Couple of things

So post number 4 today.

Couple of things that I forgot earlier today.

While in the hotel Lea rolled over multiple times. The only catch is that she was on a bed, not the floor. The bed have a little give that allowed her to get over her shoulder. It was pretty funny. She'd roll over and get mad that she was stuck on her belly. I'd help her out, and she'd roll over again starting the whole process over.

The basement is finished. The carpet is in and looks great. Now we are waiting for our furniture to come in. It was supposed to be in on June, 6. It's now June 13. We wait.

Until next time. It's been real.

Lea in Galena

I need everyone to call my wife and tell her thank you. She allowed us to impulsively set off on an adventure this past weekend. I've been climbing the walls this summer for something to do. Grad school is done and babysitting has commenced. In a previous post I stated that I was going to be playing video games and reading all summer. My daughter has put a kink in my plans. She is not always happy just laying between feedings. Sometimes she wants to be held, sometimes she wants to be paid attention to, sometimes she's angry and has no reason for it. Lately she's been eating like a horse. (I feed her, she gets mad, I feed her more, she gets mad, I feed her one more time, and she gets happy)

What I'm getting at--I've needed something to do that will include the kid. I took her to the mall this past week (ran into a former student which was cool. Come on former students, randomly walk around malls in Des Monies so I can run into you) which went very well. Lea loved the mall. Happily jabbered the entire time. Flirted with the salespeople. It was great.

So Kate and I (spurred by my good friend Dr. Jesse's suggestion) have been discussing taking a vacation with Lea. Thursday night we were deciding when we should embark. Kate offhandedly mentioned that this weekend would work (she had Friday off). Being an wannabe impulsive person, I jumped on the idea. To shorten the already too long story, we decided to take a test-vacation. Short distance, weekend in length, collect data of how Lea does, results would allow us to gauge how she'll do with a longer trip.

In short, Lea did fantastic. We took her to Galena, IL. The trip was only three hours long, and she slept the whole way. We kept her in Dubuque, IA, which she was fine with. We took her to the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium on Friday. See picture below. We then spent most of Saturday in Galena. She was happy for the entire time, expect our choice of lunch. She wanted the entire restaurant to know who she was. Once we left and got her outside she was happy again. Lea got to see President U.S. Grant's house and loads of goofy little shops in Galena. We were very happy with our munchkin--and I didn't even mention that she slept 10 hours straight both nights in the hotel.

Our conclusions: we will be talking a longer, multi-state, multi-stop trip. We are very excited.

The following are pictures from our trip. They are in reverse order, and I'm too lazy to correct them. Deal with it. I know you're only reading this to see pictures of the cute kid.




Picture of the family taken in front of the mighty Mississippi. (taken by stranger)




Lea and I in front of President Grant's house.





Lea and I in front of a statue of Mrs. Grant. The representation of Mrs. Grant is not flattering.



Lea and I about to get eaten by a mammoth catfish. The catfish looked even bigger in person.

Lea at 4 Months

Friday Lea had her four month well check. She's (more or less) doubled her birth weight (12 lb, 5 oz), and continues to stretch (24 and 3/4 inches). The doc was pleased with her following her percentiles on the dot. He did pull up her BMI (which I hate--I mean look at me, I'm short..err average height...and stout. BMI tells me that I'm going to be dead in a month or two. BMI tells me I should weigh 160 lbs. Are ya kiddin' me. Stupid BMI) and just laughed, "Well, she's tall and skinny."

She also received her second round of shots. This time I was prepared for her reaction. No laughing by me. Kate (Momma of Lea) mentioned that I laughed to the nurse. The nurse made mention of some people laughing because they are nervous. I stated that I did not laugh because of nerves, I laughed because it was funny. Sorry, point being shots went well. Lea took them like a champ and was laughing at her ladybug friend by the time we left. (Lea's ladybug friend hangs on her car seat. It has replaced the ceiling fan as her best friend in the world. See previous post--Lea talks to her ladybug nearly the entire time she's in the car and she gets loud. Can't wait 'till she's a teenager. Awesome)

Lea Jabbers

I'm posting on three topics to today, the first of which goes along with the video above. I almost forgot about this post until Lea began jabbering away at her hangy toys on her activity mat. About three weeks ago the jabbers came on full force out of the little one. She didn't start "talking" three weeks ago, but she really hasn't shut up since then. The above video is just a snip-it of her chattiness. You might need to turn up the volume a bit to hear her over the TV. The "talking" starts around the five second mark. To interpret for the public, she's giving us a grumpy chat--probably hungry, needing a diaper change, or both. Usually this kind of speak is followed by hollering. (me hollering at Kate to pick up her kid...because she's only mine when she's an angel)

Basement's nearly complete

So we know that no one really cares about the none-Lea posts, but we're going to continue to share the photos of the basement finishing progress. So there! While it has been sitting idle for the last couple of weeks, the electricians are coming on Monday and the carpet is getting installed on Wednesday. Hooray! The man-cave will be here soon!

It looks like Steve's been writing far too much and posting far too few photos! So...here are some photos that haven't been posted over the past month.



Lea still greatly dislikes tummy time, but she's pretty good at it.



She's also getting VERY close to rolling over...again. I still count the two and half times she rolled over about 6 weeks ago, but Steve thinks gravity helped her out too much.

It also appears that Lea has found her hands

And her father's nose...

Here's also a random photo of Lea and me from Mother's Day...

5 Posts?

Five posts in May? Really? That is pathetic. Someone should have done some encouraging so I'd post more. I'm really disappointed in myself.

Well that's all over now. As of yesterday I've once again started my two and half months of unemployment/lazy season. Summer break is here. Seriously people, I get paid two and half months to read, play video games, and workout. I can't figure out why more people don't become teachers. (Okay so I do really enjoy the nine months of teaching the kids, and I do miss being in the class room by mid-July, so there)

Now in the past I've only really had the three above mentioned things to keep me busy during the summer (other than grad school the last three years which took up most of my reading time). Now I've got a two foot tall mixture of me and Kate that I have to....er...get to take care of. I've already found it very difficult to get anything done with her. She stares at me and smiles--ALL THE TIME. You know how hard it is to focus when two little eyes are locked in on you. Every time I look over I get a big smile and giggle. I need to develop some will power. Case in point-I've been trying to focus on this post for 15 minutes now with her big eyes locked in on me. Grrrrrrrrr.

Pictures will be coming soon. Wife took the camera to work again, is you'll have to image Lea rolling back and forth (not over, but don't get me started).