josh + kati + marion

and my GranMan

and my Uncle Chris

and my Uncle Brick (and Aunt Queen B!)

and my great-Uncle Jack

and my great-Uncle David

(clearly, we have a lot of fly fishermen and women in our family)

We had quite the nice surprise last Friday when my Mamaw ended up being in town!

She was flying back to Florida to visit friends and family and ended up having a three hour layover in Houston.

So it was no trouble at all for us to hop on down and see her – and we had such a lovely time together!

It was a bit bitter sweet though, as anyone who knew my Papaw knows that he would have never agreed to let Mamaw fly down there, much less by herself. So I know Mamaw misses him but it’s also nice to see that she’s getting out and still doing so much.

This makes the third time Marion has gotten to see Mamaw – we are so lucky!

(Yes, I’m a week behind with this post. Oh well.)

New this month, attempting to put entire fist into mouth. Has not yet succeeded.

Also new this month, the addition of roll #3 to her thighs

Much improved this month, her ability to grasp items

And put them straight into her mouth.

Silly, silly widget

We’re not kidding about the straight into the mouth bit

Despite the coloring in this photo, her eyes are still blue. Dark, dark navy blue, but still blue.

Well hello Mr Bear!

Well hello Nanuq!

One of my favorite things about having a baby who does not yet understand object permenance is her perpetual amazement at how her favorite things keep coming back!

Her version of “petting” Nanuq

(Click the photo to see the larger version)

Letter to my daughter – month four

It was a gorgeous day for watching a race – but a bit too warm for running, at least according to Josh. He still did awesome, at least to me. His chip time was 1:40:50 and the clock time was 1:41:27. His overall place was 462 / 8434 and his division place was 52 / 465. Pretty outstanding I think! Perhaps all of his success can be attributed to this

How could you not run faster after seeing all that cuteness?

On a side note, I think her blue eyes are turning brown now.

We started out the morning at one point, but due to a technical snafu, missed seeing Josh run by. Luckily, we live in the center of a kind of course loop, so it was really easy to go to another spot to see him. The second spot turned out even better for viewing as there were a lot less spectators. We could see Josh coming from a good distance away, so I was able to get some decent pictures for once.

He’s in the grey shirt in the middle lane back towards the back

Grey shirt, green number

Uhoh -where’s he going?

He’s heading straight for us!

He took a brief detour to give us a quick kiss and he’s off again!

And here’s a video of the lead marathoner coming through at mile 7 (I think this is the guy that ended up winning it)

Josh is getting ready to run the Houston Half Marathon today and if you visit the Technology page, there are a ton of fun little things you can do, from having text messages sent to your phone when he crosses certain distances to a map where you can track him.

Or, if you’re in Houston, you could just do it the old fashioned way and stand outside and wait for him to pass you.

Back at the first of the year, one of my favorite stores here in Houston, A Woman’s Work had their annual big sale which included the Zutano clothes we love.

I’ve never been a big clearance/blowout/black Friday kind of shopper, but I wasn’t about to pass this up. So we lined up fifteen minutes before the store opened and pretty much rushed the gates when they unlocked. (Good lord, that’s madness. I’ve never done that kind of shopping before.)

It was a bit crazy and insane and bringing M along probably wasn’t the best idea, but you can be sure I’ll be back next year. She got a load of new clothes and I even bought a few baby gifts. Next year, I’ll just be childless and more caffeinated.

Most of the clothes are for her to grow in to, but here is one little dress she can wear now.

Nanuq is probably her most favorite thing in the world now

It kind of looks like she needs German subtitles.

Part of the fun of dressing her in such insanely bright colors is that when she moves, it looks like an acid trip.

Her newest trick,

Attempting to shove her entire hand into her mouth

Look at those chubby little thighs!

There was a whole lot of napping going on around our house this weekend!

Saturday

And before anyone spazzes, if she falls asleep with her blanket or lovey, she’s always supervised! We don’t just let her sleep with stuff that close to her face! We’re responsible parents, at least when it comes to this.

Nanuq found a new napping buddy

Even Gracie let down her guard (at least a little bit)

Like father, like daughter

Sunday

Another day, another nap

Poor Monkey, he’s soo tired

Gracie still hasn’t fallen asleep, but at least she’s (marginally) relaxed.

All this napping means that I got to knit! Boring knitting (kitchen washcloths and towels) but at least it’s knitting and at least I got to complete some projects!

We saw this

and our lives have never been the same

Letters to my daughter, one year ago today

While in Georgia, we took Maid Marion on her first hike.

Well, if you can call doing anything with a stroller “hiking” (even if it is our super awesome P&T which we took so off-road it’s not even funny.)

It was a gorgeous, gorgeous Atlanta winter day and we headed out to Kennesaw. Of course, going to the top was out of the question, so we settled for the stretch between Burnt Hickory and Whitlock.

Mar ate breakfast

Nanuq looked pretty

And everybody had a good time

Even though going to the top is fun, I like this section best of all because of the creek. As does Lou Bear.

It’s her natural habitat

He makes even being covered in icky creek water look attractive.

And first family picture on a “hiking” trip! Marion loves being outdoors so much, I see many of these in our future.

Video of the dogs going absolutely crazy!