Social Butterfly

Today I took Carleigh to the community pool (for the first time) and she had a blast.  Right off the bat, we met a neighbor who had a daughter who was only a month older than Carleigh!  Carleigh had no problem walking right up to her and making friends!

We spent about an hour and 15 minutes there enjoying her floatie and the baby pool.  This is definitely a great way to spend time during the day!!! (and work on my tan).

Walking, Teething and Sharing

So now that Carleigh is walking more than just taking steps (yesterday she took 50 in a row without falling outside on the concrete), she is trying to get comfortable only getting around on two legs.  She puts her two hands in front of her like a zombie to keep her balance and often uses her mouth to carry things!

Or it could be that the things just feel good in her mouth since she's getting 3 more teeth at the same time!  She just got her one top tooth about 2 weeks ago and now it's going to have company!

On top of her strange way of walking, she has learned to reach for things by getting on her tip toes.

Along with walking, she's developed a great new skill of sharing!  We have always kidded that "sharing is caring," but now she offers up anything she's playing with, her binky, and her bath toys!  What a sweet girl! 

Want my binky?

Silly mommy (when I took it)

Sharing her ring with Tyson

His mouth is funny.

Like my purse?

I'll lend it to you.

Sharing and walking are so much fun!

Really starting to enjoy playing

There is no doubt that Carleigh has a ridiculous amount of toys.  She is crazy spoiled by Dustin's family (and extended family) and my family, not to mention friends and her Godparents.  Add it all up and we have enough for both the gameroom upstairs, the family room downstairs and then some.  So when my mom bought her this Little People Busy House the other day, I was amazed by how preoccupied it kept her.  Carleigh pushed the buttons (has a doorbell, a toilet that flushes!, a dog house that makes noises, etc) and picked up the little pieces and put them in different places.  She was so enthralled by it!  The Tonde's have the Little People Farm at their house and I knew she liked that, so that's why when my mom asked what she might want, I suggested the Little People House.  It's so neat seeing her actually play like a little girl and not a baby.

Don't get me wrong.  Things can still pull her away from an activity.  Like Tyson barking at the window.  It happens almost once an hour when we are playing upstairs and even though it's almost always a walker or jogger, Carleigh has to go check it out, too.  She's like a little duckling when it comes to the dogs and whatever they are doing (when they are active).

Oh So Close to Walking - Video

I was able to get Carleigh on the move - taking about 11 steps.  At playgroup Monday, she took 16 in a row.  It won't be long ...

Cheap Thrills

It may just be an inflatable baby pool, but it sure does get Carleigh excited in the afternoons!  This is how we mix it up ... I know ... crazy!  This summer, we will go to our neighborhood pool and hang at the children's pool there, but I want her to be very comfortable in the water.  So far, the exposure is working.  She loves the water!!!

Cause and Effect

After putting a load of laundry in this morning, I walked back into the family room to this scene.  (the camera was nearby and since she wouldn't listen to me, I thoug't I'd chronicle the cause and effect about to happen).

I think the pictures tell the story pretty well.  She's definitely strong-willed and does what she wants.  (meaning she doesn't listen to me)

So when the word "no" had no impact ...

The Three Musketeers

Why is it that at some times, your child turns their head immediately at the sound of your voice, but at other times (like when they are on a mission to do something whether or not you want them to), they block out your voice completely???  At Monday's playgroup, Carleigh and Carter were exemplifying this behavior.  Bravo, Godsister and Godbrother!  So Carter wanted nothing to do with the toys and only cared about putting himself in dangerous situations (i.e. standing up by Tennyson's swing and pushing it with complete disregard to the fact that it would swing back into his face).   I mean I can't really blame him, he is standing up on his own and obviously just wanted to show off his skills!  And Carleigh was taking steps off of the "safe mat" onto the slate floors in search of Gunner ... crazy girl ... there were many falls and also many attempts at touching Tennyson's face, stomach, you name a bodypart of his - she wanted to touch it.   Tennyson was the only baby being obedient, but that's simply because he's not mobile yet.  He had the glimmer of mischief in his eyes and with Carter, Carleigh and Ryan (who couldn't make it this time) as his friends, he'll definitely be a curious kid, too. 

Beach to Bay Weekend 2010

There was a lot of pressure this year for the girls to beat the boys in the Beach to Bay Relay Marathon in Corpus Christi this past Saturday.  Well, the good news was that technically, the girls beat the boys (girl team time: 4:12:02; boy team time 4:13:31) but there were some major glitches.

Let's start by saying we had made a weekend of this.  We rented two beautiful houses for the three teams (the girls competitive, the boys competitive, and the mixed noncomptitive team) and even had stacked our teams based on our projections.  What we hadn't anticipated was the weather.  Saurday morning was ominous and cool, clouds were rolling in and by the 7 am start time, you could see the rain not far off.  By leg 2, the wind was fierce and the rain had started.  By Dustin's and my leg, the downpour began!  We had the bridge leg (and he had a 7 minute headstart on me)!!!  So it was apparent at this point that the boys would most likely win.  Dusty ran a 7:10 min pace the whole time! (4.36 miles) and I had a 8:13 min pace over the course (my personal best)!  The good news for the girls was that I was handing off to our fastest girl (our smoking gun the guys didn't know about) .. she runs typically 7 min or under pace!  Problem was ... our legs 5 and 6 were stuck in traffic and didn't make it to their starting point!  (for all of our teams - boys included).  What this did was slow our overall time, because leg 4 just waited at the finish point of her leg looking around and calling everyone and then when she found out about the traffic (due to the ferry being shut down and the rain) ... she and our other leg 4's on the other teams decided to keep running until our leg 5 could meet up with them and they were all at the same point in the race at that time (where if they were truly racing and the handoff would have occurred seamlessly, it would have proabably been the guys' who won, though you never know).  Moral of the story ... it was a disappointing race because we couldn't get an accurate assesment of who was really fastest.

The rest of the weekend was a blast, though!  What was so strange, was that after the 4th leg ran, the sun came out and the skies cleared, and for the rest of the weekend, it was beautiful weather!  Dusty and I kid that we have yet to run a dry weather race!   All of us friends hung at the beach or pool and went to Sharky's Saturday night.  It is still a very raunchy and shady place, but we made it fun!