In loving memory of Margaret Champlin

I regretfully could not attend my Grandmother's memorial today but this is a picture from the last time that I saw her and how I'll always remember her as the happy, caring person that she was. I love you Grandma.

8/5 Stupid Mom

Moxie was driving me particularly crazy today with incessant barking. She seems to always have something to bark at when Drew is sleeping. She stands on the side of the house right under his window and almost always wakes him up. When she came in the house after guarding the backyard from what was surely the dangerous UPS man, I said, "Thanks a lot Moxie, you just woke up the baby." Then I hear a little voice behind me say, "Stupid dog," which I'm sure I've said on many occasions and just didn't realize that little ears were listening. I smiled to myself and didn't make a big deal of it but now I'm dreading the day that something inappropriate those little ears heard will come out of his little mouth in public.

8/5 Drew pulls up

Drew has been trying to pull up for awhile now and could never really get past his knees. He would pull up to a kneeling position and stay there for quite awhile. While giving Jack a bath tonight, I had Drew in with me on the floor. He immediately pulled up on the tub to see what was going on and got to his knees, but then one extra little pull to see what was in the tub and he was on his feet for the first time. He proudly flashed me a huge smile and I now know that this is the beginning of the end of babyhood.

8/4 Bugs Bunny

It has been diffucult to get Jack to eat his vegetables lately. He'll eat a couple of cooked carrots or green beans but only to get to dessert which lately is Sugar Free Jello. He out of the blue asked for a carrot the other night. He wanted an entire raw carrot. Nick asked me if he had ever seen Bugs Bunny. I didn't think so, so we pulled an episode up on the computer and Jack sat and watched and laughed and ate an entire carrot. Who knew a cartoon bunny could get my 2 1/2 year old to eat his veggies. Next up, Popeye the Sailor man!

8/3 Drew on the move

Drew has not perfected the crawl yet, but through a series of very complicated moves can get anywhere he needs to go. He was after what I thought were Nick's books on the shelf tonight, but after he got to the shelf, he pulled his body up and reached way inside above the books and pulled out a soccer ball rattle. He's definitely a baby who knows what he wants and how to get it.

8/3 Jack the stinker

Jack had me convinced today that he had thrown my camera over into the neighbor's yard. He helped me to get the ladder to look over and was so convincing, that when I didn't see it, I thought that maybe he meant the yard on the other side of the house. So we dragged the ladder to that side and looked over, no camera, but there was one of his Tonka trucks resting nicely in the fallen leaves. I finally found my camera in the couch cushions. Did Jack just learn to lie? And why would he lie about something that would get him into trouble? Just to get the ladder? HMMMM

Jack 7/31 Brave little monkey

Jack has a habit of getting up on the coffee tables in our house and jumping from them to the couch. Today the table was a little further from the couch than usual and he was afraid to jump. He kept saying "One, two, three" and then when he got to three would crouch down and say, "oh, just a minute." Stalling because he was afraid to jump. Nick finally coaxed him into jumping and was brave the rest of the afternoon.