The Beach, Part 1b

Ok, Papa D, your wish is my command...here are some more pictures!

Well, last year Autumn wasn't very impressed (minute 3:12 on the video) with the beach. I was hoping it would be different this year but it didn't start out in a terribly promising manner. I took her out to the sand and water and she was. not. happy. Here she is weeping in the sand. Of course, I took a picture.


Mike was in the mood for the pool anyway so we gave that a try and soon enough she was having all kinds of fun in the water. "Swimming" with papa...


Jumping off the ledge...well. Kind of jumping. She doesn't quite have the whole forward propulsion thing down quite yet so it was more like bending her knees and, um, twitching.


Later that day we did get her out on the beach and somewhat enjoying herself. And yes. She did have a costume change after lunch and a nap.


Papas and their babies. Note that Tyler, who goes to the beach pretty frequently, is totally having adventures while Miss Autumn decides if she's ever going to be okay again. :)


In case you couldn't tell, I didn't buy this bathing suit. :P Can you guess who did? Everyone got a kick out of Autumn in her foofy little suit. There were many pictures taken.


Seriously, this is like an ad for happiness. Don't you think so?


One of Autumn's current obsessions is the airplane. Anything flying in the sky is greeted with, "there plane! there plane!" So you can imagine her delight over this:


Something about Autumn's position here makes me giggle.


After some playing on the beach and more playing in the pool, Autumn took a break in the hot tub before heading upstairs to get ready for dinner.


Where she made faces.


ok, this is getting long so I'll wrap it up with...Mike and Autumn Making Funny Faces! Autumn just tickles me and Mike's side-eye here totally cracks me up. The both look like they are up to something.

So where have we been?

At the beach!!



More photos to come! I was planning to blog the trip but I forgot my USB cable which put a serious cramp in the uploading plans. :P

So much eating...

I just noticed that, for some weird reason, I have a ton of photos of Autumn eating this month. Here she is with a petit four at La Baguette.


Eating some kind of chocolate cake at some restaurant. Bahama Breeze maybe? We always get the chocolate island there. It's one of the only desserts Mike gets enthusiastic about. Me? I get excited about pretty much any dessert. :P


Okay, seriously. Is she 2? Why does she look so grown up sometimes? This is Autumn's very first toasted marshmallow.


At first, Autumn kinda of had a panic attacked over the marshmallow getting cooked. She was all big eyed and wondering why in the world someone would put a PERFECTLY DELICIOUS marshmallow into fire. She got over it, though.


This one isn't of her eating but it was so cute I had to post it. Papa D putting his cold water glass on her face.


Actually, I have two more good ones that aren't eating but have food in them. Autumn's kind of big on "helping" right now. She wants to carry things, put away groceries, that kind of thing. We ran into the store not too long ago. I only needed a couple of things so I let her walk with me rather than ride in the cart. She realllly wanted to carry things so she carried the bread for me.


Speaking of a cart...Mike taught Autumn a new trick.


:) I was afraid that it might be something she'd want to do all the time but it's been some time and she hasn't asked once. Phew.

At the sprinkler park!

Collierville has two really cool sprinkler parks, did you know that? I've been meaning to get out to one since last summer and now that we've finally made it, I'm guessing we're going to go a lot! We've already gone twice in two weeks. Last week I joined some ladies I get together with a couple of times a month and my friend Angela also joined us. Her daughter Marie is sooo cute and I love listening to her talk. Here they are chowing down on some apples that Angela brought along to appease Autumn's weird apple fixation...when I talked to Angela that morning, she could hear Autumn yelling, "appal! APPAL!" in the background.


Autumn likes babies, too. Although she's just as likely to steal the pacifier than give it back. And can someone explain to me why Autumn calls a pacifier a "sassy?" No one I know calls it that although I have heard that's a word for it.


Is she dancing? Peeking around? Thinking about making a break for it? Probably the latter.


Here we are this morning! Autumn is a bright blue and hot pink kinda gal.


Today, Tamara got to come along! I meant to get a picture of the three of us but I forgot...but here she is in the background of one that Christy sent to me! Christy is the one who plans and coordinates our get-togethers.


It's kind of cool to see Autumn with Christy's kids. Autumn seems to like and recognize Allie and Lydia whenever we see them and she's really comfortable with Christy. I'm not sure how many of you guys who read this but don't to see us much realize it but Autumn is a lot more like Mike than one might guess from her very seemingly outgoing pictures! This is great...Lydia's all "I'm gonna huuuug youuu!" and Autumn's all, "no way!" Kinda like me and Mike.


