Weekend Pics

Technically the first picture is from before the weekend. As Rachel was pulling out the bags for the trip to the farm, she found a big brother present from Mitzi et. al. that we had never given Ash before. Oops. Anyway, here you can see him wearing his animal apron and my cowboy hat. Actually the apron will be very useful now that he's started helping cook a little.



Here Ash is playing table tilt (his favorite) while Chiara and Rachel watch.


And there is one more video but it took a long time to upload this one. Before bed Saturday night Asher and Andrea were reading Fox in Sox. I don't know who thought that it would be a good book to sing but they took turns singing each page. It's a little hard to understand Asher because he's using a funny singing-voice, accent but he really is singing the page.

Bartholomew Cubbins

On yesterday's drive Ash wore his hat most of the way. At one point, he picked up my hat and popped it on there too. Quite a look, don't you think?

Weekly Pictures

Here are the cutest of the pictures from last week. Thursday evening we were reading and the phone rang and it was for Asher. It was actually Molly & Leah's grandmother (Aynne) calling for Leah who apparently wanted to talk to Asher. Here are a few pictures of him talking to her for a few minutes. Molly got on the phone after Leah but didn't have as much to say.

Chiara adores Annie. The other night she was practically laying on Annie and just petting and petting her. In spite of what a shameless ham she is for the camera, I had trouble getting her to look at me.

Dig those chompers!

Asher doesn't draw pictures of people or animals that often. Usually he draws inventions or countries or numbers or letters. But this picture is Stuart Little (obviously), Sophie (from Mamma Mia), and someone else.

And this is the wonderful pie Rachel and Asher made for my birthday. It had chocolate chips on bottom and top and vanilla pudding. Apparently Asher originally lobbied for a much longer message and Rachel talked him down.

More food

We're into the genre of Chiara covered in food pictures. Boy is she happy eating and making a mess:

Eating

Well Chiara has started eating and she's a riot. If you like babies covered in food that is. She thinks it is just the most hysterical thing to squish the food between her fingers and then rub it all over herself (or anyone who comes within reach). I hope that banana is good moisturizer. In the first three pictures she is holding the little mesh baggie that you put smushy food into so that the baby can't choke on a piece:



And here she is cool-chillin after eating some sweet potatoes:


Then she and LD ate blocks. I hope they weren't counting on the nutritional value.



They had a lot of fun playing.


And Annie has detected Chiara's overwhelming love for balls and has started bringing the ball to (or near) her waiting for Chiara to throw it. I suspect she will have to go on waiting for a while.

Pictures

Again, you can see the similarities between Chiara and Asher:




Rachel wanted me to caption this one: "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up!"


And Chiara helping Asher play:

A mouse, a crawler, and a new ride

Asher has been Stuart Little (or one of the characters from Mamma Mia) for a few weeks or more. He drew his self portrait and Rachel managed to take a picture before he erased it:


Chiara seriously has only two moods: Grumpy and happy/laughing. Yesterday at dinner Christie made the comment that she is a totally different baby when she's not teething and I think we would both agree. Here's how she is most of the time:


We spent a good portion of Saturday and Sunday shopping for a bike for my birthday in a few weeks. Rachel had actually really wanted to get me one months ago and I was being stubborn but I finally decided that the one I have was just not usable for me. We started looking at "hybrids" which meant "comfort" rides and those were really not what I wanted. So we went back yesterday and chose this bike (A Fuji Absolute 3.0). It's considered a road bike but a "commuter." I'm pretty excited even though our schedule won't really allow a ride until Tuesday.



And finally. Here is the proof that Chiara is crawling. Seriously.

Visit with Joey

Joey came over Saturday night for a few hours so Chuck and Jenni could go and see the UT football game (Hook 'em!). He's charming and adorable and mobile! He and Chiara had a great time crawling all over Rachel at the same time. At one point they were sitting across from each other passing a toy back and forth but I didn't get any pictures.





Asher watching Joey crawl around. He has the timer in his hand but I don't think he's clocking Joey or anything.

And here's a very very short video of Chiara laughing. I'm convinced she has only three speeds: sleeping, grumpy, and laughing. Basically if anyone laughs she does too. It's a wonderful sound as you'll hear.