Ms. Shirley

Many of you have inquired about Ms. Shirley, and today I finally got her to pose for a photo with Bennett. She is a funny lady and prefers to not be photographed for some reason. Considering what a large part of Bennett's life she has been the past 8-9 months, I told her that I wanted to document some of it with photos.

Between her and my in-laws, I feel VERY fortunate to have wonderful caregivers in Bennett's life. They both have worked out so well, and Bennett has adjusted so well to the styles of all of us. I think this has helped her to be fairly adaptable, and hopefully the transition to "school" will go smoothly (assuming we get off the wait list for this Fall).

No Relief

Ok, I officially can't breath now. And since I am pregnant, I am restricted with the allergy medicine I can take. The pollen has covered our cars with a green film, and continues to float around in the air. The count is ridiculous and I am paying the consequences for the walk I had this morning. Unfortunately, I think Bennett may have allergies too because we are both sneezing and have runny noses (poor child). So, we have been couped up inside playing. Here are just a couple of photos from today.

Did you say....NO?

A couple of weeks ago when Bennett really became mobile with her improved crawling skills, she immediately began pulling up and testing herself in other ways. One of those recent challenges is climbing stairs. She hasn't gotten to the point where that is all she likes to do (thank goodness since we haven't put up the gates yet), but she certainly enjoys it occasionally.

Her favorite game is to take off on the floor for Spencer's water bowl (she likes to play in it), and when I ask her where she is going, she giggles and starts crawling even faster towards it. She has become quite the little stinker lately.

So, tonight after our trip to the zoo, she was busy moving all over the place. She started playing with our bottles of wine in our racks (which she knows is a "no no" but continues to do it anyway). When I tapped her hands and said "no," she started laughing. After reaching for them again and again, we picked her and moved her (trying to distract her from her little game). That's when she started for the stairs. As you can see in this mischievous grin, she knows she isn't supposed to, but who's going to stop her?

Obviously we didn't, since we snapped her climbing them instead. I don't know where she got the head strong personality from, but I have a feeling it is going to cause problems for us down

the road....

A Trip to the Zoo!

Today, Bennett and I made our first trip to the Birmingham Zoo. Since I left work early to meet the rest of our playgroup there, we didn't have much time to check out all of the areas. However, we did make it through the children's area, which mainly consists of various farm animals. Bennett was definitely interested in seeing all of the animals, but she wanted nothing to do with getting up close and personal (unlike some of her friends, as you can see here).

However, Bennett and Caroline were big fans of the fish and turtles. They both enjoyed looking in the large tank and stretching their legs some. I guess the big plate glass was a nice barrier for them.

Since our zoo offers annual memberships for those that plan to visit more often, we bought one for our family. Now we can go back anytime for free - what a wonderful idea since young children don't have long attention spans anyway!

The next time we go, we are definitely going to check out the monkeys and other African animals. They even are offering camel rides for the next couple of months, which could be stinky, yet fun!

Happy Easter!

Okay, now that it is officially Easter - Happy Easter! This is a photo of us outside of church today, in front of a cross filled with flowers that everyone brings and sticks on it (it is just lovely).
We are headed to Steve's parents for a late lunch with his family and then we're going to try and tackle more yardwork. We are making progress with the fence, and we have planted some of our spring flowers (pray the weather stays warmer).

Coincidentally, today is Bennett's 10 month birthday. Two more months until she is one!!

Is it really just Saturday?

Yesterday, Steve and I had the day off for Good Friday. It was a beautiful day so we worked in the yard and ran a couple of errands. While Bennett took her longest nap to date (a little over 4 hours), Steve went crazy with his chain saw cutting down every limb or tree along our neighbor's fence line. Since he is working on putting a privacy fence up in our backyard (to cover the ugly chain link fence of our neighbor's), he wants to clear the area.

Last night our friends, Steve and Karen, came over for dinner. We hung out on the deck and caught up. They have been so busy traveling we haven't been able to spend much time with them lately. After several margaritas (by all of them), they headed home and we hit the hay.

So today when we awoke, we were confused that it was just Saturday and not Sunday. We went out to breakfast and came back and starting planting some of our spring flowers. Bennett, Spencer and I went for a walk - and it was still only noon! As we sat on the back deck deciding what to tackle next, Bennett was crawling around exploring. She is so happy that she is more independent, so I took a couple photos. What a weekend!