Thursday, September 06, 2007

Pizza and Grapes



Rory has incorporated a new piece into the nighttime routine. Every night, after her bath, one of us reads her books and puts her to bed. When the other is saying good night, it now goes something like this:

Daddy: Night night, Rory.
Rory: Night night, Daddy.
Daddy: I love you.
Rory: Wuv Woo.

pause...

Rory: Pizza and grapes!!
Daddy smiles and says "Pizza and grapes, Rory".

Yes, she says "Pizza and grapes" as part of her sign off at night. We have no idea why, but she is very comforted by you saying it back at night.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Field of Dreams?

Guess what's going to be in my diaper later.

38 seconds

Monday, August 20, 2007

August Pictures



"I was born a poor black child."

One of the great things about having a kiddo this age is that there seems to be a new phase of some sort about every three days. I can't possibly document them all, but once in a while I'll give you a glimpse into our odd world.

For the last few days, Rory has become a collector. She can't go anywhere without at least one object in each hand from the location she's leaving. If we are in the living room and are going to walk to her bedroom, she must look around and decide one item, then two, and possibly three if she can handle it that she absolutely cannot survive the trip without.

If you've ever seen the old Steve Martin movie "The Jerk", it's the equivalent of Navin Johnson saying, "I don't need anything but this ashtray. Just this astray. This ashtray and this thermos are all I'll ever need. And this chair."

We leave the living room to go take a bath and she's carrying a book, two legos stuck together, and dragging a blanket. Then to leave the bathroom to go to bed, she has to take a ducky from the tub, her toothbrush, and Abby (her doll). They say that people who have collections of things are more likely to be psychopaths and serial killers.

We are slightly concerned.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

More Sprinkler Fun

Another hot day in Houston, so more time in the sprinkler for Rory.

58 seconds

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Oops-si-day-zee

Daddy had his tonsils out last week and Mimi is here visiting to help out. This is what we are considering the "highlight reel" of Rory tricks, all displayed at dinner.

56 seconds

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Birthday Butterflies







Today for my birthday we went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science's Butterfly Center with our friends, the Wires. They were having Adopt-A-Butterfly Day, where you got to release a butterfly. Here are a few pictures of Rory and I releasing her butterfly. The last picture is a zoomed shot of the previous picture, of her butterfly leaving it's cup. And of course, a picture of cutie pie Elsie Wire and her daddy Jarad.

Unfortunately, during this little trip, Daddy was in the car, sick, feverish and sleeping. He's on antibiotics and we think a tonsillectomy may be in his very near future. He started feeling much worse on the drive there so couldn't go in with us.

Potty Time


Rory has started to potty train a bit. Definitely not regularly, but just letting us know when she needs to go "peepers". She's pretty cute with her reading material, though, isn't she??

Monday, July 09, 2007

Sprinkler Fun

Rory's first afternoon of play in the sprinkler. Is it just me, or is that Elmo 3-D??

Saturday, June 30, 2007

What happened in June, according to Rory?



Here's a slideshow of pictures from June. If you click on any of the pictures, you can see the slideshow with captions. In June I turned 16 months old. I talk all day long, weigh about 31 pounds, and my favorite toys right now are books, balls and phones!

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Baby pool



Rory got her first baby pool, a must in the Texas heat.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Giggling with Daddy

Giggle Giggle Giggle

35 seconds

What do the animals say?

30 seconds of animal immitations!

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Just Happy to be Here

Are we bad parents, because we thought this was really funny?! She was crying and just kept walking! The hat and the swimsuit just made it purely comical! Please laugh with us so we don't feel bad. 9 seconds

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Other April Happenings






I went to a conference in Indianapolis for a week and got to see Lynn and the Myers crew as a bonus! Jason and Rory had some lovely Daddy-and-Daughter time, which I am sad to announce, went just fine without my presence! Here are a couple fun pics of Rory from this month for you, too. OH, and the big event of April was that my parents celebrated their 40TH ANNIVERSARY! Can you believe it? 40 YEARS! Congratulations, Mom and Dad!

Balls, balls, balls




This kid loves balls! We can drive down the street and if she catches glimpse of a kid playing ball somewhere, she yells "A BALL!" We took her to the Children's Museum this weekend and there were all KINDS of cool things for her to play with. And what did she play with?? Balls. She walked around with two ping pong balls, one in each hand, and wouldn't play with anything else if it means putting down those two balls. Who knew happiness could be purchased with $1 worth of ping pong balls?!