Back to the park itself...the park is full of neat sprinklers...a flower that showers water, buckets that fill and dump, elephant heads that shoot water through their trunks. I think Autumn's favorites were the ones that came out of the ground.


And I know this is random, but the ground is super nice. It doesn't get too hot and it's really friendly for little feet and knees and hands. This is Miss Noelle. I met her and her mom Leigh Ann for the first time today.


Me, Miss Autumn, and a wet camera lens. Some kid aimed a water gun at us while we were on the sidelines. I wasn't real happy because it got my camera wet and made little missy cry. :) I gave him the Patented Evil Eye and he turned the gun away. By the way, if you're in search of a pretty, modest swimsuit, I highly recommend a store called Modbe where I got my suit.


This is a tired little monkey. :) Water+Friends+A peanut butter sammich=A Very Good Day.

Happy Papa Day

To a papa who doesn't call spending time with his baby monkey "babysitting." :) We love you!

A few clips of Mike and Autumn that I don't think have been in any other videos we've posted. btw, the last clip is of Mike trying to get Autumn to say his favorite word in her repetoire.

a funny morning

So, Autumn's a funny kid, right? Like, I made potstickers on Saturday. Autumn has had them before but mine aren't as pretty as the ones at the restaurant so I don't think she recognized them. When Mike put the potsticker on her plate, she looked at it, looked at him, curled her lip, and pushed it away with one finger. Hahaha. She ended up eating it, though, and wanted more! Yay Miss Monkey!

This morning was an...interesting morning. She was a little high strung which usually means she is swinging wildly from OMG I MUST BE HELD RIGHT NOW BEFORE I MELT INTO A PUDDLE to super playing baby of activity. Today during her play phase she was having a blast with her play earrings. I asked her to smile pretty so I could take a picture for papa and this is what she did:


Very pretty, Autumn. Not too long after that photo, I found her laying on the floor. My kid is apparently part cat. I have no idea where her pants went, lol. I guess she got hot.


Anyway, these aren't from this morning but I thought I'd put up a couple of the photos Elizabeth took of Autumn with Tyler. I don't know why, but Autumn's face in this picture really, really tickles me.


And here they are in the swing that papa D rigged for them. Tyler and Ryan were in town last weekend and all week Autumn has been asking me, "where Tyla? Where Tyla? Tyla? Tyla? Where Tyla? Tyla house? Tyla house? Where Tyla?" Yes. We are at that stage. Nothing like TODDLER REPETITION AD NAUSEUM. :)


By the way, I haven't seen it yet but, Memphis people, keep an eye out for a June copy of Memphis Health and Fitness. Penny called me today to tell me that Mike is in the Memphis Judo and Jiu Jitsu ad on the inside cover! I think it's a pic of the Fitness Kickboxing class and he happened to be there that day. How cool is that?

A Mama, a Papa, and a Monkey, Elizabeth's photos cont.

I thought this was a funny photo for some reason:



Now, Mike and I have some great pictures in this set. I know this isn't a photo that maybe a "normal" person would have as a favorite, but being the quirky person that I am, I'm so happy that Elizabeth got us acting like fools. Mike had just insulted my height and I was in the process of taking him out.


Why was he insulting my height? He's standing on the ground and I'm on a little ledge and I'm still not taller than he is. By the way...I had someone ask me today if I was 4'7." Dude. That's 4 inches shorter than I really am. I AM NOT 4'7." Here's a hint...when someone is really small, always guess them taller than they really are. But not crazy stuff. Like, if the dude had said, "you're what, 5 feet tall?" I would have grinned, told him 4'11" and had a really good rest of the day. Gah.


Back to Miss Autumn...I love these pics with the balloons. The colors are just wonderful!


Technology baby...today she was talking on her play phone and saying, "Hallo? Hey. Hey, P'D? Where Papa D? Ahhhh, car? Um. Uh oh. 'Kay. Bye."


The only thing I'd do differently at a big photo shoot like this is make sure that we got family shots early instead of last when Autumn is DONE WITH THIS MESS. lol...look at that hand. Although, it works out because we did get the grandparent shots that we really wanted plus my hair is sooo drastically different now that I doubt I'd use a picture from this early in the year as our Christmas card. :P Elizabeth, if you end up doing any Christmas photo mini-sessions, ring me up!


And we end today with a tired monkey...done with a party. :P The weirdest/coolest thing about this picture of her? Her hair looks exactly like mine did at her age. Mine was redder, which is actually kind of funny. The redheaded filipina kid.