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.

Photos from the party

Elizabeth sent me the cd of photos from Autumn's party last week and I thought I'd post a few more here! She already put a bunch on her blog which you can find here.

The main reason I asked Elizabeth to come out was to get pictures of Autumn with my mom and grandmother. My grandmother is moving back to the Philippines this summer. I have significantly more family there than I have here in the US so, possibly temporarily, they are going to care for my grandmother who is dealing with the effects of dementia. When she returns from the Philippines, my mom is planning to get some things in order that she's had to put off while going through so much...between my dad suddenly passing away, running her business, and my grandma being diagnosed with dementia, life hasn't been easy for her over the past 3 years. So, if you could keep my grandmother, my mom, and my family overseas in your prayers during this transition, I would really appreciate it.

Here's my mom:


And my grandmother...I have to say, I'm hoping I inherited their aging genes. :P I am going to frame this one and the next one for my grandmother.


And all the Williams Ladies...that's my sister Valerie on the end.


It's going to be a long time before Autumn sees her Nanay again, if ever, so I hope these pictures will help her remember! :) Well, help them both remember, really.

A nice side benefit to photos at the birthday party was that we got a few fun ones with her paternal grandparents, too! Autumn looks a little crazy here but paired with the other photo of her with Nanny, Boppa, and Tyler, this is a pretty cute set.


Now four generations of papa's family:


I like this picture--they just all look so happy!


And now, Miss Autumn says that the rest will have to wait until later. Until then!


Next time! Autumn and Tyler and Autumn with her Mama and Papa!

At least she's consistent...

I think we can officially call Autumn potty trained. She's not completely accident-free but today she didn't have any accidents and the last couple of days she's only had one. And she's telling us she has to potty which was the big stickler.

And that part is pretty cool. I think everyone knows Autumn was, along with her late crawling and walking, a late talker. But now she's mimicking like crazy and even starting to use sentences. Today she said things like, "bear potty;" "I potty;" "blanket me peez" and so on. A couple words that crack me up for her are:

shower=showwee
water=wawee

Apparently -er isn't really happening right now but it's so funny that her version of -er is so consistent! I wonder if she'll say computwee for computer...

Anyway, a few photos. This is Autumn sitting in her doll stroller making faces at me while I work:


Hiding behind her doll:


And giving me a sweet smile.