Friday, April 13, 2007

"ELLA!"




Lindsay came to visit from NYC. We planned on calling her "Auntie L", but that's a bit of a mouthful for Rory, so "Ella" is the name of choice. Rory used it PLENTY over the weekend and we had a wonderful time hanging out with Ella!

Dinner Entertainment

We think she was keeping the peanut butter for a late-night snack.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

SO big!



She is a BIG, BIG girl. Not only is she developing so many new skills, words, and moods, but she is growing breasts and we think she may be growing a separate head in her belly! BTW, the close-up is Rory signing "more", meaning she wanted yet ANOTHER snack.

Monday, April 02, 2007

A few recent pics




Daddy took a trip for work to LA. The picture of her on the floor was taken about 30 minutes after he left. The door behind her leads to the garage. She was walking around the house saying, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy??", then just plopped herself down there to wait, I guess.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Binky Chase

Rory and Daddy play this game. She puts the binky in the white table. Then she opens the door and takes it out again, making sure Daddy sees that she has her binky. Then the chase is ON. Somehow, Mommy is "home base".

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Busy 2 weeks

Oh so much to say! Rory started walking on Feb 13, the day after my last post mocking her ability to keep her balance. She showed me! And on Feb 17 we had her birthday party, which was fun, but as most parents know, never goes quite to plan. Rory finally fell asleep for a much-needed nap about 30 minutes before the party. When I woke her up for her party, let's just say she was NOT in a partying mood. But, with friends, family, and food around, she got over it.

Here are the pictures we had taken on her first birthday. Click and see the album. Enjoy!

Monday, February 12, 2007

Not quite ready to go solo

She's trying hard but isn't quite confident enough yet to let go of our hand.

Off balance



Rory seems to be having some trouble with her balance when trying to walk. Gee, does anyone have any guesses as to what might be throwing her off?? Hmmm... we can't seem to figure it out...

HA HA HA HA HA

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Rory's first birthday!



Yep, she's one. One year ago today, at 3:20am, I was pushing out a 7 pounder plus. We had a much more mild start to the day this year. :)

Jason and I took the day off to spend the day with Rory. In the morning we took her to get her first pictures taken and in the afternoon we went to the zoo. She's having a party on the 17th when family is in town.

Friday, January 26, 2007

What do the animals say?

Rory is saying all kinds of things now! She is 11 1/2 months old. She can tell you that the cow says Moo, the sheep says Baa Baa, the Horse says Neigh (or, "Nah", to her), the doggy says Woof Woof (i can't possibly translate her "woof woof"), and the bee says ZZZZZ. She also is saying: ball, bath, Syd (the cat), Mama, Dada, shoes, duck. Of course, they are her versions of these words, so if you heard many of them, except for Mama and Dada, we would have to translate.

She has been signing "milk" to us for a couple of months now, along with "eat" and "sleepy".

On Monday, Rory is getting tubes in her ears. She's in the midst right now of ear infection #7 or 8 in as many months, so let me tell you, this is one roller coaster we are ready to get off of!!

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Rory Olympics

Rory has her own "athalon". Check out her athletic prowess.

drinking bathwater

Always a calm moment for her, regardless of what kind of day she has had or how she is feeling. Ahhh... bathtime. Is it bad for her to get 6 baths a day??

Family, Family, Where For Art Thou Family?


These are the days we struggle not having family close by. For the last 9-10 days, Rory has been going through a bad cold, cutting two (and as of this morning, three) new teeth, and a double ear infection (which as of yesterday she had to start new medication b/c she wasn't responding to the old stuff). Poor girl! Oh yeah, and did I mention that we realized after 4 days of Rory making us absolutely nuts that she was having a bad reaction to the Benadyl we were giving her, and it was causing hyperactivity! Four days of hell we brought on ourselves! These are the days it would be nice to be able to call family and say, "She's asleep. Can you come over so we can get out of here for a couple of hours?" Then again, maybe we wouldn't come back... :) Here is a new pic and a new video.

UPDATE ONE HOUR LATER: Yet another tooth has been found. So yes, she has FOUR teeth cutting at one time. Poor girl!

Thursday, January 04, 2007

First Hanukkah and Christmas

Rory's first Hanukkah and Christmas were great. We went to see Grandma and Grandpa in Dubuque. No snow, but we had a good time. Her cousins were thrilled to spend time with her! Click on the picture and you can see more!