes until she just got tired and needed to sit down. She was so excited about her found skill.

Last night Stuart got a picture of her standing while holding on to the couch. She's going to be cruising around the room any day now.



Then she decided to make a game of standing up and falling back into my arms. She wasn't just falling on accident. I could feel her push herself back as soon as I stood her up and she was just laughing her little self silly as she did it. Wheee!



She's still working on crawling. While she can book it across the room in a belly crawl position, she still hasn't figured out how to crawl on her knees. That's fine with me. Stay little, precious one! Here's her latest attempt to crawl. She now likes to push up on her hands...and her feet! Knees, sweetie. It's much easier if you go on your knees :)



I just love this little angel.

Cracker Jack

Stuart brought home some Cracker Jacks for Nicholas to try. Yummy! Click HERE for a brief history of Cracker Jack. I was surprised to learn just how long it's been around. I wonder if my grandparents ever tried it when they were little?

Nicholas was excited to learn that there was a prize inside. Along with the prize, there were two jokes...

Q: Why do sharks swim in salt water?
A: Because pepper water would make them sneeze!

Q: Why is the frog happy?
A: Because he ate what bugged him!

Nicholas has been telling us these jokes all night. This morning he said, "Let's do the joke over and over again. You just pretend you don't know the answer." So that's what we did. Nicholas asked the question, I made up a silly but wrong answer, then he delighted in telling me the correct answer. And so it continued for what seemed like 50 times.

Meeting with Daisy Girl Scouts at Town Hall

Today I had an awesome experience and I was glad to be able to bring Nicholas along to experience it with me.

I have been working for quite some time on getting a wooden fort-like handicapped accessible playground built in our town. The concept has been approved and the playground will probably cost somewhere around $400,000. Although most of the expense of the actual playground will be covered by the town, I would also like to see educational stations throughout the playground to teach children about nature and the environment. A local Daisy Girl Scout troop contacted me last fall and said that they wanted to help with fundraising for the playground. I met with the girls at their first troop meeting and talked to them about plants, both literally and figuratively. We talked about how everyone, even young people, can plant seeds and watch them grow. We talked about planting seeds in terms of the playground such as talking to the Parks board about the concept of the playground and getting the idea approved. We talked about how fundraising was like watering the seeds and feeding a dream. Then we talked about having patience and watching the fruits of our labor grow into a wonderful playground that our whole community can be proud of. The girls have worked on fundraising all year through a garage sale/lemonade stand, cookie sales, and individual chore money. Today I met with a few of the Daisy Girl Scouts at Town Hall where they turned over their donation to the town. Their donation will specifically go towards the educational stations for children in the playground. I'm just so proud of these girls for their dedication and hard work. It just goes to show how young people can make a difference in their communities.

I was glad that Nicholas was able to come with me to the meeting. I've talked to him about each step that I've made along the way in this project so he knows all about the troop and their fundraising efforts. But it was great for him to get to meet these young girls and see first hand how they got involved in the project.

The girls got to meet the Director of Parks and Recreation. We talked some about the Parks and Recreation Department and projects they are working on, including our playground. Then the Director showed the children the Town Council chambers. He let them sit in the Town Council member's chairs. But the coolest part was when the Director turned on the microphones and let the "new council members" speak to the rest of us. The kids had such a blast! Nicholas even got to use the Mayor's gavel!

Skype

If you haven't tried Skype, you should check it out! We not only get free calls to Granddad in Louisiana but we also get to SEE him while we talk! And the best part...it's all FREE! The software is free, the call is free, and you can even use a camcorder that you already have so you don't have to go but one. However, we do have a Logitech color camera that clips on the top of our computer monitor. It is the coolest camera. It has a built in microphone and has a really clear picture.

Yesterday we got a call from Granddad on Skype. I was on the computer at the time and answered the call. Nicholas quickly heard Granddad's voice and came running. Then Stuart wandered into the office too. Then Rachel woke up from her nap and I brought her to the office with us. Our whole family sat around our office and talked with Granddad. We could see him and he could see all of us. It was just like being back in Baton Rouge. Hmmm, if only we could get the rest of the Louisiana family to get on Skype then maybe we wouldn't have to make that long drive again... :)

A Slight Obsession With Flies

We were recently talking about going to an evening outdoor concert. We talked about bringing a picnic dinner to the concert.

Nicholas: "But if we have our dinner outside then all the flies will try to eat our food. We should bring a tent so we can eat in the tent without the flies getting out food."
Mommy: "Hmmm, that's an idea."
Nicholas: "And the tent will need to have a big window that faces the band so we can still watch them play."
Mommy: "Of course we want to watch the band play so I think that's a good plan."
Nicholas: "We could also bring something stinky to keep the flies away."
Mommy: "But WE aren't going to want to be in the tent if it is stinky. Besides, flies would probably be even more attracted to something stinky."
Nicholas: "Then we should bring something that smells good so the flies won't want to come in. I know! We'll make the tent smell like peaches. Then the flies won't want to bother us."
Mommy: "Yum, I like the smell of peaches."
Nicholas: "No, never mind. That won't work. Then all of the other people at the concert will come into our tent and then we won't be able to see a thing!"