Baby Rimes

While Daddy was off galavanting in California, Mommy and Baby spent a LOOOOONG weekend together, alone.  While Daddy was flying to Atlanta by way of Chattanooga to avoid the hail and thunderstorms, Baby and Mommy were peeling wallpaper and eating blueberry crumble.  When Daddy was touring Napa and it’s independant bookstores, Mommy and Baby were at the Farmer’s Market buying sunflowers and black-eyed susans, while eating blueberries.  When Daddy was at Jelly Belly buying 8 pounds of irregular Belly Flop beans, Mommy and Baby were taking a nap and dreaming about blueberry muffins. And when Daddy was watching his friend Drew get married and dancing and eating really good food, Mommy and Baby were eating blueberry pie with ice cream with the grandparents.

Needless to say, Daddy had a great weekend, despite spending more time in airports and on the plane than in California. And, Mommy and Baby had a very blue weekend together waiting for Daddy to come back home and share some of the jelly beans.

Oh! and a special thanks to Nicole for the cutest baby hat ever!  Thanks for thinking of us!

The big day has come and gone. And come and gone again. Our little munchkin’s birthday was celebrated the first time around without much fanfare, but with a colorful new rug to cover her hardwood floor. But the second time around was much more fun. We had pink and white cupcakes with blueberries and strawberries. We had balloons. We had grilled animal flesh and lots of salads to munch. And best of all, we had lots of family and friends.

The best part of the birthday festivities was, of course, the cake eating. Our little trooper did it in high form, delicately picking off the blueberries and eating them until she realized what was underneath. Then, she dove in with reckless abandon, forgoing the use of hands because they merely got in the way, and stuck her face right down into the frosting and took a large chunck of cupcake and smiled as she chewed the gooey mess.

For those of you not in attendence, I promise pictures of this hilarious event as soon as possible. However, due to unforseen circumstances, we are without our home internet connection at the moment. As soon as the cable company (or phone company, whichever provides us with the best quote) can make it to our new abode, we will update the pictures section of Baby Rimes’ site. Thank you for your patience.

Baby Rimes is truly enjoying the packing process.  She gets in boxes and scoots around. Topples them over and hides toys in them.  She even helps us pack now and then - that must be where the remote went to. But, she is absolutely the best at unpacking. Mommy and Daddy tried packing Ella’s things for almost an hour yesterday, while she dutifully unpacked all of her things and put them back where they belonged.  Ok, not everything went back to where it actually belonged, because she got the idea that she was funny, and just started flinging her clothes over her shoulder and smiling and saying, “uh-oh!”

Ahhh, I can’t wait to let her help us unpack.

We are only 2 weeks away from the very first birthday! Mommy and Daddy have been planning a birthday party, however, with Baby’s birthday present being a brand new house, the party planning has been a little slow. Baby (Almost Toddler) Rimes will be celebrating her first birthday at her new residence.  If you are in the area, stop on by, you don’t have to bring a present, but if you bring some blueberries, she’ll be your friend forever!

Baby (almost Toddler!) Rimes LOVES blueberries.  She picks them from gramma’s bushes and shoves them in her mouth so fast her hands are a little blue and pink blur.  When we go shopping, she sees the blueberries and makes a grab for them.  She will spend an hour trying to figure out how to get into a blueberry container.  When you get them out, she gets so excited she shakes all over.

She will not share them.  She will not smash them.  She does not throw them.  They are the perfect food.

So, if anyone wants to know what to get our little munchkin for her birthday, perhaps a blueberry bush would be the perfect gift.

On our very first excursion to the beach this summer, we learned 3 things.

1. Our cute little bikini wearing princess loves to eat rocks. Small rocks, Large rocks, sandy rocks, it makes no difference. After retrieving the 15th rock from our child’s large mouth, we decided to move to the less rocky, but more populated, Silver Beach.

2. Sand is good. We played in the sand for nearly an hour without boredom. Walking in sand, however, is much tougher than walking on, say, the carpeted bedroom floor. But no matter! Sand is still good.

3. The lake is bad. No, the lake is very bad. The cold water crashing on our little baby toes was not good at all. There was much crying with REAL tears until we moved back to the safety of the blanket and the warm, dry sand. We didn’t even want Mommy to hold us within 10 feet of the water.

But the adorable pictures were well worth the hour and half spent on an early Saturday morning. As soon as we replace the batteries in the camera, I will convince Daddy to put those up for your viewing pleasure.

I was recently remembering how much Daddy and I were waiting for our lovely little offspring to roll over.  We would encourage her, and help her out, and even push her over so that she could roll from her back to her stomach and back again.  Then, one day, she did it.  All on her own.  We were so very proud.  Of course, that wasn’t enough.  Then we wanted to see her crawl.  Not 5 minutes after she rolled over, we both said, man, it’ll be so cool when she can crawl!

So, the story continues, and we would watch our little apple dumpling get to her knees and rock back and forth.  Oh, it’ll be so wonderful to see this tiny creature scurrying around the house.  And eventually, she did.  What a sight it was to see our miniature person scooting all around the house and doing some nose dives because her head was still too heavy.  But, of course, a few days after that, we both said, man it’ll be so cool to see her walking all around!

Well, that day has finally arrived.  Our little punkin’ got up, looked around to see if anyone was watching, and then “woooosh!” out the door she went!  And we haven’t been able to slow her down yet.  When she wants to go, she wants to go! She has almost entirely skipped the cute little toddling stage where she wobbles back and forth.  No, our daughter is a walking champ.  She just gets up and takes off in the direction of the most breakable, tearable, messiest item she can find and wreaks havoc on our home.  Now, Daddy and I are saying, “man won’t it be cool when she learns how to slow down?”

Cute pink baby bikini. Check.

SPF 50 baby sunscreen. Check.

Pool heated to a comfortable 82 degrees. Check.

Floaty baby ring. Check.

God Parents. Check. Camera. Check.

One wet, super-clingy, tearful, scared, wide-eyed baby. Check.

And that is how our first swimming experience went.

Baby summer clothes are just so cute.  Our little munchkin spent the long Memorial Day holiday with us camped out in the air conditioned house.  It was sooo hot, and she was just soooo miserable in the heat, that we just stayed indoors where we could control the weather.  She even had a fan in her room to help out with the extreme stickiness. 

We did venture out occassionally for a trip into the sweltering heat.  We had a picnic with the godparents and god-dogger (who is just not nearly as amusing now that she is bigger).  She loved the barbequed chicken and Aunt Sara’s wonderful cornbread stuffing.  She even spent part of Saturday cruising up and down the driveway with her push car.  That little girl must have put more miles on the push car than Daddy did in the CRV. And all in a summer dress.

At long last, we now have new pictures of our little troublemaker.

Check out our web album.

Enjoy!